This morning, as I was on my way from dropping off a laptop to a happy customer, my friend calls me up and asks me if I wanted to go to the flea market today. I said sure, and he came and picked me up.

We get there, and the first thing I see is a table full of SNES, PS2, and NES games. Games are ebay prices, most of them. The ones that weren't ebay prices were definitely marked up an additional $5 to $10 more.

I figure "meh, these games will be here regardless of what time I come back" so we venture off.

I come up to another table where the guy has everything individually marked for prices - and see most games way over priced. Continued on.

Came to another table, just 6 stacks of SNES games, a decent sized box of NES games and Genesis games, and some boxed games. I see A Link to the Past boxed up and in a zip lock bag. Out of curiosity, I ask how much. The guy (who barely spoke English) said "$10". I asked him if it included the instruction book and map. He tells me I can open it if I'd like and low and behold - the map was tucked away inside of the instruction book. I handed him $10.

Also, in the stack of loose SNES games, I found Lufia & the fortress of doom and zombies ate my neighbors. I ask how much for the games, $3 each.

We walk back to the overpriced table and saw a few boxed games, one of them being Shadow Gate for NES. I asked the guy how much, and he said since it was a CIB, he wanted $10. The box was beat. I said "Would you take $5?". He replied "I can do $7.50", I said "I can do $5". He thinks for a minute and says "It goes for $15 on ebay you know". I pulled out my Torch and brought up eBay, and showed him a listing for a CIB Shadow Gate (box much cleaner than his) for $1. I said "I can wait a few days to get it" he goes "Okay, $5".

Then on the way out, at the ebay+ priced table, I figured I'd try to talk some prices down on Ogre Battle and Mystic Quest. OB was priced at $30 and Mystic Quest was priced at $10. Mystic Quest was in horrible condition - stickers on it, back label ripped to shit, sharpie on it, and OB was in pretty good shape. Had he not budged on prices, I would've just picked up OB and been done with it. The guy tells me that they're priced fairly and he's just trying to break even from a lot he bought. He see's the CIB Zelda in my hand and asked how much I paid for it. I said "$5 less than what your loose cart is marked at". He goes "Well, I can do OB for $25" I said "if you toss in Mystic Quest for $5 you got a deal". He goes on to tell me that it's a rare game that's really great and I said "Rare? Not quite. It's not even part of the series. Great game? That's an opinion... it's an alright game for what it is and I have fond memories of it from when I was younger. Condition wise? $10 would be fine if you had the manual with it, and the game wasn't in horrible condition." He started going on and on about it and I said "Look, I'm not trying to screw you out of $$, but I'm not going to pay that price. Someone probably will, but I came to the flea market with nothing, and I'm leaving with a decent find so far, so I apologize for wasting your time". He goes "Sure, $30 for both and you got a deal".

Might be a little assholish on my end, but I knew he wasn't going to sell those games any time soon. I wish I brought more $$ with me though. The guy who had the CIB Zelda game had a stack of games I wanted to buy and eventually flip, but I saw games that I wanted for my collection instead.

So for $51, I got:

Shadow Gate (NES) CIB [Box is pretty beat, but I like the game]
LoZ: A Link to the past (SNES) CIB [Box is in near perfect condition, game is in perfect condition, map in perfect condition, manual is kind of beat]
Lufia & the fortress of doom (SNES) [cart has some discoloration on the top, otherwise good condition]
Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES) [great condition cart]
Ogre Battle (SNES) [Cart is in good condition]
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES) [Cart is in awful condition, label is clean though, back is beat]
 
I think that's a pretty good haul

Nice, it is ALWAYS good to haggle. If you cant get it for the price that you want it for, you will always find it in the future. You hold the chips. You have what they want (cash), and they have what you MAY want.

I agree, though I don't like being a total dick to the sellers because one day I might want to sell the games, and I don't want people being assholes to me. I know the guy didn't want to lower the prices too much, so I wasn't about to be pushy about it or rub it in his face. The one guy that I got Shadow Gate from just needed to be put in his place as his inventory hasn't changed in literally 6 months. He added a few things, but prices remained the same.

Considering he was overcharging and you could prove it on a mobile, that isn't a dick move that's you helping you and helping him too because it would just rot.