Do you feel satisfied if you just buy stuff you want off of eBay?

[hoshichiri]

Yes, I feel very satisfied and I don't have to waste my time looking for something that someone looked up Ebay price on their phone on anyway.   My deals in the wild are basically Ebay prices at this point.  It hurts more when you know they incurred no Ebay or Paypal fee nor did they have to ship it.  I'd prefer funding some reseller miles away than to fund the local ones.   It shames me the sights I see when I go out to buy games now. 


Flea Markets often bring such lovely sightings as "Super Mario/Duck Hunt (8 dollars)"   or "RARE!!  Punchout! (30 dollars)"

Sure their are deals to be had.  And I have a blast going out to buy games with my brother.  But I will say,  you have to pry for anything fairly priced.  Beg, plead, borrow, argue,  google things.  I find it less stress to just click best offer on ebay and forget it.  Out of about 10 sellers.  One will eventually give you a fair counter.  Wait 5 days.  Play.   It's very convinient.

Agreed- my area has a lot of retro shops, but the prices are similar to Ebay anyway, so the main reason to use them is to see the game is person ahead of time & make sure it's what you're expecting. I'd expect much lower pricing from a yard sale/flea market (that Punchout price is twice the ebay going rate!) I'm sure someday I'll be at a random sale somewhere, and the guy in the lawnchair will pull the ol' "that's what it costs on Ebay" out. And I'll tell him "Ebay lets me pay with a credit card & gives me a refund if the game doesn't work. I don't see a Square reader sticking out of your phone or a posted return policy."

Another plus for online- it keeps me from going off the rails spending-wise. See, if you're only buying in the wild, you may get so hungry for a hit you'll buy the first non-crappy looking thing you come across. That's how I got Pirates of Dark Water for SNES back in my heavier yard sale-ing days. I knew nothing about it, but I hadn't found a game in weeks so I got it. Just dumb luck that it was a decent lil' beat em' up. Less lucky with the random copy of Urban Champions.

With Ebay shopping, I can avoid getting caught up in the moment. No grabbing a game becuase 'it's here & if I don't, it won't be later'. The majority of the games are always available on Ebay. I can focus in on stuff I really want. I can wait if funds are tight that week, they'll be more listings later. No impulse buys, no breaking the budget- just nice, planned additions.

[sworddude]

Agreed- my area has a lot of retro shops, but the prices are similar to Ebay anyway, so the main reason to use them is to see the game is person ahead of time & make sure it's what you're expecting. I'd expect much lower pricing from a yard sale/flea market (that Punchout price is twice the ebay going rate!) I'm sure someday I'll be at a random sale somewhere, and the guy in the lawnchair will pull the ol' "that's what it costs on Ebay" out. And I'll tell him "Ebay lets me pay with a credit card & gives me a refund if the game doesn't work. I don't see a Square reader sticking out of your phone or a posted return policy."

With Ebay shopping, I can avoid getting caught up in the moment. No grabbing a game becuase 'it's here & if I don't, it won't be later'. The majority of the games are always available on Ebay. I can focus in on stuff I really want. I can wait if funds are tight that week, they'll be more listings later. No impulse buys, no breaking the budget- just nice, planned additions.

while fleamarkets should be cheaper. if your in the place of the vendor i could see why the prices are still pricy.

ebay is not only easier for the buyer but also for the seller. in a fleamarket/con you have to wake up early go to the fleamarket/con gas money lost hire a spot since selling spots are usually not free again money lost, grab all your merch price them individually set stuff up display everything nicely. always be active during sales pack stuff up at the end of the day check if people don't steal or break your stuff.  it's a ton of work way more than selling online on ebay. while it should be cheaper in a fleamarket considering the work that you have to do I can't really fault proffesional vendors on a fleamarket to do super low prices at all and only being slightly below ebay.

with ebay your doing something else doing fun stuff. you look at night if there where any sales pack stuff up at the same time shipping lables and pass them packages off to a post office when you go to work/school. time investment is a ton less when selling online while your doing your own business. I respect fleamarket vendors not worth the hassle imo i have done it a 2 times at a con. sales are great but man so much effort and for a ton of items no reason to do so since they sell online pretty nicely. the only advantage in a fleamarket or con is to sell cheap stuff more easily but I'd rather sell cheap stuff in lots online saves a ton of work and your not getting that much less not to mention your also getting rid of the uber trash titles wich you won't sell ever. if you selling on a con or fleamarket you weekend is gone and even at home your going to be busy with storing everything up again your tired afterwards, while if your selling on ebay you had a great weekend you had time for your hobbies or other stuff and only have to pack some stuff up in the evening. you barely lost any free time at all. if where looking at my arguments fleamarkets or con prices should actually be more pricy than ebay considering the effort one has to put into it.

also avoid getting caught in the moment on ebay? I mean ebay is even worse than a fleamarket as far as that goes. either a bot buys it or some other collector since online way larger pool of people looking for stuff really good deals are gone within 30 minutes especially on ebay. you need to be lucky that the listing has a wrong name if your lucky enough to get the correct search terms and even find it. deals in fleamarkets or ebay both vanish fast.  getting caught up in the moment will happen for both with a great deal


you could say that pictures and listings take some time but i disagree it's only a couple of minutes or way  less per item maybe 5 minutes for more pricy stuff for even more clear pics. selling at a con or fleamarket I'd only recommend it if you want to get rid of stuff and i mean a ton of stuff faster because otherwise you really have to enjoy it. It's a way of life for regular vendors but I'm convinced that the majority does not enjoy all the effort that one has to put in to sell as a vendor compared to online.

it's not like your going to sell everything at a con or fleamarket unless your willing to take a way lower price I mean there are other vendors that like to buy it all up at once and have allot of cash in their pockets  if you really want to get rid of stuff fast that's another advantage of selling at a con.

[ignition365]

Very satisfied.  A lot of what I buy on ebay are games that only have <10 copies at any given time, so it's still a sort of hunt.  I have to keep an eye out and wait for a good copy at a good price to pop up.  I also have certain sellers who list things at flea market/thrift prices that I'll watch for new listings.  and with ebay bucks and the ebay bucks deals I wind up getting free money on my purchases.  I also sell off dupes and unwanted games on ebay which fills my paypal to pay for the games I buy.

I haven't stepped in a pawn shop in a long time, same with flea markets.  I rarely do thrift shops (and when I do it's empty or sports games because they do ebay listings now) and yard sales even less.

[bunnybear]

This is a non-issue to me. Not everyone who is into this hobby is fortunate enough to have access to retro stores, pawn shops, bountiful garage sales, etc.

So although eBay is becoming increasingly like Amazon (where everyone wants top dollar), there are still deals to be had, and so when I can find them I am most certainly quite satisfied.

[Warmsignal]

I do. I mean sure, back in the day when it was realistic hunting and chasing after things was fun. Though by now, I've had my fill of those moments. I've had those scores, I've found those gems, and I've seen it all over the years. Now that it's 10x harder to do that stuff, and I'm getting a little older... it's become whatever now. I'd rather get what I really want, and exactly what I really want, whenever I want it. So yeah, eBay is satisfying to me. It is possible, and I do find good deals with eBay, occasionally. When I compare prices to other stores, eBay is usually cheaper and I get to have my pick of the condition too.

Waiting for it to arrive kinda sucks, but in a way it's like Xmas every day. Always opening up a package to see what you got. I always know myself so well.

[dharmajones93]

I usually don't have a specific game I go out to try and find anymore. If I go looking locally for games or other media, I'm usually going out for the experience of going out and seeing new things or talking to new people. I also like talking to the same few people who run the game shops around me since they're generally cool people have a quick chat with.

I've enjoyed reading this thread but I think this sums it up for me.

It's less about whether I'm satisfied and more about whether I think it's a good idea for me. I just don't like the idea of sitting behind the keyboard and click buying. I'm just not healthy enough mentally for that. I'd be financially ruined!

Usually I take a hundred cash at the beginning of every month and make a few rounds to local stores to talk to the employees, find out what they've got in new, and just chat about new games coming out or just how the shop's doing. I buy stuff I see on the shelf that I know are on my wish list, and sometimes stuff I didn't know I wanted. Then for the rest of the month I'll stop in a shop if I'm driving/walking buy and grab something, or nothing if there isn't anything that screams buy me. My collection grows much slower this way, but my wallet and my sanity stay a little healthier.

[pzeke]

I don’t have the commodity of a Goodwill, flea market or yard/garage sales, so yes, I get an insurmountable sense of satisfaction whenever I get something from eBay.

I feel eBay is pretty much like a Goodwill store in the sense that you sometimes go to one and strike out. No matter how hard you look around, there are times you won’t find exactly what you’re looking for on eBay, and just because you may find what you’re looking for doesn’t necessarily mean you should get it right away. You’re supposed to let things simmer for a bit, and when you least expect it you’ll find that one listing that you’ve been waiting/looking for...or you've bode enough to see a seller reduce the price of the game/item you're interested in. I’m speaking from personal experience; patience has been my best ally throughout the years I've been using eBay. The “thrill of the hunt” is still of equal merit even if you’re e-shopping – you’re "hunting" for a good deal after all. At least that’s how I see it.

[bikingjahuty]

Honestly, I rarely bid or win on actions. So my ebay hunting was all about finding Buy it Nows I felt I could live with.

I have no regrets.

I still like waiting for auctions, just because there is the potential to get a really good deal on something, but if I just want the damn game and don't want to wait for an auction I'll go the BIN route.

[hoshichiri]

I still like waiting for auctions, just because there is the potential to get a really good deal on something, but if I just want the damn game and don't want to wait for an auction I'll go the BIN route.

I BIN more often becuase auctions tend to end while I'm at work so I can't hang around to deal with snipers (or just be one.) Plus, they're handy during promotions- if you want the 10% back in bucks or to use that coupon, you can't always wait for the auction to end.

Doesn't mean I won't keep tabs on an auction if it looks like I'll be able to get a good deal out of it, though!

[masamune]

The days where you can find a steal of a deal in the wild for retro games are pretty much over.

I used to go to every garage sale I could find around 2014-2015 and couldn't find a single decent video game I wanted. It became discouraging to go out hunting for video games when I rarely found any.

I like Ebay because I can find almost anything I want on it. I don't have to go to 10 different garage sales or 5 different Mom and Pop shops just to have wasted my time and my energy for nothing. Also, I can find good deals there if I'm patient enough.

For more recent gen games, it's a different matter. I totally agree with you original poster on the thrill of the hunt, particularly when I go Black Friday sales shopping in physical stores. I get this adrenaline rush when I'm scampering about in the store looking for the items I came there for. It's an absolutely awesome feeling.

[ffxik]

I find that with anything I want to collect or desire that a big part of my enjoyment in obtaining the item is getting a good deal on it. I don't know it just kinda gives a 'halo effect' around it if I know I scored it on a smoking deal, I like it even more if I got it below market rate or it's uncommon to see and I found it.

The exhilaration of finding something you don't often see and the elation of getting something for a good price are really important to me for pick ups.

When I just scoop something up for going rate off of eBay or get caught up in a little bidding war I feel kinda meh, sometimes I'll feel like it was an impulse buy or that I could have gotten a better deal later or bummed that I have to wait a few days for the delivery to my house.

It's a lot more of a personable experience to find it yourself some place, it sort of becomes like a moment in time and you kind of remember where you got it, how much you paid, who you were with, what you did that day, what you were working as, where you were in your life, what you were doing with your collection at the time.

I attach more of a memory to a purchase if I find it out in the wild and it becomes more of an experience I had than just sheer consumerism. I like to physically look through every blu ray a pawn shop has hoping to get that rush when I find something that interests me or find that gold dust game at some random car boot sale than only me and so many other people were in attendance at.

Hitting buy it now on eBay and waiting for it to come just deprives of the rush of the hunt, the good deal and the instant gratification of immediately having the item in your hand (as oppose to waiting for postage). This combination of things actually makes the thing worth less to me because it misses all the fun and is just a transaction.

I actually understand where you're coming from on this.  Very rarely these days do I find anything exciting in the wild anymore.  With the rush of information you just about have to use Ebay, Amazon, or build a reputation on collection forums to get those treasures.  It does deprive you of that rush you get when you find say, Dragonforce CIB for $8

[mark1982]

Not really, get more excited and satisfied when I get that email notification from Limited Run or other limited releases that my order has shipped. Waiting for those titles are a lot longer than an ebay purchase.

[jeffmandm]

Most of my purchases these days are either through Amazon (usually games I can't find here for one reason or another), eBay (for games that are harder to find or are imports from Japan/Europe), or from Gmarket/Play-Asia (when it's a new game [read: DS to PS4-Switch] that I want to get a Japanese/Korean copy of).

Usually I don't get games from my local stores. Sometimes I will go to a local store that sells Famicom imports, but I find them for a better deal on eBay anyways so I hardly ever get games from them. I did manage to get my Super Game Boy from them though, but this was a long time ago already.

[hatkid]

Absolutely. The thrift store in my town very rarely has decent games and even then it's never stuff I'm actually looking for. The nearest GoodWill is like a 30 minute drive and that's not worth it to me. The only retro game store I knew of near me closed down quite a few years ago. So hunting for games on ebay is basically what I have to do if I want to buy games that aren't brand new.
Besides, I like the anticipation of the package with my purchase coming in the mail and opening it like it's a Christmas or birthday present

[betelgeuse]

If it’s not on EBay, I’ll prob never find it. No sense in limiting yourself to an x mile radius.