Biggest Videogame SELLING Error You've Ever Committed

[CX2K]

Figured I'd borrow Joe's topic and turn it around....

What's the biggest mistake you've ever made when selling something videogame related. How about some horror stories from back in the days when you were a newbie and didn't know any better?

I'll start everyone off....

Back before I was on the internet (I guess around '91 or '92), I had bought out some stock from an old videogame store. I only knew of one local collector and another gentleman by mail. I made up price lists and handed them out at my Atari computer club but no one was interested. Finally after a lot of arm-twisting, I was able to sell what I thought were some of the better games.

Here's what I sold and the price....

Swordquest: Waterworld (Sealed, 4 copies) - $30 each
Starpath Rabbit Transit (Sealed, 3 copies) - $12 each
Starpath Party Mix (Sealed, 3 copies) - $12 each
Starpath Official Frogger (Sealed, 2 copies) - $12 each

What's even worse is that in my effort to sell them, I may have even reduced the price a little more (like say $10 for the Starpath games). I honestly don't remember and don't really want to.

This is the nightmare I have to live with and endure every day. :)

John

[orrimarrko]

I have a better question - where on earth did you get those games all sealed in the first place???!!! O_O

[tom]

a few items spring to mind:

1: a boxed CompuMate Computer Keyboard I purchased brandnew at the time for $200.00.
I gave it to my nephew
2: a boxed Carrere game: Cakewalk.
I gave it to my Nephew (again)
3: boxed Commavid game: Mines of Minos
Yep, Nephew....

4: a boxed 1581 incl. manuals, disk etc I purchased for $80.00.
I sold for $20.00

5: sold my whole Atari 8-bit Computer collection, incl. monitor, 2 FDD's, 100's of original software, incl. rare stuff, only to cross-over to rival C-64.

Whilst I managed to replace the Compumate (unboxed with xeroxed instr.), I haven't found a cheap 1581 yet.

[maxlords]

The ONLY one that comes to mind is selling my C64 with 400 bootleg games for $400 back in the day....and honestly, I don't really regret it. I've never really made any grevious selling errors due to my vow to only sell games I absolutely hate and the fact that I never really sold ANYTHING until the big eBay game boom.

[Achika]

Complete Import Saturn Dracula X about 2-3 years ago for $30...A day later I saw it going for $60+ on eBay with a few days left still

[DDCecil]

After getting my Import Saturn with 30 games for $200, I started selling all of the games that I didn't care for or traded them away. I traded Pschic Assassin Taromaru + 4 other $40+ games for a Turbo Duo system. I'm still kicking myself to this day. I could of sold the games and got a Turbo Duo + Many, many games! Of course, the system broke soon afterwards...

[NE146]

I don't think I've ever sold a thing in my life :hmm: including videogames...

[dreamcaster]

Back in 1997 I traded in my SNES with 5 games for an N64.

But this wasn't just any SNES - It was boxed with all the manuals and the little bags all the components were packed in. And it was a Super Mario All-Stars pack-in. But not just any pack-in - this was one of the few to have an extra controller with it too. Everything in mint condtion. I'd only had it for about two years.

Plus I had Stunt Race FX, PilotWings, Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing and Super Mario Kart - all boxed with manuals and again in perfect condtion.

It was worth $120 AUS in the trade. Biggest. Mistake. Ever.

I have managed to get back most of my stuff though. But the SNES I've got is yellowed - my original never was.

All my cartridges are just loose (Super Mario Kart has a manual though) and I still haven't found PilotWings yet.

What a fool I was. And it didn't take long to regret it. About a month later I was wishing I'd never sold it. I even went back to the store I sold it to, to try and buy it back, but the guy said it sold only after a few days on the shelf. "Perfect SNES's don't stay for long", he said.

Since then, I'll never sell anything - no matter what it is. No matter how little I play it (Lynx and Game Gear spring to mind) or how bad the game is (Cruis'n USA anyone?) - never will I sell a video game related item.

[ManekiNeko]

I got desperate for cash and sold five Saturn imports for ten dollars a piece. They included Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special and Silhouette Mirage. I didn't like either game, but they were worth a lot more money than that, even in 1999 when I got rid of them. Clearly, I should have waited a couple of years and sold 'em on eBay. :(

JR

[CrazyImpmon]

I can't say I ever regretted selling something really nice but I did sell a few CIB NES games late 80's to buy newer NES games.

I do know of a blunder one of my friend did some years ago. He was selling some extra Intellivision stuff (via newsgroup auction, this was before ebay) and among them one complete Intlelivision ECS.

It wasn't untiul after the buyer send some great praises that he decided to see his collection. What he still has is the common grey ECS, he had inadverantly shipped the rare brown ECS away.

[cheesystick]

I bought of those free gamevube preview disk for money. I figured that I couldn't get one up where I live. Nest day I went to Fred Myers and they had a whole box of them, completely free. Here I had just bought one on ebay a few hours earlier. (smacks himself in the head)
-crispy

[orrimarrko]

There are probably more than I can count, but one in particular comes to mind:

Shortly after the demise of the Saturn, I was looking to upgrade to another new system - can't remember which one. So, I brought some games to the Funcoland for store credit. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I only have stuff in absolutely mint condition 9 out of 10 or better.

I brought in (ALL brand new, minus the shrinkwrap - I opened them myself) House of the Dead, Shining Force III, Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, a complete Herzog Zwei, and a loose RC. Pro-AM II for NES.

Other than the Herzog Zwei and the Shining Force III (which I finished), I had never even played the other games one time! I bought them all at Toys R Us as the system winded down, figuring that they were the last 4 US games that would be made.

Since I wasn't a collector at the time, I just figured, I could get them again if I want to... O_O

I wish I could take that day back.

[EnemyZero]

trading my sega saturn + 2 controllers + 2 lightguns + guardian heroes, panzer dragoon, clockwork knight, knights into dreams, three dirty dwarves, shinning force 3, virtua cop 1 & 2, burning rangers allll for the ENEMY playstation system..with like 2 crap games....why did i do this? I really wish i knew but it's givin me nightmares because they were all in perfect condition. esp guardian heroes :( ...i was stupid this was back like 4 years ago maybe 5.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I didn´t buy a complete Virtual Boy + 3 new games for $ 30 (about 10 dollars). >:(

[zektor]

I had an Amiga 500, extra drive, 1mb expansion, 1084S monitor and about 500 backup game floppies. I got rid of the whole thing for like $100 many years back. I still regret it. I also had a C64, a 20MB Lt. Kernal HD (used for my BBS), 2 1541 drives, 6 1581 drives, and a ton of software that I ended up selling off for like $200 back then as well. I regret that one even more.

[bargora]

NOT selling my Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (PSX) back when they were going for $75-$100 on ebay.

[Drexel923]

When I was young and very ignorant there was this new place opening by my house called Funcoland. Ah, how dumb I was to bring 90% of my NES games and basically give them away for free. But thankfully I have retrieved my lost games plus many more. Never again will I be fooled. Funcoland = >)

[Sylentwulf]

Besides being young and selling ALL of my stuff at one point or another.

The only "mistake" I can think of is selling the day scene atlantis for $2-$4 a couple times. Not much of a mistake, but then, I don't make mistakes anymore when it comes to games :) I've learned my lesson.

[ianoid]

I'm so anti-selling on the good stuff side, that it's hard to cite much.

John's story- the horror.

Best I can do is cite my newsgroup auctions and selling some nib Vectrex common games for maybe $10. Sadly, it's not like they're worth that much more, but I can say I wish I'd kept 'em at the time just for trade. I think I'd found a few copies apiece (good day.)

Here's a different auction. Man, I definitely wouldn't sell anything at those prices- not because I'm averse to giving out deals, but it's just not worth the trouble when stuff is just better to hang onto for trade if you're not sure to make a few bucks.

Here's a link to my NG auction:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ianoid+auction+group:rec.games.video.clas sic+group:rec.games.video.classic&start=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=rec.games.video.classic&selm=34765148.7D249B78%40midway.uchicago.edu&rnum=14

Or if that's too painful to link, google usenet serach in rgvc for ianoid basement auction