Buying games just to resell them...

[MrMatthews]

I'll have to respectfully disagree with Knuckle Duster. It's incredibly difficult to actually support yourself by reselling games, but there's definitely money to be made doing it. A few months ago I found a CIB Rolling Thunder 3 for about $3.00. Just last night I watched this game close on ebay for $44.00. Then there's the $3 Kirby's Dream Land 3 cart that I picked up yesterday, which I could probably get about $50 for. Granted, I'm probably not going to sell either of those games, but it's pretty easy to make a quick profit on random finds like that when I'm already out looking for games as it is.

It may not pay the bills, but as my friend Tanegashima would say, that is "walking-around money."

[Knuckle Duster]

I think it's more a waste of time than anything. The odds of finding a game valuable enough to break even on the invested time are too low to care.

To me, time is better spent working and money is better spent on making more work happen. Video games are just toys and once you flip a few houses or set up and grow a business you can go out and throw excess money at a complete collection. Flipping games is too much a nickle and dime routine. If I want a new game, I'll buy it. I won't juggle for it.

Collecting and dealing with storage is another hassle.

[AD2101]

I think it's more a waste of time than anything. The odds of finding a game valuable enough to break even on the invested time are too low to care.

Hmm. I can't speak for others here but I don't go out to Goodwills and other thrift shops to resell and make money. I go because I enjoy it and on the hopes that I'll find something I like at a good price. If I find something I don't particularly care for, but I know can be resold for considerably more, then I'll bite on the item. I get returns on my invested time just by checking out these stores, because I enjoy it and that's kind of the point of a hobby. if I can make any money as a result then it's a double win.

[MrMatthews]

I think it's more a waste of time than anything. The odds of finding a game valuable enough to break even on the invested time are too low to care.

I partially agree with this statement. I spent a year or two reselling on ebay and it was a fantastically exhausting amount of work, what with the constant research I was doing on ebay to keep track of the high-selling games and the never-ending search for more stock. Add in the amount of time I spent testing the games, creating ebay listings, and shipping out the sold items, and it was pretty much a full-time job in itself. I forget what my final profit by the time I called it quits, but I believe it was somewhere between $3000 and $4000. With a conservative guess on my net profit and a generous estimate as to how long I was doing it, that came out to less than $100 a month.

Not worth it.

But again, neither the OP or myself (or anyone here, it seems like) is actually talking about devoting a lot of time to it. Most of us are out regularly game-hunting for ourselves anyway, no extra time would be sacrificed if a valuable game was discovered during a personal game search.

[Hidden_Darkness]

I don't do it myself, there's enough of that going on on ebay and amazon as it is and it's made retro gaming very expensive. if I find a good deal i'm not going to turn around and flip it, i'm most likely going to keep it and enjoy playing it. the only time I really sell games is if I have either extra copies from buying in lots or if I just didn't like the game.

the whole buying to flip makes it harder and harder to afford retro games because of rising prices. it kind of annoys me because i've lost out on a few good local deals because of flippers when I would have actually used the stuff if I bought it. for example this one time when I found a local gamestore that had about 20 sega saturn ps2 controllers in stock back in 2009, I didn't have enough money for one that day so I came back the next day when I got payed and some ass bought all of them and turned around and started listing them on craigslist for $150 a piece.

another example is this one time I was going to buy my younger sister a $20 snes off of craigslist, some fool bought it and relisted it for $75 the same day.

[AD2101]

the whole buying to flip makes it harder and harder to afford retro games because of rising prices.

While you could make a case for that, reselling games online has also made more copies of out of print games available to you than there otherwise would have been. I may be willing to pay out the nose for a copy of Snatcher, but a copy at a thrift store in Oregon does me no good unless there is a way for me to buy it. Put it up to eBay and let the market decide what its worth, and if the seller bought it for $5 and sold it for $200 then good for them.

[Hidden_Darkness]

While you could make a case for that, reselling games online has also made more copies of out of print games available to you than there otherwise would have been. I may be willing to pay out the nose for a copy of Snatcher, but a copy at a thrift store in Oregon does me no good unless there is a way for me to buy it. Put it up to eBay and let the market decide what its worth, and if the seller bought it for $5 and sold it for $200 then good for them.

that is also true, some of the games I have I never would have found locally. when I said that retro gaming is getting harder to afford I was talking about a lot of the games that are rising in price are not all that hard to find, they just keep getting bought up and sold for high prices. the word rare gets tossed around too loosely these days especially with snes stuff.

[bultje112]

I don't ever sell games. I give everything I already own away to people I know who appreciate it. and it doesn't matter what value it has either. I gave away dreamcast with shenmue 1 and 2 away to a guy I know who is a huge shenmue fan because he once borrowed a dreamcast with shenmue.

there's nothing better then giving stuff away. try it out some time I would say

[GameMaster600]

If I see a game that I already have that's dirt cheap and worth a good amount, or just a game in a dirt cheap lot of games, I will buy it, decide which one is better condition (usually have to swap stuff to get the best), and sell the extra on eBay. If I did not do this, I would not have anywhere as much games. There's only something wrong with it if you are one of those resellers who has no intention on keeping or playing any games at all or you're an asshole to the people at the garage sale or wherever you're at, and I've encountered those resellers a lot.

[Bloodreign]

Nope, I get rid of nothing, even some of the crappier games I own. I'm with them for the long haul, this way I'll never be bored.

[tz101]

I see the speculators and profiteers as doing nothing but hurting the hobby. Driving up the BIN prices on ebay, and prices in general, by their practices. I do have some duplicates I have picked up at thrifts because they were amazingly cheap, or I just forgot I already had them in my collection. I will most likely try to sell them at some point, however, I do not think it is wise to buy games at bargain prices with the sole intent of turning around and listing them at ridiculous prices on Amazon and ebay. Again, this serves nobody well, including the seller, because he/she is going to sit on that game for a long time.

If you are going to collect games and systems, your first motive needs to be for the love of the hobby, not to accrue a retirement nest egg. Just my 2 cents.

[JCU]

If you don't do it, someone else will. That sums up the for profit re-selling of games (new or used).

Myself, well, searching near and far for older games doesn't pull me. Keeping an eye out for newer titles (Metroid Prime Trilogy, SMB All Stars LE, RE: ORC SE, etc..,) that can turn an easy and large profit margin is a different story though. It also doesn't hurt to take advantage of those "2for3" sales at certain brick and mortar stores.

[KillerBean2]

I only re-sell if I unintentionally get my hands on something I already own or don't want in my collection.

[EclecticGroove]

I buy what I like. The only time I sell a game now is if it is something totally different than I was lead to believe and I don't care for it. But for most older games, that isn't an issue.

I don't buy lots of stuff, but if I did I could see selling off dupes obtained that way. I don't see that so much as reselling as you are just getting rid of extras you obtained as part of a big lot. You may or may not turn a profit with it, but the initial goal wasn't to do so in the first place.

Resale in general is never going to go away, people will always look to turn a profit. I just hate it when they do so in a way that is damaging. IE: Buying up many/all available copies to inflate rarity, artificially raising prices, etc.

[green.eyes]

I only resell games that I don't want in my collection or doubles! These mainly come from lots where I wanted a couple of games.