Why I won't buy from local stores

[Necron99]

I've been finding a lot of places are using the internet (especially Ebay) for pricing everything. Recently a Value Village opened near me so I went to check it out and found a stack of games all prices differently(SMB NES for $1 but Zelda for $17, same went for the Vinyl they had. Found FFVIII at a Goodwill but had a tags for $35. both stores I told cashiers "If I wanted Ebay prices, I'd rather just go to Ebay!"

 

I find it really irritating that so many places refer to Ebay as a pricing guide.

[Vaughan]

I don't know, I've come across that a bit on this site too. Personally I'm not a hardcore collector, or a collector with a capital C, if you prefer. I don't mind paying money for something - but when someone starts talking about "rarity" then it usually means they want to jack up the price, even if they don't actually want the item any more.

 

Perhaps I'm a simple soul. I had four PAL 2600 carts that were going spare. Given the small number of games I have, it's a wonder I have any duplicates - but that's how the cookie crumbled. Anyway, I didn't want these carts. And I suppose I could have sold them. Not for much - I don't think any were rare (Q-Bert, Pac Man, couple others). Or I could have asked someone to at least cover the shipping costs.... But you know, life's too short. I figure if I do a good turn, some time someone will do me one.

 

By the way Jr. Pacman - I mailed out those cartridges today. The shipping cost was $6 (4 UK pounds). But $6 isn't going to break my bank, and I'm happy the carts are going to someone who wants to play the games and will be happy to have them. So they're on me.

 

The world has gone mad with people wanting to horde "rare" items, or place monetary value on things. Shame really, because the Atari 2600 community is kinda small - so we're all in it together, you know?

 

Or maybe I live in dream land. --lol--

 

The only thing is - Jr. Pacman emailed me his address - but not his name. So I had to mail it to "Jr. Pacman".

 

As for those "rare" games - I downloaded them for use on an emulator. Perfect!

Edited August 19, 2011 by Vaughan

[BydoEmpire]

I love buying from my local stores (Game Traders in Flea World, The Hobby Spot on Fairbanks Ave), I like the fact they're there and I want to support them. I guess I've been lucky and haven't run into the whole "let me check ebay price" stuff. That would tick me off. I picked up a bunch or buy 2 get 1 free 8-bit carts a few months ago. It applied to everything - sealed 7800 games, NES games, 2600 games which were all $1 anyways. Pretty good deal.

 

These stores need loyalty from their customers in order to survive, it's a shame some of them are ticking off the people they really need.

Edited August 19, 2011 by BydoEmpire

[Rex Dart]

I love buying from my local stores (Game Traders in Flea World, The Hobby Spot on Fairbanks Ave), I like the fact they're there and I want to support them. I guess I've been lucky and haven't run into the whole "let me check ebay price" yet. I picked up a bunch or buy 2 get 1 free 8-bit carts a few months ago. It applied to everything - sealed 7800 games, NES games, 2600 games which were all $1 anyways. Great deal.

 

These stores need loyalty from their customers in order to survive, it's a shame some of them are ticking off the people they really need.

 

 

Sounds nice. Game Over does the 3-for-2 deal pretty often, but that just brings their prices down to the realm of reason. Three common bare NES carts for $20 instead of $30. They do throw 20% off coupons out there fairly often, too.

 

I'm glad I haven't ever seen the eBay pricecheck yet either, but I think they just do that outside of store hours.

[jferio]

I've actually found that the best places, even if they actually check eBay's prices, will also check several other places online to determine how realistic the eBay prices actually are.

[A_Locomotive]

You can usually tell the ones that it's not around here... they have a nasty combination of price, and carrying things other than DVDs, which tends to be various toys, both new and vintage.

 

There is a horrible(good?) example of one of those in my city. He over prices everything to such a degree its madness. Want a loose copy of Secret of Mana with a dirty cart and a label thats seen better days? that will be $100. FFVII w/ green label? $200, black? $400. a beat up Genesis 3 $200, boxed $300. I've bought only only one thing from him and that was Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter for xbox because its the only system where his prices are fair.

Edited August 20, 2011 by A_Locomotive

[Vitiman Z]

My local gaming shop has surprisingly good prices. Of the boxed games they do have, they're usually 5-10 bucks, where as the ones without boxes go for about 1 or 2 bucks. However, there were several notable times when they tried to rip me off, knowing I was a regular. One guy tried selling me Slot Machine for 30 dollars!

[oldjd]

I run across people all the time, usually at a flea market or thrift store that charge really high prices on things that aren't worth it. Anytime someone gives me the Ebay comment, I tell them to then go sell it on Ebay. The fees now are impossible between the store cost, the listing fee, the sale fee, and the shipping price fee. Ebay is taking 20% of my sale easily. It's outrageous.

 

Anyway, if you have extras of the stuff you see people pricing really high, then offer them to the seller. If they ask $10 for Pacman, tell them you'll gladly sell them copies for $3 each. They'll have a 300%+ markup then.

 

Phil

Phil

I totally agree with your observations

And dont forget if you dont use that "stupid" catalog they have,and you list without using it,they can and do cancel your auction

That all by itself has got me thinking about telling then to shove the catalog,and thier fees where the sun dont shine

And what I cannot understand is how/why I see sellers pricing a game at an inflated "buy it now",and its there month after month.And even though the rate is less,its still going to eat into the profit(?) after completed

Its almost like they figure(like the stores and flea sellers)I have it,and its worth this much,and I will take it to my grave,rather then be reasonable.......so,I guess in about 20 years alot of individuals will be buried with thier rare r-4 games

Jerry

[nathanallan]

Man, I sure wish you could have gone to my store when it was open. I priced things once and if the prices went up the person got a deal. I even underpriced things just to make sure they got a good home. One thing I actually did and followed through on was my Wants List for people. A person could leave their name and number with what they wanted on an index card, and if that game came in AI would call them and hold it for them. I ALWAYS undersold ebay as a rule.

 

Right, I would have told that guy to f*** himself, too.

[Animan]

We've seen dozens of used game stores come and go. Game Central, Game Exchange, GameAttack, list goes on.

 

As of now, all that's left is Entertainmart, Movie Trading Company, and a few thrift stores.

 

Entertainmart barely has any older games, but they all cost the same ($4 for SNES, NES, Or N64 games, $3 for Genesis games).

 

Movie Trading Company has tons of stuff, but it's random whether the games are overpriced or not.

 

And the Thrift stores are, predictably, random. Somedays I'll find nothing, other days I will walk out with Super Metroid for only $4 .

[disjaukifa]

We had a new game store open about 4 years ago where I live called G2K, they use to be decent, but they have since gotten new management, I saw a decent shape 2600 in there the other day and thought about getting it, asked the price, $79.99. I just looked at the guy like he was crazy, looked at their cartridges, and all the prices have been increased. They use to be decent, I meant Combat for .50 but now Combat is minimum 3 bucks, but if the label is in great shape, its now 10 bucks.

 

I think they are going to go out of business very very quickly unfortunately.

 

-Disjaukifa

[johnodd]

this is why i purchase items from thrift stores cheaper and better deals i got a oddyessy 2 for 25.00 with all the games in it's original box all i need is the speech synthesizer

 

But with atari the amazing thing is people really want them my atari crystal castles machine even with restoration is currently going for 900.00 even if they don't function and i purchased mine for 250.00

[Philflound]

Thrift stores can be rather expensive sometimes. I find they have no clue as to what they are doing. Pricing is up in the air.

 

Phil

[SlowCoder]

Thrift stores can be rather expensive sometimes. I find they have no clue as to what they are doing. Pricing is up in the air.

 

Phil

The GoodWill that carries most of the games, I've figured out who the manager is, and if the games have been there for at least 3 weeks, she'll sell them 50% off! But I have to catch her, and not one of the other employees.

[Nateo]

There's actually a really nice chain of used video game stores in the Rochester area called Game Craze. I'm particularly familiar with the Victor locaiton, and have gotten to know the folks there quite well. Rarely does an Atari cartridge go for more than 4.99, and for the most part, they're all only 99 cents. Some of the NES titles are little overpriced, but I can't really blame them, since people are actually willing to pay those prices. Even still, the most an NES game will go for is 19.99. Heck, I picked up Adventure Island for 4.99.

[raskar42]

i went to the local comic show recently, there's always a few games lying around on the dealer tables. and the prices are usually pretty decent.

 

on a side note : one dealer actually checked ebay when i asked him a price for an action figure. i'd never seen anyone do that at the comic show and it made me want to shove his MOC mego spock up his nose.

[shaky]

I love buying from my local stores (Game Traders in Flea World, The Hobby Spot on Fairbanks Ave), I like the fact they're there and I want to support them. I guess I've been lucky and haven't run into the whole "let me check ebay price" stuff. That would tick me off. I picked up a bunch or buy 2 get 1 free 8-bit carts a few months ago. It applied to everything - sealed 7800 games, NES games, 2600 games which were all $1 anyways. Pretty good deal.

 

These stores need loyalty from their customers in order to survive, it's a shame some of them are ticking off the people they really need.

 

I have been getting stuff from game trader @ fleaworld for years. Decent prices & if something doesn't work the owner will give you store credit with no hassles. Always have something different there everytime I go. I would recommend them to anyone in the Orlando area. Haven't been there in awhile though as I don't get over that way much anymore. I will have to check out the Hobby spot here one day.