eBay Kills Used Game Shops
Aug. 21st, 2006 01:05 pmI recently found a really nice used games store near my house. It's very rare for me to ever see a game store that's not EB/Gamestop or some big chain. It's also rare for me to see a store that sells games from as far back as the 2600. This store had all of that, it's great!
What wasn't great was some of the prices. I already realize that going into a used game shop I'm going to pay a bit more for a really old game than I would on eBay. For example, Alien Syndrome for the Master System isn't really worth $9. I could probably find it for a few bucks less on eBay. But to most people, games under $10 are like buying candy so nobody really thinks twice. This I'm not really concerned about.
What really got me though was the stuff in the case at the front of the store. I'm looking through the more expensive items and see a Final Fantasy VII, unopened, sitting there for, get this, $200! I had to do a double take. WTF? Next to it was an opened version for $90. Never mind the fact that this game sold millions of copies, what the hell is up with this?
Of course the answer is eBay. FFVII is going to go for somewhere between $60-70 on eBay. The used game store can't sell it for what it would actually sell for (let's face it, nobody in some ghetto suburb of Minneapolis is going to pay $90 for that game), because if they did they may as well just list it on eBay and make the money off some idiot buying it there instead. Because of eBay, I'm forced to compete with worldwide demand for every item in the store, instead of local demand for said product.
There was a similar store like this in Green Bay when I was in college where I got all of my used games. This was before eBay existed. I couldn't believe what great deals I found there, all because of the local supply and demand for the used games. In fact, I bought my copy of FFVII there, 3 months after release, for $30. You just don't see that sort of thing anymore.
Still, that's how business works now. And I don't mind supporting local indie game shops, as long as the prices aren't outrageous. It's just hard to find a deal at them.
What wasn't great was some of the prices. I already realize that going into a used game shop I'm going to pay a bit more for a really old game than I would on eBay. For example, Alien Syndrome for the Master System isn't really worth $9. I could probably find it for a few bucks less on eBay. But to most people, games under $10 are like buying candy so nobody really thinks twice. This I'm not really concerned about.
What really got me though was the stuff in the case at the front of the store. I'm looking through the more expensive items and see a Final Fantasy VII, unopened, sitting there for, get this, $200! I had to do a double take. WTF? Next to it was an opened version for $90. Never mind the fact that this game sold millions of copies, what the hell is up with this?
Of course the answer is eBay. FFVII is going to go for somewhere between $60-70 on eBay. The used game store can't sell it for what it would actually sell for (let's face it, nobody in some ghetto suburb of Minneapolis is going to pay $90 for that game), because if they did they may as well just list it on eBay and make the money off some idiot buying it there instead. Because of eBay, I'm forced to compete with worldwide demand for every item in the store, instead of local demand for said product.
There was a similar store like this in Green Bay when I was in college where I got all of my used games. This was before eBay existed. I couldn't believe what great deals I found there, all because of the local supply and demand for the used games. In fact, I bought my copy of FFVII there, 3 months after release, for $30. You just don't see that sort of thing anymore.
Still, that's how business works now. And I don't mind supporting local indie game shops, as long as the prices aren't outrageous. It's just hard to find a deal at them.