Ah yes, living in the day in age of retro video games. How could we forget about them? Well, that depends on the pricing if it's well spent. For so many years, the retro gaming community has been expanding to a much larger audience. When I say that, I really mean it in somewhat of a positive way. For the vast majority of people who want to buy old games and old consoles, they can look online for discounts and cheaper prices. However due to inflation, prices have been skyrocketing and that is what this company does for something so little. DKOldies sell old games as well as old consoles but sells them in such a broken damaging way that they clearly cannot be trusted (obviously).
Brief History / Origin:
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| DKOldies Website on January 22, 2007. |
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| DKOldies Website on September 2, 2011. |
DKOldies was founded in January of 2003 by Drew Steimel. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only company that Drew owns as well as operates. There website was created in 2005 but it was under a different name called MarketPlace Advisor. Once the website was up and running (roughly a year later in 2006), users who would come onto the site can buy old video games and consoles at a very cheap price (more on that later). Even though the website was called DKOldies, it was still under a different URL titled marketworks.com (at the time I'm making this post, that website has been defunct). Their stock was quite limited back in the day but as time progressed, they were able to expand their line of games/consoles as well as keeping the prices affordable compared to the competitors. Things weren't looking too well for DKOldies back in 2008 during the financial collapse but luckily, they were able to get back on their feet a year later. The main store is based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and they used to do customer walk-ins, but they don't do that anymore.
Why Their Scummy:
Overpriced Systems & Games / Damage & Disgusting Products / Misleading Claims:
The suckiest thing is high prices as well as inflation and it makes it hard to buy anything. With DKOldies it's pretty much what it is and they're losing to the competitors. This is the first thing I wanted to discuss and that the biggest issue with DKOldies is the overpriced consoles as well as the games on their site. Especially something that is refurbished or cosmetically flawed (which will talk about a little later), we shouldn't be making a comparison between them and something like Ebay. $250-$300 for just one original Xbox and one controller when you can look at pre-owned ones on Ebay with more controllers including games for much much cheaper. Another example is the Nintendo NES Zapper Pak with 3 games and 2 controllers and the Lightgun for $300 which seems passible if you think about it, but just simply doing the math is nowhere near that. Once again, we shouldn't be making a comparison.
Apart from the overpriced consoles and games, there's also damage and defective products. Several different YouTubers like ReviewTechUSA, Jacob R and Kang Fasho (many more videos if you search up DKOldies on YouTube) made videos about DKOldies and the systems they got. On their website, you have the option to select either 'Good Condition' or 'Cosmetically Flawed' based on what type of console. Many of the "Refurbished" consoles they sell are either defective, damaged, disgustingly dirty or even other problems like errors for reading games incorrectly (as opposed to the bullshit claims they have on their videos). The worst part about it is that even if you bought any console with a controller, you're somewhat likely to get something that is complete aftermarket (in other words from a 3rd party). That's exactly what Jacob got when he bought a good condition refurbished xbox 360 for $145. While the console worked, the end result was a 3rd party controller, broken controller doors on the front and even a weak connector output (so he just got the cosmetically flawed version).
Speaking of Disgustingly Dirty, let's talk about their bullshit claims that apparently, they do. That's also another thing, customers who received their consoles and games have to clean them which adds on to the annoyance. On their YouTube channel as well as the various social medias they have, they post a dozen videos every single day and it's mostly on shipping games to people and asking questions. A couple of questions they got asked for was "Is DKOldies a scam?" and "Why are your prices so high?" The guy who maintains and produces all of the videos answered them without any hesitation which is the scary part but when connecting the puzzle pieces together, they're in it for the money and less about quality control. It's all bogus at this point. Their marketing scheme is essentially buying consoles/games with whatever they have and reselling them with a very intense price gouge. There honestly just as bad as banggood where everything comes broken and defective. In other words, GaroShadowscale.
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One other thing I wanted to cover (and I saved this one for last) was the reviews and responses from the community. When it comes to the review sites and the trustworthiness, DKOldies have a 3 out of 5 on Trustpilot while other websites like Glassdoor and PissedConsumer sit between 2 to 2.5 out of 5. Many of the complaints involved some of the things I talked about including overpricing, damage yet defective and some of the dirtiest products. It was also trending on twitter with the #DKOldies and on YouTube everywhere. It's also crazy to think that this particular drama came to the light pretty recently. On top of this, they respond to every review with them trying to make things right.
Here is one of the responses from them. Here, they're replying to a customer about the prices being astronomically high. It's considered to be a pathetic excuse because what they're saying is that they have to keep up with stock but in actuality it's based on inventory. Also, one last little thing is their warranty. On their website they offer a 1-year warranty which is ridiculously low but whatever. Based on the response, they only offer a 120-day warranty instead, so they're cheeping out on that. Whatever I'm done talking about them. You can also emulate the games themselves for free by downloading some emulation software.
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