Poll of the Day > Anyone have any thoughts on how to sell a small video game collection?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1szKI0Du-FfrT2sMKgPQcmZOTQENA8O9L78MQID84GaA/edit?usp=sharing

I do not want to create a 100 orders. Maybe I will just sell it as a lot or put it on craigslist?

People have a hard time evaluating things they want and things they don't want - which is why I recommend taking your games to swap meets. If you can trade Rambo+Ninja Gaiden for an old blender, that's an upgrade you both might be happy with despite one being more valuable than the other monetarily.

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Unless you need emergency money

Secondhand store if you just want a safe place to get it over with and don't care about getting the most money you can for it. Craigslist if you want the most amount of money for it and can handle the awkwardness and potential danger (however unlikely) of meeting people in person. eBay if you want a medium where it's pretty safe but they do take a little cut.

If you do CL look into if your local police station has an area where you can do those transactions. Maybe I'm a little bit paranoid but I personally wouldn't go around selling hundreds or thousands of dollars of stuff in person to a stranger. An individual game here and there, sure. Aside from the safety aspect, selling as a lot will also most likely get less value than doing them individually.

Not like you have to choose only one thing. If it was me I'd probably sell the higher value games on eBay individually and then package some lower value ones together as a lot (whether it's to sell on eBay or CL).

Lokarin posted...

Unless you need emergency money

I want to throw it all away but I'm stopping myself because there's monetary value. None of this has any value to me anymore.

bachewychomp posted...

Secondhand store if you just want a safe place to get it over with and don't care about getting the most money you can for it. Craigslist if you want the most amount of money for it and can handle the awkwardness and potential danger (however unlikely) of meeting people in person. eBay if you want a medium where it's pretty safe but they do take a little cut.

If you do CL look into if your local police station has an area where you can do those transactions. Maybe I'm a little bit paranoid but I personally wouldn't go around selling hundreds or thousands of dollars of stuff in person to a stranger. An individual game here and there, sure. Aside from the safety aspect, selling as a lot will also most likely get less value than doing them individually.

Not like you have to choose only one thing. If it was me I'd probably sell the higher value games on eBay individually and then package some lower value ones together as a lot (whether it's to sell on eBay or CL).

Thanks for the advice about selling. I haven't really sold anything online before.

Bundle all the lower-value games (anything lower than $20-30) for like $150-200, list mid-value games in a single listing priced at like $25 each or 3 for $60 (or somewhere thereabouts), sell the higher-value games individually. Getting full value for lower-value games is going to be far more effort than it's worth, but if you bundle too much together at once the bundle will be pricier than anyone's willing to spend unless you really under-price it (like $500 for everything), since a bundle of that size is generally only purchased by somebody hoping to find items worth individual sale in it. A second-hand store is probably worthwhile for the lower- and mid-value bundles, just for convenience's sake, but you'll likely get less than if you sold it yourself.

That said, I'd caution against selling everything right now. As much as you're on an "I don't play games anymore" kick, there's a good chance a big part of drifting away from gaming was a consequence of your prior toxic environment. It wasn't that long ago that you were seriously struggling to have fun with anything, and that wasn't necessarily a reflection of your tastes so much as that you were experiencing some pretty major depression. You're in a much better place now (both literally and figuratively), but unless you actually need the money right now, making a permanent decision like selling off all of your games probably isn't a great idea. Right now, "I don't enjoy playing games" isn't necessarily an accurate reflection of how you'll feel in six months' time as the dust settles and you get a better grasp on how you want to enjoy life.

To be honest the selling off of video game related stuff started off last Christmas when I RMT'd away both my Runescape and Path of Exile assets. This is just the next part of the process of getting rid of stuff I haven't had any use for for at least 10 years now and goes along with how I am donating a large amount of my excess clothes away (much of which doesn't even fit me anymore and hasn't for years). Clothing donation is easy, but i'm more annoyed that the email I sent out to the local game store hasn't received a reply, but that is largely because they are moving locations.

I think I could probably hardwareswap away the graphics cards I have. Maybe the consoles too. It's moire about getting rid of excess stuff as I don't like having excess stuff in general.

Ebay you'll be scammed. Buyers will claim it's damaged and Ebay always sides with buyers, so you'll lose the money and the game (they don't have to return it).

Facebook/craigslist you'll probably be robbed or killed unless you meet up at a police station.

That leaves pawn shop, who will probably try to rip you off.

The only 99% guaranteed safe option is to find a gaming community with its own feedback system that will hopefully protect a sale.

Yo you're in Massachusetts right? Sell it to a local retro gaming store. I know a few in Mass I can PM you if you want

KingInBlack posted...

Ebay you'll be scammed. Buyers will claim it's damaged and Ebay always sides with buyers, so you'll lose the money and the game (they don't have to return it).

Facebook/craigslist you'll probably be robbed or killed unless you meet up at a police station.

That leaves pawn shop, who will probably try to rip you off.

The only 99% guaranteed safe option is to find a gaming community with its own feedback system that will hopefully protect a sale.

bro lives in night city lmao

Judgmenl posted...

It's moire about getting rid of excess stuff as I don't like having excess stuff in general.

And what I'm saying is that your perception of "excess stuff" is going to be a bit skewed right now, given that you've gotten yourself out from under the thumb of somebody who demanded you be as productive as possible at all times, but in their absence, you've replaced that with pressuring yourself to do the same thing. That kind of toxic productivity takes time and effort to unlearn even once the external pressures are taken away, and as you move through that process, things that you currently feel guilty/anxious about having/doing because they seem like a waste of space/time will stop bothering you, and may actually come to be a source a joy.

Mostly, "I haven't used this for 10 years" is not the same as "I won't use this." Ditching the old clothes makes sense, since if they don't fit you you definitely won't be wearing them. Selling off Runespace and PoE stuff is fair game, because on the off chance you do ever feel like playing those games again, accumulating new stuff is most of the fun and all you're really doing is cutting off the potential for the sunk cost fallacy to drive your addiction to those games (particularly where it's not like either game will be getting new content for which you'll need all your stuff). Games you just haven't played in a while? Less so, particularly where at least part of the reason you haven't played them is because of that toxic productivity that you're starting to move past. It's good not to fall into the trap of saying "I might use this" about something you almost certainly will not use (that can turn into a problem at the opposite end of the spectrum), but unless you have a pressing need for the space/money or are trying to downsize to make a move easier, there's nothing wrong with hanging on to some stuff that you might end up needing later.

A year or two ago, I remember you posted in a topic about valuable games where somebody brought up how much Xenosaga 3 is worth, and you said something to the extent of "Why would anyone give up such a priceless game for just money?", effectively saying - in no uncertain terms - that you valued the experience of being able to play Xenosaga 3 whenever you wanted more than the $2-300 you could get by selling it. Seeing you upend that by listing Xenosaga 3 as something you would have thrown away if not for the fact that it has monetary value concerns me that you're taking this further than you genuinely want to. That's a substantial change, and not for the better because it means something you once profoundly enjoyed does nothing for you. At the very least, I'd urge you to limit this purge to games you never really enjoyed all that much and therefore almost certainly won't be revisiting. That's less likely to leave you regretting your decision further down the line, and there's no reason you have to treat downsizing as an all-or-nothing thing.

KingInBlack posted...

Ebay you'll be scammed. Buyers will claim it's damaged and Ebay always sides with buyers, so you'll lose the money and the game (they don't have to return the game

As a relatively frequent eBay seller, this is a bit dramatic. Ive never been scammed and feel perfectly safe selling on eBay.

Now, youll pay a decent amount of fees (~13% + fixed fees) but if you go into it expecting that and are ok with it then eBay is a perfectly fine option.

PriceCharting.com has options to upload spreadsheets of inventory and do bulk selling. You have a much smaller audience there, but it may be worth looking into if you are interested.

I sold a good number of games last year, and I won't lie, the productivity shame/depression/need to feel rid of them were factors. I can't say I really regret it yet, but maybe that's just me still not getting out of that depression. I've definitely regretted getting rid of stuff in the past, but not these recent ones. But I will say I made a point only to sell ones that didn't have a lot of sentimental value, that I figured I had very little chance of playing again, and that I could inexpensively re-acquire again if needed. I've resisted selling my childhood games just out of the sentimentality factor, since I have other means to play them, but I feel like those are ones I'd actually regret if I got rid of them.

I did it almost all on eBay. I didn't have a single person try to scam me and say it didn't work. I would always take a picture of the game running to have as much proof as possible. I don't know if that actually protects you should they try to make a claim against you, but it at least is probably a deterrent. That and the fact that most people are trustworthy folks who just want the game. I have reservations about that, as well as about meeting CL people, but it's pretty unlikely that something bad will happen. Even if you do get screwed over and end up losing a game or two for nothing, you still probably net way more overall than selling those games to a reseller.

I have a spreadsheet with all the stuff I sold and after eBay fees I got 78% of the sale value, which isn't great, but my experience with games resellers (which is ages ago at this point) is you'll probably get like a third, maybe half if you're lucky.

KingInBlack posted...

Ebay you'll be scammed. Buyers will claim it's damaged and Ebay always sides with buyers, so you'll lose the money and the game (they don't have to return it).

I can't imagine that happens all the time. I buy lots of video games off ebay and dont scam people, can't imagine im the only one

bachewychomp posted...

Secondhand store if you just want a safe place to get it over with and don't care about getting the most money you can for it.

Was going to recommend this. Find a local used/vintage game store (if you can) and offer to sell them the collection. You'll get less for it, but it'll save you all of the hassle.

The ideal method is to try and price out most of the games using online sources first, so you have an idea of the overall value of the entire collection. So when you sell it off you can haggle with the dealer if they lowball you too much. Go in with a high value to use as your starting point, and a low value that you consider the absolute bottom you're willing to accept. If they won't offer more than your lower limit, try to find a different dealer.



bachewychomp posted...

If you do CL look into if your local police station has an area where you can do those transactions. Maybe I'm a little bit paranoid but I personally wouldn't go around selling hundreds or thousands of dollars of stuff in person to a stranger.

My one friend who sells stuff on Facebook marketplace and eBay generally arranges to meet in a local store parking lot where they have tons of cameras. Or he'll occasionally meet people at our local library for smaller transactions. Basically something where the person knows they'll be recorded if they try something. He's never had an issue so far.

Far-Queue posted...

Yo you're in Massachusetts right? Sell it to a local retro gaming store. I know a few in Mass I can PM you if you want

The one in Lowell is in the middle of moving to a new building and the people they're moving to screwed over their tenants giving them a wrong move in date so they're opening up first week in November I think,

just give it all to me so i can bring them satisfaction

heIly posted...

just give it all to me so i can bring them satisfaction

https://youtu.be/IhHd0ArvRy4?t=12