A fun story about my CL pickup last night
So, I got a reply from my Wanted ad on CL, a guy said he had about 20 vintage systems and somewhere around 150 games. I'm figuring he's a reseller getting out from under his inventory and I'm gonna have to pay through my nose...
He emailed me a list of everything he had, but I didn't want hardly any of it for my personal collection, so I was ready to make my lowball reselling offer. He fired first, though - $300. My lowball buy range was going to be $200 - $300 at a very, very handsome profit. I shot back with $225, he re-fired at $250, I told him I just didn't feel comfortable paying that much, and $225 was a stretch for me. He said for $250 he'd throw in a Model 1 Sega CD and a bunch of empty NES/SNES/N64 boxes and manuals. Sold.
So, we go to meet the guy and pick up everything last night....I really enjoy talking to these people to hear their story, see how they got the games, why they're selling, etc. Makes things a lot more fun.
Well, this guy knows his stuff. We talked collecting for quite some time (he has his own personal collection, too) - so I'm absolutely dying to know how/why he's selling me all this stuff so cheap???
I didn't need to ask....he started telling me that he's a truck driver, and he hauls loads for a thrift store in the area. This thrift store turns over their inventory VERY quickly, and if it doesn't sell, it's gone. "Gone" as in compacted and to the landfill. Well, as it turns out, he, of course, gets the video games before they go to their eternal resting place.
But, in order to pull off a scheme like this, you gotta know someone, right? Turns out the warehouse manager at the thrift store collects pimp hats. Yes...pimp hats. The guy I bought everything from is like a professional thrift-store buyer so he gets every pimp hat he can find, gives them to the warehouse manager, and the warehouse manager makes sure my seller gets all the video game stuff before it goes away.
I thought this story was kinda funny...how true is it? Who knows, but it was entertaining. My seller said he's constantly getting stuff, and he used to just take everything down to The Exchange and sell it every couple months. I asked if I was paying more than The Exchange, he said "absolutely" - so hopefully I'll benefit from the pimp hats from here on out.
We started talking about stuff he's had and sold....sealed black label FFVII, mint CIB Chrono Trigger, totally unreal stuff for a thrift store.
Unfortunately, the thrift store is just too far away from me to go there with any frequency, so I'll just have to take the hand-me-downs.
There was way too much stuff to list, but with eBay's gayness in only allowing me to list a fairly small amount of items in the Video Games category since I'm a new seller...you guys just may benefit once again from this beast 
The general stats/highlights:
17 various systems
approx 160 games across various systems
10 really nice NES/SNES/N64 boxes
really nice CIB original Game Boy
Sega CD Model 1
approx 40 good condition SNES/N64 manuals
$250
Comments
Also, the name of the boxes would be cool.
Nice story and sweeet score.
Entertaining story, thanks for sharing, man.
Just kidding.. I love to see pics of the pimp hats though.
I like the stats but name some of the highlights? Anything uber rare?
Also, the name of the boxes would be cool.
Nice story and sweeet score.
I did a list on a spreadsheet when I was doing my negotiating, but I have since deleted it. I'll be going through everything this weekend.