Selling used games

Garage sale day is this Saturday in my neighborhood, and I have a fairly big library of old Nintendo games sitting around my house. It's really hard for me to let go of them, as I look at each one and remember the fun times I had with each game. I'm also stressing out over what price I should set for each game.

If you were at a garage sale, what would you be willing to pay for the average game on the following systems and handhelds: NES, SNES, GB, GBC, GBA, N64, GCN?

Cysma, be sure to ask yourself why you wish to sell your games. Are you not interested in them? Do you have multiple copies? Do you want to make money?

If you ask me, I'd say that a garage sale is not the place to profit by selling used games. You're not likely to find people who are interested in paying more than a little, especially if some of your games are rare. You might have better luck using auctions.

Also, make sure you won't miss your games in a few months or years. I still regret selling nearly all of my NES collection. I especially shouldn't have sold Dragon Warrior 3, since even a used standalone cart is not cheap...

Yeah, if you want to get a good price for your games, I wouldn't suggest a garage sale. You're more likely to find buyers willing to pay more online.

And if it's really hard to let go of them, why are you selling them?

Also, what country are you from? That's kind of required to be able to help you set a price.

I absolutely agree with the other posters, a garage sale is the worst way to do it. The only people who will come by are going to be your neighbors, who will then ask you favors to cut down the price tag even lower. And if kids come by, they're only going to be interested in big name games (ex Call of Duty, Gears of War) or other popular games like Pokemon silver/gold, and you'll NEVER see them give you more than $10 bucks.

I would recommend sites like Ebay, or if you're still in college try making a few flyers advertising what you have for sale. It just might grab the attention of a fellow hardcore gamer who knows their true value!

Unless you're dying for scratch I wouldn't bother. The amount of money you'll get in return will never equal how much you'll wish you hadn't sold it. Seriously, I sold mine (Though way back in the day to help finance an SNES) and I still wish I had it back. I actually managed to score one, at a garage sale, with a gold cartridge legend of zelda and metroid for like ten bucks. I will never sell any of them.

Same here. Still regret selling my SNES, too many fond memories and good games on that system. My dad sold all 18 games for it, the system itself, plus two controllers, all for about $150 (this was sometime back in 1999-2000 mind you). And then I learned several months that that the kid who got the games almost never touched them and gave them away for free to somebody else... ugh.

edited 19th Oct '11 6:29:36 AM by SgtRicko

Yeah, I miss my SNES too, but not quite as much as the NES. Now it's mostly that I wish I had all the old games so I could play them with my kids. My boy may love watching me play World of Tanks but he can't quite master the skills needed to play it without getting murdered.

Very true. If there's one thing some of the older games had going is that they were a lot more easier for a child to master (excluding stuff like the Roguelikes or Master of Orion series...) Nowadays you'll only find games that simple on stuff like the Iphone or on the 'net. Most console or PC games just don't mesh with kids anymore.

But there are some kids who just can't be helped, no matter how simple the game is. I recall a pair of boys no older than 10 at my house who couldn't figure out how to get past the first couple of screens on LEGO Batman, which is one very easy game. Even worse, it was the tutorial level, and the instructions were constantly appearing on-screen as to which button to press... guess some people just ain't good with tech, eh?

I would KILL for that entire set.

You should keep them. I regret the day I moved over to the other side of the Pacific without bringing my SNES and N64 along.