Game collecting is not what it once was

[foxhound1022]

What I was saying is there are a lot of people out there who check flea markets, yard sales, etc., that are buying up games for the sole purpose of reselling. They are only interested in profit, and I personally liked hunting for games "in the wild". That really is almost nonexistent, at least in my local area.

That is what I find frustrating.

[Ashrei]

What I was saying is there are a lot of people out there who check flea markets, yard sales, etc., that are buying up games for the sole purpose of reselling. They are only interested in profit, and I personally liked hunting for games "in the wild". That really is almost nonexistent, at least in my local area.

That is what I find frustrating.

Thank you. I ind it very frustrating as well. Enough to make a thread about it. It really bums me out.


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[dsheinem]

There are a lot of us on the board who run a zero-sum or close to zero-sum game with the hobby by buying and flipping various size lots that contain dupes of things we have or games that we know we don't want. It is ideal to do this with larger lots, of course, but the principle applies to smaller lots too. They really do still come up somewhat often - either here or on eBay or Craigslist or whatever - and can be a good way to offset/account for what are otherwise pretty wildly fluctuating market values for certain games, platforms, etc.

I've always been intrigued by the lot buying guys. How does it work? Why do you even type in on eBay? I'm clueless but it's something I would be highly interested in doing. For the sole purpose of obtaining games that I want and getting duplicates to sell.

eBay lots are more hit and miss because you generally are taking a gamble on quality and there's a lot more people competing for a lot. But, that said, a simple search of "retro game lot" or "Nintendo lot" or even "---system name--- games" can sometimes yield some nice finds. Recently we had a member put this one up, for example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161571945334?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

That sold for about $120 shipped, and there is easily $200-$250 worth of stuff there for someone to sell if it was parted out. Granted, you'd have to do a lot more work for that extra $80-$100+ than it takes to sell a lot, but that is an example of something where you could probably buy the lot, keep one or two things you really wanted, and sell the rest and still break even or make a little profit towards the next purchase.

It takes some looking, perseverance, and effort to make lot buying work and pay off - and you have to be ready to drop a bigger amount to get a bigger payoff. You need to generally know market values and be able to do quick figuring and be willing to negotiate accordingly. If you are thinking of buying from someone in a community that you spend time in, it also helps if you are upfront with your intentions to resell some/most of the stuff on your own.

[J T]

What I was saying is there are a lot of people out there who check flea markets, yard sales, etc., that are buying up games for the sole purpose of reselling. They are only interested in profit, and I personally liked hunting for games "in the wild". That really is almost nonexistent, at least in my local area.

That is what I find frustrating.

I can't see someone making much of a profit on this for the amount of time investment it requires.

[dsheinem]

What I was saying is there are a lot of people out there who check flea markets, yard sales, etc., that are buying up games for the sole purpose of reselling. They are only interested in profit, and I personally liked hunting for games "in the wild". That really is almost nonexistent, at least in my local area.

That is what I find frustrating.

I can't see someone making much of a profit on this for the amount of time investment it requires.

Even with lot purchasing, there's a lot of time commitment that ultimately might be a poor offset to any cash savings for some people. Part of the reason I've bought lots is because my schedule accommodates being able to take a week or whatever here or there to get everything sorted, priced, listed, mailed, etc. as needed.

[Fragems]

You can simply type game lot or (Insert system name) lot and find a ton of bundles on ebay. Those are pretty popular searches though so those listings get quite a bit of traffic. It's best to just find sellers you like and watch their listings each week for things you might want.

The Video game price charting site also has a game sniper that is supposed to help find good game deals, but I've never had much luck with it.

https://videogames.pricecharting.com/snipe/

Really your best shot for collecting on the cheap is to just go out to yard sales, flea markets, pawns and etc. and patiently look for good deals. If you are into gaming in general buying games from recent generations isn't a bad idea either. Hell most PS2, Xbox, 360, PS3, and Wii games are dirt cheap right now at pawns and gamestop.

[Snatch1414]

All you can really do is not expect to find much and be happy when you do. As I've said before even comparing two summers ago to last summer was a HUGE difference. I almost feel like I wasted my time last summer. Wake up at 630-7am, find little to nothing, screw up the rest of my Saturday with a long afternoon nap.

I think I'll be focusing more on quality than quantity from now on if things are as dry as I think they are. I may not spend to my budget every week, but I'll get more of what I specifically want when I do find it (and give in and buy stuff online more).

[Omerta]

Standard response:

Buy for black sheep systems. There's plenty of low cost variety for people buying Atari, Genesis, and oXbox.

[mjmjr25]

eBay lots are more hit and miss because you generally are taking a gamble on quality and there's a lot more people competing for a lot.

This is true.

Recently we had a member put this one up, for example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161571945334?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

That sold for about $120 shipped, and there is easily $200-$250 worth of stuff there for someone to sell if it was parted out.

This is not true. As with many good ebay deals nowadays - that package didn't get shipped.

[nightrnr]

Recently we had a member put this one up, for example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161571945334?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

That sold for about $120 shipped, and there is easily $200-$250 worth of stuff there for someone to sell if it was parted out.

This is not true. As with many good ebay deals nowadays - that package didn't get shipped.

???? the joke was lost on me. Feedback was left and looks like a successful transaction to me.

Anyways, I first got into collecting BECAUSE it was cost effective. It is no longer quite that way, as I eventually went after the more sought after titles, but still found pretty good deals.
But, even if I was just getting into gaming, I would still find bargain deals for games. There are always fun games to find on the cheap; and that's where where the fun collecting should start. There are a mind boggling amount of videogames available these days and people can't charge top dollar for everything.

I also don't "need" the most sought after games (unless I am willing to pay the price). But hey, that's what emulation is for too.

I'm not saying that things haven't changed, but the collecting hobby is still there and only frustrating if you let it be that way.