So I was watching
A video detailing the prices of old tools in the US at least in the current year, and changes in the market compared to 5-10-15 years ago.
Now I like old tools (was watching a video about them after all and have a few posts around here detailing such things) but old games is also what I do (have more than a few posts discussing that) and thus we are here today.
I have been buying (old) games for more than 30 years now and obviously that has seen massive changes in how things play out. Old stories are certainly something to share in this (30 years ago I could buy a sports bag or two full of C64 games and such like for £10, likewise I am sure everybody around back then is kicking themselves for not buying up every NES, SNES, PS1, megadrive and N64 collection going for "get it out of my house/attic" prices and sitting on it) but was going to look at more recent times and developments there as a focus.
I source things from all manner of places -- charity shops are a popular thing in the UK (even small villages tend to have them), second hand electronics/games shops (rarer than they once were, though the big players are now variously bankrupt or only focusing on new games, and back when you had what was in the shop, no national we can ship it from the other side of the country database like you might have for some today), yard/garage sales are not really a thing in the UK (they do happen, though it is usually more an entire street or area has one at the same time rather than individuals on a random weekend), estate sales even less of one (in the UK you tend to get house clearance people in that take it all away in a van to go to general auctions, car boot sales, their own sales, their own preferred vendors for specific items and whatnot) and car boot sales (somewhat akin to flea markets, though "table sales" also exist where someone might rent a village hall and in turn rent that out to people selling things they made or otherwise have). I similarly travel around a fair bit and even given half an hour I will poke my nose in somewhere on the off chance.
In the last year I have also seen things change as well -- if I want games at a car boot sale I have to be there as people are unloading their cars (means leaving the house at 6am at the latest too) which tends to wind people up (I occasionally help out friends or family that are doing one and it is a wonder I don't issue headbutts to such people, so I just don't and stick to tools and books about tools and useful to those that use tools -- unlike the video I started this out with the UK is still pretty tame for this one in most cases) or be lucky (got myself a nice DSi the other month for £10 with a few bits of shovelware despite many of those I am about to describe milling around/having been past the row I found it in as I was going backwards that day). I have also seen plenty of kids wandering around phone in hand to arbitrage with ebay, CEX (popular technically international chain of second hand games/dvds/electronics vendors) and the like that buy whole stacks of things which is a new development for me, though have seen resellers/sharks in plenty an amusing internet video of people that also go around collecting and reselling in the US for a few years now (favourite channel for such things, though his more recent stuff is less of the in the wild footage than his older stuff, plenty of "picker", scrapper and such channels if you do want such things though). I am not a reseller or an arbitrager though, indeed have not sold/traded into a shop anything game related of mine for north of 20 years at this point, and have no particular desire to get into the field.
I am sure everybody reading this is familiar with charity shops/thrift shops being picked clean of everything but sports games and COD style shelf fodder, save maybe they get lucky and are that 10 minutes after it got donated/put out. This applies whether it is said tiny village (I say having got a copy of Tony Hawk 2 for the PS1 the other week for next to nothing, and Wii New Super Mario Bros and Mario Party something for even less than that) or larger town. Some even recognise the value of such a thing and reflect ebay prices (do also do it for books now as well).
For games I don't do ebay, amazon, facebook groups, craigslist, gumtree (think craigslist but more in the UK and I think Australia), newspaper ads (I think they still exist) or the like so only have a passing familiarity with such things unless it is a very specific thing I am after (so nothing in possibly the past 10 years on the games front, few books though). However where once those doing house clearance, selling off uncle childless' housing contents, whatever their kids left behind when going to university and the like at car boot sales were clueless I see things priced to match (or maybe a bit less to shift), possibly in real time if you ask for a price. This goes from 20 somethings to grandmas I can't say without exception but it is the exception that don't do this for me these days. Do see a fair few want to sell the system and games as a bundle though.
While I have got some games at antiques shops then it is far from common here compared to some of the things I saw in the US where people would rent a shelf/cabinet in such a shop and sell games there (the model does exist here, indeed might even be the default, but it is the sort of thing you typically expect to see in such a shop).
Contents of things also varies dramatically as time goes on. I very very rarely see anything older than the 360, and if I do it is usually sports game type shelf fodder, specialist seller, those that priced according to ebay or the like. Indeed last year for 360 was also rather less than it used to be. Exception there for old PC games (mostly DVD case and CD jewel case, frequently spinning stand "best of" type things rather than nice cardboard box stuff) as those I do find often enough and going for not a lot, though even they increasingly are creeping up and being subject to things mentioned elsewhere.
Now the shifting market for what is retro (choice video below) obviously influences things but the cutoffs are rather stark compared to say 10 years ago (still firmly in the retro games boom) where some things were less common but still seen
What are your thoughts, observations, experiences on buying second hand games and the market there?
A video detailing the prices of old tools in the US at least in the current year, and changes in the market compared to 5-10-15 years ago.
Now I like old tools (was watching a video about them after all and have a few posts around here detailing such things) but old games is also what I do (have more than a few posts discussing that) and thus we are here today.
I have been buying (old) games for more than 30 years now and obviously that has seen massive changes in how things play out. Old stories are certainly something to share in this (30 years ago I could buy a sports bag or two full of C64 games and such like for £10, likewise I am sure everybody around back then is kicking themselves for not buying up every NES, SNES, PS1, megadrive and N64 collection going for "get it out of my house/attic" prices and sitting on it) but was going to look at more recent times and developments there as a focus.
I source things from all manner of places -- charity shops are a popular thing in the UK (even small villages tend to have them), second hand electronics/games shops (rarer than they once were, though the big players are now variously bankrupt or only focusing on new games, and back when you had what was in the shop, no national we can ship it from the other side of the country database like you might have for some today), yard/garage sales are not really a thing in the UK (they do happen, though it is usually more an entire street or area has one at the same time rather than individuals on a random weekend), estate sales even less of one (in the UK you tend to get house clearance people in that take it all away in a van to go to general auctions, car boot sales, their own sales, their own preferred vendors for specific items and whatnot) and car boot sales (somewhat akin to flea markets, though "table sales" also exist where someone might rent a village hall and in turn rent that out to people selling things they made or otherwise have). I similarly travel around a fair bit and even given half an hour I will poke my nose in somewhere on the off chance.
In the last year I have also seen things change as well -- if I want games at a car boot sale I have to be there as people are unloading their cars (means leaving the house at 6am at the latest too) which tends to wind people up (I occasionally help out friends or family that are doing one and it is a wonder I don't issue headbutts to such people, so I just don't and stick to tools and books about tools and useful to those that use tools -- unlike the video I started this out with the UK is still pretty tame for this one in most cases) or be lucky (got myself a nice DSi the other month for £10 with a few bits of shovelware despite many of those I am about to describe milling around/having been past the row I found it in as I was going backwards that day). I have also seen plenty of kids wandering around phone in hand to arbitrage with ebay, CEX (popular technically international chain of second hand games/dvds/electronics vendors) and the like that buy whole stacks of things which is a new development for me, though have seen resellers/sharks in plenty an amusing internet video of people that also go around collecting and reselling in the US for a few years now (favourite channel for such things, though his more recent stuff is less of the in the wild footage than his older stuff, plenty of "picker", scrapper and such channels if you do want such things though). I am not a reseller or an arbitrager though, indeed have not sold/traded into a shop anything game related of mine for north of 20 years at this point, and have no particular desire to get into the field.
I am sure everybody reading this is familiar with charity shops/thrift shops being picked clean of everything but sports games and COD style shelf fodder, save maybe they get lucky and are that 10 minutes after it got donated/put out. This applies whether it is said tiny village (I say having got a copy of Tony Hawk 2 for the PS1 the other week for next to nothing, and Wii New Super Mario Bros and Mario Party something for even less than that) or larger town. Some even recognise the value of such a thing and reflect ebay prices (do also do it for books now as well).
For games I don't do ebay, amazon, facebook groups, craigslist, gumtree (think craigslist but more in the UK and I think Australia), newspaper ads (I think they still exist) or the like so only have a passing familiarity with such things unless it is a very specific thing I am after (so nothing in possibly the past 10 years on the games front, few books though). However where once those doing house clearance, selling off uncle childless' housing contents, whatever their kids left behind when going to university and the like at car boot sales were clueless I see things priced to match (or maybe a bit less to shift), possibly in real time if you ask for a price. This goes from 20 somethings to grandmas I can't say without exception but it is the exception that don't do this for me these days. Do see a fair few want to sell the system and games as a bundle though.
While I have got some games at antiques shops then it is far from common here compared to some of the things I saw in the US where people would rent a shelf/cabinet in such a shop and sell games there (the model does exist here, indeed might even be the default, but it is the sort of thing you typically expect to see in such a shop).
Contents of things also varies dramatically as time goes on. I very very rarely see anything older than the 360, and if I do it is usually sports game type shelf fodder, specialist seller, those that priced according to ebay or the like. Indeed last year for 360 was also rather less than it used to be. Exception there for old PC games (mostly DVD case and CD jewel case, frequently spinning stand "best of" type things rather than nice cardboard box stuff) as those I do find often enough and going for not a lot, though even they increasingly are creeping up and being subject to things mentioned elsewhere.
Now the shifting market for what is retro (choice video below) obviously influences things but the cutoffs are rather stark compared to say 10 years ago (still firmly in the retro games boom) where some things were less common but still seen
What are your thoughts, observations, experiences on buying second hand games and the market there?