Could one person effect a carts value??
I was wondering, some carts are known to be difficult to find but are very cheap when sold loose. Do you think one person could effect a carts price by buying up all the cheap stock on Ebay and reselling it? It is cornering the market on something we know is limited and of course wouldn't work on most titles.
Take Chavez II for example. It is one of the hardest games to find on the SNES. Currently there are 8 BIN auctions going right now with 6 of them less than $20, one at $30, and one at $35 (rounded). Couldn't you buy all the ones $20 and less and then repost a couple of them at the $35 mark. When people see the influx of sales and the lowest one on Ebay being $30, they will set theirs at $30. Buy up the first peoples auctions at $30 ( and any other lower ones) and repost at $45. Now the cheapest one being the $35 and you just have to repeat.
Now of course this would have to be a long process and you have to be willing to take the risk. In this instance if you were able to hold onto some of the first ones you bought, you could resell them at a higer price and offset any extra losses you incurred by buying all the ones on Ebay, and Ebay fees. Just imagine if you had a couple of guys working together buying them off of each other, inflating the price over a period of time. Anybody that tried to undercut your price would be quickly bought and reposted at the higher price. A lot of people just look at what the current prices are and fall in line when pricing their items.
This is just a wild idea, and I doubt it would work. I just wanted your thoughts about one person effecting game collecting.
I hope I don't give anybody any ideas.
Mason
Take Chavez II for example. It is one of the hardest games to find on the SNES. Currently there are 8 BIN auctions going right now with 6 of them less than $20, one at $30, and one at $35 (rounded). Couldn't you buy all the ones $20 and less and then repost a couple of them at the $35 mark. When people see the influx of sales and the lowest one on Ebay being $30, they will set theirs at $30. Buy up the first peoples auctions at $30 ( and any other lower ones) and repost at $45. Now the cheapest one being the $35 and you just have to repeat.
Now of course this would have to be a long process and you have to be willing to take the risk. In this instance if you were able to hold onto some of the first ones you bought, you could resell them at a higer price and offset any extra losses you incurred by buying all the ones on Ebay, and Ebay fees. Just imagine if you had a couple of guys working together buying them off of each other, inflating the price over a period of time. Anybody that tried to undercut your price would be quickly bought and reposted at the higher price. A lot of people just look at what the current prices are and fall in line when pricing their items.
This is just a wild idea, and I doubt it would work. I just wanted your thoughts about one person effecting game collecting.
I hope I don't give anybody any ideas.
Mason
Comments
Then again you have somebody like justabum who at one point had hundreds upon hundreds of Silent Service carts. Despite this, the game remained worthless.......
It's retarded, but yes I believe this is possible...
That said, it doesn't work if everybody knows that one guy bought it all up. You would need a bunch of shills to buy stuff for you in order to get things off of the market.
If everybody knows that one specific person controls the entirety of one segment of the market, then the price will remain flat, since that person HAS to sell to recover costs, and everybody knows that there is no shortage of supply, so they refuse to pay a premium.
Also I don't keep track of who buys what on Ebay. I would have no clue if somebody was hording a bunch of a title.
Just trying to discuss. Thanks for your thoughts guys.
I do understand where you are coming from, but there are a lot of collectors that aren't an boards like this that won't know whats going on.They just look at the current pricing and price their items accordingly. Also if one was to use many different Ebay accounts, it would be hard for the "general public" to put it together. I am sayign this would have to be a slow process. Not something done in 2 months it could take a year, but it is an investment of time and money. The question is can it be done. I believe with a limited title like Chavez II it could be possible.
Also I don't keep track of who buys what on Ebay. I would have no clue if somebody was hording a bunch of a title.
Just trying to discuss. Thanks for your thoughts guys.
That's my point. You would HAVE to do this in order to actually meaningfully manipulate the price. If it's obvious that one person is buying everything, then that poor bastard is going to get stuck holding the bag at some point.
I do understand where you are coming from, but there are a lot of collectors that aren't an boards like this that won't know whats going on.They just look at the current pricing and price their items accordingly. Also if one was to use many different Ebay accounts, it would be hard for the "general public" to put it together. I am sayign this would have to be a slow process. Not something done in 2 months it could take a year, but it is an investment of time and money. The question is can it be done. I believe with a limited title like Chavez II it could be possible.
Also I don't keep track of who buys what on Ebay. I would have no clue if somebody was hording a bunch of a title.
Just trying to discuss. Thanks for your thoughts guys.
That's my point. You would HAVE to do this in order to actually meaningfully manipulate the price. If it's obvious that one person is buying everything, then that poor bastard is going to get stuck holding the bag at some point.
I know you would have to, but isn't Ebay bidding anonymous anyway? Isn't the bidding and winner represented by something like 1****g or something and it change from auction to auction? I still think it difficult to track for the public. Now if you were running your mouth about doing it on collector forums, it would be a different story.
Buy Baseball Cards for cheap
Destroy Baseball Cards
??????
Profit!
It's just like manipulating the stock market but with a much lower volume and market cap to deal with.
That said, it doesn't work if everybody knows that one guy bought it all up. You would need a bunch of shills to buy stuff for you in order to get things off of the market.
If everybody knows that one specific person controls the entirety of one segment of the market, then the price will remain flat, since that person HAS to sell to recover costs, and everybody knows that there is no shortage of supply, so they refuse to pay a premium.
That's not always 100% the case. DeBeers owns a retarded amount of diamond stock, so much so, if they relased it all, the price of diamonds would plummet. They withhold a substancial amount of their stock of diamonds from the market, allowing them to slowly trickle out there instead, and I don't think I need to tell you how valuable diamonds are.....
But a big component of this is that most people are ignorant as to how many gem quality diamonds are being witheld by DeBeers, thus giving them the advantage of the perception that diamonds are in short supply.
It's just like manipulating the stock market but with a much lower volume and market cap to deal with.
That said, it doesn't work if everybody knows that one guy bought it all up. You would need a bunch of shills to buy stuff for you in order to get things off of the market.
If everybody knows that one specific person controls the entirety of one segment of the market, then the price will remain flat, since that person HAS to sell to recover costs, and everybody knows that there is no shortage of supply, so they refuse to pay a premium.
That's not always 100% the case. DeBeers owns a retarded amount of diamond stock, so much so, if they relased it all, the price of diamonds would plummet. They withhold a substancial amount of their stock of diamonds from the market, allowing them to slowly trickle out there instead, and I don't think I need to tell you how valuable diamonds are.....
But a big component of this is that most people are ignorant as to how many gem quality diamonds are being witheld by DeBeers, thus giving them the advantage of the perception that diamonds are in short supply.
DeBeers profits fell 99% this year. Industrial grade large high quality diamonds are being lab created that are indistinguishable from the real thing. They'll lose their status soon enough.
EDIT to add: You are absolutely right that what DeBeers did only worked because people were ignorant. Again, this is why it would require a lot of shill buyers to manipulate the video game market, since it's relatively small and the buyers are on average more savvy about the specialty than other "commodity" markets
reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of Silver Spoons.
It's just like manipulating the stock market but with a much lower volume and market cap to deal with.
That said, it doesn't work if everybody knows that one guy bought it all up. You would need a bunch of shills to buy stuff for you in order to get things off of the market.
If everybody knows that one specific person controls the entirety of one segment of the market, then the price will remain flat, since that person HAS to sell to recover costs, and everybody knows that there is no shortage of supply, so they refuse to pay a premium.
That's not always 100% the case. DeBeers owns a retarded amount of diamond stock, so much so, if they relased it all, the price of diamonds would plummet. They withhold a substancial amount of their stock of diamonds from the market, allowing them to slowly trickle out there instead, and I don't think I need to tell you how valuable diamonds are.....
But a big component of this is that most people are ignorant as to how many gem quality diamonds are being witheld by DeBeers, thus giving them the advantage of the perception that diamonds are in short supply.
DeBeers profits fell 99% this year. Industrial grade large high quality diamonds are being lab created that are indistinguishable from the real thing. They'll lose their status soon enough.
EDIT to add: You are absolutely right that what DeBeers did only worked because people were ignorant. Again, this is why it would require a lot of shill buyers to manipulate the video game market, since it's relatively small and the buyers are on average more savvy about the specialty than other "commodity" markets
but we aren't talking about cornering the game market. We are talking about one game, that has 8 auctions at one time.
As for manipulating game prices, It's possible, but not easily done. You'd have to have a demand for a certain cart, combined with rarity. Chavex II is not all that rare really, I think it's rarity has been over stated. Second, the fact that you can see multiple cart onlys for $20 should tell you that the demand for it isn't very strong. You could buy them all up and try to sell them for $30, just to find that no one wants them. You could try shilling your auctions, and see if that would spur the "frenzy" to get one, but even then the supply could increase as more people would take notice and list more copies competing with what you though was the supply.
The NWC's are a better example of manipulation. There is such a small supply, that for the most part is accounted for, and they only sell for set prices( you never see a no reserve NWC stating at .99). The cart itself is in high demand, so as long as all the owner/sellers continue to ask about the same price, the price will remain where it is. If they all decide to ask for 1k more, that's where the price will be, etc.
This has kind of happened with R.O.B. stuff too on ebay, with that one guy buying all of them that come up(sometimes even overpriced ones) just to keep control of the market, In hopes thatthe demand will rise enough to resell what he's bought at a profit.
IMO, there are much cheaper and easier ways to turn a profit in video games.
Isn't this the sort of the same situation as with the Aladdin Deck Enhancer and games for it, I remember when it was hard to find and expensive then all of a sudden it got real cheap.
The became really cheap when a warehouse full of them was uncovered and it was known that a single seller was stuck holding the whole lot. The couldn't demand a premium because they had to get rid of them, and people wouldn't pay a premium because they knew the item wasn't rare at all.
Mike Etler, btw is a different thing, he bought the only 1500 CMII ever made and sold them off for like $100 a piece, anything after that has been what the market has done with the title.
oops, you guys beat me too it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6PIBt1SjjI
reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of Silver Spoons.
ONE of? favorite?
I never knew this show existed, and for good reason. It is quite possibly the worst thing i have ever saw.
Mason, this has happened with TG16 stuff on ebay... One guy buys everything, then tries to resell it with super high BINs...
It's retarded, but yes I believe this is possible...
Yup. It was years ago. Like at least 5 or 6 years ago... not sure if he is still doing it, but a guy with the username "andre_henretta" or something like that was consistently winning copies of Magical Chase for the TG-16, which is the rarest game for the system.
I don't think anybody knew what he planned to do with all of them, but I remember everybody assuming that he was trying to get all of them, and then he could control the price of them. Whether or not that makes sense, is up for you to decide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6PIBt1SjjI
reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of Silver Spoons.
ONE of? favorite?
I never knew this show existed, and for good reason. It is quite possibly the worst thing i have ever saw.
If you had grown up in the early to mid eighties, you'd think much differently. Of course it's terrible now, but it was a really good show back then. My second favorite was an episode where precracked out Whitney Houston played Alfonso's (guy from Fresh Prince) Dad's girlfriend.
They had a train going through their house, a full arcade, basically everything you'd ever want. It was awesome.
This has kind of happened with R.O.B. stuff too on ebay, with that one guy buying all of them that come up(sometimes even overpriced ones) just to keep control of the market, In hopes thatthe demand will rise enough to resell what he's bought at a profit.
This guy was pissing me off so badly when I was trying to track down a Small Box R.O.B. He's got like 4 or 5 shills/storefronts going, and they all bid on this stuff, turn right around and BIN it for 3-4x the price. I remember one auction I lost to him that was a mint CIB ROB, ended at like $225-ish. It was relisted the next week by him for something like $600. I was so pissed.