Selling Your Video Games in Japan
I’ve been wanting to write this article for a very long time. I had planned to write about which stores in Japan gave the best prices when trying to sell your modern and retro video games, consoles, and accessories, but I had many people tell me “why bother?” so I put it on the back-burner. You see, most people will tell you that if you are going to sell something, you should sell it online. Now in the USA and other countries, there are plenty of ways to do this. You can do this on Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, and a number of other places but in Japan your choices are a bit more limited. There are places like Mercari, and I’m guessing you could sell overseas too if you are willing to pay the increasingly expensive shipping prices, but as with any sale where shipping is involved you run the danger of having things go wrong in shipment, crazy claims being made by the buyer, and a number of other things. The Japanese language is another layer of difficulty people run into here using Japan based apps.
Sometimes you just want to sell things in person so you don’t get ripped off, can negotiate a price, or so that you can get the money from the sale immediately. In these situations, selling to shop is probably the best course of action (if you haven’t tried selling through places like Facebook Marketplace already and failed). In the USA where I’m from, you are rather limited in where you can sell games to shops. You have Gamestop, which is always been notoriously bad when it comes to trade-in credit, and you also have your local and regional physical media retailers with places like Half-Priced Books, Disc Replay in the Midwest, and a few other chains. In Japan it is a lot easier. There is always going to be a few places to sell things nearby, both in the cities and in the suburbs, but because there are so many it can be difficult to decide who to sell to.
I should note that if you are going to be selling things to shops in Japan, there is a good chance you won’t be able to do it unless you have residence in Japan. That means you’ll need to have an address in Japan, and also probably a green card (zairyu card). Some places might take a Passport as ID, but for some of the bigger shops I have visited they only take IDs issued in Japan. You aren’t out of luck though if you have a friend in Japan that can sell stuff for you, but keep in mind that if you are going to try and get “English” value out of games in Japan, you are going to be fresh out of luck. Prices in Japan overall are still much lower than overseas, and that means trade in value is also lower. However, if you play your cards right and wait for the right moment, you can make some good money.
The Idea and the Goods
I knew the stores I wanted to visit and try to sell my game stuff to, but choosing what to sell was a bit trickier. I had a couple of goals when I started this project at the end of July: I wanted to try and sell both English and Japanese games, I wanted to try selling both retro and newer type games, I wanted to see who bought accessories and who didn’t, I wanted to try selling both cheaper and more expensive games, and I wanted to try and sell some hardware. Aside from selling to a variety of different stores, I also wanted to try and sell at places that were both busy with a lot of foot traffic, and in places that were not as busy to see if that affected how much a place offered you.
Here are the items I took to these stores to try and sell. As you can see they are all in boxed and complete condition aside from the GBA Micro. To help understand their value, I have added their Pricecharting prices below:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = around $18
- Prince of Persia (PS3, JP) = around $8
- G-Gundam (PS1) = around $15
- Crazy Taxi (Gamecube, JP) = around $35
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = around $15
- Uncharted (PS3, PAL) = around $5
- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC, JP) = around $80
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = around $220
- a GBA Micro carry case = ?
- a GBA SP Headphone adapter headphone set = ?
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 (DS, USA) = around $90 (at the time)
- NBA Street, Vol 2 (PS2, USA) = around $45
I tried to keep the list of games and others things I wanted to sell uniform, but after the first few shops I went to I decided to change some things around so you might see that my lists are different from place to play. Going to a variety of shops, even here in a large city like Osaka, took some time. There was a lot of traveling involved and what started at the end of July didn’t finish until the first week of October. This might have caused some changes in game value, but overall I would say that Japan’s current trend is offering more for used games and hardware so if that was the case it wouldn’t really affect me taking more than 2 months to complete my research. You could consider these the “summer” prices on games.
Store Types and Results
A normal suburban Book Off (with low inventory)
- Can you sell English items there? = No
- Can you sell accessories there? = No
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 300 yen
- Prince of Persia (PS3, JP) = 200
- G-Gundam (PS1) = 50
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 300
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 30000
I wasn’t surprised that this place didn’t take English items, most local places like normal Book Offs rarely do. Accessories are also a hard sell in these locations, so not taking accessories made sense too. I was a little disappointed by their buylist prices for software, but their buying price for the Gameboy Micro seemed amazing. I don’t know why they were offering so much for it at the time, but I do know that as of late, the Micro has become more popular in Japan and that I’ve seen most places selling loose ones for over 30k yen, and boxed ones are going for about 40k plus. It could be that mine was also a rarer model.
While their software buying prices were low, I did want to point out that Book Offs will sometimes have special buy back specials for games in order to replenish their stock. This could be plus 20 or 30% value for everything traded in, or it could be a special trade in bonus for every 5 games you trade in that are worth more than 100 yen. I’ve seen coupons on their app saying similar things, and I’ve also seen flyers at stores where you get plus 1500 yen trade in on 5 games, plus 3000 yen on 10 games, and plus 5000 yen trade in on 15 games. If you’re patient, you can end up doing alright selling to Book offs, but otherwise you are out of luck if you need cash asap.
A normal suburban Hard Off (with high prices)
- Can you sell English items there? = Yes, if it can be checked
- Uncharted (PS3, PAL) = 10 yen
- Can you sell accessories there? = Yes
- Gameboy Micro Case = 2000 yen
- GBA SP Headphone adapter set = 500
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 400
- Prince of Persia (PS3, JP) = 10
- G-Gundam (PS1) = 200
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 30
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 12000
Hard Offs tend to be a good place to sell a wide variety of things. They were willing to take both English items and accessories at their chain on top of the usual Japanese games and region free hardware. They always tend to have cheap retro games for sale, so it wasn’t totally unexpected that their buylist prices would be low for them too. And while it was nice that they were willing to buy overseas versions of games, for what they were offering it’s not worth it. The price they offered on the Gameboy Micro seemed about in line with the market value in Japan since most places will buy low and double up on their investment.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that my accessories had some value at Hard Off. If you’ve ever visited one, you know that they have tons of accessories in their junk bins to look through, but they also tend to have pretty good accessory sections for retro game stuff too.
A Furuichi (with normal prices and high traffic)
- Can you sell English items there? = No
- Can you sell accessories there? = No
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 500
- Prince of Persia (PS3, JP) = No value
- G-Gundam (PS1) = No value
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 100
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 10000
- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC, JP) = 4000
The Furuichi chain isn’t really known for selling a lot of hardware (though you can find some pretty nice boxed items there from time to time), but I still thought they were lowballing me with the buylist price of the Gameboy Micro. There were also a few games they weren’t taking at this shop I went to because I guess they didn’t have enough value to devote shelf space too. One good thing about Furuichi though is that they are focusing on collecting more popular titles and series to sell to tourists, and they actually offered a decent price on Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. I wasn’t able to price it at other places since this was the first time I brought it along with me to sell, but I could have been happy with that.
A Book Off Plus (with high prices and traffic)
- Can you sell English items there? = No
- Can you sell accessories there? = No
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 1200
- Crazy Taxi (Gamecube, JP) = 200
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 100
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 12000
- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC, JP) = 3700
Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed in this store. Their prices are always super high on both hardware and software, so I thought that was going to translate into better buylist prices, but instead I got hit with normal or worse ones. First off, let’s start with the Gameboy Micro. I was offered 30k yen for it at a normal Book Off in the suburbs, but they only offered me 12000 yen for it and said it was because it was missing the serial number sticker on the back. They were the first place to mention that, so it seems like they were probably just creating a reason to low-ball me here on that.
I was also kind of disappointed with their buy prices on most of their hardware. They seemed to give decent cash if it was one of of those sought after items that are popular with tourists, but otherwise they didn’t care. I might consider selling Oracle of Seasons to them in the future, but otherwise I would probably skip over this place to sell things.
A Surugaya (with normal prices and traffic)
- Can you sell English items there? = Yes, if they can be tested
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS, USA) = 800
- Can you sell accessories there? = Yes, if it scans into their system
- Gameboy Micro case = 10 yen
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 600
- Crazy Taxi (GameCube, JP) = 1620
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 350
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 9500
- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC, JP) = 2800
Surugaya’s usually have pretty good selections of games, and their cases are usually full of handhelds, so it kind of baffled me that their offers were so low on both the Gameboy Micro and Zelda. I managed to get a decent offer on some of the other software I was trying to sell, but there were still other places that offered more so I decided to hold off. It seems like older retro stuff is also harder for them to price when it comes to things like accessories. This specific store had a hardware and accessory aisle that was pretty sparse, and for the prices they were offering people it’s no wonder why.
It was nice to know that you can trade in English games at this shop (you sometimes see them for sale on the shelves and in cases at Surugayas), but it seems like their pricing systems don’t really keep up with what the world market has games priced at for outside of Japan. I took the Kingdom Hearts DS game in when I saw it had spiked to around $80 in the USA, but only getting 800 yen wasn’t worth it. I also want to point out that while you can sell a variety of things at Surugayas (like anime figures, stuffed animals, games, model kits), they don’t seem to have that efficient of a system. If you go to larger stores you can expect a long wait in line, especially if it’s a weekend.
Super Potato (retro game specialty shop) with high prices and traffic
- Can you sell English items there? = Yes, if checkable
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS, USA) = 1000 yen
- Can you sell accessories there? = Yes
- Gameboy Micro Case = 300 yen
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 1200
- Crazy Taxi (Gamecube, JP) = 2200
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 0
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 4000
- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC, JP) = 3000
To say that Super Potato is picky would be an understatement. They were very picky about scratches on games and offered me nothing on Ergheiz, and they said that my B button on my Gameboy Micro was pressed in and therefore only offered 4000 yen for it. First time I heard of it (perhaps it was from their testing though?). If it was in better condition they did say they would probably offer 15000-18000 yen for it, but this is the store that is selling loose Micros for 45000 yen, and boxed ones for close to 70k so it seemed kind of shady to me.
In Super Potato’s defense they did offer decent prices on good condition games like Crazy Taxi and Zelda, but again it wasn’t the best prices that I had been offered for them so I passed. Another plus was that they took in accessories, as well as foreign games (as long as they could test them out in shop to make sure they worked).
A medium-sized Mandarake (with normal prices and traffic)
- Can you sell English items there? = Yes, if it can be checked
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 (DS, USA) = 700
- Can you sell accessories there? = No
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 400
- Crazy Taxi (Gamecube, JP) = 1500
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 50
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 15000
- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC, JP) = 3000
Mandarakes are sprinkled throughout Japan and they used to be really expensive, but since the retro boom over the last year or so almost every other chain seems to have caught up with them in price so shopping there could actually save you some money in the long run. That being said, their prices are still slightly higher than most places, but they could give Surugaya a run for their money. Thankfully they pay better than Surugaya as well.
Mandarake seems to be focused on having both a large selection of games, as well as having popular games in stock which is why you’ll get decent buylist prices on things like Zelda (popular) and Crazy Taxi (a bit rarer). They also offered a decent amount on the Gameboy Micro, and that’s probably because Mandarake doesn’t usually carry that much hardware. Most of their retro game stock is in software, and also books/guides.
A Book Off Super Bazaar in the suburbs (with low inventory)
- Can you sell English items there? = No
- Can you sell accessories there? = No
- Prices offered on cheaper things:
- Mario 64 DS (JP) = 300
- Crazy Taxi (Gamecube, JP) = 200
- Ergheiz (PS1, JP) = 0
- Prices offered on expensive things:
- Gameboy Advance Micro (Loose, USA) = 39000 yen
- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC, JP) = 3700
This Book Off Super Bazaar was the last place on my list of places to check out and I’m glad I did. I’m pretty sure they took a loss on buying my Gameboy Micro, but thanks to a special buylist bonus offer, I was able to get +30% value on the handheld electronic so I ended up getting 39000 yen. Needless to say I took that price and sold it right then and there. I was going to go back to that first Book Off and try to sell it there after finishing all the research for this article, but I really lucked out with this place. The buylist for the Gameboy Micro was so good that I didn’t even care how horrible their buy prices were for everything else. Okay, the Zelda price was pretty good, but everything else was abysmal.
The conclusion and my advice
I know, it seems like that was a lot of data to sift through and it probably won’t be useful to many of you living outside of Japan, but I thought that it would be good to know in future for myself, and if I can help out other people with this information it will be worth it. So what can we derive from this? Which place has the best buying prices and where should you sell? Well, that’s a little complicated.
Overall I would say that the winner is Book Off, Book Off Super Bazaar, and Book Off Plus stores (outside of the one I went to in Osaka). The reason for this is their trade in bonuses that are offered at random times throughout the year. They do it on a variety of items outside of video games too, but for games it is especially useful. It seems to be triggered by stores that are lower in stock and want to refill their shelves, but sometimes it is a chain wide seasonal campaign that can be done at any store. The best way to find out when these are happening would be to download the Book Off app on your phone and to check the “Buy” button (売る） or “Coupon” tab sometimes. Local Book Offs will also do their own buyback campaigns from time to time (as I stated above), so keep an eye out for posted flyers stating how much extra money you can get for trading in things.
Super Potato seems like they will give you the best price on complete items that are in great condition, so if you have barely used collector items, check them out first before going to other ones to see if their buylist prices can be beaten. Mandarake might be okay for those sort of things too.
Hard Offs seem like the best place to trade in your gaming accessories, and if you are looking to get rid of foreign games from North America or Europe, you best bets are going to be Mandarake, Super Potato, Surugaya, and possibly Hard Offs in that order, but don’t expect to get overseas level prices for them. Also this is only for games that can be checked so if it’s a rare game from a region locked system such as a PS2 or PS1, you won’t be able to sell it to them. All your handheld stuff should be fine though, as long as it’s not from the 3DS.
Personally I will be waiting for buylist prices to go up further in Japan before I try selling stuff to stores, but I will always keep an eye out for big buyback campaigns that will let me get bonuses for my higher value items or let me get more money for my lower priced things. I will also try to sell stuff locally if I can through people I know, or on Facebook marketplace, but at least now I know what I can try to sell my things for that are between what can be gotten locally, and what can be gotten online to maximize my profits.
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