General

Discrepancy in values between traders is par for the course. You can try to point out with some quick research evidence and see if they budge. If not, I'd say move on.

VGPC is a good baseline, but older games require more nuance. For example, the condition of cardboard/manual matters, cart label etc.

Trades are indeed harder to make these days.

Lunar wrote:

Yeah and thats fair! Cause if the box for a game has tears and water damage that definitely devalues a game. But sadly a lot of the time the talks don't even get that far enough for pictures to be exchanged. I was just curious if maybe there was another tool to look at to compare game values. Thanks for the response, Lunar.

Some people don't want to trade unless it's very imbalanced (in their favor) or they just want to seemingly get that last $5-10. When it's that close the easiest thing to do is just offer to balance it out with cash. So I doubt you are really doing anything wrong, it's just that trading can be difficult. Generally it's a lot easier to buy/sell but I totally get the appeal of trading.

I will definitely second what Lunar said, pricecharting is poor for some items but some people will get stuck on it and will not understand when an item is worth more than what that site says. There can be a lot of variance there too, especially for a really nice copy of something that is really popular.

But yeah other than ebay sold listings (and sites that aggregate them like pricecharting) there aren't many options. Mercari exists but that's about it.

Yeah maybe ill look into selling things to get the money to buy the games i want. Kinda sucks cause i wanna save money for bills but it is what it is. Appreciate the responses!

You're going the right way about determining price. Getting good trade value or good deals when purchasing is possible but requires patience. If money is no object then you can get whatever you want right away. If you're looking to save money then you should take your time. Wait for sales and deals to pop up. Check GTZ, ebay, and FB marketplace regularly. Reach out to people with the games you want. Getting good deals does require more legwork on your part but will save money in the end. Hope you get what you're looking for!

Yeah i was just hoping to save money and trade for the more expensive wants. As i dont mind dropping 50 on a few small things. But when it comes to 100+ then i try to see if trading is possible

Typically, I use eBay sold minus a small percentage to account for fees. Single outliers get thrown out, since it was prolly an underpriced BIN. For less common items, I'll also look at available listings and Amazon, but they don't have nearly as much weight. Condition also matters, of course.

Trading… I don't mind if there's a bit of imbalance, just know that I will calculate both sides the same way. I won't throw away a $300 trade for a $10 discrepancy, but I had a deal recently fall through because I still had a 25% value difference. I'm more likely to take a larger number if I'm getting something I really want (there's not much of this left), or I'm trading up to higher priced items. If trading to several lower-valued items, the loss I'd be willing to accept is less.

Of course, there's also what I personally value at. For an example, if I want an NES game, I'm not even going to offer on your CIB copy- I don't value the box or manual at street value, so I would not want to pay a fair value on that set.

dunno001 wrote:

Fair fair, i too try to look ebay sold. Especially if its a high priced item, but i also throw away the outliers. But yeah, i think personal value is what really imbalances it for people. Like some people might not want switch games and would totally trade more for idk NES games. Thats why i just stick to making threads now for trades cause i know what i want and what i value the stuff i have at. If someone has what i want and wants what i have they can come to me.

People all have their quirks. A lot of people don't want to trade high value items for multiple lesser items even if the total overall value is the same. I actually think most people here do this to some extent. Not a lot of people want to trade a pricy Dreamcast game for a bunch of cart only NES commons, even if those commons are on their want list. It feels like trading down.

Some people only want to trade and have no interest in buying/selling, feeling that isn't in the spirit of Game TRADING Zone. For others the vast majority of trades here are purchases or sales. Sometimes the fastest route from point A to point B is by going through point C(ash).

I totally understand that buying expensive wants can definitely feel better when you are doing a partial trade and sending less actual money. But if you mentally separate any money you make from selling your games (or even a separate bank account if that helps you compartmentalize it), maybe that can reduce some of the sting of buying outright. You can probably get yourself to a point where you can mentally say "yes I'm paying $100+ for this game, but most of that is coming from my sales of X, Y, and Z."

I struggle with sealed games. A lot of them have a large premium over a used copy. Since I eventually open and play my games, I won't typically trade for a sealed game. I end up having to trade double the stuff for it and then end up opening it anyway.

I run into this alot too when I try to trade or sell someone a sealed game so a lot of people must feel the same way.

sa330206 wrote:

I am of the opinion that a sealed game is a wasted opportunity. I typically open them when I get them (obviously unless it's not for me).

I just don't even bother sending offers for sealed games unless they are newer releases where there isn't likely to be a real price differential.

Plus if there is damage to the disc you really can't blame the other person for not telling you, since they would have had to open it.

Sealed games are better off buying from stores where return/exchange policies are a thing.

benstylus wrote:

If I'm trading say a $200 game I would definitely want another nice game out of it. Wouldn't have to be another $200 game but I'd probably want something on the other end to at least be triple digits.

benstylus wrote:

I usually just sell sealed stuff instead of trying to trade. And yeah to your point I recently sold off my Xabungle set which was still sealed and made it clear that I couldn't verify the disc condition. Made sure the buyer was okay with that. I almost never sell anime but I don't like Ideon and Xabungle that much compared to what they are going for..

benstylus wrote:

Very valid points. I used to think getting a sealed item meant I would get an excellent condition disc. While I haven't had many issues with games, blu ray and 4k movies are notorious for coming scratched from the factory. I don't know why it happens but it does.

Gypsy wrote:

Most of us here are the same way unless we have a specific reason... like I could see trading a $200 game for a handful of dreamcast commons if they are the last ones you need to complete your set or something.

But yeah, typically most people want to trade high value items for other high value items.

We're cheap bastards. We expect a discount from VGPC and eBay sold. I've discounted pretty desirable games by 25-35% off VGPC/eBay sold and had 0 offers. Don't take offense. Most those items I sold locally for what I was asking or more.

KCPenguins wrote:

I'm surprised nobody bought the games with that kind of discount. I wonder if it has more to do with less people in the community now rather than people just being cheap.

Staraang wrote:

That is definitely an issue as well. At this point it's a pretty small community of long time collectors which makes a lot of things harder to sell than they would be elsewhere.

I definitely think it's a bit of a gentrification thing too. A lot of us have acquired a pretty big backlog over the years so even if the price is right on a game deal the timing is often wrong.

For sure. I don't grab any modern release unless I'm playing it immediately.

Heh - factoring new release games into the equation complicates it more because we know most of them drop to half their value or less used within a year. So if you are trading for a new release you are typically doing so with the expectation of a value drop.

So that can correct your judgment too. My $70 retro game for your $70 new release may be a fair trade but is playing it right now worth the loss in value of the new game and potential increase of the retro game?

Im liking everyones thoughts and insight into this

benstylus wrote:


I've done it. $70 now is $70. It hasn't been the trend moreoften than not, but the game could also go down in value.

I tried selling one game here at a great price, got no offers, and ended up trading it for a bundle. Turned around and sold the bundle locally for pretty much what I was looking to get for the game I was trying to sell in the first place.

KCPenguins wrote:

I'm sure a lot of us have similar tales. It's just another factor that we take into account when deciding when to make a deal here.

There's no one right way to determine prices and values. But there are a lot of wrong ones if you believe the negs!