The Sad Future of Video Game Vendors
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- čas přidán 20. 04. 2024
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#onlinebusiness #reseller #videogames - Zábava
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 :)
How nice of Caleb to unload his garbage on his “friend”. What a guy. 😂
And promote his app at the same time......what a doosh
Hahahaha
The worst type of dudes. Then pretend to be solid ppl 😂
Lol😂 truly amazing
@@Triple_A_Gaymer Sound a little bit salty...
I have ran into Tim a couple times at yard sales, very cool dude and friendly. He beat me by like seconds on a Wii U once lol
Let him have it mane you don’t need that junk
@@chocolatewheelchair What's all the hate on the Wiiu?
@@mrpixelcactus6810 I mean honestly what are you going to do with a Wii U? Clunky thing. Serious question
There are plenty on eBay
Mod it to play wii games upscaled with free wii u games@@chocolatewheelchair
Props to that guy he’s really putting in the leg work and getting to see the behind the scenes of everything was nice.
Leg work he buys off stores to resell on overpriced Amazon
He buys off people like Tim , who hustle, to sell overpriced on Amazon
@@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.
correct
@@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.
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.
Lol Caleb's amazon store has prices higher than dkoldies
And he's dumping his crap on his supposed "friend" and shoving his app down our throats constantly
Hahahhahahha
Amazon is a joke overall. I stick with EBay.
Amazon gets 20% commission from sellers
I go to garage sales every week and I almost never find video games anymore. If I do, it’s usually overpriced
do you ask if they have any? the ask is key
Its because of his videos like these and other people running their mouths telling the whole world
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.
Eventually it will basically all dry up. Its not a life long business model.
Yeah this retro game ship has sailed. Just like with everything, if regular people have heard about it, it's too late to get in
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
correct
Same, I also hit up his booths often
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.
Yes but 99 percent of us won't go out and look for stuff people these days are to lazy and would rather buy it from someone that already did the work
Lots of areas don't have stores with stock like these. It's very region dependent. At the end of the day you'll be working for $10/hr or less.
its because they make their money on youtube not onvideo games
It’s not secrets
i think your friend could do a good channel on his own.
“Really hard to find at the low price I want so I can flip it for high”
Exactly they are scammers and it is them that are destroying thr retro game market
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
@@jaredbryant8297 Are you serious?
I hate the, "I will look it up" because they will look at asking prices, not sold prices.
They're usually looking at price charting, not ebay asking price.
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.
*Saturated
You're right - not enough buyers anymore.
@@sunspurs 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.
Yep, bad time to be a seller And bad time to be a buyer.... time to just play games that we have!!
People keep overpricing shit. Look at Pokémon games just as an example
Supply and demand
It's mostly kids that keep buying everything Pokémon got a few in my family.
Well i do agree pokemon is ridiculous it’s also because the pokemon bank is closing
Phoenix resale doesn't help either, resellers in general are spiking the market and overpricing things.
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.
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
Wait he really only offered 45% after practically saying aww man I gotta give you a good deal because you shilled for me
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
It’s all a rat race to the bottom
Please elaborate on this
@@theretrosaberguy markets with saturated products begat a negative moving price trend. Other wise known as the rat race to the bottom.
@@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.
@@jonathannoble9465 correct
@@jonathannoble9465 Emulation makes gamers hard to rationalize spending money on a physical copy and hardware.
"Hey these guys are all going out of business so just buy from me from now on!!!!"
The mental gymnastics is strong with this one
**in yoda's voice"**
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.
This snake is just looking for some ideas he may have missed
Around here we have a street that is probably about 8 blocks long. The stores along this street were originally hardware stores, drug stores, appliances stores, apartment buildings, etc from the 1930's to 1940's. The interiors have been gutted and divided up to small connected rooms. Venders rent one of these rooms and stocks it with their merchandise. Each vendors merchandise has a tag with their code. There is a central register to pay for everything. The gaming merchandise in these places is usually Ebay plus pricing!
Sourcing at thrift/pawn shops really isn’t worth it when you take into account the amount of time it takes to find inventory there.
Up until the last year or two thrift stores were great. Not so much now.
Tim is the man. Always great prices and willing to cut deals.
When the guy making the videos is responsible for screwing physical locations to sell videogames
When the guy writing the comment doesn’t realize someone who’s paying these locations the prices they want isn’t screwing anyone.
Very ignorant to think that one guy is responsible.
Oh, you've never resold video games online? 😇 Doubt that.
Totally untrue
Negative Nancy detected
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
lol fr why shouldn’t they make money. Customer still ends up paying the same.
I wonder if he pays these guys or if the promotion on the channel is payment of itself
maybe it is a give and take relationship. He promote the stores. He gets content. Maybe mutual agreement and respect among resellers.
The latter
worked with him before and no hes does not pay the stores its free promotion basically
@@brookechandler6265 thanks! did you like working with him?
Knowing this guy I could see him asking the store owners to pay him.
These over priced games is why people rather emulate their own games
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.
there to swoop in and reap the benefits like jimmie moore from 'the wedding singer' when robbie loses his mind.
Ive just bit the bullet and started emulating. If i find a copy of something for cheap then thats awesome. But if not then i can still play the game.
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.
Honestly i think the covid Gaming Peak is crashing
You are the sad future of video game vendors
Exactly
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.
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.
as soon as switch 2 drops, the second hand market will be flooooooded with switch stuff. you can already see it in the console itself, switch or switch lites.
Yea just got a first gen switch for $75 from goodwill of all places.
@@williamRRR will go lower too. all those pandemic-purchased consoles and people playing “cozy” games
@@vastneon hope so
It’s hard to find a copy of first party Nintendo exclusives for under $40 and I’m cheap 😂
Looks like I’m taking advantage of that situation to build my collection 😂
Collectors pay a lot for old games, but mostly to collect dust in a cabinet
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.
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.
correct
Spot on!!
This vid is jam packed with knowledge. Thank you guys
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.
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)
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.
Wtf are theses notes, rules and demands. No wonder they losing money because you can tell how shitty customers are treated there.
Y’all hit all of my old routes bro that’s awesome! I miss the hillview area lol!
Caleb! This is awesome, love the inside look on retail for videogames
You can tell Tim has been waiting to do that videogame flip at the end for years 😂 (Legend)
Great video and appreciate the behind the scenes! Congrats with the twins!
So Tim is the reason I never find anything good at that Goodwill 😂
correct
Shop goodwill is what destroyed me
@@NinjakX correct
Nothing is stopping you from going before him you literally have the same access as him, but cry more 😢
@@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.
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
23:45 this is really interesting, I wish we had places/display booths like that here in the UK, we literally have nothing like this here at all.
Gee, it's almost like the consequences of your own actions...
Kinda ironic isn't it
What are you talking about?
@@austintaylor5683People like this squeeze down shops to resell. Pretty simple. Having said that I dislike flippers so I'm biased..lol
@@hazzad well I’m biased in having the opinion that people who dislike resellers are stupid.
@@austintaylor5683 Cool story bro. Pretty much tells me you're a flipper.
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.
@@javasnapsdude what they putting in the water there? Why is everyone having twins?
@@kevinclear4007 idk my wife and I are transplants and after we had ours, two of our friends did as well within a year and a half lol
It's your fault. 😂 I don't need scalpers.
Exactly - the guy responsible for killing it is the one trying to male a sympathy video
@@joshc3898how do you “male” a video?
Hope you don't shop at pawn shops local game stores thrift stores ebay mercari etc cause it's essentially the same thing 😂💀
@@chase6722 I'm still finding cheap stuff.
@AJTComicsBrand okay what does that have to do with what i said 😂
HAHA. Sourcing is hard bc of all the CZcams game flippers. Caleb uses his CZcams 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.
Very informative and interesting. Great video!
This was a good one! Appreciate the honesty and different take.
Having a booth is really fun, much more fun than listing on eBay in my opinion!!! Great video!!
enjoyed the video.. enjoyed Tim opening up to the audience on his struggles and success!
that's what happens when games are heavily overpriced
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
@@ChugingsteinYou are not their target audience. They sell to collectors or adults on nostalgia driven shopping sprees.
@@Chugingstein but thats a good point about why its hard to sell any current/modern games
Brick and Mortar needs to price below online markets. Premium services get premium prices when every person who would purchase video games is checking ebay to make sure they aren't getting screwed. The game is changing and more people are aware that they'll have value.
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.
Wow! I haven't seen a video from you in 4 months !😢 I don't know what happened today but glad you are back in my feed!
Awesome video for sure, and yay congrats Tim on the twins!!!
That little golfing bit was hilarious!!😂❤
One of your best episodes… solid businessmen right here
6;34 not sure how many old timers (those that have been doing this for 20 plus years) have ever commented on your videos about this but Google Lens is a godsend i so wish this would have been available to us old timers back in 98' but i am also a firm believer that all the stuff we did not have that we have now has made us old timers much Better sellers and pickers
33:45 100% you have to do what you have to do (if you really love reselling and being your own boss having your own business) if it means getting a part time job and doing the business stuff after the part time job so be it PROPS to you for doing that! id do that in a heart beat if push came to shove resellers need to look at that part time job as there SIDE HUSLTE! lol
Will you be at classic game fest this year if so will you make a video about it
I hate that we're losing physical media. This hurts consumers and small brick and mortal stores
Why would I buy video games from a shop like yours when I can buy them off Facebook marketplace for a fraction of the price people that own shops like that are a rip off
Stopping kids from saying first
First.
@@HelvetesSkitApa L manz
But you good sir are a W manz
Every comment section needs this guy
@@HelvetesSkitApaswede?
How do you find places like this that have these displays ? I would like to go check them out here in California LA area
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 CZcams 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.
correct
Dude thanks for the 15$ credit!! On whatnot I got my mario vs donkey switch game your the best video game channel on here!! Love ya man!!
Who is seriously going to spend $30.00 on a copy of Red Alert? I'm sure many of us watching this video have looked at these cabinets at thrift or boutique stores and sad "man what a rip off" or "that's cool but I wouldn't spend X amount for dollars on it"
This hobby has become MAJORLY TOXIC in 10 years. CZcams/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)
Is there a good UK version of Phoenix Resale on CZcams? I've resold a few video games here in the UK but the US market is totally different.
im on the same boat, ive been looking for a UK version of Phoenix
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.
Tim seems like a good dude and very smart about managing his business. Nice to see Caleb give him a break on that deal.
You’re the reason that these guys are going out of business
lol yeah
The irony huh?? lol
They approach different sectors of the video game market, not really competing with each other just because they both sell video games
Literally only making his competition worse 🤣And he showed one of the places that guy sources at ALL THE TIME!!! The Irony!!! 😂😂
It's like you didn't watch the video. Tim literally said he will liquidate his assets as he is planning to go into a different career.
Collaborate and don’t compete sounds like a pyramid skeem quote….
Most Collectable work in CYCLES... Watch out what you wish for💰💸 Great CHANNEL!!!
I'm jealous, I live in Missouri and all the flea markets charge 10% for each sale. That's awesome you only get charged 8.
Timothy Chen is my guy . Love this
Sega GT 2002 is an under 5 dollar game. I got mine under 5 bucks with Jet Set Radio included.
We really don't have many stores like this in Wisconsin. Sucks. We got plenty of goodwills but not many resale markets like this.
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 🇬🇧😎✌️
The game is to be SOLD,
NOT to be TOLD.
Ruining the video game hustle by telling the whole world how ?
🤔
Cry
Get a life, you probably make like $5/hr
Fantastic video. Very interesting to see the different sides of the retro game world
Psa...you want cheaper video games stop buying from resellers just stop the madness
Clarksville, Louisville..... oh brother this guy stinks!
Honestly, that big at 4:55 would be a cool purchase if you wanted to build a cool resin coffee table or something lol.
Really good video and love the hard work that not everyone sees
Shopping isn’t hard work.
One word downloading
That's the reason why video game shops are not doing great
I stopped buying disc games after I brought the Xbox one digital one version
That's the market guys. If people truly wanted physical media and brick and mortar, they wouldn't go obsolete.
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.
“The market”? Vague and general statement with zero validity
I'm paying 240 plus 14% seriously about to leave my mall same 2 cases wish my rent was so cheap... the difference between Midwest and East Coast
The future is pretty obvious and inevitable... it's going to be all about trading card games VS video games.
The affordability (in general), accessibility, convenience, and overall barrier-to-entry when it comes to trading/collectible card games is much MUCH greater than with video games.
It's easier to create a community and social environment around card games because there's a lot less overhead required flipping cardboard VS flipping video game discs/cartridges/etc... and cards take up a considerably smaller amount of space than physical video games (especially with their cases).
I know I'm not the only one who has been noticing a transition/shift that many people are going through from video game vending to card game vending, and it makes sense.
Video games inevitably require electricity in order to be played, which isn't free. Cardboard does not require electricity in order to be played. You can't just travel to a video game store and enjoy your purchase the moment after you bought it, but you CAN enjoy trading cards the very second after it's been rung up at the register. Case & Point.
And if the store has tables and chairs set up, you could even start competing with other players ASAP, instead of the alternative which would be to wait until you travel all the way back home just to enjoy a video game that will additionally help to increase your electric bill in the process.
Also, trading cards are easier to negotiate price than with most video games, so that's another win.
Don't get me wrong, I do still see video game flipping being somewhat profitable currently, but eventually I think people are going to prefer switching to something that can give them more instant gratification and accessibility than what video games are capable of.
A BIG chunk of a video game's value is ONLY AFTER it has been inserted into a console/PC which then needs to be plugged into an outlet (or given batteries) in order to work. But trading cards have IMMEDIATE value without the need for any extra parts like electricity, OR monitors/TVs, OR keyboards/joysticks/gamepads, OR wires/cords/cable management, OR internet access, etc.
From a comparative standpoint, video games are more inconvenient in general.
Hopefully, you get my point.
And probably the biggest thing of all, trading cards are FAR more LIQUID than video games. Without a doubt. This is why it's EASIER to flip them. I'm not saying that similar problems like overpricing etc. doesn't happen, because of course it happens in every secondary market, but it's a lot LESS ridiculous with cards compared to video games.
Not everybody has access to a game console, or a television monitor, or internet, or electricity, etc... but I'm pretty sure at least most people in the world have access to a human body, which is pretty much the only prerequisite you need to play a card game.
The chances of you being able to sell a "somewhat decent" trading card is ALWAYS going to be a lot higher than the chances of you being able to sell a somewhat decent video game.
You'd be surprised what people are willing to pay for cardboard these days. lol
Accessibility ✅
Liquidity ✅
Affordability ✅
Convenience ✅
Probably cause he charges too much for his games so it is what it is
but its like selling hats when you know the world has already stopped manufacturing hats. you have less and less hats to sell and theyre in worse and worse condition. so you kinda need to ask more and more but people are less and less willing to do it. the people who buy games, play them and sell at fair price are very far and between. mostly its speculators buying games hoping to profit or hc collectors who never sell their games. and looking at modern games, this retro business is just becoming more niche because no one will hunt for physical ps5 games since theyre just paperweights and most dont even have a manual for collectible value. only the cover art has any value in case someone would want to show off
Does Tim have YT channel? He seems like such a good guy, and very wise. I would love watching his reselling channel.
I liked this video!
Good Knowledge…
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