Valuable games?

Pheezer

How/where does one determine if a game has market value? Don't say eBay because that's the most misleading possible source of information I can think of off hand.

I saw Tales of Symphonia for the GC for $10 last night and I was wondering if I could flip it, mostly. There were a lot of PS2 and XBOX games also at $10 and it was buy 4 get 1 free, so I'm suddenly curious.

Sixfortyfive

pheezer FD wrote:

Don't say eBay because that's the most misleading possible source of information I can think of off hand.

Not really. Search completed auctions only, sort by price, and see what range it tends to sell at.

RainbowDespair

How is eBay misleading? You take a look at final sell price for items and average the prices together and you have an excellent estimate of the value of a game on the secondary market.

And no, I wouldn't try to flip Tales of Symphonia. The game has been on the Greatest Hits line for quite some time so I can't imagine people paying much more than $10 for it.

UncleSporky

I've never seen any gaming equivalent of a collector's magazine for cards or anything. eBay really is probably the best place to see the going rate.

Sort of related, here's an interesting article about some of the rarest, most expensive games.

darleysam

buy Atlus, sell when they go out of stock m i rite?

although really, that seems to be about the only way. It's obvious, but games only really seem to increase in value if it's firstly a) popular and b) rare. Since most games get many copies printed, i'd imagine there's not a lot that are hard enough to find so as to warrant paying a higher price. Exceptions seem to be something like Silent Hill or some of the FF series, and i've seen the occasional N64 title going for a high price in the window of Gamestation.

Pheezer

Sixfortyfive wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Don't say eBay because that's the most misleading possible source of information I can think of off hand.

Not really. Search completed auctions only, sort by price, and see what range it tends to sell at.

That'd be a good way to see what I might hope to sell it to another gamer, okay.

But what if I'm curious about say, the trade-in value of a game. Say I don't want to buy now and get the funds in a week, say I'm curious if I could turn a $10 investment at 2 PM into a $20 DS game at 3 PM.

Yar

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Pheezer

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

Daedalus

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

I find that assuming EBStop will give you a third of whatever you bought it for, tops, has never gone wrong.

EBStop doesn't deal in buying rare games. If you for whatever reason try to trade in something rare (say for instance, the Platinum Gamecube Zelda Collection), they'll give you a few bucks for it and then mark it up to $40 for whoever buys it.

You pretty much will not ever get a good deal trading in games to a used game store. The only times you want to bother are if you find yourself in possession of a game that sucks so badly you can't even stand to keep it in the house, and you might as well make $5-$10 off of it rather than throw it in the garbage. (this described LostMagic DS for me)

Backlash

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

Gamestop had a site that kind of did this, but the values would usually be off a dollar or two. I don't think it's around anymore though.

If you're looking to just flip a game, pretty much your only bet is going to be something pretty new that just dropped in price at one place, but isn't nationwide yet.

Symphonia is already a greatest hit, so it probably trades for around $8 or $6.

Yar

pheezer FD wrote:

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

Gotcha. Maybe you should create a Web site that tracks current data on what trade-in stores are paying for games. You could create a whole nwe secondary market.

The going deal on trade-ins is to pay you practically nothing and then sell it as close to full retail price as possible. Otherwise you're talking about collectibles, in which case a site on rare games might help you. I haven't been to one in a while, I'll search for one.

darleysam

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

that would be good, but can you imagine the reprobates that would try to sue because they took their mangled copy in to the store and were refused, even though "it said i'd get $20 on your site".

Lunker

pheezer FD wrote:

Sixfortyfive wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Don't say eBay because that's the most misleading possible source of information I can think of off hand.

Not really. Search completed auctions only, sort by price, and see what range it tends to sell at.

That'd be a good way to see what I might hope to sell it to another gamer, okay.

But what if I'm curious about say, the trade-in value of a game. Say I don't want to buy now and get the funds in a week, say I'm curious if I could turn a $10 investment at 2 PM into a $20 DS game at 3 PM.

http://wiki.cheapassgamer.com/index.php/EB_trade_in_values

It's not the most scientific of resources, and it may have some YMMV involved, but crowdsourcing is probably the best method available. CAG in general is very readily devoted to your entire last paragraph. :P Although it's not so much an instant flip as it is a "store your hoard of cheap games until a great trade-in deal emerges" process.

EDIT: Ahhhh, you're Canadian. Hm. Disregard, then.

Pheezer

The Warlock wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

I find that assuming EBStop will give you a third of whatever you bought it for, tops, has never gone wrong.

EBStop doesn't deal in rare games. If you for whatever reason try to trade in something rare (say for instance, the Platinum Gamecube Zelda Collection), they'll give you a few bucks for it and then mark it up to $40 for whoever buys it.

Yeah, I wouldn't try selling something that obviously had collector's value associated with it to them, but in terms of slightly uncommon titles I'd think you might be able to make some gains.

Anyhow, I'm definitely too lazy to buy games for the sake of selling on eBay unless I see something really rare, like said platinum gamecube zelda collection, which if I did find, I would likely keep.

Lindsay Lohan

There are some places online that you can get prices. Secondspin.com is pretty much what you'd expect to get as a tradein at FYE. wiki.cheapassgamer.com has some user maintained trade in values but they don't updated like they used to. Also, estarland.com is a place that takes tradeins by mail and they are usually on the higher end of what you'd get as tradein.

Edit: and the site that used to have Gamestop's prices is long gone. It was tradestop and it always offered 60% of what you'd get in store IIRC.

Pheezer

Backlash wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

Gamestop had a site that kind of did this, but the values would usually be off a dollar or two. I don't think it's around anymore though.

If you're looking to just flip a game, pretty much your only bet is going to be something pretty new that just dropped in price at one place, but isn't nationwide yet.

Symphonia is already a greatest hit, so it probably trades for around $8 or $6.

Is it? I've never seen it in a greatest hit style box.

Backlash

pheezer FD wrote:

Backlash wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

Gamestop had a site that kind of did this, but the values would usually be off a dollar or two. I don't think it's around anymore though.

If you're looking to just flip a game, pretty much your only bet is going to be something pretty new that just dropped in price at one place, but isn't nationwide yet.

Symphonia is already a greatest hit, so it probably trades for around $8 or $6.

Is it? I've never seen it in a greatest hit style box.

Pheezer

Crazy.

Vincent Grayson

Your best bet is Blockbuster. in my experience.

They buy a fuckton of copies of many popular titles, and then a few months later, put all but a few up for sale, usually at a price below the trade-in value GS gives.

I got a couple PS2 games there the other day for like $4 a piece, and turned around and traded them into GS for like $15 a piece.

I know my local store has FFXII for $15, and GS gives $22 for it ($24 with the GI card thing), so you can make a quick $9 per copy (although you might have to go on multiple days, as some stores won't let you trade more than one copy of a game per day.

Daedalus

pheezer FD wrote:

The Warlock wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

I find that assuming EBStop will give you a third of whatever you bought it for, tops, has never gone wrong.

EBStop doesn't deal in rare games. If you for whatever reason try to trade in something rare (say for instance, the Platinum Gamecube Zelda Collection), they'll give you a few bucks for it and then mark it up to $40 for whoever buys it.

Yeah, I wouldn't try selling something that obviously had collector's value associated with it to them, but in terms of slightly uncommon titles I'd think you might be able to make some gains.

Anyhow, I'm definitely too lazy to buy games for the sake of selling on eBay unless I see something really rare, like said platinum gamecube zelda collection, which if I did find, I would likely keep.

I see that platinum collection all the time; that's how I knew its EBGS used price. I've never bothered to grab it, though, with the exception of Zelda 2 (which I never really liked) I own all those games.

Pheezer

The Warlock wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

The Warlock wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Yar wrote:

In all industries, consumer-to-consumer sales value is a completely different number than trade-in value. Even the Blue Book of car values recognizes this and treats them as two separate values.

Alright. So let's say we've got the former solved but I'm curious as to the latter. Is there a blue book for videogames? I'm sure I remember a site that had trade-in values or some such on it but it was probably American.

It would be cool if EBGameStop had a thing on their site where you could punch in a title, check boxes to indicate if the manual or case are included etc and it would tell you what it's worth to them at trade in.

I find that assuming EBStop will give you a third of whatever you bought it for, tops, has never gone wrong.

EBStop doesn't deal in rare games. If you for whatever reason try to trade in something rare (say for instance, the Platinum Gamecube Zelda Collection), they'll give you a few bucks for it and then mark it up to $40 for whoever buys it.

Yeah, I wouldn't try selling something that obviously had collector's value associated with it to them, but in terms of slightly uncommon titles I'd think you might be able to make some gains.

Anyhow, I'm definitely too lazy to buy games for the sake of selling on eBay unless I see something really rare, like said platinum gamecube zelda collection, which if I did find, I would likely keep.

I see that platinum collection all the time; that's how I knew its EBGS used price. I've never bothered to grab it, though, with the exception of Zelda 2 (which I never really liked) I own all those games.

Oh I've SEEN it, at $50 or so. I'd pay $30 for it. But that's a pipe dream, so I'll just have to continue living without it.

On the plus side, I did snag Kirby Canvas Curse for my new DS (actually not that good, but I guess it's neat to have a stylus game), and for the gamecube Prince of Persia Sands of Time, and Warrior Within, Sonic Gems Collection, and Metroid Prime 2 for $56 (taxes included). So that's kinda cool.

Sands of Time is really good so far.

RainbowDespair

pheezer FD wrote:

Sixfortyfive wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Don't say eBay because that's the most misleading possible source of information I can think of off hand.

Not really. Search completed auctions only, sort by price, and see what range it tends to sell at.

That'd be a good way to see what I might hope to sell it to another gamer, okay.

But what if I'm curious about say, the trade-in value of a game. Say I don't want to buy now and get the funds in a week, say I'm curious if I could turn a $10 investment at 2 PM into a $20 DS game at 3 PM.

Not a chance. If you're lucky, a place like Gamestop will give you about half the amount that you could have gotten off of eBay. I imagine their trade-in value or Tales of Symphonia is $6-7 at the moment.

The Burnin8or

It doesn't give dollar values for games, but there is a rarity guide here, although I don't know how up to date or accurate it is.

DarkPrimus

The Burnin8or wrote:

It doesn't give dollar values for games, but there is a rarity guide , although I don't know how up to date or accurate it is.

That site talks about emulation and ROMs...