Hey, so I am trying to figure out a reasonable way to value lower priced stuff.  I am of lesser economic means and so I have mainly built my collection through thrift stores and yard sales.  I have gotten some awesome deals over the years and have some nicer stuff, but I also have accumulated some crappier stuff.  Currently, I tend to value anything worth over $10 at full value (accounting for condition, of coarse); anything between $5-10 at 1/2 value and anything under $5 as worthless.  I know that if I sold quickly it would be at a steep additional discount but I am curious if you can really even hope to sell stuff that is worth less than $10 at all.  I feel that there may just be too much of that stuff available making selling it almost impossible.  I am not looking to sell but I am looking to have a realistic view of what the collection is actually worth.

Some examples:

Yoshi's Island (SNES) [loose; great condition] $30
Jet Force Gemini (N64) [loose; very good] $9/2 = $4.5
Sesame Street 123 (NES) [loose; very good] $4*0 = $0

Does this seem like a reasonable way to go about it?  Would you consider condition issues for $5-10 games a serious issue or would it just affect the value in a normal way?  I ask this because while you do see these games sell, I just don't know if they sit forever and have to be relisted a lot before they do.

Thanks for your consideration.

EDIT:  I am also interested in your thoughts on potential caveats.  For example Wave Race 64.  I would value that at around $4.25 ($8.50/2).  This, while it would have to be valued this way to be consistent under my system, would seem likely to actually fetch close to the full $8.50 given the strength of the name, launch title, groundbreaking nature, etc.  I guess you could say the same for Get Force.  I would think that these would be exceptions but what do you think?

EDIT 2:  To be fully clear, I look to have a conservative estimate for my collection.  I wouldn't want to look at market value and think I have, lets say, 2k in NES stuff, only to go to sell and find I get $1,400 instead of $1,800 (the ebay route).  The reason for this view is that I know that higher value stuff will be sold individually, low value stuff will be sold in lots and the really cheap stuff will be thrown in for free or bundled into extremely cheap lots.  I am disregarding fees in general, as this is a cost of business.  I only consider fees/costs when thinking of low value stuff because those items are the most affected.  A simplified version of my pricing scheme below:

> $10 games = full value
$5-10 games = 1/2 value
< $5 games   = $0

Well there's a few ways you can go about selling cheaper games. If they're cheaper games that aren't shovelware I would group them up and sell in bulk. You won't get 100% of their value, but maybe 70% or so and you will only have to ship one package. If it's a bunch of crap titles your best bet is probably taking them to a game store and trade them in.

Thank you for your reply.  However, I am not looking to sell.  I do want a good idea of the value of what I have.  Part of that does come from understanding how you would go about selling.  I am valuing $5-10 at 1/2 price for this reason (selling cheaper stuff in lots) as well as other considerations.  Still, when catologuing the collection, I want to have an idea of whether my valuing system makes sense.  This is so I can have a good idea of the value, not how to go about selling it as I am not currently selling.

I think your feedback about 70% is what I'm looking for.  I figure 70% sell price - 20% costs = ~50% of value for the cheaper stuff.

Also, I see where it looks like I am asking for how to sell but I do clearly state that the question is for valuation purposes and whether my system makes sense for getting a rough value for the collection overall.  Thanks for your input.

If you're not looking to sell and plan to hold onto them, why not simply consider their "value" to be whatever the going rate is? 1000 $1 games will net you $1000 if you are patient, or yeah, literally nothing if you're just giving them away for free.

If you have 1000 $1 bills, are they not collectively worth $1000? Would you throw away a single dollar? Probably; it won't be individually missed. But we're talking about a collection of (potentially many) games. Not just 1 sports game. You seem to be looking at your collection as a whole as being merely individual titles. Look at the whole, not the one.

You're honestly severely over-complicating this IMO. Are you going to ignore the 10% potential ebay fee on bigger games? If not then suddenly your $1000 Stadium Events is now worth $900. Plus shipping? Insurance for a big ticket item will cost you, too.

OK, I should clarify.  I have almost completed a catologue of what I consider a rather large collection.  I want to have an honest idea of what the value is.  I think I'm actually simplifying it quite a bit.  I am using 3 general formulas to value all games, systems, accessories, guide books, etc.  There is absolutely a factor of low value items being hard to sell and those games losing a larger percentage of their value to transactional costs.  It would be unwise to just look at market value when a $5 game would cost just about $5 in time, fees and packing supplies to sell.  I don't want an inflated value for my collection, but an accurate one.  Also, I have a large percent (maybe 20%) of the total collection valued under $10 a piece.  For this reason, I have to consider that fact.  Because there are enough low value games, if I don't account for that in some way, my idea of the value will be inflated. 

All I'm really asking is if this is reasonable:

> $10 games = full value
$5-10 games = 1/2 value
< $5 games  = $0

Also, yes I would disreguard the 10% on more expensive games.  This is because there is still enough money left over to justify selling.  My perspective is that you don't value things that wouldn't yield money in your pocket after selling.  The reason for this is you wouldn't bother selling them in the first place, so the value is meaningless.

Anyway, I appreciate your input.  You seem to feel that you should just consider the market value.  That's a reasonable enough opinion. 

This reminds me of that guy who needed help taking an average.

https://gamevaluenow.com/...

One of my favorite threads, thank you.

I don't think there's any point in classifying any game item as zero value. Those games always have value no matter how small, especially in bulk. In my opinion, splits are closer to 100% / 75% / 50% than 100% / 50% / 0.

The fact that this thread exists is proof that this statement is false.  

If something is worth half its value, then its value would be half of what it is. But it's not.

If you were doing this for insurance purposes, it would be the cost to replace, in which case you wouldn't use these fractions. If you just want to know what you have, I would document what you have spent. And you have already explained you have no plans to sell. I don't understand. What is the use case here?

A share of GE just dropped below $10. Would you sell it to me for half? This thread makes no sense at all. The value is the value. PERIOD. If you want to calc what you could make if you sold, you could factor in fees, supplies, etc to reduce the value... but you are not interested in that. As such, if an item consistently sells for $7 on eBay, then your value in your calc should be $7. If it sells for $4, your value should be $0... Think about that for a second. Does that make any sense? If I had 100 carts that sell for under $5, are they worthless? Of course not.

I agree the cheap stuff is a hassle for sure to sell, but just take the GameValueNow price for valuation.

People for one reason or another do buy cheap ass games one at a time if you look at completed eBay sales.

I agree with the others, the value is the going market value, of course you as a seller may elect to combine into lots and/or toss in freebies more out of convenience/generosity which inherently lowers the value.

Thanks for answering the question.  I appreciate your feedback and I get where you are coming from.  I may have to adjust a little bit but definately still more conservative than 100/75/50, I think that is a little high.  Again, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

 

Thank you for your feedback.  You are seemingly in the majority here, just use full market value.  For me, I don't want overvalue the collection in terms of what I can get if I ever sell, so I am going to discriminate against the lower value stuff.  I really appreciate you taking the time to respond though.

Oh, I totally get what your saying.  I am simplifying the work needed to approximate the value.  Obviously, a general .5 multiplier wouldn't be scientifically accurate.  I am using this method to arrive at roughly what the value should be.  Obviously, I could calculate expenses, packing supply fees, ebay fees for every game but that would be completely unneccessary for arriving at an approximate value.  I know full well that these equations will not yield the exact value I would get for the collection.  I am only looking to get an idea (that is not inflated.  It can be lower than what I actually get but I don't want to over-value) of the value should I sell.

As for the use? There are many reasons why you might want to know:  it could influence how likely you are to downsize/sell in the future; it could show you you need to insure the collection; it could help you decide whether to do a full game room or just keep it stored; etc.  For me I'm just curious and I'm thinking of insurance.

Thank you very much for your reply.  I appreciate your input.

Oh, I totally get what your saying.  I am simplifying the work needed to approximate the value.  Obviously, a general 1.0, 0.5 or a 0 multiplier, wouldn't be scientifically accurate.  I am using this method to arrive at roughly what the value should be.  Obviously, I could calculate expenses, packing supply fees, ebay fees for every game but that would be completely unneccessary for arriving at an approximate value.  I know full well that these equations will not yield the exact value I would get for the collection.  I am only looking to get an idea (that is not inflated.  It can be lower than what I actually get but I don't want to over-value) of the value should I sell.

I understand that the cheap games have a value.  Putting them at zero is a way to account for fees (to some extent to account for some of the fees for more pricey games), time, bulk selling, free additions to lots, etc.  I am doing it this way to arrive at a close approximation without having to do more calculations.

I see where you are coming from but I think you are taking this way too literally.  I am doing it this way as a way to simplify, clearly its not completely accurate and its not intended to be.  Anyway, thanks for your feedback.  It's much appreciated.

Interesting idea, it would be good to know what your collection could get you if you someday needed the cash, and it would be a shame if you started selling stuff, then discovered that you weren't getting as much as you imagined.

If you're going to de-value cheap games for practicality, then it only makes sense to discount the higher end with selling fees. Ebay and Paypal add up to ~13% of the selling price. So even if you get full market, you go home with 87% of it, which is way less than 100% and not negligible. There's virtually no way to get 100%, if you want cash. And if you're in a hurry, you have to price at way lower than market. You say you want an approximate figure and don't want to over-value? Using 100% is guaranteed overvalued.

As for devaluing <$5 games, I guess I consider them all to be worth $1. I can think of a couple ways you could get that. Being worth $0 literally means you'd throw them in the dumpster when the time came.

To answer your question, I'd track 2 totals: everything at FMV, and this:

> $5 games = 87% of value
< $5 games = $1

In my mind, that will give you an absolute ceiling to how much money you could turn the collection into. Anything that gives you more than that is useless as a ballpark figure. A "better" but still optimistic ballpark would use a different percentage like maybe 75%.

Yeah I think the simplest thing if you want to say "I could sell this now for this much if I wanted to" would then be to just take the total value and come to a realistic percentage of the whole that you might expect to get if you sold to a single buyer, locally. Cash in hand.

Just take the whole thing and consider it to be worth 70% (or lower, maybe 60) of market value.

There are FAR too many variables when selling games to bother with any other method IMO. For all this keeping it simple the whole method you've put together seems far too complex, especially considering the volatility of the second hand gaming market.

You literally never know. We might tomorrow get news that all of a sudden NES carts are losing their data, or PS1 games are all hitting their disc rot date. Similar to how at this point we all are pretty used to having to potentially solder in new batteries on GB games. All it takes is one big media outlet posting that ps1 games are dying all over the world to spark a huge drop in value.

Suddenly you're sitting on beanie babies.

Regarding future plans prices fluctuate. The total is unlikely to stay the same year to year. If you want to be current you'll have to update periodically. So people use collection sites like GVN. If you want to avoid overvaluing just think 20 or 30% less than the total, now that's simplifying this.

That's why I track my own cost. I wish I had thought in the beginning to keep track of purchase dates too. That would be interesting.

DON'T SAY THAT

Sitting on beanie babies is pretty comfy actually.

Thank you for your response, this is one of the better ideas I have seen.  I still think its a little high because there is the cost of your time, packing supplies and fees.  Also, most of the < $5 games would be sold in lots with $5-10 games.  This would be to pad the lot and make it more attractive.  You would still be selling at a lot discount so it would effectively make the very low value stuff null, you won't really see any additional value i don't think.  Would you honestly attempt to sell the cheap games by themselves?  I don't think it would work as well.

EDIT:  Just noticed that you added the 75% option at the end there.  That's not bad.  I still want to see how each game is likely to contribute to the value of the whole, which is why I'm tiering it like I am.

Yeah, I have considered this approach.  It is simpler.  The reason I like breaking it down into categories is that I still want to see the real market value while also seeing what each individual game is likely to contribute to the total value.  I don't think sub $5 games realistically add to the value as they will likely just go into lots with some nicer things ($5-10 games), padding the lot.  They will really only function to get the lot to sell to closer to full value, without really contributing individually.  For anything over $10, I would sell individually.  Thanks for your input.

Yeah, I have thought of that approach.  I am kinda technical, so I want to break it down more partly because I just like that way better and partly because I think it is a little more accurate.  I get that it is a bit more complicated though.  I also track my cost in a way.  Given I don't make much money at the moment, I only do thrift stores and yard sales.  I have a loose rule of paying 1/3 (if it is asking price, I'm not about trying to lowball people much).  This isn't too hard to do when you buy this way and I know roughly the most I could have paid for my collection is roughly a third.  I do have to make sure to have good quality standards and I have had to leave some things I would have liked to buy.  Thanks for your feedback, it's much appreciated.