"Son, I know you wanted a PS3, but here's a Saturn instead."
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:31 pm
Recently I decided to sell the Sega Saturn I recently got off Ebay (It was a model 1 and I wanted model 2 so I could put a mod chip in it - noob mistake). So I put the console and 12 games on craigslist, and within a few days one potential buyer contacted me and was pretty excited about it. I figured he was just another retro gaming enthusiast like myself.
Well, when he showed up to look at it, he was this 45 year-old guy who told me he wanted a gaming system for his nephew who is 12 years old. He said his nephew wanted a PS3 more than anything but he only had so much money.
At first I thought "Boy is this kid going to be pissed! He probably wants to play Metal Gear Solid 3, but instead his cheap-ass uncle is sticking him with this archaic piece of hardware with games like Cyber Speedway and Heir of Zandor!!"
But then I started to think, "Is this kid really going to appreciate this marvelous piece of gaming history? Is he going to understand that this machine was unique in its day with its dual CPUs and six processors? Is he even going to bother to pick up Nights into Dreams?"
I started to think twice about selling it. I just knew if I gave the Saturn to this guy, he was going to give it to this kid, who as soon as he sees the thing is going to say "What the f*&k is this?! Where's my PS3?!" and then he's going to shove it in the basement never to see the light of day again (or worse). While I was thinking this, the guy placed the cash into my hand without haggling, and he was out the door. I froze.
The point is that maybe, there are some things that you just shouldn't sell to certain people. If you had '69 Mustang that you restored yourself, would you sell it to a 16 year-old kid that just got his license? Of course not. Would you sell a classic gaming system to some kid that had no idea what it was? I just did - and I regret it.
Well, when he showed up to look at it, he was this 45 year-old guy who told me he wanted a gaming system for his nephew who is 12 years old. He said his nephew wanted a PS3 more than anything but he only had so much money.
At first I thought "Boy is this kid going to be pissed! He probably wants to play Metal Gear Solid 3, but instead his cheap-ass uncle is sticking him with this archaic piece of hardware with games like Cyber Speedway and Heir of Zandor!!"
But then I started to think, "Is this kid really going to appreciate this marvelous piece of gaming history? Is he going to understand that this machine was unique in its day with its dual CPUs and six processors? Is he even going to bother to pick up Nights into Dreams?"
I started to think twice about selling it. I just knew if I gave the Saturn to this guy, he was going to give it to this kid, who as soon as he sees the thing is going to say "What the f*&k is this?! Where's my PS3?!" and then he's going to shove it in the basement never to see the light of day again (or worse). While I was thinking this, the guy placed the cash into my hand without haggling, and he was out the door. I froze.
The point is that maybe, there are some things that you just shouldn't sell to certain people. If you had '69 Mustang that you restored yourself, would you sell it to a 16 year-old kid that just got his license? Of course not. Would you sell a classic gaming system to some kid that had no idea what it was? I just did - and I regret it.
