I noticed in the old school video games rarity lists that for some games there is a big difference between loose copies to cib (complete in box) copies.
I was thinking, maybe its a good strategy to try and hunt down all the pieces of the game separetely- i.e. the game cartridge itself, the manual, and the box; as these tend to go for very cheap when sold by itself. Then, I would combine them and sell the game as a CIB copy for profit.
Does this sound like a viable strategy to make some money?
I think it can work, especially for games that are higher up on the rarity scale.
Though its not easy: You need patience and luck to find all the pieces you need for a game. Kind of like a puzzle. So for example if you are trying to gather all the pieces for a CIB Chrono Trigger (SNES) you need to keep watching auctions for the manual, the cartridge and the box. Might take time for all of them to show up.
Or another way is that you can just check whats availalble. So for example, if you see a certain video game box on ebay, check if the manual and the game itself are also available, and if they are, snatch'em all.
So bottom line, it can certainly work and bring some profit, but it requires time, luck, patience and determination - so this might not be for everybody.
I generally try to buy manuals, boxes, and game cartridges separately, especially for higher end rare games, because buying the complete game is usually too expensive. I don't do it for profit, just for my own collection, but I guess that like Jared said if you have patience you could make some profit out of it.
Yeah I think buying boxes and manuals separetly and then reselling as CIB can turn a bit of a profit for the more rare games