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It seems greedy stupid heads have decided to make my favorite hobby unavailable.
Not much time has passed since then DKOldies started popping up on social media, but their legacy of grossly overpriced retro games still lives on. At least for now.
WataGate has been exposed. But some believe that retro games are already dead. Here at The Ghetto Gamer, we believe that gaming—and especially retro gaming—should be a hobby that anyone can enjoy, even if they don’t have a lot of money. Unfortunately, the new trend is for Wata Games to rate games and then try to…
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Astute readers already know where I’m going. Yes, this post exists largely to promote the budget retro gaming store on this very site. But listen to me! As a longtime collector, I am forever annoyed by what corporato-capitalist thinking and big money invasions have done to my favorite hobby!
I have written at length on this topic… about how Heritage Auctions and Wata conspired to use their disproportionate financial resources to inflate game prices and manipulate the entire market. You may already know how they bought out the competition to combine practice positions monopoly graded vintage games market. And if you’re not interested in graded games, you should be even more upset.
Heritage and Wata are believed to have offered their own games at astronomical prices to attract the attention of major news outlets. The ensuing frenzy over million dollar NES games led to madness derpy ding-dongs raiding their parents’ attic and trying to sell their older brothers’ old copies of Mario/Duck Hunt for a million bucks. Retro game prices have skyrocketed just like Wata/Heritage planned. They got rich. We ruined our hobby. It’s messed up, dog.
Today, thanks to what Heritage/Wata caused and faced backlash, the hype is not what it used to be. But the damage remains. Capitalism only works in one direction. Prices that jump overnight can take years to come back down. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing now.
Enter DKOldies
Even after Watastrophe (yes, I made that up myself), retro games couldn’t be left alone. Public appetite was still high, and even though Wata/Heritage held a lower profile, the public interest needed a target.
If you haven’t heard of them, DKOldies is a retro game reseller that managed to blow up Tiktok, thanks to their nostalgic ordering/wrapping videos. The star of these videos… Some guy. I don’t remember his name, okay? But his moderate charisma, combined with the public’s interest in retro games, led to a rapid increase in popularity.
DKOldies existed years before jumping out. I have talked to the owner several times about becoming an affiliate or setting up some kind of referral program. The owner had no idea what I was talking about, never thought about it, had no interest in it… Amazing.
At the time I contacted them, their prices were quite reasonable. They were higher than eBay, but that’s to be expected for a company that has to pay for its own website, marketing, storage, and multiple employees. In return, you will get higher quality games. right? Well, I don’t know because I’ve never ordered from them.
But I got the impression from the owner that he is not interested in helping anyone. He seemed mildly offended at the prospect of ripping me off a few percent for referring him business. Which seems normal. To each their own, I guess. But I think the main message was that he wasn’t interested in being part of the community.
As it turns out, I’m not the only one who has felt this way. I discovered this thread on reddit while finishing this article. The screenshot is at the beginning of this section, and here’s the link. The thread is full of anecdotes from other people and their, um… less than stellar interaction with DKOldies. They’re just not in a good mood, you know?
Fast forward a few years after the pandemic. DKOldies is famous and their prices are absolutely insane. But I don’t really think it’s a price increase. Or, at least, not intentionally inflated prices.
Ascending Spiral DK
From my own experience reselling vintage games, I’ve learned what a daunting task it is to maintain a steady inventory. Some items sell out as soon as they are in stock. This is not good. Imagine every potential customer visiting your store, looking for their childhood favorites, only to find “Out of Stock” over and over again… That’s bad for business. And the only way to stop it is to maintain a larger and larger supply.
But these are games from 40 years ago. You can’t just make a wholesale order from a manufacturer. I’m sure that when DKOldies stumbled upon fame, they just couldn’t keep up with the constant, growing demand. So the only other way to control inventory is to… you know… raise prices.
The increase in volume would also have a major impact on the quality of the goods sent, and this was a significant confirmation, with many influencers calling their “refurbished” consoles and games of very low quality and not refurbished at all. How could they recover the number of units they moved?
I’m not saying that everything DKOldies has done is moral or “right”, but I totally understand what drove them to raise their prices to the outrageous levels they have. The more popular they became, the more expensive and lower quality they had to be.
And for what it’s worth, the number of anti-aircraft DAKAs received was probably out of proportion to the degree of their cunning. Yes, they deserved to be called, but the number of callers who were just chasing influence was huge.
Nevertheless…
Why can’t we have nice things
But I certainly don’t deny the negative impact their popularity and subsequent price increases have had on retrogaming as a trading community. Increased attention to the limited item continued to drive up prices even as the Wata/Heritage silliness died down.
Today the retro bubble burst. Like Some popular DKOldies items are still expensive. Wata still rates the games and Heritage still pretends to auction them. But all the accusations and shaming of society brought all these things back to a manageable level.
If you look at the average price of NES games today, you’ll see that it’s still outrageously higher than it was before the pandemic. And they will probably never go all the way down. But if you want to collect and buy NES games at a decent price, you should avoid DKOldies in favor of your local store.
If you’re not lucky enough to live near a retro game store, you’d do well on eBay or… hey, here’s an idea! You can order right here!
hey this a site for selling games. What a coincidence?!
The Ghetto Gamer does no share the same inventory issues as other store sites. The movement here is slow and my priority is growth, not profit. So, for now, at least, you can find some great titles right here.
My prices are competitive with the cheapest eBay sellers, but with more emphasis on actually cleaning and actually testing all the games I sell. Everything in my shop is guaranteed basic quality with minimal cosmetic sticker/cartridge damage.
All games purchased on this site are double tested, meaning I don’t sell them until they are clean enough to run twice in a row on the first load without having to move or blow into the bin. Seriously, don’t blow NES cartridges. It is not good for them.
I hope this article was informative, and I hope my little sales pitch isn’t too annoying. I really believe in the quality of these products and am excited about the idea of destroying the parasitic cottage industry that has sprung up around the resale of vintage games. When sellers have competition, that means lower prices for everyone.
So please: look around. If you see something you like, know that you are buying a quality item and you stick to a person.
Thanks and happy hunting!
~Steve