Game X Change

[turf]

And people that don't own a store and flip games can suck my D. 

THE END

...AND...we get posts like this that takes away all of the "happy-go-lucky" atmosphere -and- turns it into an "assholes vs douchebags" atmosphere 

Basic Child-hood lessons = "nothing nice to say"...

Can I be the asshole in that situation?

Don't worry.  You are.

[disgaeniac]

And people that don't own a store and flip games can suck my D. 

THE END

...AND...we get posts like this that takes away all of the "happy-go-lucky" atmosphere -and- turns it into an "assholes vs douchebags" atmosphere 

Basic Child-hood lessons = "nothing nice to say"...

Can I be the asshole in that situation?

Most assuredly, Sir Darko 

IMHO; "Asshole" > "douchebag" 8-days-a-week.

People have (rightly:) called me an "ass-hole" (myself included:) many, many times...

Since I've yet to ever be and/or act like a "douchebag"...I'll be keeping ya' company over here in the ass-hole camp 
How's the "A-Troop" grab ya?!

I'd be surprised if at least 90% of us regulars here have never "flipped" a game.

Then again, Hey - I've Never done any of those 'douchebag' activities/behaviors that the Flea was talking about in his post, either.

*MY* idea/version of *MY* "Flipping" of games = Once in awhile, when the money & interest are there...I'll pre-order more than 1 copy of an LE.

I see it (as I was telling Soera in a private conversation, last week), like playing the stock-market; but with games.

See, I have no advantages over the REST OF THE WORLD, because:

A).  I can't pre-order it any sooner than anyone else can -and-

B).  The "Maximum # of pre-orders allowed" isn't any higher for me than anybody else.

On top of all of that - there's never any *Guarantee* that they'll ever be worth or sell for any more than I paid for them.

Factor into all of that, that ever since losing my hand (and job & ability to continue working) years ago...I've (seemingly *Amazingly* to other posters here:) never felt bad about, felt like and/or been called a douchebag; on the (probably ~10 times, or so) that I've later sold said items on for a bit of a profit; because:

A).  The person that I sell them to buys them happily at my prices...because he then holds onto them and sells them for a profit himself (likely to a person who's happy to have found ____ still in a sealed condition, and, who also doesn't mind paying $___ for _____) -and-

B).  Because I'm not doing this to make a living.  Any & all profits have gone, 100%, back into buying more games & game-related items for myself (Looks at 5 Giclees hanging next to each other on the wall & smiles) = (for round #'s) 5 x $300/each = $1,500.00 that's going towards supporting one of my favorite companies (NIS America) + 5 (admittedly, extremely frivolous & overly-expensive) items that I like -but- never would have bought otherwise.

Alternatively, I've also (on many, many occasions) been able to help-out friends of mine who may have either missed-out on a pre-order or not had the funds at the time...by *having* extra copies of something that they're interested in...and...since I'm *not* a douchebag - I've never made a dime in any of these instances.

TL;DR =

People who can only generalize, stereotype, and only have 1 brush to paint with -and- talk to people that (a).  they don't know and (b). know nothing about -and- that like to talk to anonymous people on a screen in only unintelligent, crude, childish, condescending, derogatory, and/or insulting ways can get-on-line to...

..."Suck *MY* D".

[turf]

This shit got way too serious.

[pacpix]

This shit got way too serious.

I can fix that:

[scott]

(back on topic)

I've never bought anything from Game X Change.

But, I wish I had a Vintage Stock around here. Soera got me a hell of a deal on a very pretty and complete copy of Dragon Warrior VII on PS1 from there awhile ago. It was way under "internet value" and was in excellent shape. It's things like this that make me wish I had more options for game buying around here other than the occassional good find at my game shops and Amazon/eBay.

[disgaeniac]

This shit got way too serious.

check your pm's!

[turf]

If I wanted to pay "Internet Value", I would shop on the internet.  I'm in your store with cash in my hand. 

There really needs to be some distinction between "Internet Value" and "Real World Value"  The stores that figure this out will last.  The rest, in my opinion, won't be around in a few years.

I was talking to a Game Xchange employee this weekend.  He was complaining to me about the store he worked at.  His quote was, "The guy running this place is trying to turn it into GameStop."  I guess that's ok.  GameStop makes money, but it sucks for retro gamers and collectors.

[sin2beta]

I'm still finding a lot of good deals at local game exchanges. Thrillhouse was amazing, as I've mentioned before. Movie Trading Company and Vintage Stock are pretty decent as well. Weekly I buy a game there that is less than shipping through ebay.

Entertainmart has %(*&#)loads of XBox/Gamecube/PS2 titles for a few bucks. Most of my XBox collection came from me going in a few times and buying 10 games for $30. It's not a sell. They just have a LOT of 2.99 games.

I have already started getting pretty good treatment at FX Game Exchange. The guy there noticed I buy old SEGA pretty much exclusively. He gave me a sweet deal on some Master System games Something like 35 games for 100 (with stuff like Double Dragon, Wonder Boy 2). And just this last saturday, he was waiting with Vay for SEGA CD behind the counter. It had a replacement case, and I just spent a fair amount on SEGA GaGa. But they already routinely put stuff behind the counter for me view before they put it out.

I found my local LGS outdoes ebay most of the time. Ebay is great for looking for rare games hiding in lots, just sliding under the radar. THe completed listings and doing a cost analysis is your friend. And I actually just flipped my first game yesterday. Kinda. It was a duplicate. But still, my paypal account is sitting with some money. I may continue doing this to fund hella expensive games.

BTW What Disgaeniac was saying is something that I know a LOT of people do in the comic fandom. It's just another way to get into and enjoy the hobby. As long as you don't lose the mindset as it being a way to enjoy the hobby. There's also a really fun website called the hollywood stock exchange based on the same type of enjoyment. Anyways, here is a nice explanation of it from the comic side. I feel it pertains to gaming greatly.

[burningdoom]

I see you're point, but comic book speculating is something that fell through a long time ago. Unless you have key Silver Age and Golden Age books, you're never gonna make much money in comic books. The speculator's market bust in the mid-90s killed that one.

Basically everyone was buying multiple copies of "collector's issues" and gimmick covers and comics were selling like hot-cakes in the 90s. The people buying multiple copies were betting on their value appreciating and reselling them at a later date. It all culminated with the Death and Return of Superman. So many copies of that were sold, that it insured it would be less than the paper it was printed on. And after that, pretty much anything made after 1969 (with some exceptions of course) are now worth only a few bucks a piece. In other words, the bubble finally burst.

So if we're lucky, hopefully the same thing will happen to the collector's market in classic game. Hopefully the bubble will eventually burst, and after the dust settles only real retro fans will remain and prices will lower again.

[sin2beta]

I see you're point, but comic book speculating is something that fell through a long time ago. Unless you have key Silver Age and Golden Age books, you're never gonna make much money in comic books. The speculator's market bust in the mid-90s killed that one.

Basically everyone was buying multiple copies of "collector's issues" and gimmick covers and comics were selling like hot-cakes in the 90s. The people buying multiple copies were betting on their value appreciating and reselling them at a later date. It all culminated with the Death and Return of Superman. So many copies of that were sold, that it insured it would be less than the paper it was printed on. And after that, pretty much anything made after 1969 (with some exceptions of course) are now worth only a few bucks a piece. In other words, the bubble finally burst.

So if we're lucky, hopefully the same thing will happen to the collector's market in classic game. Hopefully the bubble will eventually burst, and after the dust settles only real retro fans will remain and prices will lower again.

Your certainly not going to put your kids through college. But my LCS in Tulsa had a regular who bought about 20 issues of Walking Dead #1. He made a pretty penny. I've seen some recent X-Men issues go up in price. It's not much. You're talking about selling it for $8 instead of the cover price of 4. Most of the Uncanny X-Force issues went up in price.

It's not about making money. It's about bringing the knowledge you have of the hobby into the real world. Is there a good writer/artist combo making a book that will fly under the radar for 2 issues then get a bunch of people wrapped into it?

Comic speculating is not dead. It will never die until the comic industry dies. Comic speculating is just no longer a fad.

[burningdoom]

I see you're point, but comic book speculating is something that fell through a long time ago. Unless you have key Silver Age and Golden Age books, you're never gonna make much money in comic books. The speculator's market bust in the mid-90s killed that one.

Basically everyone was buying multiple copies of "collector's issues" and gimmick covers and comics were selling like hot-cakes in the 90s. The people buying multiple copies were betting on their value appreciating and reselling them at a later date. It all culminated with the Death and Return of Superman. So many copies of that were sold, that it insured it would be less than the paper it was printed on. And after that, pretty much anything made after 1969 (with some exceptions of course) are now worth only a few bucks a piece. In other words, the bubble finally burst.

So if we're lucky, hopefully the same thing will happen to the collector's market in classic game. Hopefully the bubble will eventually burst, and after the dust settles only real retro fans will remain and prices will lower again.

Your certainly not going to put your kids through college. But my LCS in Tulsa had a regular who bought about 20 issues of Walking Dead #1. He made a pretty penny. I've seen some recent X-Men issues go up in price. It's not much. You're talking about selling it for $8 instead of the cover price of 4. Most of the Uncanny X-Force issues went up in price.

It's not about making money. It's about bringing the knowledge you have of the hobby into the real world. Is there a good writer/artist combo making a book that will fly under the radar for 2 issues then get a bunch of people wrapped into it?

Comic speculating is not dead. It will never die until the comic industry dies. Comic speculating is just no longer a fad.

Yeah, but that's nothing compared to what it was. Those same $8 issues today probably would be selling for like $50 if it was like it was in the 90s.

And early issues of Walking Dead are one of those exceptions I was thinking of when I said that. The first appearance of the TMNT is another. Both of those being cases of low-print runs from what was initially a low-key book, and then both of those had HUGE mainstream success.

I just hope the same does end up happening with the collector's market on retro-gaming. We'll always have those rarities that retain their value, but maybe your average Saturn and SNES games will become more reasonbly priced again.