| General and Gaming > Classic Video Games |
| Priced To Sit vs. Priced to Sell |
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| jobocan:
The thing about games that are "priced to sit" is that, eventually, there's going to be someone dumb enough to pay the super high price. I mean, there are people on Kijiji over here selling super-common NES games for 15-25$ each, and people are actually buying them, it's crazy. Heck, I've seen people ASKING to pay that much for them. Stuff like "Hey guys on kijiji, I'm looking for earthbound and would be willing to spend 200$ on the cartridge alone!".... I mean, what? I don't really have any retro game stores to speak of around here, beyond a reseller at a local flea market... but even that place has ridiculously-priced items that actually sell from time to time. |
| amauriel:
I think the other thing with the "priced to sit" is that some people don't want to see something leave their collection. I was in Cleveland and there's this amazing vintage store...games, toys, clothes, the lot. They had a Vectrex for $250. We ALMOST bought it, before some Googling determined how out of price that really was. This has been a few years ago, and the Vectrex was about $150 at the time. We then head to a used game store that I had found online. We spent about $150 and that got us the Vectrex they had (at $50), plus a couple of Coleco SuperAction controllers ($2 each, they didn't know what they were and I recognized them), a light phaser for the Genesis, connectors and cables we had been missing, a bunch of N64 games, a couple Jaguar games, etc. Two huge bags of stuff, plus the Vectrex. Those guys seemed pretty sad when we told them we were just there for the weekend and it'd probably be a year before we'd be back. (Side note: The last time we were back in that store I scored the Japanese N64 version of Ocarina of Time for something like $12.) The point of the story is that the vintage store needs to say that they have rare consoles and games...and the rare ones do not come in as often. If they price something rarer completely out of league, they can then keep that advertising going until something better comes in, then drop the price and make their profit. And if someone comes in willing to pay the exorbitant cost in the meantime, more profit for them. |
| jobocan:
--- Quote from: amauriel on May 02, 2012, 03:43:07 pm ---We then head to a used game store that I had found online. We spent about $150 and that got us the Vectrex they had (at $50), plus a couple of Coleco SuperAction controllers ($2 each, they didn't know what they were and I recognized them), a light phaser for the Genesis, connectors and cables we had been missing, a bunch of N64 games, a couple Jaguar games, etc. Two huge bags of stuff, plus the Vectrex. Those guys seemed pretty sad when we told them we were just there for the weekend and it'd probably be a year before we'd be back. (Side note: The last time we were back in that store I scored the Japanese N64 version of Ocarina of Time for something like $12.) The point of the story is that the vintage store needs to say that they have rare consoles and games...and the rare ones do not come in as often. If they price something rarer completely out of league, they can then keep that advertising going until something better comes in, then drop the price and make their profit. And if someone comes in willing to pay the exorbitant cost in the meantime, more profit for them. --- End quote --- That store sounds awesome >_< I paid 150$ for my Vectrex from someone on Kijiji, and the controller needed repairs (which I have yet to do.... too bad finding Vectrex controllers is nearly impossible)... though it did come with a bag full of atari games as well. I get what you're saying though, it makes sense in a way... though I'll say it's a shady practice, and I like to not shop at stores that do stuff like that... like the one store in the shopping centre here that has a boxed bally astrocade for 300$ (or was it 400? I don't remember). |
| mayberry:
--- Quote from: amauriel on May 02, 2012, 03:43:07 pm ---The point of the story is that the vintage store needs to say that they have rare consoles and games...and the rare ones do not come in as often. If they price something rarer completely out of league, they can then keep that advertising going until something better comes in, then drop the price and make their profit. And if someone comes in willing to pay the exorbitant cost in the meantime, more profit for them. --- End quote --- This is what I'm talking about. :) I'm whittling down the points now, but it seems to be three different scenarios for games priced to sit: 1. Deliberate marketing practice designed to increase visibility while also increasing sales of lesser priced games 2. A psychological issue(disorder) wherein the seller cannot part with the product 3. Brand convolution leading to inappropriately priced goods So, sometimes games priced to sit are done so with a conscious or unconscious decision to do so based on misguided promotional value or inability to cope with loss (respectively). Other times it is an inadvertent action based on derived emotional value rather than supply/demand. And games priced to sit determine the value/prevalence of games priced to sell (subject to environmental variance within the establishment in which they are sold). At some point I will whittle this down to a single line, "string theory" style equation. |
| pceslayer:
@amauriel I will have to visit said stores next time I am in Cleveland! |
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