A local game store is selling quite a few games for outrages prices. I asked him what I could get for a trade in for final fantasy and he wouldn't give me an answer just that its a really really rare game and you can't find many, who is he trying to fool. He was also selling TMNT 1 for $10 a SMB3 for $25. I don't know who the hell would pay all that. They are all loose carts.

There's a store just like that near my home in NM. They like to REALLY overprice their games. It'll cost you $35 bucks for any of the Mega Mans loose. They sell regular ol' Bubble Bobble for that much, too. I don't get it myself either. I guess this store is lucky to pretty much have a monopoly over the NES market in Albuquerque.

I'm going to bring him a copy of final fantasy and ask him what I can get for it, probably only $2 but maybe I can trade it for some other games that he has that are a little overpriced.

It's probably also the name recognition. My bro who's 15 and was raised on Playstation 1, 2, GameCube and XBox knows nothing about the NES. He'd be one of those stupid ones to think it's actually worth $42 -- saying to himself "OMG the original!"

I saw one on Craigs list for 100.00 cart only before

I emailed him and asked if he wanted to buy mine sealed for 1000.00

Sadly... he never answered  :D

wrote on 25. Jul 2006 at 01:28:

It's probably also the name recognition. My bro who's 15 and was raised on Playstation 1, 2, GameCube and XBox knows nothing about the NES. He'd be one of those stupid ones to think it's actually worth $42 -- saying to himself "OMG the original!"

I was wrong about my bro. Looks like he's even more stupid than I thought:


jerahcordova (11:25:54 PM): Question: How much would you think the original NES Final Fantasy is worth?

T*********3 (11:26:22 PM): hm

T*********3 (11:26:22 PM): 200

jerahcordova (11:27:02 PM): i'm not taking prototype or anything, just the game. care to revise some?

jerahcordova (11:28:23 PM): ?

jerahcordova (11:29:41 PM): a-hem

T*********3 (11:30:08 PM): uh

T*********3 (11:30:13 PM): what do you mean

T*********3 (11:30:14 PM): revise?

jerahcordova (11:30:24 PM): care to raise or lower your guess

T*********3 (11:32:14 PM): hm

T*********3 (11:32:20 PM): 150

jerahcordova (11:32:31 PM): ha! i knew it!

T*********3 (11:32:38 PM): what?

jerahcordova (11:33:14 PM): i made fun of you on the NES forum today about not knowing jack-shit about NES prices cause you were raised on Playstation, XBox, etc.

T*********3 (11:34:05 PM): BITCH


You can't blame the kid, I guess. He's just from a different gaming era.

;D public humiliation of a sibling, I love it.  Kinda sad really, but like you say not really his fault.
~~NGD

I pray to God noone buys it at that price. I paid like $24 for a mint complete copy with maps, manual, handbook, and everything else. But you can't blame people for not knowing but still.....

nice one JC, looks like you were right hahaha

i was able to get my FF for $12 at Funcoland many years ago luckily. I think theres a store like that everywhere that overcharges people. Theres a place out here in NJ that no one even knows the name of, no name on the sign, everyone just calls him Crazy Julio. He has a bit of everything when it comes to video games, but his pricing system is extremely questionable. Everything is so expensive and so....inconsistent. Megaman 3 for $39.99. The Zelda games for $29.99. Super Mario Bros 1 for...$8...$12...$16 and one for $28.....aparently this guy cannot even price the same game the same on all carts. needless to say he does not get my money.

lol the store that I brought up does the same thing. He will have numerous copies of a game with different prices.....????? WHAT? but I have gotten a few unliscenced games pretty cheap, just recently a mermaid of atlantis for 5 bucks or so.

There's a store near where I work, which has their NES games stacked on top of each other in a display case. The price ranges from how high or low they are in the stack. For example, if Super Mario Bros. was on the bottm and you wanted it, $50. If Bubblebath babes was right on top, $2. It's really annoying sometimes, when theres a specific game you want and it's in the middle. But also really good, when a good find lands on top.

Haha @ JC's last post.

Around mid-late 2005, EB Games was selling loose Final Fantasy games for 39.99$.  Eventually, they finally got knocked down to 9.99$ after some price drops of 5$ at a time.  No one ever knew they were at the store because they kept them behind the counter, but the store would and could easily get the 15$ price tag they had on Zelda every time they put one out.  Not everyone can/wants to shop on ebay so they go to places like this and pay more...it isn't that big of a suprise to me, especially with all the people that I hear about coming into EB looking for NES games.  

Here in the stores stuff usually is overpriced too, i always get as reason "we have to pay taxes for it" and such blah blah. They always try something to jack up the prices. Corse they have to pay taxes, everyone has to, SMB3 for 30$ ia plain insanity.

Funny thing is, the more you charge the more taxes you have to pay. So my argument to those shopowners is "Well please, allow me to save you some tax money, here's my offer!" :)

Shops are more concerned with overhead, not taxes (the only tax not proportionate to sales is unemployment / worker's comp). Biggest expense most resale (retail) businesses have is CGS, Cost of Goods Sold, which most businesses - especially used merchandise flippers - have direct and total control over. So again, it's their own damed fault if they paid too much for a game in trade-in to be able to sell it for a reasonable price.

/Second-biggest cost is rent, with employees a close third.
//both completely under the shopowner's control.
///there's never an excuse for price gouging. ever.
////greed or opportunism are not excuses, they're motives.

Ok since this is a hot topic now

I showed a couple people this I sold a CIB on ebay with the NES power guide it went for 212.50


I opened a sealed one with pics and it only sold for 46.

Guys, don't hate on stores selling games for non collector prices.

I paid my bills during my last two years of university from a weekly table at a local flea market. Selling mostly, NES games.

My prices were based on local demand and rarity. Nothing to do with eBay prices or collector rarity. Most non collectors are willing to pay more for a game locally, even if they know they can get it for cheaper on eBay.

Example: Super Mario 2. Mario 2 was always in demand, I never had a copy, and they would never last more than a night.... at $20 a pop. I wouldn't sell it for less. Hell, I could have probably priced it at $25 and still sold them all, or even at 30 and still sold them eventually. My goal was reasonable prices however and repeat customers. I got just that too.

Granted, if anyone told me they were a collector I was more than willing to cut prices, or trade any game they wanted for any game that i could sell. I was more than happy to help fellow collectors out.

Except those collectors that go on about how they have over 800 unique licensed titles, no variants, (wow, I thought there were less) or how final fantasy is really, really rare (really? i though it was just in demand), OR how every game should be priced at a dollar.

For them everything was priced double.

Just remember, check the stores from the guys who sell Final Fantasy for $50 loose regularly.  Eventually they'll sell a complete Chubby Cherub or DK Math for $10. You'll feel much better then.


There's a store near where I work, which has their NES games stacked on top of each other in a display case. The price ranges from how high or low they are in the stack. For example, if Super Mario Bros. was on the bottm and you wanted it, $50. If Bubblebath babes was right on top, $2. It's really annoying sometimes, when theres a specific game you want and it's in the middle. But also really good, when a good find lands on top.

Couldnt you make the argument you want the first x games for $x each given that each one then rises to the to, making them a buck eachp?

Sphinx I don't think anyone has a problem with you charging $20 for SMB2. That's not price gouging. SMB2 goes for what, $15 shipped from any eBay store on any given day (and more from any classic games website online), so if you needed to restock on any given week you'd only be making a 25% margin (pretty poor even with low flea market overhead). Your cost of goods sold for that game would be high to consistently stock it like this. I know many come through via trade-in and you get them cheaper...but we're talking about a consistent way to replenish a popular product, not relying on happenstance.

Many businesses endeavor to sell at a 50% margin; by that reasoning even if your SMB2 price did approach the $30 you said you could get, and you consistently bought carts to resell at $15 apiece, you could feel confident that you weren't gouging, it's a reasonable markup for the service of having a tested working functional cart in-hand that the person can bring home on an impulse and play that very hour.

$42 for a $10-shipped FF is gouging. $20 for SMB/DH is gouging. $50 for SMB3 is gouging. I don't understand why you're defensive in the middle of a discussion about these kinds of prices. Your defense seems to imply that you feel some guilt, that somehow all common games should be equally valuable; that you feel that although $20 is a lot for a hyper common like SMB2, it's just "lucky" somehow that people want to pay that amount for it, and by jove you're going to charge it! That's the invisible hand of the market my friend, and demand alone dictates that. Whether online or at your flea market. Nobody's ever stayed in business selling BELOW market value, it's burning money. But nobody's stayed in business selling way above market value either....because there's no such thing as a true monopoly in the retail/resale world. Any given week someone can open up a table next to you that undercuts your margin and has a superior source for goods...

We're not attacking anyone for doing business for a profit. Yes there's better deals out there. And price gougers walk a fine line; they may sell to a customer once - twice - maybe more...but sooner or later they're going to come to one of two realizations: 1. "This hobby is too expensive," or 2. "I wonder if anyone else has these a little cheaper." Gougers are a hit-and-run business, it's never about the comeback so they get as much out of the hustle as they can. Sphinx, I'm sure you've got a ton of repeat buyers though.

I am pretty sure that "price gouging" is a pretty strong phrase to use here.  Price gouging is when a business charges an outrageous price for something you have to have.  A good example is the price of lumber going up when a hurricane is on course to hit a town.  An unfair price for something you need.  A really high price on SMB 2 isn't gouging; it is just taking advantage of the uninformed and lazy.

How is "taking advantage of" one group of people equivalent and "taking advantage of" a different group of people not?

My general concensus on this debate is "Don't hate the player, hate the game."  As collectors, we'd love to get everything we're collecting towards as cheap as possible; retailers, vendors, etc. are looking to sell as high as the market will bear.  No one's forcing you into buying SMB 2 at $15, $20, $30.  If anything you should have already picked it up a long time ago :-)

I think the "don't hate the playa" line is a convenient bite of faux-wit for people who, when pressed, can't verbally justify being immoral or unethical. It's a non sequitur of the same ilk as "talk to the hand." Everyone has a choice to make, from cheating boyfriends (for whom the "hate" line is usually reserved) to video-game-scalpers. And I can't help but have contempt for them alone for making the choice to take more than they give. Ihave no hatred of some ill-defined proverbial "game" and no hatred of the "uninformed and lazy" amongst retrogamers. Just the "playas."

We all start out as noobs in whatever endeavors. Noobs visit this board everyday. Are you saying you'd be okay with users on this board speading disinformation and attempting to rip them off, as an introduction to the larger NES hobby community? People of the kind we're discussing, the $42 Final Fantasy people, color the entire hobby a deeper shade of gray. The argument may be raised "there's two parties in every deal." But in the deals we're talking about...there's a disparity in information, and one side is exploiting that. Do you approve of exploitation? How about telling half-truths? Sure there's grey areas for each of these examples...but they tend to be very dark shades.

What can one do about it? Tell the truth. To as many people as will listen. This works for any realm within which parasites lurk. As an example, would you suggest that I hate politics in general, instead of the few sour, filthy candidates who really deserve to be hated? Politics involves moral choices, you say? Well so does business. And as a matter of fact, those made in business can be a lot less hazy than those in politics. You may not start on the same side as me, but the least I can do is tell you why I feel how I do, and listen to you do the same. Sometimes that's how change begins.

Some people were raised to hate in the form of bigotry, racism, antisemitism. Many of us have been raised on the notion that hatred itself in any form, but especially in these forms, is "wrong." So we have grown up afraid to hate, told to love all despite failings...but hatred is a human emotion and we're meant to feel it. It comes with the package. It's just "wrong" when the hatred is misdirected, or worse yet, directed at the undeserving because of misinformation or lack of information (racism, etc.).

There are some who will simply hold you in no esteem, and take advantage of you despite your basic trust for others, and perhaps even love for others. Whether they unjustly take your money, your liberty, your wife, or even your life, the way in which these people take advantage of you diminishes their own humanity through their fundamental lack of respect for the humanity of others. THIS BEHAVIOR IS INHUMANE.

I believe those people deserve my hatred, because their actions and choices inherently communicate their basic contempt for me. And if I feel strongly enough, I'll let others know what I've decided. If some of you decide that people who charge ridiculous prices on games are just doing their job, then I guess I'm just not convincing. But I consider myself an activist, not a pacifist, and I'd be remiss if I didn't try, instead of sitting idly by.

Life's deep. Inform yourself, and inform those you love. Take few words at face value, because talk is cheap.

There's my bite of faux-wit for you. Which do you find more meaningful?

Wow.  That was...quite a post.

i paid $60 for my copy of Final Fantasy... in 1990 when I was 8 years old.