Biggest Videogame Spending ERROR You've Ever Committed

[Eternal Champion]

I'm glad to see other stories...we're human, after all...especially that these aren't earth-shattering, but still...

I only recently got back into collecting for NES/SNES/Genesis, and I'm done now, so here we go:

NES: Complete Zelda 1 and 2, the re-release "classic" editions, 20-25 bucks each--a little high, but the hell with it. I had insurance money from theft.

Buying a Top Loader for $81!! That was impulsive and ultimately stupid. I then bought a new controller from Nintendo. Then I found toasters with new 72-pin connectors. And read about the inferior video of the Top Loader. I didn't do enough research. Spent 50 bucks on a refurbished toaster (noticed the difference in video, even through RF, immediately), sold my Top Loader plus new controller for $115, so I broke even. :/

I still can't believe the demand for the Top Loader. It may be rare, but such high prices for a used system that's technically inferior to a refurbished toaster? That's just crazy.

The 50 bucks for a refurbished toaster was probably a bit high, but I've seen several such auctions go for similar prices. I didn't want to try repairing one myself.

Genesis: Castlevania Bloodlines, $30, with no manual!! D'oh!! That was my fault--I kept bidding and jacked up the price. Oh well, I like it, and I found the manual on Ebay for a buck!

SNES: 3 years ago, a complete FFIII plus RATTY-ass guide for 70 bucks. Nice set, but I haven't played it very much at all!! Oh well, I'm keepin' it though.

[tynstar]

It was not a mistake at the time but I paid 50 bucks for a used Final Fantasy Tatics. They where going for 80-100 on E-Bay at the time. Now I can find them all over for 15 bucks. Stupid greatest hits series.

[Jorpho]

I paid $35 for FF8 PC on eBay a year ago. I suppose that's probably pretty close to the eBay average at the time, except that I found it a few weeks later at a garage sale for $5.

Sometime around then, I traded NES Secret Scout for N64 Diddy Kong Racing, being sorely misinformed about the rarity of particular NES games. And I don't even own an N64. (At least I didn't pay much for Secret Scout to begin with.)
________
LAMBORGHINI CHEETAH HISTORY (http://www.lamborghini-tech.com/wiki/Lamborghini_Cheetah)

[zektor]

I once spend $180 for a complete Neutopia II for the TG16 on ebay a long while back! I don't know what the hell I was thinking...I was in a bid war and just really wanted that game. This will NEVER happen to me again however. I learned my painful lesson...right out of my pocket!

[shai hulud]

Imported Zelda Wind Waker when it came out for like $90.00

Didnt buy every single copy of Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (sealed) that my place of employment was selling for $18

[chocobokick]

I hate the greatest hits series too! I was dying to play Chrono Cross so I traded in my Final Fantasy 3 cart (the first game I bought with my own money). Even the employees at Game Stop told me not to do it. A month or so later is went Greatest Hits.
Not so huge, Brian bought me a complete copy to replace it but it was my first game :/

[calthaer]

I don't know...some of these sound like bad games, but I honestly have to say that paying money for any massive multiplayer online game was the worst purchase I ever made. I've bought pretty bad games before, like Super Hunchback for the Game Boy or Darkened Skye for the PC, but at least in those cases I still have a game that I can play if I ever feel like it, and they weren't so awful I'm wallowing in shame over them.

But this, I would wallow in: I got caught up in the novelty and played EverQuest for a while and then recently tried Earth and Beyond. Having to pay monthly to play is bad, but what's worse is that you can't play again later even though you've bought the game. You are essentially paying $30+ and a monthly fee to RENT the game from the company.

That is the absolute worst purchase I have ever made, and if I could go back in time and tell myself not to, I would.

[TokenGamer]

Fortunatly for me, I'm cheap as hell so I doubt it will ever happen to me but I did broker a deal once that seemed okay at the time but looking back on it... I feel terrible about it.
When the PS2 was first released here the demand seriously out weighed the supply and people where paying well over $1000 to get one for thier kids on chrstmas. I had a friend at the time who managed to get one. He needed some quick cash so I took it from him and sold it to a lady I used to work with for $1000. I got $50 for my trouble and I still feel bad for her and anyone else who got caught up in that stupid PS2 shortage.
My personal policy is to never buy a console untill the price has dropped twice at least.

[Ed Oscuro]

I once let a friend (great guy, but not too terribly trustworthy lol) borrow my original Metal Gear Solid and the case came back all scratched up. I ended up trading that AND the guide for Tomb Raider 3 + the guide.

...I'm surprised I actually managed to type all that. o_O

Back when I used to use eBay, I had the wrong shipping info on a lot of my early auctions. Afterwards, I've had to write off something like $1000, I'm not sure how much.

I paid ~$675 for my Neo Geo, which wasn't in as good condition I thought it would be in. Honesty aside, I think the guy didn't think he was overstating things (he didn't disappear off my AIM buddy list afterwards) and he did have a number of bills to pay off. In the end, I really don't mind it. I helped somebody out, got a Neo in the process, and nobody really ends up losing (I make it up with all the other stuff I buy).

THAT is the COMPLETE record of my spending errors. Enjoy.

[Ed Oscuro]

Didnt buy every single copy of Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (sealed) that my place of employment was selling for $18

Don't beat yourself up for it...it IS rare, but how would you have guessed? The presentation (what's on the screen, anyways) wasn't that big a deal.

[tededfred]

I had my Cube modded by colorconsoles last summer so I could play PSO... Fedex lost it on the way back and I never got any money back or anything :(

I got a modded spice cube as a replacement, $225.

And then people were duping the first week of JP PSO so they made JP V1.1 and I never ended up getting that, which means I couldn't play with all my US PSO friends. :( At least I didn't waste $125+ on a keyboard.

[Keir]

I won an auction around Christmas for "$100 worth of Amiga software" from Centsible Software for about $40. Seemed like a good deal (though most of what they sell is overpriced). Half the games were not at all as described on their site. For example, one new unopened boxed game turned out to be a used CD only. >)

I complained and they said to send the stuff back for a refund. I sent it back and never heard from them again. I should have just kept it. The bastards.

[dodsworth]

I could nt wait so I spent 130.00 for a import copy of Super Mario 3 a month before it was released here.

Now I got about 20 copies of it :/

I spent 40.00 the small SNES system thinking it was a NES top loader >:( I was so happy till I got home and took another look at it. I look around a little better now.

[Oberfuhrer Hamm]

When I saw that Zelda: Majora's Mask was in stores, I wanted to get it because I had Ocarina of Time and thought that it would be awesome. To get the money, I sold about half of my dozen or so N64 games, a few PSX games, and most of my GBC games.

Blunder #1: Most of the games I sold were games I liked.
Blunder #2: I am sorry, but Majoras Mask SUCKS!!!!! >:(

It only took about an hour to become totally irritated with the game.

At least the hock shop that I sold all those games to sold me FF7 for only $10CDN because I sold my games there. It was used but was in very good condition. This softened the blow a little.

Oh, and not to mention that I actually paid over $50CDN for Majoras Mask, brand new, gold cartridge, holographic (or whatever it is called) label. I suppose that this is not too bad comparde to some of the others on here, but it was the one that I regretted the most.

[Dayewalker]

By the way...how can TZD advertise their Duos as new if they've removed the pack in discs? That bothers me but seems to be common practice for EVERY dealer in "NEW" Turbo Duos....


Q: Tell me more about this hardware you're selling...

A: In early 1994, TTi knew their days were numbered. They "Parted out" all remaining TG-16, Turbo Duo and Turbo Express units. They opened each box, removed each item inside, then placed those items in separate boxes. That is the way TZD bought them back in '94. Since they put the deck itself back in the original carton, we can re-create a complete Duo. When we sell a Duo, we open the box, add a pad, ac, av and owner's manual. That is why the Turbo Duo we sell does not have shrink wrap, pack-in games or the coupon book. They removed the batteries from the Turbo Express, so the units we sell are not shrink-wrapped. But again, it is factory fresh when you get it home. The boxes are perfect, not a blemish anywhere, and we pack carefully so you receive exactly what we ship.

[videopac]

The greatest spending error for me was not in cash but a trade; back in my *crazy* Videopac collecting days I traded a set of boxed 3D glasses for the Vectrex for a five pack of the Loony Balloons game for the Videopac... they were new and in a packing box *but* I later got hold of (roughly) a hundred of the Loony Balloon games for almost free. ARGH! Boxed Vectrex glasses??? :(

[ECWSandmanECW]

Crazy Taxi (Ps2) $50-should have waited for it to drop to $20
Final Fantasy X (Ps2)$50-The game I found out that I dont like RPG's (except Earthbound)

Freekstyle (ps2) $50-See Crazy Taxi

[Ultima_fury]

YoShI'S sToRy,i BeAt ThE gAmE iN 83 MiNuTeS :oops:

[atarifan]

my worst deal was when i was colllecting atari 2600 game (early 90s) and i was visiting edmonton. i checked the local buy and sell and saw a "deal" 83 atari 2600 games for 100$ sounded like a good deal. at the time i was buying peoples whole collections so when i went to pick the games up they were in a grocery bag. well i didnt look inside i figured it was this guys old collection, well when i got home it was filled with 30 space invaders 30 combat 30 yars revenge and 10 assorted very common games. :angry: :( it took me 3 yrs to slowly add them to the collections i was selling to ge rid of them all but never got my value back. then the kicker is when i moved here i found out this guy sells games at the local flea market. now i check before i buy.

[Sothy]

ahahah @ atarifan that sucks.

Right now im pissed about buying the superviion and 7 games or whatever the count is for 30 bux.

Never saw one before and saw the name sachen and just wanted it real bad.

Oh well.


Whenever I feel bad about that kinda stuff I just think about the good finds like sealed guardian heroes for 8 bux.. MUSHA for 4 bux.. Box of 20 Complete Odyssey 2 games that had powerlords in it for 20 bux ...

[atomicthumbs]

Well, this may apply. A few years ago I won an eBay auction for a North American Maxi-15 cart (mint). I went overkill and the auction ended at around $120. Sent payment via money order. Item was never sent, and I was a moron and did not keep my stub or keep the auction information. SCREWED OVER!


AND I still have no Maxi-15 cart!!!

[Jasoco]

I don't know why, but I bought Pokémon Snap. I didn't like Pokémon, and knew my brother would be the one getting all the fun out of it.

I just wanted to see 3D Pokémon!


I also caved into my Brother's begging and bought PSO for Xbox. I don't even LIKE that sort of online game. Looks pretty damn boring to me.


There's probably more. I've spent a lot of money on stuff I later regretted.

[atomicthumbs]

Dude! Pokemon Snap Rules! I just wish that you could save more than one game on the cart.

[Jasoco]

Dude! Pokemon Snap Rules! I just wish that you could save more than one game on the cart.
I just wish I hadn't traded it in along with so many other games I once spent hard earned money on. I wasn't a collector until July so I am still kicking myself for dumping all that stuff.

[vincewy]

How about buying new Neo-Geo home cart for $325 and found out the prices slipped down to $249 within a year? This was not the case for the earlier games but I've seen recently most games come out for $325 and the values keep going down, for that reason I'm holding off new Neo-Geo releases now until prices go down at least twice, I know, my collection won't be complete but it'll be later.

A few Dreamcast games (very late releases) that I paid for $20 and thought they'd be very rare, now you can get some for less than $10 on eBay, but it's not that much of a loss.

This is the reason I've not paid $50 for any games on current system for that reason, the minute you open the game, the value drops by half.

[Miguel_The_Machine]

I bought a 32X, and a about a month later they stopped making games for the system :angry:

[Nick Goracke]

Let's see, in terms of profiteering...

I picked up more than a few copies of Suikoden 3 at 30 bucks, completely unaware that the reason it was in stock at my local Toys R Us was that it had just been reprinted.

Same story with Xenogears... and what's worse, had I held on to them a little longer, I wouldn't have taken such a bath! This was, of course, after getting railed on an eBay auction for the Xenogears Perfect Works art book only to see the price bottom out. Factoring in the 3 hours I wasted totally lost in the "sewers" because I'm STUPID... I'd have to say it doesn't bring back the greatest of memories.

I picked up more than a few copies of Silhouette Mirage... can't see that price ever rising above 10 bucks - dead weight in my closet. Same with Bangai-o.

As for personal purchases, I remember nabbing Shadow Madness the day it was released. I... I liked the music! Had I waited, like, a month I could've saved 40 bucks. ;)

I'll never forget picking up Castlevania: SotN and FFT at Software Etc for 55 bucks a piece on release and finding them at Best Buy 20 bucks cheaper the next day, either. Divine punishment for not shopping around...

[jaydubnb]

"2. Being so into SF2 and buying a fighting clone for the snes for $60.. I even forget the name. Lets just say it was such a BAAAD poorly put together street fighter clone hashed together in about a week. ugh! "

Power Moves, perhaps? Or maybe Doomsday Warrior?

JR

Power Moves was prehaps the most asstacular fighting game ever. And I had the misfortune of buying the turd.

[DigitalSpace]

Spending $15 on a loose Super Mario 64 shortly after I got my N64 earlier this year. A couple months after this purchase, I saw two copies for $5 each. A month after that, I saw one for $4.99 at a pawn shop. Each cart in as good condition as the one I blew $15 on.

Yeah, it's a great game, but if I had waited a couple months, I could have saved $10. After that, I vowed not to spend more than $10 on any N64 game, and less if possible. However, I made an exception when I came across a loose Paper Mario for $20, and I'll bend the rules when I come across Harvest Moon 64, but that's it.

Then there was the $1.49 purchase of Nanotek Warrior for the Playstation at an EB. It was complete but the disc was covered in rental stickers and I got bored with the game 10 minutes. Might as well have spent that $1.49 on a burger or soda or something.

[fishsandwich]

Let's see, in terms of profiteering...


I picked up more than a few copies of Silhouette Mirage... can't see that price ever rising above 10 bucks - dead weight in my closet. Same with Bangai-o.

I'll never forget picking up Castlevania: SotN and FFT at Software Etc for 55 bucks a piece on release and finding them at Best Buy 20 bucks cheaper the next day, either. Divine punishment for not shopping around...

I'm stillnot so sure about Bangai-O... it did have a low print run, and the DC hasn't been dead long enough to see the prices go up on it. There's still hope, my profiteering friend!

Cheers :)

[tritium]

I sold my copy of Mystic Defender for the Genesis for $2, and now I can't find it for less than $7.

I bought Soul Calibur used at Gamestop for the DC. I payed $25. It had a hairline crack, within a week, it split completely in half.

I spent $10 at goodwill for a genesis 2, it was broken. (goodwill here seems to be very pricy, several stores actually)

-Tritium

[dracula]

fifty for an import soul calibur 2 with freeloarder for gamecube. dunno what i was thinking.

To make up for that I got the limited edition guiide with soundtrack and poster when it was pennied out at gamestop.

[digitalpress]

Some of these sound pretty good, but most of them (N64 Superman? Beavis & Butthead? METAL GEAR SOLID?) I would hardly call MAJOR errors in purchasing. I have one that is going to blow the doors off of what I'm seeing here so far.

I'd rather not tell the story until the blow is cushioned by others. :/

Talk about "slipped my mind". That was in February of 2003 and I"m finally here to answer it (thanks Castelak!)

Someone guessed it - it was that 3DO purchase on the system's launch day. There I was, all proud of myself, blowing the whole paycheck on this system that was going to be GREAT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. And playing Crash 'n Burn for the next two months until something else even came out for it. By '97 you could buy the same unit, which I paid $700 for, for about fifty bucks.

[Ed Oscuro]

Now that I see some people are willing to pay insane prices for a Neo Geo AES Gold System, I don't feel quite SO bad about paying $650 for it (came with Baseball Stars Pro 2 and Fatal Fury 2 US versions, meh). Still about $100 too much.

My greatest error was without a doubt paying $233 for a copy of Akmajo Dracula x68000. It did come with a vintage dead spider underneath the plastic tray; still wonder if that was a Spanish spider or a Japanese one LOL

The game wasn't in terribly great shape - not bad by any means, but there is a lot of wear on the sides. Later I would go purchase a MINTY copy for $199; and NOW I know where to buy a pretty good copy for $70.

Another error of mine would be having put off buying the US version of Castlevania Chronicles for so long; now you can't find the damn thing for less than $50 new!

[Nez]

Buying a game boy color a year after they came out. I had lost my game boy pocket for about 6 months and I was looking for a replacement. So I purchased a purple GBC and lo and behold my Dad found my GBP the next weak.

[Ed Oscuro]

Heh, don't feel too bad. The Color was awesome when it came out (well, I thought so, anyway!)

I saw a really beat up one for $10 this summer a little ways down the road from my house. Didn't buy it.

[tholly]

i saw NES Flintstones The Surprise At Dinosaur Peak box and cart for $20. I didn't know if this was the rare flintstone game, or the common one. i went to get my DP guide and went back, and the game was already gone. i feel very very dumb for not buying this one.

[ozyr]

Well, I can't beat Joe for his 3DO purchase (that had to hurt), but the biggest mistake I made was...

Purchasing a Power Lords cartridge for $250. Doesn't sound bad at first, but I was not smart enough at the time to verify that it was actually 'Power Lords.' What I got in the mail was 'Serpente do Poder' - or the Brazil version of 'Power Lords.' Ouch!!!!! I Was mad as hell, but the bastard that sold me the cartridge insisted it was still Power Lords, no matter what the box and manual looked like. Argued like hell for a bit, but since it was a private sale, there wasn't much I could do about it. Just suck it up and deal with it.

Lesson learned - when paying for a high price item, ask every question possible. What is it, where was it made, what language, etc., etc. (and biggest question, does it actually work!). Shouldn't have to do this, but in the world of ebay and such, you have to... :hmm:

[Jumpman Jr.]

The week I started collecting, I thought 2600's were sooo rare.
60 bucks for a 2600 Jr. LOL

[Cryomancer]

I dunno, I can't think of anything that I truly regret to be honest.

Sure, I paid 50 for Shenmue II on xbox, and it's now what, 10 bucks? I don't care, it's a great game and I do my best to support Shenmue when i can, because I would like to see the story get told to completion. I'll be playing the MMO if we get it as well.

I also paid 50 for PSI I&II for xbox, and then had to go pay another 50 to get a live kit so I could play it. Honestly, I've got my money out of that game too. I paid more than i should have maybe...but damn I love PSO.

Other than those, I never have the cash to be making mistakes, so I'm damn careful with what I buy. If I think of anything I'll come back here though...

[suppafly]

I live in mexico. But I spent 8 days in Xmas 2004 in Michigan, visiting my girlfriend.

From the first day I had a mission: Buying a Nintendo DS. I was a huge gameboy fan since 1990, and the GBA is one of my favorite systems..so i thought nobody could go wrong.

To make a long story a little shorter, i visited around 40 stores in 8 days trying to find a DS system...it was sold out everywhere...until the last day I finally found it on a Circuit city. I bought my DS console + mario 64 + Feel the Magic.

The thrill of having the DS lasted for around 24 hours...then I noticed how mario 64 is the same game I played on 1996 (somehow I thought I´d enjoy it the same way I did back in 1996). Feel the Magic was OK,,,I bought it because I read it was similar to Wario Ware, but somehow I enojyed Wario Ware MUCH MORE.

SO basically I spent 3 or 4 months wishing to get a PSP; until I finally sold the DS. I will NEVER buy a DS again.

[squidblatt]

This is a little different since instead of overpaying, I accepted too little for something.

I used to be a very dedicated PC gamer, and I kept all the boxes, instructions, and original pack-ins for every game I had. And that was a lot of games dating from the early 80's to the mid nineties. So, I'm in college around '93 or '94, and I want money for pizza, beer, and weed. Do I need to say anything else?

I wasn't a collector then, but they did have sentimental value that I should have considered. I posted signs up all over campus, but nobody responded, so I ended up just giving everything to some guy down the hall for 50 dollars.

So, what was in the collection? Well over 100 complete games.. A complete set of Infocom games with all the original packaging and doodads including an almost complete run of the New Zork Times/Status Line, which probably just got tossed. Every Sierra adventure game, nearly every Micrprose published title, my favorite rpg's like the Magic Candle series, Wasteland, Starflight, Hard Nova, and many others. Also in the mix were early EA releases like MULE, Archon, and Seven Cities of Gold. All the Cinemaware games. The list goes on; I don't want to write a huge post listing everything I can think of.

I just drank, smoked, pissed, and barfed them all away in a night. It wasn't even a night that stood out.

[phonox]

Wow, I mean some of these are a bit ridiculous some a bit stupid but I'm not sure that any of these measure up to some of my retarted buys.
1 on the list is a doll from Lunar of the pale white guy (cant even remember his name ne more lol want to say Gandalf) for $55 about a yr ago in a used game store(got on ebay saw it for about 6 bucks).
2 is when I way way way over bidded for a box of 30 empty playstation game cases...no need to say how much i paid. the point is when I read it I left out the key word.....empty

No need to go on. as kelso would say. i'm the king.

[SlayerOfFurbies]

Unlimited saga. it wasn't even worth worth the $10 i paid for it. and to me $10 is usually a good price for any ames

[BrokenFlight]

For some reason I bought Need For Speed: Underground on the PS2 :angry: It was £8 second hand.

I sort of regret getting F-Zero for the snes but it was only £2.50

[Speedy_NES]

Paid 157$ for a 500-in-1 Famicom multicart 7 or 8 years ago on eBay...back then they were rare, now they are worth hardly anything...

Also spent around 250$ 7 years ago on a Famicom Disk System...now they go for 50-100$.

-Speedy

[jp]

I spent $100+ shipping for the Saturn version of Time Bokohan due to a stupid bidding war. :(

[diskoboy]

The $350 I spent on the Sony PSP, and 3 games (Lumines, THUG, Metal Gear Acid) on launch day. I haven't played my PSP since the day after I bought it, and am seriously close to selling it.

Sony, realease some damn games already! GOOD ONES!

[Moon Patrol]

Sports Talk Football 93 starring Joe Montana.

Why I bought two.... I don't know.... but it was three dollars I will never get back...... DAMN YOU ELECTRONIC ARTS!

[walrusmonger]

When I paid $629 after shipping for my PSP+Ridge Racers from lik-sang on launch day.

I loved the system... when it was exclusive to me and my coworkers who ran out and bought them online after seeing how awesome it is.

I havent used it in a few months, and although I sold my first ds for what I paid for it, and got another one, I'm playing the DS way more than the psp.

And to top it off, I had 1.0 firmware which I upgraded to 1.5 for russian support. So I could have sold it for $350ish, but NO luck. Oh well :-/

[phreak97]

My biggest regret would have to be when i saw a used Official DrumMania controller on ebay for $0.01, no current bids. there was a couple of hours to go and i didnt know the shipping cost, i emailed the guy but obviously got no reply in that time. if i had thought about it, there was no way shipping would even come to half the things real value (~$200 at the time), it turned out shipping was $30, and the controller finished with 0 bids at $0.01.. i could have gotten a konami dm con for $30.01, and i didnt.
i emailed the seller afterwards, and he said "yes the controller most definately is sold, i can get you another one, but it will probably be around $200.
i dont believe it was sold, i think he just wanted to avoid making a huge loss on it.

[8bitnes]

In a purchase of someone's entire NES collection (over 100 games) I ended up getting a Dragon Warrior IV cartridge that had its guts swapped out for Super Mario/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet. It wasn't the cornerstone of the purchase, but it certainly pissed me off. This wasn't my worst buy by any means either, but the one that is the most interesting.

[Poofta!]

Hybrid Heaven for the N64, i too was desperate to play something on that system, and i talked my dad into buying it for me, i think he paid some like 60 bucks for it. GODDAMN that game SUUUCKED. i eventually sold it off with all the rest of my n64 stuff, i think i got 100 bucks for it like 4 years ago.

i bought a shitty conidition, loose TG16 with 1 controller, T-Tap, and Dungeon explorer for 65 bucks at a flea market. the seller through in a broken Model1 sega CD which i fixed (needed a new fuse). i sold that console with a keith courage card for 35 on ebay. crap.

i also paid 100 bucks for a loose Nomad, with a couple shitty games. but i sold it back one bay for the same price.


those are the only 3 mistakes ive made in gaming (purchase) and hopefully ill never do more again.

[bargora]

I was thinking that Disney's Tarzan was the R7 (or 6) so I picked it up last weekend. Then I got home and looked in the guide and saw that it was actually Herc's Adventures I was thinking about.

You win this time, Wee Bull!

[Yamazaki]

I probably top everyone by buying Rise of the Robots when it came out.

[McBacon]

Oh, you guys need to watch your wallets. My mistakes are so tame compared to some of you.

Got a boxed Expansion Pak for a fiver, looked in the box before parting with my money, saw the black plastic and handed over my £5

Then I picked up a Zelda Collecters Edition, these things go for around £18 on the bay. The guy wanted £5, I checked the case, yep, Zelda was in there.

When I got home, it was a Jumper Pak and the Ocarina/Master Quest Game! Gah!

To prove that these mistakes are fine, as we all learn from them, I rejected a SF2 Turbo for the SNES as the cart inside was for orriginal SF.

I think I have babbled on for too long already, for only £10!

[Steven]

My biggest regret would have to be when i saw a used Official DrumMania controller on ebay for $0.01, no current bids. there was a couple of hours to go and i didnt know the shipping cost, i emailed the guy but obviously got no reply in that time. if i had thought about it, there was no way shipping would even come to half the things real value (~$200 at the time), it turned out shipping was $30, and the controller finished with 0 bids at $0.01.. i could have gotten a konami dm con for $30.01, and i didnt.
i emailed the seller afterwards, and he said "yes the controller most definitely is sold, i can get you another one, but it will probably be around $200.
i dont believe it was sold, i think he just wanted to avoid making a huge loss on it.

OUCH, sorry to hear that, my friend. Yeah I had similar haunting eBay auctions I watched, and either flat out forgot or my brother took position of the PC and wouldn't let go. When he gets on it, watch out. He's a monster, heh.

I remember watching Metal Black (Saturn import, worth around 40-50 bucks) it was starting bid $5 shipping $5. I totally forgot about it, and believe it ended with one bid. No guarantee his max wasn't like 40.00, but you never know. I never gave myself a chance. I remember lulling over this miscue for at least a couple weeks.

Other than that... hmm, I'm not sure if I have a "defining" blunder. My bro certainly does however.

In late 97 he allowed FuncoLand to rape him. He traded in like 8 classic SNES games we had over the years (including Tournament Fighters, sniff) for trade-in of a new SNES NHL 97 game. Highway robbery!

[Psycho Penguin]

I bought a Nintendo 64 w/Mission Impossible for 300 dollars back in the day.

[Pico956]

I can't recall the last game rape I've received, but I recently watched a friend get ripped off when purcahsing something.

We went to a local "Gamers" store where they had an old NES on display. It just had a controller, RF adapter, and the game system. She bought it for $50! I know for a fact you can find a way better deal on ebay. She just was spoiled and wanted it there and then. Oh well, it wasn't my $.

[pickingupchange]

i was 9 or so and bought a sega cd with 300$ of saved up money. Stopped working after a month or two so I took it in the back yard and smashed it to pieces with a hammer (the model 2).. I took the cd loading part (mechanism still worked somehow) and nailed it onto the wall in my clubhouse over a hole so it was like a cool window. I was nuts when i was 9 haha.

[Jasoco]

My brother spent all of his paycheck and more the otherday on a 360 and Final Fantasy XI.

Only to find out Final Fantasy XI.... sucks ass.

Fortunatel, since the girl who returned it is a friend, he got his money back for the game and cancelled his account after spending ALL NIGHT THE NIGHT HE GOT IT setting it up. My GOD. I felt like I was installing Windows. 5 freaking codes with 20-25 letters and numbers each.

Then to uninstall it he had to reformat the HD and lose his info and PD0 save.

Figures. Thank god and Marren that he was lucky enough to get his money back on an opened video game.

[Kejoriv]

I would say, back in the day when I blew all my money on the Sega Game Gear. After a month, I realized I made a mistake. Never got use to the layout of the buttons. I remember trading it back to Funcoland for more b+w Gameboy games.

[CreativeOnlineSurname]

Most of my mistakes come from being broke and misjudging the system. I assume certain games will be hard to come by in the future, so I get them immediately if I know I'll want them... Usually sacrificing something good in the process.

The worst one was when Mega Man Anniversary Collection came out. I was broke, so I ended up trading in Mega Man I-VIIII for it, plus Mega Man X and X2, since I figured the Mega Man X Collection wasn't too far off anyway. For a thirty dollar game that you can pick up for eight or nine dollars now. Plus, the cartridges looked a lot nicer on display. That was my worst mistake.

After that blunder, I reformed. That was enough to curb my trading habit for good, so I've been "clean" since that came out, which was 2003, I believe.

[JPeeples]

My biggest one would be buying a ton of shit at the Circuit City $5 sale a couple years ago, and not selling all of it - leaving me with a bunch of games I have no desire to play, and can't even break even with on ebay.

[Richter Belmount]

final fantasy legends 40 new i simply didnt enjoy it

[mEgAsHoT]

Paying $50 for WWE Wrestlemania 21 for the Xbox right when it came out. The game was a total letdown. The gameplay was broken, slow, and very prone to freezing. I owned it for maybe a month or two and finally traded it in at Gamestop and got Crazy Taxi 3 instead, which I had been wanting for a long time. I will never pay $50 for a horrible game like Wrestlemania 21 again.

[NintendoxPopCoRn]

Here it goes l went and bought Pokemon snap for 60 buks with the card thing l beat the game in 4 hours l was only 8
my brother was 12 we both chipped in

[SeGaFiEnD]

There are to many to list. Put it this way, everything I ever bought before last month. Last month I started doing my shopping at DP brick & morter.


Want to see how bad I got ripped off. Take a trip to manhatten and go to St. Marks games!!! @_@

[shadowkn55]

Paying $50 for X-Men Vs. Street Fighter for Playstation thinking it was the same as the arcade. What a disappointment. Not only was it slow (think snes dbz games), you couldn't even switch characters. The Saturn version was so much better. Buying Radiant Silvergun for $15 kinda made up for it.

[Greg2600]

Being a 10 year old and not knowing any better, any NES game I purchased from Toys R Us simply by looking at that sheet of pictures of the front and back of the game. Thankfully I was a toddler during Atari 2600's heyday or I would have bought tons of those games that stunk, just by looking at the artwork.

Worst decision classic: NES Airwolf
Worst decision modern: N64 WCW Nitro

[Rob2600]

One of the few errors I made was buying Pit-Fighter for the SNES in 1992. The original Atari arcade game was pretty good for the time and, in the hands of a competent developer, could have been faithfully ported to the SNES. However, it was ported by Toy Headquarters, now known as THQ, and ended up a glitchy, unplayable mess. That was $60 down the drain.

Another error I made was auctioning my entire video game magazine collection on eBay.com the week of Christmas 2006. I had a total of 175 magazines, books, and comics, plus posters, and I auctioned them all together at once. The winning bid was only $21. It was bad timing, plus I ended up not charging enough for the shipping.

In total, I had:

2 issues of Nintendo Fun Club: issue 6 (April/May 1988) and issue 7 (June/July 1988)...bad condition

119 issues of Nintendo Power: issue 1, 4-45, 47-69, 92-139, 142-145, and 173...condition varies, most are in very good and great condition (includes annual bonus issues and special covers)

18 Official Nintendo Player's Guides...most in great condition: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide (1987), Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros. 3, Ninja Gaiden II, 4 Player Extra, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Top Secret Passwords, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Star Wars Episode One Racer, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Pokemon Trading Card Game, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

32 other magazines and strategy guides (EGM, GameFan, GamePro, Next Generation, Ultra Game Players, Gamer's Republic, etc.)...most are in great condition

the first (and only?) issue of IGN64.com The Magazine...great condition

3 issues of Super Mario Bros. comic books by Valiant: Super Mario Bros. from 1990 (issue 3 and 6...great condition) and Adventures of the Super Mario Bros. from 1991 (issue 1...a bit ripped, but not horrible)

[PSXferrari]

Alright, this one is pretty tough to admit to-- it's not overpaying for a game, it's just making a really bad, dumb prediction...... this past Christmas I purchased 3 COPIES EACH of the Burger King games (that's a total of 9 games)..... Yes, I'm a moron. (Oh, and did. I mention that I had to buy their food too to get the games?)

I bought a set for myself and two sets to resell on eBay. I was anticipating them being worth double or triple what I had paid for them, because in the past weird games like that were released in limited quantities and then all of a sudden in high demand a couple years later (e.g. the FREE Zelda compilation given with Wind Waker pre-orders; which I resold unopened for $65). Plus, when I bought the BK games the set (retail value $12) was selling for $25 on eBay. I was thinking-- man, if it's overpriced while it's in production imagine once it stops after X-Mas. Sadly that was not the case, and the games ended up managing to sell over 2 million copies (when will good games start selling as many copies as mediocre/bad games?). They certainly aren't going for a premium on eBay either (and they sell used for $2 at EB Games). Now they sit stuffed in a drawer somewhere, which I open every once in a while if I ever feel that my self-esteem is getting dangerously high.

[Nick Goracke]

I remember purchasing 3 factory sealed copies of Earthbound at Best Buy when they were clearancing them out for 6.99 each (and left 5 on the shelf). I then raced to Funcoland to trade them in for 14.00 store credit each...

I purchased an ORIGINAL copy of Sapphire for the PC Engine Duo for 400+. Shortly after, the bootleg copies hit the market and the prices of the originals dropped to at least half...

I picked up a new, factory sealed Dragon Warrior 4 at a local grocery store (???) for 10 dollars a few years back and sold it to a collector for 400... but left about 30 other factory sealed NES games on the shelf.

[Rob2600]

I picked up a new, factory sealed Dragon Warrior 4 at a local grocery store (???) for 10 dollars a few years back and sold it to a collector for 400... but left about 30 other factory sealed NES games on the shelf.

Regarding the prices I've been seeing on eBay.com recently: who is paying these ridiculously high prices for factory-sealed video games and why? What's wrong with buying games that are already opened? Are you playing the games and having fun or are you worshipping the shrink-wrap?

[Three-P]

I guess I've been lucky. The worst I got soaked for, thus far, was paying $5 for a copy of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero for the Sony PlayStation.

Damn. I could've bought a BK quad-stacker for that much. (And maybe a Dr. Pepper, too.)