Wow, this rambling, incoherent mess is wrong on so many levels. Additionally, there is a certain level of arrogance littered in this post. It states that anyone who doesn't agree with your prices is a gouger, idiot, etc. Apparently, you know more than the free market.
Highest possible or hopeful possible selling prices should only interest sellers. Why would a buyer care about the MOST a game can sell for? Seriously, if you are looking to buy a particular game, why would you even be aware of the highest prices? Non-investor buyers should only be concerned with lower end prices, unless over-paying is part of your hobby (unfortunately, it is bragging rights for some). Dynastic Hero has only sold for $50 for what, the past year now? But we should ignore that and instead focus on the imaginary prices it could have sold for instead? Or does it only work in gouging-supporting ways?
First off, that Dynastic Heroes for $50 was a once off, idiotic move by a seller. That is not Open Market Value. Lets look at actual completed auctions -
http://videogames.pricecharting.com/game/turbografx-16/dynastic-hero-%5Bsuper-cd%5D#completed-auctionsRegardless of your PERSONAL opinions on its value, it has been demonstrated in the real world what people value it at, and it is well above $50. A buyer should be concerned with what the current fair market value, so they don't get ripped off, and have a good expectation of what they should expect to pay. Numbers pulled directly from the ass of Black Tiger are hardly an indicator of value.
I paid $5 for a sealed Magical Chase. Some clown paying $5000 for one is an extreme in the opposite end. Both are equally factual. The prices I listed are double what MC sold for up until the market began being unnaturally manipulated. I know of people who have bought and sold them for lower prices than I listed since then as well. Why do you guys think that MC is rarely listed for sale anymore, if it is so easy to sell for the gouged prices it supposedly demands? Soldier Blade has also slowed in sales in gouging circles, as those who snatch them up, believing them to be priceless, continue to see them failing to sell at crazy escalating prices. In the meantime, the credit card interest these people are racking up convinces them to continue to hold out for the market to support the fantasy so they can perhaps at least break even on their investments.
Wow, you made up so much bullshit here, it makes Fox News look factual. Lets address them here.
#1. "MC sold for up until the market began being unnaturally manipulated." - How was the market unnaturally manipulated? This is basic freaking economics. MC is on everyone's want list - and there are nowhere near enough copies to go around. Thus, on the open market, i.e. Ebay, it goes to the person willing to pay the most. Any back-room deals or amazing finds don't count towards the actual value; they weren't exposed to an open market of buyers to determine the price.
#2. "Why do you guys think that MC is rarely listed for sale anymore, if it is so easy to sell for the gouged prices it supposedly demands? " Because there is no supply! The people who have it want to keep it! Why are there no Nintendo World Championships available if they sell for $23,000? Jeez, with this logic, the Mona Lisa should be for sale, since it would fetch $100 Million or more!
#3. "In the meantime, the credit card interest these people are racking up convinces them to continue to hold out for the market to support the fantasy so they can perhaps at least break even on their investments." Talk about fantasy. In this single line, you are determining that the people who are buying rare Turbografx games are A) only buying them as investments, and B) somehow you mystically know they are all in credit card debt. Perhaps this is a reflection on how YOU live your life.
That last point just makes my head spin. How anyone can take you serious after that is beyond me. You live in this fantasy world where you know so much about every ebay buyer and seller. The reality is you really don't know anything about these people; how they got the games they are selling, why they are willing to pay what they are, or what their current financial situation is.
I've seen Shockman either sell or available to buy at the prices I listed a few times in the past six months, one of which I bought for myself. High-end eBay prices are above market value, by the very nature of eBay for both buyers and sellers. Checkout the current completed listings for Shockman and properly interpret the unsold, sold and total number of listings, factoring in eBay fees and now limited completed view, etc. And these are still higher than what some sold for on eBay not long ago.
Ebay is the market value, if it sells! And yes, prices fluctuate, depending on who is currently looking for a game, and what they are willing to spend.
People who promote ridiculous prices wonder how the rest of us find games for reasonable prices. The first steps are to stop using top prices to gauge value and stop dismissing low end prices as freak anomalies. The best deals here and elsewhere (even through eBay) are found off the public record. I have advertised several items on this forum over the past year for prices which gouged-price-supporters say don't exist. What those listings don't show, is how I actually offered most of the buyers even better deals. They didn't ask for it, didn't haggle or anything. I just offered them to people I like. I also scored several "impossible" deals for myself that weren't advertised in threads. Some of which were offered to me unsolicited.
Once again, a private sale isn't the open market, and in no way determines the actual value of an item. Only when a group of buyers is allowed to make a choice of whether or not to buy an item, and for how much, is a real price determined.
Not only does every eBay listing which fails to sell at any given price tell as much a story as those which do, but every time something is given away for free, it dilutes the real actual value of the item even further. Look around at how much stuff is being given away for free around here. You can look at games I valued at $5 - $20 each as actually being worth $20 - $50 each, but they are literally selling for $0.00 on a regular basis in this forum. Just as most of the best deals happen behind the scenes, people give away at least as much stuff without publicly talking about it. I valued the loose Turbo CD System Card higher because of the novelty value of allowing you to view warning screens. But after buying a Turbo CD on here for $90, I privately sent it to someone for free after they asked to buy it with money. I've given away more Turbo/PCE stuff than I've sold on this forum and most of it has been done in private. The more people go out of their way to defend gouged prices, the more I see that I should make a big deal out of my freebies, like many of the raffles do.
If you win a free car on a game show, you are required to pay tax on its actual value. Just because you got the car for free doesn't mean that it doesn't have a market value (which you are taxed on!), and your free car is in no way factored into what people consider the car worth. People here are willing to give away games that they could get money for. That is awesome of them, but it has no effect on the actual value someone is willing to pay.
The most important thing that gouged price supporters fail to understand is that true value, what something is actually worth paying for to most people, can still sit far below what it (seldom) sells for. If 90% of Turbo fans wouldn't pay more than $100 for Magical Chase and literally never will, while 1% pay the hyped gouged prices which only transpire twice a year... that means that Magical Chase it literally worth no more than $100. If you can't wrap your head around that, then you're likely be stuck in that other 9% group.
Ugh, the arrogance here is amazing. You are determining exactly what the community should pay for MC, and anyone who doesn't agree is clearly a "gouger." The reason the prices are high twice a year is because that is all you see, the game available for sale twice a year.
The rest of the post continues to babble about "gougers" without any facts to actually substantiate this flawed view point. You are just claiming that you have some innate psychic ability to know what the community should value the game at. You use words such as true, actually, most people, etc. You don't know what people will pay, only your personal valuation.
In short, to quote Billy Madison,
Mr. Black Tiger, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
