Ever got anything so bad shape you actually threw it away?

[v1rich]

Since you have been collecting stuff, have you ever gotten anything in such bad shape that you actually threw it away? I know I have. I had real pangs of regret when I did it though. :)

[Gapporin]

Yep. One time I got a Game Boy Rechargeable Battery Pack in a Game Boy lot that I got from a garage sale. It wouldn't recharge, and it wouldn't even work as an adapter. Into the trash bin it went.

[TRM]

I have a Camerica wireless controller of sorts, that I bought complete. The battery compartment is totally corroded, and I still kept the damn thing for some reason. I guess I hate to throw it away, since the box is in nice condition, but it really serves no use to me either. Maybe I should just keep the box and manual, and ditch the controller before it causes me real troubles.

Thoughts?

[Ed Oscuro]

You can always use some vinegar and baking powder on that corrosion if you're careful, TRM. I'd try that out.

Myself, well, I haven't ever wanted to toss something but by god this week eBay sellers have been doing their best to get negatives from me. I just got a copy of Apocalypse that is one of the most horrid looking PSX game discs imaginable and the seller had the nerve to call it "LIKE BRAND NEW." Yeah, it was...once upon a time.

[captain nintendo]

Yep. Recently when I bought several hundred NES boxes I found like 20 of them were torn and messed up so badly that there was no way somebody would want them. Good thing was that there were doubles of them , and nothing that was in bad shape was rare.

[briguy578]

only once, I got some genesis stuff in the mail and one of the controllers had the d-pad broken off O_O ... wierdest thing I've ever seen... so yeah, that went in the bin. I'm sure there are a couple of other times, but most of the stuff I've gotten that was supposedly "broken" worked just fine when I cleaned it up :D

[goatdan]

I'm getting stuff all the time for the GOAT Store, and a lot of the time we'll buy really big lots that are full of untested stuff. I've got some really interesting things such as 2600 internals with all of the stuff broken off, a Saturn controller that it seems someone dumped soda on (all the buttons were totally stuck), a few controllers with completely severed wires, controllers that were attempted to be eaten by the dog and so on.

Generally, I put all of the broken stuff into a pile and once or twice a year we auction it off on eBay. Last time, I sold something like 30 broken systems and two big boxes of broken controllers for about $300.00. Sometimes I wonder what people do with all of that stuff, but the people that have received it have always been very happy.

Rarely though, I do get stuff that is in such bad condition that I just toss it. I have a box of 2600 games with labels so bad (non-existant?) that they will probably be making their way to the garbage soon. And they're all third party carts, so no one can make games with them :(

[davidleeroth]

Rarely though, I do get stuff that is in such bad condition that I just toss it. I have a box of 2600 games with labels so bad (non-existant?) that they will probably be making their way to the garbage soon. And they're all third party carts, so no one can make games with them :(

Nnoo.. I can't throw anything out. I received a C64 with a couple of joysticks which had the wires cut off. I still smashed them with a hammer and took out the microswitches. LOL I mean those switches must cost at least 50p.

[christianscott27]

mostly just boxes. there was this famous mega haul of mine years ago where i got a ton of stuff including some water damaged boxes. in the photo spread i made of the find i had a shot of the throw away pile. these boxes were beyond saving but still i got a slew of howling posts from people saying i should have mailed the beat up boxes to them....ah the internet.

[DigitalSpace]

I bought a complete X-Men for the Genesis on the cheap once. At first I thought there was just a slit in the plastic that holds the insert, but I opened the clamshell and it almost broke in half. It was like someone had to tried to cut through the middle of the clamshell. The cart and manual were fine though, so i kept those and trashed the rest. I guess I could have taped the insert back together and kept it in case I found a spare Genny clamshell, but when it comes to carts, it really doesn't matter whether stuff is complete or not.

Also, a friend gave me a loose Playstation console this summer, and he didn't know if it was dead or not. After about a week or two i realized it was just going to sit under my bed. I was thinking of just throwing it out, but I donated it to Goodwill instead, just in case it actually worked. Hopefully they didn't charge more than the $5.99 or so they usually charge for loose PSX consoles.

[max 330 mega]

i got a copy of MIG-29 one time that had been scraped to hell and most of the gold outside was scratched off... so after seeing it sit in the collection for two days it pissed me off so bad i threw it away.

[ScottK]

I have thrown lots away over the years. I used to have hundreds of mario/duck hunt carts laying around and pretty much all of them went into the trash years ago. I get big lots of cartridge games at my store and some of them are beyond repairable. I get the games with the green or black crap on the contacts of the game. Things that look moldy, corrosion, or are just not worth my time and effort to clean...they all get pitched.

[qbertandernie]

everything thats junk goes in the junk closet off the ebay room...

one day maybe ill do something with them.. i made a PSX clock before that was cool, i used a broken system and controller and used the buttons as the 12,3,9, and 6...i hope to be artistic and make some neat stuff with the junk pieces, like i was wondering about turning a garage door opener into an NES controller or something - press the "D" pad, open the door...

maybe this winter...

[Nez]

I never get rid of things. I've had a dead 2600 used its switches for a working model. (What a bitch) I've made 2 broken SNES' into one working model. Same with other garbage I have round here. It is usefull for something.......

Up next turing 2 broken SMS to one working one! Or repairing another NES I cant decide.

[Raccoon Lad]

@ NEZ, check the power filter thing in the SMS, it's a little 3 pronged black thing (there's posts about it in the restotration society, common problem with dead SMS units)


The only thing I've ever tossed were 2 sms boxes that were trashed (covers ripped, boxes with huge cracks in them), but I kept the inserts.

[youruglyclone]

Yep. One time I got a Game Boy Rechargeable Battery Pack in a Game Boy lot that I got from a garage sale. It wouldn't recharge, and it wouldn't even work as an adapter. Into the trash bin it went.

ditto here except I bought it from a retailer from hk and I was too lazy to return it

another time was a peacekeepers cart from ebay

[Dahne]

An SNES controller my dog chewed up bad...

She chewed on the other one, too, but it still works. So it just has some extra bumps on it.

[atomicthumbs]

Yeah, a while back I purchased a Chrono Cross clock off of ebay, and when it got to my house, it was falling apart. I asked for a refund, but since I had opted out of insurance... Nope.

[Dreamscape]

I recently got some Saturn games that were in such a horrendous state, that they belonged in the garbage.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Sure I have..

Though if it's something I can use a part out of I'll take what I can use then chuck everything else...it depends on what it is.

if it's something I can fix or can be fixed then it might be put to the side until I can get to it..
If it just need to be cleaned up or something's useful within what I got I'll keep it..
Though this doesn't happen much.

I bought a big lot of Atari 2600 Carts at a Flea Market once...I bought the lot to get the 20 or so not common carts because the vendor only wanted to sell the whole lot...then I figured I'd sell the commons with System packages on Ebay.
It was about 80 carts...7 out of 10 of the common carts don't work for some reason... lots of same title games like 6 Pac Mans E.T. Pitfall...
No matter how I cleaned the contacts etc they don't work but the labels are nice.
Instead of chucking them I made/make Refrigerator Magnets out of them.. :- :)

[MegaDrive20XX]

A PSX system, caked in three layers of tobacco stains, dirt, and other foreign particles...I cracked it open...three pill bugs...one roach...and some kind of sticky substance (probably some fruit drink was spilled)

It powered up surprisly...but the controller port and drive were dead....

RIP in the garbage can

[SlayerOfFurbies]

you know that saturn games can be resurfaced without it screwing up the games

[Nesmaster]

i have a nes and 5 games, that someone took a pair of scissors to( the pins of the nes and games) that i retrived out of the trash of a goodwill. im not throwing them away, because all the nes will need is a new pin connector, and the game labels and stuff are all good condition, so if i get games later on with bad labels (of those 5) i'll just switch them :)

[Jason One]

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[Emily]

If you guy throw games away just because they dont look colloctor grade... thats sad at the very least. Shitty looking cart/ labels? Cummon!!! Give those bad boys to me!! I would have never thrown away a Mig- 29!! My Bee 52 looks like shit but that game is fun! Give them away if if you want to throw them away, you wouldnt have made any money anyway.

Do you have to make primo money? Im really depressed at the kinds of stuff you guys throw out( functional games mostly, and ugly game boxes) If its still alive, give it a home!! If you can still read the box, someone will take it!

This just reminds me of the kitty nobody wants so they put it to sleep... O_O
Please, Please, have mercy!!
Read my sig!!! Any kind of games, ANY!

[Gapporin]

Oh, that reminds me: I once threw away half of a Cyber Sled longbox. When I bought the game from a pawn shop, it only had the back half with the game. I figured that I would have an easier time trying to find a whole one rather than half of one.

But I don't think that I would ever throw something away just because it didn't look that good. As long as it still works, there's still a market for it...like Emily. 8-)

[GarrettCRW]

More than a few things have hit the junk pile on my watch:

In the early '90s, I somehow surmised that it'd be a neat space-saving move to throw out my NES manuals and any unused sleeves. :frustrated:

After surmising that I couldn't save it (read: I screwed it up even more), I tossed out my first NES Advantage during my freshman year of college. Also failing to survive was my copy of Zelda I. I was lucky to score replacements for both for less than $10 combined.

When going for an Atari 2600, the first one I bought got tossed because one of the controller ports (left, IIRC) was trashed. The system I stuck with came with a number of controllers I trashed as well.

I scored a complete, seemingly MIB copy of Star Raiders at one point, only to find that the cartridge was dead. Unwilling to give up the complete bits, I tossed the faulty cartridge.

In recent months, I've tossed out a Superman for the 2600 cartridge (which was part of a lot, and therefore meant little to me) and a copy of Devil World (after realizing that dealing with the seller would be like dealing with a brick wall).

[NESaholic]

I never throw something away even if it is in the shittiest shape, dunno why i keep it but somethings can become handy in the future so i see no reason in throwing away.

[josekortez]

I found a PSX Mad Catz steering wheel in the box at a yard sale and I had to toss the box because it reeked of smoke. It literally took weeks to get the smoke smell out of the steering wheel, but I haven't used it yet because of that.

[briskbc]

I picked up a bunch of Intellivisino games at a garage sale once. The boxes were so far beyond trashed. I just recycled them and ebayed the games and a console.