Should I Sell my Collection?

[TheAtarianGuy]

I just sold off the rest of my game collection, which was pretty big. I was planning on keeping the 2600 cause it was what got me started on classic games and what I've spent the most time and money on. But I haven't had time to actually play any games lately, and I could really use money for other projects. What do you guys think?

[Keatah]

You know my answer.

[BZachLaLonde]

Whenever I'm pondering things like this, I ask myself why I'm doing it. I know that sounds stupid and obvious, but here's an example: many people sell their collections and such to 'get money they need'. But then you have to determine what that money will be spent on. I think it's a totally legit and mature thing to do when people sell their collections for the space and money a baby requires. On the flipside, if that money is just gonna go into your back account to slowly get chipped away at as you go out to eat and buy random knick-knacks, it's going to be a sad day when you realize you've sold something near and dear to your heart for random, arbitrary, and disposable things. There's also the time and effort you've put into your collection to consider. Many people spend years and years amassing a collection they're proud of. Do you really want to let it all go?

 

This is not to say that you're reasons aren't good. I don't know what projects you're working on, but if the money you'd get for your collection would really put a dent in the cost of them, then it may be worth it. This is especially true if you don't play them anymore.

 

That was a lot (sorry!) but I just know from experience that people sell their collections for money upfront and then really regret it later on.

 

TL;DR - Ask yourself this: "Is the money and space I will receive from selling my collection worth it, even with the amount of time, money, and emotional value I've put into it?" If the answer is yes, do it and have no shame! If not, I'm sure your collection will be happy

[VectorGamer]

Keep your 2600 hardware, buy a Harmony cart and sell off individual carts

[BassGuitari]

I can only speak for myself, but I've considered selling some of my collections in the past. I never did, and every time I get that itch to play Intellivision or ColecoVision, I'm really glad I didn't.

Like others have said, once money's spent, it's gone, and then you have neither your collection nor the money you got for it. So unless you're going to stick the cash into a mutual fund or IRA, or at least a savings account, don't sell just because you could use the money (unless it's kind of an emergency). We could all use the money. Money comes and goes.

Now, if it's a practical concern, that's another thing. If you'd like to get some space back in your house, or if you've got stuff you simply don't use and/or won't miss and want to use it to finance other interests, then I think it makes more sense to cash out.

[Keatah]

Don't sell the cartridges, keep at least your favorites. Because a VCS without cartridges is a "weird" thing. They go together as a set.

[Clint Thompson]

I've been on both sides of the fence multiple times and let me tell you, the end result is never pretty and the regret will for sure always surface later.

[0078265317]

Plus prices rise so it get harder and harder to collect because there is no cheap option anymore. Even 5200 units under 30 most are dead or not working. And good working units are over priced on ebay because they know its worth it and people have no choice. Not like you can just walk to any store now adays like toysrus and buy one. And even nintendo nes super mario brothers 1,2 and 3 plus castlevania all 3 of the series were 10 each many years ago on ebay. Good deal. Now its double 20 each. Nothing less. So not worth selling because if I have to rebuy it it will be expensive.

[kikenovic]

Keep the games you enjoyed back in the good old days then get rid of everything else. You'll fell much better.

[Keatah]

Yeh. Why resell only to purchase again, and have to clean things and go through all the trouble and time. Just keep it to begin with!

[accousticguitar]

Keep your 2600 hardware, buy a Harmony cart and sell off individual carts

This

[Jinks]

Keep just your favorite games and sell the rest. Oh and buy just homebrews in the future..

[mitchd61]

Keep it. Keep it all. If you sell it, one day you will regret it.

Edited June 11, 2016 by mitchd61

[AW127]

Keep your things. It`s never good to sell childhood-dreams. Everybody i knew, which sold their retro-gaming things, later regrets it and then bought back all things for much money. If you dont need the money, keep it.

[bretthorror]

For me being Canadian, a lot of my money got tied up in shipping, so selling stuff for me is kind of hard to get money back. I'd still be profiting over what I spent, but I find it's really hard to part with x item because y item depends on it. For instance, a lady at work is interested in Atari games for her and her family. The easiest method I could come up with was the anthologies on PS2. Now, I have these anthologies and a couple other compilations they'd likely really enjoy. But if I sold them to her... well, then what about the PS2 arcade stick I bought? Then that basically is useless. I have a spare Jr. since I got a 7800, but if my 7800 ever craps out, then I'm fighting on eBay for a working 2600, all for a profit of, what? $50 for my boxed unit? I don't need my NES 99% of the time, but if I want to play light gun games, I kind of have to. I also kind of like the novelty of the zoomer steering controller for racing games. So basically if I'm forced to keep half of my shit anyways, why go through the trouble getting rid of the other half? Plus, I know my shit works well, and tracking down this stuff in working condition is no joy ride. I deduced I'd buy one last console, because the system is obnoxiously cheap. I bought an Odyssey 2. The "tested" unit came with the video cord ripped right from it. So what the hell? It's a really big waste of time unless you have really expensive items to unload. If you're like many of us, I have a modest collection of over 1000 games, I suppose, but none of them are SUPER rare. I think if I could sell locally to at market value, I'd probably part with a lot of stuff, to be honest. But introducing eBay and Paypal fees and hassle, it kinda leaves me in a feeling of malaise.

 

I'd say sell it if you need the money. If you don't, what's the rush? This way if you NEED the money, you can take the time to legit post items and get their full value.

[Philflound]

If you sell it, you will no longer be the AtarianGuy

[Paul Slocum]

It does ultimately cost money to own a big collection. The space to house a collection probably typically costs $300-$2000/year. Mine is in storage and is about $400 per year for the space it takes.

 

A while back I sold off a good portion of my retro computer collection because they're big and difficult to maintain, and I don't really regret it. I probably will never sell my entire videogame collection, although I might eventually end up selling off some of the more obscure consoles that I don't care about as much.

 

I was always skeptical about whether retrogaming collections would hold their value long term, but most of what I own seems to have actually held its value pretty well.

[SIO2]

The key question to ask your self is: if I part with this, would I be happy if I never held one again in the rest of my life?

 

If you can't honestly answer yes to that question then you will buy it back later at a higher price than you sold it.

Edited June 12, 2016 by SIO2

[Place Logo Here]

As somebody who once lost an Odyssey 2 (and extensive CIB game collection), Atari 5200 and Atari computer (with many peripherals) in the early 00's due to flooding, my perspective is:

 

- multcarts have made owning the original carts pointless (unless you find happiness in having those carts, like how I prefer physical media for music)

 

- that said, homebrews rarely are distributed on ROMs and I am keeping mine...

 

- except one Intellivision homebrew I have which I am considering selling because it isn't much fun and I could get a lot of money for it, but only because...

 

- after a lot of serious thought, I realized I would rather have that money for the things I now find more important than a cart I never play

 

All that said, I would give a lot of thought to how much it would cost to get that stuff again. I would not sell hardware unless the situation is dire and this is one of the last few remaining options.

[AW127]

There is also another problem, which nobody wrote about so far. When he would sell all his Atari things, then the forum will automatically change his name to "The guy former known as TheAtarianGuy which later sold everything". And this name has 65 letters, one more than the forum could absorb. This could cause a complete breakdown of the forum-software and panic among all forum-members. You really want that, AtarianGuy?

[Professor Gull]

I would do an experiment assuming you got a buddy you can give the stuff to with intention of him not selling it or getting rid of it or damaging it. Do that for a few weeks and or months pretend its all gone then see how you feel. I have had friends sell me some of their games cause i did not want them to go out in the wild. A few months down the road sure enough they wanted them back and I was more than happy to oblige.

 

Just food for thought. Damn now I want to play Food Fight.

[AtariLeaf]

Taking a long hard look is important. And I mean a LONG hard look. Don't make quick decisions and actually try to sit down with each system and decide whether you can live without it or not. If you are keeping a system, are there games that you no longer play? Maybe sell those.

 

I know I'm a broken record on this because I've posted in discussions like this before but I did two purges in the last 5 or 6 years where I took a serious look at what I wanted to keep and what could go. After a lot of thought and play time with various games and systems the decision became a lot easier and as a result I've had very few regrets in what I have sold and I enjoy my smaller, more compact, but ultimately more personal collection, a lot more.

[VectorGamer]

OP if you start a thread asking if you should sell your collection then you shouldn't cuz it's obvious that you're not sure. For me it was easy: any system that didn't get regular play was out the door and I don't miss those systems or the games. And I still have enough in my collection to keep me occupied.

[Keatah]

It is important to determine why you want to play the games. Is it really for their simplicity and challenge and fun, or is it something more like bouts of nostalgia attacks and sentimentality?

 

You'll need to understand why you want to get rid of them.

 

And my original don't sell comment still holds for many reasons already mentioned.

 

The key question to ask your self is: if I part with this, would I be happy if I never held one again in the rest of my life?

 

This is hard to predict in the here and now. Nostalgia and longing to see your old stuff again can take many years to surface.

 

Just last month I spent nearly 5 hours foraging through mounds of books looking for my Estes Alpha Book of Model Rocketry. For weeks I had longed to see it and touch it and page through it. And it wasn't going away. Only digging it out "cured" me.

 

And sometimes it's that way with my old Amiga 500. I hated it back in the day, I hated it when I sold it. I'm nostalgic for it in some small way today.

 

So be careful.

[Flojomojo]

Purge it. It's just stuff. If you're asking the question, you're already doubting the value of it. Clear out the old crap and make room for something else in your life (not necessarily possessions, either). Keep a few favorites if you really want to.

 

If you're honestly conflicted, stick it in a box marked with a date 9 months out from today (enough to go thru a few seasons but not a full year). If you haven't touched or thought about it in that amount of time, you'll have a better idea of what you "need."