Advice about selling off rare/valuable games?

[Cthulhu]

I'm trying to raise some money for a new computer and I've got a semi-sizable amount of pricey games I'm considering selling off to help pay for it. By this I mean games that would normally fetch at least $60 when sold used, several I know for a fact go for over $100. I'm not selling anything that goes for more than $250 or so (unless I get pleasantly surprised ). I haven't sold much like this before and was wondering how people would advise going about this. My goal is to sell them for a reasonable amount but not have to spend large amounts of time doing so - which I realize may or may not be a feasible thing. I was hoping to seek a bit of advice about how to go about doing this.

Here's the venues I've thought of so far:

1) EBay
2) Trade forums online (eg: here and digitpress)
3) Contact a reseller online and offer the whole lot, see what they'd offer

Specific questions I have:

1) Should I require people to buy insurance on the shipping in case something is lost? Can I legally state somehow that "I have only one copy of the item and if it is lost in shipping you must seek a refund through the insurance and I can't be held responsible?" I just don't want to get screwed by someone claiming something never showed up.
2) Will the price of rare games fluctuate much due to variances in the economy? As in, if I wait another year or so and things are economically better overall will I get considerably more? (I realize the goal here is to raise money now, but I'm willing to wait if I'm going to lose a significant portion of what my stuff is worth.)

Any other venue suggestions are welcome, as are other assorted comments and whatever else people feel like saying.

[Specineff]

From personal experience, Ebay will NOT let you either force insurance on the buyer (You can add it later, but at your own cost) or claim it's not your fault if it gets lost. Go figure. Ebay is ass-raping sellers, little by little.

It's only a few dollars more, and you can always suggest it's for the best if it gets added. That the buyer will want to pay for it, it's another story.

Outside of ebay, anything goes. I'd pay for tracking myself to at least cover my back, as a seller.

Tried GameTZ.com?

[Battlesmurf]

I would use eBay and resellers as an absolutely very super last resort. I would price some of your games out and sell them one at a time here, Neo-Geo, whereever else you post. It lets you set your own terms (and not pay fees).

That being said- if you put stuff on eBay- you are gaurenteed a sale if you don't have a reserve- more so if you get brave and start it at a penny. I don't sell anymore personally- but I have friends that do still- I don't have the patience for it nowadays. The rules are heavily slanted in the buyers favor. Not every seller is legit- but neither is every buyer- I think eBay has forgotten that

[jonny5]

and just so you are aware....if you send a package insured to somebody YOU are responsible for the insurance, so if it got lost you would have to refund the buyer out of pocket and YOU would have to deal with getting the monies back from the postal system....they wont deal with the receiver, only the person who initiated the shipping transaction

the sender has to deal with insurance stuff should it come down to loss or damage, and you will also need to be able to prove the value of the item or you arent getting shit back

and if you get payment as a gift through paypal, good luck getting any kind of insurance claims approved

[Ed Oscuro]

I feel like saying - is this the right time to upgrade your computar?! A computer lasts five years if you're lucky, classic games last forever (well, close)

[Cthulhu]

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it in mind... hmm...


And also:

I feel like saying - is this the right time to upgrade your computar?! A computer lasts five years if you're lucky, classic games last forever (well, close)

A reasonable chunk of what I want to sell is English versions of RPGs I have in Japanese now, and for the sake of keeping up on my language skills, I generally play them in Japanese anyways.

[handsome_rakshas]

Don't sell your collection games right now! I've been getting a fraction of what games are worth, now is the time to BUY not to sell!

[undamned]

I just finished a huge sale about a month or so ago (about $1400 worth of console/arcade games, spanning probably over 100 items) and was amazingly pleased that I was able to do it 100% via forums and not have to resort to eBay. Unless you don't have a particular value in mind, eBay destroys your profits. Let say you value a game at $50 personally, but you know you need to "lure" people in with a "good" deal. So you list it for $40. And by chance it happens to be the week that not many people want it and you get 2 bids, the winner being $41.75. After eBay and PayPal take their cut, you are probably getting $35 on a game you wanted to get $50 for.

I used a handful of forums including this one, neo-geo, arcade-otaku, and assembler. Neo-geo was a dream come true. Those guys placed orders consisting of many games, not just onesy-twosey. Many orders were well over $100. I can't guarantee you the success that I had, but my experience was great.

That being said, take good pictures of each of your items so that people know exactly what they are buying. You'd be amazed at how many people will just throw money at something and assume that whatever they had dreamed up in their mind was what they were receiving. Then you have to deal with complaints, issue refunds if appropriate, etc., etc. It's best just to take good pictures, describe things to the best of your ability, and encourage people to ask any questions up-front. If you don't have an image host, I just use PhotoBucket. Just make an account, take your photo's, re-size them to something reasonable, upload them to the host, and put a link to the items in your forum sales threads.

Also if you go the forum route, make sure that you read their rules. The last thing you want is to kill sales because you fail to follow their simple protocol (for example, assembler requires that you have your user name in the item photo). Also, if you don't contribute to a particular community, your mileage may vary. I happened to luck out at neo-geo, because although I have a minute post-count, I've been a member for quite a while.

And lastly, get delivery confirmation. It's only like $.80 on USPS stuff and it will spare you from wondering if people are lying when they say they haven't received their package, and it gives you a leg to stand on if you need to provide them with proof that you did your part.

Let us know how it goes!
-ud

[PC Engine Fan X!]

What sage advice undamned says is true. For the really expensive and rare stuff, it's always best to ship your wares out with USPS Delievery Confirmation + Insurance just in case "the package does end getting lost in the mail". It's really up the to the seller to make that decision or not though...usually would be about three or four dollars extra for insurance per $100 pricing level tier or thereabouts.

Consult your local post office for more details about the exact insurance pricing for the really expensive & irreplaceable rare stuff. You could always go with UPS or FedEx shipping but would generally pay more for their tracking and insurance services when mailing out packages. It's all about doing business through mail order these days.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Ed Oscuro]

Don't sell your collection games right now! I've been getting a fraction of what games are worth, now is the time to BUY not to sell!

Although it's anybody's guess as to when they'll go back up. It's hard to time the market, even in something as casually traded as games.

Also, the value of extra dollars you could potentially get in the future, especially further in the future, is increasingly marginal compared to the use you could get out of investing that value in something else, even something which doesn't appreciate in value like a new computer. That's actually backed up by economics (admittedly games may appreciate more than convertible instruments like stocks), in comparing a modest interest rate on money you invest now vs. waiting for a return later. A layperson's rationale (mine) goes like this: Games you aren't going to play again + storage costs, inconvenience, chance of having your basement flooded or somehow losing the money, inflation + an uncertain desired future value vs. money you will use right now.