ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

A place where you can chat about anything that isn't to do with games!
User avatar
Rob
Posts: 8075
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:58 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Rob »

neorichieb1971 wrote:I see this shit all the time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Y0a76-3fI - Like every single day someone posts a video of a grail they found for $10.

I went to FL on my vacations in 2019 and went in the stores and charity stores, I found nothing.. Nadda of any value at all.
People who find great deals at stores like that are thrifting frequently and the great finds at garage sales are typically early. The odds of a gem falling into your lap with minimal effort is low.
User avatar
Udderdude
Posts: 6266
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:55 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Udderdude »

orange808 wrote:
drauch wrote:
Udderdude wrote:More like nRage, amirite?

I think it's important to check if any of these are actually selling at these prices, or if it's just wishful thinking on the side of the seller.
That was a sold listing. 28 bids.
:lol: I'm rolling!

https://youtu.be/B9vIJHFtWPk

$700usd? :lol: Ha.
Holy crap, lol. Really funny that even the n-gage is emulated these days. I don't know why you'd want to, though, even it's exclusives are pretty whatever tier.
User avatar
Bar81
Posts: 804
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 4:25 pm

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Bar81 »

neorichieb1971 wrote:
Bar81 wrote:
neorichieb1971 wrote:I will also add that in the USA there are still 1000's of people doing yard and garage sales that don't even look up the worth of games if you believe youtube. Mint copies of games going for pennys on the dollar and being flipped for gigantic profits.
Not sure where you're getting your news but that's something that hasn't existed for some time. Even goodwill is hawking its wares on eBay these days. The only time you see anyone "getting" a rare game in the wild without paying eBay prices is a fake clout post by one of the (many) losers of the internet.
I see this shit all the time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Y0a76-3fI - Like every single day someone posts a video of a grail they found for $10.

I went to FL on my vacations in 2019 and went in the stores and charity stores, I found nothing.. Nadda of any value at all.
Exactly my point. There's a big difference between reality and the losers posting on the internet about their "finds" to get clicks or attention. In the reality of today, no one finds anything really valuable "in the wild" in the US except where they pay ebay and sometimes higher prices for the game. It's one of my pet peeves in the community, I'm not sure why people can't just admit they bought it at a certain price rather than post some lame story about how they found it in some homeless person's shopping cart that they traded some malt liquor for to get the game for a grand total of $7.83 including tax. Well, at least it's fun mocking them whenever they post in my groups so there is that.
User avatar
Sumez
Posts: 8019
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:11 am
Location: Denmarku
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Sumez »

Rob wrote: People who find great deals at stores like that are thrifting frequently and the great finds at garage sales are typically early. The odds of a gem falling into your lap with minimal effort is low.
The odds of finding one with maximum effort is also completely non-existant anywhere else in the world. :P
User avatar
orange808
Posts: 3196
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2016 5:43 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by orange808 »

People aren't getting things for nothing anywhere. Effort has the same value around America as everywhere else: not much. That includes maximum effort.

Might find something obscure, but that's possible anywhere. If you find someone that's struggling with a death, mourning, and liquidating an estate, the human thing to do is help that person get market value. But, then again, I'm not right wing or religious, so my view on that may be rare.
We apologise for the inconvenience
User avatar
Rob
Posts: 8075
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:58 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Rob »

Bar81 wrote:In the reality of today, no one finds anything really valuable "in the wild" in the US except where they pay ebay and sometimes higher prices for the game.
This is totally not true. Many people make a living doing it.
Sumez wrote:The odds of finding one with maximum effort is also completely non-existant anywhere else in the world. :P
I agree with what richie is saying for the most part. Only that the videos might make it seem easier or more common than it is. Garage sales are a much better bet than thrift stores, but with garage sales you have to go to a lot of them and start early in the morning. The competition for game stuff eclipses anything else.
User avatar
Bar81
Posts: 804
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 4:25 pm

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Bar81 »

Rob wrote:
Bar81 wrote:In the reality of today, no one finds anything really valuable "in the wild" in the US except where they pay ebay and sometimes higher prices for the game.
This is totally not true. Many people make a living doing it.
If you say so. Who are these "many people" exactly?
User avatar
Udderdude
Posts: 6266
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:55 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Udderdude »

User avatar
Rob
Posts: 8075
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:58 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Rob »

Bar81 wrote:If you say so. Who are these "many people" exactly?
Around any major city you will find many people doing high volume reselling - just go on eBay and search for sold items within a 30 mile radius for whatever you are interested in. Even if you live in a smaller city you will likely find someone selling thousands of items a year. If you go to garage sales, estate sales, thrift stores, auctions, etc. you will meet them. I'm talking about all types of items, though people obviously do this with games as well. I don't focus on games and I still find thousands of dollars worth of gaming stuff a year.
User avatar
orange808
Posts: 3196
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2016 5:43 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by orange808 »

Resellers mostly price items to get markup and try to buy items that can appreciate. You're not finding holy grails for a few coins.

Obviously, repair is another way of increasing the value of a purchase; that's the way to go and make a profit. With that said, nobody is getting stuff that's ready for resale for five pieces of the local money paper.

I have found all kinds of displays and video gear at great prices, but that's all extremely niche stuff. Gaming stopped being a niche thing long ago. I haven't found anything that's core video gaming for the price of a thrift store teacup in a very long time. Even video gear is tricky. You gotta be ahead of the market.
We apologise for the inconvenience
User avatar
Bar81
Posts: 804
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 4:25 pm

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Bar81 »

Rob wrote:
Bar81 wrote:If you say so. Who are these "many people" exactly?
Around any major city you will find many people doing high volume reselling - just go on eBay and search for sold items within a 30 mile radius for whatever you are interested in. Even if you live in a smaller city you will likely find someone selling thousands of items a year. If you go to garage sales, estate sales, thrift stores, auctions, etc. you will meet them. I'm talking about all types of items, though people obviously do this with games as well. I don't focus on games and I still find thousands of dollars worth of gaming stuff a year.
As noted in the post just above, it's bizarre you would interject yourself into a discussion without actually understanding the discussion. what you're talking about is something completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
User avatar
Rob
Posts: 8075
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:58 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Rob »

orange808 wrote:Resellers mostly price items to get markup and try to buy items that can appreciate. You're not finding holy grails for a few coins.

Obviously, repair is another way of increasing the value of a purchase; that's the way to go and make a profit. With that said, nobody is getting stuff that's ready for resale for five pieces of the local money paper.
By and large resellers are just looking for a good deal and then selling at market value on eBay or wherever. I don't know about "holy grails", but you can still find collector worthy stuff at low prices. It's certainly more impressive to have a niche and add value by repairing or modifying. You can also sell quality electronics for parts/repair if it's a higher end Marantz receiver or something. The right model of Sony Walkman can go for hundreds in disrepair.
I haven't found anything that's core video gaming for the price of a thrift store teacup in a very long time.
Where do you look?
neorichieb1971
Posts: 7668
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:28 am
Location: Bedford, UK
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by neorichieb1971 »

I find it a bit shameful that there are gate crashers that have no interest in gaming doing it though. Then putting it all on the internet as well. You'd think they would keep the secret to themselves.

Just out of interest is Seattle USA some kind of gaming haven? Most of the youtube channels spout out of there, there are import shops and it just seems to be where the action happens.

The best deal I got in the UK was about 5 years ago I got Castlevania Genesis for £100 :lol: . It was minty though. I find getting USA games in the UK can sometimes work for me, sometimes not.

I'm going to the Doncaster retro show on Feb 5th. I'll take some pics.

Insane prices on ebay are due to the BINS. ebay opened a can of worms when they brought that out. Whilst I use BINS to sell, it seems more opportunism than anything and I always price around the end price or normal auctions so someone can just say F*ck IT! and PRESS THE BIN. Condition has to be comparitive though. How retro stores make money is anyones guess, most of them are full of filler and 5 rare items with 4 figures attached to it.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
User avatar
BareKnuckleRoo
Posts: 6162
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:01 am
Location: Southern Ontario

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

This talk of "holy grails" reminds me of the time I was like 9 or 10 and I found a copy of Gunstar Heroes, the Japanese Game Gear version in a dollar store in a quiet suburb of Canada. It was the weirdest thing, seeing loose Game Gear carts repackaged in these cheapo purple and white boxes. hey somehow got a hold of cheap imported games or something? I dunno, I honestly can't remember what other games were in the bin, but it was quite a large tub full of them (maybe 15" x 15" x 20" high) but it blew my mind seeing a handheld release of Gunstar Heroes. I had only played Gunstar Heroes by renting it from the local blockbuster and hadn't gotten to actually save up enough allowance to buy a copy or ask for one for xmas. Realizing it was a Japanese version (I knew enough to know what Japanese writing kind of looked like) it made me understand just how strange and fortunate it was to find. Much later I discovered the GG port was only available in Japan which made it that much more weird.

Even at that age I knew it was something strange and exciting. I didn't understand why a dollar-store type place in Canada managed to get a hold of a bunch of imported Game Gear games in these very cheapo looking repackaged boxes that were literally just the loose cart. They were purple around the edges with the games inside of a white border and thin later of clear shrinkwrapped plastic over top. Felt very cheaply packaged, I think you could have probably poked a hole and shoplifted em easily if you'd wanted to. I was too young to really understand why a bin full of foreign language games had possibly turned up in such a store (it's still a Dollarama decades later!).

If I'd had more money at the time and was an adult with several hundred bucks to burn, I woulda likely bought the entire bin out. Definitely feels like a missed opportunity! But being a kid with a limited allowance, when I'd spotted these games in a store that definitely would not be known for selling games, and finding a game I knew I'd been coveting when I rummaged through it was pure magic. I think I begged my mom to get it for me (the only reason I was there was she'd taken me along while shopping for something else) by explaining it was something super weird. I don't think I knew what a "bootleg" was at the time, but I still have the cart and it definitely looks and feels legit.

I've tried and I can't find anyone else who remembers finding a bin full of cheaply repackaged Japanese Game Gear games at a dollar store type of place. Feels a bit like a weird fever dream at the time, but I have the cartridge to prove it (my poor GG doesn't work, screen's bright white and apparently needs a capacitor replacement), and at a time decades ago before eBay or importing sites were a thing.
User avatar
Udderdude
Posts: 6266
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:55 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Udderdude »

Probably someone who was in to importing games at the time, died suddenly, and their family dumped it all off at some "get rid of old junk" place.
User avatar
Rob
Posts: 8075
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:58 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Rob »

neorichieb1971 wrote:Just out of interest is Seattle USA some kind of gaming haven? Most of the youtube channels spout out of there, there are import shops and it just seems to be where the action happens.
Nintendo of America, Microsoft, Valve, etc. headquarters are all around Seattle. I've seen video game hunting/reselling channels from all over though.
The best deal I got in the UK was about 5 years ago I got Castlevania Genesis for £100 :lol: . It was minty though.
I hope it was the clamshell version.
Insane prices on ebay are due to the BINS. ebay opened a can of worms when they brought that out. Whilst I use BINS to sell, it seems more opportunism than anything and I always price around the end price or normal auctions so someone can just say F*ck IT! and PRESS THE BIN. Condition has to be comparitive though. How retro stores make money is anyones guess, most of them are full of filler and 5 rare items with 4 figures attached to it.
Yeah, the ridiculous BINs are just idiotic. With the sales data available it's no mystery what most things can go for. There was one time a lack of sales info and knowledge on my part screwed me.

cart only Donkey Kong Jr. for $499

Maybe a few resident collectors know and this price makes a degree of sense. I'm not a complete set or rare variant guy, so I was totally oblivious to this when I sold one for much lower than $500 a few years back. For those who don't know, there are 3 screw and 5 screw variants for some NES games. For older games the 3 screw variant is the desirable one. DK Jr. must've been discontinued shortly after the change was made.

Image

And the retro stores - it is ridiculous. My only guess is that the storefront is a magnet for trade-ins that get dumped online (kind of like Goodwill's new model), because I don't see much stuff moving when I drop in for a look. Here's a Turbo Grafx 16 with CD add-on and 30 years of neglect for $1100. Above that is a 32X for $225. I was impressed to see the CIB Duck Tales they had priced at $175 finally disappear.
User avatar
Udderdude
Posts: 6266
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:55 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Udderdude »

Rob wrote:Maybe a few resident collectors know and this price makes a degree of sense. I'm not a complete set or rare variant guy, so I was totally oblivious to this when I sold one for much lower than $500 a few years back. For those who don't know, there are 3 screw and 5 screw variants for some NES games. For older games the 3 screw variant is the desirable one. DK Jr. must've been discontinued shortly after the change was made.
Looks like someone's getting .. screwed. 8)

I think if I ever reach the point in my life that I care about how many screws are in my mass produced, mass marketed entertainment product, someone should just take me out back and shoot me.
User avatar
Rob
Posts: 8075
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:58 am

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Rob »

I wish I had saved the messages I got from one of the kooky collectors that contacted me about it. I told him I had agreed to sell it to someone else (for $100). He offered $200, I told him I wouldn't renege on the deal I had made and he acted like the Ark of the Covenant had slipped through his fingers.
User avatar
Sumez
Posts: 8019
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:11 am
Location: Denmarku
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Sumez »

Man, fuck collectors. Just buy the Famicom cartridge of DkJr for $5. >_>
User avatar
BareKnuckleRoo
Posts: 6162
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:01 am
Location: Southern Ontario

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Someone's wanting $29,000 for an english copy of Hokuto no Ken (Atomiswave). I don't care if it's full kit or not, that's like ten times the price it'd be worth, tops.

https://www.neostore.com/Fist-of-the-No ... p/1867.htm
User avatar
Udderdude
Posts: 6266
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:55 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by Udderdude »

This is my reward for clicking on a few auctions for old Koei PC games just to look at the original box art/ref card/disks etc.

Image

What a steal! Great offer guys, bet those disks have mold on them.

Best part is every time I visit my eBay Summary, these are shoved in my face, and there's no way to make them go away as far as I can tell. Fuck off.
neorichieb1971
Posts: 7668
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:28 am
Location: Bedford, UK
Contact:

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by neorichieb1971 »

Price charting sent me an email recently and stated my collection (of which only about 50% is on there) went down $600 in value since the last statement. I think the worth was $23000 for those that I put on there. (if your interested, my other half would be worth a lot less since its newer).

I think we might be over the hill as my collection on price charting is only populated from Famicom to N64 era (NES, Genesis, Megadrive are on there as well). I haven't added anything newer than that I believe. Mind you, I have been collecting a few PS3 titles recently and I Can't see most of them declining in price as I only paid a few $$ for them. You can't lose on something you paid $3.99.

Japan seems to be in a world of its own and if anything prices are going up. However, it doesn't seem to be westerners buying it up anymore. I am noticing that Japanese rarities are not being found that often in thrift stores over there even at high prices.

I went to the London Gaming Market. Same thing, lots of filler.. not too much exciting stuff. One stall had a bunch of Japanese Megadrive games like Twinkle Tale sitting at the front of the stall for £800 and it was being man handled like a bitch. I went in on the £6 tariff ticket (early entry) and got there 30 mins late due to the train. There wasn't even a line waiting to get in although it was quite busy inside. A bit different from Doncaster where I waited an hour in line just to get in and seeing everything decent had vanished. At London I picked up Castlevania Chronicle JP PS1 sealed for £40 which was the pick of the day for me.

I think its true that old time collectors already have their fill, nobody else new is coming on the scene to keep the momemtum going. The economy is being squeezed by interest rates, high energy prices and inflation all at the same time. None of this is sounding good for people selling at high prices on ebay.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
User avatar
KindGrind
Posts: 1313
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:26 am
Location: Québec

Re: ebay (and other) auctions with insane prices

Post by KindGrind »

I do think the worst is behind us.

I finished my NES set in 2014, and picked up random unlicensed games because it was something to do as a sidequest after being done. I sat on it through Covid and was offered a silly number for my collection a few months ago and sold. I had not played a single game in 3 years.

It was therapeutic.

I realize than modern stuff is constantly tanking. No point in keeping anything on Switch, for example, I’m not playing. Why, if all games lose 50% of their value? Traded all new games I still had, never to look back!
Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento...
Post Reply