Depreciation

A guy Fernando has never seen before enters the store one rainy afternoon. “Hey, do you rent PS2 games?”

“Indeed I do. It's two dollars a night, three for two nights, or five for a week.”

“Well, I got like ninety games that I'm looking to sell. I went up to the Sound Shelf and they offered me three bucks a title. Do you buy them?”

Excellent. Now Fernando knows a bit more what his competitor is offering for PS2 trade-ins. “I offer credit for trade-ins, yeah. What kind of games are we talking about?” Because if it's things like Disgaea or Final Fantasy X Fernando could very well make handsome profit reselling online, seeing as used copies of those still go for around 12 bucks a piece. But Fernando is not hopeful as the man doesn't seem like the JRPG—or any RPG—type.

“Mostly sports and racing.”

Oh. Fernando really doesn't want “like ninety” iterations of Madden and NASCAR cluttering his space. “Yeah, about three bucks a pop is probably the best I can do for you, too. Certain titles might be worth more, for what it's worth.”

“They're all good games, though.”

“I'm sure they are. The problem is that not everyone is a fan of sports games and, well, the market is glutted with new versions of the things that come out every year and generally obsolete the one people spent sixty bucks on the year before.”

“I mean, I think they should be worth at least five bucks a piece.”

“Sadly, what you or I think they should be worth is not what they are actually worth. Games, especially sports and racing titles, generally don't appreciate in value unless they're mint-unopened-box-signed-by-the-creator sorts of things. If I may suggest something, head online and check out sites like eBay or Amazon and see how much your titles are worth on there. That will give you a relatively unbiased look at their worth. Keep in mind that's for things like intact cases, enclosed manuals, et cetera.”

The man looks crestfallen. “Oh. I don't have the manuals for a lot of them.”

Fernando shrugs. “Then they're going to be worth less. Like I said, check it out online and you may be able to get a better deal than the one you were offered up there.”

“Oh. Okay,” says the man, and he leaves.