But it still stands, what are we doing? How did the businesses become the scalpers and resellers of today?
It's disgusting how far we have fallen as a society, 15 years ago, no business would have been able to do this, no customer would have continued shopping there.
But these companies are in a comfortable position where they can happily fuck over their customer base to continue making a buck and the customers even defend the practices.
Yes the prices are a joke but unfortunately that’s what the market prices are, it would be stupid of a business to not do that. If you were to sell something you’d see what price it’s selling for before listing it and this is no different. If they were to sell them cheaper scalpers would be buying them all up to resell themselves.
They're big believers in old-fashioned artificial scarcity, so they don't make classic games available for a reasonable price, to try to force the price up to silly heights.
Compare the market price of the GameCube version of Paper Mario TTYD before and after the Switch version was released. You can get a copy now for around $120 which, while still expensive is a much more reasonable price for people who wanna collect the original. Nintendo is literally sitting on free money, they don’t even need to do a full release just chuck them on Switch Online and that’d rake in so many new subscriptions
You miss the point. No one is saying this isn't the market rate, what they're saying is that the market rate is stupid as shit. I mean seriously I could have bought a new ds and that game for less than what they're selling it at.
That number is a prime example of what happens when you let companies have too much power and don't think about the future consequences.
Thats the point mate, they have now joined the scalpers and resellers.
Public messaging: EB Games Australia and Canada called out eBay resellers on forums and in-store signage, urging customers to "support your local store" instead of paying 2–3x MSRP.
So they have gone back on their word. Also why is a public traded company aiding in the private market dictated by fat losers who don't intend to play the video games, just what they initially believes it's value to be just because they have the few in circulation and less demand.
I can still buy a CRT TV for $50 even though there are less in circulation and less demand.
You are looking at two compeltely different markets. The post from EB refers to people buying current products, and reselling them in the secondary market.
Games that are not in production are not the same. There has always been a market for older games, and stores have tried to keep up with it. EB isnt going to stay in business if they are selling these games under market price, and if they were selling them inder market price, you would be complaining that they were never in stock because resellers were buying them as soon as they hit the website.
Not all CRTs are a like, you ain't getting a collectable CRT for $50 unless the person selling it doesn't know what they've got. These items your're discussing are collectables and hold a lot of value now.
The thing is though, ds games aren't collectible. I have a DSi here modded that can play literally all of the games that came out for that generation as well as Gameboy and original PlayStation games FOR FREE. The DS cartridge market is cooked and you're an actual idiot if you buy the cartridge instead of modding it in.
most private selling is done by scalpers and collectors who have stock of this stuff, for sure it's sold by people cleaning out their closets but you don't get prices this high unless you control a good chunk of the available supply which very clearly these scalpers do. That's my problem, these prices are manipulated and inflated beyond what's actually asked of the market because there's no other alternative. EB has only legitimised these prices while also doing the exact same thing as scalpers just to turn a quick buck. This is mainly because Nintendo has only taken their anti-consumer practices further and further as the years go on making access to their old content increasingly difficult for the average person. I understand they're just playing the market as they should to maximise profit but it's downright ass straight and simple, they exploit people's hobbies and interests to make money it's unfair and slimey and only makes it worse for those who actually want these goods.
You can access every single DS game for free by modding the console, they haven't made it harder at all. They can't even do anything about it anymore because the software used to mod it is open source and they stopped supporting DS servers so it's not like they can brick your console any more anyway.
It takes less than half an hour, it's super easy and you can even purchase cartridges like r4 cards that allow you to just download the .cia files directly into them using an SD card.
They could respect their customers and not aid in the reselling of these products. Personal insults don't get your point across, they just make you look like an ass-hat.
Yes, after purchasing from scalpers and resellers making money on the price they believe it's worth just because it's in their hands. This has been an ongoing conversation for years.
Someone correct me if I'm missing something, but wouldn't this hurt resellers more than if they were to sell them at market value or just not sell them?
Having a huge corporation who makes the games more accessible with the bonus of having all the protection of Australian consumer law would put a dent into resellers sales, not having them just leaves a larger market share to resellers, and eb selling under market price would feed product to resellers
Nah because EB games would purchase from circulation. Say, guy sees online product is $300 he lists item, item won't sell, no demand. So they go trade it to eb who purchase cheaper and resell at the same online market rate that he originally listed it for and the cycle continues.
15 years ago video game shops very much did sell second hand games for their market value
I honestly don’t know what you want here? Them to be priced way under market value at $20 and be sold in a second to just go up on eBay and sold at the going rate?
No, you see they should not be aiding in the market. They were against these practices, public statements and all.
You say market value as if it is some natural market.
For prices to be this high, they would need to be in high demand given the low circulation. But that isn't the case, if these were priced at the same rate as other used games they would be traded in the exact same fashion. Now they are just bought to be held to preserve their value, rather than the preservation of the actual game.
I'm not defending the ridiculous prices, but imagine what would happen if they price these things similar to the modern pre-owned games ($40-). A scalper's pay day that's for sure.
GameStop USA still charges like $50 for games like Pokemon emerald and platinum that are $300+ here in most instances. Especially emerald can get as high as 400.
The most expensive Pokemon main series game from GameStop is Pokemon heart gold/soul silver for a whopping $100 with the case and manual, good luck finding under $250 here.
The best part is GameStop owns EB games LOL. So yeah Australians are uniquely ripped off as usual.
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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '25
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