It’s not much different than if you were to go to a business that buys and sells gold. They’ll have the current market rate on display and for video games eBay is a decent place to look for the market rate. With retro games there may at least be a bit of lag if they have prices directly on the games and not do something shady like looking up current prices at checkout.
What you said is definitely a problem though. The person selling a game should look at recent sold copies over the past 6ish months and consider the physical quality of the game in question to determine a price better; I don’t think a lot of shops put much time or thought into this aspect of it.
I don’t really know how you could do it any other way when retro games are a finite resource that isn’t being produced any more.
f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
At least they offer a substantial discount from eBay price.
“Well, this is what it goes for on eBay!”
Me: “No, that is the price it sits unsold on eBay. Refine search -> Sold items, my friend.”