Things are worth as much as they can be sold for. I don't blame him trying to maximize value out of a rabid and delusional market.
I'd blame the idiot who forks over the cash.
My understanding from a thread on another site is this is all one guy and he goes back after he hits the BIN and negotiates the real price. Having said that, I understand that he is still way overpaying, at least compared to recent previous sales of the same titles. Sadly, this happens in every hobby from time to time and I suppose if there is any positive it's that somebody made a nice profit and it has no impact on the rest of us.
Hindsight is everything. Instead of spending money to go to technical college several years ago, I wish I had invested that money in Apple. I'd be better off today. However, I didn't and that's tough fucking shit.
Same with games. That's why I'm thankful my mother bought me everything Sega and Sony as a kid; they're two of the few brands I collect. Prices are (usually) cheap and merchandise is readily available.
With regards to hoarding, I'm guilty of it too. I'm already hoarding certain items from this generation; good investments 5-10 years from now when the economy (should) be great and today's kids will have jobs and disposable incomes.
"I haven't read all of the responses so I apologize if this has already been asked. So how does a person bid on this many items and then expect the seller to negotiate on what he's really planning to pay and still keep his eBay account? A bid is a bid. "
Ebay gives the buyer much too much power now
I think the moral of this thread is to require immediate payments.
If you sell a game like baseball which prior to all this was worth ehh 3-4k for 25k and someone actually hits the BIN and then says well I'm only going to pay 15k do you really say no if the best you feel you can do outside of this is 3-4k?
You could I suppose stick to your guns but most sellers realize that this is still a good sale.
Maybe I'm too suspicious, but something about this seems like bullsh*t to me.
"Who is selling and who is buying these games?" This is what I want to know. Is it so hard to believe that some team of entrepreneurs (less than reputable businessmen) is working in cahoots to inflate the market value of these sealed games. Couldn't friend X "buy" friend Y's sealed games on eBay with no real money actually exchanging hands. Is this so far fetched? If collector think these sealed black box NES games can sell for around $20,000 dollars, they will reason that buying one for a $1,000 is an absolute steal.
People can buy whatever they want for whatever they want to pay for it, but this just seems "off" to me.
"Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...
Unless they canceled the transaction, which would probably set off some alarms since eBay wouldn't get their cut.
definitely some kind of bullshit, nobody would pay pay that kind of cash for those games. nobody is truly that stupid.
Yes, the buyer has a habit of clicking the BIN and then negotiating down afterwards. I'm not sure if any of the most recent sales have been paid for, but he at least paid $7,000 for a VGA 90 QUALIFIED (Not Sealed) Super Mario Bros., and several other expensive games. Like a $2,500 VGA 90 Castlevania II. And those sellers have confirmed that payment was received, and both parties left feedback.
There's no conspiracy here. It's just that someone showed up with very stupid amounts of money, probably from an inheritance or lotto winning. I've heard his grammar is mediocre at best, and his communication is rough. It's not some self-made millionaire businessman or anything.
This amount of spending cannot continue indefinitely, so many collectors are faced with the tough decision of selling their favorite collectibles at insanely high prices, or keeping them in the collection. Almost everyone has a price for everything, so many people are being tested.
People like this usually disappear as quickly as they arrive, so it should die down (hopefully).
WTB Clayfighter Sculptor's Cut Manual Only... PM ME!!
Some of these sales have been confirmed by the sellers over on NA. From what people are saying, it appears to be one guy, and I don't believe he's part of NA or any other forum for that matter.
Having sold a sealed title in the five-figure range (and numerous others in the four-figure range), I can assure you these sales do indeed exist. Would I ever spend that type of money on a sealed NES game? Fuck No!!!! But you're damn right I'll sell one for stupid money. I'd rather have a brand new bathroom than a game in an acrylic case, but to each their own I suppose.
"Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...
And I thought that I was the only one.
I would honestly enjoy having any of those black box games sealed. I would. I just couldn't justify spending over $20 for them. If they're sealed, they're decorations, and I don't pay stupid money for decorations. I would, however, spend semi-stupid money for a game that I wanted to play. And by semi-stupid I mean that I will continue to pass on Earthbound until it is going for around its original market price. I ain't spending $100+ plus for a video game.
Last edited by treismac; 04-04-2012 at 02:14 PM.
Yes they are. I've seen it in the "Collecting" market my whole life. I have collected Comic Books since I was a kid and lived through the boom of the 1990's. The stupid amounts people were paying for "Rare" items that had over a Million print run was stupid. Market crashed and all those "Stupid" prices dropped to pennies. Same thing happened to Baseball cards in the 90's. Move to the late 90's and early 2000's and Beanie Babies. Same damn thing. Stupid prices for ugly little bean bag toys. Now, you can't give the damn things away. Remember Tickle Me Elmo? Zsu Zsu (SP?) Pets? "Collectors" always pay stupid amounts of money for crap that isn't really rare. It's all in the perception of the buyer. Then again, these are obviously people that have way too much damn money to spend on stupid crap they don't need. mind you, I understand playing games and keeping the ones you like and play, but buying a game just for the sake of owning it for no other reason than to just pop it on a shelf in a plastic box just to say you have something rare . . . I never did understand it. And before I get the argument about works of art and all that nonsense, remember, art serves it's purpose; It was meant to be looked at and appreciated for it's brilliance and workmanship. Comics are meant to be read, toys to play with, and Video Games are meant to be played. Plain and simple, nothing more, nothing less.