Atari 7800 at Big Lots : How long ago?

[boxpressed]

In the latest RGR podcast, one of the hosts mentions the recent interview with O'Shea's. He then says that he'd heard that Big Lots received a lot of the liquidation inventory too. He was told by a person who worked there that there were NIB 7800s stacked to the ceiling, NIB games for $1, etc. Anyone here have the good fortune to buy 7800 stuff at Big Lots? How long ago was it?

[Atari Dogs]

1993 for Big Lots. I hit all the Big Lots in Greater Cincinnati.

[boxpressed]

That was a lot longer ago than I'd guessed. How much were the consoles?

[+Darrin9999]

I went to a couple big lots in michigan, picked up a bunch of stuff. I do believe the consoles were $19.99. I dont remember seeing any 7800`s but they had tons of 5200`s and 2600 jr`s..

[the.golden.ax]

They never had consoles as far as I saw. I hit many many many locations from Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia. They had them from about 1993 - 1999, and I still had them coming in to my shop as trade-ins with Big Lots stickers as late as 2006. It has been 5 years since I've seen one other then those in my collection.

[20ohm20]

Pic-N-Save (what Big Lots used to be called in Southern California, or maybe the west coast) sold some silver and red label Atari 2600 games in late 1989/early 1990 for $2 or $3 each (I remember buying several of them). I vaguely remember them selling 2600 Jr's, but I don't remember how much they wanted for them. I've never seen any 5200 or 7800 games/consoles there.

[CRV]

I seem to remember getting 2600 Asteroids (the original picture label variation) at an Odd Lots in the '90s.

[nonner242]

1993 for Big Lots. I hit all the Big Lots in Greater Cincinnati.

 

Yep same for me in the Cleveland/Mentor/Medina area.

'93/94" Had bins of games.

Ace of Aces

Solaris

Dark chambers

Secret Quest

Jinx

Tower Toppler

ect....

 

There was no rarer games like Planet Smashers or Moto Psycho and like Ax said, no systems.

[TwinChargers]

There was a place in one of the malls in central MN, (it may heve been called something generic like "Everything's a Dollar") that had a small selection of Atari games in the early 90's. I remember getting Ms.Pac-Man there and Battlezone, maybe even Jr.Pac-Man. I was only a kid and had a small allowance, but if I recall they were actually only a buck.

[+DamonicFury]

I got a 7800 console at a liquidation store (Ollie's) around 1991/1992. It came shrinkwrapped with 4 of the 7800 launch titles... can't remember for sure which ones. The whole package was $40.

[the.golden.ax]

I got a 7800 console at a liquidation store (Ollie's) around 1991/1992. It came shrinkwrapped with 4 of the 7800 launch titles... can't remember for sure which ones. The whole package was $40.

 

 

And now those shrink packs get $300+ when they show up on ePay. Would love to have an attic full of those.

 

AX

[Sbdolan]

1993 for Big Lots. I hit all the Big Lots in Greater Cincinnati.

 

Yep same for me in the Cleveland/Mentor/Medina area.

'93/94" Had bins of games.

Ace of Aces

Solaris

Dark chambers

Secret Quest

Jinx

Tower Toppler

ect....

 

There was no rarer games like Planet Smashers or Moto Psycho and like Ax said, no systems.

 

 

I actually picked up a 7800 and quite a few games at the Lorain Oh Biglots. 93/94 sounds about right. Got Fatal Run from there, Karateka, and a few others.

[Schmudde]

Contrary to a poster above, I believe I did get a few games published in 1990 at Big Lots in Peoria including MotorPsycho and Alien Brigade. I believe Peoria, IL Big Lots received this haul in 1993ish. The inventory sold included 2600/7800 games and systems. All games were $1-$3. I bought quite a bit of software to round out my collection (including Secret Quest for the 2600). It was a great time. Second best to the time when Don Thomas, while still being employed at Atari, helped liquidate much of their inventory through his connections at CompuServe.

 

Schmüdde

www.schmudde.net

www.directingfilm.net

Edited September 29, 2011 by Schmudde

[the.golden.ax]

In Tennessee they had $1 $3 $5 and $7 titles. Perhaps the goodies left quickly, I never saw any Alien Brigade or Fatal Run.

 

AX

[GonzoGamer]

Anyone have any idea as to where all of the 7800 sealed games that have been on ebay of late came from, seems to be a ton of certain titles listed as sealed.

[the.golden.ax]

Anyone have any idea as to where all of the 7800 sealed games that have been on ebay of late came from, seems to be a ton of certain titles listed as sealed.

 

User names?

 

Anything from Titusville Florida (various user names with "source" in them) are part of the Telegames buy out.

 

Anything from Venezuela is part of that south American warehouse find.

 

The girl with the cases is someone that bought a bunch of stuff before O'Shea sold off.

 

Am I missing anything? If it is big lots they have orange price stickers that don't come off easily. They either leave a mark, or they are still on.

 

AX

[GonzoGamer]

Anyone have any idea as to where all of the 7800 sealed games that have been on ebay of late came from, seems to be a ton of certain titles listed as sealed.

 

User names?

 

Anything from Titusville Florida (various user names with "source" in them) are part of the Telegames buy out.

 

Anything from Venezuela is part of that south American warehouse find.

 

The girl with the cases is someone that bought a bunch of stuff before O'Shea sold off.

 

Am I missing anything? If it is big lots they have orange price stickers that don't come off easily. They either leave a mark, or they are still on.

 

AX

AX, thanks for the info, being pretty new to game collecting i had not heard about all of these finds, one of mine does have one of the orange stickers.

[Pete5125]

On 9/29/2011 at 8:50 PM, the.golden.ax said:

In Tennessee they had $1 $3 $5 and $7 titles. Perhaps the goodies left quickly, I never saw any Alien Brigade or Fatal Run.

 

AX

Late reply but I know fatal run, made it as we played it at my friend's house, his dad came down to ask about the game, when we told him you shoot people and still their gas, hreprimanded his son and told him a good Christian shouldn't play games like this.

[Cousin Vinnie]

On 9/29/2011 at 8:50 PM, the.golden.ax said:

In Tennessee they had $1 $3 $5 and $7 titles. Perhaps the goodies left quickly, I never saw any Alien Brigade or Fatal Run.

 

AX

Dude, this particular day was one of the best days of my adolescence. My mom called me and told me Big Lots has Atari 7800 games cheap, and I went down and there was a giant table filled with them- piled WAYYY high and discombobulated like a Walk Mart value movie bin. I was able to complete my collection with all of the hard to find games (Alien Brigade, Basketbrawl, Planet Smashers, Fatal Run, Scrapyard Dog, Ninja Golf etc - expect for Meltdown) and the games were 1 2 or 3 bucks each. If I knew then what I know now, I would have cleaned out that store and the rest of Knoxville. Damn- that was awesome.  

I sometimes go into a Big Lots now look around for the same thing... knowing how stupid and foolish it is. But its still fun to hope. 
 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Cousin Vinnie

[Pete5125]

Yeah, I remeber 10 years ago finding a bunch or ea sports games in the buck bin at a  save a lot, I needed the plastic cases to make jaguar boxes, my buddy was still into sega, so I got 10 random games.

 

Still wasn't like the big lots deal, as games were their that were new releases I had never seen. Along with systems Etc. It was massive when it started then started dwindling down.a great summer indeed.

[Asaki]

Didn't know Big Lots was that old o_o

 

Around that same time (1993-ish), we found a bunch of new 2600 carts at a dollar store...we ended up with Pole Position, Venture, Gravitar, Dig-Dug, Galaxian...maybe one other?

[Trebor]

16 hours ago, Asaki said:

Didn't know Big Lots was that old o_o

In the Tri-State area, those familiar with Westchester County/Central Avenue we had Odd Lots.  It's the same store type and company. 

 

BITD (Early-mid 80's), I distinctly remember purchasing at least Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man, Frogs 'n Flies, Lock 'n' Chase, and Space Attack.  Looking back, they probably had a closeout/abundance of M-Network titles there.  I recall purchasing Milton Bradley's Microvision from them.  I believe it came with Block Buster, and acquired Bowling, Pinball, and Vegas Slots from there too.

[+sramirez2008]

16 minutes ago, Trebor said:

In the Tri-State area, those familiar with Westchester County/Central Avenue we had Odd Lots.  It's the same store type and company. 

Oh yeah…I remember this store. I also remember Tops Appliance City in Hawthorne. Purchased several HiFi components and an early CD player (for my car) from them. Ahh…good times.

[+Propane13]

On 10/21/2021 at 10:34 PM, Cousin Vinnie said:

Dude, this particular day was one of the best days of my adolescence. My mom called me and told me Big Lots has Atari 7800 games cheap, and I went down and there was a giant table filled with them- piled WAYYY high and discombobulated like a Walk Mart value movie bin. I was able to complete my collection with all of the hard to find games (Alien Brigade, Basketbrawl, Planet Smashers, Fatal Run, Scrapyard Dog, Ninja Golf etc - expect for Meltdown) and the games were 1 2 or 3 bucks each. If I knew then what I know now, I would have cleaned out that store and the rest of Knoxville. Damn- that was awesome.  

I sometimes go into a Big Lots now look around for the same thing... knowing how stupid and foolish it is. But its still fun to hope. 
 

 

I just want to say that you're not alone in this.  When I was a kid, I had $17 to my name when my parents showed me the Big Lots ad.  I was shocked to see that they had games for $1, $2, and $3.  I remember carefully going through the pile and picking up some 7800 games I had never heard of, and a few 2600 ones.  I was very careful with my $17 to get maximum value.  Sadly, I can't remember which ones I purchased that day.  But, I DO remember that I saw Circus Atari in the bin for $3, and I was like "3 dollars!  No way-- I can get 3 games for that" and I put it back.

 

For decades later, I would have the occasional dream of going to Big Lots and rummaging the bins of 7800 games, only to find that when I went to the back of the pile, there was a copy of Broderbund's Solo for the 7800.  I would buy it, ride home, open the packaging, plug in the cart and turn it on.... only to wake up.  I always wanted to be one to help release a prototype from a bin hidden in the back of a Big Lots.  I lived pretty close to where the Good Luck Charlie Brown 2600 prototype was found when I was younger, so I thought it was just a matter of time.  Never happened, though.

 

Anyway, I would also rate that single day of my childhood one of the best days of my life.  It's been a while since I've had that recurring dream, which is a bit sad, but hey, at least reading the stories about Big Lots here on atariage have given me a bit of nostalgia for that one day and my well-spent $17.

[R.Cade]

I was thinking it was earlier, maybe 91 or 92, but 93/94 is probably right.