Opinion: Game prices

those are the kind of sellers I just mess with in that case.

my response to that kind of post:

"here's my offer ...

* 140 Italian Lira
* my pet flamingo Reginald
* 6 ft of grape-flavored Bubbletape
* an LP of Yoko Ono's greatest hits
* one night of unparalleled exstacy

your move, cowboy"
I'll take #3 and #5 please.
 

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It sounds like a good solution would be a crowd-sourced arcade or an arcade co-op.

Collectors pool their games and some cash together for a large space. Storage solved. Game lust solved.
 
The problem with a price guide in this hobby is location of the sale is the X factor.

In real estate you can compare house sales because there's 10 similar houses in a 3 block square that sell in a couple month period.
In this hobby, there may not be 2 ms PacMans that sell in a year in certain areas and that's a common game title. Then of course condition factors in and one mans 9/10 is another's 7/10 and so on and so on.
I think it's impossible to say Game X is worth between 5 and 600 dollars. You may be able to ballpark some games in a few hundred dollar Bracket but you would also have to have a price multiplier by region imo.
So you go ahead and do all that and spend a shit ton of time looking at sales and data and then someone posts a PacMan for $2000 and someone with the cash really wants a PacMan and buys it , then you're stats are screwed and people raise prices.
I've aimlessly rambled long enough but I guess you pay what you feel comfortable paying and as long as you're happy and feel like you got a fair shake, then who am I to tell you that you paid too much.
Oh and the other thing I've never understood is how driving 7 hours each way to get a $200 project game that you could buy complete and working for in your area $700, is a good deal. But again, to each their own I guess
 
So like most of us, I too search CL daily for games. It seems the norm around here is $1500 for a game no matter what it is. Some nutter wants $1800 for a Rally-X cocktail. WTF is up with the crazy money? I understand supply and demand but who is paying these prices?
CL in my area has some of those prices for cabs with 60 in 1...
 
All markets are local and dynamic. Just because one person bought my player quality Joker Poker pinball for $1500 doesn't mean that's the new standard. I operated the machine until it was bought up by a nice lady who grew up with one in her house. She wouldn't have paid that much for any other game.. including ones worth twice as much.

If you want "market pricing", you need to look at games that sell in less than a week from listing.
 
Im patient, the max i pay for anything that isn't rare is 400-500. I scored a cabaret pac for 300 working so deals are out there let them come to you my tip :)
 
+1 all day on this

patience and cash-in-hand with transport ready to go when a good deal comes along, and you'll slowly begin building a great collection

Im patient, the max i pay for anything that isn't rare is 400-500. I scored a cabaret pac for 300 working so deals are out there let them come to you my tip :)
 
Agreed with above. Nothing beats a handful of cash and a transport at the ready to get a smoking deal. I you don't run like a bunny on hot deals, they won't wait for you.
 
and conversely ... i've missed many a great deal because i wasn't able to grab cash and run

had several successes when i could move in an instant AND egregious failures when i couldn't in both scenarios. e.g. ... talked a guy down to $150 on a working Galaxian not too long ago BUUUUUT missed out because i had a work disaster hit and had to pass :(

BUT to Matt's original point ... patience is the key (unless you're rich, and money means nothing to you). the deals are tougher to come by but they are out there still, and i think will continue to be.

Agreed with above. Nothing beats a handful of cash and a transport at the ready to get a smoking deal. I you don't run like a bunny on hot deals, they won't wait for you.
 
that's way too overpriced. a spy hunter sells for $500-1000 mark, all day everyday. no more.


kinda. location plays small part actually. a $1000 donkey kong in california is still a $1000 donkey kong in michigan.

No, I've seen Spy Hunters selling for more than $1000 now. If the $500 ones were in good shape I'd buy it and immediately resell it for more than that.

Edit: BTW, that seller looks like a retail shop. Their prices are going to be 2-3x what the hobby prices are and that's perfectly fine. They're chasing a different buyer and presumably adding lots of value add to the game when they refurb it.
 
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I am giving some attention to a couple of games I am bringing to CAX. One fav that I havent brought in a while is Uo Poko. I no longer have the candy cab it was in but I have the board. I just did up a marquee for a ZBack so I can bring it. In the process of looking for some artwork, I see the board now goes for 299 up to 699!! I really wanted one of the cat paw joystick toppers for the cab but at $149 plus shipping from Japan, no way! Prices are totally out of control!

Tom
 
I am giving some attention to a couple of games I am bringing to CAX. One fav that I havent brought in a while is Uo Poko. I no longer have the candy cab it was in but I have the board. I just did up a marquee for a ZBack so I can bring it. In the process of looking for some artwork, I see the board now goes for 299 up to 699!! I really wanted one of the cat paw joystick toppers for the cab but at $149 plus shipping from Japan, no way! Prices are totally out of control!

Tom

Easily one of the more entertaining puzzle games...
 
yes, but since one exists that we know of, the only one in the world, exidy's price guide.

tons of people use that as a reference point, sometimes ebay, sometimes klov history.

how else are we supposed to determine worth/value of an item?

KLOV history is VERY useful. I just wish sellers would list the price the item sold for instead of deleting it.

I'll go back and do that to my previous posts.
 
KLOV history is VERY useful. I just wish sellers would list the price the item sold for instead of deleting it.

Unless you were the seller or the buyer you have no way of knowing what the actual sale price was. Just like eBay, the seller's posted asking price is just that, an asking price. At least with eBay you know the actual price if a game/part listing ended with a winning bid. Forum posts have no such guarantee, and a lower price may have been negotiated and agreed to via PM. A seller here has no reason to admit to accepting a lower offer, as it doesn't benefit them to come back and do so. Some choose to and that's great. I suspect most don't.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking asking prices on KLOV are the same thing as completed sales prices. I suspect at least some of the inflated prices we've been seeing these last few years have been caused by this, as well as people claiming a game is worth more than it is because they have one or more of them and therefore have a vested interest in inflating the perceived value.
 
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