Ashrei wrote:foxhound1022 wrote: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.
I've got a unique feel for this too because I started out in one state, moved back to another in the middle of this abuse of the hobby. I was out in CA a few years and did the flea weekly on sunday, a $20 could go a long way with old NES etc carts. About 1/2 into that 3 year stint one crook showed up with family, cleaned out the regulars for a few weeks in a row, took the stuff to a central booth and charged prices you see now 4 years ago! They got mad, it all went up. Once he couldn't sucker people, he packed up and left for good with the booth. Prices never went back, just part of the way, so that same $20 would get maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of the stuff (if that some weeks, and some weeks had nothing.)
When I came back here 2 years ago for the first six months the local pair of chains were still old school pricing whereas CA went to the predators on craigslist and the flea market. The national chain Half Price Books started using the highest paid prices mid 2013 from ebay (I often call them Buy it Now Books now as it spread to everything there.) It forced the local shop to match them because people would clean them out of stock and little would come in. Fleas around here don't get games, this is more of an antique, vintage stuff, etc area. Games here are more or less non-existent, but I did see a window where it took KY awhile to catch to to CA.
It means your mileage may vary but as time rolls along it will go bad everywhere. I was into it greatly for the hunt, it was like finding buried treasure, and I kept what was fun and flipped/traded the others for things I wanted too. That for me is dead. What bothers me most is that it's a re-run of a childhood of fun that was taken from me because as a kid on a little allowance I was all about comics and baseball cards. In the start of the 90s, what is going on in games now happened then to that, but since online wasn't a thing shops popped up everywhere as did trolls waiting around stores and want ads. Stuff I could get handily I ended up having to get a list to just to read and it wasn't sure, and in turn if I wanted what I missed I could pay 2-3x the amount due to some douche who bought up the stock. I ended up not being able to afford either and had to quit buying both. So I get steamed when I see it happening now to games as it's the same crap, different decade. I just get satisfaction knowing in time these jerks will suffer for it when prices are driven up enough it will push away but the most clueless, rabid, and just other resellers trying to poach off each other pricing the majority out. That in itself like the cards and comics won't be sustainable and it'll implode, and patient people who still care can then swoop in laugh at their misery and get some goodies.
