Buying games just to resell them...

[MrMatthews]

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.

See, there's a douchy way to resell and a smart way to resell.

The douches are the ones that are driving up retro game prices. They find a Super Nintendo system at Goodwill for $10 and think to themselves, "I can sell this for $80!!!"

And then they make an ebay listing with a BIN of $80.00, call it SUPER RARE in the title, and constantly relist it for the next six months. Meanwhile, other stupid resellers are seeing this auction as they are trying to find out for themselves how much Super Nintendo systems are worth.

A smart reseller will know the value of something by watching how much the auctions are closing for. He buys the $10 SNES and lists it with a low started bid. 7 days later, after a handful of people have bid on it a couple times, it closes for $43.78.

What pisses me off are the people that think just because a game is "worth" a certain amount, it must be listed at that amount. They just don't get that the same person that will turn his/her nose up at a $80 will probably pay more than that for the same item once they get involved in a legitimate auction.

So there's definitely a way to resell games in a manner that's respectful to everyone. When I was reselling, every single item I sold started with a $.99 bid.

[tz101]

If you don't do it, someone else will.

That about sums up why ebay BIN prices are through the roof, and many unknowing victims fall prey to the vultures.

[Alexrd]

Sometimes if I'm shopping around for stuff and I see something I know is worth more than what (for example) Goodwill is selling it for, I'll pick it up and turn it around on eBay, provided it's not something I want to have for myself. I see nothing wrong with this. Actually, I view it as a good way to fund my collection.

Some weeks ago I've started doing that.

[synbiosfan]

Not often but I have. Like I had a bunch of doubles of Saturn games and I saw someone was selling a "lot" of memory carts on eBay. I kept 3 but packaged the rest with games I planned on selling and sold a few to forum friends. The buyers were pleased and I figure I made a dollar off each cart so I'm happy.

I'm not in the business of selling games and usually sell low just to get some room back in my house. Problem is, I'm still buying way more than I'm selling, lol.

[16-bit]

At this point in time I've decided I'm only ever going to buy games if I can find them for cheap. I don't have the time or money to spend on 40-100 dollar SNES or Saturn games anymore. I've got my degree to think about right now and my life that I now have to completely reorganize. I've got a modded Saturn, and PlayStation, and tons of games for all of my systems. I don't think I really want to buy a whole lot more, I'm tempted to just sell a bunch of my games and just buy everdrives for all my consoles.

As much as I've complained about this in other threads, rising prices are just something that's bound to happen with mediums like older game consoles. There's nothing any of us can to about it. If people make money off it, go for it I suppose. It's frustrating because let me tell ya, there's still tons of SNES and Saturn games that I would just love to own, but people who want them are willing to pay lots of money to get SNES games right now, but it's money that I don't have right now and probably will never have at this point.

[AD2101]

This only vaguely ties into the conversation but I feel that buying and reselling is also good from a preservation standpoint. Either at work or in the wild, I've seen too many good games that were in nice condition one week turn into shit the next because they were dropped, smashed, chewed on by little kids, or mangled in some other way. Games for some of the older consoles are getting harder and harder to come by, and less of them exist every day since a lot of games get thrown out because people see them as outdated/obsolete rather than collectible. Buying cheap games you don't necessarily want gets them out of the bottom shelf at a thrift store and into a collection, and reselling it online is the best shot that the game stays in a collection.

Arguing reselling for the welfare of the games themselves may sound weird, but for those of us who collect, I hope you'll recognize its a shame to see something of value squandered because other people just saw it as outdated or obsolete and didn't know it's value.

[tz101]

^
I saw this recently at a Goodwill near me. They had a stack of Atari 2600 commons that were overpriced at $2 a piece. They sat there a few weeks, then were gone. I felt bad because am pretty sure they met a dumpster out back and that is less games in the overall population.

[synbiosfan]

They had a stack of Atari 2600 commons that were overpriced at $2 a piece.

At the Gibralter Trade Center (a flea market) there's a guy who tries to sell them for $30. They've obviously sat there for years.

[GohanX]

Generally I don't buy to resell, but like Elabit I'll buy large lots of games that have a couple of hidden gems, keep the games I want and sell/give away the rest. I've bought many of my more expensive MVS games that way, and paid very little out of pocket.

I'm not totally above reselling though. I mean, if I found a stack of Earthbounds at a flea market for $20 a pop you'd better believe that's going up on ebay and funding my little girl's daycare for the next year.

[makinagenesis]

i've paid stupid prices for games, but i recognize that the price i paid was stupid but i really couldn't care less about what people are prepared to pay, that's the way the world works. If some people will pay more than others then good luck to them,

i sell and buy games and have no shame whatsoever . Im not doing anything illegal, and don't force anyone to buy from me, nor am i forced myself to pay the prices i do for the items i want ( have paid upwards of 250 pounds for a single mega drive game this week alone)

[GohanX]

Jesus Christ, I don't think I have the USD equivalent of 250 pounds in my whole Genesis collection. I mean, it's worth more than that, but I didn't pay that much!

[goldenband]

Like others, I'll buy big lots that have something I need and resell, trade, or give away the excess. I'm more likely to do so with yard sales and flea markets, but I've bought some Craigslist and Ebay lots with that in mind. I don't sell on Ebay -- all my sales are strictly through boards like Sega-16 and Atariage -- and if I get a particularly good deal on something, I usually try to pass that on, at least to a degree.

I've occasionally bought games for systems I don't own if they're in nice shape and the price is right, with the intention of selling/trading them on the boards. I figure I'd rather see them in the hands of someone who would enjoy them, rather than an Ebay reseller. Trading is especially nice -- I've traded for some great stuff that way, things I wouldn't want to buy outright because they're too expensive on the open market. That's a win-win situation, to me.

What's really douchey is to buy something for a good price in a messageboard setting, especially where the seller is obviously giving a good deal to community members, and then turn around and try to resell it with a 200% markup. I've seen that happen once or twice, and it's one of those things that's technically "legal" but completely schmucktastic in practice.

[MrMatthews]

What's really douchey is to buy something for a good price in a messageboard setting, especially where the seller is obviously giving a good deal to community members, and then turn around and try to resell it with a 200% markup. I've seen that happen once or twice, and it's one of those things that's technically "legal" but completely schmucktastic in practice.

Agreed 100%

There's a certain amount of trust that is involved with in-forum trading. Whether or not the two forum members are actually "friends" per se, there's a degree of mutual respect there for each other and their shared hobby. That's why that weirdo seismiczonk (or whatever his name was) really rubbed me the wrong way from the very beginning. He posted a few odd comments every now and then, but for the most part he joined up specifically to sell us his shit. His prices were nothing special, and I'd totally expect him to be the type to buy discounted items from legitimate forum members and mark them up on some other forum.

[SpaceFlea]

What's really douchey is to buy something for a good price in a messageboard setting, especially where the seller is obviously giving a good deal to community members, and then turn around and try to resell it with a 200% markup. I've seen that happen once or twice, and it's one of those things that's technically "legal" but completely schmucktastic in practice.

YES. These scum are the bottom of the barrel. There is a guy on SegaAge that did this to me. He said he needed something for his Sega CD collection. I had an extra, so I sold it to him for a nice price. About two days after he got it he posted it up on eBay for double. This is also one of the people who has been jacking up the BIN prices on Sega CD games.

[tz101]

Regardless of whether you traded a forum poster for a sweet deal or found a mismarked rarity at a Salvation Army store, I think it is not good to be in it for 200% markups on ebay or Craigslist. The whole capitalism/profiteering side is taking the enjoyment out of gaming for sure. If you bought a copy of MUSHA for $10, then sell it for $20 maybe, but not $80 like the ebay vultures. What comes around goes around is my belief.