What is the Best Price on Something You Have Sold?

[DrPizza]

Spent a day at an Amish auction. Earlier in the day, prices were high. Apparently, by later in the afternoon, people were running out of money. I had been waiting to see what a gorgeous china cabinet would sell for. Auctioneer started at many 100's of dollars. No bids. Down to 200...100...50... 25 - I bid to get the ball rolling. Usually it would go "25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200... " in a matter of seconds, and up to a reasonable price. "50?" No one bid. The auctioneer's face was red - no one was bidding on it. "35?" Someone outbid me. I'd have looked like an ass if "Yeah, $25 was good, but $45 is too rich for my blood." So, I was in at 45 The auctioneer couldn't squeeze another dime out of anyone - "if you take it apart, the lumber's worth more than that... Who'll give me $50? SOLD" SLAMMED his hammer down, he was pissed. Took it home, gave it a coat of orange-glo, took a picture, it sold in a couple minutes. I sold it for what I spent at the auction - I could have gotten a lot more. The guy who bought it said, "I can't believe you got it for <what I spent that day>" I never explained to him, "no, actually, that's what I spent for the antique desk (my wife still uses it and loves it), the butcher block island for my kitchen with lots of storage, the fruit press, the china cabinet, and a few other things combined."

 

[herm0016]

we gutted our house before we moved in. One couple came to look at the old twice used cabinets and ended up spending all day ripping out the entire kitchen. He ended up buying all the appliances ( cheapest models from home depot) , the dining bench table thing, and all the carpet from the entire house, plus helped remove all of it. I got demo work done for free and got paid about 800 bucks!

 

[ImpulsE69]

As a fellow pinballer, what machine is it?

Funhouse!

 

[Harrod]

There was this time I sold Mega Man X2 and X3 for $7 in 96 before they starting going for $80+ on Ebay.

Wait a minute, I got fukin' FLEECED. :'(

I bought those for 5 dollars each while in college, they ended up at my sisters house who later donated them to goodwill. So we're in the same boat.

 

[TheVrolok]

Sold two WoW accounts for just under a grand a piece. Made a decent bit of money on SC ships as well.

 

[Ns1]

Made thousands off wii's, $250 shipped via Amazon, sell for $4-500 all day.

 

[Ns1]

I bought a '98 Tacoma in 2005 for $5000. Toyota bought it back in 2008 due to frame rust...for $12,142.50.

Holy shit

 

[Homerboy]

Got a Rolex as an award from work -- sold on ebay for $3,500
(retail was $5,500 so everyone got a deal)

 

[RearAdmiral]

Funhouse!

Very interesting! Thanks.

 

[slag]

Was given a ton of old fiber channel cards that work was throwing out. I turned around and sold them on ebay for over a grand.

 

[Golgatha]

PS2's on eBay. I was one of 'those guys' that bought every system I could at launch. I made a mint. I remember selling one to some woman in South Dakota, with an extra controller and 6 games, for $2800.00. No kidding. Every one of them I sold I made at least $400 off of, unfortunately I only had 8 of them.

Somehow I found an open item PS2 at Best Buy that year just before Christmas. Kept it for myself. Still have it and it runs like a champ.

 

[CZroe]

Sold an NES game I spent $0.50 on (Xexyz prototype from Blockbuster Video GameRush clearance) for almost $300. Sold a used/resealed N64 game for about $400 that I got from BBV/GR clearance for about $2.50 (may not have even had the manual). Got an offer of $5,000 on a pack of GameCube games that I spent $60 on at Toys R Us (shipping pack of Zelda Master Quest; never even offered it up for sale). Sold a sealed copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day for $375 and another for almost $300 (much worse condition) but only paid $7.50 new from Toys R Us. Got some sealed Visual SourceSafe 6.0 software from Goodwill for about $1 and sold it to a member here for about $300.

 

[slayer202]

used to make a killing on hannah montana tickets $$$$

 

[poofyhairguy]

I bought a '98 Tacoma in 2005 for $5000. Toyota bought it back in 2008 due to frame rust...for $12,142.50.

Probably the winner for pure luck.

The best deal I've probably ever got was a pinball machine for $800 many years ago. One year I discovered it had been signed by the designer on the bottom and turned out it was half prototype half commercial as it was the first production (to be sold) game of the lot. I've been offered 17k for it, but I haven't decided to sell it yet.

Isn't $800 cheap for a pinball machine anyway?

Sold a sealed copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day for $375 and another for almost $300 (much worse condition) but only paid $7.50 new from Toys R Us.

Why the hell is Bad Fur Day worth that much money?

 

[dank69]

When I was in third grade I sold a kid the air in my lunch container for $0.10.

100% pure profit right there.

Also sold a case of Sega Genesis consoles that fell off a truck. Think I got $200 a piece for those suckers IIRC, minus the one I kept for myself.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Isn't $800 cheap for a pinball machine anyway?

Back then they were still being made regularly, so prices hadn't went through the roof. This was cheapish for this particular machine at the time, but it wasn't in 100% working condition when I bought it. The most I've ever paid for a machine was $1200 for a Haunted House probably in 2006.

 

[gorcorps]

This thread makes me want to build the virtual pinball machine I keep wanting to get to. Can't even get a gutted pinball cab for cheap though... dammit

 

[ImpulsE69]

This thread makes me want to build the virtual pinball machine I keep wanting to get to. Can't even get a gutted pinball cab for cheap though... dammit

DOOOO IT!. It's a fun...but expensive hobby. I'm sad to say with 5 pinball machines and a virtual, I play the virtual more lol.

 

[poofyhairguy]

This thread makes me want to build the virtual pinball machine I keep wanting to get to. Can't even get a gutted pinball cab for cheap though... dammit

There is a real pinball arcade near me I have been dying to go to:

 

[Zeze]

Take a seat boys, this story takes us back.

1. Back in college more than a decade ago, I found a post here in AT Hotdeals that Dreamcast was going clearance at $20 each at Target.

2. I grabbed my roommate and we drove to the Target in Woburn, MA. We found stacks of Dreamcast and they did price check at $20ea.

3. I bought like 12 of them and sold it on Ebay for about $85-90 each.

 

[gorcorps]

DOOOO IT!. It's a fun...but expensive hobby. I'm sad to say with 5 pinball machines and a virtual, I play the virtual more lol.

I believe it, it's just so far down the priority list. If I upgraded the mobo and CPU on my current computer I'd have the hardware to at least get started with the old parts. I just don't really need to.

 

[ControlD]

DOOOO IT!. It's a fun...but expensive hobby. I'm sad to say with 5 pinball machines and a virtual, I play the virtual more lol.

Oh man ... I think this could be a cool project. I have never actually seen an virtual pinball table before, but they are cool as hell.

I have a really nice MAME cabinet I built some years ago in the family entertainment room. A virtual pinball machine would be great to go along side it.

 

[RearAdmiral]

Isn't $800 cheap for a pinball machine anyway?

Almost nothing can be had for $800 unless it is an old school style machine with no electronic display. I got super lucky with 2 of my machines. Go take a peek at some of the new machines like Game of Thrones or The Hobbit heh.

 

[RearAdmiral]

Oh man ... I think this could be a cool project. I have never actually seen an virtual pinball table before, but they are cool as hell.

I have a really nice MAME cabinet I built some years ago in the family entertainment room. A virtual pinball machine would be great to go along side it.

The virtual ones are kinda neat. I personally don't like them but it is fun to at least "see" each game that is out there. I can definitely see the appeal for a family arcade room.

 

[CZroe]

Why the hell is Bad Fur Day worth that much money?

I thought the "mature" humor was bad and particularly IMmature and I was already sick of Rareware's fetch quests when the game came out, but I had been anticipating it since before Diddy Kong Racing when it was still expected to be a kid's game. I bought it anyway along with a few clearance copies, but this isn't a review so I'll move on.

The "mature" theme meant most retailers didn't put it out and sales were terrible. I recall Toys R Us selling a bundle with a Player's Guide but the entire bundle was blacked out inside their anti-theft case. There was very little marketing in magazines and typical Nintendo places because those places typically catered to kids. It was also released at the end of the N64's lifetime when everything was about the Dreamcast/PS2 and upcoming GameCube. As a result it sold very poorly.

It seems that the kiddies who played it back in the day grew up thinking parodies of The Matrix and Saving Private Ryan are "genius" and they continue to sing the game's praises today. There are a ton of collectors and N64 fans who missed it back in the day who are interested now.

Supply and demand.

FWIW, a loose copy is relatively expensive compared to most other N64 games but it is much more affordable (I still have mine).