Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )

[csgx1]

This seller initially tries to sell Bonk 3 loose for $300 starting bid, open auction.

Now re-listed with a buy now for $600.  This seller somehow feels that it's worth double after not selling for $300......

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bonk-3-III-Hucard-TurboGrafx16-Duo-very-Rare-/180689565682?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item2a11eff7f2

[nat]

"Very rare!"

So rare there's only one copy up for sale per week!

[BlackandBlue]

This seller initially tries to sell Bonk 3 loose for $300 starting bid, open auction.

Now re-listed with a buy now for $600.  This seller somehow feels that it's worth double after not selling for $300......

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bonk-3-III-Hucard-TurboGrafx16-Duo-very-Rare-/180689565682?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item2a11eff7f2

I just saw this in my email.  It gave me a lolgasm.

[SignOfZeta]

I'm preparing my insults now for when we find out what stupid f*ck buys it. This time I'm not even going to mention my complete PCE copy that I got for $35 because...that shit is getting really boring, as I'm sure you all agree.

Someone will buy it, btw. There is no ceiling on TG-16 now, that is my opinion. You can just put any old thing on eBay for whatever price and some stupid shit will buy it. If its going for 4x as much as everyone else's copy, everyone else will just raise their price to match his, and the "hard core TG-16 fan" who has only owned the system for 6 months will think that the game always goes for that much (because it has, in the six months that's he's been collecting) and buy it.

My hope is that this crap won't ever leak into the PCE seen. I assume it basically can't since there are so many times more copies of PCE games, and so many games in the first place, and not that many people willing to pay $160 for Bomberman 3, etc, but...I don't know. I never thought we would see the day when people would even bother to pay the insertion fee for a $600 copy of Bonk 3, let alone the asking price. And in a way its already happened, at least a little bit. If not for the US Magical Chase being so hella hyped, there is no way the JP version would be worth more than $40.

News Item: Neo Geo AES fans are no longer the most insane game collectors!

Seriously, while it still insane to pay $1000 for a specific region of a soccer game that you'll never play, that's still only about 5 times the original, very high, retail price, which isn't bad for something SNK only made a dozen copies of. There were thousands of copies of Bonk 3 made, and they were only $50.

[DragonmasterDan]

I just saw this in my email.  It gave me a lolgasm.

For another 300.00ish dollars there's a seller selling JUST the manual.

Anyway, it's going to sit up there for a long long time unsold at 600.00

[IDCHAPPY]

Wow, for just the card?? almost getting as crazy as the Neo scene 

[Black Tiger]

It's funny how people, both buyers and sellers, confuse the HuCard and CD versions of Bonk 3, but you don't see the PC Engine version of Dynastic Hero selling for much.

[SignOfZeta]

Wow, for just the card?? almost getting as crazy as the Neo scene 

I'm not sure there are any Neo games that sell for 12 times original MSRP loose. That would be, for a late period game, something like $4000. For one, loose games for AES are almost unheard of. Secondly, if there were something like this it would probably something they made literally 15 copies of. There have to be at least 2000 copies of Bomberman '93 US, probably triple that.

Also, it would be a friggn NEO GEO game which is always worth getting stupid about.

[BlueBMW]

I was just thinking about it... it seems like the Laseractive stuff I buy is quite pricey, but in reality the hardware and software were rediculously expensive when new.  $1000 for the unit, $400 - $600 for a pac, and $125 a game typically.

[csgx1]

I never thought we would see the day when people would even bother to pay the insertion fee for a $600 copy of Bonk 3, let alone the asking price.

I haven't sold anything on Ebay in awhile but I heard that Ebay recently changed the fees and now offers free/no insertion fees to list. 

Hence all the high priced buy now auctions that have been popping up and being constantly re-listed.  Basically giving gougers a reason to spam their high priced crap. 

[SignOfZeta]

Ah, that's terrible.

[DragonmasterDan]

I haven't sold anything on Ebay in awhile but I heard that Ebay recently changed the fees and now offers free/no insertion fees to list. 

Hence all the high priced buy now auctions that have been popping up and being constantly re-listed.  Basically giving gougers a reason to spam their high priced crap. 

That stuff was going on for a while. About a year ago I was looking for a US copy of Cotton, the only one with manual to show up on ebay during that duration was a copy priced at 175.00 as a BIN. It sat there for at least 6 months. No one bought it and eventually the seller quit listing it.

[GameFreak]

I never thought we would see the day when people would even bother to pay the insertion fee for a $600 copy of Bonk 3, let alone the asking price.

I haven't sold anything on Ebay in awhile but I heard that Ebay recently changed the fees and now offers free/no insertion fees to list.  

Hence all the high priced buy now auctions that have been popping up and being constantly re-listed.  Basically giving gougers a reason to spam their high priced crap.  

Yes if you thought things were bad, they will get a lot worse. Now that ebay doesn't charge any amount to do simple listings of items, theses crazy sellers have NOTHING to lose by listing at an even more outrageous price.

I hope ebay changes that policy back sometime to keep prices lower.

[BlueBMW]

In keeping with ebay's push towards more buy it now type listings rather than auctions, the low / zero insertion fees fits perfect.  High insertion fees encourage low starting prices / auctions.  High starting prices are typically buy it nows / best offers.

Unfortunately, it seems that Buy It Nows have killed what made ebay awesome originally... auctions.

[Jibbajaba]

Maybe over time this will hurt eBay enough that they'll change things.  I agree with Blue, auctions were what made eBay a great place to look for deals.  People can list stuff at pie-in-the-sky prices all they want, but they aren't going to sell.  I really wish that someone would step up and offer eBay come competition.

And I agree with Zeta.  I paid like $30 for my CIB PCE Bonk 3.  Why anyone would pay $600 for a loose version just because the label art looks different is beyond me.  The PCE version has better art, anyway.

Chris