Retro console gaming on less-than-popular consoles?

[Howard_Casto]

Not really... The internet kind of screwed up the natural law of supply and demand years ago. 

Some of these consoles are getting really hard to find and many are willing to pay more than market price for the convienance of getting the thing hand delivered to their door.  The market value of the stuff (what you'd get from a collector, ect..) is usually much lower than the going price on eBay.  Also many of these units never actually get sold on ebay... they merely repost the thing over and over until somebody bites or they just lose interest in selling it.   

[Junai]

I collect consoles and I can honestly say every system I have has been worth buying even if its for a couple of games. But unless you are die hard about getting the original hardware emus are a great way to try systems out before you dump money into them. The only system I want and can't imagine any really good games to justify the cost is Philips cdi. Other than that, get a Atari 5200, 7800, and jag,  intellivision is way fun same with colecovision (if you have make you can skip these), turbo grafx has tons of great games especially shmups and for what the system and games cost I haven't struck out yet, the genesis addons each had a few nice gems, sega saturn is a great buy, and pretty much anything console you can find atleast a few games you will enjoy enough justifying the costs.

[SavannahLion]

I don't think that's the case necessarily.

I think the popularity of shows like Pawn Stars and Storage Wars has made the whole nation think that their crappy, worthless, _____ collection is worth more money than it actually is.  Unfortunately, because eBay is so much easier than hunting down a console on foot, a lot of people are willing to pay the inflated prices.

Would that type of show convince buyers that the crap is worth more than it is?  And if buyers are paying then doesn't that demonstrate that it actually is worth the higher prices?

I think what he means is that there are a lot of people who are asking for overly inflated prices for stuff that is... well... simply isn't going to sell at that price. IIRC, there was an episode of Storage Wars where they find an "antique" NES in a box in far less than stellar condition and they ticked it off as being worth $200 or some-odd nonsense. I don't think it was complete either so thinking it would sell for $200 is just sheer madness.

[Howard_Casto]

Yup, that's pretty much what I mean. 

I recently saw a 2600 on ebay for 200 bucks.  It wasn't new in the box or anything, and yet they wanted 200 bucks.  It had a few games with it, nothing rare or fancy... and yup... 200 bucks. 

Now you might say "well just don't buy it" and in the case of a 2600 that is a valid option, but what if you are looking for... say a Vectrex.  There aren't many of those on ebay at any given time.  They average going for 500 bucks on ebay with nothing included.  They are priced that way because the last guy that put up a Vectrex priced his around that value... mind you he most likely never sold the thing, but it doesn't matter.  That's roughly twice their market value!  But if you want a Vectrex "right now" eBay is the easiest solution and the best you are going to do is the cheapest of the 4 or 5 Vectrex's currently on eBay. 

I guess, what I'm saying is "willing to pay" is often a different number from what the item is worth or what you feel like would be a fair price.  People are paying more for this stuff right now, but I doubt they are thinking "well that's fair".

[ChadTower]

Asking prices do not determine market value.  We all know that.  And fairness has nothing to do with it.  The value is determined by cash exchanging hands.  If you don't feel it's fair, but you paid anyway, you set the market price regardless.

[Malenko]

Asking prices do not determine market value.  We all know that.  And fairness has nothing to do with it.  The value is determined by cash exchanging hands.  If you don't feel it's fair, but you paid anyway, you set the market price regardless.

Have to agree with chaddles on this one.

[pinballjim]

A Vectrex is $500?  Jeez.  One sat on Craig's List here for months for $100.  Seller seemed like he just wanted penpals, though.

[wp34]

I played a Vectrex for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  I was pretty impressed.  Not $500 impressed mind you but I was surprised at the arcade feel the system evoked.

[ChadTower]

Ebay completed listings are showing $80-90 for just the console/controller and $150 for a system and 5-6 games.  Average BIN availability seems to be around $130 for the console.

The good thing about the Vectrex is you don't actually need a game.  You can pick up the bare system and still play Minestorm.  Minestorm is a good game.

[Howard_Casto]

Asking prices do not determine market value.  We all know that.  And fairness has nothing to do with it.  The value is determined by cash exchanging hands.  If you don't feel it's fair, but you paid anyway, you set the market price regardless.

Have to agree with chaddles on this one.

Not with eBay.  Reserve prices and other such nonsense mean that you pay what they ask, or you often don't get it.  If your only supply is eBay and people are unwilling to price the items reasonably then you pay what they are asking, or you don't get it. 

[ChadTower]

Not with eBay.  Reserve prices and other such nonsense mean that you pay what they ask, or you often don't get it.  If your only supply is eBay and people are unwilling to price the items reasonably then you pay what they are asking, or you don't get it.

That's how market value works.  The fact that it's more than you wanted to pay is not a factor.  If you pay then that is the value in that place and at that time.  A few more transactions on similar items and you can calculate and average and a median.  Now you have the range of market value.

If you pay the price then it is worth the cost to you.   If the price were truly unreasonable than you would not be buying the item.

[danny_galaga]

Not with eBay.  Reserve prices and other such nonsense mean that you pay what they ask, or you often don't get it.  If your only supply is eBay and people are unwilling to price the items reasonably then you pay what they are asking, or you don't get it.

That's how market value works.  The fact that it's more than you wanted to pay is not a factor.  If you pay then that is the value in that place and at that time.  A few more transactions on similar items and you can calculate and average and a median.  Now you have the range of market value.

If you pay the price then it is worth the cost to you.   If the price were truly unreasonable than you would not be buying the item.

+1. Even if you have buyers regret afterwards, you've still set the value. I've done this on Ebay when I first started on there, and I actually felt a bit dirty that I had helped boost prices of a particular thing. Whether I felt bad about it or not, I still contributed to the market value of that thing

[pinballjim]

It's kind of interesting that E-bay does everything they can to shield completed auction values these days.

I heard sellers of retro consoles bitching 10 years ago that those completed listings gradually drove the market price down....

[ChadTower]

It's kind of interesting that E-bay does everything they can to shield completed auction values these days.

I heard sellers of retro consoles bitching 10 years ago that those completed listings gradually drove the market price down....

It's not that hard to find now but you can only go back two weeks.  They want you to use their "What's it Worth" page instead.  The problem is that it doesn't allow you to manually screen the items down to only those things that actually compare with what you want to sell.

[lilshawn]

It's kind of interesting that E-bay does everything they can to shield completed auction values these days.

I heard sellers of retro consoles bitching 10 years ago that those completed listings gradually drove the market price down....

It's not that hard to find now but you can only go back two weeks.  They want you to use their "What's it Worth" page instead.  The problem is that it doesn't allow you to manually screen the items down to only those things that actually compare with what you want to sell.

'cept you get --cream-filled twinkie-- steves who put their PS3s on there for $19,999.99 and ebay bumps up the "value" of all the PS3s $30 or $40

[ChadTower]

It's kind of interesting that E-bay does everything they can to shield completed auction values these days.

I heard sellers of retro consoles bitching 10 years ago that those completed listings gradually drove the market price down....

It's not that hard to find now but you can only go back two weeks.  They want you to use their "What's it Worth" page instead.  The problem is that it doesn't allow you to manually screen the items down to only those things that actually compare with what you want to sell.

'cept you get --cream-filled twinkie-- steves who put their PS3s on there for $19,999.99 and ebay bumps up the "value" of all the PS3s $30 or $40

It would be a pretty big mathematical failure if they put unsold items into the "What's it Worth" algorithm.

[SavannahLion]

I thought eBay got rid of their what's it worth crap? I haven't done anything with eBay in ages.