AHHHHHHHHH! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!

[Doc4]

OK, I officially hate ebay. I was trying to bid on some games and lost miserably. People pay completely outrageous prices for the dumbest crap, what the hell is going on. I sometimes wonder if they are just bidding to win and don't really care if they get the item or not. They just want to push the price up. When I started collecting the most I payed for an Atari was $7 and that included a huge pile of games. Now every two bit freak is after Atari, my local game shop won't sell them for less than $50. Thing is no one buys them. And they have been there for a year, I offered to buy them cheap but they won't budge. As though someone is going to come in and just buy them all, then pow the store will be filthy rich. I was in there one day and someone sold them a pile of games. So I snagged Mario Bros. I was pretty excited to buy it. So the dude was ringing me up and this lady manager steps up and is like "sorry, we can't sell that Mario Bros. our corporate headquarters collects rare and expensive games." Oooooh, I was pissed. But what could I do. I was so close to owning it. I even told her outright that it wasn't that rare and they were all over ebay for cheap. Nope, she didn't budge. I hate that place too now. And the worse part is I went back a week later and saw the MArio Bros in a locked bin with $32 on it. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!. It's ridiculous.

[King Atari]

$32 bucks for a fricken' Mario Bros.?!?!?! I would have to open up a major can if my thrift shop(s) did that to me. Luckily, they NEVER have anything that good.

[Stella'sGhost]

Mario bros, a rare and expensive game? Whatever. I experienced the same thing here, the owner would not drop her prices, example: Sorcerer: $20 .I told her I could get these games for 2$ on line, she didnt believe me. DUH....I just gave up trying to haggle the prices down. That was over a year ago, guess what - the games are still there. Even a collector wont pay prices like that for games that are a 1 - 4 on a rare list.....its getting nutty out there.

 

About the TI games, which games are they??? As you know, I have a TI with some games....

[Lemmi]

Some places are just greedy and are not well informed, thank god i havent come across anything as bad as these stories

 

but i have seen a few outrageous prices for games in my time collecting, but they alway have come down after a few weeks, i bet people ask about them and when told the price they get told that their crazy and good luck selling it, thus the price comes down abit ive told a few that they are nuts

[Atari Master]

Yeah, some places are just newbies and don't know what there talking about.I don't have but two 2600 carts but I only paid two bucks a piece for em.

[moycon]

WHAT!!!! 2 Atari carts??!!! And you're the Atari Master!!??? Unaceptable!!! I'm sending you an email Atari Master... I hope you respond to it quickly!

 

HehHeh Atari Master uses Bellsouth as his ISP...Good man!

 

[ 03-03-2002: Message edited by: moycon ]

[Uncle Duke]

Man, Monster, that story makes me angry just reading it! I cant believe those stupid, greedy people! The worse part is they think they have a gold mine when all they have is another Goodwill stash.

[bcprs1]

I have to chime in on this topic. There is a guy I go to who is trying to sell games for $5 each. Every now and then he gets something decent, but he keeps trying to tell me that the crap he has is good. Same situation as you guys, the same carts have been sitting there for months.

I went in yesterday and he is trying to sell a 2600 for $70 and a 7800 for $80. Then he tells me he is going to get in a Vectrex. He said he is going to try to get $150 for it. Give me a ****ing break.

[AtariDude]

Some of these people don't realize that collectors have other resources to obtain games and have a very good idea of the value of most items.

 

They are simply greedy and want to try to sell items as though it was still in the day and could get top price. I would think they would realize if something sits on a shelf for a year or so at a certain price that they might have to rethink the price if they want to receive anything at all from it.

[Jun Kazama]

hahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

ahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha

hahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

ahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha

 

what a bunch of idiots to think people would pay that much for commons even alot of rares arent woth that and a 2600 for $80 what a bucha BS

i got my 2600 and 7800 for free with about 80 games as well i didnt pay jack for them

[Marco(2)]

Can we stop complaining about the prices of old videogames?

 

There's plenty of places to get cheap games from. If you cannot find them locally, there's dozens of people here on the board that are very happy to trade them or sell cheaply. And though there's lots of complaints about Ebay, there too it's quite easy to get the games you want for little money.

 

As for the handful of games that go for lots of money on Ebay (boxed Lochjaw, Cubicolor), well, those are just exceptions. And you are certainly not required by any law to go along with that kind of spending.

 

I believe this hobby is still very cheap when compared to others. In any case, you can make it as cheap or expensive as you wish - it's all in your own hands (and wallets).

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[Stella'sGhost]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marco:

it's all in your own hands (and wallets).

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

---

 

As far as I'm concerned, it's not about the money - I have plenty of moola!, besides like you said, its a pretty cheap hobby compared to my synth collection. It's what I think something is worth, not just Atari games but other things that I buy like "vintage synths"

 

What gets me mad is that I told the shop owner I could get these games online for a few dollars, but I'd rather buy them from her cause they are in good condition and if there is a problem I can return them, and its all close to my place, but she still wouldn't drop her prices and I reminded her that I was the only customer she has that buys atari games, - and I pointed at all the games she still has on the shelf for over a year ( I have bought alot from her in the past) everyone esle who goes there is like 14 and buys nintendo games mostly, but still, nothing! So she asks me why I dont just get them elsewhere!! What kind of business does she run anyway? So I got them elsewhere and saved about 100 dollars.

 

If a game is really rare Ill pay for it, but not for a common or anything less than mint. I dunno...experience counts...we're talking 20 year old games here that most people have forgotten about, except us lot!.

[Atarinvader]

Just another crazy auction

 

BTW 4.99 UKP is about 8 USD.

[iguana]

I agree with Marco, It is not about money, I have that, this is still a cheap hobby, I drop like $80 a week on golf in the summer (with beers added in) so this is much cheaper than that. If you do not like these people and the way they do buisness make sure you let them know that you have bought them elsewhere much cheaper and that you do not need their services anylonger. despite the recent increase in prices, I would wager there are not a lot of local collectors around anyone of us.

[Rinsky]

I have to agree with Marco too.

This is still a cheap hobby and there are allot of people selling games for good prices.

I've seen some video game stores or big flea markets around my area that want to much for games I Just laugh at them and move on.

At the same time I've found people selling games from $1.00-$3.00 each and they have 80 or so to choose from.

The best thing I can tell you is go and find every old run down little flea market with in a 100 miles of you and every 2 out of 3 will have something Atari for cheap.

I saw one yesterday out of the corner of my eye and I stopped went in and found a 4 switch woodgrain system, 2 joysticks, a dust cover, and 17 carts for $20.00 most all common games two were rated 4's.

But I was still excited to find another Atari lot out in the wild. After all is this not the best part about collecting buying everything you can in the wild for cheap.

 

Happy Hunting

Rinsky

[Marco(2)]

Thanks for contributing your stories, Iguana and Rinsky. They show it's still quite easy to experience this as an enjoyable hobby.

 

It was not my intention to put down the people posting about the ridiculous prices some vendors are asking and some collectors are paying. But I just like to look at things the positive way

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[jahfish]

quote:

---

Originally posted by atarinvader:

Just another crazy auction

---

 

hahaha, this guy has the funniest

seller list i have ever seen .... wasn't there someone here that wanted to buy all combat carts?

 

 

 

 

i agree with marco. money ain't the main factor ... i got my best items through trades ... we both often bid on items we allready have, to get good trade items ... but i also sometimes find things in the wild ... not always, but the more work you put in it, there more results you get. i allready got a complete boxed 4 switch (with 13 games) for 20$, just by hanging a small note in a supermarket ("searching atari 2600. call me at xxxx"), i resold it at ebay, and suddenly had 50$ left over to spend on atarigames .... that way, i am "helping to finance" my collection. as a deejay and artist, i have months where less money is comming in ... so i can't spend money on games, unless i find another way to pay it. so for example i collect US stuff that's rare over here and put it up on ebay.de. i got 9 MAD comics for 10$, including covers for PAcman/times magazine, Marios Bros. and Space/MAD Invaders ..... so the remaning six will go away. and i guess collectors here pay a lot more for them .... probably 5-10$ for each ... so i'll have a few bucks over for atari. it's just a question of how good you present your items. if there is enough infos about it and a good scan, you will sell it better. look for related message boards. and look for your item on ebay, see if it is allready listed somewhere, it's good to compare .... or see if there's a second category that's worth putting the item in two categories.

but before you ebay, look for tradelists ... you might get a few good people together for a "little fight" on ebay

 

 

and then you'll experience on yourself that these crazy prices are not too bad sometimes .... it will eventually make you happy to get 5,10 or 50$ more than you expected .....

 

i just hate auctions like the one i posted ..... did you see that seller list?

please let me vomit onto that seller .....

 

but back to the initial topic:

 

we just all have to admit: ebay is an addiction, there's all the stuff you want for yourself .... so the natural consequence is that it's a game of love and hate!

 

one time you'll love it!

 

one time you'll hate it!

[MoonlightKnight]

I have to say I hate having to pay some of the prices that I have to get the games I don't have yet. I get soooo jealous when I here what some of you guys have paid for games that I paid very high amounts to obtain. I mean, really, I would have never paid over $300 to get Waterworld if I had had another option. I wish there was someplace local for me to get to easily where I could find some of the awesome deals you guys have gotten. I have found a couple of good deals on eBay, but almost all of the good deals end up back on the auction block because I already have them.

 

I sell on eBay to get the funds to pay for my "habit," but having to shell it all back out again just to get one or two games really sucks. Still, it won't discourage me from increasing my collection the only way currently available to me. Hopefully I find a local place soon.

[Doc4]

That was one messed up seller list! how many combats can one person actually swindle people into buying anyway.