Guide · Starting a store
How to start a retro video game store
Where the inventory comes from, what each item costs you after the buy, and why what you can finish each week decides the size of the business.
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You have been selling games online for a while. You pick up a collection when one comes along, you know roughly what things are worth, and lately you have started wondering whether this could be a real business instead of a good side income.
At that point most of the thinking goes into finding more inventory. The harder question is what happens to it after you buy it.
The short version
The buying sets your margin. The work between buying and selling decides how much of that margin you ever collect, and how fast you can get through that work is the real limit on the business.
A retro store is a buying business
You can only sell a game for what someone will pay. What you pay for it is the one number you fully control, and it is set the minute you make the offer.
A store that sells well but buys badly runs out of margin. Stock comes from four places, and each one asks something different of you.
- Collections. A whole shelf at once, mixed condition, one negotiation, a lot of cash out in an afternoon.
- Customer trade-ins. Small, steady, unpredictable. Every item is its own decision at the counter.
- Local sourcing. Estate sales, flea markets, local listings. Cheap stock, expensive time.
- Online purchases. Reliable supply, thin margins after fees and shipping.
Trade-ins become the steadiest source once you have a counter, but only if you can make the same offer twice. See how trade-in values are calculated.
What you actually bought
A loose SNES cartridge comes in on a trade. Before it reaches a shelf, someone identifies the exact revision and confirms it is not a reproduction. Someone tests that it boots and saves. Someone cleans the contacts and the label, prices it, photographs it, and finds it somewhere to sit.
None of that is on the receipt. All of it is time, and the item holds your cash until it is done. A good price and a good buy are not the same thing. See how to grade used game condition and how to price used games for resale.
Your real limit is what you can finish
You buy a collection of 150 games on a Saturday. Three weeks later, 35 of them have been tested and priced. The rest are still in boxes behind the counter.
You did not buy 150 games. You bought 35 games and 115 unfinished ones, and the money for all 150 left the till on Saturday.
That is the real limit on a used-game store, and it is not your bank balance. It is how many items you can take from bought to sellable in a week. Buy faster than that and the difference piles up as cash you cannot reach.
So the better question is not how much inventory you need to open. It is how much you can finish in a week, and whether your buying stays inside that number.
Online first, or a storefront?
A shop changes where inventory comes from more than where it goes. Trade-ins start walking in without warning, which is the best supply a used-game store can have and the hardest to schedule.
It also raises the number you have to finish each week. Rent does not pause while a box waits for testing.
Online first is a smaller version of the same business, not automatically a better one. There is no walk-in supply, but you find your finishing rate before you are paying rent to discover it. A counter also means offers made face to face. See cash vs store credit trade-ins.
Naming the steps
Most of the mess comes from one thing: nobody can say what state an item is in without picking it up. These are the steps RetroBase uses, and they work the same written on a whiteboard.
- Intake
- Testing
- Cleaning
- Repair
- Needs Pricing
- Photos
- Final Check
- Ready to Sell
That is already most of the benefit. Every item sits at exactly one step, and the next person to touch it knows what to do without asking. See the full intake-to-ready-to-sell workflow, and tracking used video game inventory for giving each copy its own record.
When your setup becomes the bottleneck
A spreadsheet records what you own, and it can carry a store a long way. What it does not record is what each item is still waiting for, and that is the part that changes every day.
Warning signs
At that point you are no longer tracking inventory. You are tracking work. RetroBase tracks both, between Intake and Ready to Sell, and runs alongside your POS rather than replacing checkout.
When the work is harder to track than the inventory.
RetroBase tracks used and retro game inventory from Intake through Ready to Sell, including the work still waiting on each item. Your POS keeps the sale.
Give every item a status and a next step.
RetroBase shows what is in stock, what is still waiting on Testing, Cleaning, Repair or Photos, and what is Ready to Sell.
Frequently asked questions
How do I start selling retro games?
Buy a small amount of stock and sell it through one channel. The point of starting small is to find out how long it takes you to get an item from bought to sellable, before rent depends on the answer.
How much inventory do I need to open a retro game store?
There is no universal number, and a figure quoted as one is worth ignoring. The number that matters is how many items you can get tested, cleaned, priced and onto a shelf in a week. Inventory beyond that is cash you cannot reach.
Should I start selling online before opening a store?
It depends on what you want to learn first. Online has no walk-in trade-ins, which is the best supply a used-game store gets. It also has no rent, so a slow week costs you less.
Where do retro game stores get inventory?
Whole collections, customer trade-ins, local sourcing such as estate sales and flea markets, and online purchases. Each arrives at a different pace, so a store relying on one source has gaps the others would have covered.
Do I need a POS when I am just starting?
You need a way to take payment and record sales, and that is what a POS does. RetroBase is not a POS and does not replace one.
Can I manage game inventory in a spreadsheet?
Yes, and it is a reasonable place to start. A spreadsheet is good at recording what you own. It is poor at recording what each item is still waiting for, which is the part that changes daily.
How do trade-ins work in a retro game store?
The store identifies the item, checks its condition, tests it where possible, and works out what it is worth after the work it will still need. It then offers cash, store credit or both.
Written by
Burak EsenFounder, RetroBaseBuilding RetroBase with retro game store owners: the trade-in, pricing and inventory workflow between the buy and the shelf.More about RetroBase