Retro media and gaming in Sweden: 876 adverts

What is actually in this category

There are 876 live electronics adverts from Sweden on Seekuro, and the name of the category sets the wrong expectation. This is not a shelf of new phones and laptops. It is physical media and retro gaming, with a thin layer of older consumer hardware on top.

The current adverts make that plain. Films on disc dominate: sealed copies of Octopussy with Roger Moore, The Incredible Hulk, The Interpreter with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, 10 Cloverfield Lane with John Goodman, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. Games follow: Silent Hill HD Collection for PlayStation 3 still sealed, loose Xbox titles, a Swedish release of Mr Gimmick for the 8 bit Nintendo. Music keeps appearing too, on vinyl and CD. And then the hardware itself, mostly a generation or two old: a Sony Ericsson K750i, the kind of phone people now buy on purpose rather than by accident.

Everything in the Swedish electronics category comes from Tradera, the auction marketplace, which explains the mix. Auction sellers clear collections; shops list current stock.

What it costs

Asking prices run from about 1 to 2,695 Swedish crowns, and the middle of the market sits at 89 crowns. Those three numbers describe the category better than any description.

The bottom is enormous and cheap. Single DVDs, loose game discs without boxes and common CDs change hands for a few crowns, often less than the postage. Around the 89 crown middle are sealed films, complete boxed games for current generation consoles and working older phones. The top, up towards 2,695 crowns, is where scarcity lives: sealed first run games, regional releases like the Swedish Mr Gimmick, complete console bundles, and hardware that has become collectable rather than merely old.

If you are buying to use rather than to collect, almost everything you want is in the bottom third.

Sealed, complete, or loose

This category runs on three words, and the price difference between them is larger than most people expect.

Sealed means the factory wrapping is intact and unbroken. It commands the highest price and it is also where misdescription is most common. Ask for a photograph of the seal seams and corners. Ask whether the wrap has ever been cut and resealed, which is a known practice. For older stock, ask whether the seal is original factory wrap or a later shop rewrap.

Complete in box, usually written CIB, means the case, the manual, any inserts and the disc or cartridge are all present. Ask for a photo of the contents laid out side by side. A missing manual halves the price of some titles.

Loose means the disc or cartridge alone. It is the cheapest and the most honest category, and for playing rather than collecting it is the sensible buy.

Checking that it works

Discs and cartridges fail quietly, so ask specific questions rather than "does it work".

For discs, ask the seller to look at the data side against a light and describe the scratches: fine surface marks are usually harmless, deep circular scratches and any cloudiness near the centre are not. Ask whether it has been tested in a machine recently, and on what.

For cartridge games, ask for a photo of the connector pins. Green corrosion means it will need cleaning and may not run.

For older phones and hardware, the battery is the thing that has aged, not the device. Ask whether it holds a charge, whether it swells, and whether the original charger is included. A Sony Ericsson from that era uses a connector you cannot buy in a shop today.

For anything with a screen, ask for a photograph of it switched on, showing a bright image. A photograph of a dark screen hides everything.

Writing the advert

Collectors and players both search by exact title, platform and region, so put all three in your title. "Silent Hill HD Collection PlayStation 3 sealed" is findable. "PS3 game" is not.

Name the region and the language. In Sweden this matters more than almost anywhere: Swedish releases, Nordic multi-language editions and imported English versions of the same title are different products with different prices. A Swedish release of an 8 bit game can be worth several times its international version.

State sealed, complete or loose in the first line, and never leave it to the photographs.

Photograph the front, the back, the spine, the disc or cartridge itself and any damage. Shoot in daylight against a plain background. For sealed items, a close photograph of the seal is the single most useful picture you can take.

Because Seekuro publishes your advert in six languages, a Swedish regional release becomes visible to collectors in Germany, Finland, Norway and Spain, which is exactly where the buyer for an unusual regional edition usually is.

Postage and payment

The great advantage here is weight. Discs, cartridges and small hardware post anywhere in Europe cheaply, and that is why this category travels across borders better than furniture ever will.

Pack discs so the case cannot flex. A cracked jewel case arriving in a padded envelope is the most common complaint in this category. Use a rigid mailer or a small box with filling.

For sealed collectibles, do not put tape on the wrapping, ever. Wrap the item in paper first, then tape the paper.

Agree postage before the price on cheap items, because a 20 crown disc with 60 crowns of postage is a different deal from the one the buyer thought they were making.

For anything above a few hundred crowns use a tracked service, and for sealed collectibles consider insurance. The item cannot be replaced if it is lost, and that is the whole reason it was worth something.