Is eBay our only option?

[gossi the dog]

Pretty much every second game on eBay is described as being 'mint'. It's highly unlikely that a disc based game that's 10 years old will be mint. It's unfair for the people who actually do look after their games and that are honest in their descriptions i.e. by not even describing a game with a couple of light scuffs as being mint, becuase they should obtain a premium over a copy in average condition, which sadly usually won't be the case.

[Oldgamingfart]

EBay's just too far gone now, some of the prices are just silly. Good luck trying to build a collection for any retro system off there, you'll need deep pockets and a lot of patience that's for sure.

I'll tell you when eBay was good, around '01 to about '04 it was full to bursting with retro stuff, all reasonably priced and with some well respected sellers. You were literally spoiled for choice.
All that's gone now, and it's getting harder to buy games when everyone's fighting over the one copy of a minty boxed Mario Kart (for example), which then ends up going for ?50+ (a wild guess, but probably not too far off the mark!).

[donpepperoni]

Unfortunately with the fee changes a while ago eBay is now less and less geared towards the private seller and more about the large business sellers.

As a result 90% of the sellers on there now are just re-sellers. They usually charge insanely high prices, because they saw a copy of the game sell for that once so naturally their beat up copy is worth the same :/ Most of them also don't care about blatently lying about the condition.

There are still a few honest people on there though who accurately describe their items, and where possible I will always choose to buy their stuff over others.

I wouldn't say the problem was confined to eBay though, I've had a few less than advertised games from here as well.

[superstarbeejay]

Ebay went to **** ages ago and bootsales and high street stores are going the same way. Gamestation have now really gone the ebay route, selling the retro stuff they have for over ebay prices.

I still pick stuff up but generally it's more modern stuff and ps1 stuff from the boots as the traders have moved on on the whole.

[Blast Hardbody]

Auctually, Steven Seagal is the Final Option.

[saturn-gamer]

Its supply and demand, eh. If one nutcase shells out 200 bucks for random game, others will put random game up for that price. Completed Listings is quite the nasty feature. But its possible to get good deals on Greedbay. Also, I find some BIN's to be not all that expensive. I got myself some decent Neo Geo deals over the past months.

But its true that eBay is kind of booting Private sellers out. Its best if you list a bucketload of games with BiN prices, more like an online shop.

Some offers are stupid too. $70 or Make best offer. I: 'lets put 60 there'. Seller sends response: '$69'. Well, i'd rather do that in bed... Seriously, kind of useless to put the Make an Offer option in this listing?

[samanosuke]

Some offers are stupid too. $70 or Make best offer. I: 'lets put 60 there'. Seller sends response: '$69'. Well, i'd rather do that in bed... Seriously, kind of useless to put the Make an Offer option in this listing?

I've managed to be quite lucky in the past with the 'best offer' BiNs. The trick is persistence. There was a copy of Keio Yugekitai on there for a ridiculous $180 so I offered $45 three times, which is the maximum per item, and my offer was declined three times. Naturally the game didn't sell at its inflated price so when it was inevitably relisted, I continued offering $45 until my offer was accepted

I've done similar deals with other games too. Just be persistent and eventually, if the seller has any sense, they'll be sick of paying the eBay fees when they know there's a willing buyer out there!

[Sketcz]

There's a dodgy cash converters in Bournemouth? Where?!

Anyway, I used to find the diamond free ads (that yellow newspaper) is good for bargains, if you ring them early before anyone else has a chance to scour things out.

But didn't I tell you Daz? eBay sucks, especially now that it demands free postage!

[samanosuke]

But didn't I tell you Daz? eBay sucks, especially now that it demands free postage!

Just stick your games in the Vintage Gaming > Other section like I do. It only seems to be more recent games which have to be p&p free.