Board 8 > Best way to sell retro games? (DEFINITELY NOT A SALES TOPIC)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Im looking to offload a lot of my retro games that have been replaced by digital versions over the years. I am not a slave to physical media.

Whats the best way to do this? Just go to a local mom & pop gaming store and plop $2000 worth of games on the counter and walk out with $1500? Individually sell them on eBay (or another online method)? Message Craigslist randos looking to buy games and hope I dont get knifed when I meet them?

Too bad I cant sell all my stuff on here; I would definitely give B8ers I like a discount!
---

I will buy your games

---

I dunno, pricecharting?
https://www.pricecharting.com/sell
I've logged all my games into that, but never used it to sell.

---

Yeah it's a shame you can't post a list of what you have...or something...

---

Oh neat I didnt know you could sell there
---

Because people are curious about what I have

NES:
Ninja Gaiden 3
Mega Man
Mega Man 5
Final Fantasy

SNES:
Earthbound
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 3
Secret of Mana
Mega Man 7
Mega Man X2
Super Castlevania IV
Breath of Fire
Super Mario RPG
Zelda: Link to the Past
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Doom
Yoshis Island
Super Punch-Out

Game Boy:
Darkman

Game Boy Color:
Links Awakening DX
Oracle of Ages
Oracle of Seasons

GBA:
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (also have the box)
Minish Cap

N64:
Majoras Mask
Paper Mario

DS:
Spirit Tracks
Phantom Hourglass

PS1:
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9
Final Fantasy Tactics
Suikoden
Suikoden 2
Vagrant Story
Symphony of the Night
Xenogears
Parasite Eve
Resident Evil 3
Resident Evil 2
Wild Arms
Legend of Legaia
---

I had a collection pretty much the same as yours and I had good results on ebay. That was about 8 years ago though.

Also, lol at getting $1500 from a local game store for those. From my experience working/managing one, it's very unlikely you break $600 taking those to a retailer. Nothing personal, they're just going to try and make much more profit than that. And selling these things is not easy.

---

Those are all going to sell individually if you want to put in the time, or you can see if you can sell each system as bundles for roughly the cumulative price. The SNES games in particular might get you like $1200 if they're all working.

I've done awesome on eBay, set up some bids and see what happens. Best to do it individually IMO.

---

This is also the best market for this ever, especially if the disc games are CIB. Everything is super inflated.

You really just got to ask yourself what's more important? Convenience or Profit?

Online will definitely give you more bang for your buck, but shipping can get pretty costly and is very time consuming. Especially since you're selling retro games, collectors are going to want those in good condition.

Selling to a store will always be easy, but you're obviously going to take a hit on potential profit.

---

Also, I just noticed, but the fact that you said "also has the box" for only Superstar Saga leads me to believe you don't have the original boxes/manuals for the rest? If that's the case, you need to lower your expectations for what to expect in terms of compensation.

---

I'm also thinking of selling old games, so this is relevant to my interests

---

colliding posted...

Also, lol at getting $1500 from a local game store for those. From my experience working/managing one, it's very unlikely you break $600 taking those to a retailer.

That wasnt the ENTIRE list, just most of the more expensive ones

But I definitely would not accept $600 for that lot
---

colliding posted...

Also, I just noticed, but the fact that you said "also has the box" for only Superstar Saga leads me to believe you don't have the original boxes/manuals for the rest? If that's the case, you need to lower your expectations for what to expect in terms of compensation.

Its the usual games with hard cases have the case and inserts, games that sold in cardboard dont
---

colliding posted...

Also, I just noticed, but the fact that you said "also has the box" for only Superstar Saga leads me to believe you don't have the original boxes/manuals for the rest? If that's the case, you need to lower your expectations for what to expect in terms of compensation.

No you don't. Original SNES carts are insanely expensive now. Earthbound alone is ~$250.

colliding posted...

I had a collection pretty much the same as yours and I had good results on ebay. That was about 8 years ago though.

Also, lol at getting $1500 from a local game store for those. From my experience working/managing one, it's very unlikely you break $600 taking those to a retailer. Nothing personal, they're just going to try and make much more profit than that. And selling these things is not easy.

Also a question based on your experience: are local game stores generally even equipped to handle someone walking in with 50 games from retro consoles, regardless of what they offer for them? I presume theyd want to test them all.
---

Just do eBay, man. Game stores are just going to go on pricecharting.com and subtract 30-40%, at best.

ChainLTTP posted...

No you don't. Original SNES carts are insanely expensive now. Earthbound alone is ~$250.

Even more!


---

Jakyl25 posted...

Even more!

Jesus Christ. I remember talking to you about buying your copy for $200 only a few years ago.

ChainLTTP posted...

Just do eBay, man. Game stores are just going to go on pricecharting.com and subtract 30-40%, at best.

if it was 30%, that would be worth the convenience to me.

40% is pushing it.

---

Jakyl25 posted...

if it was 30%, that would be worth the convenience to me.

40% is pushing it.

I would call them ahead of time then

Jakyl25 posted...

Also a question based on your experience: are local game stores generally even equipped to handle someone walking in with 50 games from retro consoles, regardless of what they offer for them? I presume theyd want to test them all.

Call /email them first. It depends on the place. The dedicated vintage game stores will definitely want to test them before they fork over a decent price. If you just take them to a "used entertainment store" they'll take them off your hands but just offer you 600.

And yeah, I probably under estimated it in my earlier post. I'd say 700.

ChainLTTP posted...

No you don't. Original SNES carts are insanely expensive now. Earthbound alone is ~$250.

Yeah, on ebay/online directly to a consumer. A used game store isn't going to give you that for resell. It's going to try and sell it for 250 so they'll give you 80.

---

Whats a good way to ship games? Is a padded shipping envelope sufficient?

---

Jakyl25 posted...

Whats a good way to ship games? Is a padded shipping envelope sufficient?

That's how my carts generally come in. Maybe some bubble wrap for the pricier ones and the CDs.

Jakyl25 posted...

Whats a good way to ship games? Is a padded shipping envelope sufficient?

Absolutely not. Maybe this is ok for a DS game for but a cartridge or a jewel case you're going to want to wrap them in bubble wrap and a thick paper and affix them in a hard box (so they aren't rolling around).

---

colliding posted...

Absolutely not. Maybe this is ok for a DS game for but a cartridge or a jewel case you're going to want to wrap them in bubble wrap and a thick paper and affix them in a hard box (so they aren't rolling around).

$700 is starting to look more appealing

---

I've never shipped a cartridge game, but I either use DVD boxes or a small flat rate box. An envelope would probably be fine but I don't take risks with this stuff.

---

Nah, it's worth it to go the ebay route. You're looking at a difference of hundreds of dollars.

Our store just had a bad experience shipping in envelopes (our post office apparently had a thing for putting heavy things on top of our packages) so we switched to boxes - maybe they're okay generally but I wouldn't risk it. The extra shipping cost for safety is worth it, imo.

---

As far as shipping materials go, I recommend personal research more than anything. This video seems relatively informative, especially for NES games

https://youtu.be/PZjqb7MkYUM

---

colliding posted...

(our post office apparently had a thing for putting heavy things on top of our packages)

As someone who used to deliver mail, heres how that works

Each route has its own hotel laundry cart (for lack of a better description) for packages. The clerks wheel in the big containers of all the packages for the entire office that day and toss them into the proper cart

Could very easily get heavy shit tossed on top of fragile shit from 10 feet away
---

Smaller packages tend to get put in a smaller cart separate from big packages nowadays, at least where I work.

---

Jakyl25 posted...

$700 is starting to look more appealing

I'd still recommend listing them as a lot with a high cumulative starting price just for shits and giggles. If you're selling that many high quality games at once (vs say, Earthbound and 15 generic sports games), I think you may come close to getting what you'd get for each individually.

Then it's just one box to deal with.

Oh hey I found a lot of manuals and even a few N64 boxes

Gold Majoras Mask CiB!
---

Good job. You're going to cash out nicely for those.

Got a Dreamcast perchance?

Yes but not selling. Only things that have been replaced by legal digital options!

Might sell Sonic Adventure or Shenmue though
---

Found a local buyer willing to take the lot plus some new in box Amiibo for over $1500

Pretty sure thats what Im gonna do. No shipping, no hassle, pretty good profit
---

Do you have a picture of the lot

---

You should be getting well over $1500 based on just the games you posted above.

theres a difference between taking a hit for the sake of convenience and then straight up getting ripped off

---

Xtlm posted...

Do you have a picture of the lot

Yeah, this is cartridge porn and I'm not ashamed to admit I love it. Pics nao.

Also whoa, Majora's Mask CiB is $220 on pricecharting - that's gotta be the most valuable game in my collection.

---

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone recall (or care to guess) the cheapest cartridge games became prior to the AVGN-fueled retro explosion? Like, was it possible to walk into a game shop in 2000 and buy a used copy of Chrono Trigger for $15?

---

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone recall (or care to guess) the cheapest cartridge games became prior to the AVGN-fueled retro explosion? Like, was it possible to walk into a game shop in 2000 and buy a used copy of Chrono Trigger for $15?

I remember buying new Game Boy games CIB in the early 2000s for $5 each at BJ's of all places. That was a golden age.

I have a bunch of group pics but not one of the whole lot
---

NES (plus some I added in that I didnt list earlier)

---

Punnyz posted...

theres a difference between taking a hit for the sake of convenience and then straight up getting ripped off

Do you feel I should hold out for more?

---

SNES



Turns out I couldnt find MMX2

---

Misc.


---

Do we really need to see the PS1 discs and cases?

---

That DooM cart

---