Ebay madness hits the Lynx

[bergbros]

THe same story as the 2600 is now happening on the Lynx. That is extreme overbidding on a games, even common ones. RIght now a Lemmings game is up to $61.00. Yep. That makes it more expensive than the original price. A Rygar game, no rarity, went for $16.00. Xenophobe went for $52.00. I fear that the Lynx is getting to be like the 2600 with games being overbid. It is even worse than the 2600 as there is not many of these games being put up for auction compared to the 2600. I love the system, but I can't justify spending that much money for a few of these games.

[Agent X]

I've seen Lemmings go for more than that. Of all the regular Atari-sanctioned releases for the Lynx, Lemmings is probably one of the hardest to get now. I got my copy of Lemmings way back in 1993 for $35.

 

I got Xenophobe on eBay about two years ago for $20.25, used but complete and in excellent condition (everything looked like new). That was the very first eBay auction I ever won.

[Tom-Lynx]

Picking up Lynx games on ebay can be tricky.... many of the sellers are the same vendors relisting the same stock over and over until a buyer is found willing to pay the high price. There's nothing wrong with this of course.... my hat off to the vendors.

 

As a buyer, however, I built up my Lynx collection by surfing all the online Lynx & Atari vendors FIRST, and found that many times it was cheaper to buy a bunch of games at once at list price and then only pay one shipping charge.

 

Once you know the cheapest price through online vendors, then you can pick up deals on ebay, often using the Buy It Now price within the first day something is listed before others catch it.

 

Thus.... as I built my Lynx collection, I kept track of where I got games and the vendor offering the best price. Too bad those things get outdated so quickly.

 

Tom

[Ze_ro]

Problem is, games like Xenophobe and Lemmings are rare enough that most of the internet retail guys are out of them. eBay is pretty much the only source for those two.

 

I'm not going to be too worried until people start paying $20 for Kung Food.

 

--Zero

[+Sauron]

It really sucks for me. I just got back into collecting for my Lynx. The thing is, people collect this stuff just for rarity, kinda like baseball cards. I don't. I buy games that I WANT TO PLAY. I'd like to eventually grab the whole Lynx library, but that will become impossible due to collectors who want nothing more than a trophy. Sorry, I just don't understand the logic in that....

[Ze_ro]

I agree... luckily for me, most of the rare games like Lemmings are games that I actually don't like much... but I *do* like Rygar and Xenophobe....

 

--Zero

[Songbird]

I'd have to say in the Lynx's case, most of the "rare" games are rare because they are such incredible games that people don't want to sell them very often... AFAIK, people aren't snatching up Xenophobe and Lemmings just to put them in a glass case, they want to play these games because they're so good!

 

I can't really think of any "Chase the Chuckwagon" games on the Lynx (extremely rare but no fun to play)... well, SFX is obviously not a game but definitely rare.

[bergbros]

You raise a good point on knowledge of the prices from the outside vendors like Multimedia. I remember one auction for a kit case where the starting bid was $9.00. Now, I know on Multimedia they were selling the kit case for $12.50 so I put in a Max bid of $11.00. Soon, I was outbid and the auction ended at $15.00. I got the case for $12.50 plus Robotron to save on the shipping.

The other thing I will not do is buy a prototype. That is strictly a collector thing. I really am not interested in a game like Fat Bobby that may or may not be complete and anyway is not a compelling game. A $3 Rampart is much more fulfilling. (And I still can't put that game down).

[glitch]

quote

I'd have to say in the Lynx's case, most of the "rare" games are rare because they are such incredible games that people don't want to sell them very often

 

I have to agree w/ Carl on this one. The hardest to find Lynx games are definatly the better ones. But I have noticed that the prices on eBay are on the rise. Most of my Lynx collection has come from eBay and when I first started buying the games you could easily pick up a Lynx I or II for under $25. (and Battlezone 2000 seemed to be a common game). On an average I paid around $17 for each of my 4 Lynx units and my per game cost averages out to $8.42. I currently have 71 games (54 unique ones). Now it is hard to find a Lynx unit under $40.00 and getting any game for under $5.00 is proving difficult w/ the more popular games going for $29.95 or more. When I first started I used to bid on complete Lynx packages just to get one or two games because it was cheaper than buying the games themselves retail. But not any more.

 

I currently keep an Excel spreadsheet of all the Lynx games and their current prices around the web (I update it every two weeks or so) and use it to judge my bid prices for Lynx games and it is starting to get cheaper to pay the web retail prices than getting the games on eBay yet recently I constantly see people paying more on eBay than they would if they purchased it off some of the retailers.

 

Overall it's making it difficult to complete my collection w/o spending a lot. Part of this may be due to the fact of the games I'm looking for. I still have a few very common games that I am missing because I'm still more interested in games I want to play instead of simply completing the whole collection at any cost.

[ataribob]

The funny part Battle Wheels used to be rare.

Now they are flooding e-bay with them.

[+Zeptari]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Glitch:

[QB]

I currently keep an Excel spreadsheet of all the Lynx games and their current prices around the web (I update it every two weeks or so) and use it to judge my bid prices for Lynx games and it is starting to get cheaper to pay the web retail prices than getting the games on eBay yet recently I constantly see people paying more on eBay than they would if they purchased it off some of the retailers.

 

QB]

---

 

How about posting that excel as a web page for all Lynx fan's??

 

Would be great help!

[glitch]

quote:

---

Originally asked by Zeptari

How about posting that excel as a web page for all Lynx fan's??

---

 

If any one is interested I posted my Lynx Games List on the web. This is a copy of the excel spread sheet that I use to keep track of my games & the current prices around the web. If anyone knows of sites that have lower prices than what I have listed please let me know and I'll update my list.

 

Also note that most of the prices listed are for new games but some are for used games w/ instructions and/or box. A few of the sites have lower prices for cart only games but I like to get the instructions when I can so I only list those w/ docs. If anyone is interested in the cart only prices I can update it with those istead (a few of the prices go down dramatically).

 

If the above link doesn't work it's http://www.mindspring.com/~mvknapp/lynx. Make sure you go to lynx directory since my homepages are way out of date (and utterly useless) and don't include a link to the lynx section.

 

Hope this helps.

[glitch]

If you use the spelled out link I posted in the last message make sure you remove the period from the end. I didn't realize the message board would make it an actual link and it included the period in it.

 

sorry

[+Zeptari]

Thanks for the link you Lynx list!

Very helpfull!

[Tom-Lynx]

That's an impressive database...thank you for sharing. I keep a similar one myself.

 

You had "TNT Larry" on there.... I believe it should be "TNT Terry".

 

I didn't compare lists, but I believe you are missing "Dragnet (Rap Sound Demo)", which is fun to listen to. I would put it in the Very Rare (VR) category.... you can get it once again I found.

 

There is also the LGSS cart that can be used with Othello. You can buy that from Video 61.

 

Tom

[glitch]

Thanks Tom.

I didn't know that the digital music demo was released in cart form. I have the ROM for it and just assumed that was the only way it was released. I actually liked it although it does demonstrate why the Lynx would never be a good MP3 player. It's on the list now as well as the LGSS cart. Thanks for pointing out the TNT Terry typo (I'm not sure what I was thinking) . While I was at it I added Distant Lands in the hope that it will be released soon.

 

I also updated the prices (I found a few that where cheaper last night) and added a link to the list of vendors I use to compare prices.

 

If time allows I'd like to break it down to show just the current prices of released games since that would probably be more helpful for others than having to scan through what I have and what I paid (although it can make for a nice eBay comparison).

 

Thanks again.

 

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Someday I'll think of a good signature line

 

[ 05-17-2002: Message edited by: Glitch ]

[Harry_Dodgson]

As far as I know... On the Dragnet demo - Bastian Schick created that one - B&C got it off the 'net and sold it without paying Bastian anything for it. You may also find a second sound demo on the 'net which Bastian made up for me called "Action Pack" or something similar. It sounds really bad due to poor digitizing.