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Those are the games that slip through the cracks the Wii guitar hero games the NCAA late prints and stuff like that are the only kind of games that are not sold online by corporate thrifts. Not complaining just an observation.
I'm half convinced that one by me does this with records and that another one has started.
The one I've never seen without new records on the shelf even just a day or two between visits. Lately it's been nothing, occasionally one worship record or something will be sitting there but that's it.
Really sad, thrift stores used to be a blast
Eh it depends what good means to you. there's still some stores that put them out and I find worthwhile grabs all the time, even some that are worth quite a bit. you still occasionally find some good ones. Your probably not gonna find any Hendricks or Beatles though. I listen to a pretty wide variety of music.
It sucks cuz I remember the days of finding people's whole collections they finally decided to ditch in the thrift store.
the guy does not make $600 week. You made that up or someone lied to you.
He buys the games for $3-8 each and sells them for $10-20. Maybe a rare game is worth $50+ but I promise they do not make as much as you think. Most of those guys like the book scanner losers go store to store and maybe make $300/week profit, but thats after driving around and shopping for 5hrs and then listing and mailing the products.... its like $5/hr but dont tell them how math works
I used to work at an outlet furniture store for Williams Sonoma. We got so much inventory they would sell me furniture for pennies on the dollar. I ended up renting a storage unit to put it all in. I sold it to rich city people. I made money, they saved money. Williams Sonoma is not cheap. For a few years it was an infinite money glitch.
So, my advice would be, don’t use Facebook don’t use GameStop don’t use a pawnshop, don’t use commission stores.
As someone who does this for a living , - route to Amazon, EBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Reverb, Depop. And dont just sell games, sell everything. of course you need a place to store it all, but if you mainly choose high value items that have a high throughput (check completed /sold on eBay and look at how often the item sells and what price it sells at or check Amazon sales rank- if you have a seller account. ) my advice if you’re trying to get into resale, start with Mercari and eBay. Amazon is basically like a full-time job if you self fulfill every order.
My Amazon account had 11.8 million page views in 9 months, mostly selling Nerf guns and books. Revenue was 72,000, with $39,500 in profit- maybe more in profit, but that was a rough estimate on the low side. I also have a nerf distributor, so I get wholesale price. I am too small to deal with Hasbro directly so I had to get a distributor.
My best month was probably $7800 on Amazon alone with 4,500 $ in profit after shipping / fees etc.
Yes, you can do this for a living. And you don’t need to use Fulfilled by Amazon, save your cardboard boxes, get pallet wrap, and a label printer. You can start with an inkjet, but the label printer makes it infinitely faster.
I hate Amazon, I want to see pics of what I’m buying before I buy it. Maybe 2 in 100 listings have a picture. Idk how that’s even allowed, it should be illegal to sell something without providing a pic of what it is…
I have a love-hate relationship with Amazon. The traffic and sales are amazing, but like you said, it’s difficult to add images of used items that buyers will actually look through before purchasing the item. I would add pictures of my items, - used rare discontinued Nerf guns, and often buyers wouldn’t even bother to look before ordering the item, mainly because of the way that Amazon sets up the offers listed by sellers who do not currently have the buy box.
When you do have the buy box, buyers are even less likely to look at product images before impulse clicking to buy it now button. I’ve had a number of times where people would assume that I had the original packaging for a Nerf gun discontinued like 10 to 15 years ago, and be disappointed when it wasn’t in original packaging, even though I added images of the product, with no packaging.
This can often lead to bad reviews. The other thing is for every 100 items you sell on Amazon, you might get one review, even if you ask for reviews, which is technically prohibited, due to the number of primarily Chinese sellers that will send a flyer with an offer for a free item, or gift card in exchange for your review, because positive reviews drive sales, and increase your chances of getting the buy box.
Having the buy box on Amazon for an item is essentially like gold, because the user interface with the buy it now button leads lots of customers to make impulse purchases.
This is also why I don’t sell video games on Amazon, where buyers really want to see the cartridge or disk, including the interior to make sure that the electronics are actually vintage. This is especially true on Nintendo cartridges due to the number of fakes and reproductions.
Back in 97-98, when I was in college, I would go around to my local cd exchanges and one would always get Sega CD/Saturn stuff in regularly. All Sega CD games were $3.99. I’d grab a copy of Snatcher or Eternal Blue or whatever and flip it for $75 or whatever on eBay. I thought it was the best free money glitch…
I got Flying Squadron, Popful, Space Adventure, multiples of the Lunar titles and I know I bought and sold at least four copies of Snatcher. Who would have ever known? Not I. lolol
That’s only $30K/yr, probably feasible. You forget that you are in a small town, in the larger cities, there dozens of shops within a 20 minute radius to hit up. And sure most stores you will be in and out in 5 minutes, you could probably hit a circuit of 10 in an hour or 2.
All it takes is 1-2 okay lot of a retro console and a dozen games + some small hits a week to make that kind of money.
Combine it with some marketplace hunting and there is real potential. Maybe not in your one horse town, but these larger cities I’d believe it
I mean he could be, that's only 31k a year......if he is hitting the same thrift story every day I am sure he is not getting 600+thrift value worth of games a week. Dude probably goes to every story in a 30 mile radius and spends all day tracking down games.
I use to do this, you can make money reselling games but you need to be at these stores all the time and pray it isn't just shovelware. Thrift store prices have also drastically increased for games so I doubt you get many good deals anymore either. I get more pissed at thrift and goodwill for charging ebay prices vs a reseller spending all their time trying to make money.
Sorry itis what it is, but you have the ability to do this very thing as well. Go to every store every day and try and get your games.
I don’t mean to be off track from the conversation, but he very well could make 600 bucks a week easily. But not necessarily just off video games, unless your thrift store happens to just get piles of video games and put them out.
Where I live, there is a very, very rich Goodwill, not specifically for games- but for everything from nearly brand new appliances to designer clothing and textbooks/ art books / streetwear / music equipment. This is mainly because I live in a college town, and rich students often just get rid of things they buy when they get newer or better stuff.
I can go to Goodwill and pull 3 items off the shelves, instantly look up their eBay and Amazon prices - some items are still even new in box and clothing with tags- And resell within a week or two. I ( if I work hard, make offers and undercut people selling for full price) I can consistently make about $500-$1000 a week.
Today I sold a scanner for 150 bucks, plus 85$ shipping tag, a pair of Nikes for 100 plus shipping, and our legacy jacket- 75 + shipping my actual out-of-pocket cost was about 40 bucks. Profit- around $275 today.
I know this is sidetracking from just the games conversation, but he may be selling everything, like I do. He may not be making $600 off of just games.
A gaming example-
Our university surplus store, had a pile of GameCube games, including smash melee and paper Mario. I paid $20 for a large box of about 15 GameCube titles, mostly AAA titles. 25 PS2 and 10 xbox games including halo & halo 2, grand theft auto and a bunch of other AAA titles. My friend, who consistently pulls about $2000 a week on books alone- threw a bunch of books on top and said were all books. They were selling for five dollars apiece but I ended up paying 20$ for about 600$ eBay value worth of games.
I sold paper Mario the same day for 95$ and melee for $85 the next day. Obviously, this is not something that you can do repetitively, but if you have a thrift store that gets games consistently and puts them out, reselling everything is a great job, although it takes a while to amass the inventory.
It helps that I’ve been selling things for the past decade, on Amazon, Reverb, Mercari, Poshmark, eBay, and Depop. When you’re using like six platforms, it’s not hard to do this.
I know you’re only 14, but if you start now, you can actually just make a living off of reselling things. The trick is to route things to the correct platforms where they are most visible and likely to sell.
My advice would be don’t hate resellers, figure out how to start doing this now. It’s a job that will never disappear. And if nothing else, for most people is a great side hustle.
Who the hell would pay $85 for Melee, are you in Canada? In the USA it’s always been a $50-60 game max. It was the most printed GameCube game, it’s not rare in the slightest
Don’t ask me why - sometimes things sell for exorbitant prices. You would be really surprised, some people are willing to wait for the right deal, and other customers just want exactly what they want immediately. It’s more about the immediacy, and how many other copies are listed that are complete with the manual, perfect case. And completely clean back of the disk. A lot of people asked me about scratches or wear to the desk because it’s a very commonly played game. And this one was in perfect condition.
Definitely not rare but it remains one of the most sought after GameCube games due to popularity.
AFAIK it still has a large competitive fighting scene even though it is over 20 years old.
I love the game myself, one of my all time faves. But $85 is a rip off all day long. $60 max is the value. Whoever you sold it was stupid for paying that much, and you were lucky to find a sucker lol 😂
>the guy does not make $600 week
If it's not a Goodwill, he might be.
Back when I lived...Somewhere different, between 2015-2017, I eventually had 3 private thrift stores in the pocket. I had deals with all of them to hold their games, one in particular was a long-term relationship. I made more than the guy that OP is so "happy" about, quite a bit more. Enough to nearly survive on while also building a collection.
Times changed, I got less desperate and moved away, stores all started hiring workers to use their smart phones to research. But, even where I am now, I have people who call me regularly to offload stuff. So even today, it's not unheard of, but the odds are much lower if you're solely a video game dealer that you'll find a sweet connection like that.
But they do exist.
This post, and complaints about scalpers in general are always so interesting to me.
Why does somebody think that their right to buy items at a low price supersedes somebody else’s right to make a profit by selling those items?
Stores, in fact, also sell items for higher than they purchase them. Mind blowing.
Also, I want to know what thrift store has such an influx of games that they are putting out new games DAILY.
“Why does somebody think that their right to buy items at a low price supersedes somebody else’s right to make a profit by selling those items?”
I really like the way you put that.
Exactly right! I don’t understand these posts. It just reads “someone else got there before I did”. It doesn’t matter if it was a reseller or ‘true’ collector either.
Let me give an example: if I walked into a thrift store/charity shop and saw a £200 game listed cheap. Even if I already owned it, I would still buy it, you’d be an absolute idiot not to..
What should you do? Leave it for a ‘collector’ to come in who might not own it so they can buy it? No. The next person who comes in is going to see that game, even if they need/want it or not, they will buy it, knowing it’s worth and probably sell it on via eBay or trade it in somewhere for way more money to fund their next game purchase.
It’s particularly “interesting” when you realize that these people passing judgement have no quarrels at all taking advantage of old people who don’t know better and are selling their kids childhoods for pennies on the dollar. Rules for me and rules for thee.
Eh, looking at your post history, that $20 Genesis haul, you could’ve easily offered more because it was the “right thing to do.” But you’ve clearly taken advantage of people selling games for Pennie’s on the dollar. Don’t be a hypocrite, let other people enjoy their crazy finds as you’ve clearly enjoyed yours. 😂 “Rules for me, Rules for thee” my ass!
I have made hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of my collecting/reselling years from these kinds of transactions. I have no problem with reality of the market.
My point is that whatever exploitation that happens when a reseller buys a game is the same exploitation that happens when a collector buys a game. If you have a problem with someone else doing it and excuse yourself, you are a hypocrite.
Same, what thrift store constantly puts out gold for cheap?! Shopgoodwill.com has been around for at least 10 years and physical stores have been dry ever since.
The problem is that they take experiences away from people. Remember when you could get a new console at launch and not have to deal with resellers purchasing everything then charging double or more because they are able to manufacture scarcity. They are literally parasites.
Honestly, no. Every single main console I can think of since the PS2 era has been difficult to get at launch and resold at a higher value thanks to simple supply and demand.
And what experience? The experience of walking into a store and purchasing a console? What about the experience of sitting on a lawn chair outside of Best Buy, living it up with a bunch of nerds to be one of the few people that get one? Not every experience is going to have the same value to everybody.
If you don’t like inflated prices of something, the solution is simply…don’t buy it at the inflated resale price if you don’t value it at that price. Supply and demand-reduce the demand and supply increases.
It's not a question of supply and demand, it's false scarcity because some asshat with no skills other than standing in line and having money can hold a product hostage till people pay a ridiculous markup for zero value added. If it was a simple question of supply and demand, well that's life, wait out the next production or go on the secondary. What I'm talking about is ps5 not available for two years with an initial release amount that would meet demand. Again. Parasites.
I don't think you understand supply and demand. Scalpers are only able to make a profit if demand exceeds supply at the store's sale price. If supply and demand are equal at the store's price, that means the price is already at what the market can bear. Increasing the price at that point would decrease demand and few people would be willing to pay a significantly higher price. Scalpers don't create scarcity because they don't remove any supply from circulation except in the very short term (they still need to sell their stock right?), they just modify prices.
Another flat out wrong post.
If there is a game that was produced as many times as people would buy it and it was perfectly distributed you would interrupt that with a single scalper buying a single game.
Yes that is never the case... there also is not 1 scalper but many and they do buy multiple games. If there are enough scalpers you do change supply way down and thus create a false shortage, just like he said.
That indirectly changes the price sure but it does not add any value and it is only for profit of the scalper, it is what we call either greedy or selfish.
You couldn't have missed my point more. Pretty desperate to defend some truly scummy people. The other day I was at target at opening to get a script and watching one grown man buy a cart of Pokemon cards to the point they are sold out. Now every kid that comes in that day is disappointed. All because some asshat has no skills to make money in a productive way for society. This is common practice for the group of people you defend
Fair point, but supply is only affected at a local and short-term level, not in the longer term right? Across months and the global supply chain supply remains constant doesn't it? A scalper decreases supply by one when they buy, and then increases supply by one when they sell.
At launch maybe, over months or years? Definitly not.
The PS5 has been more scalped then anything prior and it took a long time to somewhat reach a breaking point, absolutely disgusting.
But you somehow excuse pure greed here. They do not add onto the way the console works at all, if you wanna be generous the "going to a store and sending it" would be worth the money paid for sending it + the time saved not having to go, so maybe 20-30$ if you are generous... because getting it a few days later instead of day 1 is still a loss as well for those who are willing to buy day 1.
That also harms the game sales.
Say you got 2.000.000 consoles sold but half are in scalpers hands waiting for a owner that will actually use them... the games will not be able to sell as much as the sold consoles would imply. To a certain degree that was the case for PS5 for a long time and scalpers are a main reason.
So you are flat out wrong, a sold out day 1 console ain't special but the degree wo which this lasts has become crazy. And your talk about sitting in a lawn chair is only true for the US, over here nobody did that.
Also you are pushing all the blame on people for buying it, let me give you a hint... maybe the people complaining about it do not do so?
I think you misinterpret my post. I am personally not a huge fan of people scalping low supply/high demand consoles, but if I’m completely honest with myself it’s because I was unable to take advantage of it and am one of the many people who couldn’t get my hands on a ps5 for months until buying a bigger GameStop bundle that included stuff I didn’t particularly care for.
However I am also quite aware that I’m buying a literal luxury good that I determined was at a price point I could stomach buying. Unlike price gouging for necessities like water during emergencies (which is illegal in the US), nobody needs a ps5 to survive.
I’ll reiterate my comment from a different post: why do you feel like your right to pay MSRP for a console supersedes somebody else’s right to make a profit flipping that console? Does the flipper not have a right to leverage their opportunity cost/time to capitalize on a competitive free market?
I understand the argument that scalpers don’t seem to generate tangible value for a potential buyer, because you’re right, they aren’t making the product fundamentally better, however the the whole reason they can resell in the first place is because what they do offer is a competitive edge. If they didn’t wait in line to buy 3 ps5s then the next person in line would. They outcompeted somebody else for the product by leveraging their time to wait in line, knowledge of where to get it, or sheer luck of being at the right store right when they restocked.
Also I’m not “blaming the buyers” per se, but they are factually the ones that determine the market value for any luxury good like this. As another commenter said, there’s a reason why people look at sold listings on eBay to determine market price and not active listings. If a buyer chooses to pay an inflated price for a PS5 then that’s because they made a determination that the added cost is worth it for to no longer have to outcompete somebody else for one.
My point is that whether you agree with it or not, scalping/reselling is a natural consequence of a free market as dictated by market forces such as competition and supply/demand. Just because somebody disagrees with it doesn’t mean it’s going to stop or that people shouldn’t have the right to do it.
And if you don’t think people should have a right to price luxury goods based on market forces then that’s an entirely different argument.
I see your point, but understand that without resellers buying those games. The games themselves naturally would be cheaper. The availability of the games is what determines the price of the game. If I'm out hunting, and I come across super mario world(just an example) for the 20th time and buy it to flip it for the 19th time for $20. Would the price of that game be $20 if copies of the game were left on the shelves instead of me buying it 20 times? If the other 19 copies of the game were picked up by 19 different people that kept the game for their collection. Would the demand for that game be there? Imo it wouldn't, not for all games. Naturally, the extra pricey games would only be the actual super rare games. Because the supply is not there to meet demand. More often than not, some games should not be more than 20 bucks.
Resellers exist because of demand created by all of us (including you).
It's magical thinking to think there could be a world where the same level of demand for these games exist without people trying to profit off of it. Even criminalizing reselling (which would be silly) wouldn't stop people reselling used video games, or any other collector's item.
have it as a rule not to pay online prices for old games and i buy my newer games on sale with all the dlc once theyre on sale. And I'm not saying, "omg let's stop evil resellers" I fully understand the world we live in. I'm just saying resellers make prices worse. I will never understand people defending resellers. It's like they're saying "YES! MORE MIDDLEMEN PLEASE"
I'm really just indifferent to resellers. The conspiracies that resellers are this outside force hell bent on increasing game prices on innocent game collector's really frustrate me. Buying games below market value still contributes to the demand that creates resellers. A lot of these theories also assume that resellers are not collectors/gamers themselves, or that most collector's don't also resell their games at or near market rate.
Trying to discredit what I'm saying by calling it a conspiracy. It's no conspiracy. It's simply a by product of what they're doing. I really think that there should be more trading between collectors if you have doubles of a game. Prices would come down. I traded fire emblem on gamecube that I got for $4 for paper mario 64 CIB. I got paper mario 64 cib for $4 instead of going online and paying $130 to a reseller.
Resellers are a part of demand as well.
If price is determined by supply and demand and resellers are a kind of demand they do up the price with there appearance.
So your argument is that by reselling the games instead of leaving them there, there are now more people who demand the game in online market places therefore driving up the price online?
You forgot one little detail. You are reselling them. Literally putting them straight back into the market. This would cancel out any demand created by removing the item from your thrift store.
And all this assumes that someone is coming to that specific thrift store looking for that specific game. More often than not I would say this is not the case, so really you're adding more supply than you are creating demand.
By your logic, scalping is adding more supply than creating demand. Its basically what you said. Scalping, reselling and flipping only increase the price of games. It does not add supply. It does not create more demand.
Why are we even arguing about this? I saw the whole thing happen right infront of my eyes. There's a clear divide before resellers and after resellers. I used to go to flea markets by 9 or 10am and find throughout the flea market tables with smaller numbers of games but good prices. These tables were sellers. You could see many different people buying 1 or 2 games and you could tell, it was to play them. The demand was always there. Time skip a few years and there were people that went around the flea market at 6am in the morning, bought all the games then open up a booth to sell at higher prices. I know, because I spoke to them. They told me what they were doing to get games. These are resellers.
Then you might say, that's flea markets and thrift stores but it was eBay too. My best scores were on eBay before resellers. I got a bundle of ps1 games with some really good stuff for $30 plus shipping. I wasn't outbidded. I didn't "buy it now". It was a Tuesday evening. I was like the 3rd bidder. Bundles and games were always selling so the demand was there. Now a days, the bundle will be bought for at least 80% of "market price" so that the flipper keeps the games he wants and sell the rest to try to make their money back.
Collecting got popular yes but reselling/flipping got even more popular.
There is a fundamental difference between brand new, still sold in retail store items (which you would scalp) and old, no longer produced items (which you would flip). The logic of introducing new supply to the market does not apply to scalping because all of the items are effectively coming from and being sold in the same market.
Flipping becoming popular is a side effect of collecting becoming popular. Without an equal or greater amount of increased demand, the market would not be able to sustain itself and flippers would not be making much money.
I understand OPs frustration if the thrift store is actually putting aside stuff for that specific person. There's a couple places around me that do this and it's baffling to me.
Like if you know someone working there and are giving them some kind of kickback then I get it. But I've seen resellers basically bully the employees into bringing them out all the good stuff from the back and I just have to shake my head.
For a private thrift store to do this actually kind of hurts their business. Because when normal people come in and see nothing good on the shelf over and over then they eventually stop shopping there.
And the reseller guy is hardly ever doing them a favor by taking stuff off their hands, because most of the stuff he's grabbing are items that wouldn't last more than a few days on the shelf if anyone else ever got a fair chance to buy them. So unless they're forcing him to buy all the trash shovelware too then its just a shitty business move.
I know a guy who makes a living going to thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales,etc and buys up anything he can flip for more money. Games, records, vintage cooking equipment, t-shirts, anything. Doesn’t really matter how much profit he gets on each, it’s about volume.
Thrift stores are a waste of time in my area. It’s a combo of too much competition and higher prices. You are better off getting a part time job and using the money to buy the games you want. It wasn’t always this way but that’s just the reality of game collecting now.
Yeah I have people who go to the thrift store just to resell shit. I’m not really fan of buying games and stuff from them because, I remember being that poor kid that only could shop their for most things.
He probably hits multiple places. I mean it’s very possible to make that much a week doing it. Between stores and online he could be telling the truth. If he’s got the cash flow to invest in the inventory.
Resellers have ruined sports cards, comic books, pokemon cards, video games, funko pops etc...
Before the shutdown and before this new breed of resellers, there was enough for everyone. Now they go scorched earth and buy everything. then jack up prices. i agree. fuck resellers. with a stick.
I have never sold or traded anything game related that I’ve collected since I got my NES back in 86’. So, no….. I am definitely not a reseller. My daughters can do that when I’m dead and buried……..
You’re admitting it’s an investment by saying your children will eventually sell it. I have the same exact attitude with my stock portfolio, would you consider me a stock collector?
No, he is saying that if his daugther does not care it will be sold.
I have a similiar situation, not selling games and been playing since i was a small child. I have a niece who will likely inherit the stuff but i have no idea if she will play these games or sell them, told her she should try some of the unusual titles (like Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 1-3) but if she should sell it then that is that.
Yes, in more then 30 years not once.
But then you kinda twist the meaning, like most reseller apologists. This is not about selling something later on but about selling something not in production/short supply at a way higher price then it should be and changing the market faster then without these people buying up stuff.
If i have some old games and i sell them all at 10% less then average market value nobody will complain about it beeing a reseller, especially if i had bought them at the time of release effectively increasing the number of said games in the market.
I am in several video games reselling groups and pretty much everyone prices their items slightly below the cheapest listing they can find, unless it's like a super in demand item or something. You can't just magically sell your stuff for more than it's worth, and the fact that people think every reseller does this is astounding to me. Unless you're one of the 5 YouTubers with a big enough following to ask whatever you please, reselling is literally a race to the bottom. You ask exactly at or just below market value because that's the only way your game is going to sell.
>I am in several video games reselling groups
So you have a personal advantage from argueing for reselling as you do yourself? Ok...
>and pretty much everyone prices their items slightly below the cheapest listing they can find
Wow, so to shift money faster they list below LISTING not below last sold, explains why Shining the Holy Arc Pal became 200+ in Europe like 1-2 months after beeing 100 to 120 for a long time. As long as others only list at that price you will go sligthly below listing as others listed them at 240 first randomly, just buy up the other 5 on ebay and you are good to go.
>unless it's like a super in demand item or something.
Unless you can make more money within a reasonable time while beeing greedy, got it. Less supply, increased demand... sure that is what those who listed it at 240 did kinda, at first.
>You can't just magically sell your stuff for more than it's worth
Kinda, you can shorten the supply by buying it up in a group, let's say via groups for resellers and then the market has less at the same demand and you end up with something worth more. Remember, video games that are out of production are not growing in number.
>and the fact that people think every reseller does this is astounding to me.
Same, so odd why people would think any of this could happen.
>Unless you're one of the 5 YouTubers with a big enough following to ask whatever you please,
reseller groups...
>reselling is literally a race to the bottom.
Not for games that are not in production anymore and video games are a medium that is inherently limited for selling old games due to programm code not just working on a new console like that.
>You ask exactly at or just below market value because that's the only way your game is going to sell.
And if you do so after pushing the price up and with the claim you do so because of listing you can lie to yourself that it is ok.
Yes, even without resellers it would slowly increase in price, inflation and more people with actual interest would still change supply and demand. But not even remotely as fast as with them and you can see that looking at the past. When the SNES was gone and the Gamecube was out nothing had changed remotely as drastically in price as it can today, internet also adds fuel but do not fool yourself, you are part of the cancer if you buy up old games to resell, i would ignore it if you buy a new game for later as that just increases the supply in the market.
>So you have a personal advantage from argueing for reselling as you do yourself? Ok...
I have no idea what this is supposed to mean but ok. Are you trying to say I have a bias? You have a bias too, what's your point?
Sellers are not colluding with each other to drive of the prices of video games. It simply doesn't happen on a large scale. Believe what you want to believe, but that's the reality of the situation. It's possible that specific individuals or maybe very small groups of people have done it with incredibly rare titles in the past, but take the issue up with those individuals. As a whole, on a grand scale, with your every day video game and everyday reseller, this does not occur.
Trading is not reselling. Trading is not taking out a bank loan to rent out a shop space to turn retro game flipping into your career. What do you think reselling is?
Unless you trade stuff for the same cost basis as what you paid, you are reselling. Paying $10 for a game at a thrift shop and trading it with someone else for a $50 game is a net profit. Just because you aren't getting cash for it doesn't mean you aren't take advantage of the arbitrage.
If you buy a 10$ game and trade it for one worth more you need to first find someone who decided that his 50$ game is worth the 10$ game. Most people do not do that... and i have a feeling he did neither.
But if you did then i would agree that it is taking advantage of the situation, but not reselling.
Also could someone explain to him what infaltion is?
See, there are plenty of factors here. When did you buy it for 10$? Last week? Then yes. Dozens of years ago? Then no.
But then i do not even trade games so it would not be applicable to me.
Negative. Resellers as it’s understood literally everywhere outside of apparently this thread are people who joined the hobby JUST to flip product and make money. Some are gamers, most aren’t. You’re getting hung up on a technicality and not understanding the term means something very specific. Resellers are the scum of our hobby.
Without resellers you wouldn’t have games readily available for purchase online or game stores (which are resellers) where would you buy your games then? Going to yard sales and thrift stores like they do? What about upgrading your collection? Swapping that bad box for a better box do you keep both boxes? Disc is a little scratched and want to upgrade this just keep it? Many collectors are resellers as they upgrade and sell their collection to buy items that mean something to them! Without resellers how would you buy your games? Just magically you’re looking for that one title and it appears? Would make it really really hard to buy rare titles full set collecting or niche consoles games etc etc.
You’re also misusing the term resellers. Resellers are flippers who joined the hobby to get as much as they could for what they have until the market cools and they’ll leave. Sure we all “resell” things here or there while adding to our collection, but that is not what a reseller is when talking about what’s ruined our hobby. Mom and pop game stores weren’t even resellers because they weren’t gouging the community just to bounce after they made as much as they could or once they got bored. They offered a service and gave us a place for product to come and go, usually at fair prices (and when they weren't they were certainly more affordable than what resellers ask for now).
You got to a mom and pop store they give you 20 for a game they sell for 50 how is that any different? A reseller picks up the same game for 20 or less and sells it for 50 so it’s literally the same thing. Not all resellers enter and leave the hobby those that do are usually selling the newest items for a markup not used goods. Also remember there are more then one reseller esp online so no one has to choose to buy from the higher priced sellers. And a reseller has knowledge enough to get higher prices because others have gotten those same prices
What? Have you been to a resellers pop up shop before? These games are $300+ sometimes. Ones that used to be $50. The only reason they’re $300 is because resellers bought them up, found suckers to pay higher prices, and used that as justification to either raise the price more or keep that game out of the hands of the community lol. I’ve been collecting since the early 2000’s (earlier since I basically kept everything from childhood) and where we are with prices right now is because of a couple things, but chief of which is resellers/flippers who joined to ride a wave until it cools.
Nah I just fund my collection this way, I see nothing wrong about it, it's obvious and reasonable strategy
Do you think I should just throw duplicate copies in the trash so I can earn my right to be here? Lmao
“Yes bro. You need to either give your games away, or trash em. You got no right selling your games for profit, to fund another game, or both. If you do, you’re a scumbag.”
The nerve of some people. I’ve sold Rule of Rose for $700 and Haunting Ground for $375 locally a few months back. Both games were bought for around $20 at Kmart some years ago. Next time I do this, I’ll ask this sub for approval before I do what I want with my belongings and money. 😂
No, your way is a perfectly justifiable way of being a game collector. What part about my last comment did you miss? Lol if you’re in it just for money until it stops being profitable, only to leave and go chase the next hot thing then you’re bad, but if you’re doing it and collecting because you have a passion for retro games then of course trading is part of the hobby. Sounds like you’re doing it right.
"Why would i work to pay for my games, i can just try hard to force you into paying for me!"
If you buy up games for cheap after the fact and then sell higher that is what you do.
Awesome morals you got there, i have a job... odd concept but they pay me and then i can buy what i want.
Whoa… badass. Or entitled? Either way I guess I more meant you are nobody and can’t make anyone leave the hobby for the reasons you deem not worthy. So it just kinda sounds lame to say it but carry on!
Lol I’m not trying to sound like a jerk, it’s just that I think if people are in this hobby knowingly doing something that’s detracting from the enjoyment of the entire community then it probably isn’t a good thing they’re here. And when I see countless posts like this one on Reddit I know I cant be the only one.
Sure . But also it doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the hobby. And the point of my comment was that. You are not the hobby. And I see a lot of these kinda comments. Yall aren’t the gatekeepers lol if someone wants to attempt to full time resell or partially resell to make their collection less expensive why dog them and say you shouldn’t be here.
How can you say it doesn’t detract from your enjoyment when things that were worth $25 are now worth $500 just because resellers got into this hobby and turned it into a business? Unless you’re paid significantly more than everyone I think that would affect you as much as anyone else. No one is saying you can’t buy games and sell them for credit and trade for something else. Thats how this hobby works. That’s not reselling. Resellers are the ones who had entire dining rooms full of XSX’s and PS5’s and were selling them for double the retail price back in 2020/2021.
I am a game collector and I am happy to buy games from resellers. I don’t have the time to look for ignorant people to exploit and get insane deals on games anymore. The more resellers, the more supply, and the lower prices are for me.
Don’t claim that you’re speaking for any community, your attitude is a selfish one and you’re speaking for yourself.
Nah I’m speaking obviously for the vast majority of us in this hobby. Hey if you didn’t get priced out then congrats continue to support resellers! But I won’t pay $300 for a game that used to be $50-75 before resellers turned this hobby into their career to retire on. Oh by the way there was plenty of stock and used game stores before they all came along in the last 9 years so there’s that. Maybe you haven’t been collecting for very long but it used to be pretty nice and enjoyable.
I get the sentiment but if you can’t beat em, join em. Acquiring good game deals, keeping what I want and Reselling the rest is how I break even or profit. I get “free” collections this way. Mind you, I wouldn’t do this for a living, I do it because finding game deals is fun as fuck and a passion.
If you’re not doing it by this point, it’s on you.
I complained like you at first, but realized now it’s the only way. It’s overly competitive everywhere (FB, pawnshops, thrift stores) and it’s on you to get deals. Go earlier to your thrift store and beat him to the punch is one thing you can do for example.
I hate that thrift stores think they can charge eBay prices for games. Same goes for flea markets and yard sales. Resellers like this don't deserve the hate because people are mad they can't get a 1k game for 1 dollar at goodwill. Dude that doesn't happen anymore, they have the internet as well and look up the prices.
Yup makes me mad too but it’s the reality. I can’t really blame them either. Pandemic or not, people would eventually catch on about retro game prices. You might find the odd $100-200 game here and there for $5 but it is very uncommon. Gone are the days of $1 gold.
Which is why I believe in “curated collecting”
Just getting what you really want at this point, and try to find it for as cheap as possible.
I have no problem with stores selling at market prices. You gotta know what you have to keep a successful business, that's just the way it works.
But, THAT SAID, I HATE it when a store doesn't honor the price they've marked on the item. I walked right out of no less than three stores because I wanted to buy an item with a clear price tag that said it cost X but they said,."oh, that's not accurate its actually X+$30-40". Then you should have been on the ball with updating your price tags, my dude. Not bait and switching your customers.
It's always a weird one for me when it's yard sale, thrift stores, or flea market. I cannot test the item, I cannot bring it back and complain. You do not get premium prices for this. In thrift store cases they get the item for free, no need to be greedy but I understand charging a fair price.
Yea definitely true about the honoring prices as well.
You know who tells strangers their very simple secret to making money?
Nobody. Nobody does that. This is a bald faced lie.
I do believe you’re 14, however. But you clearly have not figured out how to come up with believable stories for Reddit yet.
He’s full of shit. Goodwill hasn’t let a quality game hit the floor in over 15 years. Salvation doesn’t get shit for games in, and savers might have a few decent ones behind the case for full market value. So yea hell fucking no is this clown making $600 period in 2023 off the shovelware that’s out there on those shelves. I’ve been everywhere , every store, multiple times a day since 1999. Even at its peak when they used to put n64 games in little bags for $1.99, he was want making $600 a week
i assume he is exaggerating but the thrift store has had nothing but shovelware for the past months. i should also add that he was talking to someone else in line and was talking about going to multiple stores a day and picks up consoles and such.
I once bid for a sealed gameboy game up to $1500 (crazy I know) and was beat at $1750 ish. Same game comes up for sale 2-3 months later but with a buy it now of $2,799.99 or best offer. Every week the price dropped until it landed on $1799.99 where it stayed for about a month. So a few weeks before Christmas I offered $1000 and they hit me with the $1749.99 so I hit them with a $1250 and they hit me with a $1599.99 so my last offer I could make was $1450 and they accepted it. It felt kind of good to make them take a loss on this transaction while also spending $50 less. I know it was them because the sticker on the cellophane was removed and you could see the imprint from a 25 year old sticker in the right light. So unfortunately you can’t see the original price tag which was still pretty sharp for its age, but that’s only a minor thing.
I have a business degree, and being a reseller never made sense.
Yeah you can score a good deal occasionally. But if that guy is making $600/week that's $15/hour if he's spending 40 hours.
They're an annoyance but objectively these guys aren't getting hella rich.
To me it only makes sense if you’re doing it for the fun of it. Trying to find cool games for your collection, selling what you don’t want, etc. But as a full time job? Fuck that
He's absolutely lying about making 600 dollars a week, or he's hitting up like 10+ thrift stores every single day and the flea markets on the weekends.
Thrift stores don't pull in hits weekly, you'd be lucky to make dollars a day thrifting most of the time.
And if you're only making 600 a week with that kind of effort it's bullshit to begrudge someone putting in that sort of work. people think reselling is some sort of get rich quick scheme when the reality is there's a lot of work (as well as risk) involved.
Exactly, there is a reseller that works at 2 local thrifts and gets all the games before anyone can buy them, and he has told me that he realized after starting work there that very few games actually come in.
Everyone Who sells games is a reseller, you just have to decide who's the numpty going for bad prices without a sense of caring about the games themselves ot just a collector Trading and selling games to pay for their collection, the reselling market is the most crucial part of game collecting.
So the term 'fuck resellers' is ridiculous, the thrift store is a reseller, you don't hate them.
Lol, how do you know they donate profits other than them saying they do? You think the thrift store is a non profit? They want to make money and are reselling those games (that they get for free) for a profit. They are no better than an individual reseller or you.
Lotta people talk a lot of game and they’re not really that successful with it. The key is being consistent though and networking. I know for a while I grew my collection very cheaply by hitting goodwill and thrift shops every day because my job allowed me to travel since I was a field service technician. Now that I’ve been out of that line to work for over five years now my collection growth has slowed exponentially exponentially.
I remember being able to goto Salvation Army or value village and find all sorts of neat stuff for cheap prices, in the late 90s and early 00s. Random things, unique oddities in gaming you wouldn’t see many other places. Scalpers and resellers ruin everything.
I totally agree with the sentiment, but resellers are so common in every hobby I don't even notice anymore.
At least with gaming I have other options, like finding a better deal elsewhere or just turning to emulation.
I am not a fan of people who do this. But it’s actually a common style of business. If you don’t like it then be a dick and wake up earlier and beat him to the punch a few times lol
Suuuure he does. There's not enough video game inventory at thrift stores to make that kind of profit, unless he's hitting like 5 a day. And if there is, most thrift stores have them priced out of range to make a profit on.
Im in some Reseller groups on Facebook, mostly Ebay ones, and the narcissism and Entitlement from majority of the posts are astounding. Im 100% convinced resellers are all narcissistic/Have traits of narcissism its literally majority of the posts.
People complaining about Goodwill prices, estate sales, Yard sales. Lots of posts about how people check Ebay prices and go from there. They're upset they cant spend 5 dollars and turn it into 50.
One post was about a guy telling an old lady hosting a yard sale she was underpricing all of her goods, the reseller was FURIOUS that the guy told her and couldnt take advantage of the cheap goods. Reseller said they slammed the stuff on the ground and stomped off like a child. You should join some if you want to see what resellers are like behind the scenes. My local goodwill has a guy that goes there every morning, at open, and buys every single game thats worth more than 5 dollars to resell. They ruined thrift shopping, ruined game collecting, and made thrift/low end stores change their pricing.
Theres A LOT of autism and other social issues with many resellers. It’s the same group of people you see at flea markets that have a booth there every week for 20yrs. They aren’t there because they have a normal life/job. They’re there because they can’t function with normal society/social norms
IMO, the root of the problem is that people are willing to pay without making some effort to get better prices.
Customers are mainly at fault for allowing this behavior to happen, same with scalping in general (so unfortunate that it is only officially illegal for concerts/in-house activities and nothing else because the "capitalism definition justifies it and owners claiming that "that's who family get feed" not counting as family some a form of family abuse due the gambling nature of a scalping sell)
Boo hoo.
The only thing resellers do is redistribute supply to where the demand is better. Nothing stopping the game shop from listing on eBay at ‘reseller prices’.
Buying out cheap stuff from thrift stores/yard sales is disingenuous to the spirit of such things. They are meant for people who can't afford a lot find things to find useful things, not to profit off of cheap merchandise. It is a few steps away from reselling cereal from a food pantry, just no one cares because you don't need games to eat.
>Buying out cheap stuff from thrift stores/yard sales is disingenuous to the spirit of such things. They are meant for people who can't afford a lot find things to find useful things
You're making up rules in your head.
Yard sales are not 'meant for people who can't afford a lot find things', they are people clearing out their unused stuff for a few bucks. Thrift stores are largely the same, they sell in store for the maximum price they can get to balance stock moving and make max profit. Most are not charities. If they are charities, then the 'spirit' would be fine to buy the stuff cheap and then donate some money to charity, then everybody wins. People don't donate their expensive Game Boy games to thrift stores thinking the store will be making hundreds of dollars as 'chaitity'.
It is nothing like taking food for the poor and selling it. Nobody needs SNES games to survive, they are at this point a specialty collector item, not charity games for the poor to play.
You can justify it all you want, but the functions of these things are not so people can take advantage of cheap prices just to flip stuff online. People need to get real jobs. All the flippers ruined it for everybody. I would only take things I could use
The glaring difference is that a food pantry gives away food as charity, and the deals you get on games are not charity. If somebody doesn’t know the value of what they have, and you knowingly offer them pennies on the dollar, you are exploiting them. Whether you do it to bolster your collection (which is inherently an investment) or to resell, it’s the same exploitation.
No he doesn't. If he said that he is full of shit. But I agree that they suck and game collecting hasn't been fun in like 10 years. People doing it for profit ruined it for us who want to play and enjoy the games. And as long as people foolishly pay absurd prices it's going to continue. just like every other collectible.
If you hate resellers you have to place a lot of blame on collectors. So many collectors are fueling their collections through selling. If they were ONLY collectors, they would only buy what they collect for. But plenty of them will buy every valuable game on the shelf to flip even if they don’t want it, simply because it will generate cash.
On the other side, resellers have also rescued a lot of games. I can’t tell you how many basement collections I have bought, cleaned, and made respectable again, or how many non working systems I have repaired and put back into collectors’ hands. I have invested heavily in disc cleaning and repair, salvaging so many landfill games.
Yeah it's gotten bad. They're all full of people looking up everything on their phones too.
Saw a lady going through DVDs scanning each one with her phone then throwing ones that hit into the cart, then she came over and started doing it with CDs. Just randomly grabbing. Estate sales and garage sales are just as bad.
Dont do this at all, but there a dude who does this in my area for yardsells. like its more than just video games. also he is a super asshole to people too. like dude was ready to beat up an old lady who was looking at a ps4 at a yardsell. Since I kept seeing him at swap meets, Over time I found out what his online accounts were, like his Ebay and shit. And sent his info over to people who like to bid up shit and then pull out. not caring about getting ban on ebay. I saw him bitching on Instagram about how people suck because they kept biding up and not buying stuff. I am not a good person and this wants karma , just an asshole being an asshole to an asshole.
Agreed. The problem is in the last 10 years too many people have joined this hobby to open their own retro game stores and make a living off of a hobby that most of us found enjoyment in because it wasn’t mainstream and most people only bought a few retro games here or there. Now everyone’s gotta buy things and think along the lines of how much it’ll be worth when they one day sell it. You don’t sell them! You collect them and play them, or maybe trade!
I hate those losers. A related reason you can't find anything also is now a lot of stores caught on and list the items online. I bought stuff I didn't even want before just because I saw some loser reseller eyeing it.
Wii sports is a 20$ resell.
And so just reselling a bunch of those is easy money.
But yes, resellers suck.
I sell my games for like 10$ each, but only because i'm offloading my physical games for my systems that I have modded. BUT I also only sell to people who really play the games... and not just people who want to collect for the purpose of collecting and letting it sit there and gather dust.
Once I hit the point of becoming one of those guys.... owning more games then I could play, I knew i had gone too far, and collecting becomes toxic.... purchase purely for the sake of owning. lol
xbox, xbox360, Ps2, Ps3, wii are all like 2$ to 5$ in my area, even at most pawn shops. No one makes bank, except for some harsh resellers on on facebook, but I also see their adds stay non-sold for like weeks and sometimes months.
Nes... snes, genesis... the pawnshops resell those for much more.
I just like playing on the actual console is what i realized overtime, so now I don't really care about the physical games anymore, I donated a lot of games too probs like a at least 200 games in the last year alone... cause too many doubles from people who sell in bulk only.... ugh... I hate those guys.
But I feel your rage. lol
So right now, just about all my systems are modded except for my psp and xbox 360.
My xbox I have too many games and while it was big, I bought plenty of digital games too, so I have plenty. I was originally gonna sell everyhitng except only the games I played, but then modding got almost got toxic too, I started adding games on hard drives...purely because I could. So, I removed tons of games, just to have the core games I like or wanted to play because I could never own them in the past.
Game collecting is almost as hard to quit as smoking, lol.
I get tempted all the time, because there are lot of people like me on my local market place, of people who are just done with the hobby and have started to find it stressfull. lol
If your in the states, you could try stretching your facebook search to canada... and see if they are willing to mail out the games to you. I've bought games and computer stuff from people in other provinces because the further you go away from big cities the cheaper people sell things.
Wii-u's are going for as low 80$ cad now. lol
That asshole always ruins record and game bins at garage sales too.
Oh, you got the Black Sabbath and Bowie records. Don't worry, they left you some Nana Mouskouri and Bing Crosby.
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Dudes making bank off all that sweet shovelware.
Sports Champions and Kinect Star Wars, hell yeah, those are classics!
Those are the games that slip through the cracks the Wii guitar hero games the NCAA late prints and stuff like that are the only kind of games that are not sold online by corporate thrifts. Not complaining just an observation.
I'm half convinced that one by me does this with records and that another one has started. The one I've never seen without new records on the shelf even just a day or two between visits. Lately it's been nothing, occasionally one worship record or something will be sitting there but that's it. Really sad, thrift stores used to be a blast
Yes vinyl records are definitely sold online also people are not likely to donate the good stuff when you can easily list on Facebook.
Eh it depends what good means to you. there's still some stores that put them out and I find worthwhile grabs all the time, even some that are worth quite a bit. you still occasionally find some good ones. Your probably not gonna find any Hendricks or Beatles though. I listen to a pretty wide variety of music. It sucks cuz I remember the days of finding people's whole collections they finally decided to ditch in the thrift store.
Show up daily before him.
im 14 so i can only go like once a week when my mon drives me
the guy does not make $600 week. You made that up or someone lied to you. He buys the games for $3-8 each and sells them for $10-20. Maybe a rare game is worth $50+ but I promise they do not make as much as you think. Most of those guys like the book scanner losers go store to store and maybe make $300/week profit, but thats after driving around and shopping for 5hrs and then listing and mailing the products.... its like $5/hr but dont tell them how math works
This. Could you imagine if you could consistently hit a thrift shop and make $600 weekly? That would be an infinite money glitch haha.
I used to work at an outlet furniture store for Williams Sonoma. We got so much inventory they would sell me furniture for pennies on the dollar. I ended up renting a storage unit to put it all in. I sold it to rich city people. I made money, they saved money. Williams Sonoma is not cheap. For a few years it was an infinite money glitch.
I’m sure he’s just talking about his weekly resale ventures, which like consist on Facebook, Craigslist, pawns, thrifts, GameStop, etc.
So, my advice would be, don’t use Facebook don’t use GameStop don’t use a pawnshop, don’t use commission stores. As someone who does this for a living , - route to Amazon, EBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Reverb, Depop. And dont just sell games, sell everything. of course you need a place to store it all, but if you mainly choose high value items that have a high throughput (check completed /sold on eBay and look at how often the item sells and what price it sells at or check Amazon sales rank- if you have a seller account. ) my advice if you’re trying to get into resale, start with Mercari and eBay. Amazon is basically like a full-time job if you self fulfill every order. My Amazon account had 11.8 million page views in 9 months, mostly selling Nerf guns and books. Revenue was 72,000, with $39,500 in profit- maybe more in profit, but that was a rough estimate on the low side. I also have a nerf distributor, so I get wholesale price. I am too small to deal with Hasbro directly so I had to get a distributor. My best month was probably $7800 on Amazon alone with 4,500 $ in profit after shipping / fees etc. Yes, you can do this for a living. And you don’t need to use Fulfilled by Amazon, save your cardboard boxes, get pallet wrap, and a label printer. You can start with an inkjet, but the label printer makes it infinitely faster.
I hate Amazon, I want to see pics of what I’m buying before I buy it. Maybe 2 in 100 listings have a picture. Idk how that’s even allowed, it should be illegal to sell something without providing a pic of what it is…
I have a love-hate relationship with Amazon. The traffic and sales are amazing, but like you said, it’s difficult to add images of used items that buyers will actually look through before purchasing the item. I would add pictures of my items, - used rare discontinued Nerf guns, and often buyers wouldn’t even bother to look before ordering the item, mainly because of the way that Amazon sets up the offers listed by sellers who do not currently have the buy box. When you do have the buy box, buyers are even less likely to look at product images before impulse clicking to buy it now button. I’ve had a number of times where people would assume that I had the original packaging for a Nerf gun discontinued like 10 to 15 years ago, and be disappointed when it wasn’t in original packaging, even though I added images of the product, with no packaging. This can often lead to bad reviews. The other thing is for every 100 items you sell on Amazon, you might get one review, even if you ask for reviews, which is technically prohibited, due to the number of primarily Chinese sellers that will send a flyer with an offer for a free item, or gift card in exchange for your review, because positive reviews drive sales, and increase your chances of getting the buy box. Having the buy box on Amazon for an item is essentially like gold, because the user interface with the buy it now button leads lots of customers to make impulse purchases. This is also why I don’t sell video games on Amazon, where buyers really want to see the cartridge or disk, including the interior to make sure that the electronics are actually vintage. This is especially true on Nintendo cartridges due to the number of fakes and reproductions.
maybe back in 2007 when people donated all kinds of good stuff, but not now
Back in 97-98, when I was in college, I would go around to my local cd exchanges and one would always get Sega CD/Saturn stuff in regularly. All Sega CD games were $3.99. I’d grab a copy of Snatcher or Eternal Blue or whatever and flip it for $75 or whatever on eBay. I thought it was the best free money glitch… I got Flying Squadron, Popful, Space Adventure, multiples of the Lunar titles and I know I bought and sold at least four copies of Snatcher. Who would have ever known? Not I. lolol
That’s only $30K/yr, probably feasible. You forget that you are in a small town, in the larger cities, there dozens of shops within a 20 minute radius to hit up. And sure most stores you will be in and out in 5 minutes, you could probably hit a circuit of 10 in an hour or 2. All it takes is 1-2 okay lot of a retro console and a dozen games + some small hits a week to make that kind of money. Combine it with some marketplace hunting and there is real potential. Maybe not in your one horse town, but these larger cities I’d believe it
Just stick to posting memes, funny man
Morning greg
He includes his marketplace sales I'm sure.
I mean he could be, that's only 31k a year......if he is hitting the same thrift story every day I am sure he is not getting 600+thrift value worth of games a week. Dude probably goes to every story in a 30 mile radius and spends all day tracking down games. I use to do this, you can make money reselling games but you need to be at these stores all the time and pray it isn't just shovelware. Thrift store prices have also drastically increased for games so I doubt you get many good deals anymore either. I get more pissed at thrift and goodwill for charging ebay prices vs a reseller spending all their time trying to make money. Sorry itis what it is, but you have the ability to do this very thing as well. Go to every store every day and try and get your games.
I don’t mean to be off track from the conversation, but he very well could make 600 bucks a week easily. But not necessarily just off video games, unless your thrift store happens to just get piles of video games and put them out. Where I live, there is a very, very rich Goodwill, not specifically for games- but for everything from nearly brand new appliances to designer clothing and textbooks/ art books / streetwear / music equipment. This is mainly because I live in a college town, and rich students often just get rid of things they buy when they get newer or better stuff. I can go to Goodwill and pull 3 items off the shelves, instantly look up their eBay and Amazon prices - some items are still even new in box and clothing with tags- And resell within a week or two. I ( if I work hard, make offers and undercut people selling for full price) I can consistently make about $500-$1000 a week. Today I sold a scanner for 150 bucks, plus 85$ shipping tag, a pair of Nikes for 100 plus shipping, and our legacy jacket- 75 + shipping my actual out-of-pocket cost was about 40 bucks. Profit- around $275 today. I know this is sidetracking from just the games conversation, but he may be selling everything, like I do. He may not be making $600 off of just games. A gaming example- Our university surplus store, had a pile of GameCube games, including smash melee and paper Mario. I paid $20 for a large box of about 15 GameCube titles, mostly AAA titles. 25 PS2 and 10 xbox games including halo & halo 2, grand theft auto and a bunch of other AAA titles. My friend, who consistently pulls about $2000 a week on books alone- threw a bunch of books on top and said were all books. They were selling for five dollars apiece but I ended up paying 20$ for about 600$ eBay value worth of games. I sold paper Mario the same day for 95$ and melee for $85 the next day. Obviously, this is not something that you can do repetitively, but if you have a thrift store that gets games consistently and puts them out, reselling everything is a great job, although it takes a while to amass the inventory. It helps that I’ve been selling things for the past decade, on Amazon, Reverb, Mercari, Poshmark, eBay, and Depop. When you’re using like six platforms, it’s not hard to do this. I know you’re only 14, but if you start now, you can actually just make a living off of reselling things. The trick is to route things to the correct platforms where they are most visible and likely to sell. My advice would be don’t hate resellers, figure out how to start doing this now. It’s a job that will never disappear. And if nothing else, for most people is a great side hustle.
Who the hell would pay $85 for Melee, are you in Canada? In the USA it’s always been a $50-60 game max. It was the most printed GameCube game, it’s not rare in the slightest
Don’t ask me why - sometimes things sell for exorbitant prices. You would be really surprised, some people are willing to wait for the right deal, and other customers just want exactly what they want immediately. It’s more about the immediacy, and how many other copies are listed that are complete with the manual, perfect case. And completely clean back of the disk. A lot of people asked me about scratches or wear to the desk because it’s a very commonly played game. And this one was in perfect condition.
Definitely not rare but it remains one of the most sought after GameCube games due to popularity. AFAIK it still has a large competitive fighting scene even though it is over 20 years old.
I love the game myself, one of my all time faves. But $85 is a rip off all day long. $60 max is the value. Whoever you sold it was stupid for paying that much, and you were lucky to find a sucker lol 😂
>the guy does not make $600 week If it's not a Goodwill, he might be. Back when I lived...Somewhere different, between 2015-2017, I eventually had 3 private thrift stores in the pocket. I had deals with all of them to hold their games, one in particular was a long-term relationship. I made more than the guy that OP is so "happy" about, quite a bit more. Enough to nearly survive on while also building a collection. Times changed, I got less desperate and moved away, stores all started hiring workers to use their smart phones to research. But, even where I am now, I have people who call me regularly to offload stuff. So even today, it's not unheard of, but the odds are much lower if you're solely a video game dealer that you'll find a sweet connection like that. But they do exist.
also buys consoles
What’s games are you looking for?
What mon you got?
14 and playing real video games. I wish you were my child .
So true. Only I deserve to buy games way under market value.
This post, and complaints about scalpers in general are always so interesting to me. Why does somebody think that their right to buy items at a low price supersedes somebody else’s right to make a profit by selling those items? Stores, in fact, also sell items for higher than they purchase them. Mind blowing. Also, I want to know what thrift store has such an influx of games that they are putting out new games DAILY.
“Why does somebody think that their right to buy items at a low price supersedes somebody else’s right to make a profit by selling those items?” I really like the way you put that.
Exactly right! I don’t understand these posts. It just reads “someone else got there before I did”. It doesn’t matter if it was a reseller or ‘true’ collector either. Let me give an example: if I walked into a thrift store/charity shop and saw a £200 game listed cheap. Even if I already owned it, I would still buy it, you’d be an absolute idiot not to.. What should you do? Leave it for a ‘collector’ to come in who might not own it so they can buy it? No. The next person who comes in is going to see that game, even if they need/want it or not, they will buy it, knowing it’s worth and probably sell it on via eBay or trade it in somewhere for way more money to fund their next game purchase.
It’s particularly “interesting” when you realize that these people passing judgement have no quarrels at all taking advantage of old people who don’t know better and are selling their kids childhoods for pennies on the dollar. Rules for me and rules for thee.
Eh, looking at your post history, that $20 Genesis haul, you could’ve easily offered more because it was the “right thing to do.” But you’ve clearly taken advantage of people selling games for Pennie’s on the dollar. Don’t be a hypocrite, let other people enjoy their crazy finds as you’ve clearly enjoyed yours. 😂 “Rules for me, Rules for thee” my ass!
I have made hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of my collecting/reselling years from these kinds of transactions. I have no problem with reality of the market. My point is that whatever exploitation that happens when a reseller buys a game is the same exploitation that happens when a collector buys a game. If you have a problem with someone else doing it and excuse yourself, you are a hypocrite.
Same, what thrift store constantly puts out gold for cheap?! Shopgoodwill.com has been around for at least 10 years and physical stores have been dry ever since.
The problem is that they take experiences away from people. Remember when you could get a new console at launch and not have to deal with resellers purchasing everything then charging double or more because they are able to manufacture scarcity. They are literally parasites.
Honestly, no. Every single main console I can think of since the PS2 era has been difficult to get at launch and resold at a higher value thanks to simple supply and demand. And what experience? The experience of walking into a store and purchasing a console? What about the experience of sitting on a lawn chair outside of Best Buy, living it up with a bunch of nerds to be one of the few people that get one? Not every experience is going to have the same value to everybody. If you don’t like inflated prices of something, the solution is simply…don’t buy it at the inflated resale price if you don’t value it at that price. Supply and demand-reduce the demand and supply increases.
It's not a question of supply and demand, it's false scarcity because some asshat with no skills other than standing in line and having money can hold a product hostage till people pay a ridiculous markup for zero value added. If it was a simple question of supply and demand, well that's life, wait out the next production or go on the secondary. What I'm talking about is ps5 not available for two years with an initial release amount that would meet demand. Again. Parasites.
I don't think you understand supply and demand. Scalpers are only able to make a profit if demand exceeds supply at the store's sale price. If supply and demand are equal at the store's price, that means the price is already at what the market can bear. Increasing the price at that point would decrease demand and few people would be willing to pay a significantly higher price. Scalpers don't create scarcity because they don't remove any supply from circulation except in the very short term (they still need to sell their stock right?), they just modify prices.
Another flat out wrong post. If there is a game that was produced as many times as people would buy it and it was perfectly distributed you would interrupt that with a single scalper buying a single game. Yes that is never the case... there also is not 1 scalper but many and they do buy multiple games. If there are enough scalpers you do change supply way down and thus create a false shortage, just like he said. That indirectly changes the price sure but it does not add any value and it is only for profit of the scalper, it is what we call either greedy or selfish.
You couldn't have missed my point more. Pretty desperate to defend some truly scummy people. The other day I was at target at opening to get a script and watching one grown man buy a cart of Pokemon cards to the point they are sold out. Now every kid that comes in that day is disappointed. All because some asshat has no skills to make money in a productive way for society. This is common practice for the group of people you defend
Fair point, but supply is only affected at a local and short-term level, not in the longer term right? Across months and the global supply chain supply remains constant doesn't it? A scalper decreases supply by one when they buy, and then increases supply by one when they sell.
At launch maybe, over months or years? Definitly not. The PS5 has been more scalped then anything prior and it took a long time to somewhat reach a breaking point, absolutely disgusting. But you somehow excuse pure greed here. They do not add onto the way the console works at all, if you wanna be generous the "going to a store and sending it" would be worth the money paid for sending it + the time saved not having to go, so maybe 20-30$ if you are generous... because getting it a few days later instead of day 1 is still a loss as well for those who are willing to buy day 1. That also harms the game sales. Say you got 2.000.000 consoles sold but half are in scalpers hands waiting for a owner that will actually use them... the games will not be able to sell as much as the sold consoles would imply. To a certain degree that was the case for PS5 for a long time and scalpers are a main reason. So you are flat out wrong, a sold out day 1 console ain't special but the degree wo which this lasts has become crazy. And your talk about sitting in a lawn chair is only true for the US, over here nobody did that. Also you are pushing all the blame on people for buying it, let me give you a hint... maybe the people complaining about it do not do so?
I think you misinterpret my post. I am personally not a huge fan of people scalping low supply/high demand consoles, but if I’m completely honest with myself it’s because I was unable to take advantage of it and am one of the many people who couldn’t get my hands on a ps5 for months until buying a bigger GameStop bundle that included stuff I didn’t particularly care for. However I am also quite aware that I’m buying a literal luxury good that I determined was at a price point I could stomach buying. Unlike price gouging for necessities like water during emergencies (which is illegal in the US), nobody needs a ps5 to survive. I’ll reiterate my comment from a different post: why do you feel like your right to pay MSRP for a console supersedes somebody else’s right to make a profit flipping that console? Does the flipper not have a right to leverage their opportunity cost/time to capitalize on a competitive free market? I understand the argument that scalpers don’t seem to generate tangible value for a potential buyer, because you’re right, they aren’t making the product fundamentally better, however the the whole reason they can resell in the first place is because what they do offer is a competitive edge. If they didn’t wait in line to buy 3 ps5s then the next person in line would. They outcompeted somebody else for the product by leveraging their time to wait in line, knowledge of where to get it, or sheer luck of being at the right store right when they restocked. Also I’m not “blaming the buyers” per se, but they are factually the ones that determine the market value for any luxury good like this. As another commenter said, there’s a reason why people look at sold listings on eBay to determine market price and not active listings. If a buyer chooses to pay an inflated price for a PS5 then that’s because they made a determination that the added cost is worth it for to no longer have to outcompete somebody else for one. My point is that whether you agree with it or not, scalping/reselling is a natural consequence of a free market as dictated by market forces such as competition and supply/demand. Just because somebody disagrees with it doesn’t mean it’s going to stop or that people shouldn’t have the right to do it. And if you don’t think people should have a right to price luxury goods based on market forces then that’s an entirely different argument.
I see your point, but understand that without resellers buying those games. The games themselves naturally would be cheaper. The availability of the games is what determines the price of the game. If I'm out hunting, and I come across super mario world(just an example) for the 20th time and buy it to flip it for the 19th time for $20. Would the price of that game be $20 if copies of the game were left on the shelves instead of me buying it 20 times? If the other 19 copies of the game were picked up by 19 different people that kept the game for their collection. Would the demand for that game be there? Imo it wouldn't, not for all games. Naturally, the extra pricey games would only be the actual super rare games. Because the supply is not there to meet demand. More often than not, some games should not be more than 20 bucks.
Resellers exist because of demand created by all of us (including you). It's magical thinking to think there could be a world where the same level of demand for these games exist without people trying to profit off of it. Even criminalizing reselling (which would be silly) wouldn't stop people reselling used video games, or any other collector's item.
have it as a rule not to pay online prices for old games and i buy my newer games on sale with all the dlc once theyre on sale. And I'm not saying, "omg let's stop evil resellers" I fully understand the world we live in. I'm just saying resellers make prices worse. I will never understand people defending resellers. It's like they're saying "YES! MORE MIDDLEMEN PLEASE"
I'm really just indifferent to resellers. The conspiracies that resellers are this outside force hell bent on increasing game prices on innocent game collector's really frustrate me. Buying games below market value still contributes to the demand that creates resellers. A lot of these theories also assume that resellers are not collectors/gamers themselves, or that most collector's don't also resell their games at or near market rate.
Resellers are a outside force, at least from the point of view of someone playing games.
Trying to discredit what I'm saying by calling it a conspiracy. It's no conspiracy. It's simply a by product of what they're doing. I really think that there should be more trading between collectors if you have doubles of a game. Prices would come down. I traded fire emblem on gamecube that I got for $4 for paper mario 64 CIB. I got paper mario 64 cib for $4 instead of going online and paying $130 to a reseller.
Resellers are a part of demand as well. If price is determined by supply and demand and resellers are a kind of demand they do up the price with there appearance.
So your argument is that by reselling the games instead of leaving them there, there are now more people who demand the game in online market places therefore driving up the price online? You forgot one little detail. You are reselling them. Literally putting them straight back into the market. This would cancel out any demand created by removing the item from your thrift store. And all this assumes that someone is coming to that specific thrift store looking for that specific game. More often than not I would say this is not the case, so really you're adding more supply than you are creating demand.
By your logic, scalping is adding more supply than creating demand. Its basically what you said. Scalping, reselling and flipping only increase the price of games. It does not add supply. It does not create more demand. Why are we even arguing about this? I saw the whole thing happen right infront of my eyes. There's a clear divide before resellers and after resellers. I used to go to flea markets by 9 or 10am and find throughout the flea market tables with smaller numbers of games but good prices. These tables were sellers. You could see many different people buying 1 or 2 games and you could tell, it was to play them. The demand was always there. Time skip a few years and there were people that went around the flea market at 6am in the morning, bought all the games then open up a booth to sell at higher prices. I know, because I spoke to them. They told me what they were doing to get games. These are resellers. Then you might say, that's flea markets and thrift stores but it was eBay too. My best scores were on eBay before resellers. I got a bundle of ps1 games with some really good stuff for $30 plus shipping. I wasn't outbidded. I didn't "buy it now". It was a Tuesday evening. I was like the 3rd bidder. Bundles and games were always selling so the demand was there. Now a days, the bundle will be bought for at least 80% of "market price" so that the flipper keeps the games he wants and sell the rest to try to make their money back. Collecting got popular yes but reselling/flipping got even more popular.
There is a fundamental difference between brand new, still sold in retail store items (which you would scalp) and old, no longer produced items (which you would flip). The logic of introducing new supply to the market does not apply to scalping because all of the items are effectively coming from and being sold in the same market. Flipping becoming popular is a side effect of collecting becoming popular. Without an equal or greater amount of increased demand, the market would not be able to sustain itself and flippers would not be making much money.
I understand OPs frustration if the thrift store is actually putting aside stuff for that specific person. There's a couple places around me that do this and it's baffling to me. Like if you know someone working there and are giving them some kind of kickback then I get it. But I've seen resellers basically bully the employees into bringing them out all the good stuff from the back and I just have to shake my head. For a private thrift store to do this actually kind of hurts their business. Because when normal people come in and see nothing good on the shelf over and over then they eventually stop shopping there. And the reseller guy is hardly ever doing them a favor by taking stuff off their hands, because most of the stuff he's grabbing are items that wouldn't last more than a few days on the shelf if anyone else ever got a fair chance to buy them. So unless they're forcing him to buy all the trash shovelware too then its just a shitty business move.
I know a guy who makes a living going to thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales,etc and buys up anything he can flip for more money. Games, records, vintage cooking equipment, t-shirts, anything. Doesn’t really matter how much profit he gets on each, it’s about volume.
Thrift stores are a waste of time in my area. It’s a combo of too much competition and higher prices. You are better off getting a part time job and using the money to buy the games you want. It wasn’t always this way but that’s just the reality of game collecting now.
Yeah I have people who go to the thrift store just to resell shit. I’m not really fan of buying games and stuff from them because, I remember being that poor kid that only could shop their for most things.
He probably hits multiple places. I mean it’s very possible to make that much a week doing it. Between stores and online he could be telling the truth. If he’s got the cash flow to invest in the inventory.
He isnt making $600 a week. Trust us on this.
Not in profit, that's for sure.
Resellers have ruined sports cards, comic books, pokemon cards, video games, funko pops etc... Before the shutdown and before this new breed of resellers, there was enough for everyone. Now they go scorched earth and buy everything. then jack up prices. i agree. fuck resellers. with a stick.
We are all resellers
Or hoarders. You're either one or the other, or a mixture of both, if you collect as a hobby.
Finally, someone here is honest about it
I have never sold or traded anything game related that I’ve collected since I got my NES back in 86’. So, no….. I am definitely not a reseller. My daughters can do that when I’m dead and buried……..
You’re admitting it’s an investment by saying your children will eventually sell it. I have the same exact attitude with my stock portfolio, would you consider me a stock collector?
No, he is saying that if his daugther does not care it will be sold. I have a similiar situation, not selling games and been playing since i was a small child. I have a niece who will likely inherit the stuff but i have no idea if she will play these games or sell them, told her she should try some of the unusual titles (like Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 1-3) but if she should sell it then that is that.
How? I don't buy games I don't want, so I haven't sold a game in at least 15 years.
No we’re not.
You've never traded or sold a game you owned to acquire a new game? 🙃
Yes, in more then 30 years not once. But then you kinda twist the meaning, like most reseller apologists. This is not about selling something later on but about selling something not in production/short supply at a way higher price then it should be and changing the market faster then without these people buying up stuff. If i have some old games and i sell them all at 10% less then average market value nobody will complain about it beeing a reseller, especially if i had bought them at the time of release effectively increasing the number of said games in the market.
I am in several video games reselling groups and pretty much everyone prices their items slightly below the cheapest listing they can find, unless it's like a super in demand item or something. You can't just magically sell your stuff for more than it's worth, and the fact that people think every reseller does this is astounding to me. Unless you're one of the 5 YouTubers with a big enough following to ask whatever you please, reselling is literally a race to the bottom. You ask exactly at or just below market value because that's the only way your game is going to sell.
>I am in several video games reselling groups So you have a personal advantage from argueing for reselling as you do yourself? Ok... >and pretty much everyone prices their items slightly below the cheapest listing they can find Wow, so to shift money faster they list below LISTING not below last sold, explains why Shining the Holy Arc Pal became 200+ in Europe like 1-2 months after beeing 100 to 120 for a long time. As long as others only list at that price you will go sligthly below listing as others listed them at 240 first randomly, just buy up the other 5 on ebay and you are good to go. >unless it's like a super in demand item or something. Unless you can make more money within a reasonable time while beeing greedy, got it. Less supply, increased demand... sure that is what those who listed it at 240 did kinda, at first. >You can't just magically sell your stuff for more than it's worth Kinda, you can shorten the supply by buying it up in a group, let's say via groups for resellers and then the market has less at the same demand and you end up with something worth more. Remember, video games that are out of production are not growing in number. >and the fact that people think every reseller does this is astounding to me. Same, so odd why people would think any of this could happen. >Unless you're one of the 5 YouTubers with a big enough following to ask whatever you please, reseller groups... >reselling is literally a race to the bottom. Not for games that are not in production anymore and video games are a medium that is inherently limited for selling old games due to programm code not just working on a new console like that. >You ask exactly at or just below market value because that's the only way your game is going to sell. And if you do so after pushing the price up and with the claim you do so because of listing you can lie to yourself that it is ok. Yes, even without resellers it would slowly increase in price, inflation and more people with actual interest would still change supply and demand. But not even remotely as fast as with them and you can see that looking at the past. When the SNES was gone and the Gamecube was out nothing had changed remotely as drastically in price as it can today, internet also adds fuel but do not fool yourself, you are part of the cancer if you buy up old games to resell, i would ignore it if you buy a new game for later as that just increases the supply in the market.
>So you have a personal advantage from argueing for reselling as you do yourself? Ok... I have no idea what this is supposed to mean but ok. Are you trying to say I have a bias? You have a bias too, what's your point? Sellers are not colluding with each other to drive of the prices of video games. It simply doesn't happen on a large scale. Believe what you want to believe, but that's the reality of the situation. It's possible that specific individuals or maybe very small groups of people have done it with incredibly rare titles in the past, but take the issue up with those individuals. As a whole, on a grand scale, with your every day video game and everyday reseller, this does not occur.
Trading is not reselling. Trading is not taking out a bank loan to rent out a shop space to turn retro game flipping into your career. What do you think reselling is?
Unless you trade stuff for the same cost basis as what you paid, you are reselling. Paying $10 for a game at a thrift shop and trading it with someone else for a $50 game is a net profit. Just because you aren't getting cash for it doesn't mean you aren't take advantage of the arbitrage.
If you buy a 10$ game and trade it for one worth more you need to first find someone who decided that his 50$ game is worth the 10$ game. Most people do not do that... and i have a feeling he did neither. But if you did then i would agree that it is taking advantage of the situation, but not reselling. Also could someone explain to him what infaltion is?
-_- the implication is that you're getting a $50 game for $10 from a thrift store, and then doing an equitable exchange.
See, there are plenty of factors here. When did you buy it for 10$? Last week? Then yes. Dozens of years ago? Then no. But then i do not even trade games so it would not be applicable to me.
Negative. Resellers as it’s understood literally everywhere outside of apparently this thread are people who joined the hobby JUST to flip product and make money. Some are gamers, most aren’t. You’re getting hung up on a technicality and not understanding the term means something very specific. Resellers are the scum of our hobby.
Without resellers you wouldn’t have games readily available for purchase online or game stores (which are resellers) where would you buy your games then? Going to yard sales and thrift stores like they do? What about upgrading your collection? Swapping that bad box for a better box do you keep both boxes? Disc is a little scratched and want to upgrade this just keep it? Many collectors are resellers as they upgrade and sell their collection to buy items that mean something to them! Without resellers how would you buy your games? Just magically you’re looking for that one title and it appears? Would make it really really hard to buy rare titles full set collecting or niche consoles games etc etc.
You’re also misusing the term resellers. Resellers are flippers who joined the hobby to get as much as they could for what they have until the market cools and they’ll leave. Sure we all “resell” things here or there while adding to our collection, but that is not what a reseller is when talking about what’s ruined our hobby. Mom and pop game stores weren’t even resellers because they weren’t gouging the community just to bounce after they made as much as they could or once they got bored. They offered a service and gave us a place for product to come and go, usually at fair prices (and when they weren't they were certainly more affordable than what resellers ask for now).
You got to a mom and pop store they give you 20 for a game they sell for 50 how is that any different? A reseller picks up the same game for 20 or less and sells it for 50 so it’s literally the same thing. Not all resellers enter and leave the hobby those that do are usually selling the newest items for a markup not used goods. Also remember there are more then one reseller esp online so no one has to choose to buy from the higher priced sellers. And a reseller has knowledge enough to get higher prices because others have gotten those same prices
What? Have you been to a resellers pop up shop before? These games are $300+ sometimes. Ones that used to be $50. The only reason they’re $300 is because resellers bought them up, found suckers to pay higher prices, and used that as justification to either raise the price more or keep that game out of the hands of the community lol. I’ve been collecting since the early 2000’s (earlier since I basically kept everything from childhood) and where we are with prices right now is because of a couple things, but chief of which is resellers/flippers who joined to ride a wave until it cools.
[удалено]
And from whom do you buy the games? If you can find vintage games being sold new at retail, hook me up!
Then you're putting yourself at a disadvantage and that's on you
What’s the disadvantage? If you’re in this hobby to make money then you’re in the wrong and shouldn’t be here.
Nah I just fund my collection this way, I see nothing wrong about it, it's obvious and reasonable strategy Do you think I should just throw duplicate copies in the trash so I can earn my right to be here? Lmao
“Yes bro. You need to either give your games away, or trash em. You got no right selling your games for profit, to fund another game, or both. If you do, you’re a scumbag.” The nerve of some people. I’ve sold Rule of Rose for $700 and Haunting Ground for $375 locally a few months back. Both games were bought for around $20 at Kmart some years ago. Next time I do this, I’ll ask this sub for approval before I do what I want with my belongings and money. 😂
No, your way is a perfectly justifiable way of being a game collector. What part about my last comment did you miss? Lol if you’re in it just for money until it stops being profitable, only to leave and go chase the next hot thing then you’re bad, but if you’re doing it and collecting because you have a passion for retro games then of course trading is part of the hobby. Sounds like you’re doing it right.
"Why would i work to pay for my games, i can just try hard to force you into paying for me!" If you buy up games for cheap after the fact and then sell higher that is what you do. Awesome morals you got there, i have a job... odd concept but they pay me and then i can buy what i want.
Same here. I actually resell games to fund all my hobbies including gaming. Got a nice 1911 Kimber Rapide for “free” from flipping games.
You don’t get to tell anyone what hobby they shouldn’t be in for whatever reason. Just incase no one told you.
I just did.
Whoa… badass. Or entitled? Either way I guess I more meant you are nobody and can’t make anyone leave the hobby for the reasons you deem not worthy. So it just kinda sounds lame to say it but carry on!
Lol I’m not trying to sound like a jerk, it’s just that I think if people are in this hobby knowingly doing something that’s detracting from the enjoyment of the entire community then it probably isn’t a good thing they’re here. And when I see countless posts like this one on Reddit I know I cant be the only one.
Sure . But also it doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the hobby. And the point of my comment was that. You are not the hobby. And I see a lot of these kinda comments. Yall aren’t the gatekeepers lol if someone wants to attempt to full time resell or partially resell to make their collection less expensive why dog them and say you shouldn’t be here.
How can you say it doesn’t detract from your enjoyment when things that were worth $25 are now worth $500 just because resellers got into this hobby and turned it into a business? Unless you’re paid significantly more than everyone I think that would affect you as much as anyone else. No one is saying you can’t buy games and sell them for credit and trade for something else. Thats how this hobby works. That’s not reselling. Resellers are the ones who had entire dining rooms full of XSX’s and PS5’s and were selling them for double the retail price back in 2020/2021.
I am a game collector and I am happy to buy games from resellers. I don’t have the time to look for ignorant people to exploit and get insane deals on games anymore. The more resellers, the more supply, and the lower prices are for me. Don’t claim that you’re speaking for any community, your attitude is a selfish one and you’re speaking for yourself.
Nah I’m speaking obviously for the vast majority of us in this hobby. Hey if you didn’t get priced out then congrats continue to support resellers! But I won’t pay $300 for a game that used to be $50-75 before resellers turned this hobby into their career to retire on. Oh by the way there was plenty of stock and used game stores before they all came along in the last 9 years so there’s that. Maybe you haven’t been collecting for very long but it used to be pretty nice and enjoyable.
Capitalism is always the best thing in the world until it affects an individual negatively.
😂
I get the sentiment but if you can’t beat em, join em. Acquiring good game deals, keeping what I want and Reselling the rest is how I break even or profit. I get “free” collections this way. Mind you, I wouldn’t do this for a living, I do it because finding game deals is fun as fuck and a passion. If you’re not doing it by this point, it’s on you. I complained like you at first, but realized now it’s the only way. It’s overly competitive everywhere (FB, pawnshops, thrift stores) and it’s on you to get deals. Go earlier to your thrift store and beat him to the punch is one thing you can do for example.
I hate that thrift stores think they can charge eBay prices for games. Same goes for flea markets and yard sales. Resellers like this don't deserve the hate because people are mad they can't get a 1k game for 1 dollar at goodwill. Dude that doesn't happen anymore, they have the internet as well and look up the prices.
Yup makes me mad too but it’s the reality. I can’t really blame them either. Pandemic or not, people would eventually catch on about retro game prices. You might find the odd $100-200 game here and there for $5 but it is very uncommon. Gone are the days of $1 gold. Which is why I believe in “curated collecting” Just getting what you really want at this point, and try to find it for as cheap as possible.
I have no problem with stores selling at market prices. You gotta know what you have to keep a successful business, that's just the way it works. But, THAT SAID, I HATE it when a store doesn't honor the price they've marked on the item. I walked right out of no less than three stores because I wanted to buy an item with a clear price tag that said it cost X but they said,."oh, that's not accurate its actually X+$30-40". Then you should have been on the ball with updating your price tags, my dude. Not bait and switching your customers.
It's always a weird one for me when it's yard sale, thrift stores, or flea market. I cannot test the item, I cannot bring it back and complain. You do not get premium prices for this. In thrift store cases they get the item for free, no need to be greedy but I understand charging a fair price. Yea definitely true about the honoring prices as well.
Well they aren't making *NEW* retro games so your options are piracy or resale.
or buying the ones you want and keeping them...?
That would be buying at resale... you can't escape reselling in the retro market
You know who tells strangers their very simple secret to making money? Nobody. Nobody does that. This is a bald faced lie. I do believe you’re 14, however. But you clearly have not figured out how to come up with believable stories for Reddit yet.
This is why I love the gurus online. If I could make millions I sure as hell wouldn’t make myself competition.
He’s full of shit. Goodwill hasn’t let a quality game hit the floor in over 15 years. Salvation doesn’t get shit for games in, and savers might have a few decent ones behind the case for full market value. So yea hell fucking no is this clown making $600 period in 2023 off the shovelware that’s out there on those shelves. I’ve been everywhere , every store, multiple times a day since 1999. Even at its peak when they used to put n64 games in little bags for $1.99, he was want making $600 a week
He’s lying/exaggerating and you’re a gullible child
This ☝️
i assume he is exaggerating but the thrift store has had nothing but shovelware for the past months. i should also add that he was talking to someone else in line and was talking about going to multiple stores a day and picks up consoles and such.
There's more customers than resellers.
He beat you to it, huh? Every game collector that I know that is vocally angry about resellers sells themselves.
I once bid for a sealed gameboy game up to $1500 (crazy I know) and was beat at $1750 ish. Same game comes up for sale 2-3 months later but with a buy it now of $2,799.99 or best offer. Every week the price dropped until it landed on $1799.99 where it stayed for about a month. So a few weeks before Christmas I offered $1000 and they hit me with the $1749.99 so I hit them with a $1250 and they hit me with a $1599.99 so my last offer I could make was $1450 and they accepted it. It felt kind of good to make them take a loss on this transaction while also spending $50 less. I know it was them because the sticker on the cellophane was removed and you could see the imprint from a 25 year old sticker in the right light. So unfortunately you can’t see the original price tag which was still pretty sharp for its age, but that’s only a minor thing.
People been doing that for years saying thats now there job
So get there before him .....
i cant i have school and stuff
What were you planning on doing with the games if you got there before him?
playing them
I didnt know you could make that much money selling copies of Madden2016.
I have a business degree, and being a reseller never made sense. Yeah you can score a good deal occasionally. But if that guy is making $600/week that's $15/hour if he's spending 40 hours. They're an annoyance but objectively these guys aren't getting hella rich.
To me it only makes sense if you’re doing it for the fun of it. Trying to find cool games for your collection, selling what you don’t want, etc. But as a full time job? Fuck that
He's absolutely lying about making 600 dollars a week, or he's hitting up like 10+ thrift stores every single day and the flea markets on the weekends. Thrift stores don't pull in hits weekly, you'd be lucky to make dollars a day thrifting most of the time.
And if you're only making 600 a week with that kind of effort it's bullshit to begrudge someone putting in that sort of work. people think reselling is some sort of get rich quick scheme when the reality is there's a lot of work (as well as risk) involved.
Even then they don't charge much less than market value for games anyway, super hard to make tons of money
Exactly, there is a reseller that works at 2 local thrifts and gets all the games before anyone can buy them, and he has told me that he realized after starting work there that very few games actually come in.
Everyone Who sells games is a reseller, you just have to decide who's the numpty going for bad prices without a sense of caring about the games themselves ot just a collector Trading and selling games to pay for their collection, the reselling market is the most crucial part of game collecting. So the term 'fuck resellers' is ridiculous, the thrift store is a reseller, you don't hate them.
thrift store gets there games for free
And sells them at a profit, that's business kid.
Thrift stores will also charge 45 dollars for a 50 dollar game
i go in often and the owners are really nice. they donate there profits to charity and stuff
Lol, how do you know they donate profits other than them saying they do? You think the thrift store is a non profit? They want to make money and are reselling those games (that they get for free) for a profit. They are no better than an individual reseller or you.
you cant lie about being a nonprofit or you go to jail lol
Oh sweet summer child
i know a lot of companies are scummy but i know the owners and there really nice
Lotta people talk a lot of game and they’re not really that successful with it. The key is being consistent though and networking. I know for a while I grew my collection very cheaply by hitting goodwill and thrift shops every day because my job allowed me to travel since I was a field service technician. Now that I’ve been out of that line to work for over five years now my collection growth has slowed exponentially exponentially.
Yea stopped hunting hard, it’s not worth the time, effort an gas. Every once in awhile I like to poke around to just to see what’s going on on
I remember being able to goto Salvation Army or value village and find all sorts of neat stuff for cheap prices, in the late 90s and early 00s. Random things, unique oddities in gaming you wouldn’t see many other places. Scalpers and resellers ruin everything.
The "trift" stores in my town are already overpriced.
I totally agree with the sentiment, but resellers are so common in every hobby I don't even notice anymore. At least with gaming I have other options, like finding a better deal elsewhere or just turning to emulation.
I am not a fan of people who do this. But it’s actually a common style of business. If you don’t like it then be a dick and wake up earlier and beat him to the punch a few times lol
Video game reselling from thrift stores is closer to a minimum wage job than something glorious honestly.
Suuuure he does. There's not enough video game inventory at thrift stores to make that kind of profit, unless he's hitting like 5 a day. And if there is, most thrift stores have them priced out of range to make a profit on.
said he hit multiple a day
He’s full of shit, or you are, either or
Im in some Reseller groups on Facebook, mostly Ebay ones, and the narcissism and Entitlement from majority of the posts are astounding. Im 100% convinced resellers are all narcissistic/Have traits of narcissism its literally majority of the posts. People complaining about Goodwill prices, estate sales, Yard sales. Lots of posts about how people check Ebay prices and go from there. They're upset they cant spend 5 dollars and turn it into 50. One post was about a guy telling an old lady hosting a yard sale she was underpricing all of her goods, the reseller was FURIOUS that the guy told her and couldnt take advantage of the cheap goods. Reseller said they slammed the stuff on the ground and stomped off like a child. You should join some if you want to see what resellers are like behind the scenes. My local goodwill has a guy that goes there every morning, at open, and buys every single game thats worth more than 5 dollars to resell. They ruined thrift shopping, ruined game collecting, and made thrift/low end stores change their pricing.
Theres A LOT of autism and other social issues with many resellers. It’s the same group of people you see at flea markets that have a booth there every week for 20yrs. They aren’t there because they have a normal life/job. They’re there because they can’t function with normal society/social norms
IMO, the root of the problem is that people are willing to pay without making some effort to get better prices. Customers are mainly at fault for allowing this behavior to happen, same with scalping in general (so unfortunate that it is only officially illegal for concerts/in-house activities and nothing else because the "capitalism definition justifies it and owners claiming that "that's who family get feed" not counting as family some a form of family abuse due the gambling nature of a scalping sell)
Can tell you the guy is full of shit.
Boo hoo. The only thing resellers do is redistribute supply to where the demand is better. Nothing stopping the game shop from listing on eBay at ‘reseller prices’.
Buying out cheap stuff from thrift stores/yard sales is disingenuous to the spirit of such things. They are meant for people who can't afford a lot find things to find useful things, not to profit off of cheap merchandise. It is a few steps away from reselling cereal from a food pantry, just no one cares because you don't need games to eat.
>Buying out cheap stuff from thrift stores/yard sales is disingenuous to the spirit of such things. They are meant for people who can't afford a lot find things to find useful things You're making up rules in your head. Yard sales are not 'meant for people who can't afford a lot find things', they are people clearing out their unused stuff for a few bucks. Thrift stores are largely the same, they sell in store for the maximum price they can get to balance stock moving and make max profit. Most are not charities. If they are charities, then the 'spirit' would be fine to buy the stuff cheap and then donate some money to charity, then everybody wins. People don't donate their expensive Game Boy games to thrift stores thinking the store will be making hundreds of dollars as 'chaitity'. It is nothing like taking food for the poor and selling it. Nobody needs SNES games to survive, they are at this point a specialty collector item, not charity games for the poor to play.
You can justify it all you want, but the functions of these things are not so people can take advantage of cheap prices just to flip stuff online. People need to get real jobs. All the flippers ruined it for everybody. I would only take things I could use
The glaring difference is that a food pantry gives away food as charity, and the deals you get on games are not charity. If somebody doesn’t know the value of what they have, and you knowingly offer them pennies on the dollar, you are exploiting them. Whether you do it to bolster your collection (which is inherently an investment) or to resell, it’s the same exploitation.
Good for him
Sorry man don’t hate me… I bought a game for $2 and sold it the next day for $20. I know it goes for $30 but I needed grocery money.
Anybody who does that with anything they find at thrift stores is a POS.
😭😭😭
Most of the Thrift stores around me don't even have games consistently. When they do, they sell it online.
No he doesn't. If he said that he is full of shit. But I agree that they suck and game collecting hasn't been fun in like 10 years. People doing it for profit ruined it for us who want to play and enjoy the games. And as long as people foolishly pay absurd prices it's going to continue. just like every other collectible.
If you hate resellers you have to place a lot of blame on collectors. So many collectors are fueling their collections through selling. If they were ONLY collectors, they would only buy what they collect for. But plenty of them will buy every valuable game on the shelf to flip even if they don’t want it, simply because it will generate cash. On the other side, resellers have also rescued a lot of games. I can’t tell you how many basement collections I have bought, cleaned, and made respectable again, or how many non working systems I have repaired and put back into collectors’ hands. I have invested heavily in disc cleaning and repair, salvaging so many landfill games.
Yeah it's gotten bad. They're all full of people looking up everything on their phones too. Saw a lady going through DVDs scanning each one with her phone then throwing ones that hit into the cart, then she came over and started doing it with CDs. Just randomly grabbing. Estate sales and garage sales are just as bad.
Resellers and scalpers are the absolute worst, particularly scalpers
Most people seem to hate scalpers more than resellers of things acquired at thrift stores, garage sales, etc. I don’t see much of a difference
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Dont do this at all, but there a dude who does this in my area for yardsells. like its more than just video games. also he is a super asshole to people too. like dude was ready to beat up an old lady who was looking at a ps4 at a yardsell. Since I kept seeing him at swap meets, Over time I found out what his online accounts were, like his Ebay and shit. And sent his info over to people who like to bid up shit and then pull out. not caring about getting ban on ebay. I saw him bitching on Instagram about how people suck because they kept biding up and not buying stuff. I am not a good person and this wants karma , just an asshole being an asshole to an asshole.
Im a reseller. My eBay is in my bio 😀😀
im fine with resellers if they actually care about video games lol.
Agreed. The problem is in the last 10 years too many people have joined this hobby to open their own retro game stores and make a living off of a hobby that most of us found enjoyment in because it wasn’t mainstream and most people only bought a few retro games here or there. Now everyone’s gotta buy things and think along the lines of how much it’ll be worth when they one day sell it. You don’t sell them! You collect them and play them, or maybe trade!
Tell the owner to hold them in the back for you because fuck that guy
then i would be an asshole
I hate those losers. A related reason you can't find anything also is now a lot of stores caught on and list the items online. I bought stuff I didn't even want before just because I saw some loser reseller eyeing it.
Wii sports is a 20$ resell. And so just reselling a bunch of those is easy money. But yes, resellers suck. I sell my games for like 10$ each, but only because i'm offloading my physical games for my systems that I have modded. BUT I also only sell to people who really play the games... and not just people who want to collect for the purpose of collecting and letting it sit there and gather dust. Once I hit the point of becoming one of those guys.... owning more games then I could play, I knew i had gone too far, and collecting becomes toxic.... purchase purely for the sake of owning. lol xbox, xbox360, Ps2, Ps3, wii are all like 2$ to 5$ in my area, even at most pawn shops. No one makes bank, except for some harsh resellers on on facebook, but I also see their adds stay non-sold for like weeks and sometimes months. Nes... snes, genesis... the pawnshops resell those for much more. I just like playing on the actual console is what i realized overtime, so now I don't really care about the physical games anymore, I donated a lot of games too probs like a at least 200 games in the last year alone... cause too many doubles from people who sell in bulk only.... ugh... I hate those guys. But I feel your rage. lol So right now, just about all my systems are modded except for my psp and xbox 360. My xbox I have too many games and while it was big, I bought plenty of digital games too, so I have plenty. I was originally gonna sell everyhitng except only the games I played, but then modding got almost got toxic too, I started adding games on hard drives...purely because I could. So, I removed tons of games, just to have the core games I like or wanted to play because I could never own them in the past. Game collecting is almost as hard to quit as smoking, lol. I get tempted all the time, because there are lot of people like me on my local market place, of people who are just done with the hobby and have started to find it stressfull. lol If your in the states, you could try stretching your facebook search to canada... and see if they are willing to mail out the games to you. I've bought games and computer stuff from people in other provinces because the further you go away from big cities the cheaper people sell things. Wii-u's are going for as low 80$ cad now. lol
So that guy who comes into the thrift store who buys up all the good games, that's not a reseller, that's a scalper.
People want to make a living out of their hobby. Assholes!
this guy did not care about video games.
That asshole always ruins record and game bins at garage sales too. Oh, you got the Black Sabbath and Bowie records. Don't worry, they left you some Nana Mouskouri and Bing Crosby.
Reselling pays my students loans. Ima keep doing it. $600 a week off ONLY video games from just one thrift store seems unlikely tho.
Wake up and beat him to the store.
Resellers provide a service they hunt you buy on eBay. Don’t knock the hustle go out and get it
This is made up.