Originally Posted by Kingmojo210 Gang up on him with your normal group of yard sellers consisting of: an old guy with an electric wheelchair and oxygen tank, two old lady's that can never agree on anything and only pay in nickles, and your mom. Then beat the shit out of him with a game gear or another blunt object lol.

Bring in a posse of friends in electric chairs and occupy all the space at the sale! Great for blocking your nemesis or el hoardo!

I am the girl paying in change, though I am not an old lady, as I save up change specifically for paying at yard sales, I have paid in pennies before (pre-counted though). But I take my pennies to coinstar now since you can get amazon gift cards without being charged a fee.

Originally Posted by SaraAB Bring in a posse of friends in electric chairs and occupy all the space at the sale! Great for blocking your nemesis or el hoardo! I am the girl paying in change, though I am not an old lady, as I save up change specifically for paying at yard sales, I have paid in pennies before (pre-counted though). But I take my pennies to coinstar now since you can get amazon gift cards without being charged a fee.

I would be seriously annoyed if I was running a yard sale and someone tried to pay me with a pile of unrolled coins.

It was like 25 pennies, the sale was not busy, and the person took it happily.

okay, so I got a copy of ghosts and goblins for nes recently, and this is the only game I've ever gotten that I just cannot get to load. I've tried using an eraser, I've tried a qtip and alcohol, and I've tried polishing it with brasso, but to no avail. It kinda bums me out because I really wanted to play it.

Originally Posted by Macheezmo okay, so I got a copy of ghosts and goblins for nes recently, and this is the only game I've ever gotten that I just cannot get to load. I've tried using an eraser, I've tried a qtip and alcohol, and I've tried polishing it with brasso, but to no avail. It kinda bums me out because I really wanted to play it.

it may be shorted out. It has to be completely dry before you try to use it in the console. I would use alcohol and qtips,until they come out clean.

Originally Posted by SaraAB It was like 25 pennies, the sale was not busy, and the person took it happily.

Hey, as long as you're willing to buy some of my crap, I'll let you pay with as many pennies as you want. I've got a coin counter.

Originally Posted by ZombieToast Baby clothes make up 99% of the items at yard sales around here. In the 4+ years I've lived here, I've only found video games once.

The baby clothes/item yard sale has become one of my two dreaded yard sales to encounter, the other is black woman selling purses and dresses.

Originally Posted by slowdive21 it may be shorted out. It has to be completely dry before you try to use it in the console. I would use alcohol and qtips,until they come out clean.

I never knew that the cart had to be dried after cleaning with alcohol. Some video game store owner told me to leave them wet so it cleans the pins, smh. I feel stupid even believing the jackass.

Its completely ok to wrap a thin cloth around something like a credit card and use that to clean the pins of the connectors on a console, but you should let it dry for a while before you turn the console on again. Just to be safe make sure you unplug the console before you do this. I have never heard of putting a wet cart into a console to clean the pins though. Sounds like he told you this in his best interest so after you ruined your cart you would come to him for a replacement.

Its perfectly OK to use alcohol or a pencil eraser on the cart as well.

You can always see the woman with purses and dresses before hand, and we don't have too many of those here surprisingly, if you see a sale like that you can just pass it and not even stop.

Originally Posted by alexkidd4 I never knew that the cart had to be dried after cleaning with alcohol. Some video game store owner told me to leave them wet so it cleans the pins, smh. I feel stupid even believing the jackass.

Ok, let me clarify:

You want to use the highest % alcohol you can find. It will eventually evaporate, but you want to make sure it is completely dry before you try to power on your console.

You CAN use a cart to clean the console by using alcohol and inserting the cart in and out of the console, BUT It needs to be disconnected form the power AND, I would recommend hitting the power and reset buttons once each in case the console has stored a small charge before you begin the cleaning process.

I was going to write a whole "How to" type thing, but I don't have as much time as I used to.

I'm definitely late on followup on what I said but my point was that the dude was a jerk. I have resold, but I try to be as polite as possible. I will also put a game down that I intend to sell if another person there wants it / is eyeing it.

It is very irritating though when someone is rude or is checking ebay / scanning UPCs right there. I have seen people decline to sell them something (especially funny when the person attempts to talk someone down to nothing). I jsut see this as disrespect to the person holding the sell, the whole "I am looking this up to see if i can make money on it and then ask (or demand) a lower price to widen my profit margin" thing. I go out looking for several things and I, along with most people are pleasant when I buy something. I understand I am being invited on someone's property to buy their goods as it is easier for them to sell at home than to try to clist / flea market / thrift the items out. Its the unpleasant people and the people who sit there, grab an item, and then spend 5-10 minutes looking it up on ebay or scanning it that iterate me. Its not because I want the item (95% its something I have no interes tin) its just that I find it disrespectful to the seller. A store is one thing, but on someone's property? Just doesn't seem right to me.

Prices are usually cheap, if its not worth spending a few dollars on if your unsure you can make something on it, then just leave it instead of looking it up (or at least go to your car and look it up so your not not disrespecting the seller). Leave some fun left in yard saling.

I rarely look things up on ebay when i'm at a sale, but if I want to, I will still only do it if it's priced a little higher than I generally like to pay and if my wife is with me and she's still browsing the sale. If she finishes and I haven't finished looking it up, I usually just leave it. My service tends to be a little slow in some of the areas that I yard sale though, so I just take educated guesses most of the time.

This year I have a searchable price list on my phone so I can look things up very very quickly. I'm hoping this will help me out when I see games I'm unfamiliar with. Two more days for my season to really get started.

Originally Posted by Otherguy676 I'm definitely late on followup on what I said but my point was that the dude was a jerk. I have resold, but I try to be as polite as possible. I will also put a game down that I intend to sell if another person there wants it / is eyeing it. It is very irritating though when someone is rude or is checking ebay / scanning UPCs right there. I have seen people decline to sell them something (especially funny when the person attempts to talk someone down to nothing). I jsut see this as disrespect to the person holding the sell, the whole "I am looking this up to see if i can make money on it and then ask (or demand) a lower price to widen my profit margin" thing. I go out looking for several things and I, along with most people are pleasant when I buy something. I understand I am being invited on someone's property to buy their goods as it is easier for them to sell at home than to try to clist / flea market / thrift the items out. Its the unpleasant people and the people who sit there, grab an item, and then spend 5-10 minutes looking it up on ebay or scanning it that iterate me. Its not because I want the item (95% its something I have no interes tin) its just that I find it disrespectful to the seller. A store is one thing, but on someone's property? Just doesn't seem right to me. Prices are usually cheap, if its not worth spending a few dollars on if your unsure you can make something on it, then just leave it instead of looking it up (or at least go to your car and look it up so your not not disrespecting the seller). Leave some fun left in yard saling.

I have no problem looking shit up on people's property. Games I know like the back of my hand, so that's not a problem to me, but if I'm buying something that someone wants more than a buck or two for then I see no problem "making sure it's worth it" by checking out the going rate. Although I can usually look an item up in about 8 seconds, so it simply looks like I'm checking a text message. If a seller asks, you can always say "I'm texting my friend to see if he's interested", look it up, put your phone away, get it back out about 30 seconds later and then can "decide if he wants it or not".

But basically, if a seller wants a dollar or two, I'll risk it. That's part of the game, don't do this if you aren't willing to lose money. If a seller is asking anything comparable to a going rate online or anywhere else I feel it is COMPLETELY justified to check out what it's going for online. I'm not paying 10.00 for a calculator or 20.00 for a blender on a whim, especially if the seller says "they are worth so-and-so on ebay".

Also, a helpful hint for getting away with looking up PC game values online. Amazon will tell you what OS an older game is compatible with when you look it up. Use that as your excuse. I've only had to do this once because the seller wanted 5.00 each for disc only games, but it worked just fine.

Originally Posted by Otherguy676 I'm definitely late on followup on what I said but my point was that the dude was a jerk. I have resold, but I try to be as polite as possible. I will also put a game down that I intend to sell if another person there wants it / is eyeing it. It is very irritating though when someone is rude or is checking ebay / scanning UPCs right there. I have seen people decline to sell them something (especially funny when the person attempts to talk someone down to nothing). I jsut see this as disrespect to the person holding the sell, the whole "I am looking this up to see if i can make money on it and then ask (or demand) a lower price to widen my profit margin" thing. I go out looking for several things and I, along with most people are pleasant when I buy something. I understand I am being invited on someone's property to buy their goods as it is easier for them to sell at home than to try to clist / flea market / thrift the items out. Its the unpleasant people and the people who sit there, grab an item, and then spend 5-10 minutes looking it up on ebay or scanning it that iterate me. Its not because I want the item (95% its something I have no interes tin) its just that I find it disrespectful to the seller. A store is one thing, but on someone's property? Just doesn't seem right to me. Prices are usually cheap, if its not worth spending a few dollars on if your unsure you can make something on it, then just leave it instead of looking it up (or at least go to your car and look it up so your not not disrespecting the seller). Leave some fun left in yard saling.

I don't think this is a problem, almost everyone does it, but you will be faster without a smartphone and that could make or break your yard sailing trip in some cases. Knowledge will always trump the phone in this case, because not every item can be scanned, and the gems might be hiding amongst the stuff that cannot be scanned. Not even every item can be looked up, because with unique items there might not always be one on ebay to compare value with. Amazon doesn't have a whole lot of unique and older items for sale.

If the seller finds it disrespectful then they have every right to refuse the sale or kick the person off the property. The seller can easily arm themselves with a phone or a computer themselves to even the ball game especially since it is there house. Ironically I run into a lot of sales run by former ebay sellers that have been screwed by ebay and are no longer selling and they want to get rid of all their crap.

If the seller says its going for so and so on ebay this should be an immediate red flag that it isn't worth anything. They are trying to inflate the value of their junk so that they can lure buyers who are out for reselling items. I imagine everyone on here already knows this.

The sellers can be disrespectful too:

Don't have a loud phone conversation about how you are deliberately pricing your items higher than ebay directly in front of your buyers.... seen this many times...

The seller should also refrain from pricing games higher than the gamestop (or other used game store) sticker that is still on the game... this is just laughable... but I have seen it so many times.

And please, don't argue about price with your family using various obsenities directly in front of a buyer who is interested in purchasing your goods, this will get you absolutely nowhere!

If your items are priced too high (ie. $20 for random toys, $40 for a 13 inch CRT TV) then buyers will immediately leave your yard sale and head to the next sale, then people will buy nothing, and you get nothing. Yes the seller has every right to price items as they want to, but I see outrageous prices as a disrespect to the buyers, and a total waste of the buyer's time.

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In regards to people asking ebay prices at yard sales: No one goes out early on Saturday morning to buy something as-is at the same price they can sit on their ass at home and get a guarantee with.

Originally Posted by Cmosfm In regards to people asking ebay prices at yard sales: No one goes out early on Saturday morning to buy something as-is at the same price they can sit on their ass at home and get a guarantee with.

This goes for retail stores though also. Local video stores pricing things at ebay prices. There is a reason things are higher on ebay. Worldwide demand compared to local demand. It is shocking that most retail stores don't realize this. A sealed copy of Zelda (just an example, no clue of what it is worth) at $100 is going to sell quicker when you have the whole United States of America able to look at it. It is going to sit a LONG TIME if you have 10 people from podunk, North Dakota looking at it each day. I can't tell you how many stores I have seen go out of business following online prices, hell even Gamestop prices.

Originally Posted by schuerm26 This goes for retail stores though also. Local video stores pricing things at ebay prices. There is a reason things are higher on ebay. Worldwide demand compared to local demand. It is shocking that most retail stores don't realize this. A sealed copy of Zelda (just an example, no clue of what it is worth) at $100 is going to sell quicker when you have the whole United States of America able to look at it. It is going to sit a LONG TIME if you have 10 people from podunk, North Dakota looking at it each day. I can't tell you how many stores I have seen go out of business following online prices, hell even Gamestop prices.

I deal with Pawn Shops like this. Skyrim comes in and the current going rate is 50.00, so 3 months later it sits there at 50.00. Price drops be damned.

Also, on the idea of Pawn Shops, just because some obscure BBC DVD Box Set is worth 50.00 on Amazon and eBay, that doesn't mean you're going to get 50.00 in Small Town South Carolina for it.

It amazes me how much I see this.

Originally Posted by Cmosfm I deal with Pawn Shops like this. Skyrim comes in and the current going rate is 50.00, so 3 months later it sits there at 50.00. Price drops be damned. Also, on the idea of Pawn Shops, just because some obscure BBC DVD Box Set is worth 50.00 on Amazon and eBay, that doesn't mean you're going to get 50.00 in Small Town South Carolina for it. It amazes me how much I see this.

Prices here at the local fleamarket are almost always higher than on ebay, and the stuff you buy there is junk too. Most of the games sold there probably aren't worth a dollar each for the condition they are in. You can actually trade stuff in and get more money than you would if you go on ebay. 99% of gamers are not deal hunters, we are the 1%. Also the allure of "I want it now" is way too much for some people to overcome. I know a ton of people who buy games in my family who pay full price at a store when its $20 cheaper just a few clicks and a few days away because they are spoiled and they want it now, god forbid they wait a few days for their item to arrive. I know adults that are like this too...

You also have to consider that when shopping at a yard sale you almost always don't know if the item works first hand, or until you get it home, sure you can write down the address of the house you bought it at so you can get them back later, but there is a yard sale code that states when you buy something at a yard sale, you simply can't return it. This alone should demand lower prices. When you buy on ebay you are buying an item with basically a guarantee that it will be as stated or else you can file a claim and get your money back since ebay always sides with the buyer. This is not true for yard sales.

Indie game stores won't make it alone in this area, I have seen so many close up shop, there just isn't enough interest in retro games in my town, plus they charge so much for games you can get for $5 on ebay. It would actually be good if the stores here followed ebay, since that means prices would get cheaper!

I am not sure what kind of pricing or model the local stores are following, because its not ebay or amazon, its almost as if they are following some sort of delusional pricing model that they made up themselves that will ultimately lead to their demise.

Originally Posted by Macheezmo This year I have a searchable price list on my phone so I can look things up very very quickly. I'm hoping this will help me out when I see games I'm unfamiliar with. Two more days for my season to really get started.

What do you use? I looked into this last year, but the best I came up with is vgpc.com to search and get a general idea. Not the best, but better than nothing.

Originally Posted by Pyloric What do you use? I looked into this last year, but the best I came up with is vgpc.com to search and get a general idea. Not the best, but better than nothing.

I actually wrote the app myself for wp7 because I wanted it and couldn't find anything good. I've got all of the Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft systems in it. It lets me just tap to add or remove games from my collection so I don't buy things I already own (which has been a commen problem for me in the past). It does get the prices from vgpc though, so they aren't perfect, but a good enough ballpark figure for me. I can update an entire system's list at once or if I'm out just select a game and update that one. Also can just do a text search through the systems to look games up pretty quickly. It should come in really handy since I can look up 10 different games in the time it would normally take me just to get ebay to load, let alone actually do a search on it.