Are these Atari 2600 prices too high?

[orrimarrko]

Since I'm still waiting on my guide and don't have any other way to check on this, I was hoping that some of you gurus could help me on this one.

I have been offered the opportunity to buy some complete, boxed 2600 games in outstanding condition. I know how AtariAge rates them on rarity, so that's not my question.

(PLEASE keep in mind that I am NOT a seller, I am considering buying some of these - I just don't want to pay more than the "norm".)

My question is, are these fair prices for the following:

$100 -

Death Trap (complete, excellent condition)
Gremlins (complete, excellent condition)
Tapper (complete, great condition)

$75 -

Quick Step (complete, excellent condition)
Ram It (complete, excellent condition)
Party Mix (complete, excellent condition)
Wall Ball (missing inside cart holder, great condition)
London Blitz (missing inside cart holder, great condition)

$50 -

The Official Frogger (complete, excellent condition)

$25 -

Indy 500 (complete, great condition)
Sorcerer's Apprentice (complete, great condition)
Spike's Peak/Artillery Duel (complete, great condition)

$20 -

Blueprint (complete, great condition)
Mountain King (complete, crushed a bit on side)
Porky's (complete, great condition)
Private Eye (complete, great condition)
Solar Fox (complete, great condition)
Worm War I (complete, great condition)

$15 -

Air Raiders (complete, great condition)
Brain Games (complete, great condition)
Bridge (complete, great condition)
Burgertime (complete, great condition)
Codebreaker (complete, great condition)
Flag Capture (complete, excellent condition)
Gorf (complete, great condition)
Hangman (complete, excellent condition)
Hunt & score (complete, excellent condition)
Krull (complete, excellent condition)
Lost Luggage (green) (complete, great condition)
M*A*S*H (complete, great condition)
Math Gran Prix (complete, great condition)
Maze Craze (complete, great condition)
Miniature Golf (complete, great condition)
Oink! (complete, excellent condition)
Slot Machine (complete, excellent condition)
Surround (complete, great condition)
Taz (complete, great condition)
Turmoil (complete, great condition)
Wizard of Wor (complete, great condition)

$10 -

3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (complete, excellent condition)
Adventure (complete, great condition)
Adventures of TRON (complete, great condition)
Airlock (complete, great condition)
Amidar (complete, great condition)
Backgammon (complete, great condition)
Barnstorming (complete, excellent condition)
Basic Math (complete, excellent condition)
Bermuda Triangle (complete, great condition)
Black Jack (complete, great condition)
Bowling (complete, great condition)
Boxing (complete, great condition)
Bugs (complete, great condition)
California Games (complete, great condition)
Canyon Bomber (complete, excellent condition)
Carnival (complete, great condition)
Casino (complete, great condition)
Championship soccer (atari) (complete, great condition)
Commando (complete, great condition)
Communist Mutants from Space (complete, great condition)
Cosmic Ark (complete, great condition)
Cruise Missile (complete, great condition)
Demons to Diamonds (complete, great condition)
Dodge 'Em (complete, great condition)
Dolphin (complete, great condition)
Donkey Kong Junior (atari) (complete, great condition)
Donkey Kong (complete, great condition)
Dragonfire (complete, great condition)
Dragster (complete, great condition)
Encounter at L-5 (complete, great condition)
Escape from the Mindmaster (complete, great condition)
Fire Fighter (complete, excellent condition)
Fireball (complete, great condition)
Fishing Derby (complete, excellent condition)
Freeway (complete, great condition)
Frogger (complete, great condition)
GI Joe Cobra Strike (complete, excellent condition)
Golf (complete, great condition)
Grand Prix (complete, great condition)
Haunted House (complete, great condition)
Human Cannonball (complete, great condition)
Ice Hockey (complete, excellent condition)
Journey Escape (complete, great condition)
Kaboom! (complete, great condition)
Karate (complete, great condition)
Keystone Kapers (complete, great condition)
Killer Satellites (complete, great condition)
Laser Blast (complete, great condition)
Mouse Trap (complete, great condition)
Night Driver (complete, great condition)
No Escape! (complete, great condition)
Othello (complete, great condition)
Outlaw (complete, great condition)
Pitfall! (complete, great condition)
Planet Patrol (complete, great condition)
Popeye (complete, bent in bad on one side)
Q*bert (complete, bent in a little)
Reactor (complete, great condition)
Riddle of the Sphinx (complete, great condition)
Robot Tank (complete, great condition)
Sea Hawk (complete, great condition)
Sea Hunt (complete, great condition)
Shark Attack (complete, great condition)
Skiing (complete, great condition)
Sky Diver (complete, excellent condition)
Slot Racers (complete, great condition)
Space Cavern (complete, great condition)
Space War (complete, great condition)
Spider Fighter (complete, excellent condition)
Spiderdroid (complete, great condition)
Spiderman (complete, great condition)
Sprintmaster (complete, great condition)
Stampede (complete, great condition)
Star Raiders (complete, great condition)
Star Ship (complete, great condition)
Star Voyager (complete, great condition)
Stargate (complete, great condition)
Street Racer (complete, great condition)
Suicide Mission (complete, great condition)
Summer Games (complete, great condition)
Super Breakout (complete, great condition)
Super Cobra (complete, great condition)
Task Force (complete, great condition)
Trick Shot (complete, great condition)
TRON Deadly Disks (complete, smashed a bit sides)
Venture (complete, great condition)
Video Checkers (complete, great condition)
Video Chess (complete, great condition)
Warlords (complete, great condition)
Warplock (complete, great condition)
Winter Games (complete, excellent condition)
Zaxxon (complete, great condition)

$5 - (ALL complete, in great to excellent condition)

Air-Sea Battle
Armor Ambush
Asteroids
Basketball
Battlezone
Berzerk
Breakout
Centipede
Circus Atari
Combat
Dark Cavern
Defender
Desert Falcon
Dig Dug
E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial
Football
Frogs and Flies
Galaxian
Home Run
Joust
Jungle Hunt
Kangaroo
Lock 'n' Chase
Mario Bros.
Missile Command
Pac-Man
Phoenix
Pole Position
Raiders of the Lost Ark
RealSports Baseball
RealSports Boxing
RealSports Football
RealSports Soccer
RealSports Tennis
RealSports Volleyball
Solaris
Space Attack
Space Invaders
Space Jockey
Super Baseball
Super Challenge Baseball
Super Challenge Football
Super Football
Tennis
Towering Inferno
Vanguard
Video Olympics
Word Zapper
Yars' Revenge

Thanks for helping me out with this. I am NOT the seller, nor am I trying to help someone sell these. I am considering buying some of them, but have no frame of reference for whether they are good prices or not.

Thanks for any help you all can provide.
Steve

[chadtower]

Geez, man, if you don't want to buy those for yourself you could probably make cash on them if you bought at least the lower priced ones...

[orrimarrko]

I can't afford to buy any of these if they are overpriced. I wouldn't be re-selling them anyway. They would go towards my goal of a complete collection of games.

But I just started with the 2600, and I can't tell if the prices are jacked up or not.

[chadtower]

I NEVER see complete 2600 games outside of specialty shops.

[m1keb0ssy]

I'm selling some of those sealed on e-bay for $1.99 each right now, they end tomorrow and they're still at $1.99. My loose games are at .99 cents, I put up a buch like burgertime, tax avoiders and a bunch of froggo games among others.
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...&since=-1&rd=1

[chadtower]

Right, but via ebay, that $2 item costs $6. Not quite the same as $2.

[orrimarrko]

Exactly - excellent point.

I don't think the $5 or $10 games are bad either way.

I really want to know about the higher priced games. Common is one thing, but prices on rarer/hard to find games is something altogether different.

[NESCollector75]

Why don't you just use the online guide to go through!

[scooterb23]

To me...the carts above $20 seem too high. With the possible exception of Death Trap, which is rated as an 8 at Atari Age. I'm not a boxed game collector, but I don't think I could justify $75-100 for games below an 8-10 rating...

Just my 2 cents

[neschampion]

I think that the prices on the higher up games are high, and even some of the cheapies are high.

BTW, if your earlier statement about trying to complete a 2600 collection, as in all the carts with boxes/manuals you might as well give up now because it won't likely ever happen unless you have unlimited funds. Also, when I say unlimited, I am not using the term loosly but literally.

[kingpong]

I'd say these prices are very high, moreso with the higher priced games. While complete games are relatively hard to come by, these prices probably average 5 times the going rate for loose games. Gremlins and Tapper are maybe $10-20 games these days, Quick Step $5-10, so $75-100 for those complete is pretty bad.

Without looking at any lists and considering what complete games go for, IMO...
$5 - none are worth it
$10 - maybe Planet Patrol and a few of the dull older Atari releases (Basic Math, etc.)
$15 - none
$20 - none, though Private Eye is the best value
$25 - none
$50 - I wouldn't pay it, but that might not be a terrible price in light of the rest of these
$75 - Party Mix is certainly the best value, but still overpriced
$100 - Death Trap could bring that much, but shouldn't

Overall, if I ran into someone trying to sell these games for these prices, I'd say they're nuts.

[Keir]

I have to agree with kingpong here. Definitely don't buy any others if you're looking to resell. If you want some of these and have to have them complete, then there are a few that might be worthwhile, but that's mainly up to you.

For example, if you want a complete Death Trap you should buy it because you're not likely to find another for a long time. However, if you don't mind having it loose you should definitely wait. With luck you could get it for half that or less (I got mine for $1.99 :P ) Spike's Peak/Artillery Duel is another that's really hard to find boxed.

Similar story on the $5 games. Now that O'Shea's has raised there prices to $5 each, you will never again find complete 2600 games for under $5. So if you want them complete, buy them, but all of them can be had for $1 each loose.

Unlike most Atari 2600 games, the Starpath tapes (Communist Mutants from Space, Fireball, Frogger, Killer Satellites, Party Mix, Suicide Mission) won't command a premium when complete, but just the usual 5-10% more. So I would probably say no on those.

That Quick Step price is out of control!

[rick weis]

Hello,

BTW: if anyone is interested in any of these games you can e-mail me at AT2600COLLECTOR@webtv.net

take Care,

Rick (AKA nuts)

[orrimarrko]

Why don't you just use the online guide to go through!

The online guide does not have prices, and the ones in the guide (not that I have mine yet) are for loose carts only, I believe.

Otherwise, I would not have needed to post this.

[m1keb0ssy]

Right, but via ebay, that $2 item costs $6. Not quite the same as $2.

Actually I combine shipping charges for multiple cart purchases, but e-bay is generally for things you can't buy at Target anymore so you have to pay shipping charges to actually get them to your house. Some people would rather spend a couple of bucks rather than spend a whole day looking and a whole tank of gas driving around for something you may never find in the wild.

[rick weis]

incase anyone is interested here is a link to the updated list http://community.webtv.net/AT2600COL.../ATARI2600SELL

Take care,

Rick