[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Screaming for Games
May 10th, 2010 by Benj Edwards
One eyeball, two pupils, eight fingers, ten teeth. Just like momma.
Remember when ads like this haunted the back of every video game magazine? As a kid, the thought of getting money for games you’d already played through (and thus theoretically had no more use for) was an exciting one. But the truth about used game buyers always ended up disappointing — any business that hoped to make a profit by selling used video games could only afford to offer you a few bucks per title. That’s why I never sold any of them.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever regretted selling any of your video games? If so, tell us the story.
May 10th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Yeah, I sold ‘EarthSiege’ to a used game store for 3 or 4 dollars of store credit. It wasn’t worth it.
May 10th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
I remembered having to sell my entire NES collection, as well as most of my SNES collection so my parents can afford our first IBM-compatible computer in 1993. It was definitely more powerful than either system, but it lacked the nostalgia… until I learned about emulation 5 years later.
In case you were wondering, it was a Packard Bell… *shudder*
May 10th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Regretted? I don’t know. I bought Rebel Assault II at nearly full price shortly after it came out, and beat it in a weekend. I sold it back for, I don’t know, maybe half of what I paid? A third? The replayability was nil, so there was little use in hanging on to it. I think the regret was that I’d bought it in the first place.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
I haven’t sold too many games that I’ve accumulated. I did, however, recently give away a huge swath of games (about 100 titles, mostly NES and SNES) to various video game museums. Here’s hoping they went to good homes. I haven’t regretted it yet.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
I regret selling my 70s Atari arcade collection (had eight different machines, from ’74-’77), but I really had no choice since I was going through a divorce. I had to move them quickly, but now I wish I had rented a storage unit to store them instead…
May 10th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Not really a regret, but this article got me thinking about my early UseNet days, where I actually sold a Chase the Chuckwagon cart for over $100 in the early nineties (a lot of money for a poor college student). It’s kind of cool to still see all those old posts still out there, and I even found several other of my postings about some 2600, NES, and Genesys games. Thanks!
May 11th, 2010 at 1:02 am
Oh man. Let me put it this way…Most of the games in my current collection are the second copy I’ve bought. Considering how well I took care of things like the game manual and case (or box), it’s hard to reacquire ‘complete’ games in comparable quality.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:44 am
Wow, I remember seeing that ad more than once in magazines. Now I feel even older.
I haven’t really sold any games, although I admit to being overjoyed when I discovered my SNES and Final Fantasy cartridges were not in fact lost forever. However, the more I retrogame the more I regret giving away the old Coleco Telstar Arcade that I grew up with.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:24 am
I remember those ads too! When I got a PSP-1000, I bought a ton of games for it and tried to keep my expenses down by trading in ones I had finished. Until I realized I had been getting $5-$7 for some that had cost me $40. Then I got M33 running…and the rest is history.
May 11th, 2010 at 9:21 am
I sometimes miss the Vectrex I eBayed a few years back. It was a nice conversation piece, but I’ve taken steps to make myself less of a pack rat.
Now, I just exercise my passion for obscure gear by reading blogs like this one, though I’ve found myself collecting some old PC games recently.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Sold my Aquarius to buy an NES. Loved the NES, regretted the sale.
Sold my NES to buy a COCO III. Loved the NES, regretted the sale.
Sold my COCO III when I left home.
I have since replaced my Aquarius items (and then some), but relive my NES and COCO memories strictly through emulation.
May 13th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I work on a used games store, and I often hear these stories of regret. The last one was a kid that had Final Fantasy VII twice, both mint original releases he traded back in the day. When I’ve said to him each should be easily worth around €60/€70 now, his jaw dropped quite a bit.
I also happen to give a hand at other store, aimed at collector, and that’s where some stories get really weird. The most incredible stories are of people who dumped (not sold, DUMPED) NES and Mega Drive games, along hardware which now worth a lot more than when it was new., alongside boxes (people are shocked when they hear what’s the price difference between hardware complete with the box or just the piece)-
Personally, I’ve only sold or returned about 15 games (and a few of those times, it was to “upgrade” to the same item in better conditions). Just like you’ve said, the offered value often doesn’t make it worth to trade for something else.