Buying
Buying is free on every plan, including the free Hobbyist tier. You browse listings, buy outright or make an offer, and your payment is held under Buyer Protection until the item is delivered.
Browse and filter
Open Marketplace to see what's for sale. You can search by name, and filter by:
- Type: for sale, for trade, or both.
- Category: computer, console, handheld, game, accessory or other.
- Condition: a floor, not an exact match: choosing "Very good" also returns anything better.
- Price: a minimum, a maximum, or both.
- Ships from: a country, and a state, county or province within it.
- Collection in person: only listings the seller will let you collect.
Sort by newest, price low to high, or price high to low. Rails above the results surface listings from sellers you follow, ones that match your wishlist, and items rising in value.
Listings come from collectors' own collections or as standalone items, so you'll find a mix of consoles, computers, handhelds, games and accessories. You can browse without an account. Signing in is only needed when you act on a listing.
View a listing
Tap a listing to open its detail page. You'll see the photos, the item's category and condition, any professional grade (RTCG, PSA, WATA, VGA, CGC or BGS), the price, and how the seller will deal.
From here you can:
- Buy Now: pay the asking price straight away.
- Add to cart: collect items and check out together.
- Make Offer: send a cash offer below the asking price.
- Propose Trade: offer your own items in a swap.
- Message seller: ask a question privately.
- Ask a public question: the seller's answer is shown to everyone who opens the listing afterwards.
- Watch: save this exact listing so you can find it again. This is narrower than a wishlist entry, which stands for "any listing of this item".
Some listings also carry extra media the seller has attached: a video of the item working, a manual, a schematic or a receipt.
You can also report a listing. Timed auction listings show a bid panel instead of a fixed Buy Now price.
Options and combinations
A seller can break one listing into options they define themselves. The axes are their own words: Size, Colour, Capacity, Length, anything that describes how their stock actually varies. Each combination of choices is a separate thing to buy, with its own price, its own stock and sometimes its own photos.
On a listing like this the headline price reads From the cheapest combination, because there is no single price until you have chosen one. Pick one value on each axis and the page settles on that combination: the price becomes what you will actually be charged, and the stock count becomes that combination's, not the listing's total.
- Combinations the seller never made, has withdrawn, or has sold out are shown struck through rather than hidden, so you can see what the listing once covered.
- Buy Now and Add to cart stay unavailable until you have chosen a combination that can be bought. Nothing is guessed on your behalf.
- An offer has to name a combination too, which is why offers on these listings are made from the listing page, not from a conversation.
- What you bought is recorded on the transaction (the combination's name and its price at the time), so a later edit to the listing can't change what you ordered.
Quantity and stock
A listing can cover more than one unit. When it does, the page shows how many are left and a stepper for how many you want. On a listing with options the ceiling is the chosen combination's stock, not the sum across every combination.
Stock is claimed the moment you start a purchase, so two buyers cannot both take the last unit. If you abandon a checkout, the units go back and the listing returns to sale. A listing only shows as sold out once every unit has gone, or, on a listing with options, every combination. You can still message the seller, who may be able to restock.
Where a seller has switched on combined postage, taking several units of the same listing costs full postage on the first unit and a smaller amount on each additional one. The stepper shows the postage and the running total as you change the count.
Buy Now, cart and checkout
To buy outright, tap Buy Now and go to checkout. If you're picking up several things, Add to cart instead and check out when you're ready.
The cart is multi-seller: it fans out into one order per seller, each with its own Stripe payment. Each seller's order holds up to 20 units in total. Postage across that order is charged once at the highest single postage figure on it, plus what each additional unit costs: the seller's extra-unit rate where combined postage is switched on, and full postage per unit where it isn't. Where a seller offers a bundle discount and your basket meets its threshold, the most generous one they've enabled is applied.
At checkout, pay by card or a supported wallet through Stripe, so your card details never touch RetroTechCollector.
- From the listing or your cart, go to checkout.
- Review the items, the seller and the delivery details.
- Pay through Stripe and confirm.
Each listing is priced in the seller's own currency. You're charged in the display currency set on your account, converted before the payment is created, so the total on the checkout screen is the total you pay.
:::tip Buyer Protection Your payment is held until the item is delivered. The seller is only paid then, so you're covered if something goes wrong. Checking out a basket adds a buyer-protection fee of 3% of the items subtotal plus a flat 0.50 in the order currency; a single-listing Buy Now does not. If there's a problem, open a dispute with evidence. :::
Make and counter offers
If you'd rather negotiate, tap Make Offer on the listing and enter your amount. The seller can accept, decline or send a counter-offer, and you can counter back until one side accepts. When an offer is accepted it moves through to checkout to pay.
A seller can switch offers off on a listing, in which case the button isn't shown. On a listing with options, choose the combination first; the offer is made against that one.
Every offer you send or receive lands in one place. See offers & bids for the unified Offers hub and the bid/ask order book.
Track, confirm and rate
Once you've paid, the transaction moves through clear stages so you always know where things stand:
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Payment | Your payment has gone through and is held under Buyer Protection |
| Seller ships | The seller prepares and dispatches the item |
| In transit | Carrier tracking is attached; follow it on the transaction |
| Delivered | The carrier has marked it delivered, or you've confirmed receipt |
| Complete | The sale is closed and the payout has been released |
The payout is released when the item is delivered. That happens automatically when the carrier reports delivery, and you can also confirm receipt yourself from the transaction if tracking is slow or missing. Either one releases it.
When your item arrives:
- Open the transaction.
- Tap to confirm receipt if it hasn't already been marked delivered.
- Leave a 5-star rating for the seller. The seller can rate you too.
Confirming receipt releases the held payment, so only confirm once you have the item and it's as described. If it isn't, report the problem from the transaction instead of confirming. See disputes.
Ready to sell some of your own collection? Head to selling, or check the fees first.