Game Hunting during the Collecting Boom

[bikingjahuty]

This is literally not a question I have asked in a long, long time, but where do you find the majority of your gaming deals now? I know that many of us who have been at this for a while used to go to thrift stores, flea markets, Craigslist, and other well known places to find games, but due to how competitive and well known these locals are, they definitely aren't the havens of cheap games they used to be. I know that deals can still be found at these types of places, but I was wondering if you still regularly hit up your local thrift stores or pawn shops, or have you transitioned to finding games on the cheap elsewhere?

[98dgreen]

I find the majority of my stuff at Goodwill supplemented by yard sales and craigslist.

[hawk767]

I've only taken on this interest of seriously collecting in the past year or so but the majority of what I have has definitely come from online orders off of Ebay. I've gotten some games from Craigslist but not many. The majority of the big box pc games I have are actually from Goodwill though, only one of those did I order off of Ebay.

I occasionally find ps1 games in Goodwill but they are almost always random games I'm not interested in. Rarely at the two that are nearest me am I able to find any decent ps2 or xbox games for decent prices either. The majority of my collection is really more modern games from last gen though and I've gotten a lot of ps3 games from pawn shops for bulk deals.

I'm sure its much different for someone like me though who only recently started looking out more to collect and find deals and with how infrequently I'll find deals in Goodwill and how far I tend to be from any Craigslist deals, but I've been willing to just order off of Ebay pretty much from the start, where as a lot of the collectors I watch online or read from on forums always talk about not wanting to order. I assume that's just the way things have changed though.

I also live in a fairly small town though and the nearest Goodwill, and large city even, is 60 minutes away, so ordering online is most often just more convenient, and probably cheaper in the end than me finding a great deal on say Craigslist in Seattle and having to spend an entire day driving just to make a deal.

Edit: I'd be interested to hear how often folks who do live in bigger cities or near them come upon deals in Goodwills or other thrift stores or if those get picked dry super fast.

[azure]

95% of my collection has came from local thrift store, pawn shops, used stores etc.

[kamikazekeeg]

Thrift stores mostly.  I tried the flea market more, but it's poached too often by resellers that have booths there, so I kinda stopped trying.  Garage sales are another good one, they just take a lot of time to find stuff and I don't often get out for them.

[theflea]

garage sales. 

I do find deals at thrift stores and sometimes my local used game store in town.
But if you ever have seen my pick up photos during garage sale season I sometimes pick up several game lots in one weekend.
In my area Flea Markets suck for video games, they are plagued with resellers and they usually over price.
I have a few pawn shops but most don't even take in retro stuff.

[realpoketendonl]

I'm not that serious of a serious collector, I do it more on the side (especially now that I have to put money aside for other things). But there are multiple Facebook pages dedicated to selling and trading items near my area, and the bigger ones get a surprising amount of Wii and DS games, luckily platforms I (would like to) collect for.
Also, while I don't go to flea markets often, they're still great for getting more modern games (again, Wii and DS) in this area when there's a flea market happening. Never found anything super rare on anything, but I have gotten great deals before, like Sonic Unleashed in mint condition for €2 or a complete bootleg Wii console for €3,50.

[ignition365]

Usually thrift stores.  Every now and then goodwill thinks about getting wise... like today.  They got in a couple of really common ps1 games and marked them $10 each.  No more good will for me for a while.

I live in a pretty big city, I find some good stuff at goodwill from time to time, even get it half price because it has been in the store so long.  But the majority of my finds lately, the past year, have been through alternative channels.

[burningdoom]

A local guy at the flea market, but his prices aren't that much better than eBay. And eBay.

That's about it anymore. Sometimes I might get lucky at Goodwill, but it's becoming rarer and rarer. I go there more for CDs and DVDs mostly.

[kamikazekeeg]

Usually thrift stores.  Every now and then goodwill thinks about getting wise... like today.  They got in a couple of really common ps1 games and marked them $10 each.  No more good will for me for a while.

I live in a pretty big city, I find some good stuff at goodwill from time to time, even get it half price because it has been in the store so long.  But the majority of my finds lately, the past year, have been through alternative channels.

I hate when stores lack consistency like that.  I use to go to this one Salvation Army more cause it had reasonable prices, few bucks for modern disc or PC stuff, not bad, but it seemed like they just started getting nuts with the prices.  10 bucks for World of Warcraft expansions? A completely unplayable game used?  And I'm positive they know that most PC games aren't actually playable, especially after all these years of selling them.  Annoying when they get all this stuff donated and they try to rip people off.  At least the other Salvation Army I go to has good prices.

[Warmsignal]

This is literally not a question I have asked in a long, long time, but where do you find the majority of your gaming deals now? I know that many of us who have been at this for a while used to go to thrift stores, flea markets, Craigslist, and other well known places to find games, but due to how competitive and well known these locals are, they definitely aren't the havens of cheap games they used to be. I know that deals can still be found at these types of places, but I was wondering if you still regularly hit up your local thrift stores or pawn shops, or have you transitioned to finding games on the cheap elsewhere?

The past couple of years have been more about retail settings, game conventions, and resellers. This year in particular, I've bought mostly from a locally owned game store, another local store which just recently stored away everything back into storage (so I won't be going back there), and three gaming conventions. I visited each of the primary flea markets I go to maybe once this year without much luck. I have been making somewhat of an effort to stop off at Good Will when I'm close-by, with very little luck again. That's basically it, with maybe a few one-off exceptions.

Cheap is not really a factor that I care much about anymore, since my actual wishlist of games I still feel I should buy has dwindled down to what seems a very attainable batch - not many of them are high dollar or at the risk of becoming. Whether I find it cheap or not doesn't really matter. So hunting if anything is more to expedite the process, or to stumble across something that might appeal to me on the fly, and not so much to score a deal.

[bikingjahuty]

The thrift stores in my area have been terrible for years now, especially Goodwill, which is why I'm surprised so many of you still find a decent amount of stuff there. There are a few decent smaller thrifts, but finding anything there is pretty uncommon. Still, I hit them up if they're on the way to where I'm heading.

One place that I rarely ever checked up until about a year ago were pawn shops. I have a few that I seem to find stuff at most of the time I visit. Most of them are reasonably priced and the ones that aren't slip a lot on pricing certain things which keeps me coming back.

I have also been going to independent game stores in my area more often in recent years too. There will obviously always be games at them and there are a few in particular that charge low ebay or under ebay, which allows me to pick up titles cheaper, but still relative to their current value. I go to the overpriced ones on occasion to and make a game out of catching them misprice games well below ebay; one store in particular has a terribly inconsistent pricing system and it isn't uncommon for me to find one insane deal every time I visit.

I also go to a store called 2nd and Charles which prices their stuff according to ebay, but since their staff has limited knowledge of the collecting market, it isn't uncommon to find great deals there.

I almost never go to my local flea market anymore; it has become 90% resellers and because of that, finding anything cheap is very rare. That combined with a 40-minute drive to it makes it difficult to want to go. I've also never been big on garage sales, but seeing how big some people have scored at them on here and in local groups, I might have to change that for next season.

[hawk767]

Usually thrift stores.  Every now and then goodwill thinks about getting wise... like today.  They got in a couple of really common ps1 games and marked them $10 each.  No more good will for me for a while.

I live in a pretty big city, I find some good stuff at goodwill from time to time, even get it half price because it has been in the store so long.  But the majority of my finds lately, the past year, have been through alternative channels.

My 2 goodwills always seem to price their games pretty cheap, the only time I see anything above $10 its usually a more modern game. The worst pricing I'll find is one pawn shop in the town over, they had a glass display case that they keep most of the older games in and oh boy, they are all well above ebay prices, for loose carts up to ps3/360, they just overprice stuff like crazy. I'm not even sure how they sell that stuff, I'd bet Gamestop prices are even competitive with theirs.

[alkaid]

Edit: I'd be interested to hear how often folks who do live in bigger cities or near them come upon deals in Goodwills or other thrift stores or if those get picked dry super fast.

I live in Seattle, never seen games in a Goodwill here, and other thrift stores sometimes have Xbox sports games at best. My uncle got The Sims at a Value Village outside Seattle, but that's about it. However, we do have a few local retro game stores with good prices, so that's where I hit up. Half Price Books has a games section I glance over when I visit, but there usually isn't much that can't be found somewhere else for the same price or cheaper.

Also just found out Salvation Army has games? Guess I'll check that out.

[sworddude]

in the US I'd recomment Online deals, garage sales and potentially conventions.

Especially online and in garage sales you can find stuff in excellent shape for a deal or bargain and in garage deals potentially for almost nothing. Online is a bigger chance for rare stuff though.

In conventions if you know what you are doing you can make many deals make a nice profit while keeping stuff that you want. Easily covering your fuel costs while making some and keeping stuff that you want.

I was pretty suprised that many uncommon games and strategy guides of 20 30 euro's could be found with ease for 5 to 10 euro's sometimes even more rare 50 - 100 euro titles for only around 20 etc. pretty solid deals can be made overall even though there are so many people buying at these conventions

than again in my opinion online is king especially when people have one line in their listing so that nobody want their stuff or things that not many people know the true value off, but even with sought after stuff you can get true bargains.

I'd not recommend going to flea markets, It's cheap but the potential of stuff being there and usually in rough shape thanks to dragging it to the flea market are really not the kind of things for any serious collector especially with those cardboard boxes. You'll probably lose money and allot of time, I can say the same thing to charity shops.