racketboy.com

You probably won't find anything, there isn't any set standard. They were likely just sent to a store/person in charge of purchasing or maybe a magazine. Media gets all kinds of different punches when sent out as promo copies: holes drilled, UPS scratched, UPS blacked out, a big gash out of the top right corner, a hole punched in the bottom right etc.

Promos usually have a net hold punch or other marking on the UPC. When there's a hole drilled, a cut, or a bit melted it is more likely that they're overstock that was sold super cheap to offload it and the marring is so they can't be returned to the distributor for credit.

Ok, I'm back...I have two finds from the Saturday before labor day.

First, I went over to a nice chain of thrift stores in my area. They recently rebranded to a "value" store, but it's a thrift store that is rather large with high inventory. They also can be relatively fair priced.

I hit it up Saturday around 12 and I at first thought it was busted at first, but I took a second swing through and managed to find the following:

Coleco Ms. PacMan Table Top-- $2.90
Green Gameboy Color with Super Mario Land 3: $1.90
Top Gear, Mortal Kombat 2 and Mickey's Castle of Illusion for the SNES-- $3.90
Wavebird Receiver-- $.90
Pikmin-- $1.90
Ice Hockey with Manual and Sleeve-- $1.90.

Total spent was basically $14.00

I needed the Wavebird receiver and I think the Coleco is awesome for a shelf. I always noticed the AVGN had them in his game room, but this is the first I've seen in the wild. They tend to be expensive $50-$150 on ebay.

and on to the afternoon...

I swing by the other thrift that is owned by this same company about 15 minutes away and I see this reselling hack. Basically, he will find something and look through each item and check the value. He doesn't know anything about the stuff nor does he have any appreciation for the items.

I don't care if people resell. If you can help your collection by selling some things off to get something you want, that is awesome. What does annoy me is when someone just sits there on their stupid phone and has no idea what they are looking at or appreciation for what they are selling. That is this guy.

I instantly deflate.

I just figure he has managed to look at things or he has some stuff under the counter while he shops around. I notice he is in the back of the store where they kind of keep general merchandise. I make my way to the opposite end of the store to the showcase. I figure I am going to hope he hasn't made it over there yet and see if I can get anything.

I get to the show case and see this:

I instantly feel that heart rush and ask the lady can I see them(I stop by here about 3 times a week, usually after work M-F, but rarely on a Saturday, so I'm friendly with all the staff people. Small talk and stuff).

She says "No."

What?!

I assume that the stupid reseller managed to get them to hold them for him while he looked around. I immediately go into angry/resentment mode.

But she chirps in and says "no, it's bundled with a SNES." That was off to the right and I missed it when I walked in.

I say, "how much are they asking?"

She replies "$49.90 for everything, system and 26 games, I know it's a bit much."

I play it calm, but just tell her ring me up. I don't even bother to look at the games. There is also no chance I am asking them to hold while I look around because I might lose it to the reseller guy.

I take the items out to the car and this is what I have (other than the system, which I didn't picture)

And then the big score:

I'm not sure what I'm doing with most of it, but getting Demons Crest alone made it worth it.

I have more from the last 10 days, but I will get to that in the next day or two.

* I noticed some of the titles are hard to tell what they are from the photo. Some of the decent games that are blurry are: Ghengis Khan 2, Nobunaga's Ambition, Nobunaga's Ambition 2: Lord of Darkness, The Adventures of Dr. Franken (I don't know why this game is appealing to me), Three different versions of Super Mario World (the pack-in version, first general release and second release)

Nice finds.

I have seen various "phone-checking" resellers in my area. It is always so sad...These people are trying to make a living - or at least supplement their income - by reselling games, and they have no idea what anything is worth. Collecting video games is my hobby, and I generally have a much better knowledge or market value than these resellers...

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Nice finds.

I have seen various "phone-checking" resellers in my area. It is always so sad...These people are trying to make a living - or at least supplement their income - by reselling games, and they have no idea what anything is worth. Collecting video games is my hobby, and I generally have a much better knowledge or market value than these resellers...

I resell quite a bit myself but I would never use a smart phone to price check a stores inventory. It just feels like cheating and in the long run all it does is inspire store owners to start marking up to eBay prices.

Fragems wrote:

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Nice finds.

I have seen various "phone-checking" resellers in my area. It is always so sad...These people are trying to make a living - or at least supplement their income - by reselling games, and they have no idea what anything is worth. Collecting video games is my hobby, and I generally have a much better knowledge or market value than these resellers...

I resell quite a bit myself but I would never use a smart phone to price check a stores inventory. It just feels like cheating and in the long run all it does is inspire store owners to start marking up to eBay prices.

actually , this helps a lot. I once got a new Perfect Dark 64 , which I paid something like $60+ for thinking it was a big deal. When I checked up online, it had an extremely low value (not sure why) something like $5 . I exchanged it for 007 which had a much better value. So price checking is worth it

Napple Tale OST Vol. 1 & 2

^^



Napple Tale OST Vol. 1

Napple Tale OST Vol. 2

In response to phone checkers... I use mine often but I have about 6 of the puregaming.org apps and sadly, I sometimes have to double check if I actually have a game in my collections. I'll also price check in rare situations when I'm not sure of a game value but that's usually because I like good deals. The stuff I resell is usually doubles out of bulk lots. If I'm looking up a price on something its because I don't own it and I'd like to make sure I get a fair price for a collection addition.

Hey, the joys of technology.

I mean it's awesome that we can pull the phone out of the pocket and find out if some obscure game is worth a buy. There are a ton of games and it is impossible to know if we are always getting a good deal.

I guess the difference is in the last year there has been an influx of people like my friend (sarcasm) from the earlier post. He isn't the only one.

Basically, what they do is get whatever basket of games are going out and just go one by one through them. If it is a disc game they typically have that scanner thing attached to the phone. It just seems so mindless. It also had the effect of driving up prices on the items because the people at the store started noticing a gravitation towards certain items.

It is the only way you can explain a price raise in all things Nintendo, up to the N64, but the PS1/Sega/Gamecube stuff staying flat.

If someone has a business and they are acquiring games to sell, then I welcome the competition to track stuff down. It actually makes it more fun. But when someone just camps out and spends thirty minutes checking each title, it kind of just makes it all less fun.