Current Events > Holy shit Game Store resellers sell stuff for 100x the price xD

(+) Yeah! (+)

I want to a retro gaming store today on a trip.
Guy was the most delusional dude I ever met. The owner had all these games absurdly priced.

Tony Hawk 3 for the PS2 oh thats a rare game and it even comes with the manual $93 ... uh I ask hey is this the real price and is it negotiable?

The guy literally says "Yeah and its actually one of the best prices in the area for this game its a classic very popular I would rather just hold on to it than sell for it less"

Don't even get me started on games that are legit more popular like Mario 64 cartridges or Dark Souls for ps3 like wtf I will just buy on ebay I told him on my way out like wtf even those prices are cheaper.

Since when did game stores get so greedy and sell above the even already high market price?

AwesomoSauce posted...

Dark Souls for ps3

Joke topic?

They make their money off older collectors I suppose. Ones that don't do Internet shopping

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

Joke topic?

As someone who never got into Dark Souls is this a notorious version like Bayonetta 1 PS3 or Vesperia 360?

MuscleRobo posted...

As someone who never got into Dark Souls is this a notorious version like Bayonetta 1 PS3 or Vesperia 360?

Pretty much. There are a few areas that are complete slide shows.

MuscleRobo posted...

As someone who never got into Dark Souls is this a notorious version like Bayonetta 1 PS3 or Vesperia 360?

Pretty much. Blighttown in particular really starts to slow down.
It's not as intolerable as Bayonetta 1 PS3's loading though.

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

Joke topic?

I use to own it and just wanted one for nostalgia sake it was the Limited version.

Dreepapult posted...

They make their money off older collectors I suppose. Ones that don't do Internet shopping

Yeah or grandparents or parents buying some gift for a kid

I barely remember THPS3

my city literally has no retro stores anymore outside whatever pawn stores get but when we did have retro stores their prices were always above eBay and their excuse was you dont have to pay for shipping and you get the item today

It was legit cheaper to import games from the other side of the world and wait a couple weeks than drive 10 minutes down the road to that shithole of a store.

I miss FuncoLand

There's a good video explaining how this scam came to be and why old classic games started selling for really high prices. It all started with those websites that "grade" classic games and start inflating the prices of them which effected the old Classic Nostalgic Game market.

The last retro store I entered was like that. I got the sense these places are roughly not profitable, so what tends to happen is they are run more like a scam or pawn shop.

sonichu posted...

my city literally has no retro stores anymore outside whatever pawn stores get but when we did have retro stores their prices were always above eBay and their excuse was you dont have to pay for shipping and you get the item today

Oh dude I hate that so much that is their go to phrase in these places. I always laughed to myself because shipping is a couple bucks not like $48 or whatever higher price they put on a random game.

People call them retro game stores, I call them "used saturn, n64, ps1, ps2, gamecube, xbox, and gameboy advanced madden/sports game/thq published game stores" because any other type of game even remotely popular is going to be jacked up in price, lol.

We had one that opened up in my rural SC town around 2015 so my brother and I went to check'em out.

You can maybe get some of the better action games of the past and ones that had a decent size cart print in it's time. Super castlevania 4 I remember seeing for like, 60 bucks at this place. There is this version of super mario all-stars on the snes that had super mario world also put into the game alongside mario 1, lost levels, 2, adn 3. (This one gave luigi his own custom sprite for world). It was a pack-in game for that slim SNES revision.....dudes was trying to get like 90 for that, =/

Looking for a popular jrpg? Hahahahaha. Yeah, that ain't happening. Even shit like beyond the beyond on PS1 was jacked up to like 100ish dollars for some dumb-ass reason. Got your sega CD and whatnot games behind a glass case, the good ones like lords of thunder for sega CD gonna' run you bout' 250 dollars for just the disc. They had panzer dragoon set to what is basically a down-payment on a car. All this stuff you can get for a bit cheaper on ebay.

I'm assuming the owners thought gamers in my rural area wouldn't know a damn thing about older games and would pay these kind of prices but nah...customer base for a place like this is going to be a little knowledgeable and raising some eyebrows, lol.

My brother and I walked over to the PS1 section, seen they was trying to sell a beat-up parasite eve for like 230 dollars, and we just looked at one another in a "these dudes serious?" kinda' way.

I ask the dude at the register (I don't want to buy this old dusty ass parasite eve I already have my own copy from years back, I was just making convo/get an idea on why these dudes setting these kind of prices) "hey whats goin' on man. So about some of these games, are the prices negotiable? Him: "Because of the absolute rarity of some of these games, we have to make back the costs of buying and reselling so at most I might can bring them down by 30 dollars, but a lot of our jrpgs are non negotiable since the genre is highly valued and filled with industry legends"

Me: "ah ok, gotcha". Told my brother I'm not buyin' nothin', lol. I think my bro got another dreamcast since his old 1 was busted. At least that was a reasonable price, like 60 dollars or something.

Yeah this place didn't last longer than 2 years before they shut down. We have a another retro store that opened up a few months ago but I haven't been by yet.

retro stores are great for looking and core memories. buying something, absolutely not. unless you have the money to burn and/or a collector yourself. it's pointless. there are other ways of acquiring said game(s) that doesn't have to do with you taking out a small loan.

Mad-Dogg posted...

People call them retro game stores, I call them "used saturn, n64, ps1, ps2, gamecube, xbox, and gameboy advanced madden/sports game/thq published game stores" because any other type of game even remotely popular is going to be jacked up in price, lol.

We had one that opened up in my rural SC town around 2015 so my brother and I went to check'em out.

You can maybe get some of the better action games of the past and ones that had a decent size cart print in it's time. Super castlevania 4 I remember seeing for like, 60 bucks at this place. There is this version of super mario all-stars on the snes that had super mario world also put into the game alongside mario 1, lost levels, 2, adn 3. (This one gave luigi his own custom sprite for world). It was a pack-in game for that slim SNES revision.....dudes was trying to get like 90 for that, =/

Looking for a popular jrpg? Hahahahaha. Yeah, that ain't happening. Even shit like beyond the beyond on PS1 was jacked up to like 100ish dollars for some dumb-ass reason. Got your sega CD and whatnot games behind a glass case, the good ones like lords of thunder for sega CD gonna' run you bout' 250 dollars for just the disc. They had panzer dragoon set to what is basically a down-payment on a car. All this stuff you can get for a bit cheaper on ebay.

I'm assuming the owners thought gamers in my rural area wouldn't know a damn thing about older games and would pay these kind of prices but nah...customer base for a place like this is going to be a little knowledgeable and raising some eyebrows, lol.

My brother and I walked over to the PS1 section, seen they was trying to sell a beat-up parasite eve for like 230 dollars, and we just looked at one another in a "these dudes serious?" kinda' way.

I ask the dude at the register (I don't want to buy this old dusty ass parasite eve I already have my own copy from years back, I was just making convo/get an idea on why these dudes setting these kind of prices) "hey whats goin' on man. So about some of these games, are the prices negotiable? Him: "Because of the absolute rarity of some of these games, we have to make back the costs of buying and reselling so at most I might can bring them down by 30 dollars, but a lot of our jrpgs are non negotiable since the genre is highly valued and filled with industry legends"

Me: "ah ok, gotcha". Told my brother I'm not buyin' nothin', lol. I think my bro got another dreamcast since his old 1 was busted. At least that was a reasonable price, like 60 dollars or something.

Yeah this place didn't last longer than 2 years before they shut down. We have a another retro store that opened up a few months ago but I haven't been by yet.

Thanks for writing all that yeah that was basically my experience too I'm glad I'm not the only one that reacted the same way

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/4/AAPw6aAAEw2s.jpg

https://youtu.be/rvLFEh7V18A

Found it. Karl Jobst, in general, is a great youtuber so I would recommend his channel in general. But this video does a fantastic job revealing the corruption behind the Retro Video Game market and how this scam came to be. It's a long watch, but well worth it.

AwesomoSauce posted...

I want to a retro gaming store today on a trip.
Guy was the most delusional dude I ever met. The owner had all these games absurdly priced.

Tony Hawk 3 for the PS2 oh thats a rare game and it even comes with the manual $93 ... uh I ask hey is this the real price and is it negotiable?

The guy literally says "Yeah and its actually one of the best prices in the area for this game its a classic very popular I would rather just hold on to it than sell for it less"

Don't even get me started on games that are legit more popular like Mario 64 cartridges or Dark Souls for ps3 like wtf I will just buy on ebay I told him on my way out like wtf even those prices are cheaper.

Since when did game stores get so greedy and sell above the even already high market price?

Let me guess, you still think people should sell games like Lunar Silver Star Story on PS1 or the Xenosaga games on PS2 for MSRP values?

wackyteen posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/4/AAPw6aAAEw2s.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/7/AARkkPAAEw2v.jpg

(Although this is ebay, trust me, I have seen this game behind glass cases for at least 600 dollars in the past).

*Waiting for someone to start posting some wacky sega saturn game prices*

Thank God emulators have come a long way. PSX is near perfect, and PS2 is excellent depending on your spec.

I didn't mind paying more before covid. Now the gap is so big sometimes.
I'll go to an entertainment exchange store that on occasion will have decent prices. It's usually on games that have been sitting there.
I really don't mind paying more in person, but that only goes so far.

yar, tis a tragedy indeed

Retro game prices have been out of control for a while now, it's completely fucked

I always thought those retro places were a front for something else. No fucking way are they doing enough business to make it profitable as a brick and mortar establishment.

I used to frequent a retro toy store years ago. It mostly sold stuff from the 70s and 80s. I never saw another person in there and the owner looked shady af

Emulation is a godsend, fuck opportunistic resellers since none of their profits go back to the devs.

Lol, I looked up THPS3 for PS2 on Ebay, and you can get it for less than 10 bucks.

AwesomoSauce posted...

Yeah or grandparents or parents buying some gift for a kid

It actually upsets me how much of a fucking scam the AAA industry is nowadays because grandparents whose hearts are in the right place are one of the prime targets for selling bullshit.

Not that it's a new practice, of course. Games like Action 52 were way ahead of the curve.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Games like Action 52 were way ahead of the curve.

I feel legit sorry for kids who had this game bought for them by their parents and were like "Now we never need to buy you another NES game again!"
>__>

I have stopped a few friends from buying overpriced retro games/consoles and introduced them to the wonders of emulation.

This is such BS. I wish the makers of the games themselves would do something to help people to be able to play these older games easier. It's not like they even make money from these retro resellers.

Like others have said, I'm so glad emulation has come so far.

Mad-Dogg posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/7/AARkkPAAEw2v.jpg

(Although this is ebay, trust me, I have seen this game behind glass cases for at least 600 dollars in the past).

*Waiting for someone to start posting some wacky sega saturn game prices*

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/0/2/AAfa7KAAExeC.jpg

I see it on eBay for 800 bucks...

Another case of being glad I got it ages ago.

yeah covid craziness helped the "retro" games market become a real racket. hopefully the bottom falls out from under it did for NFTs

Auto_Chrisbot posted...

Lol, I looked up THPS3 for PS2 on Ebay, and you can get it for less than 10 bucks.

Oh but it has the manual and special promo sticker from launch day and the case isn't scratched! xD

HylianFox posted...

I feel legit sorry for kids who had this game bought for them by their parents and were like "Now we never need to buy you another NES game again!"
>__>

"Mom I wanted Super Mario Bros 3 for Christmas!"

>"yes Billy but your grandparents bought you these 20 discaounted Atari games for the same price and they are all new aren't you happy?! You will have games to play for years you will never get bored"

wackyteen posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/4/AAPw6aAAEw2s.jpg

Not even a complete Suikoden II or Valkyrie Profile command that kind of price, last time I checked.

What nonsense is this?

LeoRavus posted...

I always thought those retro places were a front for something else. No fucking way are they doing enough business to make it profitable as a brick and mortar establishment.

I used to frequent a retro toy store years ago. It mostly sold stuff from the 70s and 80s. I never saw another person in there and the owner looked shady af

Personal experience? It's usually some rich old dude with nothing to do who thought he'd open the shop of his dreams.

Like the guys who own game or comic shops.

Just guys with money to burn willing to open doors to be the counter monkey they wanted to be growing up.

Which isn't a bad thing... until they think they're real shrewd businessmen and not, you know, counter monkeys.

Its pretty bad. eBay along with wata really ruined the market for your average collector or retro gamer. Youll have people that will price a game for 5x its current market price and will hold onto that price until other sellers do the same thing. Theyll wait until someone gives in and buys it. Market raises after that. It must suck running a retro game store and trying to make a profit too these days knowing that anyone can get their games for the same price on eBay.

Im on a couple local FB groups for retro games and people will go straight to eBay and look at the highest price the game sold for regardless of the condition and ask for that price. Not caring that eBay has fees so if you sell locally you should adjust your price to that. Ill often see someone post a score they found garage sale hunting or obsessed over FB marketplace excited that theyre going to pay off some bills now. Its really pathetic.

Some guy is trying to sell Rule of Rose for 2,850 on ebay.

What the actual fuck.

The problem becomes that somebody is buying them and even the ebay prices are outrageous

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/gamecube/fire-emblem-path-of-radiance

DnDer posted...

Not even a complete Suikoden II or Valkyrie Profile command that kind of price, last time I checked.

What nonsense is this?

Persona 2 is super rare because of lowprint but this price is hilarious because it doesn't even have the original case or box art and is just loose discs and if it just one loose disc it shouldn't be over $100 at all so lol

DuuuDe14 posted...

Some guy is trying to sell Rule of Rose for 2,850 on ebay.

What the actual fuck.

Its funnier when its like a scratched loose disc with no case or manual and "omg its rare buy now"

I think they are just dreaming

"An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it."

It's as simple as that.

They can slap whatever price tag they want on a game, but if months go by and no one buys it, is it really "worth" that much?

Oh yeah, I hate it say it but retro game stores are such a scam. They mark up like crazy and will severely undersell you as well. Tried to sell a sealed CIB copy of Pokemon Black a few years ago, guy wanted to give me less than $200 for it. Ended up getting well above my initial asking price on Ebay

Retro gaming as a hobby has mainly just turned into reselling and absolutely ripping people off. I'm in the process of selling my entire collection now, and most of the potential buyers are wannabe youtubers who want to film the transaction to highlight what they're paying per item.

Lets not highlight unique games, etc, lets just focus on "oh i got this guys collection for 20% the cost!"

DuuuDe14 posted...

Some guy is trying to sell Rule of Rose for 2,850 on ebay.

What the actual fuck.

Its a shame too cause other sellers will do the same thing and hold steady till someone eventually buys it. Then suddenly thats the new price. You can create fake accounts to buy up your own game if you wanted just to raise the market price up. I think some sellers have manipulated the market doing that.

MuscleRobo posted...

The problem becomes that somebody is buying them and even the ebay prices are outrageous

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/gamecube/fire-emblem-path-of-radiance

Yup that really ruins it.

Garreyn posted...

Retro gaming as a hobby has mainly just turned into reselling and absolutely ripping people off. I'm in the process of selling my entire collection now, and most of the potential buyers are wannabe youtubers who want to film the transaction to highlight what they're paying per item.

Lets not highlight unique games, etc, lets just focus on "oh i got this guys collection for 20% the cost!"

I honestly dont know why anyone would get into it today to resell. Everyone including pawn shops and garage sales all have access to the internet to price according to the eBay market. Theres like no money to be made unless you stocked up before covid.

This topic reminds me that I need to sell off my old games. I apparently have hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise because I loved jrpgs as a kid

Jiek_Fafn posted...

This topic reminds me that I need to sell off my old games. I apparently have hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise because I lived jrpgs as a kid

If you don't know what you're doing or don't want to mess with ebay ill buy some up lol

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/playstation/the-misadventures-of-tron-bonne

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/nes/bubble-bobble-part-2

Perhaps my pice de rsistance price wise..
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/nes/panic-restaurant

LeoRavus posted...

I always thought those retro places were a front for something else. No fucking way are they doing enough business to make it profitable as a brick and mortar establishment.

I used to frequent a retro toy store years ago. It mostly sold stuff from the 70s and 80s. I never saw another person in there and the owner looked shady af

There used to be a shop like that in my town. It was mainly a Magic the Gathering and similar card game place. It was barely furnished, didn't maximize the space, totally bare bones. I never saw anyone in there, but it was open for years. Total front for something else, man.