How Do I Make the Most Money Selling Video Games?

[silverpoodleman]

I'm getting ready to unload several hundred video games and am looking for the best way to do this which balances the amount of work for me and the profit I'll make. Actually, I'm looking for the most profit Any suggestions??

 

For the specifics, I have roughly 350 total games to get rid of (which would halve my collection of Genesis and 2600 games) - 300 Genesis games (90 dupes + about 200 other unique titles) along with about fifty 2600 titles and thrity 2600 dupes. I have not yet firmly decided which specific games are going and which are staying but the estimates are accurate.

 

I know the obvious answers of List them in the AA MArketPlace or Sell them on ebay. I am looking for more specific answers , especially from anyone who successfully sells video games for profit. If I were to list them on ebay, is it better to list them in one huge lot (or several smaller lots - perhaps by genre) which is obviously less effort on my part but I fear will yield less money/profit OR should I list them individually - which is more work for me but would probably yield more money/profit as I can make more $$ via shipping per item?

 

Thanks very much. I appreciate your time and efforts -

Edited January 13, 2006 by silverpoodleman

[diggs130]

more money/profit as I can make more $$ via shipping per item?

 

 

999617[/snapback]

 

 

 

I'd pass on any of your items if your intending on making money on the shipping

[jetset]

more money/profit as I can make more $$ via shipping per item?

 

 

999617[/snapback]

 

 

 

I'd pass on any of your items if your intending on making money on the shipping

999628[/snapback]

 

Agreed. That's pretty low.

[birdie3]

Pull out the rares and sell them seperately. Sell the rest as lots. Fees aren't as multiple - I think. Set reasonable minimums. Do BIN's and include shipping in the price as opposed to shipping inflation. Try the message boards first and then ebay if nothing happens. Good luck.

[silverpoodleman]

more money/profit as I can make more $$ via shipping per item?

 

 

999617[/snapback]

 

 

 

I'd pass on any of your items if your intending on making money on the shipping

999628[/snapback]

OK - obviously, I need to respond here My object is not to cheat people out of money using high shipping rates. My object is to learn the best way to sell video games.

 

As I have learned from people on this site, how to get the best deal when buying video games, I now turn to you all to teach me how to get the best deal when selling video games. (later, I will come back and learn write well sentence structure how to).

 

I'm here to learn folks. Again, thanks for any helpful suggestions you have.

[jetset]

Then I certainly apologize for misunderstanding you.

[JagFan422]

Sell them seperately on EBAY with the freight calculator thing, or just do a flat rate per game. go to the post and weigh 1 cart and see how much it would cost and make that your shipping, start the bidding at .01 and don't set a reserve, Alot of people put the bidding at .01 but recoup the cost in the freight. Or you could always set up shop at a flea market or something, but as for ebay, your not going to make much money unless you mark up the freight on any common and uncommon games.

[diggs130]

I did'nt really mean no harm by what I said,I just dont care for inflated charges! And I apoligize to you if your comment on shipping didnt mean what it sounded like.

Being as you say you learned alot here it would be a great place to start your sale as there is no listing fees.

 

Goodluck with whatever you decide and no harm meant!

[Red 5]

I just sold a huge chunk of my collection and made WAY more than I thought I would.

 

Some of these have been said already, but this is what I did.

 

- All auctions lasted 7 days and ended on Saturday night. (9:30 PM EST)

 

- Sold anything rarity 4 or higher separately. Sold whatever was left in big lots.

 

- Sold any large lots with the category of 'video games - lots' as one of the categories. This got a lot of re-sellers into bidding wars I think.

 

- Kept shipping prices as low as possible, knowing a lot of people don't use their heads and bid higher when they see low or free shipping. If something is $15 with $10 shipping, they may pass it up, but then bid $30 for the same item with FREE SHIPPING ! ! !

 

- Threw in little extra bonuses to keep people happy and shipped quickly.

 

- Kept all my Atari stuff (that wasn't duplicates). KEEP YOUR ATARI STUFF ! !

[Classic Pac]

One big warning to selling anything outside the US. Remember the postage rate is much higher. I got burned on that once.

[+Omegamatrix]

If selling to Canada use USPS Airmail, but never Global Priority as it costs $$ more and really isn't that much faster going through customs. You'll get a lot more bids that way. UPS wants to charge $25 to ship a single cart to Canada while USPS will ship it for $1.10 so please avoid them too.

[davepesc]

Advertise them as haunted.

 

 

 

Or use coffee to stain the face of Jesus in the label.

[NovaXpress]

should I list them individually - which is more work for me but would probably yield more money/profit as I can make more $$ via shipping per item?

I only see one way to interpret this sentence. I'm glad you've thought better of it now.

[silverpoodleman]

should I list them individually - which is more work for me but would probably yield more money/profit as I can make more $$ via shipping per item?

I only see one way to interpret this sentence. I'm glad you've thought better of it now.

999919[/snapback]

Keep in mind that the only thing I have to go on is personal experience from what I've seen and been involved in - Here is what I was thinking when I wrote that "more $$ via shipping per item" comment:

 

A seller is selling 100 games and has them listed individually on ebay starting at $0.01 with $5 shipping for the first item and $0.75 for each additional item. I have seen this time and time again on ebay, often with higher "additional item fees" like $2 or $3. In this case, the seller would make much more money if her sold one game to 100 different sellers because each would pay $5 shipping. So that's $500 plus whatever the games sold for minus shipping and shipping materials.

 

However, if four people each bought 25 games, the seller would only make $92 plus whatever the games sold for minus shipping and shipping materials (figure $5 for the first game to each seller plus $18 ($0.75 x24) for the other 24 games. $18 +$5 =$23 for each buyer -> hence $92).

 

In this example, the seller come out ahead $408 by selling to more people. In the first example, the seller makes $5 shipping per item. In the second, he makes $0.92 shipping per item. Hence, if listed separately and sold to many buyers, the seller would make more $$ per item in shipping. There is no trickery, no "gottcha's, etc., It is simply the way it is IF YOU LIST THE ITEMS SEPARATELY.

 

Hey guys - that is honestly the only thing I was talking about - Go ahead and read it again and see if this makes sense. I don't mind being questioned, but come on here - for some reason I'm getting pissed off at being doubted. Is there anyone out there that can say I've ever cheated anyone here? or come away from a business transaction with me feeling even a bit dissatisfied? I send games FOC to people I've met on this site who have helped me, trusted me or have simply shown friendship. This is nickles and dimes here folks - I'm not trying to screw anyone except the Mrs and since it's Friday evening, things are looking good on that front.

 

Have a little faith in your fellow retro-gamers. I'm not a newbie, not trying to take advantage of anyone and not trying to steal your pocket change.

 

I'm going to stop typing here and go calm down. I honestly did not expect this reaction from you guys.

 

To end on a positive note - thank you to all who have helped. I appreciate the PM's, emails and words of encouragement. Have a blessed weekend.

 

Marc

[goatdan]

To make the most money you should basically do just what others said -- list anything that is rare or sought after -- remember, some things (Super Mario Brothers 3) can get really common but people will pay more for. List those seperately. Then sell everything else as lots.

 

With Genesis and 2600 games, generally you can get more if you sell in large lots of commons. In NES and SNES, combine everything into lots of 5-10 games, usually grouped by genre.

 

You don't want to break them all up, even at a penny, as the eBay fees will kill you.

 

Finally, I'd suggest listing everything on here with the prices that you want for them before taking them to eBay. If you can sell some stuff at that price, you won't have to pay eBay fees or take much time describing stuff.

 

Oh, and one last thing -- from someone who has WAAAAAY too much video game stuff that I'm selling thanks to the GOAT Store, don't expect much in the way of "profits" from the games. Selling 300 games may sound like a ton, but if you don't have much rare stuff, don't expect to get more than $600.00 overall, and probably $100 of that will go to eBay / PayPal fees.

[wrldstrman]

Bottom line is. selling is a lot of luck .you just hope there is more than one person wanting the game at the same time. You may see frogger sell for 1.00 or 2.00 a hundred times then all the sudden one goes for 20.00. dollars. In my experince people to to shy away from bidding on reserve auctions. I agree with selling rare games individually and commons in lots

[+Random Terrain]

I think it's best to consult a lawyer before you post anything. You never know how someone is going to interpret what you say. Every sentence needs to be expanded into at least 5 paragraphs so that the meaning is obvious to even the most dense.

 

A mob can form quickly and you can be labeled as an a-hole or a troll before you've had a chance to respond. Your attempts to explain what you thought was obvious in the first place and your call for people to look back at what you said can be seen as "classic troll behavior." A mob can create a troll or an a-hole out of thin air. Even if you're lucky enough to have it all cleared up, you'll usually end up with some damage while the mob goes off on their merry way without a scratch.

 

Mobs are worse than real trolls. They do more damage because mobs are usually made up of pillars of the community, honorable men and women. The quickly formed "upright citizens brigade" goes on a little crusade hacking and slashing, raping and pillaging, drinking from golden chalices full of warm human blood, then they go back to their self-satisfied lives where they are convinced that they have never committed an evil act, as blood drips down their chins.

 

Edited January 14, 2006 by Random Terrain

[silverpoodleman]

Mobs are worse than real trolls. They do more damage because mobs are usually made up of pillars of the community, honorable men and women. The quickly formed "upright citizens brigade" goes on a little crusade hacking and slashing, raping and pillaging, drinking from golden chalices full of warm human blood, then they go back to their self-satisfied lives where they are convinced that they have never committed an evil act, as blood drips down their chins.

1000187[/snapback]

Thanks for your words and understanding of the situation. My wife had to calm me down last night after my last post. She said I usually walk away from my AA time laughing with stories to tell but that last night I looked ready to kill. I guess it hurts because in real life, no one would ever have cause to doubt my motives. When you live an honest, decent life, your actions and words are simply not called in question or doubted as they were here yesterday. If there is something that doesn't sound right, people ask questions to clarify. THEY DO NOT ASSUME THE WORST AND MAKE ACCUSATIONS!

 

With that, I'll end my comments on this post...and perhaps on futture posts as well. Who needs this agrrivation?

 

BTW, the situation you described above sounds like it would be a great video game - Let's call it "Upright Citizens Brigade" - I've already imagined gameplay and can think of some kick-a** graphics and the box cover. Anyone know how to program? Let's make some money (FREE SHIPPING, of course )

[Blackjack]

I've always said... I don't care if someone gouges me 500% on shipping, as long as I know up front what the cost is, he's not cheating me. If I'm willing to pay $20 for a game, I really don't care how much of it's shipping, it's still 20 bucks.

[omne]

A mob can form quickly and you can be labeled as an a-hole or a troll before you've had a chance to respond. Your attempts to explain what you thought was obvious in the first place and your call for people to look back at what you said can be seen as "classic troll behavior." A mob can create a troll or an a-hole out of thin air. Even if you're lucky enough to have it all cleared up, you'll usually end up with some damage while the mob goes off on their merry way without a scratch.

 

Mobs are worse than real trolls. They do more damage because mobs are usually made up of pillars of the community, honorable men and women. The quickly formed "upright citizens brigade" goes on a little crusade hacking and slashing, raping and pillaging, drinking from golden chalices full of warm human blood, then they go back to their self-satisfied lives where they are convinced that they have never committed an evil act, as blood drips down their chins.

 

Truest post ever. I saw this happen in a certian three lettered debacle, and it's changed the way I view online forums forever.

 

IMO, if you are looking for the best deal as a seller, skip these online forums altogether, with the exception really rare items. For real rares, the real collectors who know what it is worth do hang out on the forums, and won't necessarily low ball you. For most everything else, accurate Ebay descriptions, with low start prices, reasonable up front shipping, and good pictures will get you best sell bang for the most part.

 

IME if you are looking to give fellow collectors a good deal, or make good trades these forums are great. If you need maximum ROI, Ebay is likely your best bet, when used properly.

Edited January 14, 2006 by omne

[Dones]

should I list them individually - which is more work for me but would probably yield more money/profit as I can make more $$ via shipping per item?

So that's why you were asking all those repetitive questions a couple of months back. You'll already got some answers, but like before, I suggest you use the search feature as this topic has been discussed many times before.

[jetset]

A mob can form quickly and you can be labeled as an a-hole or a troll before you've had a chance to respond. Your attempts to explain what you thought was obvious in the first place and your call for people to look back at what you said can be seen as "classic troll behavior." A mob can create a troll or an a-hole out of thin air. Even if you're lucky enough to have it all cleared up, you'll usually end up with some damage while the mob goes off on their merry way without a scratch.

 

Mobs are worse than real trolls. They do more damage because mobs are usually made up of pillars of the community, honorable men and women. The quickly formed "upright citizens brigade" goes on a little crusade hacking and slashing, raping and pillaging, drinking from golden chalices full of warm human blood, then they go back to their self-satisfied lives where they are convinced that they have never committed an evil act, as blood drips down their chins.

 

Truest post ever. I saw this happen in a certian three lettered debacle, and it's changed the way I view online forums forever.

 

IMO, if you are looking for the best deal as a seller, skip these online forums altogether, with the exception really rare items. For real rares, the real collectors who know what it is worth do hang out on the forums, and won't necessarily low ball you. For most everything else, accurate Ebay descriptions, with low start prices, reasonable up front shipping, and good pictures will get you best sell bang for the most part.

 

IME if you are looking to give fellow collectors a good deal, or make good trades these forums are great. If you need maximum ROI, Ebay is likely your best bet, when used properly.

1000261[/snapback]

 

 

Boo-hoo!

What a bunch of fricking drama queens we have on this board.

Look, the first post the guy eluded to using an unfair and deceptive method for selling games. It was pretty straight foward, but he came back and elaborated/changed what the original sentence was, and all was fine.

Why are we still crying about this ?

[+Random Terrain]

What a bunch of fricking drama queens we have on this board.

1000311[/snapback]

So you have something against queens and drama? You sir are homophobic and dramaphobic!

 

 

Why are we still crying about this ?

1000311[/snapback]

And now you have something against people who cry? What kind of unfeeling monster are you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jetset]

[omne]

LOL at drama q... jetset.