Alamogordo approves Atari excavation

[carmel_andrews]

Well, If they find any complete computer systems (like a 1450 or a complete collete Mobo), i've got first dibs

[SoulBlazer]

It would be curious to see exactly what they dumped,but I'm sure what Marty said is 100 percent true. It just still blows my mind that all this stuff was SO overproduced they couldn't even get rid of it at clearence prices and decided a tax write off by destroying it was the only thing possible. DIdn't the tax rules get changed in the 90's so companies couldn't do this anymore?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The market was crashed. I got a C64 at that time and even for $1 I wouldn't have bought any new Atari carts.

[jhd]

It just still blows my mind that all this stuff was SO overproduced they couldn't even get rid of it at clearence prices and decided a tax write off by destroying it was the only thing possible.

 

Atari was a manufacturer, not a retail business so they had no mechanism to sell their surplus games directy to the public (who did not want it, anyway). Even if retailers were willing to take it, the wholesale prices would not have been high enough to even cover the shipping costs. It was more cost effective to destroy them.

 

I don't remember any liquidators (e.g. Big Lots, Excess Cargo) selling to directly to the public in the 1980s, but even vendors like that have a limited capacity to accept surplus stock.

[Grig]

I don't remember any liquidators (e.g. Big Lots, Excess Cargo) selling to directly to the public in the 1980s, but even vendors like that have a limited capacity to accept surplus stock.

 

I think I remember purchasing Eastern Front 1941 for the 8 bit from a liquidator for like $5 but it was mail order and like 1986. I could be wrong.

[+D Train]

I don't remember any liquidators (e.g. Big Lots, Excess Cargo) selling to directly to the public in the 1980s,

 

{snip}

Anecdotally, I seem to remember that KB Toys sold all kinds of liquidated merchandise. So there may not have been national chains of liquidators, but there were certainly smaller ones out there. I can also remember going to mom and pop stores in connecticut in the early 80s and seeing all kinds of off brand cartidges marked way, way down...not atari or activision carts, but Apollo and Xonox; stuff like that.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Anecdotally, I seem to remember that KB Toys sold all kinds of liquidated merchandise. So there may not have been national chains of liquidators, but there were certainly smaller ones out there. I can also remember going to mom and pop stores in connecticut in the early 80s and seeing all kinds of off brand cartidges marked way, way down...not atari or activision carts, but Apollo and Xonox; stuff like that.

Must have been nice to have experienced that era. I was still in diapers...

[+Random Terrain]

I bought a lot of marked down games from places like Revco and Kay Bee (or variations on that name) especially in 1983 and 1984. Grocery stores were even selling marked down games. My family started going to Big Lots in 1986. You never knew when a batch of Atari 2600 cartridges would pop up at Big Lots, even into the 1990s.

[high voltage]

Shame there wasn't a crash in Europe, I paid DM 125,00 for Golf on VCS in 1985 ( from Real Kauf). What's that in $?

[high voltage]

On the other hand some games, like Kangaroo, were DM 29,99 but as said above A8 and C64 became popular and soon VCS stuff was to be found in bargain bins

Edited June 11, 2013 by high voltage

[Crazy Climber]

When Mt. St. Helens erupted, people were selling little jars with volcanic ash in them in Seattle. Even though the ash didn't fall there, cars were driving around everywhere with ash piled up on them that you could just scrape off and put in your own jar. If you lived anywhere in the path of the ash cloud, you could scoop up a few dozen wheelbarrows-full of the stuff from your own yard. Completely worthless stuff, but proof that people will buy anything.

I have a "do it yourself" jar of ash with one of thos shitty 80's lable maker labels on it. I'll try to track it down and snap a pic, or maybe not, since it's just a jar of ash with a label on it

[Crazy Climber]

I bought a lot of marked down games from places like Revco and Kay Bee (or variations on that name) especially in 1983 and 1984. Grocery stores were even selling marked down games. My family started going to Big Lots in 1986. You never knew when a batch of Atari 2600 cartridges would pop up at Big Lots, even into the 1990s.

Yes, I remember purchasing M-network games at the grocery store. Kool aid man for sure, dark chambers and a few others too...

 

Big lots was "rumored" to have the rare NTSC BMX airmaster by atari, I never saw one, I wasn't buying many atari games in the 90's though. Can't remember who said they got one there, but hes a member here

Edited June 11, 2013 by Crazy Climber

[mkiker2089]

It would be curious to see exactly what they dumped,but I'm sure what Marty said is 100 percent true. It just still blows my mind that all this stuff was SO overproduced they couldn't even get rid of it at clearence prices and decided a tax write off by destroying it was the only thing possible. DIdn't the tax rules get changed in the 90's so companies couldn't do this anymore?

 

Regarding tax, I don't know about write offs as in loss. I do know from a retail perspective that if it's destroyed you don't pay tax on it as in inventory / property tax. That's still true to this day. Many companies still destroy stuff because if they sold it to a clearance house they'd have to pay tax on it that year.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Regarding tax, I don't know about write offs as in loss. I do know from a retail perspective that if it's destroyed you don't pay tax on it as in inventory / property tax. That's still true to this day. Many companies still destroy stuff because if they sold it to a clearance house they'd have to pay tax on it that year.

Or car dealerships usually have "blowout" sales on cars in december so that they don't have to pay another year's worth of taxes on them. Sadly, we've never taken advantage of those offers because we've never gotten a new/used vehicle except when something goes wrong with our old one.

[atari181]

 

Yes, I remember purchasing M-network games at the grocery store. Kool aid man for sure, dark chambers and a few others too...

 

Big lots was "rumored" to have the rare NTSC BMX airmaster by atari, I never saw one, I wasn't buying many atari games in the 90's though. Can't remember who said they got one there, but hes a member here

I went to college in 1990. That was my first exposure to closeouts stores. I remember seeing at Big Lots(Odd Lots at that time)

Asteroids

Hockey(activision)

Defender

Breakout

Skiing

 

At the time I only remember the games I played as a child. Now that you mention it I vaguely remember having seen a BMX air master, may have been another Atari Red box, but I think it was BMX

[Andromeda Stardust]

Another thing to consider is that a lot of 1983-84 games are rare and collectable today because they didn't sell post crash. Overstock that may have been dumped at Alamogordo could very well consist of quite a few R9s and other gems that just didn't sell on the market. For instance, if you produce an initial production run of 500,000 or 1,000,000 carts, but only manage to sell 10,000, then you've got a lot of loot on your hands that you can't get rid of. Most third parties recouped what little money they could liquidating their stock for pennies, but Atari did not want to injure their reputation, "cheapening" their games by slashing prices, so they just disposed of them. The value of said games 30 years later is only high today because of the so-called "written off" stock, so it's entirely possible that there is a high proportion of rares mixed in with the commons. However, if a warehouse full of Quadruns discovered today (or even just a single pallet), it would drastically reduce the value on the current collector's market. Due to the nature of being buried, it is likely the games, if they exist and are found, will more likely find any value as historical artifacts (think archaeology dig) rather than functional game pieces. I think it would be cool to own a landfill ET or Pacman. Maybe VGA could even make an exception and grade the buried loot. So what if my Pacman or ET gets awarded a VGA "10" grade, it would be an awesome piece to own, and the VGA case would not only protect it but it would prevent it from soiling an otherwise pristine collection.

Edited June 12, 2013 by stardust4ever

[Rik]

I once read, don't remember where or from whom, from someone involved in the crash management dilemna, that this buried E.T cartridges thing and other Atari stuff is total B.S. That being, burying all that stuff that is worth $$$ as recycled materials is absurd. It went on as saying Atari had handsome profit potential on cartridge shells, and all other materials X ????? and they did just that. They sold off what they could and made $$ from the rest as recycled material, and I have to admit, this does kind of make sense. Not saying yes or no, just something i read.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Rik

[Sprybug]

Atari was a manufacturer, not a retail business so they had no mechanism to sell their surplus games directy to the public (who did not want it, anyway). Even if retailers were willing to take it, the wholesale prices would not have been high enough to even cover the shipping costs. It was more cost effective to destroy them.

 

I don't remember any liquidators (e.g. Big Lots, Excess Cargo) selling to directly to the public in the 1980s, but even vendors like that have a limited capacity to accept surplus stock.

I remember our Safeway's video section. Around '84 or '85 they put all their Atari games in these bins and sold them for $5 each. When I went shopping with my mom one day I saw that and she thought it was a good deal too and picked up a few games. I remember Pac-Man being one of them, but I don't remember what the others were.

[Andre81]

So if ET was so bad and there were 3.5 million cartridges left and a lot dumped in Alamogordo and even today we still find a lot of new old ET stock, why did Atari Corp. made even more ET cartridges in 1986?

[atarian63]

Be careful, Canada is a lot like Europe. Those commies even have health care for everyone!

bad healthcare

[Schizophretard]

So if ET was so bad and there were 3.5 million cartridges left and a lot dumped in Alamogordo and even today we still find a lot of new old ET stock, why did Atari Corp. made even more ET cartridges in 1986?

 

The ones they didn't destroy and the ones they remade more closely matched the demand for them. It was one of the 10 best selling Atari games but they were betting on number 1.

[Andre81]

All the sealed stock sold today is from the original Atari Inc. production run. So obviously there must have been still a ton of ET stock in the warehouses. Why would you then make yet another production run of a game that you just dumped in the desert?

[Andromeda Stardust]

All the sealed stock sold today is from the original Atari Inc. production run. So obviously there must have been still a ton of ET stock in the warehouses. Why would you then make yet another production run of a game that you just dumped in the desert?

Because half of the business decisions Atari ever decided made little to zero effing sense. Kinda like how a certain current American console manufacturer is making business decisions that make little effing sense, *cough* Microsoft *cough* Windows 8 *cough* Xbox One *cough*...

[mos6507]

Well, If they find any complete computer systems (like a 1450 or a complete collete Mobo), i've got first dibs

 

I have heard stories that 1400 series prototypes were dumped this way.

[mos6507]

I once read, don't remember where or from whom, from someone involved in the crash management dilemna, that this buried E.T cartridges thing and other Atari stuff is total B.S. That being, burying all that stuff that is worth $$$ as recycled materials is absurd. It went on as saying Atari had handsome profit potential on cartridge shells, and all other materials X ????? and they did just that. They sold off what they could and made $$ from the rest as recycled material, and I have to admit, this does kind of make sense. Not saying yes or no, just something i read.

 

Destorying leftover inventory is a tax writeoff. That it's wasteful and bad for the environment is obvious, but hey, the world is messed up that way, just as much now as then as far as I'm concerned. eWaste today is a huge environmental problem, even though some attempts are made at recycling.

Edited June 13, 2013 by mos6507