Discounted Nintendo Games: Update 1

Earlier I posted about an eBay experiement to win some discounted Nintendo games... so what were the results?  Well  Battletoads had a counter offer of $10.  Maniac Mansion's offer was declined.  I never heard back on Thunder and Lighting or Clu Clu Land.

Ducktales was accepted, as was 1943, which I didn't mentioned in the original post.  Each were accepted for a total of 4.99 a piece (including shipping!)

This is good news as it would mean that 20% of the games offered at $4.99 were accepted.  It could just be a foluke, I don't have a large enough data sample to conclude this... but it is encouraging.  So lets try it again...!

eBay Luck

Well it seems that my eBay experiment resulted in crazy results... so what exactly did I win? Hmm find out soon.

Discounted Nintendo Games

Several months back after I added the "Make As Offer" icon to http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ I had a wild idea of making ridiculously low offers on a bunch of games to see what kind of return or response I would get.

To do this experiment I've decided on the following rules:

1. The Nintendo game must have an average price of $5.00 or more
2. Shipping for the game must not be more than 3.99
3. There must be 25 copies or more available
4. The seller must have a rating of 98.5% or better
5. No offer will be for more than $1 unless the price with shipping is less than $4.99
6. The game must be located in the 48 states

Anyways, I don't have the worlds largest budget so I'm going to limit this experiment to five games only.  The ones I've picked are as follows:

Game #1: Battletoads... averages about $10.  Shipping is free, so I'm offering $4.99
Game #2: Thunder & Lightning... averages about $11.  Shipping is $2.92 so I'm offering $2.07
Game #3: Duck Tales... averages about $11.  Shipping is $1.90 so I'm offering $3.09
Game #4: Clu Clu Land... averages about $12.  Shipping is $3.00 so I'm offering $1.99
Game #5: Maniac Mansion... averages about $12.  Shipping is free, so I'm offering $4.99

Best offers can run on for 48 hours.  I'll post an update after all five offers expire...

Toki

I received Toki today in the mail. It was in perfect condition and the envelope was covered in exotic stamps. Not bad for $5.50 with free shipping. This, like most of the other Nintendo Games I have here I got off of eBay using the www.videogamepriceguides.com website to find this and other incredible deals.

I've been going back and forth with a seller who is selling Operation Wolf and Cobra Command as a lot. She originally had the lot listed for $20 or best offer. I made an offer of $7 minutes before the auction ended but the seller never accepted it. Then a few days later I noticed it was listed again. So I made another offer. This time for $6.00.

If there is any advice that I've learned in life its that whether you're negotiating over price or principle if someone compromises once, they'll compromise twice. Such is the case with this lot. I've budged to $7.50, but they are still at $16.00. One of the strategies I've been using to get this person to come down is to point out that its not fun to have an auction end without a sale. Sure you can re-list an item, but is the time lost really worth a few bucks? Although the seller and I have gone back and forth a few times, I've decided to wait and to let the auction expire. I'll look to see if they've listed again and I'll start the whole process over. I know that unless someone else buys it, or they stop listing it, I will get it for $7.50.