Buying a used game online has always been sort of a mixed bag for me. I'm that guy who hates fingerprints on a CD and should a scratch appear, well I may just go catatonic. So you imagine how difficult it is for me to make that dive into the second hand market. I collect primarily for the Sega Dreamcast but I break rank every now and then for the PS2 as well. Apart from an incredible find at a Goodwill or garage sale, I mostly have to resort to dealing with Ebay vendors. Truthfully you don’t know what your going to get when you purchase from some of these sellers and therein lies my grief. So let the ranting begin!
First off lets establish that the condition of a game unless titled as brand new, is always a lie. Scratch that because even a brand new game can be a lie. A while back I purchased what was described as a factory sealed copy of MDK2 (great game). I opened the game and took a look at the instruction booklet and low and behold the previous owner had written some cheats in the damn thing! This bum resealed his copy all in the hopes of pulling a fast one over me! I guess this is why they invented the “Like New” condition. So basically honesty is paramount for me, don’t try to deceive me. If a game is dirty tell me, if it has scratches tell me, if the manual has dried up peanut butter in it (this has happened) I want to know!
Next if you aren’t going to show me a picture of your game I'm not going to buy it. You'll exert more effort on the toilet, than the time it takes to upload a few pics of the game from your phone. If I'm going to hand you over my money at least let me get a look at the goods. Ebay should make posting a picture mandatory and stop with the stock picture nonsense. When I don’t see an image, immediately a thousand questions rush to my head. With the only logically answer being don’t buy this.
Last but not least stop taking pictures of the CD with the data side on the floor! I don’t know how this became a widespread thing but it needs to stop. The market for your ten year old game exists only because there are weirdos in the world who would rather be playing Power Stone than the next iteration of Street Fighter 4. We are a finicky bunch and can easily be scared off. So don’t further degrade your copy by putting it on the floor. A special hell exists for the ones who put their CD's on concrete, whats wrong with you?
So there you have it, an insight into my madness. By no means do I wish to write off the entire Ebay community. There exists many sellers out there who are reputable and are more than willing to honor your requests. But for those bad apples out there, you will forever have the wag of my finger.
Details regarding the review embargo for Nintendo’s Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door have been revealed.
Vanillaware's tactical role-playing game Unicorn Overlord is a beautiful mix of old mechanics and new-age graphics, with over 65 unique recruitable characters and a rich storyline.
The Epic Games Store continues to dish out free games and you can add two more to your library this week.
Thanks for your blog made me laugh since i am a little Anal about my gaming stuff too. I had to stop collecting. I don't have enough room. Also i still value my marriage ;)
there is some stuff i will always keep. My original Intelivision and Snes,N64.
Ahh, this reminds me of myself, buyimg 10 year old games because i don't enjoy new games. When i started collecting for my PS2, the ps2 console itself scratched the first game to death without me knowing, the game was Nocturne, i was sad and happy at the same time (weirdo) because the game looked really hard and the atmosphere is really scary.
The second game is RE Outbreak, i was so excited to get back into it, only to finish the fifth level to find out that the rest of the levels are locked, and only playable online. I was like this: -____-, this has happened today.
I only started getting games for my PS2 recently, but thinking about collecting for the Dreamcast, how tough is it??
If you are on the fence about collecting for the DC, the time is right. Rare games on the system are still affordable in the 30-40 range. The titles that nearly everyone had- your Crazy Taxi,Jet Gring Radio, Code Veronica etc fall in the 5-15 range. Accessories like controllers are a steal, two for 20.
Also on certain titles Sega produced way too many copies a la Atari with ET. So just this week I bought a sealed copy of Chu Chu rocket for 5 bucks shipped. As well as Space Channel 5 new for 7 shipped. So yeah even someone on a budget can find themselves creating a little DC collection.
Last thing, every now and then check Amazon for certain titles. The Goodwill vendors usually are ignorant as to what they have and if you see a rare game posted for pennies, do not hesitate. I bought a copy of D2 from some goodwill in LA. It was described as fair and I paid a total of 5 bucks. Except when I got the game it was brand spanking new and mind you it goes for 40 on Ebay! Either way best of luck in your collecting!
OCD aside, and being a collector myself, I feel that you would save a lot of money just buying open copies if you plan on actually opening and playing the game.
Seller truthfulness in the condition is always a risk, even for new as you point out. The more honest ones will reply back to any questions you have on the quality of the game though. The big "sellers" tend to be less inclined to answer specific questions from my experience.
I'm only OCD about the condition of the disc, and making sure it has the manual and case. If it's new, great, but the price for most new games over 10-15 years old is usually rather high. Particularly those that were considered great game. And it's worse if you're an RPG fan. Those fetch a pretty penny even used and in questionable condition.
You'd also be surprised how cheap some of these games are new on Amazon as well. Many times even sold by Amazon, or sold by a seller but shipped by Amazon, so you can take advantage of their guarantee if need be.
This blog post.... 100000% TRUE!
-"should a scratch appear, well I may just go catatonic" HA! This is so me! I actually sell my games when I see dents/scratches appear on my game disc/case... it's really bad of me to do so :/
- Yes, that peanut butter thing has happened to me before (bought a used Gran Turismo 2 at EB Games... never buying used ever again).
- EBay: "like new" ohhh man, I have been burned so many times. My last purchase was for Tomba 2... despite the seller showing actual images of the game disc and case, my copy still had a sizable crack on the side.
@ Phoceenatic
I want more articles from you please...help me with my madness!