Classic Game Prices...Questionable.

[TheGregzilla]

Is it just me, or is this happening everywhere?


You go into one store (Game store/Flea Market/Pawn Shop etc) and they may have a selection of classic games ALL at cheap prices. Just a catch all price for any game, say 5 bucks for any N64 game they may have. And sometimes you can find a great deal on a gem nobody else grabbed up, and its great. But then you have the alternate store, where EVERY game is ridiculously overpriced, and even with actual proof the owners wont budge? I was at a place a few weeks back (cant recall the name) and the guy wanted to sell classic SPORTS games for 10 and 15 bucks a pop. Im sorry but NBA live 98 for 10 bucks is just plain ridiculous, Now I know the game can be had online for much cheaper, but its almost offensive that somebody might actually get duped into paying for it, thinking "If its older, it must be worth more"

Sorry, just something that bugged me. Had to rant.

[BurningDoom]

What bugs me WAY MORE, is that I have 1 shop that will have say $9.95 on the price sticker, but then when you take it up she looks it up on Amazon and tells you a different price. That's a bait and switch, plain and simple. And when you say that, she gets pissed and tells you to go somewhere else then.

[o.pwuaioc]

What bugs me WAY MORE, is that I have 1 shop that will have say $9.95 on the price sticker, but then when you take it up she looks it up on Amazon and tells you a different price. That's a bait and switch, plain and simple. And when you say that, she gets pissed and tells you to go somewhere else then.

I would really take that to consumer advocate group.

[MrEco]

What bugs me WAY MORE, is that I have 1 shop that will have say $9.95 on the price sticker, but then when you take it up she looks it up on Amazon and tells you a different price. That's a bait and switch, plain and simple. And when you say that, she gets pissed and tells you to go somewhere else then.

I would really take that to consumer advocate group.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that falls under false advertising or something close.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Yeah there is a place near here that I like to frequent that has really good prices on hidden gems, but all the mainstream games are horrifically overprices. $70 for a loose cart Shining Force? bah!

$5 for Phantasy Star Online Ep 3 in box with manual? YAY!

Other gripes I have is that they will do a NES pin replacement for $60, but won't sell you the pins to do it yourself. Argh!

[CRTGAMER]

I don't get the rant, nobody is forced to buy at any location. Independent sellers have to find a way to survive, competing against Ebay and Amazon. However, if their prices don't at least match online prices, they are just hurting themselves. Any store that over charges will eventually go under.

On the other side of the "coin", that price change at the register for an already tagged item that BurningDoom mentioned definitely is wrong. I would never shop there again, maybe even report them as others had mentioned.

[Snatch1414]

In their defense, I'm not sure how selling a sports game for $10-15 is any different than some guy in a SFII t-shirt at a flea market trying to stifle their giggles because they just got a seller to agree to a $2 sale for some old NES cart that's worth $50. If it means that much to you (whether you're the seller or buyer) do your research before being willing to make a transaction.

Not "sticking" to the price tag though is kind of wrong though. Just don't put one on there or keep them in a case and look it up when someone asks.

[AppleQueso]

What bugs me WAY MORE, is that I have 1 shop that will have say $9.95 on the price sticker, but then when you take it up she looks it up on Amazon and tells you a different price. That's a bait and switch, plain and simple. And when you say that, she gets pissed and tells you to go somewhere else then.

I would really take that to consumer advocate group.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that falls under false advertising or something close.

This.

There are many states that actually have laws that require stores to honor their sticker price.

[Fragems]

There aren't many game stores in my area but the pawnshops are pretty horrible. Aside from the one chain that I frequent at least 2 times a week the rest are crap.

Rant(Not Retro since we have 0 stores selling anything older then PS2 games here ):
To give you an idea of some of the crappy sale tactics that I sometimes run into I will tell you my worst experience so far. So I went into this new pawnshop just to browse and they had a large variety of current gen games on display. There were no prices listed anywhere and I couldn't examine the games because they were locked inside a glass display. So I asked the clerk what the game prices were and I get the reply "oh they are $10 a piece". So I browse through and find about 5 games I am really interested in and I have her pull them out for me after she finished dealing with another customer. So we get to the cash register and she starts ringing me up suddenly the total is 120.00 a far cry from $10 a piece. I tell her I thought the price was $10 a piece and she replies oh no all games are $10 or more..... Although this pissed me off I still ended up buying 2 games from them after she read off the individual prices feeling they were still within reason. Once I got home I checked the prices online and found out they were charging New prices on Amazon and the two games I had purchased only appeared to be reasonably priced because of a sale that was going on .

[SpoonyBard]

Nearly every store i've been in with huge markups on games has at least a few decent deals in it. There's a store about 50 miles from me that is fairly well known for gouging (the worst I saw was a copy of Legend Of Heroes 2 on the PSP for $74.95, which is pretty heinous) yet the other day I scored 6 cheap saturn games (with pretty mint cases, the reason I bought them) for $10.

If there's something I want that I think is a bit too high, I usually comment on it before I leave. Something like "I'm going to kick myself for not picking up that copy of Final Fantasy 3 for $50. I just wish I had the money today!" usually if they're willing to come down, they'll ask what you've got.

Up in my neck of the woods, I don't really have the luxury of shopping somewhere else. Even if the prices are totally unrealistic, I still go to the same stores on the off chance I find something cheap.