Originally posted by: nesguy
As for the whole debate about people boosting prices when they're interested and killing them when they're not, I've seen it happen in Price Check threads here and there. However, what I've noticed is that, more often than not, most people are just throwing out numbers based on their gut (I hope I'm stating the obvious here). My $150-200 value is exactly that. I've got 3 years experience collecting for Game Boy, 2 years collecting Nintendo Power/Fun Club stuff, and about a years worth of promo collecting. My gut shouldn't be too inaccurate based on watching hundreds of auctions for things in those categories. That said, I think a lot of numbers that get bandied about stem from people with more enthusiasm than actual experience. You see a lot of people throw out "If I had $XX.XX I'd drop it on that in a second", which is really easy to say, but when the chips are down, way more often than not those people are nowhere to be found. Also, like everything else, there are ups and downs in the market. The GB kiosk that Fantomex has for $2500? Well, if I'm remembering right he bought it off of Nick Morgan for $300 something, and Nick had been steadily LOWERING his price on here until Chris bought it. A year later, a bunch of people go nuts, and several of these sell for $1k-2k+. Did it really increase in value so much over a year? No. It just became a trend for a while and a lot of people who had them took advantage and sold for a big profit. Does that mean Chris won't get his asking price? Well, it's been sitting for a long time, but as he said, he's patient. All it needs is that one right person to come along. There are lots of people with more money that patience, but that doesn't mean an item is suddenly worth so much more money.
Well you have to remember that prices vary greatly depending on the seller's motivation.
In your example, I believe Nick was adamant about local pickup, and he wanted it gone fairly quickly. When a seller wants a quick sale and cuts off 90% of the country, the potential buyer has all of the leverage in the world. The buyer can pretty much name their price, and the seller is stuck with taking the offer if they want to move it.
Or, as in this example, a seller doesn't need the money or need a quick sale, and is just gauging market interest. You can take that same $300 kiosk, offer to ship it anywhere, and be willing to sit on it for months until you find an appropriate offer. Here the seller is naming their price, and if a buyer wants it, they are stuck with taking the sellers offer, or damn close to it.
So in reality, the value is somewhere inbetween. Just because it sold for $300 doesn't mean that's the new value of it, it could just be an extremely low sale because of the circumstances.
