What's the Best Video Game Deal You Ever Found?

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

The best deal I ever got was a boxed Gameboy Color for $1.50. I was in this little thrift store that never has games, run by a group of nice old ladies, and there it was for $3.00. And it just so happened everything in the store was half off this day. They also had a few boxed games I picked up for .50 each. I was stunned.

I'm not sure the exact value of it, but I know an offer was made to me by a retro game store owner for $100. It's missing the manual and inserts, which would increase the value more,on Ebay it was selling for $150.00 with the manual. I don't really like to go by Ebay prices though, cuz buy it now prices don't always reflect what the auctions are selling things at. But even without the box, $1.50 is a total steal.

Needless to say I regularly check in on this place for games now.

[PizzaKat]

Wild Guns for $3, seller didn't know what he had. Neither did I till I checked online. Its worth more now as that was in 2010 or 2011.

Demons Crest for 30

Coleco Vision for 10 at a Value Village

Lunar Silver Story for PS1 for 30 on Ebay

Mega Man 8 for SAturn for 20 on kijiji. Guy was desperate for cash

Resident Evil for SAturn for 5

Some Pokemon games in Value Village for a few bucks

And a CIB mint Pokemon crystal for 5

Saturn Console that plays both NTSC and Japanese games with a flick of a switch for 20 oon kijiji...theres a few more but I cant remember.

[The Adventurer]

$5 for Klona on PS1

$15 for Model 1 Genesis + Sega CD

[Rickstilwell1]

$3 for Tales of Destiny complete in case at a Salvation Army when games were on sale for the holidays. Sold it for $70 after burning myself a copy. What a "steal" lol

[The Adventurer]

Oh yeah forgot a big one. I picked up Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) for like $8 bucks. Then I flipped it for $75.

[bb_hood]

2 weeks ago i bought a wii with 70 complete games and 10 controllers.
Sold 10 games and 3 controllers to break completely even.
Thank you craigslist.

[mailman187666]

I found the GBC game Shantae for $3 and sold it for $150. I almost wanted to keep it, but I really needed the money. It's probably the only time I'll ever be able to find it for that price again.

Chase the Chuck Wagon $5

Swordquest Waterworld $15

[megasdkirby]

$2 Condor Attack CIB

[Clownzilla]

A couple of years ago I came across a complete near mint copy of the Misadventures Of Tron Bonne at a garage sale (along with some other PSX junk games). They had $2 each on the games. I actually offered her $1 for the game and she took it.

[MarioMania]

Marval vs Capcom 2 $10 Xbox - Thrift Shop
Lunar Disc 1 and 2 with Case $1 - Eco Thrift

[Tanooki]

Price 'ever found' is kind of relative. Back around the very late 90s into 2000 I got stuff like Aerofighters complete other than box for like $5, dead mint complete earthbound for $20, and a bubble bobble 2 game w/manual for $20. But that was well before the 2010-11 era swing of stupidity into prices so that's not a big deal as much as going rate.

About 2 years ago though while the NES/SNES started raging I got Earthbound for $2 and Shantae for $5 for the best console and handheld values.

[Cornelius]

Probably the best overall value deal was some system lot with games for stupid cheap at a garage sale. As for the ones I remember: Sharp NES w/ both controllers & remote with 18? games for $10. Another would be a NES Star Force prototype for a few bucks at a thrift store. Also got a 2600 Pac-Man Proto for a couple bucks at a thrift store. Wish I'd kept that one for its historical significance, but at the time I was feeling like a 2600 collector would enjoy it more. Didn't even sell for over $100.

[BricatSegaFan]

Has to be this. I know I've posted this find before but yea

[ggallegos1]

I had gotten my Genesis model 2 and a CIB Sega 6-pak for $10 at a yard sale. Never was into sega at the time but couldn't pass the deal up.

[Gatucaman]

Got The Following

Ducktales 2 in 2008 for a BUCK!
Princess Tomato in the salad Kingdom in 2008 at 2 USD
Panic Restaurant in 2009 for 13 USD (Before i had any fucking idea about the game's price on Ebay at the time!)
Super Adventure Island II as a GIFT from a seller of SNES games on a flea market when i buyed a SNES model 1...............that didnt work.
Kickmaster last year in August for 4 USD!

[FrankSerpico]

Has to be the official 4X Dreamcast memory card I picked up for 15 bucks back when Best Buy was liquidating their DC stock. Yeah, it lacks VMU capabilities, but who cares?

[Doonzmore]

Price 'ever found' is kind of relative. Back around the very late 90s into 2000 I got stuff like Aerofighters complete other than box for like $5, dead mint complete earthbound for $20, and a bubble bobble 2 game w/manual for $20. But that was well before the 2010-11 era swing of stupidity into prices so that's not a big deal as much as going rate.

About 2 years ago though while the NES/SNES started raging I got Earthbound for $2 and Shantae for $5 for the best console and handheld values.

I agree. There were a lot of "normal" prices I paid years ago that look better in hindsight.

My best finds off the top of my head:

Gamcube:
NCAA College Basketball 2k3 - 3.99 in 2014
Mega Man X Collection - 16.99 in 2013
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 17.99 in 2012
Pikmin 2 - 5 in 2011
Skies of Arcadia: Legends - 2.99 in 2009
Digimon World 4 Boxed - 2.99 in 2009

N64:
Super Bowling boxed for 2.99 in 2005 and complete for 6.50 off ebay in 2007. - At the time, DreamTR tried to sell me his copy for $30 and said his prices were the best around. What a jackass.
Road Rash 64 Complete - 6.99 in 2012
Stunt Racer 64 Complete - 25 in 2004
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine Complete - 20 in 2013
Goemon's Great Adventure Complete - 8 in 2002 - As a 64 collector this is one of my favorite finds. Excellent game.
Conkers Bad Fur Day Complete - 2.99 in 2005

Snes:
Ardy Lightfoot boxed - 4.99 in 2000
Chavez 2 boxed - 18 in 2005
Fun n Games complete - 27 in 2005
Aero Fighters loose - 40 in 2005

Nes:
Swordmaster loose - 4.95 in 2010
Pro Sport Hockey loose - 4.95 in 2010
Cliffhanger loose - 2.69 in 2012
Namco Pac-Man Complete - 1 in 2002

PS1
Yu Gi Oh: Forbidden Memories Premium Edition - 22.99 from K-Mart in 2005 - Still factory sealed.

Eh, so I went a little overboard on this list. Sue me

[AdamAnt316]

Depends on the context. In terms of outright freebies, my video game collection started when I found an Atari Super Pong Ten, complete in box, in a trash pile nearly 20 years ago. Sadly, I didn't keep it that way, and the box and manual are long-gone. Did manage to find another Super Pong Ten, loose but in decent shape and with the external paddle controllers, at a flea market last year for $11. Also was given an Atari 7800 with games and controllers, an Atari 2600, a couple of Mattel Intellivisions, a Coleco Telstar Alpha, and a Magnavox Odyssey 300 by different people several years back.

In terms of more recent finds, I picked up an Atari Video Pinball console (white version), in box, at a flea market a few years ago for $15. At a recent yard sale, I bought a box with a Nintendo 64 with controllers and cables, several N64 games, several Nintendo games, and a few SNES games in it, for $20. At a recent ham radio swapmeet, of all places, I bought a large plastic bin full of video game stuff for $40. Inside was the following:
*A four port Atari 5200 with controllers, cables, Atari 2600 adapter, and games
*An Atari 7800 with controllers, cables, and games
*An Nintendo NES with controllers, cables, and games.
Several months later, at the same hamfest, I bought three boxes full of Commodore 64 stuff for $20. Three C64s, two 1541 disk drives, cables, peripherals (including the rare Magic Voice module!), and games.

My most memorable tale of "The one that got away" happened at a long-defunct flea market in the area, about 15 years ago. While trolling it one day, I spotted something I'd heard about, but had never seen: a GCE Vectrex. It didn't have any games with it, but I spent a few minutes playing Minestorm on it, and was immediately hooked. I asked the price, and was told $10. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough money on me that day, and my mother refused to loan me the money, so I went home broken-hearted. I went back the very next weekend with the money, but as you can guess, it was gone. Fortunately, many years later, a friend of mine managed to find another Vectrex in a record store, priced at $45, and bought it for me. It didn't seem to work when I first tried it, freezing up after being powered up for a minute or so, but the issue eventually cleared itself up mysteriously.

Probably my best video game deal ever was my Atari "Star Wars" arcade machine (cockpit cabinet), which I got for FREE from a friend. The flyback transformer (aka "Dead Red") didn't work, the molding had seen better days, the roof over the seat portion was missing, and I had to pay $80 to rent a U-Haul truck to take it home (even though said friend lived a mile away from my house), but I think I did fairly well, regardless. Hoping I'll be able to get it running one of these days. More pics here.
-Adam

[Lady Jaye]

Eric had three particularly memorable finds last year.

1. Last spring, he went to an alley garage sale where he didn't find anything. Nearby was an old lady having a sale of her own. He checked it out and found some Game Genie stuff. Asked her if she had anything else. After a few minutes, she came back outside with her SNES games for sale: Chrono Trigger CIB, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past loose (French-Canadian edition), Final Fantasy II CIB and Final Fantasy III loose. She asked $20 for Chrono Trigger, and $10 each for the other games, for a total of $50. Obviously, he bought all four games, and then resold Zelda (since we already owned two copies) for that price. Those were HER games. She's an RPG gamer, and that's all she ever played! She kept one game only, Mystic Quest.

2. One day, while perusing Goodwill, Eric found in the bottom of a bin minty CIB copies of F-Zero, Tales of Symphonia and Ikaruga for GameCube. Price paid: $4 each.

3. Last fall, we found a seller on Kijiji (which is like Craigslist) who was selling his Dreamcast with a couple of controllers and three VMUs, as well as several original games, for $50. Among the games were Power Stone 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom. We resold Power Stone 2 for $50, which basically cancelled out our investment.

[Captain_N77]

Hmm, a few come to mind.

I bought Conker's Bad Fur Day and Majora's Mask for $10 a piece at Toys R Us when they were clearing out their N64 stuff in 2002/2003.

Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for $35 and Earthbound for $50 some years ago on ebay. I didn't have any idea they would shoot up in price so much.

Mighty Final Fight for $15 or $20 about 10 years ago at a local store. It's still the only time I've seen it in the wild.

Contra III for $5 at that same store many moons ago. Of course that was the going rate back then.

In Jan/Feb of this year a friend sold me all of his SNES games, 18 total games. All had the boxes in various condition, and most had manuals. He sold me all of them at $5 a piece. The highlights: Marvel: War of the Gems, U.N. Squadron, TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, and Final Fantasy II. I showed this haul off on my blog and youtube channel