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.