Getting rid of my video game collection

[ferrari512]

I have all of my video games and consoles in cardboard boxes in my garage. I have about 50 video games, 5 consoles, and lots of controllers, cables, accessories, and a gaming laptop. All of it costed a lot of money over the years. I want to get rid of it all. I thought about selling the video games but it seems like it would take months to wait for the eBay listings for the video games to sell because they're all from the 2000s. I'd lose a lot of money on the gaming laptop which I paid $1800 2 years ago but it's worth it to me be to be rid of it. Then the cables, controllers, and accessories all put together feels like a huge hassle. I feel like I'm going to drown in all of this useless stuff. It's like hoarding. Has anyone else been in the same situation?

[SerinaGold]

Great step forward! I wish you the best. Everything sounds good here except selling your computer. No matter what computer or phone you have  there are always ways to play video games. I don't believe you should just never have a smartphone or computer again just because you can play games on them. What I think is better is to find out why you play these games on your computer and find a mindset where you no longer want to even attempt playing a game on your computer. If you sell your $1800 computer, and buy a cheaper one just to play games on google chrome, I don't believe you have solved your problems.

I love the fact that you are getting rid of all those games, you are right, it would take an eternity. When I was selling my Xbox game system i had it sitting on ebay for a long time, many months. Of course I still sold it at a loss but if you don't have the time to wait on ebay just donate it! I wish you all the best. Cheers to a happy game free life!

[D_Cozy]

On 8/21/2023 at 6:25 AM, ferrari512 said:

I thought about selling the video games but it seems like it would take months to wait for the eBay listings for the video games to sell because they're all from the 2000s.

The first thing I recommend is putting together a list of your games and looking up what they are worth; you can use a site like pricecharting to see what they go for on ebay. You'd be very surprised how much money some old games are worth, since they are all out of production, some of them weren't mass-produced, and the demand for them from collectors and retro enthusiast can be quite high. I would start with the ones worth a decent amount to sell individually.

Not going to sugarcoating it, this takes time and effort, and it won't be everything that you can flip for a return. I've gone through it many times myself. But I also think it's well spent time; flipping items, negotiating prices, learning how shipping and handling works, setting up a seller profile. These are pretty good skills to have honestly, specially if you want to pursue entrepreneurship. It takes time but it kept me busy, and I found it satisfying. And I made some cash on the side too.

For games and systems that are tough to sell or don't sell for much, you can try out more specialized retailers that will buy them in bulk. Good sites are DKoldies, Old School Game Vault, or BeatGoesOn. You could go straight to this point too if you'd rather not bother with listing items. Depends on what they take and where in the world you live, but I would bet there is some retailer that will take them in bulk after you send them the list of games. It's the easiest way to simply ship a bunch of games and systems off to a retailer. Personally, I would advise checking local policies before using a store like Best Buy or GameStop; while they do take some games for trade-in, it's not all games, and some will only give you in-store credit.

If you simply want the easiest possible thing and still get some money back? A garage sale isn't a bad idea. Advertising it in the paper and Kijiji is really cheap, and you don't have to go through the trouble of shipping or making a long list and checking it; just displaying and setting up what you're selling. Know that you won't get rid of everything necessarily, and know that you will also likely go much lower than going through the routes above. But it is less effort, if you want the easiest possible starting point. Also has the benefit of letting you sell more than just games, if there's other things in your home you are looking to get rid off in one go.

Failing all of the above, donating is probably the easiest thing to do with no return, but also the least effort.

Edited August 24, 2023 by D_Cozy

[FDRx7]

I would add that there is a guy near me who runs a used games shop. He is constantly looking for games to buy. If you find someone like this near you, you might be able to unload everything all at once and get some money back - and you won't have to deal with shipping. You'll probably get less than if you sell on eBay, but you can also be rid of them in one fell swoop.

Or take a hybrid approach like @D_Cozy said and sell the most valuable ones on eBay and sell the rest to whatever store you find. This of course depends on if you have someone like this near you, but it's worth a shot to search.