The Video Game Critic

I used to own/run a pretty successful collectibles shop a while back. Over the years, however, it became harder and harder to maintain because of sites like ebay and amazon. Now im not saying either of those websites are bad, I have always done business on both since their inception (and will continue to), but they really make it hard for both the small business and the enthusiast.

Ebay was always like the wild west. You could score some great deals or some great scams if you werent careful. Once they changed their policies to cater to the buyer though, it became a whole new ballgame. They really pushed free shipping, they introduced "trending prices", started charging fees on shipping, and introduced "hassle free" returns. So essentially, you have forced "big box" store policies on to someone's garage sale. Each time they introduced something new, you could see prices go up and up. This made it hard for me, as people use ebay as a baseline of what they think they should get for an item, so I would have to pay and charge more for stuff. Then people started expecting free shipping on everything I sold (if sold online) and/or expected an iron clad return policy for the 30 year old action figure they accidentally broke trying to display it.

Amazon is a different beast. They never really dealt with toys until the last few years. This is when selling anything current took a dive. I could buy something wholesale for $18 (for example) with its MSRP being $25. Amazon would then sell it for $16 with free shipping, making it almost impossible to move inventory.

In the gaming community it seems to be no different. Lots of stuff that was reasonably priced is now breaking the bank. I frequent a local game shop and every time I go in there someone is trying to sell them a game for top (ebay) dollar and acts insulted if they cant get it. Furthermore, the game shop uses ebay to price everything, so their prices are way too high on stuff with a super limited market. They have things that have been sitting for years because they wont budge on the price, like SMS games for example, or the 90's Star Wars POTF2 figures.

I eventually closed up shop as it was getting hard to find reasonable deals to be able to sell at a reasonable price. Yes, I could have purchased things for a higher price to add to my inventory, but I understand the limited market I was selling to, and that a higher price would cost me a sale. On the other side of things, I have had to scale back on a lot of my collecting as it has just got too expensive.

If you have made it this far through my novel, how have these sites affected your buying/selling habits? How have they affected the market for you?

This is one of those weird things, where if youre a casual enthusiast, it may sound like a senseless rant, but if you really have been involved in the business end of things, the trends these two sites have set for all of retail are pretty astonishing.

Far from damaging small businesses, eBay, Amazon, and similar sites on the Internet are behind the largest small business boom in history. It's because of these pioneering sites that more and more individuals are able to cater to niche markets and turn a good profit, something that's always been difficult in the brick and mortar retail space. Even brick and mortar stores stand to benefit from this by expanding their sales to online outlets.

ptdebate wrote:Far from damaging small businesses, eBay, Amazon, and similar sites on the Internet are behind the largest small business boom in history. It's because of these pioneering sites that more and more individuals are able to cater to niche markets and turn a good profit, something that's always been difficult in the brick and mortar retail space. Even brick and mortar stores stand to benefit from this by expanding their sales to online outlets.

There is no doubt that it gives a massive outlet for small business, as anyone, anywhere can sell their stuff. Thats kind of a double edged sword though. Markets get saturated, people figure out how to manipulate niche markets, artificial inflation happens, and bubbles burst. Giving people the means doesnt mean that it works. I have seen many rise and fall for all of those reasons. Luckily for myself, I had the ability to call it a day before it cost me any money.

I love ebay. I've been selling about $2000 a month in video games. These sales are what fund my ridiculously expensive video game habit. I don't feel bad paying $100 for a game if I know I can flip it anytime I want for a tidy profit.

I dont look at it as a business though it's just a fun hobby that happens to make profit. Sure beats when I was addicted to playing golf which cost me about 3-$5000 a year.

Wallyworld wrote:I love ebay. I've been selling about $2000 a month in video games. These sales are what fund my ridiculously expensive video game habit. I don't feel bad paying $100 for a game if I know I can flip it anytime I want for a tidy profit.

I dont look at it as a business though it's just a fun hobby that happens to make profit. Sure beats when I was addicted to playing golf which cost me about 3-$5000 a year.

That's how I started. One day I got tired of buying single items and decided to buy massive lots, piece together my collections, and flip the rest. Did that for a while and then turned it in to an officiall business.

Like I said though, I was in a niche market. People think the collectibles market is massive, but when you immerse yourself in a community you really see how limited it is in terms of those who regularly collect versus those that impulse buy.

scotland wrote:

Rookie1 wrote: ...people figure out how to manipulate niche markets, artificial inflation happens, and bubbles burst. Giving people the means doesnt mean that it works. I have seen many rise and fall for all of those reasons.

Could you explain more?
.

There are a million and one ways these days. The worst one is people have created bots that scan ebay servers and buy items the second they hit the server. This limits the prices that go public, and manipulates the value. You also have resellers (sometimes teams of them) that scan for certain items on a daily (hourly?) basis, buying them all up and flipping them. This also manipulates the price.

Im not sure if youre familiar with "Pat the NES punk". He goes over a ton of things like this on his youtube channel. Also, a good google search will do the trick.

Its part of the game I suppose. When I would work conventions, it was the same deal. As soon as you set up, other vendors would be at your booth trying to buy you out and flip the stuff at their booth.

Like I said, it gives people the means, but its very easy to manipulate the market. Target and Walmart compete, but that keeps prices lower (for the most part). Target doesnt try to buy out all of Wal-Marts inventory and flip it, and vice-versa. Its one of those things where you have to be immersed in it to see I guess. If you are a casual seller/buyer, its just a past time. When you make a living off of it, it really becomes noticeable.

Wallyworld wrote:I love ebay. I've been selling about $2000 a month in video games. These sales are what fund my ridiculously expensive video game habit. I don't feel bad paying $100 for a game if I know I can flip it anytime I want for a tidy profit.

I dont look at it as a business though it's just a fun hobby that happens to make profit. Sure beats when I was addicted to playing golf which cost me about 3-$5000 a year.

You're part of the cancer killing classic gaming.

Gentlegamer wrote:

Wallyworld wrote:I love ebay. I've been selling about $2000 a month in video games. These sales are what fund my ridiculously expensive video game habit. I don't feel bad paying $100 for a game if I know I can flip it anytime I want for a tidy profit.

I dont look at it as a business though it's just a fun hobby that happens to make profit. Sure beats when I was addicted to playing golf which cost me about 3-$5000 a year.

You're part of the cancer killing classic gaming.

You forgot the /S ?

Gentlegamer wrote:

Wallyworld wrote:I love ebay. I've been selling about $2000 a month in video games. These sales are what fund my ridiculously expensive video game habit. I don't feel bad paying $100 for a game if I know I can flip it anytime I want for a tidy profit.

I dont look at it as a business though it's just a fun hobby that happens to make profit. Sure beats when I was addicted to playing golf which cost me about 3-$5000 a year.

You're part of the cancer killing classic gaming.

Hardly, most the games I sell are xbone and ps4. I use the profit from that to buy retro games I want. If I pay $100 for a retro game I'm not going to sell it. I bought it because I enjoy it. It's nice to know if I wanted to sell an expensive game I would get my money back plus maybe a profit though. Beats paying $60 for a ps4 game that will be worth $5 in a year from now. I buy huge amounts of ps4 and xbone games on clearance and sell them on ebay for 2x what I paid. This has no bearing on retro gaming prices. I usually pay fair market price for retro games I want. I can only justify this because of the extra disposable income I make from eBay. Like I said it's a hobby so the profit from it I use to buy games I want. I almost consider my paypal money play money to buy the toys I want.

Dropping $$$ on classic games feeds the problem. Your mad money is part of the problem. Soon you'll get to enjoy buying indistinguishable counterfeits for big money... if you haven't already.