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What's the second hand market like in Europe compared to North America?


Alex Nguyen

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What do you mean the North American market is “Bad”?

 

If we are talking money, we move big weight out here young man

 

I would wager one of the main reasons the second hand market even exists in Japan, is because of north american buyers.  There is more of a profit margin vs local japanese buyers anyways

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What's desirable in the microcomputer market in the UK? Nothing? Rare/obscure stuff? Hardware?

I've been buying up some classic cassette games and rarely pay over £5 a game. The expensive end of my (understandably limited by my low knowledge) want list was like £10-15: Manic Miner, Knight Lore, Batman, Skool Daze, Jet Pac, Jet Set Willy, Chuckie Egg, Gryzor, R-Type. I know this stuff was cheap in the 80s, but I didn't hit a single roadblock knocking out my entire want list for which I had no concept of prices.

Maybe 2020 just fried my brain in thinking about what these old game tapes should cost. If you wanted to pick up an NES and some games today, you're paying $30 each for the Zeldas, DuckTales, and Contras of the world loose now. And top 80/90s PC games are often $100+ CIB on the PC side.

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7 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

What do you mean the North American market is “Bad”?

 

If we are talking money, we move big weight out here young man

 

I would wager one of the main reasons the second hand market even exists in Japan, is because of north american buyers.  There is more of a profit margin vs local japanese buyers anyways

Not only that, I think also there is a lot more culture of second hand buying and selling (outside of only retro). You have large chain stores for used consumer goods, and I guess people tend to take better care of their stuff because they know they can probably trade it ounce they are done.

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FWIW last time I went to the US I was at a retro game themed convention with a big marketplace, and I was surprised how dime a dozen old NES games still were. Of course there were all the typical "collectibles" ranged $70+, but pretty much every stand would have literally hundreds of common cart-only games for $5-10. Literally less than the typical going price on eBay.

This wasn't long ago either, I was there in 2019, so it was well after several of the more recent massive price hikes on everything.

Compare the second hand console market in my area (Scandinavia / northern Europe), where you won't be able to find anything that was officially released on a Nintendo platform for less than $15. Hell, any NES game will command at least $35 if it's boxed, no matter the condition of how shitty or common of a game it is.

Go to any market event or one of the few physical stores dealing in old games, there's no way in hell you'd ever find a price that isn't well above the best prices you'll find on eBay. It seems you get to pay for the convenience of not having to buy stuff online, I guess?

Going to the US and seeing all these games that weren't considered desirable collectors objects simply by virtue of being on a Nintendo platform felt like going back in time at least ten years, even though back then you couldn't possibly find a market event dedicated to that kind of stuff here.
But I guess they'll get there in time. You guys better buy those $5 carts before they start defaulting to five times as much.

  

7 hours ago, fox said:

I thought they were more into weird home gaming computers.

Even in England that's fairly niche.

Edited by Sumez
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7 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

What's desirable in the microcomputer market in the UK? Nothing? Rare/obscure stuff? Hardware?

Nah, no one cares dude. Home computers were down-market at the time, which is why they were so popular... Basically the computers were cheap and the games were cheap, and even then people copied them and bought bootlegs.

The console stuff has always been way more desirable, and honestly the whole "Europeans were into microcomputers" thing is a bit of a myth... That was probably moreso true in the early to mid-80's, but by the time I was a kid in the late-80's and early 90's it was all NES and Megadrive.

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12 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Nah, no one cares dude. Home computers were down-market at the time, which is why they were so popular... Basically the computers were cheap and the games were cheap, and even then people copied them and bought bootlegs.

The console stuff has always been way more desirable, and honestly the whole "Europeans were into microcomputers" thing is a bit of a myth... That was probably moreso true in the early to mid-80's, but by the time I was a kid in the late-80's and early 90's it was all NES and Megadrive.

You were playing BBC Micro and Dragon 32 games until 2000 and you can't change my uninformed view of Europeans.

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Editorials Team · Posted

I don't know what's up with the Netherlands, but pretty much all of my Game Boy enthusiast buddies that are in Europe, are in the Netherlands. They're always finding multiple shops and sellers selling GB games for good deals, meeting up with each other, and the GB scene is just hoppin' over there. Meanwhile, I don't know a single other GB fan in all of AZ. So if I ever have to flee the country, that's where I'm going, and I'm bringing a Game Boy.

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