Vaporman87 wrote :
  ... or something less... violent?

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hmmmmm...  No.

Have you tried searching by misspellings? Sometimes people list items in wrong categories or misspell items. Try the following:

Nntendo
Ninendo
Nintedo

You'd be surprised. And sometimes n00bs will list whole collections without naming the titles in the listing, examine the pictures closely and don't be afraid to message the sellers. There might be a gold nugget in the listing!

Good idea on the misspellings. I used to do that a lot but I've totally forgotten about it! One of my first eBay purchases was for "vedio stuff". Nothing is as it used to be. I just looked at a Nitendo with 8 controllers and 5 (common) games. It's already over $100 with 6 hours left to go. This and many collections by lazy butts that don't write out the game titles, but usually don't have much good.  Meanwhile I can't believe how many copies of Fester's Quest and Sesame Street 123 are out there! Who bought that junk!

I was almost good on one mistake. Metroid CIB. The first picture had cart and manual for Rad Racer instead of Metroid. I thought that was funny because those two games shared a commercial once. Anyway, no one bid on it and it stayed at $1.04 until the last fifteen minutes. Then a whole bunch of people came out of the woodwork and drove the price up to 30 bucks. Which isn't too bad for Metroid CIB but I wasn't prepared for that. And who knows what the winner's max bid was.

I hate eBay's "Detailed item info". People should have to write their own summaries. Newsflash eBay, I am not here to learn about games. There is already NintendoAge, Nintendo.wikia, Wikipedia, Youtube, and others for that. I already know Super Mario 3 is "a masterpiece" you dumbkopfs. I do not need to scroll through five paragraph synopsis with a video of Gauntlet on every stupid Gauntlet auction. I know what this game is and that is why I searched for it! I want the seller to tell me the condition. Speaking of which, people who put half a sentence to say "cleaned and tested", without even saying "works" have a special place in my heart, especially when they follow that up with another five paragraphs of boilerplate about their other items (I haven't even bought this one yet!), shipping, returns, and how they strive to maintain 100% feedback. Tell you what buddy, I would be more inclined to "bid with confidence" if there wasn't a 2 at the end of your user name or if you seemed to have any knowledge or affection about what you're selling. How about ditching the stock photos or, alternately, the pictures of the end of the cart that show there is indeed a PCB inside the shell but does jack-all to tell me what you're selling?

Another funny thing is how many people think it's important to put 3-screw or 5-screw in the auction title. I'm pretty sure that only makes a significant difference on one or two games. Does anybody fall for it?

Should I make all this ranting into an article? "Feeding my nostalgia with eBay." "Nintendo Effort Shopping Travails Online." I'm pretty sure I can easily run up more than 700 words on the topic       More if I can curse

shakin steak wrote :

Should I make all this ranting into an article? "Feeding my nostalgia with eBay." "Nintendo Effort Shopping Travails Online." I'm pretty sure I can easily run up more than 700 words on the topic       More if I can curse
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I'd read that... though I may have to cleanse my palate afterward.

eBay is bad for people wanting to boost their collection on a budget. I've had online merchants buy Pokemon games for 20 dollars who turn around and sell them for 24 dollars, they're margin for profits are that low but sheer sales make it possible. Sometimes it feels like all the NES games being sold on eBay are by merchants...to other merchants. Like an enclosed ecosystem.

I have a few doubles of boring titles like Top Gun and Tetris. They sell for like 4.00 free shipping, who does that?!

Reminds me of Amazon Marketplace, there are lots of books you can find on there for 1 cent + $3.99 shipping. I don't understand it either. Similar listings exist for games, but they are all Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf.

OK, I lied! You can also get Wheel of Fortune for a penny!

Have you tried Craigslist? I nabbed a few good sets there. Gotta be quick though in responding. Paste this link into your startup tabs when you go online. Everytime you go on the internet, check the page.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/search/vga?query=NES

I see a few good deals there now.

There are some good deals there. Many of the ads are way out in the suburbs which is not easy for me. That bummed me out a few years ago, but now I can borrow a car sometimes. I also see a couple ads that say they can possibly deliver. I have to laugh at this one guy who says "Emails will be answered slowly" ! He has hundreds of games for various systems and really good prices (like FunCoLand prices) but he's almost in Wisconsin.

Thanks for all the great tips though. I owe you one. If I'm ever near H-town or you ever come by here I will buy you a beer or three.

shakin steak wrote :
 
...but now I can borrow a car sometimes.
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Woah. You have no vehicle? You must live, like, right smack dab in the middle of C-town.

Vaporman87 wrote :

Woah. You have no vehicle? You must live, like, right smack dab in the middle of C-town.

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Almost exactly. In fact, it is 476 feet from my door to the train station. Your "little detour" to Point Pleasant last night is more traveling than I do in a typical week.