Buying local vs internet

[Fryer64 | 68]

If this is listed in the wrong section I apologize. 

 

Anyways, lately one of the two major game stores in town have jacked up  prices to levels I can no longer justify paying. I know the owner and he really pays almost nothing for his trade-ins. 

 

I'm talking 20-120% markup. It's to the point that much of my local collector community cant justify shopping there. 

 

At what point do you decide to just shop online and not support local business? I know overhead is costly but it's probably 85% insanely priced up. 

I like the guy, we are friends, but at what point do you (fellow collectors) give up on a store and just go to the net? Pay 140ish on something found on ebay for 60 dollars. I'm not at all cheap but I can't justify buying there. 

 

Is it time to give up? Anyone have this happen to them? I'm curious if anyone has just made the switch to no longer visiting a local game store and maybe just do sage, fb, or ebay. 

 

Am I out of line at all? 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Personally, I don't think so, as with prices like that, most likely that person is making the bulk of their sales online anyway, and perhaps at lower prices than what they're offering the store (if they're setting up auctions versus BIN listings).  Unless it's something that you just absolutely have to have in-hand right-then-and-there (normally something like a replacement/missing power supply, AV cable, controller, etc., versus games), the moment that a local stores pushes prices above what I can get it online for (including shipping + taxes), I'll go that route.  The local stores in my area all sell online as well as at their physical location, so I'm well aware of the fact that if they price something too hot for local sale, it'll go online, and if it doesn't sell there, it'll typically see a price correction.  Fortunately for me, those places local to me have kept most of their pricing consistent over the years, so the times that I've ordered online versus with them can be counted on one hand, and pretty much because they didn't have or ever stock something that I needed (console cables, power adapters, etc.).

Vote with your dollar, as it's clear that even with friends, your local store is lowballing everybody when buying and shooting for the moon when selling versus making a fair, reasonable amount based on what they're paying people and what they actually need to bring in to cover overhead.  Good local game stores should be supported, but those same stores should be helping to serve their communities, not take as much advantage of them as possible.  I'm sure there'll be some naysayers saying that every shop should be marking things up as high as possible in order to put as much money in their pockets as possible, but in reality, it's a balancing act.  Sure, they should be doing that, within reason in comparison to what they paid for something as well as in comparison to what the overall going rate for something is.  Setting your prices at or above the highest outlier eBay auctions versus the across the board average is just greedy, and definitely shouldn't be rewarded.

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

I understand the frustration (I know owners personally and have seen, first hand, the loot walk in the front door) but don’t let the markup % (“dirty reseller”) upset you, anyone selling second hand video games via brick and mortar didn’t pay much for them. Imo the only time video games aren’t marked up is the yard sale mom selling the kids old stuff or a collector selling p.c.

Shop for the best deal. Condition, price, ability to look at a game in person, rep of seller, your time…all that comes into play.

if the brick and mortar has decent trade value it can be worth it, for me, to bring in some commons/unwanted games, I got for peanuts to help get a better deal.  
 

 

 

 

[Estil | 1,261]

I think the solution is not much different from when a big box store comes into a town that traditionally has relied on the "little men" (as Alan Jackson would say)/Main Street/etc.  In both cases, continue to shop at the small/local stores just as you always have and only go to the big box or Internet stores for things the "little guys" don't offer.

[a3quit4s | 4,092]

Super rare games I’m buying online because the local shops pretty much always have them jacked up. Other than that I really don’t bother even looking up prices when I’m in a game store. All the places around me are pretty fair and basically always at or near pricecharting. Plus I get the immediately which is key for an impatient person like me. 
 

I would not shop at the game store in your example though. I can maybe understand a 10% markup from FMV because running a business isn’t cheap but the percentages you listed are straight greed. 

[Link | 2,708]

To me, there's a difference between supporting a local small business instead of Walmart, Home Depot, et al and this. Walmart doesn't have old video games. If you're buying Nintendo tapes from anybody but Gamestop, local economy aside chances are you're still supporting "the little guy".

[Hammerfestus | 3,821]

31 minutes ago, Link said:

To me, there's a difference between supporting a local small business instead of Walmart, Home Depot, et al and this. Walmart doesn't have old video games. If you're buying Nintendo tapes from anybody but Gamestop, local economy aside chances are you're still supporting "the little guy".

I am after all just some guy with too many games in my basement trying to support my hobby.  I feel no need to visit local brick and mortar stores beyond the novelty of it.  

[a3quit4s | 4,092]

Video game stores are still better than these local sellers, I don’t know what kind of drugs they are on lately with what I have been seeing on FB marketplace, offerup, and the like

[Tanooki | 4,930]

Around here the old game sellers don't make it only their bread and butter, whether it's the faux little guy yet oddly  national reseller like half price books, to the legit local ones from misc shops to pawn I tend to treat it largely the same and that includes to a point even free donation places too.

If the price is the same as online I'm not buying it.  I don't care if they have a warranty or I can see it first.  I value my time, money, and general wear and tear on the car etc going from A to B.  If they want online prices, just put it online, and if they want higher than online...I laugh and walk away.  Currently my half price has the Ocarina of Time 3DS guide for $105, easily bought with no effort for under $50 on ebay.  They also have a $200 PS2 game (SMT Devil Summoner 2) in average shape for $300, you can buy it new with the big box plushie for that.  $100 for a standard used PS1 and $110 for a black gamecube??  You know why I still go there?  They slip, but also because it's between here and my kids school right off the road with zero effort made or I'd stop.  The actual mom and pop in town I did quit because they're even more deluded and have the same games on the shelf now for over a year now getting dusty  (but their other non gaming stock moves.)

The mom and pops around here they don't just do games, it's a part of a larger whole that'll do old toys, comics, music, movies, board games, pen n paper, trading card games, etc...so they don't get a break on it as largely the other stuff helps with that overhead too.  When it comes to the national stuff like half price not much can be done they price larger if they use the computerized sticker vs the local little white ones... if they're 20% off ebay average or better I'm in, if they're not... screw em.

That's games, anime, books, audio, other movies... if you're not going to be reasonable I'm not going to waste my time and money.  But I've also changed track and 95% of what I buy anymore has been local only, and do I really 'NEED' it or just want it?  Yeah so there's that too.

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

As someone trying to complete a SNES cart collection solely through brick and mortar and VGS, I am in the absolute opposite belief (okay, I did buy a sports lot on ebay a few weeks back, just to knock off some uber commons, but still ). With ebay fees, shipping, and unknown sellers, online is a crapshoot. 

I may be in the minority, having 3 excellent local shops in my area (and one that is definitely following Ebay pricing), but I pick up great finds for great deals frequently. Not only that, but those price tags are flexible if you shoot reasonable offers their way.

I rarely sell or trade-in to locals unless I have games that I just don't want to go through the hassle of selling online, because I agree,  that is a rip off at most places. 

But the game in hand and I can check the boards? Count me in for that 

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

I just pick up retro stuff on a whim as I see it at the local shop or on VGS.  I will, on a rare occasion, go to ebay if I gotta have it and I can't find it here or local.  Couldn't find a CIB Videomation to save my life except on ebay.

[NostalgicMachine | 228]

It depends on what I'm looking for/where I'm at with what I'm looking for! Not nearly into big time collecting as I was a decade back. Now I just buy what I want to play.

[guitarzombie | 924]

I got all my best deals and games by buying lots on ebay.

[a3quit4s | 4,092]

2 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

I got all my best deals and games by buying lots on ebay.

This is the way to go especially when you have a built up collection. You basically buy it to sell or trade in most of the stuff and keep the one or two carts you needed. The best is if there is a working console because that is good value at the game store lol. I’ve done this and it worked out to most of the time I’ve gotten the game I needed for free. 

[DefaultGen | 5,400]

I think dealers and stores are bad at pricing condition. Many (most??) see a CIB as a CIB. Inserts, baggies, box condition? Whatever. Just look up the CIB price and that's the price. For near mint stuff, you can get deals even from the stores that have big markups.

My issue shopping local is selection, because if that near mint Chrono Trigger, Super Bowling, and Legend of Zelda get traded in, they will be pillaged by greedy local collectors the same day. Which, to be fair, is exactly what I want to do. But Ebay doesn't run out of stock of things I want.

[Kguillemette | 1,543]

Ever check pawn shops? They might be more willing to haggle as well, especially since haggling is basically their business.

[MrWunderful | 2,926]

I wish I could shop local. There haven’t been any game stores around here for 5 to 10 years, and back then they were still overpriced.

[Link | 2,708]

3 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Ever check pawn shops? They might be more willing to haggle as well, especially since haggling is basically their business.

I have, and they looked at me like I had three heads, lol

 

23 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

Couldn't find a CIB Videomation to save my life except on ebay.

Are you the one who posted really good Videomation art back on NA (I think)? Because otherwise, as somebody who grew up with that game... why? (You don't strike me as the full set CIB type)

4 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

This is the way to go especially when you have a built up collection. You basically buy it to sell or trade in most of the stuff and keep the one or two carts you needed. The best is if there is a working console because that is good value at the game store lol. I’ve done this and it worked out to most of the time I’ve gotten the game I needed for free. 

I've read this from various people dozens, perhaps hundreds of times and I gotta ask, how recently have you been able to do this? Because I've never been able to make it work like that. And I know the conventional wisdom of doing a week auction ending on Sunday during prime time, etc

[a3quit4s | 4,092]

32 minutes ago, Link said:

I've read this from various people dozens, perhaps hundreds of times and I gotta ask, how recently have you been able to do this? Because I've never been able to make it work like that. And I know the conventional wisdom of doing a week auction ending on Sunday during prime time, etc

Definitely not on eBay, local sales only. It’s been a year or so since I was able to find anything worth buying though. 

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

42 minutes ago, Link said:

Are you the one who posted really good Videomation art back on NA (I think)? Because otherwise, as somebody who grew up with that game... why? (You don't strike me as the full set CIB type)

Haha.  Yeah that was here during the Weekly Contest two seasons back.  I got a charm for it too.

 

[Murray | 2,447]

49 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

Haha.  Yeah that was here during the Weekly Contest two seasons back.  I got a charm for it too.

 

I’m still waiting for my charm 

[OptOut | 8,881]

The US style used gamestore isn't really a thing over here. There isn't really the same kind of large-scale active retro-game community in Taiwan, certainly not large enough to sustain actual brick and mortar locations in most cities with an active trade-in economy. That's not to say that there aren't gamestores here, of course, it just works differently...

The local gamestores I purchase from here have retro stock that has been sitting here since new. If you see a SFC game on the shelf, chances are it's been sitting there waiting for you for 25 years! So, naturally, you aren't going to walk in and see a massive new glut of trade-in stock to refresh the offering, what you see on your first visit is basically all they are ever going to have.

This actually leads to an interesting pattern of purchasing from these stores, however. Basically, the first time you discover one of these stores and go in, you paw over basically everything in the store, just to get an idea of what they have and pick out any of the immediate obvious gold nuggets, if any. Usually, of course there's basically nothing, or maybe only a couple things you want, but this is where the process really begins!

You start out getting stuff you actually want, but soon enough the picked-over corpse of the store doesn't really have anything left you originally started out looking for... But, I mean this is all there will ever be, so what do you do? Simple, just start buying something else! You naturally expand the scope of your collecting by moving like a vulture from one section of the stock to another, picking the bones clean over the years! 

This process is also aided by making friends with the owner, of course. A lot of the time the first time you go into one of these stores, the shopkeeper doesn't know what to make of you! You get everything from bemused smiles, to a cold stand-off to outright hostility! However, usually after making a good first sale and a little small talk in a foreign language, you can start the process of getting to know the shop owner, and how they like to do business.

Quite often on your first visit to a store, you may get nothing but sticker price... and I'm talking original retail sticker price here, remember, these games have been here since the 90's! However, the more often you visit, and the more you start picking away at the edges of the crap pile, the more friendly the owners get and they start cutting you deals and just handing you over like bulk crap, just because they know you'll buy basically anything and they haven't seen that patch of floor in 20 years! 

You can also start asking for access to a wider variety of their stock, whether it be stuff they store behind the counter, out back, or even their FORBIDDEN items...   Yeah... that's another thing, you can ask @fcgamer about this one. Every gamestore in Taiwan, for whatever reason, has stuff in their store they just WON'T sell you for one reason or another. Sometimes they say it is broken (9 times out of 10 it works fine), sometimes they say it's not theirs, sometimes they say they simply can't be bothered to get off their chair and pull it off the shelf. It's INFURIATING. 

However, you grease the wheels long enough, you keep coming back and get to know the owner, EVENTUALLY they usually acquiesce and let you just buy the damn thing you wanted, or even just straight up give it to you for free! Either that or you wait until like their son or their auntie or their brother or whomever is watching the store that day, and you buy it from them instead without the hassle! 

 

 

So, having said all that, is it better than buying online? Fuck no, lol! Sure it's fun and give you something to do when you go out, but you can buy stuff even cheaper from the local websites, a MUCH wider range of stuff than the local stores, and pay when you pick it up from the local convenience store! Also, other than that dastardly @fcgamer I basically have ZERO competition online on the local sites here, buying shit online in Taiwan is basically heaven before you die, lol!  

[Kguillemette | 1,543]

3 hours ago, Link said:

 

I've read this from various people dozens, perhaps hundreds of times and I gotta ask, how recently have you been able to do this? Because I've never been able to make it work like that. And I know the conventional wisdom of doing a week auction ending on Sunday during prime time, etc

For myself, I find the most luck around late october/november on CL or Marketplace. Mom got Billy the latest system for Christmas so it's out with the old in with the new, often for pennies on the dollar. A couple years ago I grew a real nice little collection of PS3, 360, and Wii/wii u for essentially nothing. Gotta be quick, but that's always been the best time for me. Flip the console and games I don't want right on ebay as a lot often for the same money I bought it for leaving me to pocket the games for "free". Extra controllers and doubles of hot titles make back the eBay fees more often than not. 

Actually acquiring inventory on eBay to resell and keep the extras has been especially difficult the past couple years. There's just a lot of buyers out there. Every once in a while you maybe can snap up a newly listed low priced BIN, but people on eBay tend to know exactly what they have these days.

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

For me, buying local is not an option.

The used video game stores in my county have a history of buying my imports for pennies on the dollar. With excuses like how it's niche, or some other excuse. Even though they turn around and sell them for a hefty profit. Which means that I would have to drive all the way to Los Angeles' Little Tokyo district, with the only import game store never really selling anything I want. Atop of my last experience also noting that one of their employees was clueless when I asked why they were playing Dragon Quest music at said time. 

And online? It is always a gamble that tends to have me lose. Even if I am buying games from great people. Which is a recurring theme for me. But I had some luck at times. And I use those losses as a way to improve my goals. Even though the last two years were horrible when it came to hunting down both PS4 and Switch games.

But that is another story.

[fcgamer | 4,719]

On 2/8/2022 at 1:03 PM, FenrirZero said:

Atop of my last experience also noting that one of their employees was clueless when I asked why they were playing Dragon Quest music at said time. 

Was there a significant reason why they were playing the music at that time?

I remember once telling the staff at the NY Nintendo store that their sign was wrong, as Famicom had also been officially released in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it went over like a lead balloon.