DKOldies: Are they bad for the retro gaming community?

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

I’m really curious to get the Sage’s opinion on this. For context, I do visit Reddit, and it seems like every day there is a post criticizing DKOldies (or LukieGames, or some similar company) for having high prices and for using TikTok/ Instagram etc to get the uninformed public to purchase their overpriced games. I am curious to see what everyone here thinks. Feel free to discuss in the comments as well, I’d like to get a perspective from everyone, and I will share mine soon as well.

[Nintendopower4ever | 88]

Haters gonna hate

I don't like that lukiegames wins almost every auction on ebay and then they have shitty employees that just grip and rip stickers on the front labels on games you should know that doesn't work with and then toss everything they trash into their 25 cosmetically flawed game lots. Funny thing is that JJgames used to win all of those auctions and it was probably 99% of his inventory for years

DKoldies has always been good to me and quick to respond to questions I had

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Those guys have been doing this for years, well stripping local areas of games and then reselling for decent mark-up.

I think as hobbyists who are quite into this stuff, we sort of lose track of how the average person thinks. So while we might value a SMB/DH at $10 or whatever (actually I still value it at Funcoland $0.09), it's an amazing game and to pay $30 for it plus the cost of a machine to relive my childhood, honestly I can't say that I'd feel like I was getting ripped off (if I weren't following the market). 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I can't say I have much of an opinion on them. Using TikTok or similar marketing tactics is just a sign of the times. Adapt or die is true for any business. As long as they're not scamming people or lying, I don't have a problem with it.

[DefaultGen | 5,433]

It’s hard to find a game retailer with good stock. I’m sure there’s a clientele of customers who would rather buy their Super Mario Land 2 from a company rather than a random guy on Ebay no matter how much more it costs them. Haven’t bought much from DKOldies but years ago I’ve filled in a bunch of “undervalued” rare stuff through Lukie that wasn’t on Ebay and had no issues.

The only big game retailer I’ve loved was JJGames. Good night sweet prince. The only one I don’t like (misleading stock photos, poor shipping, bad customer service) is PowerUpVideoGames.

[Mega Tank | 974]

With information easily accessible these days people shouldn't be blindly buying a $50 cart of SMB.

That being said, there used to be a store in South FL that had signs all over stating customers cannot use their phones while in the store. Dead giveaway that you are being ripped off.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

I don’t mind them because they have a literally bought Garbage from me on eBay for a decent price. As far as the high prices and conning uneducated people into spending ridiculous amounts of money for easy to find cheaper items just sounds like good old fashioned American capitalism. 

[scaryice | 596]

1 hour ago, CodysGameRoom said:

I’m really curious to get the Sage’s opinion on this. For context, I do visit Reddit, and it seems like every day there is a post criticizing DKOldies (or LukieGames, or some similar company) for having high prices and for using TikTok/ Instagram etc to get the uninformed public to purchase their overpriced games. I am curious to see what everyone here thinks. Feel free to discuss in the comments as well, I’d like to get a perspective from everyone, and I will share mine soon as well.

I feel like the way you brought up social media marketing is going to result in many "no" responses, but to answer the thread's title, they are definitely bad for the community. I don't care about the marketing, but high prices mean less people being able to buy what they want. It's wrong to charge twice what something is worth, and it doesn't just affect those buyers, it affects everyone else when those overcharging companies win all the Ebay lots, as Nintendopower4ever said.

Edited June 24, 2022 by scaryice

[RH | 4,968]

I can't speak for DK but Lukie and JJ use to use a quantitive approach to there pricing.  Basically, the more inventory they had a of a game, the lower the price would be compared to how fast they could move it.  If you're setting on 10 carts, and none have moved in a few months, you scale down the price.  If a game comes in and you sell it for $20 the second you post it, you increase the internal price.

I consider this fair, although I'd be surprised if DK and Lukie weren't using the PriceCharting API to get price points for the rarer games.

I actually used Lukie a good bit for my GB collection.  In that case, I'd go and buy out their inventory for about 20 GB games.  I'd single out all the singles in the best condition (I got a lot of mint carts this way) and returned everything I didn't need or was in a lesser than preferred quality.  They offered 100% free shipping, paid the shipping label and no questions asked.  Being nice, I even sent in a support ticket before I did that asking them if it'd be fine if I bought 50 carts, knowing I'd likely return 70% of them, and they were fine with it.

So, I was able to get a bunch of common to uncommon games in mint shape, and it was worth the hassle and bump in price for what I did keep.  I also got a TON of Lukie rewards points.  They uh... never rolled them back when I returned the games.  I got a free copy of Super Metroid out of it and something else, though I can't recall.  Metroid was in mint shape too.  I thought they'd give me their crappiest copy, but they didn't.

[a3quit4s | 4,125]

I don’t think I’ve ever ordered from DK because their prices are set far above what I would pay as an informed consumer. I don’t think they are bad for having high markups, that’s business. If people can use the internet to get to DK they can surely use it to do research. It’s a convenience thing more than anything. Plus shopping there is probably a lot less sketchy than some eBay listings I’ve seen. 
 

I’ve ordered plenty of times from Lukie. Brandish I got from them last week. It was priced a little bit lower than most eBay auctions and Lukies condition is usually pretty good. Plus free shipping on $25+ is awesome. I’ve also ordered a lot of filler games from them when competing sets. Never had an issue. If I need a higher priced game I’ll usually just do a quick check at Lukie to see if it’s in stock and what the current rate is. Wouldn’t even bother with DK

@CodysGameRoom I did notice an uptick in DK hate posts though lol probably a Lukie marketing scheme!

Edited June 24, 2022 by a3quit4s

[Naked Warrior | 288]

Yeah, their prices are super high for your "Name" games and systems, but I still buy stuff from them all the time at decent prices...They have to rake in the profits somehow, and why not by selling a SNES with a copy of Super Mario World for like $150...that's what the "normies" want .  I think I bought a CIB Genesis Wings of Wor for like $90 maybe 6 months ago...I bought my first CIB Minish Cap and my only CIB copy of Oracle of Seasons from them back in 2017 for like $40 or $50 each - I know that was a long time ago, but those were below-market prices at that time.  I try to check in when they have Buy 2 get 1, and I bought some PS2 games probably like 3 months ago at 70% of pricecharting due to the Buy 2 get 1...Secondly, even though I don't know the people who run it personally, I live in the area and know some people who are friends with them - from all reports, they are good people.

[Foochie776 | 1,061]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

It’s hard to find a game retailer with good stock. I’m sure there’s a clientele of customers who would rather buy their Super Mario Land 2 from a company rather than a random guy on Ebay no matter how much more it costs them. Haven’t bought much from DKOldies but years ago I’ve filled in a bunch of “undervalued” rare stuff through Lukie that wasn’t on Ebay and had no issues.

The only big game retailer I’ve loved was JJGames. Good night sweet prince. The only one I don’t like (misleading stock photos, poor shipping, bad customer service) is PowerUpVideoGames.

Powerup is bad, I’ve had a few bad experiences.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Interesting to see the results here. I am aligned with most of you. I see the same posts every day about them on that subreddit and it is so annoying. 

I think DKOldies can charge whatever price they want for their products. It's the same thing at any supermarket in the US, there are going to be stores that sell the same thing for cheaper, and if you want it cheaper, all you have to do is go there. 

I think the onus is on the consumer to do the research and determine where to purchase product from. We've all done our research as collectors, and we know where to go to buy what we want. If you buy from DK Oldies and complain about the price, you didn't do your research. 

I've seen accusations that using TikTok and Insta Reels is predatory. It's so ridiculous. It's smart marketing.

Also, a lot of the people buying from them aren't collectors and I think that is ok. If someone wants to buy an NES and some games, play it for 6 months to relive that nostalgia, then sell it back to them 6 months later, I think it's fine. Not everyone has to be a collector. 

I think the hate is so overblown. Sure they have high prices but so do a lot of places. Them buying up games and reselling them for a mark-up is the same thing people have been doing for 15 years now. 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

5 minutes ago, Foochie776 said:

Powerup is bad, I’ve had a few bad experiences.

NOT a fan. They were legit rude to me in a message response when asking about condition of an item. I don't buy from them if I can help it.

[a3quit4s | 4,125]

Lukie isn’t all rainbows either, their rewards program is awful. The points are good but the choices you have to spend the points on straight up kills the point of the program. It’s like having 1000 tickets and all you can get is a pencil eraser. They should just switch to X points get you X off your next order instead of using it to get rid of overstock. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by a3quit4s

[docile tapeworm | 4,204]

I think there all a bunch of dirty rat, dirt neck resellers. Con artist who will cut you in line at the McDonald’s. Low life pieces of garbage crawling in the gutter.

[guitarzombie | 927]

If you're gonna support, support a local shop FFS or just go to ebay.  This stuff is like when I try to think who do I despise more, Gene Simmons/Kiss or the people that support all the crap they buy.  I ended up siding with Gene.  

[docile tapeworm | 4,204]

Worse is people who post “I buy video games” ads on Facebook. Fucking dirtbags.

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

I don't know anything about any tiktok or other social media stuff they do or don't do. All I know is DK is way overpriced. That's all I care about. So I steer people away from it for that reason alone.

[goldenpp72 | 1,235]

They are trash but you don't have to use them so whatever. 

[a3quit4s | 4,125]

I mean the question at hand is are they bad for the community; I think the resounding answer to that is no. Lots of places charge too much for games because they are in high demand, but at the same time DK seems to take care of the people that do order from them and even have a warranty period on their stuff which you aren’t getting from many other avenues of getting retro games (120 days!). Honestly, any avenue for getting games is a good one, you always have a choice to not pay over what you think is fair when the game you want is available everywhere but in the case where maybe DK is the only place selling what you want, you’ll be glad they are there and happily pay the markup. 

[Naked Warrior | 288]

6 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

If you're gonna support, support a local shop FFS or just go to ebay.  This stuff is like when I try to think who do I despise more, Gene Simmons/Kiss or the people that support all the crap they buy.  I ended up siding with Gene.  

What if DK Oldies IS my local shop???

[twiztor | 855]

i've had a couple orders from DKOldies over the years. no complaints.

i don't know anything about TikTok or whatever other marketing avenues they utilize, but that all seems like fair play to me. their prices are generally a bit high, but such is life. If someone doesn't do their research and buys from the first source, that's not really my problem. Don't see how this is even remotely "bad for the community"

[docile tapeworm | 4,204]

[AirVillain | 491]

Local or nothing.

I've been sitting at 17 carts in my collection for 6 years and it will stay that way as long as my local thrift store doesn't get any games in.

I refuse to buy from outside the area and especially "the internet".

Edited June 25, 2022 by AirVillain