game store gone downhill rant

[+jgkspsx]

My cart-buying experience back in the day was digging through the Blockbuster discard bin, then going to the clearance section at Toys R Us and Kay Bee.

[jhd]

 

Has anyone else (largely) abandoned the game collecting hobby, either as a response to high prices, limited availability, or otherwise. That has been my response to rising prices and declining availability. 

 

I have not purchased a game for any system in several years. I refuse to use Ebay for any reason and I am even very reluctant to buy from other online retailers; my (retail) world is largely limited to what I can find at local shops. And for many years there has not been much that I want (and now that I have recently relocated to a much smaller community, even more so). I try to limit my purchases to things like food, utilities, and rent. 

 

Instead of collecting games -- and competing with resellers and collectors with larger budgets than mine -- I have focused on books. My interests are sufficiently narrow and esoteric that I have no competition from resellers and their ilk. The stuff I that I collect has very limited mass-market appeal. 

 

I will sometime collect other things; for several years I purchased art glass pieces. I had to stop collecting as I literally ran out of space to display my collection.  Nobody wants to see a stack of cardboard boxes rather than a display cabinet. 

[Keatah]

5 hours ago, jhd said:

Has anyone else (largely) abandoned the game collecting hobby, either as a response to high prices, limited availability, or otherwise. That has been my response to rising prices and declining availability. 

I prefer to keep the things that have had a direct meaningful meaning to me. This means the original stuff from childhood. Like my Apple II and TRS-80 Pocket Computer stuff, and a couple of red LED TI calculators. And other assorted bits of electronicness I saved throughout the years.

 

Thankfully I have just about all the vintage stuff I could imagine wanting. Went through the phase of buying the stuff I couldn't afford as a kid some 10 or 20 years ago, so no need to continue that today. From time to time I'll buy some spare parts or books or homebrew odds'n'ends - provided the price is reasonable and I don't have to spend a lot of time or jump through hoops.

 

I'm not likely to rebuild any of the 8-bit cartridge collections I had as a kid. Stuff is just to scattered, "rare", expensive, and especially in ratbaggy condition. Not interested in others' garbage.

 

5 hours ago, jhd said:

I have not purchased a game for any system in several years. I refuse to use Ebay for any reason and I am even very reluctant to buy from other online retailers; my (retail) world is largely limited to what I can find at local shops.

Indeed. With so much real Apple II material and emulation stuff there's no need to pour money into the industry. Or into scalpers and ebay.

 

5 hours ago, jhd said:

Instead of collecting games -- and competing with resellers and collectors with larger budgets than mine -- I have focused on books. My interests are sufficiently narrow and esoteric that I have no competition from resellers and their ilk. The stuff I that I collect has very limited mass-market appeal. 

While I sporadically accumulate Apple II and emulation stuff, there's no need to compete against resellers and deeper pockets than mine. Competition takes the fun out of it.

 

 

[hizzy]

In my Canadian city, I've never had any luck finding anything Atari related for a good price. The idea of old things being worth money took hold on many people here. It doesn't matter the hobby - vintage items here are always over-priced, unless at a garage sale. Most of my buying has been done on ebay or AA. I got a nice refurbished 6-switch on the forum which is now my "daily driver". I would like to find more things in the wild, but it's not a reality in Montreal.

[Mikebloke]

On 11/2/2021 at 3:00 PM, youxia said:

I don't know how it is now, but when I was still shopping at CEX, they would give you at least 50-60% of game's worth on trade-in (bit less in cash) and then sell it for quite reasonable prices. This wasn't a bad model at all, but I guess it all depends on a shop. And the main incentive of going there for me was the fact that I simply like buying stuff at real shops. Shopping online is somewhat convenient but also rather dull.

CEX prices used to be attractive. Usually you would expect a slight markup for rarer games but with the bonus that if there was a copy anywhere in the country, you could get it. Trade prices used to be good. But at some point things changed. 50p became the minimum price for everything including shovelware, which meant they started only offering a penny for them in cash and something like 5-10 in exchange. I used to work there for a bit before this happened, staff discount was something like 15% once you passed probation, a little less before that. It was OK discount and of course you could eye up what was coming. Got some nice games while I was there but with the prices now its mad. I go there mostly to have a laugh now. 

On 11/9/2021 at 7:17 PM, jhd said:

 

Has anyone else (largely) abandoned the game collecting hobby, either as a response to high prices, limited availability, or otherwise. That has been my response to rising prices and declining availability. 

Abandoned? No, close to giving up? Yes. I think I found the sweet spot of realising just because I can afford to buy games I couldn't as a poor person doesn't mean I should. To me games still have 'value' beyond rarity, such as if its worth playing for the cost being offered, and how much I'm likely to play it. I'm glad I got large early system collections now, because those things are getting rarer by the month. The prices for common systems and games now though, questionable how long I'll keep up with it. At my bad point I was buying at least a game a day. Now I buy less than 1 a month in physical (not including homebrew, which I'm now leaning more and more towards). 

 

I'm likely to prioritise games I cant get anywhere else, such as homebrew and ones that don't run nicely on romcarts or other devices.

 

Regarding original topic, we lost the guy in aflecks Palace in Manchester awhile ago, which had some uncommon stuff. The pawn shop near Arndale also closed and I know they tried to flog their stuff on other sites for a long time before they closed as well. Their stuff was definitely above average price but often there was things I've never seen anywhere else (PAL Ghost in the Shell Ps1 anyone?). 

 

Granger Games also closed down, they had various shops across North West England, all gone. I still amused me when I took a game to the counter and they gave me a sealed one back. 

 

CeX is pretty much it in most of the UK now. 

[Crazy Climber]

On 11/1/2021 at 3:27 PM, THE AtariGuy said:

Not sure where to put this, so move it if you must. My local game store, good time games in waterloo, ontario, has gone downhill since the new owner came in. The prices for everything are increased. Haunted House for atari 2600 was 4.99 cdn, now it it 9.99 cdn. They got in a fairchild channel f, with no games, only coming with one controller and a power supply, and the new owner wanted $550 for it. I saw a man purchace a dreamcast for 124.99, when I got mine at the same place with the old owner for 99.99. They never get any new 2600 stuff, and the zellers carts they have are priced like US ebay even though, tbh, zellers carts aren't that hard to find up here. Their are some positive changes, like an increase of vintage computers and software they get. I want a vintage computer, I just don't want to spend the money they are worth right now, and I can't fix a cheap, broken one. After all that, I still go because most of the competitors are further away and/or also try to rip me off. I miss the old good time games.

I mean, if you've been collecting awhile, you already know this is normal now.

 

Sometimes I try to justify it as "well, still cheaper than when they were brand new" but that doesn't cut it, due to condition usually, and especially since a lot of this stuff now costs MORE than when it was new haha

 

You can't blame the business, people are buying at these prices so they have to adapt to stay competitive. If they sold stuff well below ebay prices then someone would just buy it all and put it on ebay I would argue they almost have to sell at MORE than ebay just to pay the rent...

 

It sucks but thats how it goes. Back in the early days of vintage collecting I'm sure we all wanted classic games to be more popular and available more readily at local locations...well, in order for that to happen there has to be more demand...more demand means HIGH prices and lots of D-bags...so thats our hobby now.

 

 

[Zoyous]

I beat the system by collecting sports games in poor condition!

[CapitanClassic]

I remember at one point GameStop/Funcoland got out of the business of used NES/Genesis games. We were required to take all the used games (lots of Super Mario/Duck Hunt and sports games) that were marked down to a penny (meaning they were to be destroyed) to the back room where the District Manager would take a hammer to them to destroy them.

 

I wonder if some day, all the smb1 games and Combat cartridges will become rare. (I suppose when the plastic completely degrades, probably not when 20 million are destroyed by hammers)

[Keatah]

Ha! Well.. if that ever comes to pass, the games and their essence are well preserved online and through emulation & simulation. Plastic repro shells and labels can be made a dime a dozen.

[cuda_man]

It's not just video games, the HO-scale slot car hobby is suffering the same fate.  Fairly common Tycos, Auroras, and Life-Likes are going for $40-$50 dollars on eBay and Facebook.  And now the new trend is to purchase new Auto World cars from Hobby Lobby or new AFX releases online and price gouge them online?  I've started supporting the cottage industry guys and honest retailers, as their products are priced reasonably, and they're keeping the hobby moving forward, and a FB friend of mine from a few hours down the road offered me a complete set of the new Auto World Trans America complete set for cost plus shipping, great guy ? 

 

I remember in the mid-80's, building my Atari 2600 collection from Revco (now CVS) Drug Stores for $5 a game.  My hometown had 4 Revco stores at the time (2 now), so Mom and I would hit them all, as they would at time have different inventory.  

[Crazy Climber]

21 hours ago, Zoyous said:

I beat the system by collecting sports games in poor condition!

I remember at one time I collected ET carts, I had a TON of them, sold them all to Toilet Tunes (who unknown to me collected ET carts too) I bet his ET cart collection is freakin nuts now

 

[jhd]

On 11/11/2021 at 5:26 PM, Zoyous said:

I beat the system by collecting sports games in poor condition!

 

I very briefly considered trying to collect a full set of sports games for the PS 2 -- every year for every sport, but there are probably a few releases that are rare and/or expensive. 

 

  

[Video]

Until last October when I closed due to lack of desire to go in debt (due to covid) I ran my own store, a general entertainment store, had music, movies, games, cards, books, if it was entertainment I'd deal in it. I can say the store side isn't anywhere as easy as people want to make it out to be.

 

I indeed priced according to ebay. Not bin mind you, but sales, but still, eBay pricing, and as that went up, yeah I tended to too. Of course, you also have to deal with things in bulk, like someone dumping their entire collection of games or music, or an item simply isn't commonly sold so I don't get to price that way. I still try to give a fair price when buying (none of this "I'll buy for .50 and sell for $50" crap that certain places do)

 

That said, as a private store, I almost never had set in stone prices. I might have an item listed at $10, but likely would take $8 if offered it. Though that will depend on your store, commercial ones, or non owner employees may not be able to negotiate the prices, but if its the privately owned, or the boss, it won't hurt to ask. Just don't be insulting about it, like offer a buck for said $10 item which may be less than they paid to buy it.

 

Granted, nobody is perfect, and we've all overpaid for something, though I usually just took the hit and sold the item on eBay or for more reasonable prices if I find I screwed up. Public or private, it makes no sense to hold onto something out of spite.

[Zonie]

We used to have a three-store chain in Phoenix called Games+. The owner was starting to get on in years so If I recall, he closed the Cactus store and sold the other two to employees at a very reasonable price. The central Phoenix store closed shortly after, but the third store in Mesa lingered on for several years. It was owned by two 20-something brothers with no business experience. One was a really nice guy, who did all the repairs, and the other, was kind of rude and was the "business" side guy. I used to take my then young son there to get games for his N64 (actually bought one at one of the stores) and get a 2600 or 5200 cart for myself. I spent money every time I went there. Eventually, the store started to be stocked with trinkets and such, and then they started looking up prices on ebay when you wanted to buy something. $15 for a $3 common "because that is what it is worth on ebay". The store began to smell like a dorm room as well. My wife went in there with me once and turned around and walked right back out, LOL. The last straw was their no return policy on anything purchased, period. This included new, unopened NES clone that my son didn't want. They would only give me a store credit on it and then when I wanted to use it they told me it was no good. That was the last $50 I spent there, ever. The store didn't last much longer. This was ~15 years ago.

There are still a few others around here, one in Gilbert thinks it sells gold bars, and one in Tempe has a huge Lego bin that you can pick through and fill a cup for a fixed price, and has comic books too. This one is somewhat reasonably priced but I have not been there for a few years.

The best place for us currently for old stuff is a chain called Bookmans which is a small chain of large used bookstores in Arizona. They operate under Pawn regulations. You can sell for cash or get 2X cash value in Trade. I have gotten tons of stuff for very cheap there, including completing my Dreamcast accessory collection for pennies on the dollar. They also have movies, toys, musical instruments, and stuff like that. The only negative is you can bring boxes of stuff there and they may take one or two things and tell you to keep the rest. Not worth the effort sometimes.

 

I don't buy used carts and such any more, I have enough. I do buy new homebrews and now have a Concerto, so I use that. I was finally able to buy DKXM for it as a digital download, which is cool.

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Zonie

[0078265317]

On 11/1/2021 at 4:32 PM, atari2600land said:

Yes, my Game Crazy has exorbitant prices as well. Not sure if they're using eBay as a pricing guide (which is a no-no), or what, but that Jaguar has been sitting there for a while priced at around $400.

Game Crazy folded in 2010.  I am not aware of any that still exists.

[Jorbus]

14 hours ago, Zonie said:

The best place for us currently for old stuff is a chain called Bookmans which is a small chain of large used bookstores in Arizona. They operate under Pawn regulations. You can sell for cash or get 2X cash value in Trade. I have gotten tons of stuff for very cheap there, including completing my Dreamcast accessory collection for pennies on the dollar. They also have movies, toys, musical instruments, and stuff like that. The only negative is you can bring boxes of stuff there and they may take one or two things and tell you to keep the rest. Not worth the effort sometimes.

 

Thank you. I work in the electronics dept. at the original Bookmans location in Tucson.

[+atari2600land]

My local store is called Game Crazy. It has nothing to do with the other Game Crazy.

[jhd]

On 11/13/2021 at 7:47 PM, Video said:

Granted, nobody is perfect, and we've all overpaid for something, though I usually just took the hit and sold the item on eBay or for more reasonable prices if I find I screwed up. Public or private, it makes no sense to hold onto something out of spite.

 

I am reminded of a store back home -- it sells books, art, coins, stamps, old toys, and even video games -- basically whatever the owner thinks that he can make money by reselling.

 

I have utterly no idea how he sets prices. There are massive piles of books, and it is not uncommon to find multiple copies of the same title listed at wildly different prices. ? Some items are priced significantly cheaper than elsewhere, while others are laughably higher. Of course the inventory is not organized in any reasonable fashion so not even the owner knows if he has something specific in stock. 

 

The store has been in business since, at least, 2001, so he must be making money somehow, but I do not understand how. 

 

I have never attempted to sell him anything, so I cannot comment on that aspect of his business. 

[jstrotha0975]

Video game stores have always been rip offs. I still go to get used ps3 and 4 games at gamestop and Sometimes go to browse a classic game store, but they have to set high prices to make a profit. I try to avoid them as much as possible in the last 10 years. Better deals can be found on Ebay for used and Amazon for new. My $.02

[nadir]

My last local game store folded early during COVID.  He still does a little bit with his leftover stock online, but is for all practical purposes out of business.  Never really had much for my systems anyways.  So, most of my buying is places online.  I try to stick with specialist places, although despite how much I dislike eBay I've used it a few times here and there when I just couldn't get stuff any other way.

[pacman000]

I should point out that Amazon also offers used items through independent sellers, & you can choose what seller you like based on their price, description, reputation, etc.

Edited November 21, 2021 by pacman000

[+jgkspsx]

On 11/16/2021 at 6:56 AM, atari2600land said:

My local store is called Game Crazy. It has nothing to do with the other Game Crazy.

I have a minor local chain called Game Crazy too. It may be survivors of a bigger chain as the signage is a lot more professional than the stores ?

On 11/16/2021 at 7:41 AM, jhd said:

The store has been in business since, at least, 2001, so he must be making money somehow, but I do not understand how. 

You know how to make a small fortune in the resale business? Start with a large fortune and whittle it down.

 

The local game shop I go to the most is in a small city in a very rural area. The owner is super cool, but sometimes he tries to sell things to me at too much of a discount from going rates and I have to tell him to charge me more. He gives up to 100% value on trade-ins so I think he’s not really making much money on games compared to the retro tchotchkes he sells.

[ChaoticBiker]

A lot of you guys make very good points. 

 

Shops using eBay prices as an excuse to charge ridiculous amounts. 

 

Ebay getting severely out of hand and beyond reach of the average collector - seems like it's only youtubers buying all this stuff to make that one video and then either put it on a shelf or sell it on for yet even more inflated price to their community (huge props when proceeds go to charity though) 

 

I've, like many, started collecting when most of the stuff I have was considered just worthless old junk. 

And so happy that I did - I would absolutely not be able to have a quarter of the hardware/games if I had to pay today's prices

 

Which brings me to the conclusion... I stopped buying retro games completely. 

Just bought an everdrive or any other SD based drive for every console or computer I have. 

It is the best and most cost effective way to keep your old hardware alive, enjoy your favourite games and also play about with home brew (new games for old hardware are so much cheaper when purchased as ROM instead of physical media!) and demoscene plus all the fun hacks. 

 

So this is the way I am pursuing now. 

Yes occasionally I will still bid on something from ebay, but only if I think there's a reasonable chance of getting it cheap

 

And as a final note re Ebay

Noticed more recently, BIN prices are usually starting at x2 the usual sale price of an average auction for similar item - 

And if people stopped bidding crazy money then maybe there's still hope the craze is slowly coming to an end - whether it's because too many people gave up, became disillusioned, or whether simply as world moves on and so many modern, easy to use offerings to play Retro (all them mini consoles, retro games packages on PSN or Nintendo Switch, ever cade or Mister) 

 

 

I think there's still long term hope

[Keatah]

I just watched several MiSTer intro videos (the MiSTer Jammacade one) that say the same thing essentially. That the cost of obtaining arcade boards and parts to repair them are simply too expensive. So what does the community do? Make their own! And good for them.

 

There is zero reason to pay inflated ebay prices because old, because vintage, because one individual sees ***** and $$$$$. Zero reason to pay predatory prices just because..

 

As for Everdrives? That's another way to avoid ebay. As is emulation.

 

Other ridiculousness I'm seeing is.. $200 joysticks and $200 drives for Apple II systems. $500+ accelerator boards. $1,000+ bagged software. $1,000 CP/M Z-80 boards and HDD interface cards. WATA graded Atarisoft games (a dime a dozen) now suddenly being listed at $1,800. Common AppleWorks tutorial manuals starting at $2,000. $700 AppleSoft BASIC manual.

 

Even non-electronic or non-media memorabilia that started at $18,000 and is now being walked down through $12,000 and now languishing at $7,000.

 

Yeh just no. No. No. No. So happy I saved all my vintage material from back in the day. Not that any of this crap is near worth what's being asked. My original stuff or not! All "old-man" stuff. And disks/images are easy to come by with all the major repositories gaining new titles every week! Everything ever made is available or becoming available. Scans too.

[Cobra Kai]

I'm not going to crap on Ebay. I would never have obtained the collection of video games that I own, if it wasn't for Ebay. It's been a great tool over the years. No one is forced to pay an 'ebay price'. 

 

I dislike local shops who expect to get the current hot prices and wait until you ask 'how much', then they say just a minute while looking up the item on Ebay. When I go into a game store, I expect the price up front, then I decide whether to buy or not. Waiting for me to inquire on the price is shady. I think overall Ebay is a valuable resource, I mean I had to use Price Charting (which uses Ebay) to determine fair value for my sale thread, I mean I don't know how else to do it.