• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Sold most of my retro collection, oh the pain

protonion

Member
So it was time for this to happen.

Since the late 80s I had accumulated tons of systems and games.
I loved my collection and kept it in pristine condition but at some point I had to be pragmatic.

All the retro games I love up to ps1 are in my PSclassic.
The old systems are a pain to setup and take a lot of space. I took the big decision and sold them during the last several months.

Atari 2600, NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Saturn, PS1, Ps2, GBA, GameBoy all boxed and tons of games.

What I noticed:
Atari 2600 and ps1-2 (both launch units) are beasts. Fully operational.
Nintendo systems are crap. Not even one of these didn't have a minor or a serious issue even though the usage was multiple times less than playstations. Gamecube was the worst offender with the laser needing replacement.
Saturn had an almost dead GPU.

The bulk of the money came from the games of course. Not only console games but also retro PC games. Old pc games with the paper boxes are in big demand. I didn't have Doom sadly. I was told by a guy running a retro store that I would get over 600 EUR.

Anyway...

So here is what is left:

https://www.pricecharting.com/offers?seller=52eqd64iywk4xbm3mgk44pvzme&status=collection

I will keep ps3-ps5, 3ds and switch for now. And a few select ps2 games to play via emulation.

Several oddities I see also in the value of my games.
Layton trilogy at 3-7 EUR each, but Azran and VS Ace attorney at 30+ and 70+? No sense, they are the superior games and equally rare I believe...
Dragon Quarter is very low for the masterpiece that it is and I am sure it is rare. I will never sell this game but still...

And limited run games seem like a nice investment :)
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Had to seel my boxed, good as new Japanese Dreamcast console not so long ago. Had some amazing titles for it as well, such as Seaman, MvC2, SF3: Third Strike, Code Veronica etc.

Same with my Megadrive collection. Had some really rare titles for that, including Dune, Separation Anxiety, EXO Squad and Megaman.

Made a lot of money off them to go towards the house fund, plus freed up a lot of space, but I do miss the collection.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
And limited run games seem like a nice investment


How I Met Your Mother Reaction GIF by Laff
 

protonion

Member
So how much money did you make selling all yo shit?
Difficult to tell as it was a long process between FB marketplace and several local stores. 2-3 thousand euro maybe.
I could push the amount a lot if I had patience to sell everything individually on ebay, but the items were hundreds and it wasn't worth it for me.
 

Damigos

Member
I ve sold everything 5 years ago and i gone full digital, having ONLY the latest consoles and a PC. It is SO much easier
 
I've owned a ton of systems, but I just give em away when I find myself not playing them anymore.
I lugged a bunch of old stuff around for years, but I wasn't playing it, and I wasn't displaying it, so I figured what's the point.
Whenever I get the hankering to play an older or obscure title I'm fine with emulating it. The mini retro console craze has been fun too.

My only real regret was ditching my Saturn with the ram cart.
 

Impotaku

Member
Unless something life threatening happened where i needed cash badly my gaming stuff is going nowhere, while i could get an obscene amount for the older stuff if i sold them off the fact is i'd never find replacements in the condition i have now as i bought everything on release and i looked after it all so it's pretty much all like new still. But it's no different to books & films i like to go back and enjoy those too games are no different.

As i'm losing the place i live in at end of year i'm in the situation of boxing everything up and 30+ years of gaming means there's a lot to take with me but i don't think i'd ever just downsize just for convenience. It's all coming with me well not my twilight zone pinball table as that's too big but console stuff is boxable at least.
 

Kev Kev

Member
I happily sell or give away my old stuff every new generation. It takes up too much space, I never use them even though I always say I will, I can’t seem to find anyone willing to buy any of it for an acceptable price, and on and on.

It’s too much of a pain in the ass, and if you’re not collecting and set on keeping them for life, just sell or give them to someone who will appreciate and use them.
 
I don't know how people can have a lot of junk lying around. Having old consoles and a lot of cases sitting about the house would annoy me. The only consoles I own are a Switch OLED and PS2 Slim. Both of which I play regularly. As for physical games I have a total of 10 Switch cases and I'll probably sell 4 of those when I'm done with them. On PS2 I have 23 games. All together it doesn't take much space so I'm fine with what I have. My PS2 games are in a single drawer and my Switch stuff only takes up a little corner of a shelf.

I don't feel the need to hold onto stuff. I've played and enjoyed all the old consoles and games so there is no reason to keep them around. If I ever get bored of my PS2 I'll sell that too. No doubt I will sell my Switch at some point assuming that Nintendo's next console is backwards compatible.
 
Last edited:

Beer Baelly

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Still have a 360 and fat PSTriple but thats its when it comes to retro shit. Oh and a Wii U.
 
Last edited:

Wohc

Banned
Got some NES/SNES/Game Boy/PSX/PS2 stuff in a box somewhere on the attic and would only sell it if i have to.
 
I noticed atari jaguars are pretty hot right now , at least the console seems to be . Looks to be about $450ish for a console with a controller or 2 and maybe a game. Might have to sell one of the 2 I own.
 

BlackTron

Member
I really get this and have thought about the whole thing but ultimately I'm glad I never really did it especially after getting a CRT TV last week. Being able to play all this stuff without emulation on CRT is just too good. Instead of managing storing a bunch of systems, I figured if they're gonna take up space, may as well be under a TV ready to go. I had already decided that with my modern TV and you hardly even noticed it because most were in the TV stand behind a door. I just didn't really use it all that much except the Switch and PS4 lol. So I flirted with downsizing.

Turns out the reason I didn't use it wasn't lack of interest, it just didn't feel right on a new TV. You pretty much can not play Rogue Squadron II without a GC/Wii and CRT...

It also felt good to play Sonic 3 on a system hooked up with a RF adapter while Sega tries to sell Origins lol.

At least there's a utility to all that though. Where I having nothing to say is what amounts to collectibles taking up space. For example I have a few of those small white file boxes full of old Nintendo and Sega game boxes. I'm especially weak for N64 and SNES ones. When I go in there and see titles like SMRPG, SM64, OOT, Starfox, Goldeneye, Pokemon R/B/Y, Super Mario Land 1/2, Sonic for Game Gear, Aladdin and DuckTales, I feel like I have in my possession the fucking Triforce and how could I EVER sell it.

I recognize how illogical that is, yet every time I look in there I'm still overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness and history contained in that stupid cardboard file box.
 
Couldn't bring myself to ever get rid of my fat ps3, though im not sure if people consider the ps3 retro
I actually just recently bought another BC PS3 60GB. Me and my girlfriend have started getting a few games from our earlier days and I wanted a way to play PS1-3 via HDMI and while I have a CRT it's small (13) and we don't really have any place for it currently. We also got a Kaico adapter for the Gamecube which I very highly recommend.

I sold off basically all of my games and most of my consoles when I got into minimalism because of a bad period of depression and anxiety. I regret some of it but overall not a ton.

What I do miss having was my PS2 horror games like Fatal Frame and Silent Hill (luckily the girl has all of them minus SH3). My childhood was all PlayStation so with time I will have a PS1/PS2/PSP again but I'm not in a hurry.
 
Last edited:

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I regret selling my games. I’ve gradually gotten some of them back, but I’ve paid a significant markup. Some of it I won’t even bother with because it’s not like I want to play FIFA 94 or NFL QB Club. Some NDS games are like $100-$200 a piece if you have the box. It’s not like I sold it for financial reasons or other things. At the time I’d sell for new games. Over time new games will drop to 1/4 the price and they’ll never go back to being worth the same as what you paid. Older games will more than likely be worth more (some, not all) and they’ll become hard to find. I look back on a lot of $50,$60, and $70 games and they’re never going to be worth that same price. The new stuff that’s worth a lot of money are typically unopened collector’s editions. Which is already marked up as is. Making any money from it would mean not opening it. I like new games, but I’m not a big fan of selling retro stuff to get it.
 
Last edited:

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I sold the bulk of my collection a few years ago. I thought that by now I would regret it, but I honestly haven't. In my case, I had literally thousands of games - enough that they used to take up an entire room in my house. Speaking of houses, I made about $15k selling my games on eBay and used the money to put a down payment on a house. So in a way, it's kind of like my game collection is still paying dividends since my house has almost doubled in value since.

As for the rest of my games... they've been sitting in shipping boxes ever since I moved. I've been meaning to bust them out and sell them as well, it's just a massively time consuming process. I still have about 1/4 of my collection left, so a couple thousand games.
 

th4tguy

Member
How are you going g about selling? I need to do this and have hundreds of games to sell but going through and listing each and every one feels daunting.
 

Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
Besides my Steam collection, I go physical any chance I get. Love having the cheaper upfront cost of physical from the secondhand shop in town and the option for resale later on. I don't collect anything else in life beside games, but through it, I get the appeal of having your passion take up physical space through boxes with original box art, discs, cartridges, consoles, etc.

Storage space isn't a problem for me, and neither is cash (knock on wood) so I would never sell my games--until retirement in a few decades, maybe, if they're worth more than they are now. Got a couple hundred games, maybe, from original NES to the latest PS5 games.
 
I have boxes and boxes of games, consoles and accessories. I have everything from the Commodore 128/Magnavox Odyssey to the master system/nes to ps5/series x. My PS1 and Saturn are modchipped, have everdrives for my GB/SNES/Genesis/N64, have every handheld released sitting on a shelf being charged. A lot of it is irreplaceable and i dont want to regret selling it all even though i dont play them much. I do look at it as an investment, the value will just keep going up as time goes on. Aside from what i have in my garage, I currently have a Dreamcast/Snes/Nes/atari/Genesis/Saturn/N64/ps1/ps2 hooked up to a sony trinitron, i think i might just build a HTPC for roms and put it all in the garage to free up some space in my spare room.
 
I still have all my consoles, games, and classic monitors/tvs hooked up. I have top of the line (for their time) DOS, 95, 98, and Vista machines for retro PC gaming.

I use them all at least once or twice a month to play and finish games.

I can understand not enjoying/playing these things, but I don’t foresee myself ever getting rid of my collection as long as I continue to play and enjoy them.
 

OldBoyGamer

Banned
We were stone cold broke when I was a kid so a substantial number of my games collection was pirated. I do still have a lot of originals but I had to take out the discs and put the boxes in the garage when I got married due to space so I can imagine they’re probably all ruined. For some reason I felt the discs had more value than the boxes and manuals but actually the opposite seems to be true.

Nowadays of course I’m flush. ;P. But 90%of my collection is digital.

I miss game boxes.
 

Mistake

Member
Interesting on your Nintendo experience OP. I only noticed a dip in their quality around the time of WiiU. DS had a scratching problem, but was fixed with DS lite, and then 3DS needed screen protectors or the top screen got messed up by the bottom one. Same with DSi.

Your lens problem is likely to happen with any system using a lens, but I don’t know if GCN breaks sooner with compact disks because of higher strain. Besides that, I thought it was a solid console. Switch is by far the worst made system I have seen from Nintendo.

I think eventually I’ll feel your pain on selling stuff, but not yet. Going digital has made it easier to consolidate in recent years, but there are some things you want the actual console for.
 
Last edited:

reinking

Gold Member
I donated most of mine years ago to clear up storage space. I still held onto a few more of teh older consoles than I should but I just couldn't let some of them go.
 

Alebrije

Member
I got rid of games and systems before PS1. Have some priced games like Ethernal Darkness for Game Cube and most of horror games for PS2 for example Haunting Ground.

Its hard to reduce your collection , I did it becuase most of old games and systems needed a CRT tv and mine died time ago and never found a quality replacement in my zone.

So my collection these days is small but guess that is for the good and has more nostalgia value that what I can a get from it if I sell it.

Anyway always is hard to sell something that is connected to you but is better in the long run becuase imagine you keep you collection an your are 60 o 70 years old and none of your relatives are interested...it will end like those stories :. "I bough a house and look what I found in the attic". So an extrange will benefit selling it instead you.
 
Last edited:

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Honestly, the prices on those will skyrocket when [X] company stops selling in a digital storefront for those systems.
Dude he sold is life’s work for 3K
that shit is not an investment.
If you want to invest… stick with raw minerals. Or i guess nintendo 🤣👌
 
Last edited:

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Spukc Spukc they go for 200€ with more box damage so why the emoji
200 😆 investment? Are you for real?
Just to set you in a plane of realism for investment. German ww2 medals can be flipped for 10k profit

And this is still piss compared to the real gems
 
Last edited:

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
The ONLY systems I've ever had that lasted over the years have been Nintendos. My N64 and Gamecube work just as well now as they did then. Playstation 1 and 2's were notorious for having laser problems. I know I wasn't the only kid that had to turn his Playstation 1 upside down after putting a game in because the laser was all jacked up.
 
Top Bottom