/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1209696]

What's /vr/'s take on retro game resellers? I can never find any games in my area because there are two resell stores who are constantly out buying games from people. It seems my only option now is Ebay and Facebook groups when it comes to buying old games.

How do you guys feel?

[Anonymous No.1209707]

I try to find pawns shops. There's one dedicated games store that has retro stuff, and the prices are stupid.

[Anonymous No.1209728]

I think if a retro game store has process higher than eBay they won't be in business for very long.

[Anonymous No.1209745]

>>1209728
They only need to be below the combined cost of the item and shipping. That's what mine does, so you wind up with overinflated prices but it's still cheaper then eBay. Damnit.

A lot of the pawn shops don't even put rarer things on the shelf, they all go to eBay.

[Anonymous No.1209752]

There's nothing wrong with reselling retro vidya; however when eBay determines your prices, you refuse to haggle, you buy up all the supply with the sole intent to flip, or when you just sit on your games with a firm price refusing to adjust based on the market, that's when you enter into the realm of the reseller scum that is so hated on /vr/

[Anonymous No.1209761]

It's retarded. This is why VC and emulation exists.

[Apartment Raptor No.1209775]

>>1209728
They don't even have to be cheaper, especially if they're the only game in town. You'd be shocked how few people even consider buying this stuff (or anything for that matter) online. Luckily for me, the pawn shops here are all clueless and flat price all games.

OP, depending on the laws where you live it may be illegal for stores to be out buying stuff from Craigslist and the like without doing the proper paperwork and getting the sellers ID number, prints, etc. It would be a seriously dick thing to do, but if you want to really ruin their day and maybe get them to stop, you could report their shady business dealings. I know if a place here tried to pull that they'd be shut down in a day.

[Anonymous No.1209781]

I've been wanting to start up a retro resell shop and use VGPC as a basis to sell game. I would have to use my collection as inventory, so I don't see me opening up one anytime soon.

[Anonymous No.1209831]

There's one pawn shop in town that's particularly infuriating. They keep all the game stuff behind the counter, though still in view. Except they won't sell anything in the store, it's all up on ebay.

[Anonymous No.1209850]

>>1209831
That would piss me off. Reminds me of the eBay store in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Have you asked what their eBay name is? They probably have everything as a 'buy it now' price, but it would be cool if they actually auctioned shit off without a reserve and maybe get it super cheap.

[Anonymous No.1209872]

>>1209850
I did, the store clerk didn't know and said their son handles all that. I was completely floored, especially since I could see quite a lot of things I would have bought from them on the spot.
I partially suspect the place is some sort of drug front or for laundering money as it's an absolute disaster inside, but yeah.

[Anonymous No.1210542]

I've actually got it pretty good, after my town being a retro wasteland for years, I get both a pawn shop that specializes in rare games (though most of it is sixth gen), and a booth in the Flea Market I worked at back in high school. The guy who runs it uses VGPC for most of his stuff, and actually pays quite well for buying. Despite being just a booth he's got a surprisingly large amount of stuff, and I think I might get into Saturn collecting through him. Sometimes he won't price stuff and instead will look at VGPC before letting me haggle him down. I got a mint copy of Xenogears for $30 that way.

[Anonymous No.1210896]

>>1209831
A lot pawn shops do it for the chance of getting a higher price and mostly for skirting sales tax if the state has one.

[Anonymous No.1210908]

>>1209696
hey, I know where that picture's from. The volo antique mall, right?

[Anonymous No.1210950]

I honestly believe that a crash will come soon. Not like a huge all at once thing, but gradually the prices of retro stuff will fall off due to the whole geek culture thing dying. People will be stuck having earthbound they can no longer sell for gratuitous amounts, shops will have to start selling lower or closing down altogether. By then hopefully we can sweep up the good stuff at decent prices.

I mean it's technically possible that many who are buying now are indeed passionate collectors who wont give up their games, but hopefully the resellers will be forced to quit or at least expand so that it's not impossible to find good deals at garage sales, flea markets, etc.

That said, I don't hate resellers because it's unfortunately a legitimate and right now pretty lucrative business. It makes things harder for me but tbh I'll emulate until death rather than pay more than 10 bucks for a loose A Link to the Past. But that's me.

[Anonymous No.1210953]

There's a Disc Replay near my house that sells retro vidya anywhere from 50-70% of eBay prices.

They are real bros over there and have regular coupons. I'm pretty happy with them.

[Anonymous No.1210959]

Since rombay shut down there's really no other option.

[Anonymous No.1210980]

If i find something cheap that i already have, or I don't think i will play I sell it at 10-20% less than the lowest ebay completed listing or trade it for something i actually want.

I hit up thrift stores, markets, yard sales and facebook groups but since there are a dozen other collectors/resellers in my area. it is pretty hard to find anything.

I have a sort of agreement with a couple of other collectors. I keep an eye out for stuff for them to buy and they hook me up.

Just this week I found 3 N64 bundles and a lot of boxed SNES games pretty cheap.

[Anonymous No.1210983]

I'm kinda torn on them. On one hand, I love exploring retro stores and seeing what I can find. On the other hand, almost every one of the stores in this area follow eBay pricing, and the employees are usually jerks. The best place to buy old games around here is actually a vintage music store that just happens to accept game trade-ins as well.

But I have the same issue as you, OP. Outside of eBay and these resell stores, it's extremely difficult to find old games.

[Anonymous No.1211001]

>>1210950

I'm with you on that one, but a lot of this is a matter of "when". Because our entire society depends on computers, and this is only going to become more prominent in the coming years, there's no telling when this "vintage" and "nerdy" trend will die. Obviously when another zeitgeist rolls in, but I've got a feeling it could be several years. It's why I'm using this time to play all of the inexpensive games I missed out on, usualy < $50 stuff, but you can bet that the day the prices start dipping is the day I start buying the rarer stuff, and finally start collecting games for the sake of collecting. I don't care if it isn't worth anything, I just want to enjoy it for what it is.

[Anonymous No.1211049]

>>1209728
>process
>FUCKING PROCESS

[Anonymous No.1211064]

Their prices are stupid crazy that are barely below or above ebay pricing but at least they carry alot of cheap common games that no one wants which helps builds my game library.

[Josh No.1211068]

I so a lot of buying and reselling retro games. Over here in CA. There seems to be and endless supply of retro games at all my pawns,thrifts, yard sales, swap meets

[Anonymous No.1211070]

A lot of " retro " stores sell their games for really odd prices around here... sometimes it's really high, or low.

I picked up a Gamecube Gameboy Player for 6 dollars. It had everything including the disc, case and slip cover.

Other than that? I use ebay to pick up most of my games. I check thrift shops / yard sales but normally find nothing.

[Anonymous No.1211075]

And these

[Anonymous No.1211108]

>>1210953
There's a Disc Traders by me, pretty sure it's the same chain with a different name. And yeah, their prices tend to be alright. I've found a few disc-based that were complete, priced the same as it would be for just the disc on Amazon or eBay. I guess they don't take completeness into account or something.

[Anonymous No.1211142]

>>1211068
Are you an honest seller? Do you refrain from buying up supply to artificially control it? Are your prices open to haggling? Do you have an adjustable price range NOT based on eBay? Do you respect your customers and the gaming culture?

If you answered yes to these questions, you're ok in most of /vr/'s book, if not, I suggest you leave.

[Anonymous No.1211182]

>>1209728
>I think if a retro game store has process higher than eBay they won't be in business for very long.

I made a brief visit to my local one and the owner's wife behind the counter was complaining to her employee that she ate candy for dinner the night before because someone in her house spent the grocery money paying a bill.

This store is comically expensive and I've left empty handed every time I have visited so I really am really surprised they're still up and paying rent at a suburban mall.

[Anonymous No.1211405]

>>1210959
There ARE other places you know.

[I ain't tripfagging !!jIVnZZY3Z6j No.1211473]

>>1211068
>>1211075
I'm in california... southern california... i go to swapmeets every sunday. I've never found anything THAT rare though... rarest thing I found was dragon warrior 3 and 4. some guy wanted 4 bucks each for them. nabbed them for both for 6. that's the best I've done...

[Anonymous No.1211486]

Honestly I hate how cut throat it is reselling games in my area. Even flea market sellers check ebay and are huge vendors. As well as lots of them refuse to budge even if I offer to pick up multiple items. I'm grateful I have so many options for games where I live, but damn I hate their sometimes flat out ridiculous prices.

[Anonymous No.1212697]

Here in London Ontario, shit varies. While the flea markets will have no shame in trying to fleece you, most pawn shops are surprisingly reasonable about pricing. Just the other day, I picked up a scuffed label Mario Kart for $10 from one of these places. I also got Ninja Gaiden 1&2 for the NES for like $12.

[Anonymous No.1212712]

It's an incredibly predatory business but it is just that, a business. I can't blame them for trying to make money.

[Anonymous No.1212717]

The reselling scene in New York is fucking insane.

There is a retro vidya store in just about every other town, and yardsales and thrift store shopping can be fucking insane.

[Anonymous No.1212723]

>>1212717

NY resellers are fucking conspire with eachother.

It makes me sick. Pic related.

[Anonymous No.1212808]

>>1212723
That non-retro vidya could feed a village for a month...or be in the hands of gamers who would actually play them

[Anonymous No.1212817]

The retro game market in Edmonton sucks and I'm assuming it's because of resellers. Can't find shit.

>>1212723
Whyyyy

[Anonymous No.1212826]

>>1212817
its because I already bought anything that was cheap, haha yeah but really. Game City sucks but I do find the occasional genesis game there for a good price. Just For Fun is pure fucking juden hits yah right in the shekels and the antique mall is a fucking joke. I haven't been to any pawnshops though really do you know anything about them?

[Anonymous No.1212841]

>>1212723

[Anonymous No.1212873]

>>1212817
also its not because of resellers because kijiji and craigslist never have shit. I think edmonton just sucks

[Anonymous No.1212942]

>>1212826
Game City is the most overpriced store I can think of.

110 dollars for an N64 with an expansion pack.

[Anonymous No.1212946]

>>1212826
Also, I have never found anything worthwhile in any of the pawn shops in the city for retro games. Some shovelware NES carts, some sports games, a few plug and play consoles, that's about it.

[Anonymous No.1212959]

>>1212942
Of course everything nintendo is over priced bruh, I said you could get good genesis games for cheap if you keep your eye open. If you search hard though you can sometimes find shit below ebay prices, I got lost vikings 2 for cheaper than it is online, I think thats the only game from a nintendo console I have purchased there though. Sometimes they have really good shit in the cheap bin though, Mystic Defender is in the bargain bin at one location and I would totally get it if I didn't have it already. Yeah megaman 64 70 bucks at 1 game city and 40 at another they are a joke, but keep your eyes open because sometimes there are good finds.

[Anonymous No.1212962]

>>1211182
I bet she was fat.