I really like this channel's videos of video interviews of people who own a business, whether it be a full physical store or display cases/booths in an Antique Store. I, myself, have a Display Case in an Antique Store with $5k worth of Pokemon Memorabilia, but I also flip on eBay and I'm a Spark Delivery Driver Full-Time. The hustle is real. The sales are slow. I don't have a family, but I do have goals to reach and debt to pay off. Hope everything works out for him!
Wish you best of luck with the hustle m8 me and my wife do sparkdriver/instacart/doordash but I'm trying to go to the flea market to sell once a month or so, mostly selling my stuff and haven't had the $ to buy thingsresell but thats the dream! My grandpa did flea market 2 days a weekend as his full time job so I hope I can be half as good as him haha, anyways hope the grind pays off for yah soon hit me up if you wanna talk spark driver we can swap tips or ideas would like to make a friend in a similar situation :)
honestly Reselllers on youtube ruined the thrift store, the managers and ceo caught on so now they get employees to do ebay searches for prices and charge a few bucks under the average price.
@@adratts True but it's had a large resurgance after 2020 when people started going to thrift stores again and more and more people posted about the deals they made and profit from reselling
@@Scooterios It's still bad but it's good if you're quick enough I don't even resell I just get games for my collection and try to before resellers message the seller first. most time i lose because i have a full time job
This hobby has become MAJORLY TOXIC in 10 years. RU-vid/tiktokkers have ruined it to the point little old ladies are fighting over games. I rarely hunt games at yard sales and thrifts anymore. I have the games I want. (Had them since the early 80s on)
It's always been like that, anytime people see apparent value with easy liquidity it's an easy buy. It's not youtube and tiktokers, it's Ebay that's been driving the aggressive value mining, Ebay = world wide liquidity for anything. Whereas pre ebay the only places people could flip would be mostly within their community or maybe conventions or a network they create at flea markets etc. There is less stock because there is more liquidity it's simple as that.
Same here in both the UK and Netherlands, old people go in to the local CEX "kind of like game stop but also second hand stuff" And try to resell their sh*t via Gumtree / Marktplaats / Ebay / e.t.c for 50x the price.
Yeah people are getting more and more aware of what was stored in the basement or attic. Yes many over priced stuff but they eventually go down because their inventory builds up so much they just get rid of it.
@@minidonut827usually they’re trying to sell in a game shop (like these videos) and rent is very high in many of these major metropolitan areas where there’s enough people to sustain a store like this. It’s a cost of going business to an extent, if rent is high then they have to price accordingly to compensate
I live in Louisville I have done business with Tim he bought my nes collection and PS2 collection and Xbox when I got out of collecting. He's a good dude
@@only_one_chrisfantazzi Did you even watch the video? The guys has multiple locations open and sources by supporting local shops and stores and buying people’s personal collections keeping them and himself afloat.
@@only_one_chrisfantazzi And to ask for special deals from other resellers as they shift around stock. These items aren't selling because people aren't willing to pay retail prices of $5-15 a game when the titles should be $1-3 each. So they will just sit on shelves.
You can't find a deal because everyone wants to get top dollar for 15-20 year old titles. Some games cost more now than they did when new. Additionally, folks can't simply get rid of anything anymore without first seeing the latest sale price on ebay. The market is going to implode on itself...
I wish I could like this comment a hundred more times. There is too much inventory in the hands of sellers at prices that are too high for demand. The bubble burst is coming. I have travelled to several cons over the past couple of years and I can't recall a single person walking up to a booth and asking if they have Jaguar games or accessories. Yet I have seen half a dozen Jaguar consoles at every show including the same unsold CD combo at the same show for the past three years.
i think a large problem withthe secondary market is, its kind of an inflated market and not enough customers that are willing to pay a premium to sustain a storefront.
@@JxtArod If prices went back to what they were 10-15 years ago for retro games the market would be healthy and stores would be fine..Resellers and people willing to buy at those high prices killed it.
Given how the AAA and just current market is I do think the retro and physical market will come back because there are a number of current games that come out and within a week are just dead, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League was a big tell tale sign that the major developers are doing what Hollywood is doing and getting the same results.
While I respect what both of these guys do, I'll never understand why you would want to give your reselling secrets to thousands of people on the internet.
I thought the same thing but thought about it. Your area may or may not know how the market works when reselling. For example. My area (Deep South border town in Texas) everyone here are super cheapskates. They want that discount cause it’s small community. They refuse to pay market value when you sell to them. But they will turn around and sell it above market value at the flea market. Like I sold this guy my Funko pop collection when i stopped collecting. I sold the lot at a loss of 20% of what I should’ve profited by selling $5-10 depending on the type of Funko it was and what series it was. Next day saw the person post a FB add on the lot selling them above market value lol. Any tactics you learn are hit or miss just depends on your area. Yes I sold video games too. I sold had some grails and nobody wanted to buy them at market price so ended up selling on EBay.
good stores keep their prices in the fair ball park and offer solid store credit, as you want your customers returning and potentially liquidating at discounts. The best shops don't gouge they make you want to buy and feel good about it.
Awww I’m sorry are you hating the market you created? I have no sympathy for resellers that goto thrift stores and flea markets and fasly inflate prices
Have to agree with this. This is why you A: Can no longer find any games worth anything at thrift stores, and B: Why stores like Goodwill price things high now or put them online. Goodwill is wise to value of things now and they also want to make money.
Flippers help preserve high value titles by ensuring people interested the game buy it. People hate on flippers too much, that’s the used car industry. And you can still get the prices they pay, you just have to work a little harder. People don’t hate flipping, they hate entrepreneurship
Can't stand Ebay flippers , someone would really appreciate getting a deal been to estates sales for old tube electronic equipment , every one is on their phone looking at eBay seeing what they can sell it for ....some lady had all the 3" Oscilloscope CRT in her little cart looking on eBay, I specifically went their for them , I was thinking WTF is she going to use them for she prolly don't even know what they are , Just disgust me , I didn't buy Chit just left
@@cardboardboxification that sentiment you’re expressing I agree with I think greed and a lack of experience has lots of people trying to flip things they think are “niche” When really they only have value to a small group of people who appreciate them
This is why you A: Can no longer find any games worth anything at thrift stores, and B: Why stores like Goodwill price things high now or put them online. Goodwill is wise to value of things now and they also want to make money.
@@inflation1139 Ultimately it’s still a for profit company and if they can get that much for gaming related things they will try. At the same time they don’t exist so resellers can acquire stock for nothing
100%. That's why I don't collect anymore. I also love vinyl records but the past 4+ years I probably go to the record store once a year. You pay $30-40 for a single album then it sits on the shelf 99.99% of the time.
Not worth it to hunt for retro games anymore because these folks are hoarding the places the true charm of collecting would be. Finding games at reasonable prices to score a nice gem. Now it’s barren flea markets & Goodwills with unwanted sports titles & folks like these selling them at eBay purchased prices, thinking everyone coming through is going to pay that same price. Only the desperate do. The peak of Retro collecting was 2004-2010. Just not the same anymore with that market cornered with speculators. Just like the Video Game Market will crash again, so will the resellers. It’s inevitable as you can see here.
This video perfectly outlines how the market has been destroyed by resellers. They all want to buy low and sell high, and a game only has to change hands three or four times before it reaches and ungodly price where both the buyer and seller are likely screwed. The buyer, because they're getting ripped off if they actually pay that high price, and the seller because there is a high probability that it won't sell at that price, and they will wind up having to take a loss to get rid of it. Resellers have completely taken this away from your average video game enthusiast and transformed it into a market of nothing but resellers just shifting product around in circles.
Pokemon's problem is its popularity, not so much any kind of scarcity. It's such a huge IP that just about anyone trying to be a vendor can price gouge and most people won't bat an eye. If we could even just get a handful of popular youtube streamers to down-price pokemon games when reselling, the market would slowly drop as a result. It'd be a trickle down effect, sure, but it'd get there.
You ever wonder why he stopped hunting? He's scanning his competition and finding out weaknesses to where he's only buying from vendors. Vendors find the games out in the wild and sell to Caleb. Doesn't even need to hunt anymore. But yall love supporting him, make it make sense
Never buy a over market value, most of these resellers sell way over market value. There was a boom in the retro game market during COVID, prices have mostly adjusted back down, and a lot of these resellers are out of business or going out of business.
Man retro game selling is a passion hustle. You have to absolutely love what you are doing otherwise it can never work. Does Tim have a channel? He's probably crazy busy, but would be amazing to watch his hunting.
Flips Thrift and yard sales finds video tapes it, laughs to thr bank. People find out, copies this method and increases prices 10 fold. Cries when it back fires
It comes down to one thing - Price. I stopped collecting games because it's so pricey, now I literally can't afford it. I'm not paying $30 for a N64 game that would have cost $6 ten years ago.
HAHA. Sourcing is hard bc of all the RU-vid game flippers. Caleb uses his RU-vid persona to get good deals from fans. Meanwhile charges more than 95% of the resellers bc he sells on Amazon. Amazon is a harder market to crack for video games. Almost everything on there is higher than ebay. His app is not going to help anyone. Stop buying it, and stop giving him good deals on bulk collections. Then watch how far his hunting gets him having to source like everyone else.
I think the main lesson to be learned from this video is to diversify your portfolio in reselling. Figure out how to sell multiple types of items and that will let you typically make more money than sticking to just something like Videogames.
This is calling the kettle black! There is so much resale competition! That you all are canablizing each other! If common sense was so common every one would have it!😊
Pro tip to getting good prices, just haggle your way in no matter what and if you piss them off then whatever. Pawnshop asking 20$ for a beat up game that they can’t even buff is exactly why collecting blows.
Don't shop where they go look up the price, any reputable thrift store doesn't care if the customer gets a good deal. Changing the price means you should walk out and shop somewhere else.
@@tryingtolearnthisthe thing is, it’s these items are getting more scarce by the day - especially retro games. They’re either in collections no one wants to sell or they’re getting snatched up by guys like these.
This video reminds me of myself, except I was a collector and hunted video games to keep. Not to flip or resale. I remember my rarest finds were Shadow tower (Ps1) and God Hand (Ps2) got both complete mint condition for $2 at a thrift store. I remember back in 2015, I saw Kuon (Ps2) complete mint condition at a pawn shop selling for $1 ( at the time, had no idea it was rare). It sat on the shelves for 4 months straight and was always there when I would come into that specific pawn shop 3x a week. Nobody wanted it and I myself was not too interested in it. Then finally after 4 months; it ends up selling and I felt like I should have got it. Anyways one year later, someone decides to sale me Kuon ps2 complete mint condition for $50 and I can’t complain after it was going for $300 at the time. Then another situation, I ended up getting Rule of Rose (Ps2) complete for Free. I will tell you how it happened. The game was selling for $750 on Ebay, I ended up making an offer to the seller for $500. I paid $550 after taxes and everything for the game ( I paid for it). Then all of a sudden 2 weeks later, I receive a notification from Ebay that my $550 has been refunded to my account ( I am assuming the seller made a mistake, or forgot; I didn’t say anything…. I just kept quiet). So I ended up getting to keep the game ROR ps2 and got full money back for what I paid for it. And NO, I didn;t complain nor demanded a refund… I was completely unaware about it until Ebay refunded my bank account, but I never said nothing to seller and just played along with it. So therefore, I got Rule of Rose (PS2) for free and Kuon for $50 complete mint. The video game Gods really blessed me. I don’t collect ps1, ps2 games anymore… I already own 4000 video games and that is enough for me. I buy and play Ps4/Ps5 games now. I appreciate this seller in the video hustle, but I will be honest with you video game hunting and flipping is basically a dead business… If you want to hunt and collect for fun then great! But you will not find nothing rare anymore in flea markets, garage sales, pawn shops, estate sales, church sales, or thrift stores because everyone looks up the prices online and if it is rare or worth a lot of money, then people will pocket it and flip it, sale it themselves. The only thing you really find in thrift stores now is just sports games. Plus piracy is killing the video game industry because of all them plug in plays such as pandora boxes or hyperspins where they can load up 100K games on the system and it has everything such as NES,SNES, dreamcast, Saturn, SEGA CD, master system, genesis, arcade, ps1, ps2, PC, Amiga, Atari, PS3 (PC version of the ps3 games) and PS4 (PC versions of the PS4 games) since Ps3 and ps4 emulators do not exist. So Yeah video game hunting and flipping is basically dead.
I also noticed the piracy, I think this will make brand new sealed worth more since the market would be more driven by pure aesthetic since the piracy bypasses the experience of using the physical game to play
@@WholeSomeHomie hey pal, there's this brand new concept that just hit the market. Not sure if you've heard of it, but it's called a "joke". Difficult concept to wrap your head around, I know.
Ever since resellers have beefed up the prices on these videogames I haven't bought anything. Actually, about a year or two before COVID-19, I had a small collection of videogames that I was building, not for resale but because I genuinely enjoyed playing the games. I had a PS1, N64, Super Nintendo, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Gameboy SP, Gameboy Color. I had a handful of games for all of these consoles. I bought the Xbox One S 2TB for $150 about 6 months after it released from some guy on Offerup who was desperate for cash, so it was a really good deal. I bought the original Xbox for $35, which included 4 games, and two controllers. The Gameboy SP was $30, Pokemon Red Version was $14. I bought the PS1 as a bundle with 3 games for a little over $50. I had sold all my videogames just a few months before COVID-19 because I had to pay off some fines. Then COVID-19 happened and suddenly game prices skyrocketed. It was also around the time that younger dudes started calling the Xbox 360 console "retro" or a "collectors item"....at least in my part of town, which I found baffling. I remember even as a teenager, the Nintendo 64 wasn't considered a collectors item, it was just thought of as that old, lame console. Me and my 5 siblings, and cousins thought of old consoles like that as boring. We had a Nintendo 64 sitting in our closet collecting dust. But yeah, I never thought it was worth re-purchasing my collection of videogames, especially not now in our current economy. The next time I'm buying videogames, will be when I'm rich. Until that day comes, I will instead be working on upgrading my net worth instead of my digital characters in some fantasy world. A part of me is glad, that videogames got so expensive. It helped me stop wasting so much time.
Markets move in response to many different factors and thats what is happening in game sales. I casually flipped retro games and consoles for about 15 years - the sweet spot as a seller was from 2005 to 2015. Sellers tended to be people not as familiar with the internet who were just happy to get, for example, $20 for a decent condition NES which you could flip online for upwards of $50. By about 2015 in my view, games and equipment worth owning had mostly found their way into the hands of people who knew they could get higher prices and the margins became razor thin. Its rare to see decent video game stuff at a yard sale or Craigslist, etc - and if it you do find it, its probably priced to match what they see online. Bottom line, sellers have more information now. There's nothing wrong with that, it was bound to happen - but it does mean that the days of casually buying and selling games is over. You have to engage in serious, focused hustle now.
Is a very tough competition. You have videogame stores like Game Planet, but they don't offer you a plus: same price as department stores here in Mexico, like Liverpool and El Palacio de Hierro. And the last ones at least offer you some credits. But if you look on the internet, all you find is overpriced products when it comes to videogames and collection figures.
bro really offered 45% even though tim shilled the oneup app so hard bruh i cant even my local store (video game connection in cleveland) does like 60% atleast in trade credit like smfh how cheap will caleb stoop too bro
Sleazy. Had a local game store offer me 40 percent on a NES lot that included some heavy hitters and solid commons. Turned him down, went to another store nearby that offered me 55 percent, got a call almost at the same time from the other guy offering me 60 to come back, I politely declined. Should be pretty obvious who gets my business going forward
Shelves full of games just sitting there in hidden vendor markets and basements or Ebay stores. All the while they don't realize people have moved on and are streaming titles or playing current gen/PC.
Market saturation could be a problem I would consider. So many resellers and either exact market pricing means buyers either buy from sources like eBay with protection or shops. And many resellers need to consider gamers might not think of certain places for buying video gamer. Especially those not into RU-vid and social media and just buy from common places like eBay, Amazon or their local game shop. Especially those that wish to just relive the childhood games.
There is so much competition out there. Everyone is flipping and reselling video games, the weird thing is why people who do this for a living make videos telling everyone else to do the same thing. Just raises the prices when everyone is fighting for the same items to sell
The fact I see PS5s going for $250 on marketplace when 3 years ago they were being scalped for $1000+? The hype for gaming is definitely near its end. Everything will go digital, even PS5 really hasn't had any good games in about a year. Sad thing is digital deals aren't always that good. R.I.P physical media! 😢
funny enough the best deals for latest gen console games i’ve found is on physical media. seems like switch and ps5 and xbox series x games get marked down but the digital copy stays at msrp
Ebay has destroyed the finding of games in thrift stores and garage sales unfortunately making it harder to find them at flipperbul prices and not just games but pretty much everything 🇬🇧😎✌️
Dude seems down to eartg humble and he seems real honest phoenix resale finds some really cool guys in the biz as a collectibles seller myself you meet so many sellers who are just out to take advantage of you its refreshing to see honest sellers be succesful
I download games for xbox one from the Microsoft digital store and they have sales almost every week. It's just difficult for these guys to compete when I can download games for 3 dollars lol
That's true But if it's a collectors edition it will sell out. Companies are just not doing any fan service for new games. They only want you subscribe or keep buying digital items.
Today's dealers often overcharge for collector video games. For example, if Pricecharting says Shadow Hearts 3, CIB, is currently valued at 65$, I've seen some collector stores recently tried to sell that same item for up to 100$, which is ridiculous. I bought mine years ago for about 25$. While collectors were getting stimulus checks, the video game prices went up a LOT, but after that, the prices went back down to normal levels, making it difficult for any dealer to figure out what the best buy/sell prices for the affected items are. I buy a collector game that I would want only if I can actually afford it, discount or no discount. In today's economy, we all have to balance our spending, more than in a very long time. Good lucky, guys, with your businesses.
I wish we had these in the uk, most of the retro stores have closed down now, and we don't really have flea markets here in the uk, but you can sometimes get lucky at car boots, they're just not as accessible as shopping centres in america.
4:05 there is my favorite word Diversify! i started full time reselling in 98' just started college prior to that i was setting up at flea markets and shows and i learned the best piece of knowledge i ever got from a very wise reseller he told me to get a white board draw diversification in big letters on it and then a circle around that word he said make diversification the center of your reselling biasness i drew branches out from that circle and wrote different aspects of the reselling biasness so Sourcing, Inventory, Platforms/venues, price points all of these things within a reselling business should be diversified! if you can diversify all those things in your reselling business it will never let you down and i'm 100% serious it will always keep your business afloat so diversify where you sell (on and off line) diversify WHAT you sell (inventory don't niche down niche up) diversify were you source (source both online and offline) Diversify your price points (sell low medium and high dollar items so you cater to all buyers) also diversify STR (have long tail and short tail items or Low and HIGH STR items)
There's hardly any market that can be endlessly exploited, like you've been doing. Guys like this are realizing quickly that this isn't what they thought it was. When you jump on a bandwagon be prepared to fall off.
Like always, entertaining video especially when you interview other resellers and show us how they run their business. On another note, I think it's true that it's getter harder to find games cause their are more collectors, more than ever, and companies are making less and less physical media.
It’s hard to grasp, there is barely a living wage in doing all this work. He would make more much money working at a games store and doing this part-time as a hobby at the weekend.
That’s what I don’t get. He’s working his ass off, working on the weekends etc. i get being your own boss but it has to make sense. I make $70k ish a year with benefits and a pension and I definitely don’t work as hard.
I absolutely LOVE when rent-chasers cry that they can't chase rent as well as they did in the past. Good, your ilk is WHY the entire thing is collapsing, if you didn't know this by now.
I’ve been running a vendor market game and anime stuff shop for several months now and it’s definitely a lot less overhead and required just time to source, price and package and sort/reorganize the store shelves.
Maybe I missed it but what I wanted to know was how do the payments work, like who is selling the stuff for him like an employee of his or someone who works in that building and does he trust them and how does he know what sold cause it seems like he stuffs them but I don’t see any type of sale system or inventory system.
The building has their own staff - they have keys to all the showcases. It’s up to the vendor (like Tim) to price things and include his unique vendor code and those things are typed in at the register. Sometimes that employee will also type what the item (game, plush, movie, etc.) are. You can also create unique inventory numbers for items, but logging that is pretty time consuming. Source: I’m the friend he mentioned who started and stopped 😂 what he didn’t mention was that I stopped because I too had twins on the way and no time lol
every spot is different, i sell records in this way at a record store, I pay a set amount of rent per month plus 12%, I hand them a printed excel spreadsheet and each item has a number on that list, they check it off when sold. It seems like with these antique malls most sellers don"t have a system like this, I can check my inventory and see if something sold that wasn't crossed off. And its not that time consuming creating a list, takes me an hour and half to log 200 records into my spreadsheet, way better to have a detailed list, with a number for each item.
Me going "that looks like the peddlers mall next to me. That looks like the goodwill next to me. Wait.. 5117? THAT IS THE GOODWILL NEXT TO ME!" now I know who's selling me all these retro games I'm buying for cheaper than the local retro game stores has them for.
