28 replies to this topic

[kyle]

I was out at my local flea market today and my game man didnt have anyting new for me . So i went and checked out this other guys booth that sells games. He told me last week he was going to try and pick up some atari games.Well the guy is way to high on his stuff as it is but i went to see. If he had anything. He was away from his booth so i asked his ugly wife did he get any atari gamnes in yet? She said yeah one cart i said let me see it. She showed me and this is what it was. COOMBAT which i have two of and so does everyone else. The kick was the price $5 BUCKS!!!!! I told the ugly women that 5 bucks is to high for combat she said to me no its not! We will get $5 for it easy. I said no you wont. I can get that for a buck anywhere she say's to me no you cant. I'll get $5 for it today or anyday. I said fronm a dumbass maybe. Anyway i walked off MAD so i wont buy anything from them even if they ever get anything worth geting. The funnest thing of all is the guy that i buy my games from in that flea market has two combats for a buck each.

[Alex]

Here's how to deal with high flea market prices:

Offer them a two for one trade. Let's say they have a Montezuma's Revenge that you need. Trade them 2-3 commons from your extras and they'll probably be happy. Unless they know which games are rare, it won't make a difference what the titles are. You'll get rid of some commons, get something you need, and they'll have more to sell.

[CaliColts]

I have found that discussing the price of games with anyone who THINK they know what they have is a complete waste of time. 5 bucks for Combat? You should get 5 or 10 Combat's for that.

[monster angriff]

That's a bunch of crap. Maybe you should take a laptop computer with you next timeand demonstrate how stupid they are by showing them the price of a combat cart online. I hate those jerks and will be watching out for them and their kind. I have the same problem here. Everyone is going nuts over retro gaming and most people like that just think it's old so it should be worth more.

[jahfish]

maybe she's the mother of that guy selling combats in minor condition for 10$ on ebay

[King Asmo]

This wouldn't happen to be a Polish woman in a flea market in Mississauga, would it? If so, I know who you're talking about.

[jahfish]

don't smile when you see a good cart on the fleamarket! don't rush to the table! and handle them as if they were useless and worthless dirty item!

[King Asmo]

Seriously, though.. when it comes to flea market/garage sale types.. NEVER mention eBay. If they think you're just going to turn around and resell what you buy from them, they won't give you a deal.. some will refuse to sell to you. And never show these people a price list.. because this will just cause them to jack up the prices of the few good carts they have. Sure, they might sell all their games for $15, but if a Swordquest Waterworld comes along, $15 is a great deal. But if they have a price list, they'd probably want like $200 for it.

The best way to deal with these people is to either trade carts to them, or sell carts to them. I usually offer a lot of 2 for 1 trades.. this works really well on garage sale people. For some reason, there's a lot of people who still think the NES is super-valuable.. I can't tell you how many times I see a dirty NES unit and 6 games for like $80. So whenever I go to flea markets or garage sales, I keep a shoebox full of commons for various systems in the trunk. I usually give them a line like.. "well, I really only want these 2 games.. I've got a bunch of games that I picked up today that I already have.. how about I give you 4 games for those 2. I'll let you choose which 4 games you want. I mean, if a system and 6 games sells for $80, you could probably get $100 for a system and 8 games!" This seems to work 8 times out of 10. Then I let them sift through a box of common sports titles, Tetris, etc. I once got 2 Mega Man games for 4 commons.. 3 of them being common sports games, and 1 was Super Mario / Duck Hunt (coz they had lost theirs)!.

The way to deal with flea market people who sell Atari games for $20 is say.. "I've got a bunch of games I'd like to sell to you.. I'll sell them for $4 each.. that's a $16 profit for you!!". The odds of them buying the games are like 1 in 100. They won't even say.. "How about $3". They just won't buy them. Then I'll say "If you won't pay $4 for these games, then I imagine you probably only paid a buck or two each for all these.. so I'll offer you $5 for [unbelievably rare cart]". This actually works more often than you'd think. Of course, sometimes you just get the stubborn guy (or woman.. actually, it's usually a woman) who will start yelling at you to leave. Leave then.. you can't win, so don't try. Of course, if she's not willing to make any sales, her flea market career is going to be pretty short.

KA

[kyle]

Well i will say this around here in NC most people have good prices and are nice to deal with. Besides that ugly women and her husband. My man big Mo in that same flea market sales me atari gams a buck each and this game store down th road sales NES games $2 to $3 each. And lots of places in Raleigh NC has atari games for a buck to $3 bucks. I just hope that them two assholes with the $5 combat dont start makeing everyone else start to jack up their prices!

[King Asmo]

I would be worried about that happening. One store owner/flea market guy in my area bought out all the other flea dealers who sold video game stuff.. so now he's the only one in the area who sells classic video game stuff.. which of course he jacked the prices WAY up on.

That's one reason why you should never say to a flea market dealer.. "$20 bucks for an Atari game?!? I can get them for a buck each from [wherever]".. coz of the flea market guy has any resources at all, he'll buy all the Atari carts from the other guy, then $1 games will quickly become $20 games. I've seen it happen.

[Stella'sGhost]

I never mention ebay, I only did as a last resort because at that point I knew I was not returning.

I tried trading and I never talk about the value of carts to anyone. I sometimes mention that I collect games, thats it. But some flea market sellers just want to maximize thier dollar, but they won't in the end so screw em.

[King Asmo]

Yeah.. Flea market dealers tend to be both greedy and incompetent. I usually can't stand dealing with them.

A fun thing to do when you see a bunch of commons selling for $20 is ask a series of leading questions, like:

ME: So these are pretty valuable, huh?
THEM: OH YES.. WORTH LOTS OF MONEY.. THEY DON'T MAKE 'EM ANYMORE, Y'KNOW

ME: So they must be getting pretty hard to find?
THEM: OH YES.. IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND.. I'M WORRIED I'M GOING TO RUN OUT

ME: So you sell a lot of these, eh?
THEM: TONS.. THEY SEEM TO JUST FLY OUT THE DOOR

ME: Well, this is your lucky day then.. I've got a ton of extra games that I don't really need anymore.. I'll give you a deal too.. you're selling tons of these rare games at 20 bucks a piece.. I've got 20 different games in my car.. in really nice shape too. I'll sell them to you for 100 bucks. If you 20 bucks a piece for 'em, that's 400 bucks.. so I'm helpin' ya make 300 bucks. That's pretty good, eh.

THEM: SCREW OFF AND DIE.



KA

[monster angriff]

Good, lord. Reading all of this makes me sick. I can't find squat around here and the few jerks who have something worth buying either jack up the price way high or keep it in the back and are "deciding when to put it out" makes me sick!

[King Asmo]

The worst area I've ever seen is Southwestern Ontario for stuff like that. The guy who bought everyone out is pretty well known in the video game/electronics retail sector here.. and he's pretty much universally hated.

I can find stuff in the fleas in Eastern Ontario (Ottawa, Kingston), I've found stuff before in Quebec, and I've done well in New York State and Ohio. Just don't go to any of the fleas in Southern Ontario (Kitchener, London, Sarnia) coz one guy owns everything. It really sucks. That's why I get all my stuff from garage sales and newspaper ads.

[StanJr]

We got a guy here that buys up all the other people's stuff too. But our guy is cool. He sells ALL his games for $3 or less. He is a totally cool guy.
Its his competitor at the flea market who is the weasel. This weasel has promised me 6 weeks in a row that "next week" he is going to buy 80 carts with a bunch of "rares." Every week I show up, same story. What a weasel. (You may remember this guy as the one who owned the impenetrable cage)

Some people you just can't reach...

Frustration Stan

[ubersaurus]

Same here Stan, my boy at the trade center sells his for 2 bucks a pop, and gets them from all over the area.

[Stella'sGhost]

quote:

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Originally posted by King_Asmo:
The worst area I've ever seen is Southwestern Ontario for stuff like that. The guy who bought everyone out is pretty well known in the video game/electronics retail sector here.. and he's pretty much universally hated.

.. Just don't go to any of the fleas in Southern Ontario (Kitchener, London, Sarnia) coz one guy owns everything. It really sucks. That's why I get all my stuff from garage sales and newspaper ads.

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King_Asmo, I'm in that region, but WHO is this guy who bought everyone out? I don't know about this. I only started looking for games 2 years ago and only found games in ONE flea market - so you are right about that region being dry. There are always garage sales.

But I have other resources for games, I'm sure everyone uses the same resources anyways- I'm not talking Ebay either, but things are so dry ebay seems to be the only safe bet, unless I hit the road and travel out to nowhere....

Have you got any you want to trade? I only have some commons, pitfall is probably the best xtra I have.

[ 03-11-2002: Message edited by: StellasGhost ]

[weaselbrains]

I think there's only one thing worse than people selling Atari carts who know nothing about them - that's people who know nothing about Atari but act like they know everything.

Last week I went to a big antique mall with about 50 sellers all in the one building (the Chapel Street Bazar for anyone who cares).

I went to the counter and asked if anyone there sold videogames like Atari, and here's what the guy said.

"No, nobody here sells anything that modern".

I said "but half the sellers here sell stuff from the 80s"

so then he says

"Well you don't really see Atari games around anymore, and if you do they're all in such bad condition that they're not worth worrying about. You see the people who played them just trashed them when they used to play them".

So I just walked away - is it too much to expect that if someone knows NOTHING about Atari then he would just accept it rather than trying to sound like an expert on the subject.

Anyway, I'm done griping now.

Mitchell

[King Asmo]

RE: Guy who bought everyone out.

He's a Polish guy named Derek. He owns a couple shops named "Playmania", as well as having a booth in every major flea market in Southern Ontario. I don't deal with him at all, tho I know people who do. Like I said, he seems universally hated. I've heard people say anything about him.. even upto that he's a child abuser and has ties to organized crime (seriously). I totally think all the accusations are false (how would these people know anyway?!?), but I totally steer clear of the guy and his shops.. mainly coz they're ridiculously overpriced. Newspaper ads are totally the way to go if you want to find tons of games.

[ 03-11-2002: Message edited by: King_Asmo ]

[Stella'sGhost]

RE: Guy who bought everyone out.

Man, now that you mention it, I have dealt with him, say no more.....I believe you.

And I did find 50 of my games from adds

[Atari Master]

Man, that sucks.I cant even find one Atari game in my local add's.They suck.

[King Asmo]

It's not too often that you'll see people selling Atari games in ads.. what you need to do is save up some money, and then put an ad in your local "Buy/Sell" type newspaper letting people know you're buying Atari games. You'll probably get a few calls. It also helps to let everyone you know that you collect games.. coz they'll look try to help you find some.

StellasGhost: Where are you relative to Toronto? We could do some trading sometime.. I've got about 420 different 2600 carts, so it's unlikely you'll have anything I need, but there are certain titles I like to have extra of, and I've probably got doubles of a lot of games you need. E-mail me at king_asmo@yahoo.ca sometime.

Cheers,

KA

[kyle]

I took out a add one time in my local buying and saleing mini mag the bargain trader. Anyway i got two calls one person lived a few hours from me so i didnt bother and the other lived near my dad. So i got him to pick up what the women had and that was. A mint atari vader in original box. With paddles that had never been used had to take the twist tie off the cords and take them out of their package. Plus 5 boxed games all for $30 bucks.

[moycon]

I dunno....I like King_Asmo (where'd you get that??? and whats moycon mean?) advice... I've run into these types before. Every loose cart is $7. I ask... "why". They tell me.... "These are collectors items. Collectors pay top $$$$." at that point I say I'm not a collector, can you come down on the price??? they say..."Oh, no silly boy if you wont buy them someone else will...beleive me!!!" Thats when I say....Ok well I got a shitload of these carts in my car wanna buy them.....Just wanna see the look on thier stooopid face. Thanx for the idea King.

[Rinsky]

quote:

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Originally posted by StanJr:
We got a guy here that buys up all the other people's stuff too. But our guy is cool. He sells ALL his games for $3 or less. He is a totally cool guy.
Its his competitor at the flea market who is the weasel. This weasel has promised me 6 weeks in a row that "next week" he is going to buy 80 carts with a bunch of "rares." Every week I show up, same story. What a weasel. (You may remember this guy as the one who owned the impenetrable cage)

Some people you just can't reach...

Frustration Stan

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I think we have been talking to the same guy Stan.

Rinsky