Fryer64

~

24 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Fryer I'm not picking on you, it's a general comment that people pull this crap all the time and it's easily enough figured out watching the info that ebay still does share which makes it even more annoying.  If you have a legit snag, sorry to hear it, but there's no way to know either.

Haha no harm no foul. This was kinda funny. Oh also check out the spelling it's great 

8 hours ago, Tanooki said:

That typically what happens, much like that video over wata/ha people are mad rightly about now.  it's common, the board members of that very company do the same, buy an item, then post it for a bit more, and buy it themselves to jack up perceived value and do it ever so often to raise it further.  Same tactic here, you buy your own stuff, it shows as bought, then just tank it on the back end and that's that, publicly it stays green as sold.  Fake sale sets fake value.

I would never inflate my own prices. I can show you the person who bought it and our messages. It's not sold because the guy thought his sold. It was an embarrassing experience for the both of us, and I have proof to back that up. 

That being said it never hurts to have items for sale for more then what you want, because best offer is usually what ends up happening. Price manipulation isn't the goal, or even part of the plan. 

Feel free to call me on it. Although I would be sorta throwing that guy under the bus if even for just a simple mistake. 

Will use later

I know the gamestop thing is sorta like beating a dead horse, but I can't imagine who thought those prices were acceptable. 

On a petty sidenote, went hunting with a friend today and came across a ghost busters pinball from 2016 I dont care at all for. Huge gap between the flippers 

I swear everyday I find out about about more titles that I'd like to have.

Bump 

Uppity

4 minutes ago, Shmup said:

I just lost the game. Damn, that was a good streak, over 2 years!

Here is a reference for those who don’t know about the game. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(mind_game)

The layers of meta on that are almost too much for 2am! Ahaha

So. Let's play a game! 

1. Think of a game
2. Read the title and pretend you're talking to someone and connect the title to something just crazy off base.

I'll start!

Example 1!

Golden sun on the Gameboy advance? Yeah I've played that a few times, so the sun from Mario 3 is who you play as and you can either stick to your angry ways and speed up global warming, or make choices that eventually stop it so you don't burn so hard giving the polar ice caps a chance to freeze back up. 

Example 2!

Conkers bad fur day? It's based off  a very pretty girl named lilly who just can't catch a break and her hair keeps getting messed up, game mechanics include wind, a cameo from the yellow angry bird from angry birds who unfortunately flew over lilly while nature was calling and a missing hairbrush and the shortage of being able to buy another one due to a ship or something blocking a major Port channel that has made hairbrushes near impossible to find. Basically, The synopsis is to help Lily Conker fix her hair from various things that keep unfortunately happening so that she looks good for her senior pictures done that same day (being the last day they can be submitted before you get your stock photo from your yearbook)  . There are 17 endings depending on  the choices you make.

Example 3! Mario 64 is a little different then what you are used to playing. Essentially, Mario gained enough coins to retire early at the age of 64 instead of 65. Your job is to keep Mario from having his super bar going down to 0, resulting in Mario not bothering to play tennis, drive go karts, or host any friendly parties with his friends and sometimes enemies.  Basically make Mario not regret retiring and to feel  "Super" about his choice to finally hang up that hat and overalls of his. 

Now, someone outdo me and win the thread. Most likes or reactions in a week will win for that week and i will keep track of each weeks winner in and forever memorialize your crazy, absurd, and possibly satist  win by being in the first post. Do your best and keep it clean, ridiculous, but clean. 

July 9th- July 16th 2021 winner:  

3 hours ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

This is exactly how it has been done in every store Ive shopped and worked in that has ran such a promo. It was a running joke when people thought they would get more expensive items for free. Seriously am I in the twilight zone? This is like retail 101 around me. No business that knows what its doing is going to make it easy for you to get the more expensive item for free. You always have to break up the transactions. Ive been to many a Gamestop B2G1 sales and it was no different 

To be clear this really isnt a dig at you, it just surprises me to hear that this is an uncommon thing to others

Edit: Im going to start a thread about this, Im fascinated to see what others experience 

This thread was not meant to go after stores in general but rather a trend where I am. I am legitimately surprised someone would expect to get the most expensive one for free, in my example each game I bought were in the 80-100 range. So getting anything in that range was a win. Walking out with a $27 dollar game was just being entirely sick of having to check prices in a rare game case knowing what they go for, fully expecting to overpay, but not at a 80% mark up. 

When I say "friend" it's probably more of mutual respect, and honestly trying to justify if this is a thing because I'd rather buy local then on eBay, or almost anywhere else. (I've met a few swell people online who have helped me through the years I'd buy before local). .

I'm not a shill these places were brought up by someone from Omaha already and I stand to gain nothing by my thoughts.

Two owners in Omaha that had been mentioned in Omaha are beloved not necessarily because they have everything under the sun, but if you are in there enough you generally deal with them and they wouldn't hesitate to ask what you collect, if not busy have a small chat, and if you are interested in getting into a weird debate maybe throw out there mega man 3's theme is better then 2's,. (Imo yes, but that's a joke). 

Bens game zone has an owner you would not guess named Ben, often times while you are browsing you will see a woman and a young child come in and you can tell the kid really looks up to Ben and the mom appreciates the individual experience and honesty. I've seen this in person 4 times and I've been there around 8 times, I once casually mentioned I would love to collect all the Gameboy pockets cib in all the colors and he took down my phone number and in 6 months 4 came in and I would go down and buy them. Anyday of the week i'd overpay on a copy of whatever to have a nice conversation. To me, that's the appeal of that shop. Prices are meh but the attention he gives to customers leaves you okay with paying a 25-40% markup.

Pop culture exchange is different. But the owner is probably the most down to earth guy possible. No ego. Just a guy doing what he loves and doing it well because I've yet to meet anyone who dislikes this place. Appeal being selection, friendly questions and retro/nerd talk, a free arcade, and if requested he'd break up a cib if he saw it meant something to you. That kind of passion is contagious and he can use that to his advantage to get me to buy things that would fit in my collection, but I hadn't considered. But it's not in a way that is forced, it's genuine, 100% passion. I could likely go in there and just start quoting from the ferengi (star trek) rules of acquisition and id bet he either knows the number of the rule or quotes a rule counteracting mine.

Great owners are out there. I want to get out of the house, make a small trip and help my local stores out, but without decent pricing. The opposite being the guy that buys things because the price is high and and would look cool in an impressive, but actually shallow game collection.  Compared to the guy that comes in, buys a game because it's genuinely good but maybe isn't worth a fortune but plays it and takes pride in having something fun in there collection. .

This is by no means an attack on game store owners I promise, I wish I lived in Omaha because that would be so much more fun then where I'm at. Not that far but two hours round trip vs ten minutes makes a difference . 

I'm curious though, how do you run your store? If I came in on a super slow day and you had nothing to do would you hear what I like in a game and recommend me something perhaps cheap, but dead on, or would you point me to the most expensive thing in the case that sorta resembles what I'm looking for? What's a fair markup? These are the questions I have so ik I'm not out of line by making accusations and naming names?

No matter your answer I wish you absolutely nothing but the best for your business, this is my #1 hobby and stores like perhaps your own, started that passion for it, and I wanna do what I can to keep them alive so I can meet more locals who share the hobby. 

1 hour ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Omahaian here. Can attest to Ben's and Pop Culture Exchange both being great stores. But you'll notice neither are dedicated to just games. Like someone else said here, they are staying viable by yes, being good owners with good prices and policies, but also, selling more than games. 

Gamers on the other hand.... sigh....

Bingo on your two good owners. 

8 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

@Fryer64 I agree entirely.  If I were in your town, in your very shoes I've been in them a decade ago.  Back between 1995-2002 I made friends with a retro game/current second hand game shop owner out west were I grew up/lived.  I moved away for 7 years and came back almost yearly still talked with him, visited, bought a couple items to return with to support.  In that time and in the visits too he was always friendly, fair, in time becoming a friend I got a better rate on stuff too within margin mind you (not family.)  When I had to move back there for a small stretch things changed a lot over a period of about a year or two.  He wanted like 2-4x ebay rates on anything in the store.  He would part out stuff and charge for every piece...game, manual, maps, boxes, even other inserts which had just started with some and grew online.  His attitude was crap, was more rude, was still friendly to me to a point but not as much.  He even would warn me not to buy from him as his was high, then he'd joke he raised rates and I quote "because I have constant stream of tired moms with screaming kids and stupid jarheads in boot bored with nothing to do when stuck on base with lots of income" so he turned into preying on moms/single moms and future marine soldiers!  Collectors and other friends dropped away, his paranoia increased, he started to lash out if you did stuff or he assumed you did and just permanently would ban from the shop, not even hearing an argument or rebuttal threatening police escort.

I even got in his crosshairs before I left for he last time, some ass stole an image of mine from the internet of some games I bought, used it to attack his practices, and he assumed it was me so I got the boot, even when I got him not to hang up and listen he said he didn't know if he could believe me and ban stays... and I don't care who I piss off or if he reads it, he tried to argue his shit on NA years ago and got stepped on for it as I wasn't the only one in the area to confirm his tactics.  Store is Game Adx off the 78fwy in Oceanside CA.  Basically don't go there, sadly it's a museum to greed, paranoia, and stupidity because the stuff he has both imported from Japan an domestic is amazing both in quality and quantity, but you could do better anywhere else.

So if your friend with his shitty rates is acting like a scumbag, don't support him, visit, but until he wises up, don't buy.  If you act that way, you don't deserve to get rewarded.

 I just wish we could do more locally. Because four years ago we  could do that.  And sadly you literally just explained a lot of what has happened. It's like a loss of Passion. 

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

To the first, yeah it's sad.  I do get hits but they're so broken up, I can go a month or three months, and it may not even be a gaming item so I get a giggle when they miss.  Recently 1/2 off Yoshi's Island DS right next to some full price barely over New SMB DS(2 copies) I passed on... yet a year or less ago I got for $2 a vintage mini coke wall thermometer I found out even in the condition it is in probably someone pre-pandemic would have dropped $150 on.

To the 2nd.  To the #1 item on that list, just to more vaguely go by my PM - possibly able to dodge out of it, but people know and he'd be in trouble with other consumers who know better.  To the #2 on the list, that business probably won't last long if that goes through to finish and ends up on the wrong side of a decision and well I said what the results are in such a place for those who do well...that.  He's screwed and the business is done eventually.

 Once the dust settles there is no way that store stays in business. 

 I think I just want my friend to charge at least sorta fairly which I consider like 20% to 25% above market rate with the occasional deal

39 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I wish I knew the details of whatever Fryer is on about, before saying I'd support the fair-ish priced one or not, as it would have to be pretty criminal and sleazy if they had something I really wanted and priced well.

That said, around here, we used to have quite a few places a decade ago.  There was a good harmony between the few mom and pop chains, a few one offs in the county, and then TWO half price books locations.  If there ever was a black and white case of how an entity with pricing can utterly change the market, destroy others, and just leave few options, half price books in 2015 going to their catch all bar code sticker system is it.  Once that happened, within a year or two one of the mom and pop chains with 3 locations died entirely, all but one one off ate it while one held on it croaked a year before the virus, and the oldest which survives due to doing books, records, movies, and some toys lost 2 locations but retains 3.

When the prices on the stickers shot up, the payout HBP did also plummeted unless it was a spendy item with a fast turn over, so moderate value retained, but that was long term.  In the short they paid up, nicely, nicely so much the other stores got picked clean of anything that wasn't crap or sports to where they folded.  They died picked off, and their goods sold to the 2 chain locations for a small profit for little effort.  Far more went to HBP so they were rolling stock, with the inflated prices, then deflated the trade in, but they were the IT choice by then mostly.

Outside of that, a considerable uptick in facebook marketplace stuff swelled and stock over they years slowly dwindled at half price compared to the earlier years of the new price system.  HBP has been shrinking their game cases at both locations because they're not getting it in, and now they're asking preposterous ebay high paid and worse values, like $100 on a generic standard PS1 system or Gamecube?  They sit.  I continue there as they have regular sticker use or they ignore the barcode sometimes, or the codes haven't updated as fast as the toxic pricing so I continue and get lucky at times.

A side piece of fallout, the few goodwills around here, they used to get a decent selection of titles, they're like 90% gone now, some will rarely pop up, and majority of it, ebay or insanely over priced so that's gone to hell too.  I was in one earlier, they wanted $150 for a NES mini shelled retropie with 2 plastic controllers...that's par for the course.

 

Because of all this, I just watch FB mostly or online, it's not worth the waste of my time and I will NOT pay those rates, rates higher than online, just for the honor and care of supporting local.  I'm fine with that, but not fine with it being hosed in the process.

Goodwill is no longer viable around here either mostly. As for the first thing I pmed you. Without revealing the details, would you deal with that place?

I've heard of that, what's the best place to binge it? After a quick episode of dragon maid season 2

3 hours ago, Foochie776 said:

If you’re in Omaha those shops were pretty good to me. 
 

I have two local sources for retro games. One is a friend of mine who runs a business of sorts, he doesn’t have a physical store front but doesn’t conventions and the likes and he is an absolute peach. He had great trade in value and he sells for under VGPC (with the exception of the easy seller stuff). 
 

Then there is the other shop, it’s been around forever and as the years have gone on it’s become much more card based game oriented. Their inventory doesn’t change often but I once in a while am able to grab a deal. 
 

Having a local store is nice but I also have to take it for what it is. Some stuff is outrageous but considering the majority of their profits aren’t coming from game sales, I suppose they can sit on the inventory.

Omaha has two really amazing game store owners. Absolutely class acts. Like small business done right. And ik at least one has a free arcade. Its not like packed with machines but you always leave happy.  We played captain novalin years back on his kiosk and that experience alone practically had me throwing my wallet at him. You guys are so lucky 

Basically its becoming harder for me to defend pricing.  They have a buy 4 get one free thing and the cheapest one is free, i was dropping some coin and was looking for something in the range of 80-100 dollars or maybe more, had shelf space and money, which isnt a good thing when you are surrounded by cool stuff. So I ask the counter guy about golden sun the lost age, tag said $180.00. I know price can vary a bit on that game but we are talking box/manual/cart with 0 inserts for $180. I then just asked the gf what she might play and we grabbed a 3ds mario game and i walked out shaking my head.  

Dropping 400-500 dollars for some collectors may not be a big deal, I've been in contact with some dudes who that really isnt that much, but for me it def was.  This is after ignoring messages from friends with stickers on everything from gamecube, to playstation 2, to wii mario kart asking what's going on and if game market has just exploded in value. Maybe so, but some of these pictures were m80s and it had to be explained that a small wii collection that never strayed that far from wii sports isnt going make you rich. 

24 minutes ago, sp1nz said:

Expecting everyone to overpay on everything means that the business will go under or that the owner can afford to sit on the games to make a bigger profit on each game. Quite often a game store owner with retro stock is a collector that keeps the business open to get dibs on rarities and/or higher condition copies for cheap and the rest is for the store stock. Getting deals for your collection as a store manager might mean that you're even willing to take losses on store profits. Trying to gouge on everything while having hidden stock too, well that's either laziness or bad business practice.

Like if you want to support your community via continued store existence and its taxes (debatable if your patronage is needed or if the store should stay open or if the taxes will be used in an intelligent way) then you can overpay a little bit, like 20% or whatever, but I see no point in supporting a greedy business when online buying exists. Paying higher prices somewhere can make small waves in the overall market, so supporting intentionally elevated prices could elevate general prices elsewhere. Local stores serve a purpose for people who can't or won't buy online or beyond their city but this also means that the stores will try to take advantage of that fact.

In your friend's store's case I would just pop in once in a while and check around. There might be something good for sale for slight overprice, fair market price or an actual deal but if there isn't then I'm not buying something just because. In the confirmed dick's store's case I probably wouldn't buy anything unless there was a game I had been after for years and it wasn't available elsewhere for similar or lower price. Checking the wares of any store even without purchases is enjoyable enough but it's definitely not necessary to have a store around if you're never happy with the stock or prices.

I still shop there. It's just been kinds cringe lately looking at prices. And he isnt a collector strangely enough.  He holds onto some weird stuff though. Like something like 400 wii  fit balance boards lol

Once a trial is concluded that's been put off due to covid someone is getting one hell of a YouTube video about what went down 

I guess I'm thinking he could score a knockout blow to the other store by keep prices at that 20% markup. And it's not like I can give him advice, I blew 2 months salary recently because i woke up and immediately didnt understand why I didnt own a pinball machine.  

Just conflicted.  Wanna see my friend do well.but after what happened to two other stores in town and a crackdown on a local guy that had him stop his thing there isnt a reason for a casual to say no to the only game in town. And no competition at a retail level I've rarely seen go well for the consumer, or.in.this case collector

So this is gonna be a ramble, and it may come off as salty but that's not for the reason youd think.

My hometown has two major game stores, one is owned by a friend and the other.. well.. he has a shop.

The problem my local community is having lately is that we have lost so many game stores that what is left for retro (aside from a few small sections on toy shops dedicated to games) was a store absolutely hated by the local retro community, and another that while the man has always helped me out has sorta started.. naming his own prices on games.  Usually between 20% and 70% and in some insanity driven fit of madness double what is being charged highest sold Ebay price.

It literally comes down to throwing away money  overpaying  hardcore  or sorta dealing with the worst kind of person you can come across (Randomly nice to me though, so that's always nice)

Walking into my friends store is depressing because I will gladly pay more for the local community but not 50% higher then retail. I understand owning a storefront and charging more for overhead and potential product being stuck with, but when I see an 80 dollar game marked at 180 and ask if this is a mistake, a lecture happens where apparently its hard to put a sticker on a product and put it out for sale.  (The system cost money to produce for sure, but i helped out a bit and it's the easiest thing ever if there isnt a bug, 2 minutes flat it's in inventory and up for sale)

I'm not out here looking for deals locally but how much of a markup  does it take to give up on local stores? I can't justify absolutely shattering records on game prices even to help a pal. I now see that store as a lost cause and if I wanted to be a jerk I probably could snap pics that may well shock some people, and it would be so many pics. Not gonna do that, again, a friend, but its disgusting. 

This person also has a few floors dedicated just to games, systems, you name it. I could spend a full day and still not see everything. Stuff that's "rare " but doesn't see the light of day. Boxes of 100+ dollar titles that wont see the light of day unless a miracle happens.

Now for an even trickier subject, the competition.  Fairly priced but 2 really awful things "alledgly" went down that it's pretty well flipping the bird to my friend. and a whole other alleged thing went down, that either one of the alledged events it goes against dealing with someone no matter the how fair the prices are. (Not naming these games? Sorry)

My hometown went from a roadtrip  detour to a city you drive to get to Omaha.  (Amazing destination for a detour as it has at least two stores where the owner would be ridiculously  kind and even break a cib just so your copy is complete of a 300+ game I'm not dropping names at least not in this thread because that's either a personal attack or it makes me feel like a shill 

So with that in mind, I can take a not so bad road trip or overpay  or even support someone no gaming community should ever get behind  because of the alleged crimes.

Is this happening everywhere? I don't mean the potential criminal but rather the extreme markup no good faith collector could pay . 

Right now, my buying is almost 100% online. 

Is that the future of retro or is this stupidly unique? This is almost  a paradox and I sorta am hoping to hear this is just my towns shops.

If Things don't change it will have to be 100% online. 

Discuss?

Bump 

I've gotten some really cool stuff, never thought I'd be addicted to buying boxed gameboy games

These arent the droids you're looking for.

Take my money so you can buy fireworks and literally burn your cash in the sky!

48 minutes ago, koifish said:

lol @ your "legacy" but shocked by your story. I never thought kids would mug somebody over pokemon cards of all things. Given they were meeting you by day, might I assume they were also dull enough to give away some info about their real location/identity as well? I'd hope that you could have some comeuppance beyond just evading a bad ending. Still, a good cautionary tale about being careful with people. Even in public it can be dangerous.

That's why I like the idea I've seen of asking to meet at a police station for trades/etc. I've heard that police are quite amenable to it, and it's a pretty sure way to prevent funny business. They likely even have you on security camera too, so if there was foul play afterward (ie. following your car) then you could drive right back to the station and report them, and they'd probably be able to instantly get their plate info from that footage.

I have heard of some sales that fell through because of insisting on dealing at a police station, but I can't say I've heard of anyone regretting those lost sales.

You try to fight off a pack of ravenous 17 year olds right before sunset and tell me how it goes. To be fair it was over 1k in cards.  There should be a homebrew game where while you are just casually walking home from school you can get attacked by like a mob of Logan pauls

So I've wanted a pinball machine for a very long time. I bought  a goldball and every 3 completed games It would brick the machine and I'd have to read the manual? Internet, and crazy ideas to fix it. Ended up selling it very sad day. 

Anyways i wanted to give it another shot so I sold some stuff and got one that makes goldball look very boring. So..childhood dream accomplished!