How to Collect Rare Video Games with eBay

This guide is intended to be a general overview of good buying, selling and trading tips for video game enthusiasts. These are some strategies and tips I have used to turn a profit through eBay buying and selling, and trading games at the local video game stores for games I can sell for more. Results may vary, as different stores offer different trade-in values.

Table of Contents:

1. Buying games
1.1. What to look for
1.2. What to avoid
1.3. Hot deals
2. Selling games
2.1. What's good to sell
2.2. What's not going to sell
2.3. Hot items
3. Trading games at the local store (Electronics Boutique, FunCo Land, Game Xchange, and local stores)

CHAPTER 1: Buying games

Buying games is not as easy as it sounds. Prices fluctuate on games, sometimes going up, other times rapidly dropping. Here are a few tips when buying games that can boost your potential resale value.

1. What to look for:

Good video games to look for when buying them can vary from week to week, or even day to day. If you are looking for games for your personal collection, try to get a "complete" version of the game .. one which comes with everything game was packaged with when bought new. Most of the time this is just the box/case, manuals, and the game itself, but some games will have other extras, such as a map, poster, or other various items. When it comes time to sell this game, having it as a complete game is going to make it much easier to sell.

When buying games, try to pay attention to the publisher of the game. Some publishers (Atlus, Working Designs, NEC, Koei to name a few) have had a habit of making limited amounts of their games available. This is less true on the new consoles, but still holds true on certain games.

I've recently noticed a very good way to pick up nice games to sell. Your local movie rental store probably sells off their used rental games. Where I live, there are 2 Blockbuster stores and 3 Movie gallery stores, all of which put up new rental titles for sale weekly. Here, Blockbuster offers 50% off the 2^nd title you buy, so (for example), 2 games marked at $19.99 are only going to cost you about $30.00 total. If you can turn around and sell those games for $20.00 each, plus shipping, that's a pretty easy profit, on top of adding to your feedback score when the transaction is completed. These games often have stickers on them (price tags), so if you're going to resell them, get a new case to put them in. I usually use the cases that demo discs or promotional discs come in as replacements, so they still have the PS2 logo inside them and the memory card holder (GameCube also has a special case for their smaller disc). Playstation JamPacks are a hot deal if you can find them. I bought them for a penny each at Circuit City.

For resale, look for video game lots on eBay. Often times, the price of the lot is going to be nowhere near the price each game could fetch individually. Even small lots of games can create a good profit for you. I recently bought the SNES games Wizardry V and Romance of the 3 Kingdoms 2 for $4.00 (plus shipping). I traded Wizardry in for $10.00 credit at a local game store, and sold Romance for $15.00. Not bad! Video game lots are going to usually be your best bet if you have the time and patience to re-sell the games individually.

2. What to avoid:

Sports games! These games are like cars: They lose more and more value every year. Try to avoid buying sports games for anything other than your own personal use. It will be like pulling teeth trying to sell one for a decent value. Also, avoid video game "lots" that contain mostly sports titles. There's a lot of them out there.

Avoid games that are damaged in any way, or that are being sold "as is". It's easy enough for someone to say that, knowing very well that the game doesn't work, and they say this to make you think that they don't know it. These people will usually not offer a refund when the game turns out a dud.

Try to avoid rare games that are not complete. That copy of SNES Final Fantasy III is suddenly MUCH less valuable when not accompanied by the box, instructions and maps. These cartridges still hold some value, but not nearly as much as their complete brethren.

Avoid ANY CD-style game without its case and manual. Chances are, if you're wanting to sell this, someone else is selling the same thing with all of its packaging for the same price.

3. Hot deals:

Again, these vary wildly, as there's no telling what each day is going to bring. One of the things I look for are Buy It Now prices that are lower than the going rate on current auctions. Search for completed auctions on eBay for the title and see what the game has already been selling for. If the Buy It Now price is less, grab it! If you don't, someone else will.

Here's a list of games I always keep an eye on, as they are fast-movers and usually sought after by collectors. For games on multiple systems, I placed them in the system where the game holds the highest value. And, again, I can't stress enough: COMPLETE copies of these games fetch MUCH MORE than their cartridge-only counterparts.

* : good demand (currently) for this game
** : VERY HIGH demand (currently) for this game
*** : Extreme prices going for these games

NES GAMES:

Dragon Warrior 2 (NES)
* Dragon Warrior 3 (NES)
** Dragon Warrior 4 (NES)
Pool of Radiance (NES)
Destiny of an Emperor (NES)
Nobunaga's Ambition (NES, SNES)
* Bubble Bobble (NES)
** Bubble Bobble 2 (NES)

SNES GAMES:

Uncharted Waters (NES, GEN, SNES) (and Uncharted Waters: New Horizons)
PTO: Pacific Theatre of Operation (SNES)
Inindo: Way of the Ninja (SNES)
Gemfire (SNES)
Operation Europe (SNES)
EVO: The Search for Eden (SNES)
Final Fantasy 2 (SNES)
* Final Fantasy 3 (SNES)
* Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Secret of Mana (SNES)
Breath of Fire (SNES)
* Breath of Fire 2 (SNES)
Ogre Battle titles (PS 1 , SNES , N 64) .. these are hot titles!
Super Mario RPG (SNES)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (NES, SNES, GEN, PS1) ß The PS2 titles stink
Lufia (SNES)
* Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinstrals (SNES)
The 7^th Saga (SNES) ß Usually goes well if complete
Secret of Evermore (SNES) ß Much better if complete
Harvest Moon (SNES)
Earthbound (SNES)
Aerobiz (SNES)
* Aerobiz: Supersonic (SNES)

SEGA SYSTEM GAMES:

Shining Force (GENESIS)
* Shining Force 2 (GENESIS)
** Shining Force 3 (SATURN)
*** Panzer Dragoon Saga (SATURN)
* Dragon Force (SATURN)

PS1 GAMES:

Lunar: Silver Star Story (PS 1)
** Lunar: Eternal Blue (PS 1) ß Hardcover guide is a good seller
Arc the Lad Collection (PS 1) ß Hardcover guide for this one too
* Alundra (PS 1)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PS 1) ß Strategy guide sells even better
Dragon Warrior 7 (PS 1)
Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS 1) ß Guide is pretty good seller
Thousand Arms (PS 1)
Brigandine (PS 1)
Rhapsody (PS 1)
* Suikoden (PS 1)
*** Suikoden 2 (PS 1)
*** Valkyrie Profile (PS 1) ß guide too!

PS2 GAMES:

* Disgaea (PS 2) ß Original strategy guide is also a good find
Culdcept (PS 2) ß This one seems to have recently become much harder to find
Suikoden III (PS 2) ß Same as Culdcept - Renewed interest in this title

CHAPTER 2: Selling games

There's nothing easy about figuring out what and when to sell it. People can shift their desires faster than anyone can keep track of. Having said that, there are some things that usually stay the same.

1. What's good to sell:

In general, the games that are good to sell are going to be the ones that are good to buy (see list above). This is not an all-inclusive list! This is just a small handful of good games to look for. The best way to find out what's selling hot at the time is to do a search for a specific console (search for PS2, SNES, NES, etc ..) and then sort it by price: highest first. After you skip past the large auctions of multiple games, what other games are high up there on the price sorting? Are there certain games you're seeing multiple times? Those are the games to sell, because only one person is going to win that auction. Chances are, everyone else who was interested is still going to want a copy.

Here's a few selling tips when you're making your auction:

1. Take a good picture! A great picture does wonders for an item. If the item is complete, take it all out and show that it's complete. If the item is sealed, take a picture from an angle showing that it's sealed. Even if it's just a cartridge, take a picture of it so people can see what they're buying. This does wonders for increasing bids. The Gallery upgrade, for only 25 cents, is a great bargain. I always use it on anything I take a picture for.

2. Subtitles can be great, but not for everything. I only use a subtitle if there's crucial information about an item that I know will help it sell better, that I couldn't fit into the original title.

3. In your title, make sure you include the console abbreviation! Most people search by those (SNES, NES, DC, GC, PS1, PS2, XBOX, etc). Also, try to avoid punctuation if at all possible. Make the most out of the space you're given. Only use CAPITAL LETTERS to enhance certain words. Here's an example ..

a. Lunar Eternal Blue PS1 PS2 absolutely COMPLETE! VERY RARE!

b. LUNAR ETERNAL BLUE FOR PLAYSTATION COMPLETE RARE LQQK

Which one do you think will sell an item better? Try to catch the person's eye, as they are probably going to be look at multiple auctions for the same thing. That's another reason why the gallery picture to the left is so helpful.

4. Offering a shipping discount is a good way to attract buyers to your other auctions. Let them know what the discount will be, and often times they will scope out everything you're selling and place a few more bids. This gives everything you're selling even more traffic. Also, offering free shipping or free insurance when someone opts to Buy It Now is a fantastic way to sell an item at your desired price.

2. What's not going to sell:

Big shocker here ... Sports titles. These just don't move at any price worth your time, unless they've been released within the past 2 months.

Also, you have to avoid putting a high, or unreasonable Buy It Now price on your auctions. These deter people from even looking, even if your opening bid price is perfectly reasonable. Usually what I will do is set a Buy It Now price at the average value the title has been going for (in Complete Items search). Oftentimes, this price is just about right for someone, and you can get a good amount of money for the game before the auction even kicks off.

Try to avoid games that have been defaced in some way, scratched, missing something, etc. They can sell, but not as well as you may want. More and more, collectors are looking for mint, complete copies of the hard-to-find titles. There's other people who will buy the lesser things, but they won't pay collector's prices.

Finally, avoid any game that is probably going to be put on a re-release cycle. The most notable of these is Playstation's "Greatest Hits" series. These take a huge chunk out of the value of an item. Those Final Fantasy titles that were selling the shelves bare at $49.99 a pop are going to be fetching about $15.00 before you know it. Avoid games that are very popular and very easy to come by.

3. Hot items:

Hot items, as noted before, are going to be complete RPGs in good condition. Suikoden 2 (PS 1), Final Fantasy 2 & 3 (SNES), Chrono Trigger (SNES), and others in their complete form can fetch over $100.00. Many other games on the above list can pull near that. If you can get your hands on a rare, complete title, you're in for a nice profit turnaround.

CHAPTER 3: Trading Tips

This section is tough, due to the fact that different stores are going to have different benefits and drawbacks. It depends entirely on your location, so any or all of this may not even apply to you. I'm just going to give tips based on my strategies here with my local game swap store.

When you're beginning your little buy/sell/trade adventure, the first thing you should do is look for older games that sell for a lot. Usually you can browse the SNES and NES titles and look for games going for $30.00 and up. Most of these are going to be on the list above, but some titles are high-priced at stores, but dirt cheap on eBay. Some of the titles I found at my local store to trade in for a hefty profit (based on what I payed on eBay):

Wizardry V (SNES)
Pool of Radiance (NES)
Hillsfar (NES)
Heroes of the Lance (NES)
Micro Machines (NES)
Operation Europe (SNES)
Ultima: Exodus (NES)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (any title on NES or SNES)
Again, most of the titles on the list in Chapter 1 are going to fetch you a good trade margin, if you got them at a bargain price.

When trading for titles, make sure you check the condition of them. You don't want to find a great, rare, game, only to find that the disc is all scratched up, the manual is missing the cover, etc. This can make the game rather hard to sell, then you'd be stuck with something you may not even want for your own collection.

Don't be afraid to trade for expensive titles. If you've done your research (or used the list), you know what games to look for, so if you find them, pick them up. Trading in $30.00 worth of games you bought on eBay for $75 in trade credit, and spending that trade credit on games you can sell for $50.00 .... You've made a profit of $20.00 cash. It doesn't sound like much, but when you do this in volume, it adds up fast.

If the store is a local one, try to talk up a bargain. Some places are more than willing to work with you to a certain extent, and it never hurts to ask. Also, don't forget to check local pawn shops. Pawn shops often times will sell video games at a flat rate, meaning all PS1 games might be 5 bucks, all PS2 games 10, etc. This means you can find a very rare gem in there for a paltry price. Pawn shops are also great places to haggle, especially if you're going to be buying a lot. Ask them if you can buy 3 games and get a fourth one free, or similar methods. They will work with you, as they may have been sitting on those game for quite awhile.

Well, that's about it. I've recently started buying, selling and trading games for the purpose of turning a profit a few months ago, and I've already made a pretty good sum of money. You have to be willing to spend a good amount of time searching eBay for the same things repeatedly, and driving to various places around town, but it can be worth it. For me, I enjoy video games, so this is a lot of fun for me, and it's making me money. I hope this guide offers some assistance to you, too! Thanks for reading!