Video Game Collecting

You know, its been a little over a year since I’ve complained about sellers from ebay.  It’s par for the course however.  If you do a bunch of transactions on eBay you will eventually get screwed.  Some might find this to be discouraging, but it really isn’t.  If you think about things you’ve purchased from national retail stores I’m sure you’ve received less than best in class service a few times.  The point is though that eBay can be aggrevating when a seller is not cooperative.

Take for example a recent copy of GI Joe: Atlantis Factor that I won.  I won it on April 25th.  Here we are on May 11th and the game still hasn’t arrived.  Unless I’m looking to be invoiced (more on this in a moment) I usually pay immediately.  Some times I might win an item from my phone in the middle of the night and won’t pay for it in the morning, but there is never more than a single day turn around for me to pony up the cash.  I waited a week and a half before reaching out to the seller of Atlantis Factor.  I explained that I hadn’t received the item yet and was curious as to when it shipped.  I got some BS answer, then the next day another BS answer that there was ‘something wrong with the address and it was returned.’  I was then told that it would be expedited with “priority shipping”.  This too is BS as I still haven’t received the item.  Of course reaching out to a seller like this is a chore and you know that any answer they give you is not the truth.

Another seller refused to invoice me.  I had won three items, and the description of all three promised combined shipping.  I request an invoice at the end of the sale.  And then again three more times in the day that follows.  Then I requested the contact information of the seller from eBay and called them this morning.  Apparently the number on file was for a cell phone and the seller was certainly caught off guard.  They alledged that they were on a freeway driving home and they asked me to call them in 30 minutes.  A funny thing then happened.  I received my invoice about 15 minutes later.

Both of these sellers have 100% ratings with several items sold.  It baffles me why anyone would risk their score and ranking over something this ridiculous.  I think part of the problem that it frustrates me is that I work in customer service related to the video game industry.  The discourtesy that any of us have experienced when we are the customer is insane.  It makes you wonder why some people are even allowed to breed.

Oh well.  Eventually GI Joe will arrive I’m sure and I’ll post about it.  Eventually the other games will arrive and I’ll post about them as well.  For all you good people who’ve been jaded by an eBay seller I feel your pain, and for you sellers who are asleep at the wheel either get in the game or get out.  Just what ever you do stop wasting everyone’s time.

One last thing.  I’ve never had a single issue with www.pedrogames.com  Congratulations to PedroGames.Com and the launching of their new site.  We wish you the very best!

I’ve mentioned Pedro! Games frequently here and with good reason: this is currently the only eBay seller I can truly recommend.  My first experience was with Iron Tank, which ended up being a penny auction.  It was a purchase made on a whim, but it was worth it.  The game was in perfect condition, and it was delivered promptly.  Even if it came from North Carolina, all the way to Las Vegas.

But Iron Tank wasn’t the only excellent purchase I’ve made through Pedro!.  Thus far I’ve purchased 11 titles, and all of them have come in perfect condition.  This says alot since many of these titles are around two and a half decades old.

I found PedroGames.Com originally through the site I created (http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/), and although I do occasionally purchase from other sellers I know I can do no wrong with Pedro!

Anyways, with a major change coming to http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ I did not want this feedback about Pedro! Games to be forgotten, therefore I’ve included to original reviews below.

Pedro! Games

VideoGamePriceGuides.Com not only provides you, the user, with game prices, but we also use the guides ourselves. Recently we purchased IRON TANK for the NES from frequent power seller Pedro! on eBay.com.

Anyone who has searched for games on eBay will have no doubt noticed that Pedro! sells tons of games. Not only does he sell vast quantities of games he also seems to always have some fairly rare games as well.

In this instance we bought IRON TANK. It was an auction and it ended for a penny. That’s right, one-cent. The game isn’t really popular at all, and for a penny with $3.95 shipping we figured it would be an easy purchase to get an idea of Pedro!’s service. The way a seller treats a cheap sell is a good indication of how they treat everyone. Anyways the auction ended on Thursday May 28th. Within minutes of the close of the auction we received the invoice.

It’s All Yours! Now Just Send Us A Payment…

It doesn’t get much more direct then that does it? There wasn’t any delivery confirmation or tracking purchased along with IRON TANK so we can’t verify a direct date of shipping, however we did receive an email from Pedro! within an hour of making the payment indicating that 1. positive feedback was left for the buyer, and 2. you should expect to receive your game soon.

Now We Wait…

I have confidence in Pedro! As of writing this he has a score of 18852 with a rating of 100%. My only concern at this point is that Pedro! shows screenshots of the game (with a Pedro! watermark) and not a picture of the actual cartridge. I thought of emailing and asking Pedro! for the condition but with that 18000+ track record I have a hard time bringing myself to believe that the cart will be in deplorable condition.

Pedro! Games Part 2

Well for an auction that ended Thursday May 28th, and paid for on May 29th, we were amazed that our one cent copy of IRON TANK arrived on Monday June 1st.

The game arrived First-Class in a well protected envelope complete with the Pedro! Games logo on it.

But what about the IRON TANK cartridge? We professed a minor legitimate concern with the first part of this seller review that Pedro! Games shows screenshots of the games rather than the actual cartridge itself. So what was the condition like? Although not 100% mint perfect, the cartridge itself was acceptable. Very acceptable. There was a negligent amount of wear on the label, but not bad considered the cartridge is around two decades old. The pins were shiny and appeared new.

So what criticisms if any did we have? Actually none. This isn’t to say we should judge a seller on the basis of one good sale, but in this case we were very pleased, and as an advocate for video game collectors www.videogamepriceguides.com was impressed by this transaction.