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I'm an avid game collector, mostly RPGs but I'll get my hands on anything that interests me; Castlevania... maybe even Mega Man...

But as time has gone on, I've learned A LOT from game collecting. Mostly things that are just to watch out for, or to expect. Mainly because with Game Collecting comes the greediest assholes imaginable.


1. Ebay is your best friend.

And by Ebay, I mean AUCTIONS. Buy It Now will never have a good deal. Mainly because the Auctioner KNOWS what he wants, and what he wants is the current value of said game ( or more ). And with Auctions is the idea of bidding at the last minute to HOPEFULLY get a good deal.

A good comparison? Chrono Trigger CIB* is about 150 dollars. I won it for 69.00 on Ebay from an auction. And I now proudly show it off on my shelf in my room.

2. Craigslist is probably the worst website to go.

Well. Not the WORST but it's definitely the last place I'll check out for games:

A) People who sell games that are worth something generally understand it's worth something and will milk you for every penny you have.

B) You have to drive to them. Very rarely will you find the person whose willing to meet you halfway because in their mind, they're doing you a favor.

C) You have to deal with the whole e-mail/text process. Sometimes they just wont check you or they wont reply because you're lowballing them ( or so they think ).

D) People who don't know what they have, want way too much for the s**t they have, and guess what... That's about 90% of them.


Here's a good example of what I mean by claus A, and this just recently happened about a week ago:

( This is literally copy and pasted )

Me: How much for the FF7 + Wild Arms games?
Them: $60
Me: Wont go any lower?
Them: How much u trying to give me?..I'm only asking $20 a game...they sell for more on eBay..

Me: Lol... no.

For one thing, don't ever look at Ebay for price comparisons. Use Amazon or Half.com

Two, I'm a game collector, not a player... I have prices of games memorized;

FF7: 25 dollars
Wild Arms: 14
Wild Arms 2: 12 dollars

Those are the FAIR prices, not the "lol i have popular game." prices.

Them: If u buy these games from there ur gonna end up paying $60 anyway w/ the shipping

Me: Whatever. Enjoy selling your games.

With silly loop holes and money on your mind, you can reason anything to as high of price as you want!

3. Get it as Early as you Can

If there's one thing I've noticed recently, the price of PSX games have skyrocketed. And the reason, I believe for this, is people who bought the games back in the day were idiots. They either: God rid of their cases or they mistreated the disc and now they're unplayable. Both of which ( obviously ) kill the value.

I purchased my Earthbound for 74 dollars and now It's climbing up to 130 dollars. Just about every PSX RPG out there is about 20 dollars now, give or take the series.... It's only going up.

4. Pawn Shops are great.... for newer games.**

Lemme just make this clear. If you're going to a pawn shop for NES - PSX games; you're a jackass. Now unless you know this great Pawn Shop which specializes in this kind of thing ( I've never seen one ), you're going to be SOL...

HOWEVER, PS2 - Xbox 360.... you're golden. Pawn shops are amazing for games and given the right shop, it'll be in near perfect condition.

Example:

Kingdom Hearts 2 - Gamestop: 17.99
Pawn Shop: 5.00!

I got mine for 5 dollars! The disc was perfect, the manual was beautiful.

I found Dragon Age 2 RIGHT as it came out.... 29.99.

5. Swap Meets, Bazaars, and Flea Markets are a must.

If you're SERIOUS about collecting, these three are a must for good s**t and what's even more... they're like Pawn Shops where you COULD find a FF7, Chrono Trigger, or Secret of Mana for like 10 bucks.

Though the biggest rule to this is: Get there Early.

There's like a whole book and guidelines to Swap Meets and Flea Markets. But if you can do it, do it.

6. Stay away from bulk.**

Very very VERY rarely will Wholesale Lots be worth your time. Odds are the people bidding don't know better, the seller doesn't know better, or it's just trash. It'll almost never be worth the time and effort.

The other day I found a wholesale lot of 30 ps2 games. About 3 of them were worth something: Ar Tonelico 1 Limited Pack, FF12 Limited Ed, and Disgaea... some other goodies that I don't have as well, but those three were what I wanted.

I figured about 45 would be the max I'd bid. They arent THAT great except the Ar Tonelico which could be a pretty penny... It ended at 83 dollars. WAY outside my budget with a 9 dollar shipping.

Yeah, no.


*CIB = Complete in Box
** Just because I say 'never' doesn't mean you might not get lucky. ( I've found Secret of Mana for 3 bucks, for example )