I used to think that pawn shops sucked because they all sell on eBay and price Super Mario World carts at $25, but you just have to find one of the old-school ones that don't sell on eBay. When I first started selling games I went through a dozen pawn shops before I found a few that don't sell/price their items on eBay.
Alright, so even though it rained pretty hard today, this weekend ended up being great.
My first stop out of two garage sales that were advertised as having "Nintendo and games" on Craigslist yielded this nice CIB Pokemon Pikachu N64. Includes all original docs, microphone, mic adapter, matching controller with firm joystick, Hey U Pikachu!. Also came with a CIB Pokemon Snap, CIB Pokemon Stadium with transfer pak, and when I got home I found a Pokemon Yellow in the transfer pak! The lot was quite a challenge to negotiate because the person selling it started at $75 and said that they were firm on the price. We all know that firm prices don't really exist at garage/yard sales, so I ended up taking everything for $50.
From the same sale I picked up the following N64 games (the top 3 are CIB) for $14. Notice the $5 price tags on all of the games - I think I did pretty great haggling at this sale. The Puzzle Bobble 2 game I picked up just because its kind of an oddity and it was only a dollar.
The next garage sale was even better. I asked how much the sellers wanted for a big box of games and systems, and they said $25. A smile popped onto my face and the cash appeared instantly in my hand. I guess I was a little too excited about this one, because the seller said "Oh, I mean $25 for each system with the games". $50 was still a good buy for this lot, but it was clear that the seller would negotiate - I ended up taking the whole box for $35. Includes everything in the two pictures below. Some highlights are Wanderers from Y's III, Breath of Fire, 2 copies of Mario Kart, 2 copies of Mario World, Mario All-Stars, Yoshi's Island, Tetris & Dr. Mario, Donkey Kong 1, 2, both NES Zeldas, Donkey Kong Classics, etc. The stuff will all need some rubbing alcohol and magic eraser love but this find was huge.
Notice the nice little Yobo in the upper left of the second pic.
On the way home I stopped at a random pawn shop I had never been in before and I'm glad I did, because all of their DS games were priced at $6.99. Picked up these three at a discount for $20 total. The proprietor just put the cash in the register without ringing it up. I seem to see this all the time in pawn shops.
Nothing big today, but this is another find that is notable because it was from a pawn shop. $8 total for Mario 3, MTPO in sleeve, minty Zelda II + manual, CIB Golden Axe, 5 random NES manuals and 1 SNES manual.
Earlier this week on Monday I picked up a $75 lot that included a Dreamcast with 10 games, GameCube w/5 games, NES w/20 games, Wavebird controller, Dogbone controller, and more, but that was just a mediocre find.
Today I had a much, much better find! My want ads on Craigslist have been getting flagged off almost instantly by other resellers so I consider myself pretty lucky to have gotten this lot. I got a call from someone who saw my want ad who lives only a couple of miles from me. I picked up EVERYTHING in all the following pics for $90, and the seller was very happy to see it go!
Summary: Crappy SNES, 17 games N64 + 9 games 4 nice N64 controllers 2 Super Advantage controllers Game Boy Color 3 GBA games, 1 GBC game Atari w/lots of accessories, 40 games (nothing rare) GameCube w/memory card, 2 controllers, 3 games 4 original XBox controllers other various nice things
Ignore my nasty basement carpet:
I thought these three items were notable because I had never gotten anything like them before (commodore games + unidentified controller)
Nice pick up dude, it's pretty sad when other resellers are flagging your ads on CL. Good to see you picked this one up
Thanks man! Yeah, it happens...to be fair, I do say in my ads that I "pay more than the pawn shops and flea markets" so I guess its reasonable for them to have a grudge.
In addition to a sweet Game Boy demo kiosk, today I picked up the following after a 4 hour yard-sailing trip (sorry, no pics):
NES Top Loader w/2 dogbone controllers, StarForce, Breakthru, Gyruss - $40 3 PSP Games: Star Wars Battlefront II, FFVII Crisis Core, Dragon Ball Z blah blah - $12 Yoshi's Island (SNES) - $1 Star Wars Battlefront (PS2) CIB - $2 Yoshi's Cookie (NES) w/manual + sleeve - $1 TI-83 Plus graphing calculator (these things are excellent for resale) - $15 Nintendo 64 w/Exp pak, 2 controllers, 12 games, all in Nintendo clear plastic cases with minty manuals, mostly sports but included Mario Kart, Star Fox, DK Racing w/strategy guide - $35
Today I picked up a great resale lot from a pawn shop - what a great way to start the week!
The owner of this shop always gives me huge discounts. I have no idea how they stay in business. The GBA Pokemon games were marked at $10 each, and I got them for $5 each - the other GBA games were marked at $5 each and I got them for $3.50 each (and one was thrown in for free). The DS games were marked at $7 each and I got them for $4 each! Finally, the F-1 Race / Game Boy Multitap was $4.
Total price paid = $111
The DS games are pretty lame (all pet simulations/kids games etc) but I picked up some nice GBA games. Sword of Mana, FF 1 + 2 Dawn of Souls, FF VI, Mario 3, Yoshi's Island, Kingdom Hearts, Frogger Adventures, Mega Man Battle Network 2, Tales of Phantasia, and the Pokemon games.
It was miscategorized in Toys & Hobbies instead of video games. At first it looks like its just an NES with 2 controllers, but when you look at the other pics there is an advantage controller in box, wireless NES controller, and 5 magazines including a Nintendo Power Issue #1 and Mario 2 and 3 strat guides. Will provide pics when it arrives - it looked like the magazines were in decent shape so I rolled the dice!
Great nabs bud, with all of these finds you've got to be stockpiling inventory faster than you can sell it, right? Not that that's a bad thing, just requires a good bit of extra room!
Great nabs bud, with all of these finds you've got to be stockpiling inventory faster than you can sell it, right? Not that that's a bad thing, just requires a good bit of extra room!
Yep - and I'm only posting about half of my finds here (basically whenever I get a chance to lay everything out for a good picture because I know people want pics). I have a little storage unit/shop that I've been working on...I've got lots of shelving, a security system, and a nice work bench/counter. All of my inventory is currently in the shop but it is a total mess. I am slowly getting organized and cleaning everything up, and I'll have pics and probably a video or two soon once I get everything in order.
I am definitely buying way faster than I am selling, but I am making great money too so I don't mind the accumulation of stuff - I am selling and shipping out 30-35 items per day - It is easily a full time job at this point!
In reference to GB lot, that pawn shop most-likely paid next to nothing for those games thats how he stays in business, buys low, sells low. I've got a local pawn I go to to get games, last I picked up 63 unique NES games for $40.00 and he claims he still made money? Must have paid $10-20 for them to sell em' to me that low.
In reference to GB lot, that pawn shop most-likely paid next to nothing for those games thats how he stays in business, buys low, sells low. I've got a local pawn I go to to get games, last I picked up 63 unique NES games for $40.00 and he claims he still made money? Must have paid $10-20 for them to sell em' to me that low.
Great Score BTW!
Yeah..it's hard to believe that people are selling DS games for $1 when they bought them new for their kids a couple of years ago. It makes me want to open a retail shop...but I know that the overhead wouldn't be worth the gains from having people bring games to me.
So I drove out to Rochester (1.5 hours one way) a few days ago. I was rolling the dice on a very vague CL posting that basically said "many boxes of video game items from Atari to Wii and XBox 360". It was listed for $750, and without really knowing much about the package I agreed to take a look at it and pay a maximum of $500.
Well, it ended up costing me $500, and essentially what I got was:
Two NES systems (one top loader), 68 NES games (some good) A Mini SNES, 8 crappy SNES games An N64 with 10 good games PS1 with about 30 mixed games (some good) PS2 with a handful of games and a network adapter Gamecube with all the Resident Evil games except Code X Veronica and a Wavebird controller Atari 2600 with a handful of games Sega Genesis with a few crappy games An XBox 360 with a hard drive, 2 controllers, wireless network adapter, 15 older games (nothing great), and some other accessories A Wii with 2 Wiimotes, Twilight Princess, Wii Sports/Wii Play, some other accessories A collection of 44 DVDs (actually almost all good ones/classics) and 6 box sets of various t.v. shows (also a DVD player thrown in there) A handful of PC games including FFVIII, Metal Gear Solid, and Planescape: Torment (for sale in my FS thread) 2 boxes full of minty strategy guides/posters/etc
I have already sold the Wii package for $200 and the XBox 360 package for $280. A SWEET score for sure -- unfortunately I have no pics because I didn't have the space to lay everything out for a good picture.
I feel bad for not posting any pictures of the find in my last post so I will show off my yard sale finds from today. Not a great day for yard sales, but not among my worst either. I paid a little more than I would have liked for a few items, and this pic represents the fruits of about 4 hours of hard labor (lol). Total spent was $140 including gas.
Ignore my crappy basement floor:
Dirty N64 with exp pak, 5 crappy games, and 3 crappy controllers - $18 NES Action Set (box is 8/10) with all styro, inserts, manuals, system, 2 controllers, cords, Mario/DH - $30 NES Advantage controller CIB - $5 Nintendo Power Issue 1 (mint) - $1 <--this is my first issue #1 in good condition, it's definitely a keeper Mario Bros. 3 Official Player's Guide - $1 Super Mario 2 tips part II - $1 The Official Nintendo Player's Guide (no stickers unfortunately) - $2 Final Fantasy Official Player's Guide - $1 Large ROB poster, small ROB poster, Ironsword poster, Bases Loaded poster, and mint Mario Bros. manual - all came in a plastic bag for $1 The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (GameCube) - $10 Kirby: Squeak Squad (DS) - $7 Rune Factory (DS) - $7 Super Mario 64 CIB (crappy box) - $2 Star Fox 64 CIB (crappy box) - $2 Goldeneye 007 - $2 Super Mario World - $3 Super Mario All-Stars - $3 Loose NES w/cables, 2 controllers - $15 Acclaim Wireless NES controller w/receiver - $4
The Nintendo Power Issue #1 is by far the best find of the bunch. I was not a collector when I joined this site but I have slowly been accumulating neat things and I am definitely holding onto a bunch of stuff.
I've been buying a lot of stuff and trying to get my shop organized and equipped for business so I haven't had much time to post finds, but I had a particularly nice one today.
This is from the price check thread I posted here:
I also ended up buying the guy's Nintendo 64 stuff, which he wanted $125 for but I talked him down to $75.
There were 6 Game Boy games and 2 Game Boy Advance games included that were never mentioned, a Game Boy Player with disc, and Super Mario Sunshine for GameCube that weren't mentioned in the original deal. Also a CIB F-1 Race with multi-tap (2 multi-taps in fact) and a pile of accessories and cases. He also threw in a bunch of strategy guides that were also not mentioned in the original deal.
I was also very impressed that he had all the manuals for the games, and posters/maps where applicable, and the faux-leather N64 carrying case is kind of neat. He also threw in a dozen Nintendo 64 rental cases and pretty much every Game Boy/GBA game came with a plastic case.
Everything in all of the pics was $185 total.
As I was sorting through this stuff another great find arrived at my doorstep:
O.K. - so I went to a garage sale advertising "lots of Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Atari items". I arrived at the sale as a dude was walking away with two boxes and I saw a SNES on top so I was pretty pleased after a 40 minute drive.
Then on the way home I got a call about an ancient wanted ad (I posted at least 2 months ago) and picked up the following for $12 (games were $1/each):
Comments
My first stop out of two garage sales that were advertised as having "Nintendo and games" on Craigslist yielded this nice CIB Pokemon Pikachu N64. Includes all original docs, microphone, mic adapter, matching controller with firm joystick, Hey U Pikachu!. Also came with a CIB Pokemon Snap, CIB Pokemon Stadium with transfer pak, and when I got home I found a Pokemon Yellow in the transfer pak! The lot was quite a challenge to negotiate because the person selling it started at $75 and said that they were firm on the price. We all know that firm prices don't really exist at garage/yard sales, so I ended up taking everything for $50.
From the same sale I picked up the following N64 games (the top 3 are CIB) for $14. Notice the $5 price tags on all of the games - I think I did pretty great haggling at this sale. The Puzzle Bobble 2 game I picked up just because its kind of an oddity and it was only a dollar.
The next garage sale was even better. I asked how much the sellers wanted for a big box of games and systems, and they said $25. A smile popped onto my face and the cash appeared instantly in my hand. I guess I was a little too excited about this one, because the seller said "Oh, I mean $25 for each system with the games". $50 was still a good buy for this lot, but it was clear that the seller would negotiate - I ended up taking the whole box for $35. Includes everything in the two pictures below. Some highlights are Wanderers from Y's III, Breath of Fire, 2 copies of Mario Kart, 2 copies of Mario World, Mario All-Stars, Yoshi's Island, Tetris & Dr. Mario, Donkey Kong 1, 2, both NES Zeldas, Donkey Kong Classics, etc. The stuff will all need some rubbing alcohol and magic eraser love but this find was huge.
Notice the nice little Yobo in the upper left of the second pic.
On the way home I stopped at a random pawn shop I had never been in before and I'm glad I did, because all of their DS games were priced at $6.99. Picked up these three at a discount for $20 total. The proprietor just put the cash in the register without ringing it up. I seem to see this all the time in pawn shops.
Today I had a much, much better find! My want ads on Craigslist have been getting flagged off almost instantly by other resellers so I consider myself pretty lucky to have gotten this lot. I got a call from someone who saw my want ad who lives only a couple of miles from me. I picked up EVERYTHING in all the following pics for $90, and the seller was very happy to see it go!
Summary:
Crappy SNES, 17 games
N64 + 9 games
4 nice N64 controllers
2 Super Advantage controllers
Game Boy Color
3 GBA games, 1 GBC game
Atari w/lots of accessories, 40 games (nothing rare)
GameCube w/memory card, 2 controllers, 3 games
4 original XBox controllers
other various nice things
Ignore my nasty basement carpet:
I thought these three items were notable because I had never gotten anything like them before (commodore games + unidentified controller)
Nice pick up dude, it's pretty sad when other resellers are flagging your ads on CL. Good to see you picked this one up
Thanks man! Yeah, it happens...to be fair, I do say in my ads that I "pay more than the pawn shops and flea markets" so I guess its reasonable for them to have a grudge.
NES Top Loader w/2 dogbone controllers, StarForce, Breakthru, Gyruss - $40
3 PSP Games: Star Wars Battlefront II, FFVII Crisis Core, Dragon Ball Z blah blah - $12
Yoshi's Island (SNES) - $1
Star Wars Battlefront (PS2) CIB - $2
Yoshi's Cookie (NES) w/manual + sleeve - $1
TI-83 Plus graphing calculator (these things are excellent for resale) - $15
Nintendo 64 w/Exp pak, 2 controllers, 12 games, all in Nintendo clear plastic cases with minty manuals, mostly sports but included Mario Kart, Star Fox, DK Racing w/strategy guide - $35
The owner of this shop always gives me huge discounts. I have no idea how they stay in business. The GBA Pokemon games were marked at $10 each, and I got them for $5 each - the other GBA games were marked at $5 each and I got them for $3.50 each (and one was thrown in for free). The DS games were marked at $7 each and I got them for $4 each! Finally, the F-1 Race / Game Boy Multitap was $4.
Total price paid = $111
The DS games are pretty lame (all pet simulations/kids games etc) but I picked up some nice GBA games. Sword of Mana, FF 1 + 2 Dawn of Souls, FF VI, Mario 3, Yoshi's Island, Kingdom Hearts, Frogger Adventures, Mega Man Battle Network 2, Tales of Phantasia, and the Pokemon games.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380244329627&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
It was miscategorized in Toys & Hobbies instead of video games. At first it looks like its just an NES with 2 controllers, but when you look at the other pics there is an advantage controller in box, wireless NES controller, and 5 magazines including a Nintendo Power Issue #1 and Mario 2 and 3 strat guides. Will provide pics when it arrives - it looked like the magazines were in decent shape so I rolled the dice!
Great nabs bud, with all of these finds you've got to be stockpiling inventory faster than you can sell it, right? Not that that's a bad thing, just requires a good bit of extra room!
Yep - and I'm only posting about half of my finds here (basically whenever I get a chance to lay everything out for a good picture because I know people want pics). I have a little storage unit/shop that I've been working on...I've got lots of shelving, a security system, and a nice work bench/counter. All of my inventory is currently in the shop but it is a total mess. I am slowly getting organized and cleaning everything up, and I'll have pics and probably a video or two soon once I get everything in order.
I am definitely buying way faster than I am selling, but I am making great money too so I don't mind the accumulation of stuff - I am selling and shipping out 30-35 items per day - It is easily a full time job at this point!
Great Score BTW!
In reference to GB lot, that pawn shop most-likely paid next to nothing for those games thats how he stays in business, buys low, sells low. I've got a local pawn I go to to get games, last I picked up 63 unique NES games for $40.00 and he claims he still made money? Must have paid $10-20 for them to sell em' to me that low.
Great Score BTW!
Yeah..it's hard to believe that people are selling DS games for $1 when they bought them new for their kids a couple of years ago. It makes me want to open a retail shop...but I know that the overhead wouldn't be worth the gains from having people bring games to me.
Well, it ended up costing me $500, and essentially what I got was:
Two NES systems (one top loader), 68 NES games (some good)
A Mini SNES, 8 crappy SNES games
An N64 with 10 good games
PS1 with about 30 mixed games (some good)
PS2 with a handful of games and a network adapter
Gamecube with all the Resident Evil games except Code X Veronica and a Wavebird controller
Atari 2600 with a handful of games
Sega Genesis with a few crappy games
An XBox 360 with a hard drive, 2 controllers, wireless network adapter, 15 older games (nothing great), and some other accessories
A Wii with 2 Wiimotes, Twilight Princess, Wii Sports/Wii Play, some other accessories
A collection of 44 DVDs (actually almost all good ones/classics) and 6 box sets of various t.v. shows (also a DVD player thrown in there)
A handful of PC games including FFVIII, Metal Gear Solid, and Planescape: Torment (for sale in my FS thread)
2 boxes full of minty strategy guides/posters/etc
I have already sold the Wii package for $200 and the XBox 360 package for $280. A SWEET score for sure -- unfortunately I have no pics because I didn't have the space to lay everything out for a good picture.
Ignore my crappy basement floor:
Dirty N64 with exp pak, 5 crappy games, and 3 crappy controllers - $18
NES Action Set (box is 8/10) with all styro, inserts, manuals, system, 2 controllers, cords, Mario/DH - $30
NES Advantage controller CIB - $5
Nintendo Power Issue 1 (mint) - $1 <--this is my first issue #1 in good condition, it's definitely a keeper
Mario Bros. 3 Official Player's Guide - $1
Super Mario 2 tips part II - $1
The Official Nintendo Player's Guide (no stickers unfortunately) - $2
Final Fantasy Official Player's Guide - $1
Large ROB poster, small ROB poster, Ironsword poster, Bases Loaded poster, and mint Mario Bros. manual - all came in a plastic bag for $1
The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (GameCube) - $10
Kirby: Squeak Squad (DS) - $7
Rune Factory (DS) - $7
Super Mario 64 CIB (crappy box) - $2
Star Fox 64 CIB (crappy box) - $2
Goldeneye 007 - $2
Super Mario World - $3
Super Mario All-Stars - $3
Loose NES w/cables, 2 controllers - $15
Acclaim Wireless NES controller w/receiver - $4
The Nintendo Power Issue #1 is by far the best find of the bunch. I was not a collector when I joined this site but I have slowly been accumulating neat things and I am definitely holding onto a bunch of stuff.
This is from the price check thread I posted here:
http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=35743
I also ended up buying the guy's Nintendo 64 stuff, which he wanted $125 for but I talked him down to $75.
There were 6 Game Boy games and 2 Game Boy Advance games included that were never mentioned, a Game Boy Player with disc, and Super Mario Sunshine for GameCube that weren't mentioned in the original deal. Also a CIB F-1 Race with multi-tap (2 multi-taps in fact) and a pile of accessories and cases. He also threw in a bunch of strategy guides that were also not mentioned in the original deal.
I was also very impressed that he had all the manuals for the games, and posters/maps where applicable, and the faux-leather N64 carrying case is kind of neat. He also threw in a dozen Nintendo 64 rental cases and pretty much every Game Boy/GBA game came with a plastic case.
Everything in all of the pics was $185 total.
As I was sorting through this stuff another great find arrived at my doorstep:
Then on the way home I got a call about an ancient wanted ad (I posted at least 2 months ago) and picked up the following for $12 (games were $1/each):
Damn, you picked up some good stuff.
Thanks man!