[quote name='Floopy']Not to be sexist, but $5 is my standard first offer for any older system when the sale is being watched/run by a mother, and it is accepted more often than not. They tend to value older video game stuff at next to nothing, and $5 is just enough to buy them that Frappuccino at Starbucks... Oddly enough, they also tend to want very close to retail price for a lot of current generation stuff (probably because they can remember the actual purchase of the item in question). Undervalue older stuff and overvalue current stuff. In general, I get my best video game deals/finds from sales run by middle-aged women. I've walked away with $300-$500 worth of stuff for $20 a few times this year like that. Sometimes they even say things like "Take everything for $20." I do as I'm told.
On a similar note, I also come across a lot of sales where sellers overvalue the system itself, and undervalue the games and peripherals. In one specific instance, someone would not budge below $90 for everything, including an n64 (which the seller admitted was somewhat broken), SNES, several controllers and peripherals, and about 15 games. But they accepted $45 for everything besides the n64, SNES, and a few remaining controllers. In my mind the $45 I spent was worth about $150-$175 in games and other items, but the other $45 that I chose not to spend was probably only worth about $60 in systems. Just a useful tidbit for attempting to break up overpriced bundles, or get a better return on your money.[/QUOTE]
I have the exact opposite experience, middle aged women tend to want the most for everything and are also the hardest to bargain with. Men are definitely easier to haggle with as they want to get rid of their stuff more than the moms and they don't want to deal with it anymore. Men are less likely to sell on ebay or care about that. The 2 xbox 360 games that were marked $8 each I got last weekend both for $10 were from a sale run by an older guy, it was extremely easy to convince him to give me both of the games for $10.
Stay at home mom's have the time to look up prices on ebay and price their stuff according to ebay thus they are harder to bargain with since they have the time, computers and resources to do the ebay thing. Not everyone around here has these resources. They might also have their kids looking up stuff on ebay for them and pricing it accordingly. They absolutely will not sell stuff for less regardless of market value. They price every kid's toy as if its new. Some of them are extreme couponers or slickdealers. I have not gotten any deals from middle aged women that I can remember. Younger parents are easier to deal with, they just want to get rid of their stuff and get money so they can buy their kid something or use the money to contribute to raising their kid.
Grandparents are very easy to deal with, I haven't met one that is a hard nose yet, however they might not have a very good idea of market value on some stuff so you tend to get a mixed bag with either very cheap stuff or extremely overpriced stuff.
The ultimate though is when you find a sale that is run by the wife of an ex-husband or girlfriend of an ex-boyfriend who left a bunch of stuff behind, could also be run by the husband or boyfriend with girls stuff, they just want the stuff GONE because looking at it triggers bad memories... you will undoubtedly get the cheapest stuff from these people. This would be the exception to the middle aged women rule.
I did the breaking up the bundle thing last year when someone was selling a PS2 with a bunch of sports games for $40 or so, I told them I would take the system for 20 and leave the games, it was taken without hesitation. So I left worthless games and got a system that I am using a lot right now.
This may be the demographics, so I am not saying you are wrong in any way, I am sure there are middle aged women somewhere who give great deals. Yard sales vary greatly by area but there do tend to be patterns in certain areas.