Members: What video game related stuff do you regret selling the most?

[HDN]

This is sort of a sister topic to @Kid A'a post on keeping or selling valuable games.

I am a firm believer in not selling my games. Always have and always will be. Though I have heard some of you haven't always felt that way. Maybe you sold your childhood system or got rid of a rare game for too low of a price, but whatever it is please post about it here.

Mine isn't about me but my dad. I really wish he kept his childhood Odyssey 2! At least his cousin kept his 2600 stuff (which now happily lives in my home). Thankfully my dad kept all of his other systems and games including some of the pricier titles such as Super Metroid and Conker's Bad Fur Day. His original Game Boy is no longer with us but at least he kept most of the games. I have a Super GB and GBA now to play them.

[nosweargamer]

I regret selling

• A boxed, working Jaguar CD
• A boxed TG-16 with CIB game from a TRU clearance
• A boxed Sega Nomad
• A CIB Crusader of the Centy (Genesis)

Not for sentimental value, but I could really use them today for my show, but the cost of them is super high now.

[RickR]

My biggest regret is not keeping my original 2600 game boxes.  I know at first I kept them all.  I know they were kept in a cabinet in our basement.  I know eventually, we had more boxes than would fit.   

I cannot remember who threw them out.  Was it me? (I doubt it was me, but it may have been).  Was it my parents?  It's a mystery.  When I cleaned out my parent's house, I fully expected to find them.  But nope, they were not there. 

On the other hand, we did keep all the games and manuals.  So I'm thankful for those, and the regrets for the boxes are pretty small.  And it's been kind of fun to buy replacements of my favorite games.  I especially love finding worn or beat up versions and refreshing them to look like new again. 

I've sold some really cool stuff over the years.  But honestly, I don't miss them at all:

• My complete, original collection of "Electronic Games" magazines.  I knew I didn't have the knowledge or desire to preserve them as they deserved. 
• At least 4 heavy-sixer 2600's.  In the end, someone makes me an offer and I just have no sentimental feelings for them, so they go. 
• Several of my original, very rare, mail-order only, SuperCharger tapes.  I was afraid to use them.  I hate that feeling.  Be gone.
• Extra/duplicate/backup consoles.  Virtual Boy, Vectrex, Colecovision.  They take up space, and someone offers a decent price.  Away with ye.

I have a whole slew of stuff to sell, as I've been trying to pare back.  But it seems like the economy is pretty bad at the moment and nothing seems to sell. 

 

[socrates63]

As a matter of personality, I generally don't sell stuff that I buy. However, I have given a couple of video gaming things away, one of which I regret.

1️⃣ Back in the early 90s, my church commissioned a missionary to Africa. His wife and little son went with him. I gave the little boy my OG GameBoy, bunch of games, and a whole lot of AA batteries. While I lost touch with him after his family left for Africa, I have no doubts that the GameBoy provided him with many hours of entertainment on the plane ride and in a foreign land. He always enjoyed playing with it when I let him before.

2️⃣ In the late 80s when I was in high school, I owned the Vectrex and several games (don't remember how many). I love vector graphics to this day. I take care of my stuff and everything was in pristine condition with the overlays and all. I had a friend who was like a younger brother to me (he later became one of my groomsmen in my wedding). His family wasn't as well off as mine financially during those days. I gave him my entire Vectrex collection since he didn't have any video games. He never became a gamer, and I always wondered what happened to the Vectrex. I never asked him about it because I don't want to know. It saddens me to this day to think that I sent away a system to a home where it was not appreciated.

[RickR]

@socrates63 I can totally relate to your stories about giving. 

I've given so much stuff away.  To people I personally know and to strangers and people on Atari forums.  It can be hit and miss. 

I remember one young boy (maybe 10) came with his mom and younger brother to get a modded Atari system I offered on Craigslist.  These kids were so excited, and I really wanted to just give them the system for free.  But I've learned that sometimes kids feel good to have saved and paid themselves.  I ended up telling them I forgot to mention that the system came with games too and ended up giving them a whole box of loose carts.  I also told them I made a mistake on the price.  Only $20 was what I meant to type.  Oh man, were they happy!  It was fun, and I'm glad to have done that. 

Other times, I've given stuff and really felt un-appreciated or gotten weird complaints. Whatever. 

If you decide to give, you just give and hope for the best.  If it doesn't turn out well, that's not on you.  Sometimes the giving itself is reward enough. 

And PS - you are welcome to come play my Vectrex any time you'd like. 

[socrates63]

That's awesome what you did for that boy and his family. You're a good man @RickR and generous to boot 🙂 

🕹️ And I'll take you up on that offer to play the Vectrex 🙂 We can meet for lunch or something. Portland is a fun town. I think the last time I actually spent time in the city was about five years ago when I bought my iMac there.

[RickR]

Maybe we can find you another Vectrex at the next PRGE.  And I think I have an extra multi-cart I'd be happy to give you. 

[socrates63]

That would be sweet, Rick! At the last PRGE, I walked by the Vectrex set up and running with longing eyes. I dared not touch them though lest I have an emotional breakdown 😅 My wife likes to tease me that I cry more than she does.

[MaliciousCarp]

My biggest regret is selling Dragonforce for the Sega Saturn.  I had a copy that I had bought when it was a new release and I sold it right when the price on it started to climb.

I thought that I wouldn't want to play it again because I had played through it so many times already.  At least I spent the money on more Saturn games, but I really want to play Dragonforce again!

[HDN]

16 minutes ago, MaliciousCarp said:

My biggest regret is selling Dragonforce for the Sega Saturn.  I had a copy that I had bought when it was a new release and I sold it right when the price on it started to climb.

I thought that I wouldn't want to play it again because I had played through it so many times already.  At least I spent the money on more Saturn games, but I really want to play Dragonforce again!

That's sad. I always assume I'm going to want to replay the game again. I must have beaten Luigi's Mansion 30 times by now. It's not a very long game. Though I won't ever sell it. That game right now goes for about $40 according to pricecharting.com. I could use that money right now to buy several other games that I want, like Ballblazer for 7800, Missile Command and Bowling for 2600, and Wave Race 64. I even have the 3DS remake so I could still play it in one form or another. 

Though I'm not going to do that. I'd much rather wait a few months until I can afford to buy those games than get them now and say goodbye to Luigi's Mansion.

Another good example is Super Metroid. I've been replaying that game recently to help out others who might want to pick it up for the first time. It can be rather confusing to newcomers used to simple Atari games. Super Metroid is one of the pricier SNES games, going for about $50 at the moment. That's almost enough for a Nintendo Switch game. I could emulate Super Metroid, and I do have it on my 3DS's virtual console, but it's much cooler to say "I have this game" than "I have the ROM for this game on my 3DS".

The rarest game I own was one my dad's friend had and gave to him when he was done with it. Conker's Bad Fur day typically hangs out around the $80 range. I don't much care for the game, though I haven't really invested time into it. I think it's funny, but the game play isn't great. For Conker I could buy about 16 Atari 2600 games that I would probably enjoy more. Maybe I could even get a new system if I found one for cheap. I've always wanted an Odyssey 2. But what if someday I feel like playing it again? For most of my life, I hated Super Mario Sunshine with a passion. This June, I sat down and played more Sunshine than I ever had and had a blast. I never got around to beating the game, so I will have to continue on someday. What if Conker's Bad Fur Day is like Mario Sunshine for me?

You know what I mean?

[MaliciousCarp]

51 minutes ago, HDN said:

That's sad. I always assume I'm going to want to replay the game again. I must have beaten Luigi's Mansion 30 times by now. It's not a very long game. Though I won't ever sell it. That game right now goes for about $40 according to pricecharting.com. I could use that money right now to buy several other games that I want, like Ballblazer for 7800, Missile Command and Bowling for 2600, and Wave Race 64. I even have the 3DS remake so I could still play it in one form or another. 

Though I'm not going to do that. I'd much rather wait a few months until I can afford to buy those games than get them now and say goodbye to Luigi's Mansion.

Another good example is Super Metroid. I've been replaying that game recently to help out others who might want to pick it up for the first time. It can be rather confusing to newcomers used to simple Atari games. Super Metroid is one of the pricier SNES games, going for about $50 at the moment. That's almost enough for a Nintendo Switch game. I could emulate Super Metroid, and I do have it on my 3DS's virtual console, but it's much cooler to say "I have this game" than "I have the ROM for this game on my 3DS".

The rarest game I own was one my dad's friend had and gave to him when he was done with it. Conker's Bad Fur day typically hangs out around the $80 range. I don't much care for the game, though I haven't really invested time into it. I think it's funny, but the game play isn't great. For Conker I could buy about 16 Atari 2600 games that I would probably enjoy more. Maybe I could even get a new system if I found one for cheap. I've always wanted an Odyssey 2. But what if someday I feel like playing it again? For most of my life, I hated Super Mario Sunshine with a passion. This June, I sat down and played more Sunshine than I ever had and had a blast. I never got around to beating the game, so I will have to continue on someday. What if Conker's Bad Fur Day is like Mario Sunshine for me?

You know what I mean?

Yeah - I usually don't sell any games, but that was a while ago when money was a little more tight. Spending on fun stuff was not a priority and if I wanted new games I had to sell something off.  That one just happened to be worth the most at the time.  

[HDN]

48 minutes ago, MaliciousCarp said:

Yeah - I usually don't sell any games, but that was a while ago when money was a little more tight. Spending on fun stuff was not a priority and if I wanted new games I had to sell something off.  That one just happened to be worth the most at the time.  

Sometimes that's just the case. Money can be tight, especially for me as I don't have a job. Until recently I couldn't buy retro games with cash as I didn't know of a store closer than an hour away that would sell retro games. So I had to save up Christmas money and do chores and things to get my dad to use his credit card to redeem 10 or 20 bucks on the 3DS eShop. I would get two or three Virtual Console games, mostly Game Boy as they were cheaper and I didn't have any other way of playing Game Boy games at that point. Very rarely did I ever get full price games for modern systems. I bought Pokemon Moon at launch as I was very into Pokemon at the time. I got about $80 in GameStop gift cards in 2018 and purposely saved them for nearly a year just so I could get Luigi's Mansion 3 at launch. My parents were kind enough to buy my sister and I Untitled Goose Game at launch as well. There was a launch sale at the time so it was only $15. Geese are probably my favorite animals. My sister and I love that game.

Most of my "beatable" games have been beaten several times. I typically try to get the most enjoyment possible out of them. I try to get every penny's worth by re-beating them over and over again. In something like Super Mario 64 where you can 100% complete it, I will try to go for that on one of my subsequent playthroughs. In something like Luigi's Mansion there are like 12 endings and I will try to get each one. In the 3DS remake it will save all of your endgame mansion portraits in the gallery. I also 100% Luigi's Mansion 3 when it came out as well. I lost my original copy of Super Mario 64 DS and when I bought it again I made sure to collect all 150 Power Stars. I looked that game up on pricecharting.com and saw that I paid more than double the going rate at the time when I bought it used from GameStop. I am permanently boycotting them now and strictly shopping at my new favorite store.

What about games that can't be beaten? How do I get my money's worth out of those? Take Atari 2600 games for instance. Very few of those can be beaten. Most of the games are high-score attack games and arcade conversions. So what I do is I keep a high score record in this little notebook.  Whenever I get a new score for a game, I highlight the old one and write down a new one. I have several pages of scores and I feel that has kept my interest in those games for longer. It's harder to get bored when I have a goal to beat. Another way to get more for your money is multiplayer. You can have hours of enjoyment added if you play with friends and/or family. Plus, it can be more fun in a lot of cases. Multiplayer Warlords from what I've heard is a blast, though two-player Super Mario Odyssey is WAYYYY worse than playing just by yourself.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I had traded a AMD K6-2 500 MHz PC, loaded, to a computer store in exchange for Jaguar items they had in stock.  This was 1997 I believe and the store in question picked up a bunch of Jaguar stuff.  They seen my machine, went through it, said take whatever you want.  I walked away with a Jaguar, Jag CD, a dozen cart games and about three CD games.  Everything NIB.  I didn't care about the computer too much as it was from a trade for a car I owned that needed a new tranny so...I wheeled and dealed.  

This was a time when Jaguar stuff was a dime a dozen and not really worth much any more.  Machines might have been about $50, games between $10 - $20.  I had games then that are now hard to find or worth more than I would have ever expected or seen coming.  Tempest 2000, Highlander, I*War...all good games.  Sold it all when my grandmother needed money for meds.  I don't regret doing it for that reason but I do regret not hanging on to at least one or two of my favorite games for the machine.  Nope...I had to sell of the entire collection.  I still hope to find Tempest someday in the wild for a cheap price.  That game alone is a jaguar no brainer.

[Sabertooth]

What an interesting thread to read through. 

Back in 1998 I was 20 and had a lot of competing priorities. I decided that due to space issues lack of time I would sell off my collection on a relatively new website called eBay. I sold everything in a single lot including my all CIB collection, including a Jaguar, Jaguar CD, Saturn, PS1, 3DO, Lynx, 7800, Virtual Boy and 7800. 

I had so many now rare games, including likes of Panzer Dragoon Saga, House of the Dead and the Working Designs games on Saturn, Rayman and Atari Karts on the Jaguar, and Nestor's Funky Bowling on Virtual Boy. It went for about $1400 back then, so $2,200 in today's dollars. A screaming deal for the person who got it. 

At the time it was somewhat freeing to get rid of all of that "stuff." For a few years I worked, played music and lived very light.  I did have a Dreamcast and handful of games but it was nothing like it was. Around 2000 I got a CIB Jaguar for $25 with Iron Soldier, Tempest and Cybermorph. In 2002, I sold my car and moved across country with a trunk, a suitcase, a guitar and a bass. No games came with me. I left the bargain bin Jaguar and Dreamcast in storage with a few boxes at my mom's and, for awhile, didn't think of gaming much at all. I missed an entire generation at least.

Fast forward to 2010 when I went home for a week for a wedding. My Mom reminded me that I had these boxes under the basement stairs and asked that I go through them. I rediscovered my long forgotten Dreamcast and Jaguar, shipped them to California and began my slow and now much more expensive quest to rebuild my old Jaguar collection. I completed that in about four years.  That of course snowballed and here I am. LOL!

I don't regret selling that initial collection but there are some games I'll likely never have again because of it. Panzer Dragoon Saga is the biggie.  Still, selling it off was what I needed to do at the time. 

I've also fixed and given away a fair number of 2600s to friends, family and coworkers with kids. Usually a starter pack with a console and 10 or so loose commons like qbert, frogger, asteroids, etc. I love it when they send photos of their little ones playing a 4-switch woody. It's so cool to know that these kids, most born since 2013 or so, will remember Atari as their first console.  Losing my garage space and tools in the divorce kinda put a halt to that but someday I'll have a workbench again.  🙌

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Sabertooth