The great thrift store famine

[DuggerVideoGames]

I stopped paying attention to the Amiibo craze and updates as to what's being released. The Amiibo market became exactly what I thought it would be: a cash-grab move by Nintendo and a secondary market for selfish hoarders who want to make a killing on it. I got a handful of Amiibo when they came out for one reason: I wanted the Mii racing suits in Mario Kart 8 on the Nintendo Wii U (the one I really wanted was Pacman, and I got it). Aside from getting the racing suits, I stayed away from the Amiibo for the most part; however, I did get the package that had the Duck Hunt Dog, R.O.B. the Robot, and Mr. Game and Watch. Also got the 30th anniversary classic Mario (red and brown). No intention of selling them, really. The kid/gamer in me wanted them.

As for old video games and consoles, I'm glad there is a collectors' market out there because that means interest is growing; however, it's a double-edged sword because it means there's just as many hoarders who don't give a crap about the games. "Oooh, a sealed copy of this game that has never been opened. Will I open it and play it? Nope. I just see dollar signs dancing in my head and will keep it in the package forever!" For me, passion for things should be about keeping them alive and around, not about inflating a market value.

[DuggerVideoGames]

good local shops are getting hard to find, there's oh maybe 6 "thift stores" just down the road

 

Goodwill, who has 1 handicapped guy that seems to run the place, the rest are mostly teenagers, everything techy goes downtown to their computer center and on their website, never anything of any interest

 

the "cares" place, which was on the news last year for embellishment, I found a cockroach hotel genesis 2 in there, decided to leave it, otherwise all clothes and books

 

The one at the old folks home thats ran by a church, they are ok, but rarely anything but clothes and trinkets

 

The other 3 are really for profit found junk resellers that put thrift store in their names, 24.99 for a copy of super mario / duck hunt assheads

 

25 bucks for Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt combo cartridge? That's exactly the kind of crap that disgusts me about the "market" today. Loved Super Mario Bros. and loved Duck Hunt; however, that's a cart that should only be worth about two or three bucks (if even that). Those are exactly the kind of people that's wrong with the buying and selling of video games today; if you don't like their prices, they'll just keep it forever and never sell it (depriving real players who actually seek that game a chance of getting it unless they're stupid enough to overpay).

[Retro-Z]

 

25 bucks for Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt combo cartridge? That's exactly the kind of crap that disgusts me about the "market" today. Loved Super Mario Bros. and loved Duck Hunt; however, that's a cart that should only be worth about two or three bucks (if even that). Those are exactly the kind of people that's wrong with the buying and selling of video games today; if you don't like their prices, they'll just keep it forever and never sell it (depriving real players who actually seek that game a chance of getting it unless they're stupid enough to overpay).

 

Oh, c'mon... That type of seller isn't depriving anyone of anything, other than depriving themselves of a sale. It's not like the local thrift and game stores are the only options. Anyone can pick up a copy of NES SMB/DH on eBay any day of the week for less than $10 shipped. That's less than it would cost me just in gas money to drive to a few places in town to find a copy.

 

I see this "resellers are evil" sentiment on internet forums all the time, and most of it is nonsense. Sure, resellers who over-inflate their asking prices can be a total bummer... but there's an easy solution... don't buy from them. If they want to keep it forever, that's their right, as the game they are selling is their property.

 

Personally, in a perfect world I'd take easy online shopping at fair prices ANY DAY over scouring local flea markets, garage sales, estate sales, etc. with a TINY CHANCE I may actually find something interesting.

 

However, the world isn't perfect, good eBay deals don't happen as much as we might like, and besides... it's still really fun to scour the local scene for good buys!

Edited April 13, 2016 by Retro-Z

[DuggerVideoGames]

Retro, the point isn't that it's Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt; the point is that those who ask for ridiculous prices and don't even play/use the games truly are depriving those who appreciate those things of giving them a good home. Yes, it's your right to ask for $5,000 for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! on the NES (loose or unopened, either way); however, if you never play it and don't appreciate it as a collector or player, then all you're doing is depriving it of finding a good home. Yes, it's not a living thing and it doesn't have emotions, but it's the principle that matters.

Not everybody does online shopping, not everybody goes to Ebay. Sure, you can find Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt cheap online, but what about games that are harder to find for those who want to play them again? Those who are asking for a hundred dollars for Castlevania or Tecmo Super Bowl are simply just jerks who are out of their minds. The most laughable listing I saw yet was last year when some idiot listed his NES on sale with "rare games" (his words, not mine) and asked for $3,000. His "rare games" were Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3 among the 6 or 7 games he had for sale. NONE of the games were rare whatsoever.

I have no problem with people who try to make a profit; that's the nature of business. I do, however, have a problem with idiots who should have no right whatsoever owning and trying to sell those games (which they never will at their prices). If they're going to be that stupid, they might as well just donate the stuff instead of trying to sell it; that would be more useful and honorable.

[HoshiChiri]

I've been having a hard time trying to figure out the right way to say my thoughts on resellers/flippers, so I'm just gonna spout words and hope it comes out right.

 

I don't think resellers & flippers are that bad... in fact, I kind of like them. It's easy to say 'oh, horrible jerks, buying up all the bargains so I can't get any- get a real job!' It doesn't really work like that, though. Think about it- when was the last time you gave a good, valuable game to a thrift store? I know I don't- I'd sell them here. Or give them to friends, or co-workers, or give them away here. Then I'd trade them for credit at my 2 favorite local shops. Only if, after all of that, I still had games would the thrift store come into play. That's never happened. People rarely donate good games. People rarely donate old games (we have them all already!). In order to make a living flipping games, you'd have to hit places every day, as soon as the new stuff came out. If a store puts stuff out multiple times a day, then you have to be there multiple times a day. Then, you have to take good pictures for your online listings, figure out postage, deal with flaky non paying bidders & ebay claims... if you have a brick and mortar store, you have to hope the things you found sell fast enough to pay your bills, your rent, and payroll for the person(s) running your store while you hunt for more stock. That sounds like a proper job to me. Quite frankly, if someone can't handle working a typical 9-to-5 (and some people really can't), I'd rather they run around flipping thrift store tat over taking an unemployment check and buying booze to drink the day away.

 

When you get right down to it, it does benefit us- if, say, I want a copy of Survival Kids for my Game Boy Color collection. I can spend weeks/months/years hitting all the pawn and thrift stores, bugging people at yard sales, and otherwise dumping a huge amount of time into the hunt... or I can pay someone on Ebay who did the legwork $30 and spend my time playing instead. I've never once seen that game in the wild. Hell, I decided I'd pick up an original Xbox if I found one cheap out there- and I cant even do that! I've seen 2 in the 'wild' in the last year for under $40. One didn't eject, one didn't load discs. If something as common as an original Xbox is hard to find in working condition, what chance does something good have? Even when games were common, it was largely a bunch of madden titles on the shelf.

 

Basically, yes, it does suck that the hunt is largely over. I wish I could find something good every few weeks again instead of once or twice a year. But unless people both stop paying decent money for decent retro, and start donating everything to their thrift of choice, we aren't going back. We just have to adjust how we find games- stalking ebay for under-the-radar auctions, checking the fair game stores that do turn up, hitting up pawn shops for last-gen goodies before people decide they care about them. All while still, occasionally, hitting up the thrift stores & yard sales for that rare find.

[karokoenig]

There is one aspect that comes to my mind every now and then... We are complaining all the time about high prices for old videogames, but...

 

...when you really think about it, the great majority of those games are still sold way below their original price. Even in Thrifts, on ebay or retro game shops. We keep crying foul when, say, a Megaman 3 costs us 20 bucks, but how much was that sold for back in the 80s? Fourty bucks? And that's not even counting inflation. How many games today are really worth significantly more than back then? Not all that many, I would say.

 

So yeah, the "golden age" is over. The hobby is getting more expensive. But it's still far far away from being a real "antique" market.

Edited April 13, 2016 by karokoenig

[BawesomeBurf]

I only like resellers if they offer fair prices. The ones who travel all over town buying up everything just to raise the prices ridiculously high are not helping anyone besides themselves though.

[Osgeld]

I've been having a hard time trying to figure out the right way to say my thoughts on resellers/flippers, so I'm just gonna spout words and hope it comes out right.

 

I don't think resellers & flippers are that bad... in fact, I kind of like them. It's easy to say 'oh, horrible jerks, buying up all the bargains so I can't get any- get a real job!' It doesn't really work like that, though. Think about it- when was the last time you gave a good, valuable game to a thrift store?

 

I have a hard time recalling the last time I saw a video game period in a thrift store, I think this is the third time this argument has come up in this thread, its not about finding that buried treasure, hell even the playstation 2 Madden's are not even showing up anymore in my area. It used to be there was always someone with their phone out while thumbing though stuff, now I think they just strip mine it all cause there's hardly anything at all cept rotted old books and outdated clothing

[madhatter667]

"...when you really think about it, the great majority of those games are still sold way below their original price. Even in Thrifts, on ebay or retro game shops. We keep crying foul when, say, a Megaman 3 costs us 20 bucks, but how much was that sold for back in the 80s?"

 

-Half price for a used item, incomplete, and in less than pristine shape (and likely untested), is not a good deal, a fair price, or anything close to it. Also, I recall games being close to $50, but we were buying them on base, and overseas.

 

The market really isn't the same anymore. I recall back when, I grabbed Link to the Past for SNES for $0.50 from St. Vinnie's. It was one I wanted for a long time (neighbor friend had it), but we never found it in stores. Also, I went to the neighbor's to play it, so why buy it? Lol. A deal like that will pretty much NEVER happen again. Probably the best price paid vs. going price (even then) score I've managed. My NES and SNES collection really boomed between 1999 and 2006 or so. Between thrifts, eBay, and Game Crazy closing out a lot of their old stock... I got a ton of stuff that we just never had the money for when I was younger. Lol. Even paying a premium for the occasional high demand (or actually rare) title (Dragon Warrior 3 cost me $18, but Castlevania Dracula X cost me $65), I was still sitting very pretty in terms of collecting. I kinda miss that, because I would go thrifting with another collector friend of mine, and while we never knew what we were gonna come across, chances were good that we were gonna come across something. We'd hit every Vinnie's and Goodwill between the two towns we lived in. It was fun. The hunt was fun, the time spent together was fun, and the games we turned up were fun. I miss that more than I miss finding games I think.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Good news: At least if you felt like you overpaid for the item, the way the market is headed, take comfort knowing that in six months or less, you can brag about the "steal" you made...

[7800fan]

 

Had to be a fluke and not end of famine. I was going rather far out of way for stuff when I stopped at Goodwill in Bad Axe and they had a dozen 2600 games for sale under lock and key. Common games, I took Big Bird Egg Catch and 7800 Food Fight. The rest were like Combat, Baseball, etc. Winter Games were there as well. All the 2600 games were 2.99 and the one lone 7800 game was 1.99. No console at all and they didn't know anything of it. Either they never got it, sold it already, or was separated to sell online or something.

[HoshiChiri]

 

Had to be a fluke and not end of famine. I was going rather far out of way for stuff when I stopped at Goodwill in Bad Axe and they had a dozen 2600 games for sale under lock and key. Common games, I took Big Bird Egg Catch and 7800 Food Fight. The rest were like Combat, Baseball, etc. Winter Games were there as well. All the 2600 games were 2.99 and the one lone 7800 game was 1.99. No console at all and they didn't know anything of it. Either they never got it, sold it already, or was separated to sell online or something.

 

I doubt they ever had the system. Unless things have changed in recent years, items that get donated to goodwill are only partially sorted at the store level (to weeds out the pure garbage and the items they aren't allowed to sell. Like the box of porn and ammo that came into my sister's store.) After that, they go to a main center to be priced and re-distributed to the local stores/online based on whatever sales metrics that store has. If the system was donated, it probably went to a different store.

[thadsilverfox]

 

If the system was donated, it probably went to a different store.

Or the online auction site.

[hookem]

The packaging of those carts tells a story. No sure what it is exactly.

 

The Goodwills/Half Price Books around here would never individually bag a common 2600 cart. They must have seen them and thought, "old video game stuff is worth a bunch!" Then they would have looked them up on eBay, saw the values, and priced them like they did. Still $1.99 too high. They would have been better off turning the carts in to Albert for cash or AA merch worth auctioning.

[madhatter667]

Dunno, I'd pay $3 for a common I wanted, if I did't have it in library. That's several multiples of the $0.50-$1 for commons, but it is still cheap.

[Osgeld]

depends on your market, I buy 2600 games 2 for a dollar at the game store at the mall

Edited April 16, 2016 by Osgeld

[+FujiSkunk]

...Like the box of porn and ammo that came into my sister's store...

 

Y'know, suddenly I'm surprised I've never seen a store named Porn 'n' Ammo.

[RodLightning]

...Like the box of porn and ammo that came into my sister's store...

 

 

Y'know, suddenly I'm surprised I've never seen a store named Porn 'n' Ammo.

 

I think I once saw a magazine by that name..oh, I didn't buy a copy. It was at a truck stop on a shelf with others that had their covers blocked from view.

[jhd]

The Goodwills/Half Price Books around here would never individually bag a common 2600 cart. They must have seen them and thought, "old video game stuff is worth a bunch!"

 

In my experience, it varies wildly. I have seen cartridges held in the glass display case, in plastic baggies, and just loose on the shelf (with price stickers on them). Sometimes the same store uses different techniques over time. There is no consistency.

 

The same applies to CD-format games as well: I once had of buy a plastic baggie of random, old PC software to get the single PSX game that I wanted from that assemblage. (I donated the other software back to the store for resale.)

[+FujiSkunk]

Yep, I've seen individual store policies go all over the place too. The Goodwills around me are notoriously indecisive about how much they value their audio CD's. In a given time frame I can find them at the back of the store, then near the registers, then at the registers, and then empty cases on a shelf while the discs are in CD binders behind the registers... and then lather, rinse, repeat.

[Osgeld]

Check it out I found something! A sony PS1, no box, no cables, no games, no memory card, and looked like someone wiped it down with the same rag they wiped up the dog vomit with, only 19.99$ and no way to power on!

 

Its worthless but at least it was something

[Andromeda Stardust]

Check it out I found something! A sony PS1, no box, no cables, no games, no memory card, and looked like someone wiped it down with the same rag they wiped up the dog vomit with, only 19.99$ and no way to power on!

 

Its worthless but at least it was something

Your local used game resale shop should have all the cables and connectors needed to get it running.

 

Not much of a deal when you think about it as my local Game Exchange sells PS1 bundles for $30 with all the necessary hookups to connect to a TV and play. All their consoles come pretested with 30-day money back guarantee.

 

50-50 chance that janky thrift shop PS1 either has a bad/dirty laser, busted drive mech, or won't power on at all. 99-1 odds they won't let you return it if the unit doesn't work, even after you've spent additional moneys somewhere else procuring the necessary connections to test it.

 

Nice try. When you walk into thrift shop, you dream of finding "diamond in the rough" type stuff, but mostly walk out disappointed. However instead of a PS1, if you found say a dusty untested Vectrex for $20, with or without hookups that !would be a steal though!

[Osgeld]

oh I didnt buy it, I was just excited to see anything in a thrift store, there has been nothing game related in any of them I visit in at least a year

[AtariLeaf]

The one spot left that I and another local collector would frequent has been hit with resellers. I went yesterday and before I could blink one guy had a ps3 and one guy had a white wii. Both went up on ebay the same day. I know it was the same ps3 for sure as it had a small white mark in one corner from some kind of marker. He never bothered cleaning it off.

 

This was the place when it was worth going to, back in 2009 and 2010. It actually hurts to watch this as I left so much stuff behind at the time since I wasn't collecting things like C64, TI/99, Colecovision, etc.

 

Edited April 17, 2016 by AtariLeaf

[teh_lurv]

Maybe because the PS4/XB1 are finally taken root after the last holiday season, but I've noticed the last few weeks my local Savers is getting inundated with 360/PS3/Wii games, more-so than in prior years. Interestingly are tending to linger on the shelves longer than retro games two or three times the price. I imagine twenty years from now 360/Wii/PS3 collectors will be craving such a selection at their stores.