Glossary
Retro game store glossary
The words a used and retro game store runs on. Each one marks a real difference: what you are holding, what it is worth, and what still has to happen to it.
Browse by decision
Each page answers one question a store has to answer.
What am I actually tracking?
Item, copy and title
What a store tracks when two of the same game are not the same thing: the item, the copy it represents, and the title they share.
Item, Copy, Title
What do I offer at the counter?
Trade-in and offer
What a store puts in front of a seller, and why the number a lookup returns is not that number.
Trade-in, Offer
Which price band is this copy in?
Condition and completeness
What loose, complete-in-box and sealed mean, plus box-only and manual-only, and the check that comes before any of them.
Loose, Complete-in-box (CIB), Sealed, Box only, Manual only. Before those: Reproduction
What happens to this item next?
Workflow stages
The eight stages an item moves through between the buy and the shelf, the status for an item that cannot move, and one stage stores may add.
Intake, Testing, Cleaning, Repair, Needs Pricing, Photos, Final Check, Ready to Sell, Blocked. Optional: Grading
What is this worth, and what do I ask?
Market value, selling price and margin
The difference between the number the market suggests, the number the store chooses, and the gap that has to cover the work.
Market value, Selling price, Margin
Where is work piling up?
Queues and bottlenecks
Where work waits between stages, and which stage is holding the rest of the store back.
Queue, Bottleneck
All terms
Every term, alphabetically, if you already know the word you are looking for.
- BlockedWorkflow stages
- BottleneckQueues and bottlenecks
- Box onlyCondition and completeness
- CleaningWorkflow stages
- Complete-in-box (CIB)Condition and completeness
- CopyItem, copy and title
- Final CheckWorkflow stages
- GradingWorkflow stages
- IntakeWorkflow stages
- ItemItem, copy and title
- LooseCondition and completeness
- Manual onlyCondition and completeness
- MarginMarket value, selling price and margin
- Market valueMarket value, selling price and margin
- Needs PricingWorkflow stages
- OfferTrade-in and offer
- PhotosWorkflow stages
- QueueQueues and bottlenecks
- Ready to SellWorkflow stages
- RepairWorkflow stages
- ReproductionCondition and completeness
- SealedCondition and completeness
- Selling priceMarket value, selling price and margin
- TestingWorkflow stages
- TitleItem, copy and title
- Trade-inTrade-in and offer
Why the words matter
A store runs on shared language. When two people mean different things by the same word, items get worked on twice or not at all. These are the definitions the rest of the site uses. Put them to work in how to price used games for resale and how to grade used game condition.
From vocabulary to workflow.
RetroBase tracks every item through the stages this glossary defines, from Intake to Ready to Sell, alongside your POS.
Choose RetroBase as a preferred source and Google shows these pages to you more often.
