Used gaming is a big market. Prices for a lot of old games seem to be going up. But theres a bigger issue that the retro gaming content creators haven’t talked about.

One of the biggest issues are the price tracking websites. These track the prices of used games being sold and will give you an average. Sites like these give misleading prices for the cost of games.

Why do they give misleading costs? They don’t factor in the shipping into their metrics. Sellers sell games around the average cost price, but with high shipping costs. It makes no sense for a $20 game to cost $6-$10 to ship. That $20 game is really around $30. Its not a big or heavy special edition, just a base game that is shipped in a sleeve.

Two of the biggest exploiters of the scheme are Ebay sellers and Shop Goodwill. Shop Goodwill does it for all items and is horrible. Theres been times I’ve gotten a good price for stuff and decided not to pay because the cost of shipping was so high. Its not inflation, Ive shipped games to people in sleeves and bags, its cheap.

The pricing analytics on used games sites need to include shipping costs. Have its average next to the regular price. Don’t add it to the base price as prices will then go up and keep high shipping costs.

Theres all these content creators who cover the used and retro scene, but they haven’t covered this. How? They’re always complaining about how used game prices are going up. 

It is good to see the demand for physical media increasing, while companies lie about how much of their sales are digital. The cost has to he right, the silence of the pro physical media crowd over the scalping of shipping cost is damning