There's an NWC in the wild tonight

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

On 10/30/2023 at 1:43 PM, Khromak said:

Yeah IDK what I'd do if I ever ran into a NWC or a SE in person, especially with a (potentially) unwitting seller. As I've rehearsed in my head 1000 times I'd probably tell them they have an incredibly valuable item, I can't afford it but I'd really really like to own it, and ask them if we can work out some kind of a payment plan to where I can buy it off them over time.

I can't bring myself to steal it or buy a game worth tens of thousands for $20, which might as well be the same as stealing. I also couldn't *not* say anything or make any offer.

I dunno, at some point a lot of the best buys in the collectibles, antiques, art, etc. industry comes down to people with more knowledge using it to get deals off people with less knowledge. I have tons of Ebay alerts to see if people list a dumb BIN for some rare variant that 99% of people would overlook and I don't have the alerts set up to message the seller "Hey dummy, you priced this the same as all the other copies but it's actually worth 50x more!". Utilizing decades of experience and obscure knowledge in game collecting and exploiting that knowledge gap (without any social engineering involved) is usually how I get my best deals. You can pay for the good stuff or you can "work" for the good stuff, and this is the work.

That isn't to say in this situation I would lie to my boss about what it's worth, but if I'm a flea market and someone has an NWC with a $10 price sticker, I'm taking it.

[RH | 4,903]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

I dunno, at some point a lot of the best buys in the collectibles, antiques, art, etc. industry comes down to people with more knowledge using it to get deals off people with less knowledge. I have tons of Ebay alerts to see if people list a dumb BIN for some rare variant that 99% of people would overlook and I don't have the alerts set up to message the seller "Hey dummy, you priced this the same as all the other copies but it's actually worth 50x more!". Utilizing decades of experience and obscure knowledge in game collecting and exploiting that knowledge gap (without any social engineering involved) is usually how I get my best deals. You can pay for the good stuff or you can "work" for the good stuff, and this is the work.

That isn't to say in this situation I would lie to my boss about what it's worth, but if I'm a flea market and someone has an NWC with a $10 price sticker, I'm taking it.

I can agree.  It's a sellers responsibility to do their due diligence.  However, if someone has a family or health emergency and just has to shovel-sell there stuff, in those cases, I'm generous.  I've even offered to pay retail prices in some of those cases because I knew where the money was going.  If I saw someone with an SE or NWC for $10 and it's because they were needing money for cancer treatments, I'd be giving them a call right away to tell them they are making a mistake and should get it consigned.

However, If it's Joe Shmoe is clearing out "junk" for a foosball table or beer money, then his loss is my gain.

[Khromak | 768]

I see what you guys are saying, but I think in the real world knowing the intentions of the seller is a bit more nuanced.

TBF though, if it were for sale by some giant faceless megacorporation, I'd absolutely buy it for $20. That gets really different when talking about some random person though, and even if they're just selling their games to buy a motorcycle, you're still basically stealing a down payment on a motorcycle from them so you can benefit. This is fine when you're talking about getting a $100 game for $5, but a little different when it's a $30,000 game for $10.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

Hard disagree. My neighbor just got a box of 100 year old Ford adverts for $1 each at an auction and he's going to sell them for $200-300 each. He has about 100. That's the way the trash business works.

Sometimes you get gold for silver prices.

[RH | 4,903]

34 minutes ago, Khromak said:

I see what you guys are saying, but I think in the real world knowing the intentions of the seller is a bit more nuanced.

TBF though, if it were for sale by some giant faceless megacorporation, I'd absolutely buy it for $20. That gets really different when talking about some random person though, and even if they're just selling their games to buy a motorcycle, you're still basically stealing a down payment on a motorcycle from them so you can benefit. This is fine when you're talking about getting a $100 game for $5, but a little different when it's a $30,000 game for $10.

I just don’t see it that way and, in fact, I have let stuff go to o my find out later it was worth hundreds of dollars. Do I blame the recipient of my mistake? Nope.  I 100% was agitated with myself.  I’d feel the same way if I let some 5…6…7 figure item slipped through my possession without checking it out first.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

16 hours ago, RH said:

I just don’t see it that way and, in fact, I have let stuff go to o my find out later it was worth hundreds of dollars. Do I blame the recipient of my mistake? Nope.  I 100% was agitated with myself.  I’d feel the same way if I let some 5…6…7 figure item slipped through my possession without checking it out first.

Agreed, for me the problem cones about if someone asks you to make an offer, for example, and you throw out $10 knowing it's worth 10k, or if you tell someone it's worth jack shit yet it's worth a ton.

Similarly, if it's a grandmother or someone stating they're in a rough situation and in need of cash, then I feel throwing them a bone might be in order; however just some average wanker who can't do the research? Yeah, that's on them.

[_Brink_ | 48]

5 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Similarly, if it's a grandmother or someone stating they're in a rough situation and in need of cash, then I feel throwing them a bone might be in order; however just some average wanker who can't do the research? Yeah, that's on them.

Totally agree!  If the sale doesn't involve a grandma or a widowed mother (with or without cancer), you gotta pay $10 for a $30k game and sleep easy.  That average wanker would've spent the money on an overpriced used Jeep anyway. 

[MiamiSlice | 3,095]

On 10/27/2023 at 8:40 AM, CIB_Wholesale said:

is that the guy that does paid HA livestreams?

 

he said it was a 'easy 50k'

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/nes/nintendo-world-championship

 

pretty far off

that's how they pump by placing comps that dont sell often as 'easy' 2-3x

 

has anyone ever beat price charting? ever? for anything?

 

 

In the heyday around 2021 you could beat PriceCharting by a little bit because the averages were lagging the market. Nowadays we are back to things being steady so yeah no. 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

I'd be hard pressed on this one if it were me and I saw one of these in some random space (a flea market pull up, random net post off the usual trolled spaces, etc)

If they asked me to offer I'd do what I do on ebay now, be honest in this respect.  I do not like making offers, they make me uncomfortable because I will start low and I don't want to annoy people with lowballs, so I will write them on there and toss it back asking what they'd be comfy with.

If they said they wanted $10 or $50 or $100 I'd shut my mouth - fuck it, they made the offer, I just accepted it.  Hate me for that?  Good, because that's the only way I'd own it.  If my approach backfired and they asked $100K for it or whatever I'd say, sorry my mortgage is near that, good luck (or something of the sort.)

I would *NOT* tip them off ever that it was worth something, just won't do that, and it's not dishonest, it's just playing a poker bluff as I see it, keeping the cards close and a straight face with no tells.  It's the buyers responsibility to agree and pay up, that's it, it's not their job to be an educator of the seller.  Seller needs to self-educate, or they don't care enough and can roll the dice on a guess that works or backfires but that's 100% on them.

Remember back on NA when I was in Cali for the last time(3yrs) I did this very approach.  Mexican lady had her table of wonky clothes and games tossed on some of it, from a distance it was BOB or Earthbound, and it was EB.  Kept my cool, grabbed it and another item too, asked what she wanted, she held up 2 fingers.  I was like ehh...put the other down, pulled out 2 1's, thanked her and walked away.  Like hell I was going to say to her...ahh that's too cheap, let me give you $100.

 

In the case of this thrift, if I were that stupid kid who made that public(idiot), I'd ask the boss/mgr at the time if this was up for sale with no sticker, that I'm interested in it as I like old Nintendo carts and more or less only play those now (which is true.)  From there if they told me $20, I'd give them a $20 and hope they never find out (as I'd get fired, not that i'd care from a retail joint, just go elsewhere) and if they decided to research it and ended up posting it in some super sale online and got paydirt, I'd be happy the store got paid too.

In one oway it's a Win-tiny Win(buyer, store got a tiny profit on a freebie), or a Lose-BigWin (wannabe buyer gets squat, store gets loaded) depending on perspective.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Tanooki

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

lol

https://www.hpb.com/nintendo-world-championships-1990-cartridge-no.-0149/R-384091170.html?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

[a3quit4s | 4,098]

23 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

lol

https://www.hpb.com/nintendo-world-championships-1990-cartridge-no.-0149/R-384091170.html?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

$40k! It’s not even WATA graded!

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

I think it probably is/was a fair price for a nice looking copy. Someone spent $63k for a worse one this summer. It was in stock when I posted it. I figured it would not last long for someone in the market.

[Link | 2,712]

I hope OOP got a nice bonus. 

[Khromak | 768]

For all this talk of "the seller is responsible to price their items appropriately" I still feel like if you're watching a movie and a character walks up to a garage sale where someone has a brand new Porsche for sale for $50 and the character buys it, turns and winks at the camera, the point is: this person's a scumbag.

I guess it's fine to get one over on a moron, but I don't exactly see it as being morally OK. If someone was trying to sell their home and they said hey, IDK what the market is like, I bought it for $50k 50 years ago and you offer them $45k for their $2m home, you're still an asshole in my book.

The seller being a moron and the buyer being underhanded are not mutually exclusive and taking advantage of another person's gullibility isn't immediately excusable just because of their own personal responsibility.

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

13 minutes ago, Link said:

I hope OOP got a nice bonus. 

OP won't even get a pizza party

[Khromak | 768]

Same thing is true in reverse and possibly even shows the difference better: if someone has a $5 piece of fool's gold and offers it for sale to an unsuspecting buyer for $5000, they're a dirtbag because they're exploiting the buyer's lack of knowledge about minerals to make a quick buck off them.

If you sell someone an SMB/Duck Hunt for $10,000 because you tell them it's a super rare label variant worth millions, it's their lack of knowledge and research that cost them the money, but you're still not a nice person.

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

Since this was at Half Price Books, they paid $1 for it to begin with I would have zero qualms about paying HPB $2 for one if I had the chance.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

2 hours ago, Khromak said:

Same thing is true in reverse and possibly even shows the difference better: if someone has a $5 piece of fool's gold and offers it for sale to an unsuspecting buyer for $5000, they're a dirtbag because they're exploiting the buyer's lack of knowledge about minerals to make a quick buck off them.

If you sell someone an SMB/Duck Hunt for $10,000 because you tell them it's a super rare label variant worth millions, it's their lack of knowledge and research that cost them the money, but you're still not a nice person.

The converse is objectively worse. You're taking money someone has realized vs taking something that is potential.

As for the Porsche example. Ever hear of barn finds? It happens all the time. People buy a piece of property and in one of the barns is a low mileage classic car sitting under a tarp that comes with the property. It doesn't make the buyer a scum bag for scoping out a property, seeing some tarped cars in the barn and taking that into consideration. 

OOP didn't even know it was that expensive of a game. $5 for a $500 game happens every day. At least once month for most seasoned auction goers, yard salers, avid thrifters.

[Link | 2,712]

4 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Since this was at Half Price Books, they paid $1 for it to begin with I would have zero qualms about paying HPB $2 for one if I had the chance.

I have to agree with this. We’re not talking mom & pop at the flea market. 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

4 hours ago, Link said:

I have to agree with this. We’re not talking mom & pop at the flea market. 

Hehehe true, oh wait... gracias amiga!

[fcgamer | 4,723]

11 hours ago, Khromak said:

I guess it's fine to get one over on a moron, but I don't exactly see it as being morally OK. If someone was trying to sell their home and they said hey, IDK what the market is like, I bought it for $50k 50 years ago and you offer them $45k for their $2m home, you're still an asshole in my book.

I personally feel it gets very complicated very quick. For example, a single mother runs across the game and knows of its value, whereas the seller is rich, or at least in a much better position financially. And we could throw out dozens of situations involving poor students, or whomever, where the money at stake could be life-changing. On the other hand, to someone that is extremely well-off, the money could just be more investments for their already large portfolio. So unless you are purposely throwing out a shitty lowball offer, I just feel that sometimes knowledge is king in these situations. Having money often means convenience, whereas for those who don't have money, we need to dig through roach-infested fire hazards to get enjoy things.

 

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Since we’re getting philosophical…

 

What is the exact ethical profit point? Is even making a $0.01 off someone too much? If not, then why is $1,000,000 different?

If you never sell the item and keep it in your collection forever is it okay to buy it?

What if someone OFFERS you money to take something like this from them?

What if they use it as payment of services?

 

[fcgamer | 4,723]

8 minutes ago, ThePhleo said:

Since we’re getting philosophical…

 

What is the exact ethical profit point? Is even making a $0.01 off someone too much? If not, then why is $1,000,000 different?

If you never sell the item and keep it in your collection forever is it okay to buy it?

What if someone OFFERS you money to take something like this from them?

What if they use it as payment of services?

 

I don't know what exact figures would be considered morally acceptable or not, especially after seeing some of the responses on this thread; however, I remember hearing once that you shouldn't tip business owners as they are the ones setting the price for their services, so they set the price for what they want to get. Now I know it's a bit more nuanced than that, so I hope people don't try to pick a fight over the statement, rather it's just about making a point.

Here's an example to consider:

I have a friend here who I've known for over a decade, and by now he's become a friend to my whole family too. He deals in antiques and second-hand goods, and if he finds video game related items, he'll always save them for me, and likewise I'll always buy everything, i.e. no cherry-picking. By now he rarely finds anything as things have dried up, but over the years there were times where I purchased literal junk, and then other times where I got gold for a little bit of nothing (such as a C1 TV for $20). 

Once I overheard my friend talking with my father, and my friend said something along the lines of how while his prices are within the (local) market, some are high, others are low, but Dave never haggles...

I'm not going to haggle with poor people over a penny (though I've seen tons of local people do this very thing), and similarly, even if I tried to pay my friend more than what he asked, even if I told him it was worth more, I know he wouldn't accept the money, and it would just make things awkward. There's a lot at play, one's station in life, pride, friendship, cost of goods, buyer's intent, etc. Whether I occasionally sell some items for money and make a profit or not, having a collection of 6000 games and writing hobby guides or whatever should be enough to show people that I'm not in it just for the money. 

The idea that it's somehow immoral to buy a rare game at a thrift shop for sticker price just seems ridiculous in my mind, especially if it's just going straight into your collection. If you're flipping it, then I guess I could see it a bit more in a negative light, but at the same time how much did the shop pay for the game, why should it be a win fall for them? 

[Khromak | 768]

I've given my opinion on this already but since it's taken a little bit of a turn here are my opinions on the most recent questions:

If it's a business, I don't have any issue buying an item for the price they listed. They're in business, it's their job to price their items and I have no idea what they paid for it ($1 for good will or if it was donated or w/e) so it's up to them to make sure they make a profit, not my business. I would gladly pay $2 for a NWC from a business.

When it comes to individuals, I think it comes down to how well you know their financial situation. In cases like Dave's where he knows the guy and what he paid for an item, I think it makes sense to pay them what's appropriate. You realize you're getting deals, he realizes when he gets a deal, even footing, no problem.

When dealing with a stranger (ebay, craigslist, swap meets, conventions, whatever) where you don't know their financial situation I personally would struggle to rip someone off. I don't know if there's an exact line for me, but I'd say once you get into 5x or more the price, you're just plain ripping someone off. A NWC worth $40,000 and you pay $20, earning a 2000x profit, is scummy. Sure, they might've gotten the game for free so they still got $20 they didn't have before, but you're still taking $39,800 worth of value from them. You may say "well they might not/don't NEED the money" but unless you know for a fact they're mega-super-ultra rich, how can you make that judgment? Even if you could, I'm not sure it's OK to steal from rich people.

Even if you're going to keep the game in your collection forever and never sell it, you still gained an item of value for much less value in money.

Everyone will have their limit, maybe to some people there is no limit and you'd take a million dollar gemstone off someone for $1 because they should've known, and to hell with whatever their situation is. Maybe to some people it's 2x, 5x, 10x, 10000x, but I feel like at some point you should decide that taking someone's property for free when it's worth a million dollars is an asshole thing to do, and the fact that "they should've known better" doesn't make it any better.

Obviously different people have different opinions and I respect that, but these are mine.

[AirVillain | 489]

Well that went down pretty quick...

Wild hypothetical here.

Depends on the circumstances and where this game was when I found it how much I'd offer..... Value Village, buy that shit and run.

Local thrift store in the church basement? BUY. THAT. SHIT. AND. RUN! Haha, jokes.... but I'm not a big believer in the churches in general....so.... I'd buy and and make a decent donation some other time.

Game store... tell them what they have and split the profit with them. Nah... Buy that shit and run.

Old lady selling her kids' stuff so she can buy groceries... I would tell her.