Ze_ro Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 Ugh, I'm getting annoyed with eBay. There's not many games in the wild around my city, so I figured I'd go find some of the more unusual ones on eBay (I'm not really looking for Chase the Chuckwagon or anything... just games that I actually enjoy and want to play). Well, turns out this is more expensive than I thought it would be! First of all, I live in Canada, so I actually have to add %50 on for money conversion, I also have to pay extra for shipping, and PayPal charges me weird "International transaction" fees since I'm not in the United States. This alone drives a $4 game up to the range of $10 (And this is assuming the seller is even willing to ship to Canada, which they usually don't for some reason... I can see not wanting to ship overseas, but come on). But the thing that's fast becoming the most annoying is the surprising quantity of people out there willing to pay more for cartridges than they're worth! (Ironically, I manage to win auctions for "weird" cartridges like Airlock and Encounter at L-5 for a dollar... meanwhile everyone and their dog is outbidding me for Pitfall 2, Californa Games and even Circus Atari) Pitfall 2 is rare enough that I'm not likely to find it at the thrift stores around here (All I seem to find is Combat's and Missile Command's), but I simply can't justify spending more than $10 to win the auction considering all the extra charges I get hit with. I guess what I'll have to do is to keep my eyes out for "Buy it now" auctions that are low enough, or just keep going back to the thrift stores and hope for the best... So far the rarest stuff I've found around here is a few 4's (Plaque Attack, Sky Jinks, Wizard of Wor, etc) --Zero (PS: Sorry, I just had to ***** about this) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIPITBULL Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 With all that you have said, I can see why you would be upset with ebay, paypal, and sellers. You should know that even living in the U.S. means you can still get screwed over buy people who charge way to much for an item that last year no one wanted, or the one I love the most are the sellers who no matter where you live, they charge you the most expensive shipping they can, and most of the time they still just send your item first class. When I first started to collect Atari items last year it was kind of fun, but now they few items I need to complete my collection are starting to cost me an arm and a leg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tobias_project Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 i've used ebay over the past while and i have to agree. also living in canada i feel the same lack of support. i think ebay has waaaaayyy too many users, there can be so much demand for something that it drives prices up drastically. i would recommend Amazon.com's auctions - i signed up last week and just bought a huge amount of atari games, all for like $3 us or so.. the thing is, because it's more or less "undiscovered" than ebay, there's hardy any competition! not one of my bids on there were touched by anyone else, i felt like i was the first person there. anyway, give amazon a seach for what you're looking for, i bet you'll save almost half. carl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurt Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 i also live in canada and i just usally look for the people in canada using ebay.ca that way i can get some carts and not have to worry about the conversions and all that. but you are right so many games are not found here and by only searching ebay.ca i lose out alot but i am still looking for lots of common carts so i do alright that way i guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videotwit Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Pitfall Harry: You can pay me whatever you feel is a fair price after you receive it. Geez, Ben - that's the most generous offer I've heard made on this board! It's nice to see a sense of trust every once in a while. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyXB Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 I live in germany and have buy games on ebay.com too. Most from germany (ebay.de), then from USA, and some from Canada. And then another from Australia and Austria. I have 2 Pitfall 2, but one is not working. I hear some music, but hacked. I see something on the screen, but hacked too. I can walk and see that I walk but see not where I walk. Total broken the game. But the other one is good. Matthias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel D. Park Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 I'm from the U.S., I dont' normally have trouble getting stuff from ebay. Quantity is the answer. I'll buy a lot of 40 games even if they only have 1 or 2 games I want in them... My theory is that no atari games are worth less than 1.00 a piece. And systems are worth at least 15.00 probably.. So lets see, there is a lot of 40 games and a system selling, if they look good and shipping isn't insane, I can give 55.00 for them. Even a little more and still be able to resell the games and keep my money. I've noticed alot of stuff is actually getting cheaper lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
someguy Posted July 7, 2001 Share Posted July 7, 2001 >But the thing that's fast becoming the most >annoying is the surprising quantity of >people out there willing to pay more for >cartridges than they're worth! It's a free market: an item is worth whatever folks are willing to pay. If the majority of customers are willing to pay $10 for something you think is only worth $2, the value of the item *is* $10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindfield Posted July 7, 2001 Share Posted July 7, 2001 Someguy: It's the principle of the thing. The fact that someone's getting royally waxed for something that isn't worth half what he's paying is just wrong. Look at all those damned O'Shea auctions; someone went and bought up those O'Shea's commons and turned around trying to sell them on E-Bay to the highest bidder. I mean, if I ended up paying $10 or $20 or something, only to find out later I could have gotten it for $1, I'd be quite peeved about it -- especially when I came to the realization that this is exactly where the actioner got them from in the first place. As for the topic at large, I'm in Canada as well, and just don't shop on E-Bay for that very reason. Between US conversion and any extraneous charges (paypal, for example) it drives the price of the thing you're bidding on up enough that it makes the 'bargain' you might have otherwise got nearly irrelevant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted July 7, 2001 Author Share Posted July 7, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Pitfall Harry: Ze_ro, Email me your address (mine is benandvicky@earthlink.net) and I'll send you a 2600 Pitfall II cart. You can pay me whatever you feel is a fair price after you receive it. Ben Cool! That's very awesome of you Just when you think the internet sucked, people do something to completely reinstill your faith in mankind... or at least, the portion of makind that plays and loves Atari games --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagDiesel Posted July 7, 2001 Share Posted July 7, 2001 quote: i would recommend Amazon.com's auctions - i signed up last week and just bought a huge amount of atari games, all for like $3 us or so.. the thing is, because it's more or less "undiscovered" than ebay... Hope I inserted that quote correctly.. Anyways, I checked out the Amazon auctions and the prices were well above what I would pay for the games, and it seemed that only 3 or 4 people were selling stuff and they were smoking some good stuff to come up with those prices.. [ 07-06-2001: Message edited by: JagDiesel ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Asmo Posted July 11, 2001 Share Posted July 11, 2001 Why don't you post the carts you want, and what you think a "fair" price to pay for those carts would be (in either US or Canuck dollars), and maybe some of the regulars here can get you some of those carts. Cheers, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malix Posted July 11, 2001 Share Posted July 11, 2001 I believe it is just payback for Michael Bolton. Just kidding. Post a list of some of the game you need and if I have doubles I will hook you up cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted July 11, 2001 Share Posted July 11, 2001 Hey! That's a great idea getting some carts from Oshea and reselling them on Ebay!! Why didn't I think of that before.... woohooo!!! Big $$$ here I come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted July 12, 2001 Author Share Posted July 12, 2001 Funny thing is, one of the games I'm having a hard time finding is Dark Chambers, which WAS an O'Shea game for a while... unfortunately they ran out of it before I got around to ordering games from them. Though there's a lot of games still on my list, the ones I'm most interested in finding at the moment are Dark Chambers, Secret Quest, California Games, Superman (supposedly common), and Enduro (Also fairly common). I haven't been actively trying to get these on eBay though, so I haven't given up yet. As for prices, I'm actually fairly generous I think. I don't mind paying a lot for a game if the game is actually fun. All the games I mentioned are amung the best 2600 games in my opinion, and since Secret Quest and California Games actually are quite rare, I wouldn't be opposed to spending a decent amount on them ($5-$7?). Enduro, Superman, and Dark Chambers on the other hand, are fairly common (though I'm beginning to question Dark Chamber's commonness), I doubt I'd pay as much simply because they're more easily available. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted July 12, 2001 Share Posted July 12, 2001 NE...hehe..once again you put us back into perspective. If the prices were right...then this would be a good thread for this very thing. And even Oshea's doesn't have some of the more hard to find or rare games. Still...that same idea was swirling in my head. I personally wouldn't buy in bulk and resell for more here...but others might be tempted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videotwit Posted July 13, 2001 Share Posted July 13, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Ze_ro: Though there's a lot of games still on my list, the ones I'm most interested in finding at the moment are Dark Chambers, Secret Quest, California Games, Superman (supposedly common), and Enduro (Also fairly common). I haven't been actively trying to get these on eBay though, so I haven't given up yet. Ze_ro: I have a copy of California Games with instructions, as well as a copy of Enduro with instructions that I'd be willing to trade if you are interested. Drop me an email: slindberg@visi.com There's much more where that came from, too - my trade list is at: http://www.geocities.com/soho/workshop/2663/trade.html Let me know if you want to trade! It's usually cheaper than eBay [ 07-13-2001: Message edited by: twit ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted July 13, 2001 Author Share Posted July 13, 2001 I've got a nice bid going on a boxed copy of California Games at the moment... but in case it falls through, you'll probably be getting an email from me. It's weird, I have almost no double with which to trade... I usually avoid getting doubles as much as possible (even if it means not buying a package). Oh well, cash is just as good --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osbo Posted July 14, 2001 Share Posted July 14, 2001 Why don't we start our trade/buy/bid atari stuff page? it is worth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted July 14, 2001 Share Posted July 14, 2001 You mean something like this: AtariAge Marketplace Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.