Retro Game Resellers are Rip-Offs! 

I blame the buyers. These sellers wouldn't be price gouging if people weren't willing to pay these outrageous prices. You have to speak with your wallet.

This is the reason why I go to flea markets, swap meets, garage sales and yard sales. They just want to get rid of clutter and they have actual good prices

Dude... How do you not understand how used game stores work? If they paid market value for a game, and then sold the game for market value, who pays the electric bill? Go sell it online yourself if you want the market value

The mistake was from people selling their old games for next to nothing believing that old games were worthless and then realising how much they missed them 15 years later.

Anything to do with nerds is expensive.

Last time I went to the GameStop website, when Retro was a new marketing term. The prices were just as high as when the games were just released. I use my things. I am not placing my games behind glass cases.

I've seen local high street retro stores here get ransacked by American tourists who buy our cheap games and resell them on eBay for 10× as much. Shenmue 2 for Dreamcast was only £25 here. Found the same one with the "Once Was New"(the store name) price tag on it on eBay US for $410 + shipping and the influx of US tourists only died down after two of the stores shut due to lack of stock. N64, Dreamcast and Saturn games disappeared overnight so they could ruin a hobby for us, and make money for them. Supposedly Japan has had it bad with US resellers too, stores like Bookoff, HardOff, etc. losing all their NES, N64 and SEGA games to the US tourists who sell them on for profits in the tenfold margin. They're ruining everything for those of us who just want to enjoy our hobbies.

pirate Retro games, because most of them are too damn expensive.

When I moved to Japan full time about 20 years ago, I spent a few years basically buying in used game shops and selling things abroad at cost as a fun way to transfer money Japan to my US PayPal account to pay US bills. The positive feedback I got from people who appreciated something I did as an extension of my hobby really made me feel great. I can't imagine doing something like this to actually make me feel dirty about something I love. My only regrets are assuming I would find the Neo Geo CDZs and Panasonic Gamecubes and N64DDs easily forever instead of stocking up on them for the future above what others wanted at the time. I could retire on what I would have made selling them at a fair price today :D

It's a combination of factors. AAA gaming now is in the toilet. People are going back to retro games. These cretins know that and are jacking up the prices.

The retro gaming market has become a haven for dishonest scumbag speculators who never cared about the hobby, but just see it as another easy avenue for profit (like every other market). Things haven't been helped by things like Wata artificially inflating the value of very common games.

There are definitely people and companies out there that pay ridiculously low prices and charge ridiculously high prices like DK oldies, but reselling in general is not the problem. Reselling has been a thing with human beings nearly since the beginning of our existence. Trading and selling used goods has always been a way for people to get things they need or want. The reality of it is if there was no market for it, it wouldn't be resold. If a used item has value and is desired it will be resold. Simple as that. Lots of things end up in the landfill every year that are worthless throwaway things. Retro games just doesn't happen to be one of those items.

Amazon doesn't help with this as they have the Renewed options and that's where people like Phoenix Resale makes their money as Renewed allows for the jacked up prices and people pay for it

I remember going to Funcoland with the same issue way back around 2001 or so of the prices wasn't as crazy as they are now . Play n trade was a another great place to go to for classic games, sometimes you get lucky and score a rare trade-in that someone brought in like a vintage near mint in box console if you were to get it at eBay it be over a $1k instead of being maybe $200 or so . I mean hey where can one get a copy of Snatcher that isnt over $500 for a system that hasn't been manufactured for over 30yrs , the console itself is getting harder to find that can have good serviceable life to enjoy a collection, and to have a supply of parts to maintain the life of the system

I collect retro games because i like "owning" my media (same as for vinyl). Yes I could stream mostly any song on vinyl for free or download retro games to my gold R4 card but I like playing stuff on what it was originally made for and owning the media. I am not bashing or hating emulation as I use it myself quite a bit but in my opinion I like the feeling of collecting games and playing them on the OG hardware.

The prices in the US are obscene. We in Europe still have good prices … hope it stays this way

Game hogs is worst place! Also game tower!!!😡 you live near my house! when I listed games on FB marketplace they will spam you like crazy there are hundreds of resellers at the flea market consciously bothering me trying to lowball me and I can’t even sell my video games to normal people they get mad and even try to fight me if I don’t give them their price here in LA is crazy

That's why I say stop buying from these retro stores. And classic disc reading consoles could be modded easily so you can burn your own physical copies of games. Same thing for modding cartridge style games. Mod your consoles and stop buying from the retro stores and watch how fast those prices drop.

I mean buy low/sell high is how it's suppose to be done.......isn't it? (for the seller), and then for the buyer you have the most POWERFUL 2 letters (1 word) in the ENTIRE industry. More powerful than having a wallet full of cash. That is.......NO! If something is too high for you....don't buy it. The next person comes along....too high for them they won't buy it. Happens enough, demand goes down which makes the prices go down. Complaining that someone is or isn't doing any of the practices I just listed is the furthest from any issues at hand.

It looks like Gamestop doesnt sell retro games anymore because i did not see any of the retro consoles to start shopping games from on their website when i went to the 'Buy Games' section

I remember wanting to sell a smartphone to a pawn shop. They offered like 80% - 85% lower amount of retail market price of a new phone and then sell at market value of a new phone. Granted , it WAS a new and still unopened phone. I got it for free when extending my Mobile Service Provider subscribtion. I don't mind it they were selling it for full price,but they would still have enough space to make a decent profit if they offered me 50% . Or at the very least 40% of the retail price. They would even have enough space to drop the price and make a good profit. Off course I decided to be a bit patient and sold it to a regular person for about 70% of retail price couple of days later. Even when selling used old retro stuff for humiliatingly Low prices below or below average retro market value, it best to be a bit patient and sell it to a normal person instead of vultures.

You say premium, but what you mean is market value.

What is the cool game near the end. Mega man?

I think this is a bit naive, as the world’s first retro seller, who originally sold vintage rarities for pennies, I’d say these days it is eBay that defines average prices, if buyers are prepared to pay 250 dollars for a 32x, then a seller would be crazy to list their own for a reasonable 100 dollars, because a scalper will just buy it and take that profit for themselves. When it comes to game values, the cat was out of the bag years years ago. These days I have to price super rare items high just so they stay around on the store, but I also miss the early good old days, when games were everywhere super cheap. That was exciting, but I didn’t realise how exciting it was at the time 😂

No one makes you buy anything. I think people forget that their money speaks for people like this, that is, if they let it. If I'm going to collect anything old school, I'm hitting up yard sales and privately owned mom and pop shops. If I ask how much something is, and they tell me to hold on while they check eBay, I'm walking. These scumbags don't deserve my money, even if it was smeared in dog crap, and rolled in butt sweat.

Many resellers have "crook vibes" and arrogance on them. Meeting them at a con they mostly cannot look you into the eye, some even do not give you the mandatory receipt. I had several resellers change the price mid conversation as their "son" or some other dude there looked up the prices. Best to call criminals out.

I find a lot of deals at my local thrift store and I told them that I resell and they said that that doesn't bother them as long as I don't try to talk them down on price. I think that's a more than reasonable request and I honor it. I still feel conflicted about reselling overall though and it's a constant debate I have with myself

would you pay $2 for something that might not work or $4 for something that's sure to work?

They’re businesses. They have profit margins they need to reach. Of course they can’t give offers that are close to market price. They’re going to go out of business if they do so. Buy low/sell high is how business works. McDonalds buys burgers for a unit price of 50 cents and they sell it for $4-6. No one complains about that. And it’s not resellers fault that prices are so high. It’s the people who continuously buy games for said high prices who are at fault.

I'm a reseller but I get stuff at thrift stores or ask people if they will take a low offer because I need to make some money off of what I'd be selling. I never bother retailers or eBay sellers/ online sellers though they are trying to run a side business just as much as I am. If you want to ask me why I do this it's simply because I hate being a wage slave at a 9-5 job I even sold my personal collection off because believe it or not I actually love the hobby. Just trying to hopefully make enough to put a down payment on a house and pay it off one day.

Your accent is honestly pretty hard to understand so I just turned on subtitles. That said, you're right.

This is why emulating is taking off, these games are so worthless and impossible to obtain anymore apart from greedy sclapers that it's just best to either get a flashcart or just emulate them through a handheld instead which is more convenient than having multiple bulkly aging consoles under your tv taking up space and swapping carts and all the wires, playing retro games this way is so outdated and inconvenient, you can't even take those yellowing dust magnets with you in your rucksack or play them in any room or out and about, there are too many benefits to emulating instead of using the real hardware, my ageing old retro carts and CDs give thanks for the retirement 😂😂

The price gouging has literally ruined the hobby for me. I used to go to my local retro game shop and buy multiple games for relatively cheap. Since about 2020, the secondhand market just got expensive. I used to go thrifting too because it was super cheap but it’s almost like buying new things now with the prices. The used market is no longer affordable for so many people now and it really sucks.

It's kind of sad that these scum bags jack up prices and are a horrible part of gaming that can't be gotten rid of

I've seen game hogs listings on offer up before and I thought it was just because of the high rent in L.A. but seeing how the owner is just a terrible person and low balls people, rent isn't the reason for the high prices...

ali express two words

Nobody is forcing you to sell or buy at prices that you don’t like. Free market.

Why if Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch have their classic libraries? PS5 is also compatible with PS4. You can play many of the old Mario and Pokemon on Switch.

Excellent video! I decided not to sell my old games even though i have flashcarts.

Honestly, Gamestop/EB Games were notorious for this as well when it came to reselling used games.

yeah ive gotten quite a bit of cheaper variants of everdrives it helps a lot with keeping things affordable

Thankful for sellers. They make something available that for some, wouldn't be otherwise. As for the prices, they're making something for their work, time and upfront cash to get something, that somebody else wants. They deserve to be paid for that.

Personally when it comes to buying games I think it just depends on the game for me because there's stuff I absolutely want to own physical copies of and play on actual hardware cause that's just something I really enjoy. That's not to say I am against emulation since I've emulated games in the past and even own a little device known as the GB operator which lets you emulate GameBoy, GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance games straight from the cart. So I agree that these resellers are being scumbags about how they're handling their business but I don't agree that there's nothing that can be done. Simply put people have to stop giving them money and look to sellers that aren't trying to rip people off. As for the games I'd say just go for what seems reasonable to you (cause what's reasonable to me may not be reasonable to others and vice versa) and emulate stuff that's either hard to get a hold of or stuff that you don't have a strong desire to own.

Thats why I resell more fairly & as a hobby. If i get a game $10 & its worth $60 I'll still sell it for $30 so some body can get 1 for a better deal. When I see games that are not even good listed for $100 I cringe so badly.

Game tower game store are like that they low ball you and resale high they straight up scamers...theres maybe one or two retro stores that give good prices and pay good too shout out to retro respawn best retro store in LA

People complain about resellers like myself, but I really don't understand the issue. If someone has a collection of games and consoles at a yard sale for $100 and I buy them, take the time to test them all extensively, open everything up, clean everything, replace anything needing to be replaced, list the items, ship the items, deal with the occasional psycho customer with a ridiculous request, I don't think I've done anything wrong. In addition, the moment I buy something, it is mine and is none of your business what I do with it. What I do notice however, is a lot of people jealous that they don't have it in them to take the massive gamble that I took years ago, saving up money by barely getting by so I could eventually quit my job and do this full time. The same people who would say, "you really should just work a regular job like a regular person" are some of the most bitter and miserable people I've ever known. But that's just my anecdotal experience in life. Best to you!

Resellers, like Walmart and Target run a business. Those big chain stores are resellers, too.

This is why I price everything higher than market, just by a little. When people try to low-ball me I meet them in the middle and we are both satisfied!

This is how reselling works in general. I complain about how expensive things are but the thing is......as long as there are people buying it at that price people will sell it at that price. Instead of complaining about the resellers people can just stop selling stuff for low prices to them and stop buying their high marked up items. So in reality its the consumer's fault, the sellers are just seeing the demand and taking advantage of it. DK oldies or Amazon, I do not know why you would ever buy used video games from these sites when ebay, and pretty much any mom and pop game store will have better prices.

I bought a 8bit Do joystick and now i just use emulation. I refuse to give my money to this dammed people

gamestop is the king of ripping you off lol

This is why I like my local retro stores. They are not jerks and sell for a decent price.

got a ps2 at a flea market for like 45 bucks.

To be honest though, it’s just buisness doesn’t matter how much they buy/sell they want to make money so there gonna do that🤦‍♂️

I don’t fault you for saying it doesn’t need to be difficult because you can just use an emulator, but to say that is better and don’t support “resellers” just isn’t kosher. That is playing the other side to the extreme in the same way the store you reference is portrayed. There are lots of honest and good game stores out there and by saying emulation is what you should do doesn’t keep them in business. Most local game stores are not rolling in the dough and are barely alive and doing it out of passion for physical gaming. Also, up scaling and being able to play emulators on modern equipment is not a unanimous better thing. Original hardware and intended video is noticeably different. I have many friends who got excited about playing some of their favorite classics only to be disappointed at the minor but painfully obvious flaws - timing being my biggest gripe. It’s good for someone who a. Wants to play but cannot afford original hardware and games or b. Someone who wants to occasionally fire up a game for nostalgia. Either way, either is right or wrong or better than the other. It is all subjective. Jealousy and envy of what others have is a sin, whether it’s wanting to have an awesome physical collection that you can’t afford or wanting the satisfaction someone who emulates gets without the physical games. Most gamers have to stop fooling themselves that they aren’t one or the other if they want to be happy.

The market sets the prices stop crying about it. resellers don't make as much net income as you would think. One million in sales might only equal 50-100k for them .

Everyone wants everything for free. Fb market is the worst. I just ignore them

I find it funny how DKOldies gets scared whenever you mention emulators, cuz they'll always be like "oh, emulators are illegal! we have the real thing!"

Are people new to economics and how prices are largely controlled by supply and demand? Whole sure there are ways sellers could be affecting the prices of games. Prices went up because video game collecting demand went up is simple as that. Resellers are simply selling what people are willing to pay.

thtas why you guys have to hold your ground when you post online your marketing around the world dont worry theres someone around the world who wants it and will pay whut your asking for

i mean iam guilty... i collect... normally if somethings fare ill just buy it... iv had mixed experiences with that.. some good some bad. one time i paid up for a ps one lcd screen and the only thing i asked the seller was... are the hinges good... he said "yes" and i bought it. when it came ill say it was pretty clean and the screen was noticeably like perfect.... which was kool. i goto install it and it works and all... actully the power supply he sent was bad... fine... mine worked.... was alittte worried at first though... finally i play a game and am happy.... goto close it and snap. mind you i closed it carefully. So at first iam like well did i just break it... it is a 20 year old thing..... further inspection revealed that not only was that not the case but after looking at the photos again and i noticed no pictures of that hinge or that side.. to make a long story short the seller was okay but he was kinda supect.. he did refund me some cash which was kool so it kinda sat for a bunch of months.. i was expecting the hinge to be broken from the case and what i actully found when i disassembled it was that it was taken apart and the screws where all in the wrong spots.. causing the case to strip out. which would make the plastic seperate when opened. Causing the snapping sound. Before that it looked as though the hinge was separated and was pushing the plastic out causing it to snap. Sorry for the long story. Anyway i say all that to say is sometimes i will submit a offer just to see where the sellers bottom line is at.... alot of the time if the seller is not willing to budge... like at all ill buy it knowing that its actully in good shape. Another quick story.. i find that games that are expensive here in the us are cheaper in canada... like iv had good ebay experience buying from there.

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so your mad about business. Literally every business in the world does this

Thanks for exposing these resalers, I was buying ps1 games for 5 dollars back in 2008 or 2009

Oh just emulate them bro 🙄🙄

Good stuff

That's why I emulate retro games now or buy modded PS3,wii

DKOldies is such cringe

It's no different than any other business. When you go to Walmart to buy groceries, you're just buying things that Walmart bought in bulk and is re-selling to you at a premium. It's how capitalism has always worked.

These places give resellers a bad name. Unfortunately they are making money because people are paying those high prices. Game hogs guy should be careful disclosing how much they make. Wonder if it all accurately accounted for on the taxes by his statement they make about half a million a year. Best way to deal with stores like this is dont buy or sell to them

Somehow I feel game tower and pixel had an involvement with this video. Unfortunately now you have bias going with these business. One hates the other for doing better business or having better inventory. I gone to other stores that aren't gamehogs that are way more expensive or as expensive and selling fake stuff. So I really wonder why this video was so specific on calling out gamehogs. I understand the high prices thing, completely understandable but there's others stores that a lot worse. The times I been to gamehogs, customers mention other stores that are way worse. So I can tell this video is obviously being bias. Unfortunately this type of business happens with bigger corporations, it's just the business now a days. Also take into consideration that these stores have workers that have nothing to do with the prices and attitudes of the owners. This video can bring harm to their jobs and money they depend on. If you're going to mention stores that raised prices on games. Mention the rest of the stores in l.a that do the too. There's two employees at gamehogs that give absolutely the best services, super kind, super helpful, and they clean everything right in front of you, will open the cartridges so you can verify the game. I would hate their jobs to be affected just cause of this video. That's why this video feels bias. Don't believe me? Visit for yourself and hopefully those two other employees are there.

that's just the free economy ...

Proud low baller 😂❤

Then it's not the low baller fault, it's you setting it low. If you set the price at $150, then they will try to bring it down to 100.

Store owners have overhead and put time into cleaning and testing (if they're any good, anyway). Somebody's got to pay for that.

I flip videogames for my college money, i dont see what's wrong with it. People want clutter gone and people want to pay more money than i pay for stuff. Its no different than going to Wawa and buying a drink at a premium, its called business.

I gave it a fat like

You would do the same in their place. If you wouldn't they would kill your company. They would sue you for disloyal competition(selling things below market value to drive competitor out of bussines)IF you sold things at fair humane prices. To avoid bankropcy , you would become like them or worse .

Bro, this is a rule of the trade since dunno... Damascus traders XD Buy low, sell high. Every good deal is done like this. That's how the profit is made. And people in the comments saying that they prefer buying games on flea markets - yeah, no shit, because they are buying low, from people that are unaware of the value of what they sell. Nobody is forcing you to accept the lowball offer.

Greed is making a fun hobby unattainable for a lot of people.

If you just do some simple research you can see how much Phonix Resales and DKoldies can pay. Yea, try getting that much money from gamestop. And besides no one is forcing people to shop with them. The market dictates their value. Guess what new games aren't as valuable as older games because of scarcity and older games also hold heavy nostalgia to millennia's whom have money to spend. Do you blame Target when they have to charge more for your milk, do you blame panda express when the cost of chicken goes up every year? In theory, if you are a game collector, thanks to resellers your collection might have actually gone up in value. So your telling me if you had a rare game with the fair market value would be 100, you'd sell it for less because you don't want to be part of the problem as a reseller? Would you do this with a house or a car? No, you'd be an idiot. Just do your research and sell it for market if you have the time. People who sell to them value their time differently. Its not like they don't know they are work more. Part of their factor is service. Do you you really want to pay AMAZON $40 a month to sell there just to get a return, have it go missing, or have the item be return with a swapped game? YES this happens all time time and this is why I don't sell on Amazon anymore. There is risks they take when they take your game. You are paying for piece of mind. You are paying for your time. To many 60-70% of value is a bargain because at the end of the day yes a rare game can be work say $400 dollars but it might not sell for a year at that premium. People pretend like they sell things next day when in reality its a lot of hard work to stay a float. Next time do some research. It is not as easy as you think it is otherwise people would do it more.

Bro, EVERY retail company buys products at a lower price and sells them at a higher price. That’s how profit works. This video is stupid and nitpicks the wrong thing.. DKOldies is a problem and a scummy company, but not because they buy for lowball prices and sell for premium prices. They’re a problem because they lie about their products, such as claiming a console has been refurbished when it clearly hasn’t. You’re fighting the wrong battles here.. If you don’t think the prices of a company’s products are worth it, don’t buy from that company. It is as simple as that. They’re not wrong for up charging