Why is the Atari 7800 so cheap?

[Kejoriv]

I originally wanted to sell my Atari 7800. I checked the prices on Ebay, why are they so cheap? Is it the crappy controllers, the system, games?

Thanks for the help.

[ddockery]

Well, a lot of people buy games for the nostalgia factor, because they lie to play what they had before... now think about when the 7800 came out. How many people did you know that bought one? Probably not many. Couple that with the fact that there are very few games, and even less worth playing that weren't released for a bazillion consoles, and you have low demand. Seriously, how many "must-have" games does the 7800 have? Food Fight is all that most seem to care about.

[christianscott27]

the 7800 has lots of fun arcade ports, and they are also very cheap. i've probably played more 7800 joust than any other single game in my collection. the 7800 was a dog in its day, not up to competing with the NES, but in the retrogaming view its an awesome machine. they're not always in the best of shape though so make sure you feel confident in the seller before you buy it. the controllers arent that big of an issue since most games use 1 fire button anyways, just use your favorite 2600 controller. the achilles heel of the 7800 is that damm power supply, no subs.

[Achika]

Do all the auctions in question have the power supply with them still? When I used to look at 7800 auctions, they were going for so cheap since none of them had PSU with them.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

It´s great that you people could find interesting 7800 stuff very cheap, here i couldn´t find anything... :o

[Kejoriv]

Do all the auctions in question have the power supply with them still? When I used to look at 7800 auctions, they were going for so cheap since none of them had PSU with them.

Yea they all do. I checked ebay. A system with all hookups, controller and a few games rarely break $20.

[Aswald]

As an Atari 7800 owner from 1988, that's an easy one:

Because it was a failure during the fourth generation. Its library, while it had a number of good games, just wasn't really exciting (the ColecoVision had a much better collection). It failed miserably against the NES; even the Sega Master System did much better. As a result, the nostalga or popularity of other systems isn't there, and it doesn't have a varied enough library of games to carry it today. Had it been released in 1984, and given proper support, it would have been different.

[stargate]

I'll buy it from you. How much? I'll come and pick it up so you don't have to ship.