4 ms·

It would be hard to claim that quantitative easing and stimulus has "nothing" to do with asset prices but surely the biggest change in the past year has been th

by uses 5y ago

It would be hard to claim that quantitative easing and stimulus has "nothing" to do with asset prices but surely the biggest change in the past year has been the incredible shift in spending habits. White collar workers have had way fewer expenses (work-from-home) and way less lifestyle-based things to spend their discretionary income on. No vacations, no dining out, no new clothes etc. People have been at home and looking back into old hobbies. Money flowing into collectibles and other alternative investments has been a straightforward result of that.

Grazester 5y ago
Bingo. I no longer spend $150 on commuting to work a month plus buying lunch. I spent some of that now on games for a console I had as a kid but could not afford to buy a whole lot of games for. In the past 2 years some games went up some 100% or more in price. I bought a game 6 months ago for $90 I see listings for it on ebay for $150. Its pretty insane.
- hnlmorg 5y ago
  Never take ebay listings as a guide. Always look at past sales instead. The reason is you get a lot of chancers on ebay listing items at inflated prices on Buy It Now with the hope that someone rich enough and desperate enough will happily pay the higher cost. But more often than not, the higher Buy It Now listings time out and get re-listed over and over again. The real market value of games is seen in the auctions and Facebook retro groups (literally the only reason I have a Facebook account is for collecting retro computer parts and games. If you find the right group you can get some pretty good deals).
  - Grazester 5y ago
    I stated ebay because it was where I bought the game originally. I usually use https://www.pricecharting.com/ https://www.pricecharting.com/ to check the trends and make sure I am not overpaying. The games I want aren't available on facebook. People now know their worth. You get more common games that discs aren't even worth it as coasters to me. I have mostly given up them.
    - hnlmorg 5y ago
      > I stated ebay because it was where I bought the game originally. There's nothing wrong with quoting ebay, I use it all the time myself. Just don't pay any attention items listed with a Buy It Now price because they're often full of chancers. Just because it's listed at a price it doesn't mean anyone will pay it. What you did is a common trap that new reporters do when they talk about how expensive collecting is. They run headlines like "your old junk could be a gold mine" but pad their articles out with hugely speculative Buy It Now prices that no sane person would actually pay. > The games I want aren't available on facebook Which games? I collect for basically every platform across basically every genre and I've never had an issue getting obscure games from Facebook. I might be able to help you out here.

by uses 5y ago

Grazester 5y ago

Bingo. I no longer spend $150 on commuting to work a month plus buying lunch. I spent some of that now on games for a console I had as a kid but could not afford to buy a whole lot of games for. In the past 2 years some games went up some 100% or more in price. I bought a game 6 months ago for $90 I see listings for it on ebay for $150. Its pretty insane.

hnlmorg 5y ago
Never take ebay listings as a guide. Always look at past sales instead. The reason is you get a lot of chancers on ebay listing items at inflated prices on Buy It Now with the hope that someone rich enough and desperate enough will happily pay the higher cost. But more often than not, the higher Buy It Now listings time out and get re-listed over and over again. The real market value of games is seen in the auctions and Facebook retro groups (literally the only reason I have a Facebook account is for collecting retro computer parts and games. If you find the right group you can get some pretty good deals).
- Grazester 5y ago
  I stated ebay because it was where I bought the game originally. I usually use https://www.pricecharting.com/ https://www.pricecharting.com/ to check the trends and make sure I am not overpaying. The games I want aren't available on facebook. People now know their worth. You get more common games that discs aren't even worth it as coasters to me. I have mostly given up them.
  - hnlmorg 5y ago
    > I stated ebay because it was where I bought the game originally. There's nothing wrong with quoting ebay, I use it all the time myself. Just don't pay any attention items listed with a Buy It Now price because they're often full of chancers. Just because it's listed at a price it doesn't mean anyone will pay it. What you did is a common trap that new reporters do when they talk about how expensive collecting is. They run headlines like "your old junk could be a gold mine" but pad their articles out with hugely speculative Buy It Now prices that no sane person would actually pay. > The games I want aren't available on facebook Which games? I collect for basically every platform across basically every genre and I've never had an issue getting obscure games from Facebook. I might be able to help you out here.