POLL: Resellers, Good or Bad?

[sworddude]

Very solid points

[indenton]

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.

On paper that sounds right, but have you been buying milk directly from a farmer, why not get your own cow?  Not that easy really...You can't water a grocery store's entire operation down to that, there's a lot more involved than that. 

[kamikazekeeg]

It depends.  There are those that grab up cheap stuff and such, taking things from regular collectors, and then jack up the costs and don't do deals.  I know one or two of those in the area.  On the other hand, I know some other guys who are pretty cool, might still grab things collector's might want, but can do good deals or do well enough in trade.

I remember this one flea market seller that had a busted Jungle Green N64 controller.  The analog was trashed and it was dirty, but at the time I had some spare N64 controller parts, so I asked 10 bucks for it, because it is a busted controller, and she told me no deal.  She had that thing up on that wall for years I think.  I don't know what she was selling it for exactly.  I wonder how they stay in business...and some don't as she eventually shut down because I'm pretty positive  she was never willing to negotiate things in a market that could be very fluid at times.  These people drive me nuts, because I can't imagine they are making the money they could if they just lowered the price even abit on things.  Why not sell for 40 bucks if you don't ever sell for 50 or 60?

[Warmsignal]

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.

That's an insult to home flippers. Heck, it's an insult to burger flippers. Walking into a thrift store or flea to buy something and resell requires so very little expulsion of energy or brain power. They're more akin to scalpers in that they know gamers are trying to beat them to the items because gamers actually want them. They like having gamers at thier mercy to pay whatever they ask because they have it all.


Smash is just so popular, maybe even more now than back then. A lot of copies are prob still in the hands of the original owners.

[bikingjahuty]

If someone would have asked me this several years ago I would have called ALL resellers sacks of shit for driving the price of games up and making it very hard to find the once plentiful deals out there at flea markets, thrift stores and garage sales. Now I see them in various shades of grey ranging from total POS asshole who wants to charge $20 for a copy of Mario/Duck Hunt, to guy who found Mario/Duck Hunt for $3 at thrift store and is willing to sell you it for $8; he makes money and you get a fair price for the game. It all depends of the person and how they go about making money off the games they find.

[maximo310]

It's kinda depends on who you are working with. In the past, I got a few good deals from resellers in the past, but now places like Craigslist in my area, are full of people who are asking for huge markups in prices compared to something like ebay, or don't want to make deals on stuff.  It's kinda sad in the sense that some of those guys are hoping to sell at their inflated price and jack up the cost, and really kills the collecting spirit in a way.

[justinius]

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.

I dont see it that way. A grocery store does not have a high profit margin but rather makes big profits at smaller margins on volume of sales over a period of time on many products,  and they are also doing you a service by making everyday products readily available and affordable at a location near you. They also must hire employees which is good  as it creates jobs but further diminishes their profits margins, but its impossible to have a grocery store without employees and the other expenses of running a large store. All these products (milk, etc.) have to be loaded up, delivered and put on shelves from their place of origin and often kept in the right condition (temperature) and many unsold produce that goes bad or passes expiration is a further loss. Then, they also have to compete with their competitors.

So while we commonly call these people ''resellers'' in the video game scene, they are more akin to scalpers/flippers.  Resellers in the video game market do not really compete much, sellers will just copy the prices of other sellers or often inflate them even more - the opposite of competition. Aside from that, most full-time video game resellers have extremely high profit percentages (and not margins), since they can buy one game  for 5-10$ and sell it for 20-100$. That's a lot different than stores that require a large of volume sales since the profit margin on income is much smaller all expenses included.  Unless they are an actual business on ebay, resellers are solo or do it with the help of friends or unpaid contacts. So while grocery or electronic stores make goods readily available, at prices most consumers are  willing to pay, the video game resellers will buy up all the good games and try to sell them over a longer period of time  at marked-up prices, which makes games harder to find and not easier for video gamers. Whereas retail stores sell mostly new products that people cannot commonly find used/new locally or are not willing to buy outside of a store.

[marvelvscapcom2]

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.

  Couldn't agree more. Its a double edged sword. These buy it now bills make the price that high too, Resellers can ask 60 dollars for smash melee all they want, hell they could ask 2,000,000.  but the only reason it goes for that is because people actually pay it. Someone has to buy it.  Like you said, its part reseller blame for putting it for 60 dollars in the first place, but also at least 30 percent collector blame for actually being desperate enough to pay that. . But like I said before, you almost have to pay that if that is what it goes for. If they ask that then that is what it is. In the age of everyone pulling out their phones and looking stuff up. you will never ever find a smash melee under 40 even in the wild. So waiting for a deal seems like an endless wait. Noone gives deals anymore. that is the whole point of this thread. Its all resellers raising the prices more and more endlessly. People know their stuff. So might as well buy it for 60 guaranteed and have it delivered conveniently to your house. I still think it is much more resellers fault the price is that high. they literally have all power. smash could be 100 tommarow if they all banned together and it would still sell and I cant blame collectors for that. because if I didn't have a copy already and needed one id prob pay 2,000 dollars if it was that much. It is a must have game. As for the Milk in the grocery store thing, not nearly the same as justinius said, grocery stores are retail places that deal with supply, demand, interest rates, suppliers, inventory, so many intangibles and they still only make like what 2 dollars per gallon?  If Walmart was buying the milk for 1 dollar from the farmer and selling it for 50 bucks per gallon then yeah. That is what these snake resellers would do lol.

[drummergirl86]

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.

Sorry that your friend got ripped off.  I hope they were able to get a refund from eBay.

That's another thing that you need to watch out for on eBay is to check the reviews on the seller's page.  Are the reviews 100% positive? Or negative? Or neutral?  Is the seller reliable according to the buyers who bought stuff from him or her?

If I see something that I like, I would always check the seller's page to see if they have any positive reviews or not.  If the seller has positive reviews and the buyers claim that they are very reliable, then I would buy something from that seller. I know there are some reviews that are false and try to make the good sellers look bad by providing false feedback or that they are uncooperative even when seller is being cooperative with them.

I, too, would try to be patience and wait for a good price on certain games. Because there is no way I'm buying an overpriced game or game console.  I remember seeing the Playstation 20th Annivesary PS4 console, (with the PS1 color scheme), being sold for $1K!  It's ridiculous!  I really dislike scalpers. 

[marvelvscapcom2]

It's kinda depends on who you are working with. In the past, I got a few good deals from resellers in the past, but now places like Craigslist in my area, are full of people who are asking for huge markups in prices compared to something like ebay, or don't want to make deals on stuff.  It's kinda sad in the sense that some of those guys are hoping to sell at their inflated price and jack up the cost, and really kills the collecting spirit in a way.

Yeah, Their are no good deals in the wild anymore, everything is 10 percent more than it was even 2 months ago. Slowly increasing to rates that arent fair to us. And its hard to stop it. It is sad. It is more about the money and value than the actual games now. Everyone says "This is worth 2,000 dollars" not "This game is one of my faves". Games should be baught for the games themselves not for a money sign. nobody trying to help eachother.   Resellers also determine ebays prices. Collectors are forced to pay retail so collectors are less likely to cut deals themselves when they want to get rid of something.  I can see ebay asking retail. But how could a local ever match an ebay price? It makes no sense.  Ebay sellers have fees, paypal fees, shipping costs, liability, they have to pay for packaging, they have to go to the post office. All kinds of work. Random local dude deals with none of that. Of course their price should be a little higher. Then these resellers think ebay price is the standard. If I want to pay ebay price ill buy it on ebay lol.

[marvelvscapcom2]

If someone would have asked me this several years ago I would have called ALL resellers sacks of shit for driving the price of games up and making it very hard to find the once plentiful deals out there at flea markets, thrift stores and garage sales. Now I see them in various shades of grey ranging from total POS asshole who wants to charge $20 for a copy of Mario/Duck Hunt, to guy who found Mario/Duck Hunt for $3 at thrift store and is willing to sell you it for $8; he makes money and you get a fair price for the game. It all depends of the person and how they go about making money off the games they find.

Yeah, If someone found Mario/Duckhunt for 3 bucks and wants 8, that's perfectly fine. Make a little profit and still cut a decent deal. That's awesome. That helps everyone. If all resellers were like that we would be able to have a perfect community, they find something we need cheap, make a little profit on it, maybe double or triple what they paid, but we still save 20-40 percent versus buying it of ebay. That is perfect dream scenario.  I don't mind them. but when someone finds something for 2 bucks and wants 100. That is when they are scum to me lol. Lower than low.  Worst than stickers on labels. and that is pretty bad lol.

[kashell]

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.

I dont see it that way. A grocery store does not have a high profit margin but rather makes big profits at smaller margins on volume of sales over a period of time on many products,  and they are also doing you a service by making everyday products readily available and affordable at a location near you. They also must hire employees which is good  as it creates jobs but further diminishes their profits margins, but its impossible to have a grocery store without employees and the other expenses of running a large store. All these products (milk, etc.) have to be loaded up, delivered and put on shelves from their place of origin and often kept in the right condition (temperature) and many unsold produce that goes bad or passes expiration is a further loss. Then, they also have to compete with their competitors.

So while we commonly call these people ''resellers'' in the video game scene, they are more akin to scalpers/flippers.  Resellers in the video game market do not really compete much, sellers will just copy the prices of other sellers or often inflate them even more - the opposite of competition. Aside from that, most full-time video game resellers have extremely high profit percentages (and not margins), since they can buy one game  for 5-10$ and sell it for 20-100$. That's a lot different than stores that require a large of volume sales since the profit margin on income is much smaller all expenses included.  Unless they are an actual business on ebay, resellers are solo or do it with the help of friends or unpaid contacts. So while grocery or electronic stores make goods readily available, at prices most consumers are  willing to pay, the video game resellers will buy up all the good games and try to sell them over a longer period of time  at marked-up prices, which makes games harder to find and not easier for video gamers. Whereas retail stores sell mostly new products that people cannot commonly find used/new locally or are not willing to buy outside of a store.

This is what I was planning to say in response to darkpersian's comment. You know the term "apples and oranges"? That comment was so far removed from "apples and oranges." It's more like apples and Volkswagens.

My two cents: it really depends on the person. If there's some greedy basement dweller that gets off by ripping people off, then they're scum. These are the people that ruin the fun in playing and buying video games. On the other hand, if someone found a game that they had no use for and wanted to make a trade or honest sale to supplement their collection, then it's all good.

[gf78]

I have a big problem with people who try to jack the prices up regardless of condition and completeness.  I"ve always believed in passing on the savings or good luck to others.  That's why I don't try to rake people over the coals when I sell my games.  It's why I've given away extras I have had or mailed manuals and inserts to folks here at no charge. 

People who snatch things up to resell at an over-inflated price are jerks.  I went to Target to get the Target Exclusive Funko Pop FN-2187 figure on the day that The Force Awakens was released.  They were all gone.  Most of the t-shirts were gone.  There was only two of the Droid 3-packs left.  So I get on eBay and here are a-holes with an auction listed with Qty 20+ of the Pop figures for $25 each when they were a hair over ten bucks at the store.  Even worse for the Droid 3-pack where people were trying to get up to $100 in some cases for them. 

[mrfoxhound]

GF78, that's a community mentality. You don't sell at eBay prices because you're a good guy and it would also be frowned upon in any collector community. It would probably also keep people away-like black listing.

[gf78]

GF78, that's a community mentality. You don't sell at eBay prices because you're a good guy and it would also be frowned upon in any collector community. It would probably also keep people away-like black listing.

Thanks for the compliment!  I also sell online through eBay and use the same principles there.  I try to list my games/items below "market value" and only consider my items to be "market value" if they are complete and not ratty condition.  Items in less desirable condition, I discount them further accordingly.