POLL: Resellers, Good or Bad?

[marvelvscapcom2]

Resellers find games cheap and flip them for a profit to collectors. I feel resellers have drove prices up so high on so many games that aren't really all that rare. Just resellers dictate weather or not a game is expensive or not. A game is only as much as someone is willing to ask and pay. If one reseller asks 20 for Mario/Duckhunt and it sells for 20, then all of a sudden 5 more resellers see it sell for 20 and post theirs for 20. Next thing you know Mario/DuckHunt is 20 dollars. And then if a collector really wants that game he either has to get lucky and find it from a non reseller at a yard sale or something or he has to pay 20 dollars knowing it's too much. sometimes it makes me wonder who decides prices on stuff. Its like Smash Bros Melee is going for 55 dollars right now, sometimes 70. It is literally top most common Gamecube game. #1 most sold. Everyone had them. Why is it almost as much as it was new. 50-60 is more than a Suikoden V which is actually a semi rare game. Its all Because a lot of people want it, it has high demand. So if a reseller asks 100. And that was consensus among resellers. theyd still sell. People need that game, love that game. But lets be honest with ourselves. Its a 10 dollar game. Its one of the best games ever made, so if it was 1,000 dollars a collector would still try to get it.  But rarity wise, its as rare as a 3 dollar madden. Except no one wants the 3 dollar madden.  Lately I have seen a lot of people make livings manipulating this hobby and ripping off collectors and messing up the scene. I don't mind someone trying to make a profit but I see people getting something for 3 dollars at a thrift store and selling it for 150 dollars retail to someone who actually loves the game.  It Is a shady business.  Make a profit but hook people up for crying out loud. Get a deal but give someone a deal too. Some resellers get greedy and ruin it for genuine gamers. We could coexist if resellers didn't chase the "retail" price. If I got a game for 5 bucks at a thrift store and I didn't want or need it, and I knew a collector did, what is the harm in giving it to them for 30 even if it is a 50 dollar game. you are still making 25 dollar profit and still giving the collector a good deal. that is the way this should all work. Not get for 5 and sell it to the collector for 50. Its a shame. I am just ranting lol. Does anyone else notice more and more of these modern day hustlers trying to make a quick buck off our passion? I cant be the only one.

[rayne315]

they are bad. the excuse that they get games into people who want its hands is an utter crock of shit. if they (someone who has no intention of owning and playing the game) just left it so that someone who actually cared about it would buy it it would instantly go to someone who cares hands. they are just trying to make their greedy profit.

this is assuming you mean scalpers

[zenimus]

The way eBay makes it easy to see what things have sold for in the past does tend to create a bubble in price. It's true that as soon as something sells for higher, the rest of the sellers notice and raise prices accordingly. Crusader of Centy on Genesis is probably the poster child for this phenomenon. It was about $50 for just the cart a few years ago.

This happens in every hobby though. 

[rayne315]

I remember a case of a collector specifically testing ebay and its price model. they bought an extreamly common game that sells poorly ($2-4 price, 2-3 times a month) for the Gameboy and consistently bought every one on e-bay for a year. at the end of that year he had ~30-40 of them and the new e-bay price was ~$20. when he went to sell them to see if the price would go back down he priced them at the $10 mark and would consistently have 5-6 happening constantly so resellers had no bite to buy them and to attempt to bring the price down. after he sold all of them the prices were still being marked ~$20 from then on but had returned to 2-3 sales a month.

this example just shows that its a combination of resellers and e-bay but the prices deffinately would not be where they are without the re-sellers.

[matimo]

They're cancer, they artificially inflate the prices of games while also making it hard to find anything locally, because they post literally 50 ads how they'll buy everything, and then probably go sell it on ebay... Anyone who does it should literally f off. <3

[redblaze57]

the Answer is simple... it depends on the person. Yeah you're going to get those A**holes who think Mario/Duck Hunt is a $15+ game because it has Mario in it, but those people might also not know that the copy of,  oh let's say a certain Sports game on the Sega Master System is worth way more the the $2 they're selling it for (true Story)

However there are resellers who do it to support their collection. Let's Face it this Hobby is not cheap, however these guys will be more willing to work with you on a price especially if you Bundle and a few times I've actually gone and have just done a straight up trade with one of these kinds of resellers

[tripredacus]

Resellers is the wrong term to use. A reseller typically operates in the current market. I am not certain if reseller is applicable to the video game market at all. It usually goes that a reseller purchases from a retailer or distribution house with the sole purpose to sell the item. To be a reseller, it is not required that they resell an item for profit. It is common that a reseller will break even or take a loss on the resold product, but that is due to the product sale not being the top of their business model.

With that being in mind, you will not find resellers of NES games because NES games are not available in a distribution channel. Video game resellers, of course, do exist and it is good that they do. Otherwise you would only find video games at retail chains or direct from the publishers.

A more appropriate term is Flipper, such as those who would purchase a house to flip at a higher price.

[marvelvscapcom2]

the Answer is simple... it depends on the person. Yeah you're going to get those A**holes who think Mario/Duck Hunt is a $15+ game because it has Mario in it, but those people might also not know that the copy of,  oh let's say a certain Sports game on the Sega Master System is worth way more the the $2 they're selling it for (true Story)

However there are resellers who do it to support their collection. Let's Face it this Hobby is not cheap, however these guys will be more willing to work with you on a price especially if you Bundle and a few times I've actually gone and have just done a straight up trade with one of these kinds of resellers

Yeah, those kinds of people I don't mind. If they make Mario games and Zelda games a lot just because it has Mario and stuff those are just Naïve people. It just shows they don't know much about prices and go by the name. That ok.  Those people also have deals sometimes on games like you said that they don't think is worth a lot.  I am mostly talking about the snakes that I see locally and online that frequent flea markets and thrift stores hoarding games for 3-5 bucks leaving nothing in the wild for actual collectors and flip them for way over retail to collectors and destroy the entire market. People pulling out their phone and knowing their prices on everything and waiting to flip something for profit just so they can make a living off it. Send their kids off to college using our passion and love for games as the method. I will buy off you for 5, sell to someone else for 55 type market. That is not honest. that is just awful way to do business or go about life in general. It is as close to a thief as you can become without robbing someone's wallet lol. For example say someone wanted tomba, I had Tomba and I baught it for 5 bucks. I am not going to sell you it for 80. Id cut you a deal on it. Id put it up for 40 One hand washes the other. you get it much cheaper than retail and I still make a lot of profit on something I got for 5 bucks that's the proper way. but a snake would just sell you it for ebay price as high as they can possibly get. no deal for the buyer. All greed. and make you pay up for something they got for next to nothing. These people Literally pull out their phone and look up ebay prices. If I wanted to pay ebay prices id umm.... buy it off ebay lol. 

[aliensstudios]

I know of a friend who bought Mega Man X3 off eBay for almost 200 dollars and the guy never shipped it and closed his account. A week later another user sold the exact same copy for about fifty bucks more because he raised the trending price with the last sale. It's bullshit.

[marvelvscapcom2]

Resellers is the wrong term to use. A reseller typically operates in the current market. I am not certain if reseller is applicable to the video game market at all. It usually goes that a reseller purchases from a retailer or distribution house with the sole purpose to sell the item. To be a reseller, it is not required that they resell an item for profit. It is common that a reseller will break even or take a loss on the resold product, but that is due to the product sale not being the top of their business model.

With that being in mind, you will not find resellers of NES games because NES games are not available in a distribution channel. Video game resellers, of course, do exist and it is good that they do. Otherwise you would only find video games at retail chains or direct from the publishers.

A more appropriate term is Flipper, such as those who would purchase a house to flip at a higher price.

Yeah, Flippers. Flippers is def a better term. That's what I was looking for.  Or snakes lol.  Cold blooded devious spineless reptiles.  Flippers exist on all consoles. As long as they can find something cheap as dirt from someone who didn't know any better and flip it for 200 percent profit to an honest collector who just wants the game to play and have. That is just some hardcore levels of wrong. I don't know how anyone could feel proud doing that.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I know of a friend who bought Mega Man X3 off eBay for almost 200 dollars and the guy never shipped it and closed his account. A week later another user sold the exact same copy for about fifty bucks more because he raised the trending price with the last sale. It's bullshit.

SMH,  that's how flippers work. That's their literal full time job what you just said. They will literally stab someone in the back and piss on their own reputation for 50 bucks more.  Shameful. That is the mind of a reseller. More, more, more.  Was your friend able to get his money back or did he/she take a loss on it? I hope it worked out for him/her. One time a seller did that to me too with a Cheaper game, he had it for 10 and I paid and then the purchase canceled and he had it up for 25 later that day. So shady.

[sworddude]

Its like Smash Bros Melee is going for 55 dollars right now, sometimes 70. It is literally top most common Gamecube game. #1 most sold. Everyone had them. Why is it almost as much as it was new. 50-60 is more than a Suikoden V which is actually a semi rare game. Its all Because a lot of people want it, it has high demand. So if a reseller asks 100. And that was consensus among resellers. theyd still sell. People need that game, love that game. But lets be honest with ourselves. Its a 10 dollar game. Its one of the best games ever made, so if it was 1,000 dollars a collector would still try to get it. 

This is not really the work of resellers.

The tournament scene for super smash melee is getting pretty big these days might even surpass the new street fighter games.

People need to play this game and use this game quitte allot. If their copy breaks you will need a new one and buy one for market value, same goes for people who want to attend to tournaments and train. Those people want a copy right now and don't want to wait for months to find a copy for cheap, they pay market value 60 - 70 dollars.

Normal people do not buy this game for 50 - 70 dollars probably pretty much only people who join tournaments since they need the game right now it's a pretty big rapidly growing community so there is allot of demand It's usually not the collector who pays these prices but the gamer. In this case especially tournament players.

[burningdoom]

Those that are in it purely for profit, and cares less for the condition of the item, yeah, they are bad. No way does a cartridge only copy of a game equal the same value of the same game, complete, that sold on eBay.

However most of us here are resellers. We get extras, or games we aren't really into, and we sell them to fund other items in our colleciton; right? But the difference is, we as collectors know that condition impacts value.

[aliensstudios]

I know of a friend who bought Mega Man X3 off eBay for almost 200 dollars and the guy never shipped it and closed his account. A week later another user sold the exact same copy for about fifty bucks more because he raised the trending price with the last sale. It's bullshit.

SMH,  that's how flippers work. That's their literal full time job what you just said. They will literally stab someone in the back and piss on their own reputation for 50 bucks more.  Shameful. That is the mind of a reseller. More, more, more.  Was your friend able to get his money back or did he/she take a loss on it? I hope it worked out for him/her. One time a seller did that to me too with a Cheaper game, he had it for 10 and I paid and then the purchase canceled and he had it up for 25 later that day. So shady.

She got her money back but PayPal/eBay put her through the wringer and it took about three weeks to get it back.

[retrogemcollector]

The very milk that you buy at the grocery is from a reseller so STOP complaining. It's called free market. If there is somewhere money to be made you should get it, otherwise your loss. The problem with today's society is that every one should have something that everyone else has at the launch. People are xxucking addicted and can't control themselves and take their credit cards and pay the crazy prices set buy the resellers/scalpers. Have they had a minute sense of intelligence and knew about supply and demand, they'd know that if they held their pee pee and didn't buy an item from a reseller at a value X, well over time, that said reseller, after seeing he/she is not able to move his/her products, they'd start marking down the prices (sometime up to 60% less). IDIOT-ADDICTED-BUYERS freaking are to be blamed, not someone who tries to make living out of flipping. I for example, missed my chance to preorder Demon's Souls Deluxe edition when it came out in 2009, then I saw the price sky rocket, why because stupid buyers were paying those stupid prices. So I waited. 7 Years later, last month I finally snatched one for the same price when it came out, in an absolute good condition. So, please, next time when you miss out on something, please, please, please control your impulse and xxucking wait. Don't inflate the prices, but if you do, the shut the hell up and stop putting the fault on reseller/scalpers.
P.S. I'm not a reseller as I have a wonderful job that pays very good.