I pulled every sold video game listing in the Flippr database, about 1.6 million sold eBay listings, and split them by condition. I expected new games to sell for more than used ones. What surprised me was where the money actually is. It is not in the disc or the cartridge. It is in the plastic wrap.
The numbers
Here is the median sold price by condition, filtered to sales between $1 and $300 to keep outliers from skewing things. Pre-Owned games: $15.00 median across 1.21 million sold listings. New (Other), which is eBay's label for new but opened, no seal, or missing packaging: $17.99 median across 209,000 sold listings. Brand New, meaning factory sealed: $28.36 median across 238,000 sold listings.
Look at the gaps. An opened 'new' game only sells for about 20% more than a plain used copy. Three dollars. But a sealed copy sells for 58% more than that opened new copy, and 89% more than a used one. The averages tell the same story: $23.15 used, $25.87 new but opened, $40.33 sealed.
This means the seal itself is worth more than the jump from used to new. Buyers are not really paying for a game that has never been played. They are paying for the fact that nobody has ever opened it.
Why the seal matters this much
The used games market prices a game by what it plays like. The sealed games market prices it like a collectible. Once the wrap comes off, a game drops out of the collector market entirely and lands in the regular used market, where it competes with a million other copies. That is why New (Other) prices sit so close to Pre-Owned. Without the seal, 'new' is just a nicer word for used.
What to do with this at the thrift store
- If you find a sealed game, buy it. Even common titles carry the premium, and the median sealed sale is nearly double the median used sale.
- Never open a sealed game to check the disc. You just cut its value roughly in half.
- Do not pay extra for 'like new' or 'opened but never played' copies. The market pays about $3 more for those than for a regular used copy. Price them like used games when you are buying.
- When you list a sealed game, say sealed in the title and photograph the seal. That word is carrying most of the price.
The simple version: condition matters less than people think, and the seal matters more. A scuffed used copy and a mint opened copy sell for almost the same money. A sealed copy is a different product.
If you want to check this on the spot, scan the shelf with Flippr and look at the sold comps. The sealed listings will jump out at you, because they always sell high and they always mention the seal.