Well, after looking up Earthborne Rangers on Ebay (out of curiosity because I remember that Forbidden Planet had it “reduced” from £85 to £75) it turns out that Ebay UK has it consistently at £80 new… and £78 pre-owned.
There’s nothng about this hobby that infuriates me more than 2nd-hand prices. That “2-4% lower than retail” is a markdown that I see on many games. For goodness’ sake, and 2nd-hand product should be 70% of retail price at best! If not 50%! But that is not how boardgames prices have worked for many years now.
Meanwhile websites like https://boardgameprices.co.uk/ used to find good deals, now their lowest price is usually within 5% of the typical retail. (Although for Earthborne Rangers there are actually 6 online shops selling it at less than £70).
So my question to you is:
Are there any websites you frequently use that actually deliver lower prices? I’m selfishly concentrating on the UK here because postage is too huge to be viable but let’s put everything in the thread.
There’s been recent discussion that BGG marketplace is reliable (because there’s a small fee) and it’s often worth going to individual Big Stores websites to see their sales (Zatu, Chaos Cards, Firestorm). Which websites are your first choices now when looking for low prices?
Okay, I’ll keep a running list:
boardgameprices .co.uk/
boardgamegeek.com /market?pageid=1
ebay.co.uk/
Facebook boardgame groups
vinted.co.uk/
3 Likes
I find BGG Marketplace (if you ignore the scalpers) is probably the best place to find a price that I’m willing to pay.
That and the Facebook groups. They like a bit of price shaming on there which is rubbish but it keeps things in check.
If something is in stock then I tend to knock 30% off RRP when I sell, but when I choose to sell I’m done with a game and want the shelf space.
4 Likes
Those FB groups are the only reason why I’m on Facebook
5 Likes
I don’t Facebook, but I use boardgameprices, BGG marketplace and eBay, and usually check Amazon because about one time in 20 they actually have a competitive price. BGG marketplace has generally been best IME but of course anything new tends to be at a premium.
It’s all very well to say “second-hand should be 50-70% retail” but I generally get no hits selling until I’m down to about 30%.
4 Likes
I find Vinted to be a smaller website, so smaller pool of items being sold. But since it’s less popular, I got a few bargains from there.
4 Likes
I don’t even do that - Kate’s in them for me!
2 Likes
Yup, that and our game group organises via Facebook.
I tend to price to sell, as like @Captbnut I’d rather have the space
1 Like
Are those actual selling prices, or just asking prices? I ask because with lots of collected things, the people selling don’t really want to sell. They’re selling because they can tell their SO “see, I tried to sell it, but no one wants it”, or something, and the price is one they’d be happy to have the money for, but not actually indicative of what the market clearing price would be. Then, because it’s not a big market, the high asking prices sometimes make other people think that’s what the prices should be, and since no one is willing to pay that, they don’t sell. When I was running a garage, i bought some used shop equipment from a dealer in such things, for a lot less than what I’d seen it listed for in classifieds or on craigslist (this dates this story, lol). I asked the guy about it, and he laughed, and told me when they actually need to sell, he got it for peanuts, usually at the bank auction.
4 Likes
On UK ebay, seeing a second-hand boardgame for the price I was talking about (“about 2% less than retail, and in fact there’s probably an online shop selling it new for less than this stupidly high ebay second-hand price”) is VERY frequent.
Whether that’s because people know they can charge whatever they like, or are posting but not really wanting to sell, I don’t know. But it’s the default for most games above £30. Amazon is often not much better.
It’s the Craigslist type websites I’m thinking of, when you used to be able to get second-hand items for a decent price. It sounds like that’s mostly moved to Facebook now.
2 Likes
I read the title as ‘Websites for buying 2nd hand grenades’.
Needless to say, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
That being said, I won’t pretend that I did not have some concerns over the state of said 2nd hand grenades. Namely, would they be delivered in a live state, perhaps by hurling them?
6 Likes
When the Millennium’s End list was more active (for a technothriller RPG of the late 1990s) I got email to the listmaster address seeking to sell a range of ex-Soviet machine guns and other light support weapons. Tracing the IP address led to the University of Art in Tehran.
4 Likes
Pin missing, but still ticks.
5 Likes