There really are two sides to a private group vs. an open thread.
There's no sort of "
special deals" that should be part of, or can't already be found, on the deals page with respect to price. It's not as if Gamedealer X has a super secret sale that only Group members from group Y can take part in. The primary focus of the group is flipping (money -> item -> money) with the primary beneficiaries being individuals... with very little "mass group benefit."
As we all know, CAG has loads of healthy contributors, but it's not without its excessive share of leechers. How many times have we seen CAG lists pop up on SD or FW, completely destroying opportunities (not just at making money, but even for collection purposes)? It's in part why the main forum is locked to members of CAG, as far as I know. The group, just like the main forums, are not "elitist," but the group format does permit a more controlled environment to make sure there's no reposting of lists on other sites or people who have absolutely no intention of ever posting something beneficial (or at this point, even a "hi"). There is also nothing a SDer and FWer loves more than a clear, concise list with exactly what they need to look and ask to purchase to ruin it for all. Great contemporary example: Best Buy guide drops... but I can think of plenty more (500 guides, 200 guides, I know it's
cheaper than toilet paper... but that ruins it for everybody).
There's also nothing that exists stating that the group is for the exclusion of contributing members of flip opportunities for the sake of merely excluding them. In fact, I bet ND would be hard pressed to deny a contributing member... but there must be some type of limits, just like in any other type of private social group on cag (whether it be for game sharing, 18+, gifting etc).
On the other hand, it is frustrating to be outside looking in and for people to post in this thread about money making opportunities with minimal receipt of a mutual benefit... but as with any "next big cash flip" the person that discovers it has the choice to either post it or keep it to themselves for as long as possible... which will always happen. It is infinitely difficult to strike a delicate balance to be inclusive of all and exclusive of the many lurkers. (heck, 550 posts -> 18,000 views in this thread alone is a huge discrepency.
The point of this thread, however, is not only to post specific flips... but for the stories as well... and honestly... I enjoy reading people's flipping flops (in part because it makes me feel better about some of my absolutely poor flipping choices). I don't entirely see a problem with people wanting to remove themselves from a very open... and vulnerable thread to compile a list. I do, however, see a difference between a "deal" and a small scale "cash flip." So few can take advantage of things like network adapters, while so many can take advantage of a major store/website running a special price.
Edit: Yeah, I posted this before I saw ninja dog's post.
Unless you sold it to help a fellow CAG, I think that was a bad call to sell it that quickly. For an investment of $0.01, you can easily afford to wait on that one. The Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss guides go for nearly $30 now, and I'm guessing this guide will fetch similar prices in a few years.
This is very true. Tales games actually have quite the number of fans, despite their low showings in the sales charts... these fans are typically devout RPG fans who have played the entire series. Therefore, the guides... which are always printed on a scale of less than 1 guide / 10+ games tend to gain in value over time.
Personally, Im a huge Tales fan myself and, even though I doubt I would/could ever spend $30.00 on a guide, I think the artwork alone in many of the Tales guides are quite nice and it will, one day, be up there with the other Tales games. If it happened to be to a CAG or, quite possibly, a store employee who enabled you to purchase many guides without problem... then it is okay (as karma will generally pay you back in kind), but if the intention was the flip itself... sitting on it for a while would have netted a bit more.
By the way, for those of you who are fans of guides for artwork (like myself)... the Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has some great artwork in it.
