Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Recently, Goozex made a change to their system that has been a long-time wish of many users, including myself: the addition of retro games to the list of titles that can be traded. Games go all the way back to the Atari VCS 2600 now, and as with modern games, can be traded as loose, with manual, or with manual and box. They’ve moved PS1 and Dreamcast games into the retro section as well. I have a bunch of these games that I’ve listed on the site, mostly into my non-trading stash of course, but I’ve noticed that there are some challenges here.

With a 1000 point limit on most games, there are a number of titles that are going to rapidly hit that ceiling and push on it. For example, the highly sought after Stadium Events, the North American version of which tends to sell in the tens of thousands of dollars on eBay, is standing at 200 points (about $10) as of this writing. Even if that hits the 1000 point ceiling, it’s still going to have to be some ignorant and hapless owner who lists it for trade. Even games that could be valued within the Goozex range are problematic. A loose copy of Castlevania Legends for Game Boy, for example, is probably worth about $25 or so, which would be maybe 500 points. On the other hand, I recently sold a complete in box copy for about nine times that on eBay, which is naturally well out of Goozex’s range. Legends is 150 points on there now, about $7. Castlevania Dracula X for SNES is already at that 1000 point ceiling, which is high for a loose cartridge copy (worth about $40), but very low for a complete in box copy, which can go for about $150 depending on condition and completeness. The impossibly rare Air Raid for Atari isn’t even present on the site.

There are, of course, other factors here that have always existed with Goozex, such as condition, reprints, and more. The whole Goozex concept is based around honor… if you’re trading a bashed up copy of a game, you really should tell the other party before shipping it out to make sure that’s OK. Goozex isn’t meant for collectors, it’s for gamers. Then there’s international trading. I had my account set for trading with Canada. With most modern games, there isn’t a significant difference in shipping cost to Canada. Some of these retro games, however, are a bit heavier. When they’re boxed, they should be shipped in boxes to protect them, which increases the weight. If the game’s only worth 100 points, you’ll end up losing money on shipping. As of today, I’ve switched back to US only.

My advice is to wait to trade away games you have that are worth more money. Do some research first. Over time, demand will bring the point values up to a fair price, if that’s even in Goozex’s range, and it will be worth it to trade. In the mean time, I have a pile of old Atari carts to list, so we’ll talk later.