I've given up on Craigslist completely and don't visit the thrifts as often as I used to, especially since they've started raising prices. Yard sales though, I'm still all over them. Good finds are always out there and I've been very fortunate to not run into much competition, knock on wood.
Depends on what you call wild. If stores count as wild, then I haven't, but if yard sales do, I guess I have. I still stop at some, but I've seen games three times in the last ten years. I normally stop for tools and cast iron, and those have been dry for years. But my area isn't exactly great for yard sales, never has been. "Best" one I go to every year is held by a reseller who runs cosignment booths in 5-6 different locations, and never has anything too interesting or rare.
I wonder if the folks on the vintage license plate and fiestaware dishes forums also bemoan the passing of the "good old days" of hunting.
A year after we bought this house, I found a box of license places. We knew of the box since we moved in, but it looked to be filled with aquarium rocks\supplies, when really it was just stacked on top. Was about 250 places in there, most from the 1980s and beyond, but a few as far back as 1930.
If you want a good idea of the local reseller / competing collector climate, simply make a Craigslist listing for a bunch of NES and SNES carts with a few moderately desirable games mixed in, at a moderate price so it doesn't come off as an obvious fake. You'll get emails from a dozen collectors near you, most trying to lie or bullshit you into selling the games to them for pennies if they get the sense that you're ignorant of what you're selling.
If you want a good idea of the local reseller / competing collector climate, simply make a Craigslist listing for a bunch of NES and SNES carts with a few moderately desirable games mixed in, at a moderate price so it doesn't come off as an obvious fake. You'll get emails from a dozen collectors near you, most trying to lie or bullshit you into selling the games to them for pennies if they get the sense that you're ignorant of what you're selling.
I've always wanted to do this just to screw with people. "Found all this crap in my closet, I dunno 50 bucks?"
I've stopped a while ago... in 2013-2014 it no longer became worth the time. I still stop by the local pawn shop once in a while but typically spend more time looking for other stuff like movies and musical gear. Honestly though, I've collected pretty much everything I wanted anyway and I've never solely looked for games to flip.
If you want a good idea of the local reseller / competing collector climate, simply make a Craigslist listing for a bunch of NES and SNES carts with a few moderately desirable games mixed in, at a moderate price so it doesn't come off as an obvious fake. You'll get emails from a dozen collectors near you, most trying to lie or bullshit you into selling the games to them for pennies if they get the sense that you're ignorant of what you're selling.
I've always wanted to do this just to screw with people. "Found all this crap in my closet, I dunno 50 bucks?"
I actually did this once a few years ago haha. Threw in some 92/93 era games. Samson, Panic but also Monopoly, Wrestlemania Challenge, SMB 3 etc. About 20 or so games. Most of the offers I got were anywhere from 10 to 50. Maybe one said 100 and one other said 500. I put it up for offer, and played like an ignorant person. When you do this, use a different email haha. I think I got close to 100 messages.
Did you offer to meet them in a really bad part of town?
Haha no. I wanted to see what people would say and offer. I just told people it sold. One guy told me to give him his name so he could buy it off of him haha
I still pop into the local thrift shop every so often because once in a while they have some PS1 or PS2 games that aren't total garbage. Anything earlier than that is nowhere to be found though, and I'm never up early enough on weekends to make garage sales worth it.
Stopped by a retro store the other day...my god the prices were bad. NES Kung Fu was selling for $30, Excite Bike for $20. Megaman 1 for $120. Spent 2 minutes looking then left. Canadian prices.
Glad I bought an Everdrive. Can't wait. Considering on buying an SD2SNES one too.
Local game shops are probably the worst place to find a good price on games unless you are buddies with the guy who runs the store. come to think of it I can't think of a single game I've bought from a 'retro game store'.
Local game shops are probably the worst place to find a good price on games unless you are buddies with the guy who runs the store. come to think of it I can't think of a single game I've bought from a 'retro game store'.
Usually. But remember you always need to do you homework. Ive went to plenty of stores where their prices made no sense. One store I went to had Gyromite for $25 , but Dragon Warrior CIB for 80 and Gemfire for 50.
I picked up Destiny of an Emperor today just cuz they had it for $15 with manual, but their copy of Adventure Island was 30.
Local game shops are probably the worst place to find a good price on games unless you are buddies with the guy who runs the store. come to think of it I can't think of a single game I've bought from a 'retro game store'.
Usually. But remember you always need to do you homework. Ive went to plenty of stores where their prices made no sense. One store I went to had Gyromite for $25 , but Dragon Warrior CIB for 80 and Gemfire for 50.
I picked up Destiny of an Emperor today just cuz they had it for $15 with manual, but their copy of Adventure Island was 30.
I typically don't get luck like that at game stores. I've had lots of luck at pawn shops for getting CIB games for the price of carts or them mispricing items, but the true used game stores around here typically start at $10 for dirt common and then go full ebay (worse for common stuff like zelda/mario) once it's anything other than junk. Basically, harder to 'catch them slipping' than a place that doesn't specialize in just video games. Havings said that, there are very few of these stores around and most have converted to selling 'geek apparel/decor'.
Local game shops are probably the worst place to find a good price on games unless you are buddies with the guy who runs the store. come to think of it I can't think of a single game I've bought from a 'retro game store'.
Usually. But remember you always need to do you homework. Ive went to plenty of stores where their prices made no sense. One store I went to had Gyromite for $25 , but Dragon Warrior CIB for 80 and Gemfire for 50.
I picked up Destiny of an Emperor today just cuz they had it for $15 with manual, but their copy of Adventure Island was 30.
I typically don't get luck like that at game stores. I've had lots of luck at pawn shops for getting CIB games for the price of carts or them mispricing items, but the true used game stores around here typically start at $10 for dirt common and then go full ebay (worse for common stuff like zelda/mario) once it's anything other than junk. Basically, harder to 'catch them slipping' than a place that doesn't specialize in just video games. Havings said that, there are very few of these stores around and most have converted to selling 'geek apparel/decor'.
Oddly enough the worst pricers are the flea markets. The one local shop I go to frequently isn't bad, its usually ebay-fair. Unless its a gameboy game that hasn't sold in a while and the price is still the same. Kaching! But thats not often. Its more like 'oh you got this weird game, and its priced pretty fairly, sure!', on top of all the store credit you get for trading them in stuff. They're also very good with trade in prices, if something is pretty valuable up to 75% trade value.
I stopped looking for games in the wild a long time ago. I feel kinda bad for folks who do it all the time to make a living, as I can think of way better ways to survive. Like get a job. Lol.
I don't do it as much and I've been hitting different places... even in a small town, there's just not as much out there anymore. I never see stuff at Goodwill like I used to, seems to only ever be disc games. Last cartridge I saw at Goodwill was 2 years ago and I've been there probably at least 40 times since.
I find that consignment shops are worth checking out. You get stuff showing up there from people who were too stingy to give to Goodwill but too lazy to bother selling.
Funny, I stopped today at 4 garage sales, just because I was feeling Lucky.
Protip: Don't look games up on eBay on your phone in front of the sellers and other patrons. You look like a Grade A rookie douche. Either know your hobby, be super slick about it or make a gamble.
I put some kid on front street about this today. He was browsing some PS2 games, and just standing there looking that shit up on eBay. I come up behind him and say
"Yeah you are just looking them up on eBay like that? Thats a rookie move bro."
He was so startled and scared that someone knew what he was doing.
^^^This reason right here is why garage sailing isn't fun for me anymore. If someone legit beats me to a game lot (which people have many times) its all good. You got it fair and square. But if the first thing you care about is the value of some 5$ PS4 games? I hope a spider lays eggs in your b-hole
(credit for the banner: Stryphos- also posted to my IG)
Yeah, that's pretty lame. If I don't know, I'll look it up later and hope I made the right choice. If you don't know a crap ps2 lot when you see one GTFO of here
I look up the price of games on my phone if I see something I'm interested in but don't know about the game. For instance, I saw Ranger X for Genesis at a store. The case looked awesome so I looked up a gameplay video and the price it goes for. They had it priced for eBay but it looked cool so I bought the game. Another instance would be seeing Mario Bros for 2600 at the same store for $25 and not having the game but not wanting to pay that much. Sure enough, it's not worth it and I've since gotten it cheaper on here. If I'm picking up tons of games I tend to not look at prices online as I usually get deals for doing lots. If I'm just looking at individual games, I don't see the harm in it.
That is why i miss the non smart phone day's, most of my game's i picked up, i had no clue beyond the label artwork if it was good or shit and everything was a new experience.
Not knowing about these game's and not giving a shit about rarity was a blessing in many case's, before i found Nintendo age, i would go to site's like hardcore gaming 101 and digitalpress to look up what game's would be fun to play.
Obviously when i started it was a slow process but the goal was to own every cool game i played when growing up and i expanded my horizons.
Being a player is how i started and is what i should always be.
The fun of the hunt for me is mostly gone and that is due to a lot of factor's, i will continue to buy cheap shit till i die but the flipper's have sucked most of the fun out of the hobby for me.
This will be the year i wrap up my snes stuff and will pretty much end my hunting for game's, i will continue to buy but will not be actively looking for stuff.
Eleven years is a long time and atleast the first six year's were amazing, me and my highschool buddy did this together, he started in 2000 and i started in 2006. It was a blast but i guess every good thing has to end at some point, full time playing for me after my last five are bought.
Yeah... it doesn't work like that anymore. $40-50 on a whim on an unknown game isn't logical for a lot of people now. When it was $5-10 for a gem game, who fucking cares? Buy the whole lot. Only a moron would grab handfuls of games priced at $30 each and not do their research or know what they're doing.
Comments
I wonder if the folks on the vintage license plate and fiestaware dishes forums also bemoan the passing of the "good old days" of hunting.
A year after we bought this house, I found a box of license places. We knew of the box since we moved in, but it looked to be filled with aquarium rocks\supplies, when really it was just stacked on top. Was about 250 places in there, most from the 1980s and beyond, but a few as far back as 1930.
In fact, I haven't bought a game since December 31st, and traded for one in March. Just nothing out there to find at the moment.
"Ohio Man finds rare license plates, including the very elusive 1931 Wyoming! You won't believe what it is worth!"
If you want a good idea of the local reseller / competing collector climate, simply make a Craigslist listing for a bunch of NES and SNES carts with a few moderately desirable games mixed in, at a moderate price so it doesn't come off as an obvious fake. You'll get emails from a dozen collectors near you, most trying to lie or bullshit you into selling the games to them for pennies if they get the sense that you're ignorant of what you're selling.
I've always wanted to do this just to screw with people. "Found all this crap in my closet, I dunno 50 bucks?"
Originally posted by: Bert
Originally posted by: tubeway
If you want a good idea of the local reseller / competing collector climate, simply make a Craigslist listing for a bunch of NES and SNES carts with a few moderately desirable games mixed in, at a moderate price so it doesn't come off as an obvious fake. You'll get emails from a dozen collectors near you, most trying to lie or bullshit you into selling the games to them for pennies if they get the sense that you're ignorant of what you're selling.
I've always wanted to do this just to screw with people. "Found all this crap in my closet, I dunno 50 bucks?"
I actually did this once a few years ago haha. Threw in some 92/93 era games. Samson, Panic but also Monopoly, Wrestlemania Challenge, SMB 3 etc. About 20 or so games. Most of the offers I got were anywhere from 10 to 50. Maybe one said 100 and one other said 500. I put it up for offer, and played like an ignorant person. When you do this, use a different email haha. I think I got close to 100 messages.
Originally posted by: Tulpa
Did you offer to meet them in a really bad part of town?
Haha no. I wanted to see what people would say and offer. I just told people it sold. One guy told me to give him his name so he could buy it off of him haha
Glad I bought an Everdrive. Can't wait. Considering on buying an SD2SNES one too.
One guy told me to give him his name so he could buy it off of him haha
Man, you're making me scheme. I'd give them the name of someone I didn't like and tell the first dude to be persistent as they would deny having them.
One guy told me to give him his name so he could buy it off of him haha
Man, you're making me scheme. I'd give them the name of someone I didn't like and tell the first dude to be persistent as they would deny having them.
I'm going to make a listing for a crappy shovel and leave pile of CIB SNES games in the background and see if anybody notices
Originally posted by: Andy_Bogomil
Local game shops are probably the worst place to find a good price on games unless you are buddies with the guy who runs the store. come to think of it I can't think of a single game I've bought from a 'retro game store'.
Usually. But remember you always need to do you homework. Ive went to plenty of stores where their prices made no sense. One store I went to had Gyromite for $25 , but Dragon Warrior CIB for 80 and Gemfire for 50.
I picked up Destiny of an Emperor today just cuz they had it for $15 with manual, but their copy of Adventure Island was 30.
Originally posted by: guitarzombie
Originally posted by: Andy_Bogomil
Local game shops are probably the worst place to find a good price on games unless you are buddies with the guy who runs the store. come to think of it I can't think of a single game I've bought from a 'retro game store'.
Usually. But remember you always need to do you homework. Ive went to plenty of stores where their prices made no sense. One store I went to had Gyromite for $25 , but Dragon Warrior CIB for 80 and Gemfire for 50.
I picked up Destiny of an Emperor today just cuz they had it for $15 with manual, but their copy of Adventure Island was 30.
I typically don't get luck like that at game stores. I've had lots of luck at pawn shops for getting CIB games for the price of carts or them mispricing items, but the true used game stores around here typically start at $10 for dirt common and then go full ebay (worse for common stuff like zelda/mario) once it's anything other than junk. Basically, harder to 'catch them slipping' than a place that doesn't specialize in just video games. Havings said that, there are very few of these stores around and most have converted to selling 'geek apparel/decor'.
Originally posted by: Andy_Bogomil
Originally posted by: guitarzombie
Originally posted by: Andy_Bogomil
Local game shops are probably the worst place to find a good price on games unless you are buddies with the guy who runs the store. come to think of it I can't think of a single game I've bought from a 'retro game store'.
Usually. But remember you always need to do you homework. Ive went to plenty of stores where their prices made no sense. One store I went to had Gyromite for $25 , but Dragon Warrior CIB for 80 and Gemfire for 50.
I picked up Destiny of an Emperor today just cuz they had it for $15 with manual, but their copy of Adventure Island was 30.
I typically don't get luck like that at game stores. I've had lots of luck at pawn shops for getting CIB games for the price of carts or them mispricing items, but the true used game stores around here typically start at $10 for dirt common and then go full ebay (worse for common stuff like zelda/mario) once it's anything other than junk. Basically, harder to 'catch them slipping' than a place that doesn't specialize in just video games. Havings said that, there are very few of these stores around and most have converted to selling 'geek apparel/decor'.
Oddly enough the worst pricers are the flea markets. The one local shop I go to frequently isn't bad, its usually ebay-fair. Unless its a gameboy game that hasn't sold in a while and the price is still the same. Kaching! But thats not often. Its more like 'oh you got this weird game, and its priced pretty fairly, sure!', on top of all the store credit you get for trading them in stuff. They're also very good with trade in prices, if something is pretty valuable up to 75% trade value.
I find that consignment shops are worth checking out. You get stuff showing up there from people who were too stingy to give to Goodwill but too lazy to bother selling.
Protip: Don't look games up on eBay on your phone in front of the sellers and other patrons. You look like a Grade A rookie douche. Either know your hobby, be super slick about it or make a gamble.
I put some kid on front street about this today. He was browsing some PS2 games, and just standing there looking that shit up on eBay. I come up behind him and say
"Yeah you are just looking them up on eBay like that? Thats a rookie move bro."
He was so startled and scared that someone knew what he was doing.
^^^This reason right here is why garage sailing isn't fun for me anymore. If someone legit beats me to a game lot (which people have many times) its all good. You got it fair and square. But if the first thing you care about is the value of some 5$ PS4 games? I hope a spider lays eggs in your b-hole
(credit for the banner: Stryphos- also posted to my IG)
Not knowing about these game's and not giving a shit about rarity was a blessing in many case's, before i found Nintendo age, i would go to site's like hardcore gaming 101 and digitalpress to look up what game's would be fun to play.
Obviously when i started it was a slow process but the goal was to own every cool game i played when growing up and i expanded my horizons.
Being a player is how i started and is what i should always be.
The fun of the hunt for me is mostly gone and that is due to a lot of factor's, i will continue to buy cheap shit till i die but the flipper's have sucked most of the fun out of the hobby for me.
This will be the year i wrap up my snes stuff and will pretty much end my hunting for game's, i will continue to buy but will not be actively looking for stuff.
Eleven years is a long time and atleast the first six year's were amazing, me and my highschool buddy did this together, he started in 2000 and i started in 2006. It was a blast but i guess every good thing has to end at some point, full time playing for me after my last five are bought.
I do not envy newer people doing this, unless you are into 2600.
That is still something that can be enjoyed and bought mostly for cheap.