Overpricing Thanks to Ebay

[Hobie-wan]

The power supply and disk drives are really heavy for the C64. I just weighed my 3 different model drives and they were in the 9-10 pound range.

That $59 Commodore lot listed is a fantastic deal for someone local for pickup.

Oh, and the Commodore 64 is the most sold model of computer.

[Gunstar Green]

A retro store that I frequent but rarely do business with does the ebay pricing thing. I asked them about their pricing policies and they told me that they also factor in the shipping costs. That's unacceptable. You're not shipping the game to my house, I'm here to pick it up. Do they think shipping is free for ebay sellers or something?

There's another one about the same distance away with a much smaller stock that usually has low prices on everything except the obvious big-ticket games.

When I sell something on ebay I just start an auction for the bare minimum I'll take for it with a buy-it-now price of what I actually want for it and I just let the community decide its price.

[GSZX1337]

I asked them about their pricing policies and they told me that they also factor in the shipping costs.

Holy fucking shit. What the hell? If I ever found out a local Retro Game Store includes eBay shipping prices, I'd demand that they FedEx the game to me.

[Czernobog]

I asked them about their pricing policies and they told me that they also factor in the shipping costs.

Holy fucking shit. What the hell? If I ever found out a local Retro Game Store includes eBay shipping prices, I'd demand that they FedEx the game to me.

Most of the stores around me do this. I'm actually really surprised when they don't at this point. I even ran into a "store" as they called it run by two extremely rude fellows at a card table inside a flea market specializing in retro games which did the same thing.

I've mostly had to drive to thrift stores in pretty shabby areas just to find anything at a reasonable price over the last year or so, seeing as Craigslist by me rarely has anything worthwhile and people at yard sales around here think everything they touch turns to gold.

[Hobie-wan]

A retro store that I frequent but rarely do business with does the ebay pricing thing.

Assuming you politely tried to reason with them, I'd annoy them every trip about something.

"So, you selling XXXX at a reasonable price of $YY yet? Ok, then I'm not buying it today either."

Remind them how many months the game (or several games) have been sitting there not selling. Maybe bring up them paying tax on inventory that's been sitting in a few months. Yes there are expenses involved with running the store, but inventory just sitting there does no good.

[Croooow!]

Remind them how many months the game (or several games) have been sitting there not selling. Maybe bring up them paying tax on inventory that's been sitting in a few months. Yes there are expenses involved with running the store, but inventory just sitting there does no good.

But what if the games are selling because people who are less knowledgeable about prices keep buying them?

[Jamisonia]

Remind them how many months the game (or several games) have been sitting there not selling. Maybe bring up them paying tax on inventory that's been sitting in a few months. Yes there are expenses involved with running the store, but inventory just sitting there does no good.

But what if the games are selling because people who are less knowledgeable about prices keep buying them?

Thats the problem. Everybody is price fixing, so we're forced to buy it and artificially high prices. Supply and Demand is not determining price when everybody is using one resource to price fix.

[Hobie-wan]

But what if the games are selling because people who are less knowledgeable about prices keep buying them?

Well, then you can grumble about it and shake your fists at the unwashed masses. That's why I meant bug them after (if) games are sitting there not moving.

[Gunstar Green]

I had a weird flea market experience once. I bought Castlevania Bloodlines from a guy for $2 and I said, "Hey this is a pretty cheap price for this, thanks."

His exact response was, "No it isn't I know the price for price things. I'm in the business!"

Suuure you are flea market guy. Whatever, Castlevania Bloodlines for two bucks, I wasn't going to complain.

Assuming you politely tried to reason with them, I'd annoy them every trip about something.

Maybe if I went there a little more often. I don't make an effort to go there specifically. I stop when I'm in the area and have time.

But what if the games are selling because people who are less knowledgeable about prices keep buying them?

I'm sure people are buying the more popular titles and I really can't blame them for jacking up the price on those but charging over ten-dollars for something like a Sega Genesis game that only me and people on forums like this have even heard of is ridiculous.

If I want to pay ebay prices INCLUDING SHIPPING COSTS I'll buy the games on ebay in the comfort of my own home.

[Czernobog]

What really irks me is the stores around me that don't price based on condition. When I go into a store that wants fifty dollars for both a minty CIB version of FFVII and fifty dollars for a version that the discs are scratched to hell and doesn't have the box or manual I have to shake my head in disappointment.
The Disc Replays around me seem to be the only places left that make the bad condition games considerably cheaper than the minty ones.