Correct.

I really don't understand why people get upset at what others are charging for things.  Nobody has a gun to your head saying "Spend yo money here!".  Pretty much everything can be had for cheaper if you're patient.  Do these kind of attitudes stem from the "I want it now" and "I want a deal" mentalities spawning a nasty, grumpy baby that feels entitled to the best prices whenever it wants?

Yes. Finally someone says it. Some people have this weird sense of entitlement over collectibles. I will never understand it.

I'm starting to learn that collectors are just a little off. 

$180 for DT2 that is NUTS!!

Meh, I think that Nesguy is the polar opposite as well.  Just because you tell someone they are overpriced doesn't mean that you are a grumpy, whiny baby.  It just means that you know what a particular item will hit at auction, and what the general collector is willing to pay.  If you're the type that is going to be offended by the public perception of your sale prices, then perhaps you need thicker skin. 

And back on topic, here's another $65 CIB for MM2.  Apparently the "Near Mint" title does wonders.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MEGA-MAN-2-NE...

It's not a Xmas spike either, this one has been hitting $50-$60 in Excellent shape for a few months now at least.

Back off topic, I think there's a difference between saying someone is over-priced and this:







That followed by multiple sarcastic comments saying how they should all be rich living by his prices, I'd call the combination here grumpy and whiny.  You can call someone out on overcharging without going down the road these guys have.  That is my point.

Well to me it is gouging, and I'm not a collector after something huge I like to play, but I also do my research so I don't get baked on stuff. My comment though was more general because this time of year always brings out the mentality of jacking up the prices, right along with retail that tends to slide them down on bigbox stores to get you in the door. I'm on a budget, so when I see something over valued it just bugs me because as with any industry it can prompt others to go down the 'me-too' road and that's good for no one but the seller.

I'm quite aware sosafan2 on the whole is a good seller with a nice rep for despite oddly not taking pictures shoveling out quality goods. If I'm ever after a particular game that's Nintendo based at some point I do check what he has against the rest as of late.

Sorry fellas, but I have to jump on the "if you don't like the prices then shut up and don't buy it" train. I'm not seeing how complaining about it is going to make the slightest bit of difference.

So someone sells a Snow Brothers cart only for $100? So what? It wasn't me that bought it. Part of getting into collecting is getting yourself educated on these things before you start buying up games one after another.

Noob collector? Lesson learned. Move on.

I think the idea of the argument is, if enough people sell them high, it will cause the mentality to others to match that driving up the prices out of the range of a normal person to a collector status. Other than that not really sure.

Welcome to the market of supply and demand. He has the supply, if you want the game, ie demand, pay his price, or wait. Plain and simple.

No reason to bash someone over what they can sell their games for. Just because you're jealous your stuff doesn't sell.

Keep up the good work Sosafan, damn the haters. They are just jealous.

Who's jealous? I don't even compete as I'm not making a living as a reseller. And I do wait, took me like 2 weeks to find Sim City 2000 PS1 for the right price.

2 weeks in nothing.  I've waited an entire year to get a cart on Ebay from auction and not Buy it now.

The people who dislike Sosafan for this are most likely victims of the Me me me, now now now mentality. 

Patience ends up saving you lots of money.

Oh I know I just threw it out there as I just nabbed it online yesterday. I've been looking for some stuff a few months or over a year now, but I know what quality I want and the price and I'm standing my ground until I can find the year long one locally just because I want to see it to make sure it's right.

Hell when I got my boxed top loader a few months ago for $40 I had been wanting one for a good stretch but my cheap budget tight ass wouldn't do $60-70 and ship for it online and it didn't kill me waiting.

Here's some other overpriced Duck Tales 2 that sold:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....

These prices above aren't different for the Christmas season. Complete games in general and loose games that are high valued for their rarity (and not popularity) are rather unaffected as the spike in game players in the market will still almost always take the much cheaper loose cart price.

Every one of these games is very popular among the international collectors. It's the most underrated factor that makes up a market price. Many sellers do not ship internationally and their listings will sway the average downward. Reputation and safety of the seller is an increased priority to many of these collectors as well. Mega Man 6 was overpriced and sat for a while but the others all moved very fast. I know the focus is always on high priced items but I have 165 completes listed under $3 currently as well and I've sold 144 completes in that same price range over the last 3 months. I don't list games at a price I know I have no chance of getting and if I don't get the price I ask, I gradually discount everything until it sells.

Couldn't have been said better. Sorry I don't have any zappers for you, I'm all sold out!

jebus,oh the humanity!$?@!$ I can't believe you need money Sosafan. GIVE me all your games!

This is a really good point I hadn't thought of before.


Did you mean to say that "these prices above aren't different for the Christmas season? I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.


OK, I have a serious question. I'd love to get Dan's opinion, but anyone who thinks they might know, please chime in.

Do you think there are seller's on eBay who are attempting to manipulate consumer's opinions of what a game is worth by posting very high Buy It Now listings and then having a friend or an alias account buy it for the inflated price - hoping to trick would-be buyers into thinking the game is actually worth that amount and then listing the same game or a different copy of the same title later for the same high price?

Perhaps this sounds far-fetched, and I'm not accusing anyone specifically of this manipulation, but how do you explain this:



Then shortly after this:



Neither of the above games were in minty condition and these prices are way over what I've seen this game sell for before.

Now look at these two auctions for the same title CIB which recently ended:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-NES-...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bubble-Bobble...

The two copies immediately above have better condition game boxes than the two copies up top. All of these sold within the same 30 day period. The prices up top are over double. This doesn't make any sense to me and I'm seriously confused.

Yes, sorry, I edited it.  I meant aren't.  Systems and the most popular ~2% of games are my only prices that raise for the Christmas.  For accounting purposes, it's much easier to have cash than product so I will gladly sell much more at the same past prices than carry stuff over to the next fiscal year

I've seen similar things happen with LIttle Samson where it can go $200-$700 and condition seem to be no factor.  The largest factor is just that buy it nows only need one buyer willing to pay the price over a long period of time being listed and auctions need 2 buyers willing to pay that same high price and often within a much shorter period of time.  I don't tend to buy any of the manipulation or other conspiracy factors for the simple reason that extremes like this are not all that hard to find.  Bubble Bobble 2 complete shows up more often than most other completes in this price range which just makes the extremes easier to see than some of the others that don't show up much or don't show up in low start auctions

I'm not sure why you're dignifying these complaints with a response. I don't understand why you think you have to justify your prices. I mean, you pay the listing fees, you ship the items, you deal with the customers.

I have said it before, if you dont like the price, dont buy. I think a seller should try to get the most that they possibly can for a game. Sure, if anything underhanded is going on, that is obviously wrong, but asking a high price and getting it most times? There is nothing wrong with that at all. That is just good business. I just bought about 30 games from sosafan and I thought he had pretty good prices on the stuff compared to other sellers. I have bought many things from him in the past and they ALWAYS have been in better condition than the stuff I have gotten from Lukie. Plus his customer support is way better too. I accidently bought an item that I didnt need and requested a cancel transaction for that one. No questions asked, he just did it for me.

Now sure, there were some games that I wanted to buy, but I thought his price was too high. So I just passed on those ones. It isnt like anyone is being forced to buy at the high prices, people are choosing to. I chose to not buy some and just wait to see if I could get them cheaper later on, same as anyone could do.

Oh and ps. sosafan, please send me good condition ones again! haha Im sure they will be, not worried.

I don't feel the need to defend myself.  I just enjoy discussing markets and buying behaviors.  It's my passion

I think it can be fairly well said a good deal of the resellers on ebay who do it as a living tend to hit various levels of shady gray, but all the testimony here shows that sosafan2 isn't a shill. Personally, I've skimmed his lists off and on, but nothing stood out I needed at the time vs wanted and could wait or just it slipped my mind. Thing is I'm doing PS1 games a bit right now and he's a Nintendo dude so that kind of takes me out of the equation. He starts posting a decent little pile of the things I'll go looking to him first as I know his stuff is represented right, and he's not an incompetent packer and shipper of items.

retro is right though -- no need to dignify what you sell your stuff at, but at the same time explanations you gave were nice and myself included I hadn't figured the factor of international up bidding idiots that drive up costs beyond reason. In all the years I've done ebay and a 1/3 of them was selling off and on I've rarely opened it up to international as it gets to be a big pain in the ass. Sure, it limits my market, but at the same time you got to weigh the pro's and con's. My last stint of sales (2 things) I did worldwide, and one got gobbled up by an aussie and I'm glad it did as PAL region areas pay far more for the item than Americans would any day.

Hurray for those up bidding idiots i guess..

I've bought games off sosafan online and I've bought games from him in person. He might charge more than what you will find at a garage sale or at a flea market but I sincerely doubt you will ever have a problem dealing with him. Of course a lot of us would rather buy cheap things in the wild but whenever I've dealt with him I knew for certain there would be no problems. He wants to make as much money as possible... I guess that sucks or something!