Wholesale game suppliers?

July 12, 2005 9:34 PM

(How) can I, a private individual, buy video games wholesale?

I figure I've a decent feel for the market and can identify game that will stay valuable for a while, so maybe I could use ebay and turn a profit; all that's missing is a supply. The obvious google queries are saturated with uselessness, and the only "we will give you this for this much" answer I found only offered 50-count lots of assorted titles that belong in a bargain bin anyhow, which isn't what I'm after.

So, where do I legitimate suppliers? And just how much am I going to have to spend to get a decent price?

posted by squidlarkin to work & money (7 comments total)

You can't buy video games wholesale as a private individual. What you have to do is create a company, of whom you are the purchasing agent (and everything else, but they don't need to know that). Then you just call up Ingram and/or Baker & Taylor and tell them you want to set up an account. Note that for Ingram, at least, they're gonna ding you $100 up front and they're gonna keep it if you don't do at least $1500 in business your first two months. I didn't look at BAT's application form but presumably there is a lot of fine print to be read which may say something like that.
posted by kindall at 10:05 PM on July 12, 2005

Just to let you know, dealing with Ingram Micro, unless you're buying huge quantities (100+) and are friendly with a sales rep there, you'll be charged MORE than retail. I know this because I'm a computer store and won't shop there (Very few computer stores get product from places like these unless you see 20 or 30 staff in them. You need to be moving $1,000,000 every few months in merchandise for these guys to bother with you). IMHO, the fact that Apple distributes through these guys is why you don't find Macs on the shelves of your local hole-in-the-wall computer store (I'd love to sell them since it's a 2 hour drive to the closes Mac store in Canada... and this is Canada's most economically charged city, oddly enough)... but I digress.

Your best bet, IMHO, will be to kiss butt with some of the more seedy looking wholesale-type vendors in your local big city. Get your name in the phone book too, since it seems some of these guys check it for stores to telemarket (in this case a good thing since they don't even list themselves in the phone book).
posted by shepd at 11:00 PM on July 12, 2005

I don't mean to poke holes in your idea, but there's an almost zero profit margin for retailers when it comes to first-run games.
A friend of mine was looking into selling console games at their brick and mortar store a few years ago, and the best "wholesale" pricing arangement was 10% off of retail. I'm sure the big outfits get better deals, but its a racket for the smaller guys.
Good luck, though.
posted by dicaxpuella at 11:06 PM on July 12, 2005

shepd, Apple also has their own distribution channel that you can buy through. The more likely reason is that Apple products have notoriously small wholesale discounts no matter how you get them, and so just aren't as profitable for the retailer. (Which is fine by me; I'm not a big fan of middlemen.)

Maybe you can just drop by Fry's; on just-released popular games, they almost always sell $50 games for about $38 for the first week or two. I think they limit to one per customer though. ;) Guess they might even be taking a loss.
posted by trevyn at 12:08 AM on July 13, 2005

Offtopic, but Apple gives a low profit margin to retailers so that it's own Apple stores don't get undersold.
posted by furtive at 5:14 AM on July 13, 2005

Again, this doesn't directly answer your question, but how do you plan on making money? If you haven't thought about this stuff...

- Video games are a commodity. Zillions of games are sold on eBay. Why would anyone buy from you? You either need to be a known "brand" or compete on price, neither of which are working in your favor.

- Inventory. You're going to have to sink a significant initial investment into your stockpile of games. Any kind of plan that relies on getting the order, then attempting to fulfill by ordering from the wholesaler, is going to be a disaster. These are the companies who accrue bad reviews on eBay saying "never shipped my product, won't return emails."

- Fulfillment is a huge pain in the ass, especially if this is not your primary job.
posted by mkultra at 6:56 AM on July 13, 2005

how do you plan on making money?

Judging from these answers, I won't be. Which is what I wanted to know. Thanks!

someone needs to hire me, dammit.
posted by squidlarkin at 9:28 AM on July 13, 2005