A few years ago, I decided that my love and passion for video games had to be self-sustainable. I could no longer use every piece of disposable income to buy the latest and greatest releases, or that long-lost game I loved as a kid but everyone hates in retrospective (I’m looking at you, “Sonic 3D Blast”). So, over the years, I’ve developed a few strategies for my collection to pay for itself. Today, we’ll talk about importing video games as an investment, and whether it’s a good way of sustaining a collection, or even making additional income.
I think one of the first things you need to take into consideration when thinking about importing games as an investment, is that there are other alternatives that may, depending on your particular skillset, prove more profitable. For example, a family member (who is also very much into gaming) has decided to go into trading in order to supplement his income. He’s had to do research regarding the differences between cfd vs stock trading, but there are enough resources out there to complement your journey. He’s doing quite well, actually, and has quit his “day job” to focus on trading full time. Trading is definitely something to look into if you’re thinking about investment, though, both in the long term and in the short term, too. The reality is that, if you’re able to predict the market well enough (something that applies to importing video games, too), you’ll be able to have a substantial additional income from it. Again, it’s worth mentioning that CFD and stock trading each have their own minutia to consider, and you can do it even if you don’t want to own the underlying assets, as is the case with CFD trading.
Let’s go back for a moment to importing games as an investment, though, there are a few things you need to take into consideration here as well.
The first is your target audience for reselling. You need to be aware of fluctuations in the market. Just to give a broad example, I know for a fact that, where I live, it’ll be much easier for me to buy and sell PS4 and XBox One games than SNES or Gameboy games, even though the latter may be more valuable. The reality is that my local market does not hold much interest in retro gaming or collecting.
I’ve personally imported a few games from Japan, specifically, and for the PS Vita, there are a couple of things to consider here as well: the Vita, unlike the 3DS, is not region-locked. So, it’ll be easier to find a buyer for an imported Vita game than a 3DS game, as the 3DS game will only play on system belonging to the region it was purchased on. This makes international buying and selling of 3DS games more difficult. The Vita games I bought not only played perfectly fine on any Vita console, regardless of the region, but they also had English subtitles. This broadens the audience for the games exponentially, and allows you to enjoy games from other regions that might not have seen a physical release in your own market. For me, that was the case with Final Fantasy X-2, which was only available as a digital download when purchasing the physical version of the collection (which included Final Fantasy X and X-2).
You need to consider, therefore, your current market situation, competition, and the specifics of the types of games you’re wanting to import and resell.
Was there a market for them? Sure! I was able to easily find a new home for them, though it takes a bit of looking around in order to find the right marketplace. But it is like anything else, really. You can earn money by importing games and reselling them, but you also have a lot of factors to consider. Depending on your inclination, you may prefer to invest in cfd or stock trading, like my cousin. That’s definitely a career path that, done well, will provide you with a supplementary income. The choice, in the end, is up to you. Hopefully, though, you now have more information to make the right decision regarding how to increase your revenue stream and support your collection.
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