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.

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.

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

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?

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