Monday, November 11, 2013

Blockbuster World Championships II Sells at Goodwill for $10,500

Goodwill must be really happy they started their ShopGoodwill.com website.

Normally they would have sold this lot of Genesis games and consoles for $5-10 in one of their stores. But this time it sold for $10,500!

Why the high price? One of the games was the very rare Blockbuster World Championships II.

The game had not sold publicly since 2011.

Goodwill had no idea what it was worth. Bidding started at $1.00 and the game was listed as "NBA Jam Tournament Edition of Judge Dredd" with no mention of "Blockbuster World Championships" anywhere.

This very scenario is the reason Goodwill started their online website, but the reason collectors find fewer great deals at Goodwill stores.

21 comments :

Anonymous said...

Now there is one less incentive to go to goodwill stores in my area. They just put it on their website instead.

Anonymous said...

Very heavily considered this for a second the first day when I saw it for 900. Then they made it a featured item and those dreams died quickly.

PBR Light said...

I have found a few games at Goodwill recently so I'm not sure how they decide what goes online. Although it is disappointing to miss out on some gaming deals, at least the money is going to a charitable organizaition

Anonymous said...

anyone feel like the got kicked in the balls (missed out on BB Champ 2 and GoodWill no longer a good deal/find)

Anonymous said...

@PBR Light: I think it's up to the individual store owners what to put up. I'd imagine a mix of random overstock or items that don't sell well in their specific store. Either way if this was my local Goodwill, I'd be kicking myself in the ass for missing it. Hard.

Anonymous said...

What I like the most about Goodwill is how the pay disabled employees below minimum wage. Thank god for charities!

JJ Hendricks said...

@anonymous - I am no labor lawyer, but I'm pretty sure Goodwill pays at least minimum wage to all their employees. Non-profits don't get an exception.

Anecdotally, all the disabled Goodwill employee's I have ever spoken with seem to love their job. They are very happy.

Anonymous said...

$5 to $10?! Not where I'm from. They never sell video games and if they did they'd charge a good deal more than that. DvDs are $3. Goodwill is a rip off anymore.

MunsonRoyE said...

@JJ Hendricks Goodwill is allowed to higher people at less than minimum wage. Under Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, employers can apply for a special wage certificate that allows them to hire people with disabilities at a subminimum wage.

Goodwill cares more about profit than it does helping people. Just look up what the CEO makes for an annual salary. I always donate my items to local charities so that I know that the money is going to good use.

Steggy said...

This kind of thing is always a double edged sword. On one hand, if SGW.com didn't exist, then this game would have sold for 99c most likely. However, with today's climate, the person who would have most likely picked it up would have been a reseller, who then would have thrown it up on ebay anyway. God, even if you're a collector, how could you not be tempted to make a quick flip to pay for so much. Chances are unless you're the die hard collector with the need for completion, the game wouldn't be mandatory for your collection and you'd want to offload it. So one might think "oh I guess it's better the money goes to someone like Goodwill rather than a reseller". This is because people have some sort of misconception that Goodwill is some sort of NPO or charity like organization. They are a franchise; anyone can pay the money and open one up, and it's ran just like any other normal retailer. The incentive for donating/purchasing things from there is to simply have additional jobs in the country, albeit minimum wage ones. Yes, disabled etc. people get jobs, but this kind of website doesn't benefit them at all, the profit makes it to the top, and I highly doubt hitting the sales goal results in any bonus for the low level employees (meanwhile, Savers does actually does work as an NPO and partners with charitable organizations and passes bonuses down to employees when they make good money but still). It's just shitty that no matter how you slice it, the game was gonna get resold to fill somebody's pockets

JJ Hendricks said...

@Bill Parks - Thanks for letting me know about that rule under FLSA. I didn't know. It looks like roughly 7% of Goodwill employees earn below minimum wage under that provision.

@Steggy - Yes, someone was going to make money on the item. Either Goodwill, a buyer who resells it, a buyer who saved $10,000 by not having to pay market value, or even the original owner who sells it on eBay instead of donating it to Goodwill.

Goodwill is a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

Goodwill spends some of their money on things not related to their charitable cause, Administration and Fundraising. That is the same as pretty much every major charity. In Denver, where I live, Goodwill uses 86% of their funds towards charity. Charity Navigators says that ranks them in the top 94% of charities.

Anonymous said...

My favorite nonprofit is the NFL!

Anonymous said...

Mine is Susan B. Coleman. Just be careful if you use her trademark ribbon. One race for the cure found out LOL.

Anonymous said...

people commenting about missing this in a store...

haha..think if you were the poor individual who gave it away!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yea, especially if it was on their local news station.

Anonymous said...

It didn't sell. The game has been relisted by Goodwill, the bidder didn't pay for it.

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/auctions/Blockbuster-World-Video-Game-Championships-II-Sega-14796958.html

There's another one on ebay right now with a buy-it-now for $6000, why would anyone pay $10,500 for one when another in better condition is significantly cheaper? Especially when the one by Goodwill is untested.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161020126402

Unknown said...

Boosh!!

Anonymous said...

Goodwills CEO of southern California gets pay over a million a year. More than the southern california area manager of Walmart.

Anonymous said...

The second auction wasn't paid for so they put the game up on eBay today. $2,000 starting price, worth it, bad time of the year?

Anonymous said...

And they actually tested it!

Anonymous said...

lol i remember that auction, i put in the first bid on that lot hoping nobody would notice that gem lurking in the shadows of poor description. i thought holy shit what if i land this! and then that's when it started to slowly creep up in higher bids. no worries i thought, it comes with the console plus other games (price was still fair minus bb championship ii). then the auction just went ape shit and the thing took off.

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