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...