Selling it all?

[dsheinem]

I am curious if anyone here has ever sold an entire (and somewhat valuable) collection of games and systems.

There have been occasions over the years where I have wondered what I might fetch for everything I own - would it be enough to pay off a nice chunk of student loans, a mortgage, fund travel around the world for a summer, buy that vintage car, etc.?

I was curious if anyone ever did this and was glad they did. I am sure some of you have had to begrudgingly sell off stuff out of necessity (to pay bills, etc.) - but has anyone ever parted with it all (or a very large portion of your collection) to do something fun or monumental? Maybe you did it with music, movies, or some other collectible?

BTW, don't worry, my finances are in good shape and I have no intention of doing anything but adding to my collection for a long time Still, should the right opportunity come along...

[molotovwars]

Well I have not, but I plan to. I am living in South Korea right now and when I get back to the States in another 2 years I'm planning on selling most of it. I'll keep the best of the best for Mega Drive, the Zelda games, and Shenmue, and I think the rest will be getting sold. I didn't really bring any of it with me and never considered it. I brought my modded PS2 and its never been hooked up, but I did buy a Mega Drive while I was here and thats what I enjoy most.

As far as what I'll do with the money, it may go towards graduate school or into investments (which would then go to graduate school) however I would not be selling it for the purpose of money for graduate school. I may get a considerable chunk of money for my stuff, but I hardly see it making a dent in the amounts I'll need to pay. Nothing I can't make in a few months of work.

Haha not too fun, but I've learned I really like the Genesis / Mega Drive haha

[CRTGAMER]

Same here, I hate to sell any of my collection.

I found a good way to check value of stuff is screening E-Bay and Amazon to see how the current market is.

Wide disparity in prices.

Example:
Gamecube PSO that I bought at Gamestop for $4.99 is now topping out at $184.69 on Amazon:


Unbelievable! If you do find one at Gamestop it still goes for $4.99.

I won't sell since I still love collecting and playing video games.

I think with these rates its better than the current stock portfolio.

[onemanfilmcrew]

I'm actually in the process of dismantling the majority of my collection. So far I've sold off a lot of my more valuable individual pieces (100 games for about $2,000). I still have a ways to go, as I'm now prepping my nintendo stuff, which includes 100 complete games, another 370+ loose, several boxed systems, etc.

I did decide to keep a handful of items that were either sentimental to me (like Phantasy Star II, which was one of my favorites growing up), and stuff that is just way too rare to give up (like Atari 2600 prototypes).

It is really painful to do, but I'm paying off my debt so I can live a better life (i.e. don't have to work 29 out of 31 days a month).

[Deftism]

The thought of selling off a collection is depressing, years of treasure hunting and whatnot, and then selling it off... eeesh :/ And then there's the sentimental value, like that feeling you get when you find a rare game in a thrift store for $1.99 and it's worth $100. Awesome.

When I was younger I sold systems and games to pay for the next up and coming system.. I regret that so much lol.. So yeah I don't think I'll ever sell off my current collection.

[Hatta]

I've bought someone's entire collection. Just about every Atari console ever made, ~300 2600 games and a couple dozen each for the others. Vectrex, Fairchild, some pong machines, a bit of NES, SNES, and N64 stuff too. Guy probably could have gotten about twice what I paid for it, but didn't care to try. Who knows why. Good for me though.

[JordanPlayer]

Wide disparity in prices.

Example:
Gamecube PSO that I bought at Gamestop for $4.99 is now topping out at $184.69 on Amazon:


Unbelievable! If you do find one at Gamestop it still goes for $4.99.

One day I walked into a Half-Price Books nearby because they were having a 20% off sale. Sitting in the video game case were 2 copies of PSO I & II Plus... yes the even rarer version lol. Needless to say I bought one to keep and one to sell (kept the one that had the manual with it).

[enderfall]

It'd be very hard to put a price on an entire collection that both the buyer and seller agree with. The point of contention being that the buyer would likely have several (or more) of the games in the collection, and the seller will likely want to price the collection somewhat close to the value of all the individual parts. Certainly you save on shipping and fee's to ebay and the like, so you must keep that in mind as well.

[jfe2]

In high school I sold my shiny new Xbox so that I could go to prom....

That night, I vowed to never sell another video game that I liked again.

Seriously though, I hope I never have to sell my entire collection. It would take a lot to make me do it, that's for sure. The thought of it just makes me sad. The funny thing is, if my wife had her way I wouldn't own anything video game related.

[s1mplehumar]

I gifted tons of games to my younger brothers when I enlisted in the Army...namely NES games. Recovery has been slower than I'd like