The Nintendo Cartridge Market in General

[Hazerd]

You guys realize that Goodwill stores are there so that they can raise money for the needy in the community. They certainly aren't there to give you a good deal.

Well in all honesty, people dont go to goodwill to find high fashions or name brand electronics... people DO go there for a DEAL, i mean the shit was donated to them in the first place.

[KDub]

Yeah I'm not paying Goodwill $15 for some dirty game that was donated to them that I can find anywhere for that price or a little cheaper. Mine still prices everything at $3 to $5, but I can't look at them.

I have to ask an employee to hand every cartridge to me because they just have them sitting on a far wall behind a chain on a book shelf...usually label not readable or in sight at all.

[Hobie-wan]

You guys realize that Goodwill stores are there so that they can raise money for the needy in the community. They certainly aren't there to give you a good deal.

I've said that in the past when people complain about Goodwill, but it usually just nets me

Sure it sucks I rarely find deals there anymore, but none of us are dependent on games to live. If I don't find anything cool, then I don't find anything cool.

[ryanofcali]

You guys realize that Goodwill stores are there so that they can raise money for the needy in the community. They certainly aren't there to give you a good deal.

I've said that in the past when people complain about Goodwill, but it usually just nets me

Sure it sucks I rarely find deals there anymore, but none of us are dependent on games to live. If I don't find anything cool, then I don't find anything cool.

I would say that's more of a reason to price it to move to get more merchandise they got for free moving through their store.

What good does the same old merchandise do sitting there for months on end?

[DonSilvestre]

You guys realize that Goodwill stores are there so that they can raise money for the needy in the community. They certainly aren't there to give you a good deal.

I've said that in the past when people complain about Goodwill, but it usually just nets me

Sure it sucks I rarely find deals there anymore, but none of us are dependent on games to live. If I don't find anything cool, then I don't find anything cool.

I didn't mean to single out Goodwill specifically. I think thrift stores in general (and I include Goodwill in this category for the most part) are just losing sight of the reason people like shopping at them. If thrift stores are going to sell all their stuff for what it would go for on ebay, then they shouldn't call themselves a thirft store anymore. In fact, they should save the money they're spending on overhead and just become an ebay seller out of a warehouse.

Also, like I said in a previous post, I'm not expecting to be able to buy rare games for pennies for the rest of my life. In fact, eventually these stores selling games for high prices will help make my collection more valuable as general public consciousness of retro game value increases. My local thrift store, however, is now selling games for MORE than they typically go for on ebay. That's the antithesis of why thrift stores exist!

[BRIK]

Much later down the line, like 50 years from now, when we start dying off, the demand for retro games may decrease along with it. I don't know if future kids will care about old games on physical media. Also by then a lot of them won't work anymore due to broken systems, broken SDTV's, etc.

This. It's not like comic books or baseball cards will cease to work in the future. With electronics you can be guaranteed they will stop working sooner or later.

[AppleQueso]

So how long are cartridges expected to last anyway?

[BRIK]

I'm guessing maybe 40-50 years if their treated right. In my *cough* expert opinion anyway...

[Zing]

It looks like, out of the two main factors that affect the life span of a cartridge, only one of them is significant: heat. I'm not sure how hot these things get during use, but I suspect that the usable life span of a NES cart would exceed a human's.

[harper]

I know this was already discussed a little bit but yeah, I hate how everything goes by ebay prices these days. I know it's just a reference to see how much things are going for, but if everybody goes by ebay then that makes it nearly impossible to find good deals anywhere. It seems like people on amazon and half.com also go by ebay prices, because most times you won't be able to find anything cheaper there either (especially once you include shipping). There are some exception where maybe the listing has been there forever and it's actually a couple of dollars cheaper. My local game store goes by ebay prices as well, but charges ever-so-slightly less, and it makes me feel like I'm being backed against a wall. I also love it when I see stuff there that still has Goodwill stickers on it.