Pricing of collectibles on Ebay is difficult for me, even with such tools as Terapeak to help. Case in point, on Saturday, I found a box of Super Nintendo Entertainment System games, and was all but thanked for taking them off the owner’s hands for a whopping $5. Many of the cartridges were dirty, and some had masking tape price stickers on them. None had boxes or instructions.
Plus, I had no way to test them, but a deal is a deal, right?
So, I get them home, clean them up as best as I can, take a picture, and list them on Ebay for, well, I had no idea at first. Some of the cartridges, at least according to my research, were worth in excess of $20, provided they actually worked. Most of the cartridges were worth nothing, though. I tabulated the online prices of the worthwhile games, then basically cut the result in half because the games were untested, and came up with a price of $39.99. It seemed reasonable, and would bring a tidy profit on my $5 investment.
However, literally within five minutes of listing the cartridges, they were bought and paid for.
D’oh!!!!!
Ol’ dopey me thinks I should have priced them higher now.
Another sale that made me wonder about my pricing was a small lot of vintage sailing ship books. These books, which were not in good shape, had been sitting on my shelf for a while, and I finally got tired of looking at them. After researching the books, I discovered that they were quite common, and not worth much. So, I priced them at $18.99 for the lot. They didn’t quite sell as fast as the game cartridges, but were gone by the end of the day.
Meanwhile in Atlanta, my brother, Joey, who has become quite the picker/thrifter despite listening to my advice, related a funny incident from Friday. He showed up early for an estate sale, and noticed that a Chinese gentleman was sleeping in his car, waiting for the sale to open. My brother waited by the door. The man finally woke up, saw Joey, and made his way to the door, insisting that he be allowed in first. Well, both went in, and while the Chinese guy wandered around, Joey asked about the media, and made a beeline to the DVDs, including pricey Star Wars boxed sets for sale. When the Chinese man finally made it to the media, he saw that Joey had grabbed most of the DVDs, and got angry enough to start “cussing” Joey out in Chinese.
Joey said he laughed all the way out, and apparently to the bank as well.
Have a great week everyone.
I usually look at the completed listings for lots in similar quantities to mine when I figure BIN prices on anything.
ReplyDeleteI brought a bunch of PS2 and Xbox video games to the vendor market with me yesterday. Most were bought used. I researched them all and priced them individually somewhere between the high and low selling price ($5-8), but I was willing to sell the whole lot for $30. The guy in the booth next to me specializes in that stuff and he talked me down to $25. Two seconds after he bought them, his wife was removing my price tags and replacing them with their own. I really didn't mind. But he did mention to me that those old games like yours are highly sought after and he's always looking out for them.
Why didn't you set price high with Best Offer?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I should have done, but hindsight is always 20/20. Lesson learned.
DeleteI would have tested them for you. Send any video games my way :)
ReplyDeleteMy hubby has a whole bunch of those games and the system from when he was younger. He wants to save it for a time when he might have a chance to play them (never). I'm trying to convince him to sell them!
ReplyDeleteMargaret @ Live Like No One Else