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is there a non-greedy person selling the atari 2600 for it's actual price?


memelord

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i'm looking for an atari 2600 online, but i can't find anything for under 100 or 1000 dollars! are people really that greedy? is it a joke? they might as well not sell it! no one is going to pay more than 30-35$ for an atari 2600! (that's what it's actually worth) seriously! why is everything so overpriced when it comes to cheap consoles? can anyone please post me a link to where i can buy an atari 2600 forit's retail value ($15-$35) and can ship to canada, the land of beavers, hockey, and maple syrup?

 

please. i'm desperate to play some star raiders.

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Load up an emulator and download the roms cost: $0.00

 

It's a seller driven market.

i don't want emulators. i want the real thing. is there a seller on ebay that sells these for $15-$35? i read that is the retail price.

Edited by memelord
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i don't want emulators. i want the real thing. is there a seller on ebay that sells these for $15-$35? i read that is the retail price.

 

Back in 1998, I was easily selling 2600 consoles for $25 each (albeit not online, through the local free classifieds).

 

Short of borrowing a time machine, I do not expect that you will find what you want anytime soon.

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I sell av + stereo modded 2600's all the time for 60 bucks shipped in the USA, I buy them often untested or as is for an absolute max of 30 bucks (and at best I make 20 bucks at worst I break even)

 

so lets put a little reality on this shall we

 

you want a known working, probably with power supply (and more) for the price of an unknown condition unit, and to canada, which instantly slaps a 30$ shipping charge on it... when the median price over the last 5 or so years for a dirty untested nothing comes with it is 25$

 

best case you get a 25 dollar console that needs a bath and its contacts cleaned, worst case you have a dud that cost you 25-30$ with the potiential need of 30-35$ worth of parts

Edited by Osgeld
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Yeah, fact is... they don't sell for $35 anymore. $50-$100 *IS* the actual price currently. Demand is exceeding supply etc., probably due to the big bump in price since Ready Player One.

If you are willing to wait, it may calm down some... but the days of $25 ataris are long gone, unless you can get a 'friend deal' somewhere.

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Bought a AV modded 7800 myself recently. EBay for around $80, came with just the console. Seemed like a better deal all told than any 2600 on eBay.

 

Garage sales and thrift shops might be your best bet, but who has time for that these days? :(

 

eBay is not going to help you find that IMO.

Edited by RugglesTx
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In all honesty, you are better off paying for a modded system. If it is already modded you don't have to pay shipping to get it modded and you're ready to go. IF you buy an unmodded system, you'll likely have to pay shipping 3 times before it is all said and done and that really adds to the expense. From the seller, to the modder, back from the modder.

 

7800s are a good way to go. AV/svideo modded and maybe even modded for the SEGA Genesis power adapter and you've got a good machine that can play 2600 and 7800 games at a decent price. You can use 2600 controllers with it for the feel if you'd like. If I didn't have anything right now, that is how I'd go.

 

The 7800 even has some really killer titles, both homebrew and original.

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But...but... The 2600 real price is $199! $100 sounds like a steal!

 

The Jr's $50.

 

;)

 

On a more serious note, you might try asking local Facebook groups for free game systems. I've heard that can work, tho I've not tried it. Even if you don't get a 2600, you could get another system to sell. Use that money to buy the 2600. :)

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Check out the OfferUp, Letgo and Mercari apps

 

The cheaper units sell quickly, but I can see these are still available.

 

$45 and free shipping:

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m70023313358/

 

$34 plus shipping:

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m83328837176/

 

$35 and free shipping:

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m55046045192/

 

 

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Everything's gotten more expensive, especially the Nintendo stuff. Atari isn't quite as bad, but the only way you're going to get a 2600 for the price you want is to catch one at Goodwill. Or ShopGoodwill, their online auction site. Garage sales used to be an excellent source for Atari hardware, but like the other guy said, that was ancient history.

 

But yeah, try ShopGoodwill. You've got the best chance of getting a 2600 for your desired price range on that site. They don't usually ship to Canada but maybe you could have them ship to an American friend and have him/her pass it along to you.

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i'm looking for an atari 2600 online, but i can't find anything for under 100 or 1000 dollars! are people really that greedy? is it a joke? they might as well not sell it! no one is going to pay more than 30-35$ for an atari 2600! (that's what it's actually worth) seriously! why is everything so overpriced when it comes to cheap consoles? can anyone please post me a link to where i can buy an atari 2600 forit's retail value ($15-$35) and can ship to canada, the land of beavers, hockey, and maple syrup?

 

please. i'm desperate to play some star raiders.

Everything has gone up. Genesis, Game Cube, N64 used to be $30, with NES, SNES were $50. Now the NES, SNES are $75 and the Game Cube, N64, and Genesis are $50 at GameXChange, when they have them in stock.

 

I bought my Atari 2600 4-switch (the most common model out there iirc) for $50 in 2012 with a fat stack of games. If it's gone up by a considerable amount along with everything else retro, it would not surprise me one bit.

 

Pricecharting is kind of a lame tool. I've found stuff cheaper locally, but mostly higher online. In fact Pricecharting is one of the biggest proponents to inflation. Pricecharting displays an "average" price from the past month or so online, but sellers who use the marketplace services that pricecharting indexes, assume this to be the new "minimum" price, and typically price higher to account for fees. Pricecharting sees the sold listings on average are higher than last months average, then sellers set the new price as the minimum bar they will sell at or accept an offer for. So of the past 10 years that Pricecharting has been tracking games, they have contributed to some extent to the actual inflation epidemic.

 

A bigger issue is there is a new generation of millennial gamers interested in retro games, in addition to the old guard generation who grew up with the stuff. Combine that with the sad fact that games and systems stop working and get thrown away instead of repaired (and in some cases working systems tossed out as well), that they aren't made anymore, and the market for said games and systems is bigger now than in recent years.

 

There is also speculative buying, ie purchasing games with the intent to resell at higher price. This may contribute to a bull market bubble and subsequent crash, however more people than ever are collecting so supply cannot satiate demand and prices continue to rise. As trends in collecting tastes change, prices for various systems will rise and fall. As old collectors die off, drop out of the hobby, os simply come across hard times, these collections will ultimately be released into the wild again and prices will stabilize. How long for this to happen, who knows? I also think CRTs will be highly sought after in the future. Look at pickers. Old junk = goldmine. CRTs are old junk now, but are integral to maintaining a retro collection.

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The price will only go up with time, especially for the sixers, as they become harder to find and more collectible. They're more than a console, they're a piece of history.

 

So yeah, good luck finding one for $25. In Europe a sixer typically sells for 60-90€, maybe around 50-60€ for the Vaders and Jr. It mostly depends how collectible it is, a boxed heavy-sixer will sell for a lot more, and that's their actual price.

 

Now if you only want to play and don't really care about the console itself, buy an USB 2600 joystick and use an emulator, the experience will be the same and will only set you back $25.

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Lots of ebay sellers have unreasonable buy it now prices. Check the true auctions to see what they are actually worth on ebay. And check local listings like fdr4prez suggested. I remember when the local electronics surplus store had buckets of used ones for $5 a piece (1991).

 

If you are okay with a flashback 2 than you'd be okay with other hardware compatible systems (not software emulation). Although current hardware compatibles are relatively expensive and wouldn't necessarily have a cartridge port (which is really optional). There might be demand for someone to make a modern clone system. Would you want standard video or hdmi? And how much would you pay.

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Everything Kosmic Stardust, said. Spot on.

It's getting mental, now. Prices for things that once sold for next to nothing, now sell for prices close to, or even more, than the system sold in it's heyday. Empty boxes now sell for mad prices, as collectors try to put value to their collections by adding a box. Kind of makes you wonder why no-one has a business selling repro boxes, and polys.

 

The Atari 2600 6-shooter woody, is now very desirable and actually sells easily and for high prices, especially boxed. The 4-shooter is getting close, while the Jnr isn't as desitable. So perhaps look for a Jnr ? Here in the UK they go for peanuts, so it might be similar over in the US.

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Everything Kosmic Stardust, said. Spot on.

It's getting mental, now. Prices for things that once sold for next to nothing, now sell for prices close to, or even more, than the system sold in it's heyday. Empty boxes now sell for mad prices, as collectors try to put value to their collections by adding a box. Kind of makes you wonder why no-one has a business selling repro boxes, and polys.

 

The Atari 2600 6-shooter woody, is now very desirable and actually sells easily and for high prices, especially boxed. The 4-shooter is getting close, while the Jnr isn't as desitable. So perhaps look for a Jnr ? Here in the UK they go for peanuts, so it might be similar over in the US.

I’ve never even seen any Atari stuff in the shops I’ve been to in the UK. Im guessing I’d be better off going to a car boot sale?

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Seems to me if someone is going to go to the trouble to list and ship an old console, they'd want to make it worth their while. I've got some old consoles from an estate sale for which I paid $3 each, I'll likely never hook them up, but neither will I out in the effort to list em if I have better things to do.

 

$50-$75 for a nice 2600 setup seems reasonable and fair to me. Lower than that and the buyer is acting like the greedy person, not the seller.

 

Or wait for the next Atari Flashback.

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