Get Started

Learn more about Credit Cards, Travel Programs, Deals, and more.

MMMT: My Results Reselling SNES During the Holiday Season

This post may contain affiliate links - Advertiser Disclosure. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

My SNES Reselling Results Are In

Monday Morning Miles Talk is a regular series that has some smaller, more quirky ideas to kick off the work week.  These are essentially random ideas that I wanted to share with you.  Here are the previous entries.

My SNES Reselling Results Are In

With Christmas behind us and the 4th quarter reselling banaza coming to an end I wanted to go over how I did reselling the SNES systems.  I wasn’t able to get the system for the first month or so, which hurt my margins.  I went out the first night to try to snag one, when reselling prices would be the highest, but I missed out by 7 people.

After the first night I did not actively seek them out, I would simply check the electronics department when I was at a store for something else.  I was able to get a total of 5. Nintendo amped up production for these compared to last years NES system, which lowered the reselling prices.  I sold a most of them on eBay and a few on Craigslist.  Facebook Local produced nothing but angry troll ladies…

Reselling on eBay

I ended up selling 3 of the 5 SNES systems on eBay.  They brought the highest price but also a lot of fees. The prices fluctuated some, actually getting lower the closer it got to Christmas because stores seemed to be getting better stock.

For the three systems I had an average sale price of $129.97.  The PayPal fees averaged $4.01 for each system. eBay took another $13 in fees per system.  I was able to barely fit the systems into a flat rate padded envelope which put the shipping costs at $6.50 per system.  Getting them into a flat rate package was huge and saved me a lot of money on shipping.  The average cost for the 3 systems was $83.71.  Walmart sold these slightly cheaper than Target did but you could use your Target card for 5% off.  I got 2 from Walmart and 1 from Target.

Here is a final breakdown:

My SNES Reselling Results Are In

Reselling on Craigslist

I listed every SNES on Craigslist along with eBay and I went with whichever one sold first.  For my very first SNES I tried pricing it out at $150 but that got me no where.  I then reduced it to $125-130 to match my eBay sales.  That also got me no where.  I kept reducing the price until I got to $110.  That ended up bringing in offers for $100.  I refused these for the first month or so but ended up taking 2 of them over the final week and a half before Christmas because the eBay sales had dried up as well.

I sold the two on Craigslist for $100 a piece just to unload them.  The purchase price on these were a little bit cheaper since I was able to use a 10% off Target gift card to purchase one of them.  The average price of purchase was $80.03.  This brought me a profit of $19.97 per unit.

Here are the results:

My SNES Reselling Results Are In

Facebook Local Issues

I have sold small things on Facebook local before but had some issues trying to resell these.  Some members of these groups seem to think it is a crime reselling for a profit.  I received 20-25 comments on my post and all but two were people complaining about me selling for a profit.  They warned that Nintendo will be releasing a ton of these and you could get them at the store.  I am not sure why people cared or thought it was worth their time. If someone wants to pay more for convenience why would you care.  Some thought it was their personal mission to prevent the sale and I found it annoying and ultimately hilarious.  If you are in need of a chuckle look no further!

Conclusion

When it was all said and done I was able to clear $108.19 for the 5 systems with a rate of return of 26.31%.  Not bad overall but definitely not as good as the NES system last year.  The sale prices were better if you were able to get your systems early on.

I don’t know if my area was saturated or if people just weren’t all that interested in the system since I struggled to sell them via Craigslist and Facebook Local.  The margins were better selling it via eBay even with the increased costs.  I expected higher sales figures on eBay, since it reaches more people, but I thought the rate of return would have been better with person to person selling.

With these results I am not sure if I will get involved when the Nintendo 64 one comes out in a year or so.  I think a lot of people still have the original 64 in their houses, I do, and there won’t be as much demand.  I am surprised Nintendo didn’t start making more NES systems to be honest.  The nostalgia was highest with that system and that is why it sold so well.

 

How did you end up doing with your SNES sales?  Did you end up running into similar issues?  Let me know in the comments!

 

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Lower Spend - Chase Ink Business Preferred® 100K!

Chase Ink Business Preferred® is a powerful card that earns 3X Ultimate Rewards points in a broad range of business categories on the first $150K in spend per year. Right now earn 100K Chase Ultimate Rewards points after $15K $8K spend in the first 3 months with a $95 annual fee.

Learn more about this card and its features!


Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Mark Ostermann
Mark Ostermann
Mark Ostermann is a father, husband and miles/points fanatic. He left the corporate world after starting a family in order to be a stay at home dad. Mark is constantly looking at ways to save money and stay within budget while also taking awesome vacations with his family. When he isn't caring for his family or taking a weekend trip, Mark is working towards his goal of visiting every Major League Baseball ballpark.

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

9 COMMENTS

    • That is true. I am more of a niche reseller so I have never really considered it because of that. But I should probably look into it more and see if it makes sense.

    • Reselling earns a lot of miles and points which in turn gets you free travel. Resellers provide a service to people who don’t have the time to track an item down. Do you think a $15 mark up is unreasonable to not have to spend time looking for an item? I guess so. Most people would value their time above $15 an hour.

    • Maybe this is not the right group for you. When we buy products in high demand to resell, we spend our time getting them when some people don’t want to or can’t spend the time required. I value my time very highly so, I charge accordingly. It’s not like we are selling sold out bottled water during a hurricane, what we sell are wants, not needs. What we do is for a certain audience, obviously, you are not part of it. Move on, I wish you the best.

  1. I personally like it when I am able to buy hi demand underpriced products from resellers. Saves me time, effort, and worry, which all have value. My wife on the other hand, thinks that resellers of such items are, well I can’t use those words on a public forum. I think you guys provide a valuable service, she thinks you keep poor kids from getting their dream toys.

    • I can definitely see it from both sides Steve. If someone wants to put in the effort then they can usually get what they want and if they don’t want to this opens up the opportunity for them to get it without hassle. It all depends on how much that person values their time. Thanks for the comment!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related

7,703FansLike
9,903FollowersFollow
16,444FollowersFollow