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Do Bounties Work?


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As someone looking for a Stadium Events manual in average condition for $8k-$10k right now, I’d hope they work!

The thing is, everyone (not really) wants an NWC, Stadium Events, or even a Dino Peak box, or Sculptors Cut manual...posting a public bounty just gives you a better chance at being first in line. At least, that’s my working theory.

If I was in the market to SELL something rare and highly coveted, I’d check to see if there’s someone actively looking for it first before sending it to eBay or Heritage.

I recall someone’s bounty for NWC Grey, took them about two or three years but they eventually got it. I think it was someone named Mustang98 or something like that on NA?

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1 minute ago, ThePhleo said:

As someone looking for a Stadium Events manual in average condition for $8k-$10k right now, I’d hope they work!

The thing is, everyone (not really) wants an NWC, Stadium Events, or even a Dino Peak box, or Sculptors Cut manual...posting a public bounty just gives you a better chance at being first in line. At least, that’s my working theory.

If I was in the market to SELL something rare and highly coveted, I’d check to see if there’s someone actively looking for it first before sending it to eBay or Heritage.

I recall someone’s bounty for NWC Grey, took them about two or three years but they eventually got it. I think it was someone named Mustang98 or something like that on NA?

I think I posted a bounty to get a gray NWC, but the guy had a gray and a gold for sale, so I'm not totally sure who contacted who first on that deal.

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Absolutely they work. I think the misconception about bounties is that if you offer fair market value, suddenly sellers will come out of the woodworks, but that's simply not the case. If a seller wanted fair market value, the item would already be on eBay or listed prominently in a FS thread.

The whole point of a bounty is to standout as a buyer and incentivize the owner to sell (i.e. turn owners into sellers). If your bounty is not at least 125-150% of fair market value, don't expect any hits. If your initial offer is too low, you've already failed because no one is taking it seriously and they're not looking out for your incremental increases.

Of course there are limitations with exceedingly rare items, but with with proper implementation, bounties do work. 

Edited by DoctorEncore
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^Good recent example is DoctorEncore posting a bounty thread for some games I had, but was not planning on selling. The bounty was more than fair, so I messaged him. Sold, shipped delivered.

Bounties work for rare and hard to find things only. You have to pry them from people who don't want to part with them.

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No, I don’t think bounties or WTBs work. At least from my experience I’ve never had any luck trying it. For harder to find stuff I’ve tried reaching out directly to people that are known to have an item (which honesty feels kinda gross) and having luck on occasion. Knowing what to offer is hard too. Prices are climbing so fast that you can’t just look at past sales. I’ve made some offers on stuff I thought was high only to be left on read and then have them tell me they sold it for far more. Definitely luck and timing involved with rarer stuff.

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I never thought WTB threads used to work or those "CASH FOR OLD DUSTY VIDEO GAMES" ads. Although I never done the latter I've had really good luck on Kijiji with the few WTB ads I've posted for specific stuff (games, Wii U kiosk, guitars). I would likely only attach a bounty to something really rare that you're openly paying a significant premium to pull it from someone's collection and can't find readily. Otherwise I would just leave it without a bounty and work it out after someone has contacted you for a potential deal.

 

Edited by Andy_Bogomil
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Administrator · Posted
On 6/20/2020 at 5:10 PM, DoctorEncore said:

Absolutely they work. I think the misconception about bounties is that if you offer fair market value, suddenly sellers will come out of the woodworks, but that's simply not the case. If a seller wanted fair market value, the item would already be on eBay or listed prominently in a FS thread.

The whole point of a bounty is to standout as a buyer and incentivize the owner to sell (i.e. turn owners into sellers). If your bounty is not at least 125-150% of fair market value, don't expect any hits. If your initial offer is too low, you've already failed because no one is taking it seriously and they're not looking out for your incremental increases.

Of course there are limitations with exceedingly rare items, but with with proper implementation, bounties do work. 

Exactly this.   

If you're looking for something common, just a "WTB" will normally work as people likely have what you want already for sale and will shoot you a price.

If you want something rare you need to come over the top with your offer.    150% of last sale will usually make some people think if they would rather keep the item or have the money.

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Well I may be off or not on this, but I fall into the group that things they do work, but they also cause harm.  It's personally why I've never tried to use the practice and only go as far as a WTB/TF option and rarely do that either other than in a collaborative space say on a social media closed group.

The way I figured it, if you value something at X, that's great, but why put it out there?  If no one can really feel out the value of an item because it just doesn't pop up consistently enough to get a fair price so it wobbles between moderate to argh, it can set a bad level for yourself and others helping grow it worse.  What if you wanted some game and it bobs between $50 and $100 do you want to be the impatient jerk who says BOUNTY $120 for X, cash in hand!!  Someone probably would pop for it, now you set the value as it's the most recent.  It could fall back, or someone else will do that whole fear of missing out stupidity and copy it before it oops goes up more.

 

I've been very tempted to do one as I"m getting really burned out trying to track down Konami GB Collection Vol 4 UK-GBC cart as I've had the other 3 going on 2-3 years now.  They all came out at the same date, same time, same quantities, yet that last one seems to have slipped into a black hole.  I know what I'd pay on it just thinking what I value the games on it for, but I'm sure as hell not going to broadcast that if I ever found someone offer it for less, and I'd ignore it for more as I'd not want to feed that increase either.

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The first time I saw "bounty" being used on here I thought it meant that if I could find someone who was willing to sell the item, the bounty would go to me and the buyer would pay the seller for the item on top of that. Obviously that isn't the case. 

I've posted some WTB's on here, usually I'm offering a little less than the eBay going rate. 

Edited by MiamiSlice
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Homebrew Team · Posted
20 minutes ago, MiamiSlice said:

The first time I saw "bounty" being used on here I thought it meant that if I could find someone who was willing to sell the item, the bounty would go to me and the buyer would pay the seller for the item on top of that. Obviously that isn't the case. 

I've posted some WTB's on here, usually I'm offering a little less than the eBay going rate. 

Don't tell @Gloves otherwise he is going to come back with more lectures about bounties. 

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