Finally Sold It All!!!

My final sales total was not my "ideal" final dollar amount, but I did successfully sell all my classic video game items.  My final total was more than what I was initially offered by online vendors for trade in, so I would call all my efforts a success!

And the verdict is?
I finally sold it all, but I did have to make several concessions on my initial price estimates.  I am still happy with the results, though, making almost $450, about double the online trade-in values offered to me to begin with.  I did figure that it would not have taken so long, though.  It took a couple months to finally get rid of it all - damn crappy economy... ;)

I really am surprised at how slowly the Atari 2600 items took to sell.  It had what I thought was a special collector's value based on the kind of model I had (stamped "Not For Resale - Display Purposes Only" and had a special "Manufactured in Sunnyvale, California" sticker, making it more "rare" and therefore more valuable, or so I thought).  But apparently it was only worth what someone else would pay for it.  I sold it for more than a "regular" late '70s model per the VGPC, but not by very much.

After my initial round of sales, several NES and SNES titles also took awhile to sell, even the ones in boxes and/or with manuals.  I figured those would go quickly, but I had to come down on price quite a bit for those also, although still more than the non-boxed estimates.  And really surprisingly, early on I sold just some empty boxes and even just some manuals without games and made more than some of the stand-alone cartridges of some titles.  The market for some items can be very surprising.

That's all, folks!
This is probably my last post, but I will keep this blog active for awhile in case anyone needs this info as a resource.  Thanks to everyone who checked out the blog and commented or voted.  Good luck in trying to sell your Classic_Plastic_Gold!

Early Successful Sales, Somewhat...

It took a little bit of time and a few Craig's List ads, but I finally started to sell some of my items.  My only hope has been that someone can have as much enjoyment as I did when I was a kid with these wonderful classic games!

How has the selling gone so far?
Slower than expected.  A few people answered my Craig's List ad right away and bought a few NES games each and a few scattered SNES and Atari cartridges.  Some even were return customers within the same week or even a few weeks later.  I think they just wanted to test out my stuff before diving in for more than a few bucks, but when they saw I took care of my old games, and also researched their true values, they came back for more.  I even had a few people in a bidding war over a few of my rarer titles at the beginning!

But to get more sold I had to place another set of Craig's List ads.  After the first ad expired (I had everything lumped into one large lot but I offered the ability to buy individual items), I posted more than one ad breaking up my items by system and still offering the possibility of selling individual items.  I had some more success there, selling a lot more of the NES, SNES and Gameboy items I had, including my FC Twin combo system.

A few weeks went by and selling got really slow.  Apparently I got rid of whatever everybody else thought was "hot" right away.  Several titles and even my Atari system sat with a few very "low-ball" bids.  Obviously, regardless of what I may thought my items should be worth based on my research, they really are only worth what someone else will pay for them.

What to do, what to do?
I am continuing to post Craig's List ads and updating them as I sell items.  Most of the NES & SNES stuff is gone but very little Atari stuff is gone.  I am going to lower my asking prices but I still believe what I am lowering it to is reasonable, although less than I initially expected.

I'm really surprised the Atari stuff didn't "jump off the shelf", so to speak, but hopefully with the lower prices I can get rid of it for a satisfactory profit.  I'm also surprised that many of my "in box" items didn't fly either.  I figured the potential "collector" would jump at the opportunity to grab original cartridges still in box, but surprisingly not right away until I started to lower my asking prices.  Hopefully my next post will show final success.

Definitive Pricing Information for Classic Video Games & Systems

I was lucky in doing my pricing research to stumble upon an invaluable resource. Checking for pricing information one title at a time could become extremely time consuming, which could make someone want to maybe rely on the other services out there online even though the money might not be as good. eBay and Craig's List are HUGE, and trying to search them can be daunting. Luckily, someone has already done my homework for me...

Check out the VGPC!
While scouring the auction websites for pricing information, I performed a search for classic video game pricing and found a site called the Video Game Price Charts. At their website, they have created an algorithm that searches the popular shopping sites like eBay, Amazon.com, Half.com, as well as other online used video game dealers, and computes an average of what items are selling for. They also offer the opportunity to search by title or by system, look at recent and historical selling activity on an item, and help a possible seller verify what they might have and what they could sell it for. Buyers could also see what going rates on certain titles are so they don't get burned too bad by online dealers. Their site also has an extremely thorough explanation of how they arrive at the values in their price guide (which is downloadable, updated weekly) as well as historical information on how they have updated their software over the past few years. Guides are available for both retailers and collectors. Check out my podcast below demonstrating how to use their online database:



Now what?
I'm going to take ClassicPlastic.net's advice and create a Craig's List ad to sell my old games. Using the VGPC as a pricing guide, and given the fact that several of my items to sell will have original boxes and manuals, I will compile what I believe is a reasonable price for all my items. I will be trying to sell as lots by system with games, but offer the opportunity to buy individual items. Will I get the $1800 needed to buy all my items new? No, and I'm not expecting that. But I think between $500 and $600 is attainable, and I would be quite happy with that. My next post will show my results, hopefully as successful.

What Are Classic Video Games and Systems Selling For Retail?

The first step I have taken is to find out what the price of my entire collection, an FC Twin (NES & SNES combo unit), an Atari 2600, along with all controllers and TV hookups, and about 100 games for use between all 3 systems, would sell for at retail.  Its not what I've paid for over the years when the games and systems were new, of course, and my stuff is by no means new although very clean and well cared for, but it would still be a pretty penny to replace it all...

Where did I begin my research?
I started by looking up in my local area if there were any places that would even buy my old stuff.  Online I found a few local stores, like a Disc Replay-type place that would buy my stuff, but I'd have to bring it all in and they would have to evaluate it all and I could only hope to get the bare minimum or possibly more with either store credit or consignment.  I don't care for store credit because I'd rather have cash I could spend anywhere, and with consignment I would have to wait until the store sells the stuff, if ever, before I would get a percentage of what they decided to sell it for.  With places like GameStop, they don't want to deal with anything older than the original Xbox or Playstation 1.

I next moved on to online classic game dealers, and there were a few on the internet that not only sold used classic games and systems but also would offer quotes to buy people's collections.  I sent out some emails and got some quotes.  Its amazing the difference between what these places are selling things for and what they will pay you for your old "junk".  I understand that these places are in business and have to make money, but I'm beginning to think that I can do better on my own.

What were my findings?
Online vendors I found include DkOldies.com, LukieGames.com, JJGames.com, and NintendosForSale.com.  These places not only sold classic games, but offer the opportunity to sell your old games to them, for various different systems including the ones I have.  After requesting email quotes, some offered to pay for my entire lot, some for just individual systems or games, some also offered to reimburse for my shipping fees, and all offered to pay either via PayPal or cashier's check - my preference.  Their offers ranged between $200 and $250, or up to $100 more if I took store credit. This was kind of disappointing, especially since I priced out what they would be selling every title or system I had for between $1500 and $1800!  What a mark up!  One of my Atari games, with box, was selling for $78 on one of the sites!  Check out their sites if you are interested in finding anything.  Almost everything ever made for any of my systems can be found there, as well as newer ones, but be careful of "collector" prices for some of the older and "hard to find" items.

I also checked out a site called The Old School Game Vault, which is the website for a storefront that just happens to be within driving distance for me, so if I did accept their offer I wouldn't have to worry about shipping.  This site only buys from people, and then turns around and sells the games through their eBay store.  They only offered to buy the Atari items for about $80, which they say is based on a computer formula that takes into account current eBay selling values. Again, kind of disappointing.

Lastly, I checked out a collector's website called ClassicPlastic.net.  This site will only buy from you if you have something they don't already have one of.  They really don't care about selling anything, just collecting.  They offered to buy a few of my individual items but were worried that my cost to ship it wouldn't make it worth my while.  They did suggest setting up a Craig's List "one day garage sale", though.  They said that's how they got rid of all their duplicates and everything seemed to sell within a few hours.  They didn't say how much they were able to sell things for, though.

What's the next step?
Well, now I need to find out what these items are going for outside of the traditional online vendor arena, like eBay and Craig's List.  If what ClassicPlastic told me is true, I might make more than selling to one of these vendors, the question will be how much and if its really possible to make some decent money.  Can I make $1800?  I really don't think so, but we shall see if it's more than just a couple hundred.

Can I Sell My Classic Video Games?

My nephews, ages 2 to 10, all think I'm the greatest video game player ever.  Before their parents actually bit the bullet and bought the family a Playstation 3, the only thing they had ever known was my old Atari, Nintendo and Super Nintendo.  I, quite frankly, never moved beyond the SNES, mostly because there were too many buttons on the controllers for the newer systems.  Call me old fashioned...

Why am I starting this blog?
Well, I'm trying to figure out how to convert my old video game collection, all still in perfect working order and very clean, and in some cases I saved the original boxes and manuals, into something I can sell for real money.  I know everything is used and in some cases worn, and no, I will not get what I actually paid for them in some cases, but you never know what something might be worth to someone else, and maybe I can get lucky!

Why do I want to sell my old stuff?
It started two Christmases ago when my wife bought me a Wii.  She knew I was passionate about older games but wanted something that we could both do together - old games for me, and new games for her (and me, too!).  I liked the idea that Nintendo created the downloading feature so I could have my old games on the new system and eliminate having two separate TV's with games on both of them (bringing the gaming out into the family room for everyone, so to speak...), but I didn't like the fact that I would have to pay $5 or more per game to download a title from the Nintendo WiiShop Channel - I already own these games in cartridge form, why should I have to pay for them again?

That's when I started looking into Homebrew, a UNIX based "hack" into the Wii's operating system that allows for non-Nintendo software to be installed on a Wii.  It shows up as the "Homebrew Channel" in the Wii interface.  When opened it provides a menu to select the third party software you have downloaded to be used.  There are a ton of emulators, or software programs designed to create an environment to run older video game systems so that classic game files could be downloaded and played.

I then researched the procedure (check out the WiiBrew wiki for more information), and decided to install the Homebrew Channel on my Wii along with emulators for the Atari 2600, NES, and SNES so I could have all my old games available to play on my new system.  Now the problem is, I have my old video game cartridge systems along with about 100 games from around 1978 to 1994, all in still perfect working order, but collecting dust.
 
WARNING: Installing Homebrew technically voids your warranty with Nintendo and can be potentially dangerous to your Wii.  Nintendo will not repair or give technical support to a machine with Homebrew installed on it, and updating the Wii's operating system will uninstall any non-Nintendo software like Homebrew and might possibly "brick" the Wii unit, making it useless and unfixable.

What's it all about?
This blog will document my research into whether or not any of the "classic plastic" is worth any money, or if I should just give it away.  I plan on looking into where I can sell this stuff, like used cd/record stores, or online dealers, or eBay.  I'm curious as to what the prices would amount to if I were to go out and buy all this stuff today.  That way I can see if there is any potential value into what I have.  Should I sell the systems and games together as sets, or piece-meal everything out individually?  Is it going to be worth any potential effort?  Can I make some serious money here?  I will soon find out...