Selling PC games on eBay

[Grievous Angel]

Anyone had a lot of luck doing this? I dug out some games from my Mom's house last weekend (Superheroes League of Hoboken, Colonization, Freddy Pharkas) to see if I can sell them. After doing a little advance scouting on eBay, I'm not real confident of my chances anymore. I thought the Hoboken game was pretty rare, but I saw a copy going for about $3 without any bidders. Are there any good Web sites where I could see if any of my games are worth anything? For pretty much all these games, I've got the original box and all documentation, which should count for something.

Are old PC games even considered collectibles, or are they pretty much valueless?

[Gromit]

Are old PC games even considered collectibles, or are they pretty much valueless?

I wouldn't go that far. I just purchased a copy of the original Red Baron by Dynamix for $9, purely for nostalgic purposes. I'm adding it to my growing collection of early flight sims. It even came with 3.5 and 5.25 disks, and a really thick, comprehensive manual.

Oh, how I miss those days.

[Kraken]

I unload all my old games on eBay. I only expect a few bucks for most of them. The main objective is to get them out of the house.

[Kobra]

Are old PC games even considered collectibles, or are they pretty much valueless?

I still can't understand why people "Collect" something like PC games. They only go down in value, and at some point, won't even run. Very very few games become collector items, i've seen maybe 2-3 in the last 5 years that went up in value. The rest are worthless.

When you buy a game, play it, and are finished with it - sell it and recover 75-80% of your costs and move on to the next game. All collecting PC games does is clutter up your room.

[Hrnac]

Are old PC games even considered collectibles, or are they pretty much valueless?

I still can't understand why people "Collect" something like PC games. They only go down in value, and at some point, won't even run. Very very few games become collector items, i've seen maybe 2-3 in the last 5 years that went up in value. The rest are worthless.

When you buy a game, play it, and are finished with it - sell it and recover 75-80% of your costs and move on to the next game. All collecting PC games does is clutter up your room.

There is nothing wrong with collecting PC games. It is not always about the value. Sometimes it is simply about collecting.

-Hrnac

[Buatha]

For me, it's the memories tied to the games as well as a reminder of how gaming originated. As usual, I find it sad that there are people in their twenties who will never appreicate, say, Ultima IV. Sure, you can look at it now and go "Ugh", but you would need to have a pair of 80s, C-64 eyes to appreciate it. Plus, it's neat to see how documentation used to be part of the package and not some freaking pamphlet that barely scratches the information required to play it.

[Gromit]

Are old PC games even considered collectibles, or are they pretty much valueless?

I still can't understand why people "Collect" something like PC games. They only go down in value, and at some point, won't even run. Very very few games become collector items, i've seen maybe 2-3 in the last 5 years that went up in value. The rest are worthless.

When you buy a game, play it, and are finished with it - sell it and recover 75-80% of your costs and move on to the next game. All collecting PC games does is clutter up your room.

I'm not expecting them to have value, other than sentimental. It's like trying to recapture a bit of my youth.

[Giles Habibula]

Are old PC games even considered collectibles, or are they pretty much valueless?

I still can't understand why people "Collect" something like PC games. They only go down in value, and at some point, won't even run. Very very few games become collector items, i've seen maybe 2-3 in the last 5 years that went up in value. The rest are worthless.

When you buy a game, play it, and are finished with it - sell it and recover 75-80% of your costs and move on to the next game. All collecting PC games does is clutter up your room.

I'm not expecting them to have value, other than sentimental. It's like trying to recapture a bit of my youth.

It depends how dedicated you are in getting them to run. I've got hundreds of games dating back to '91 and every single one of them still runs (amazingly, none of my floppies are even bad).

Some folks run DOS emulators to get em running on cuurent machines. Others keep their old rigs around just for this purpose. I'm one of those. My old 486 still happily runs Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Frontier: Elite 2, and dozens of others.

As far as 'value' goes, it depends entirely on supply and demand. 95% of the games I own are worth less than what I paid for them, while the other 5% are worth more. But those figures are changing all the time. And I'm like Gromit: You can't put a dollar price on sentiment.

[Buatha]

Some folks run DOS emulators to get em running on cuurent machines. Others keep their old rigs around just for this purpose. I'm one of those. My old 486 still happily runs Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Frontier: Elite 2, and dozens of others.

Ah, a fellow spirit, although I only have a Pentium 133 as my oldest machine. I'm thinking of firing up Realms of the Haunting again (which can even run on newer machines if you use VDMsound).

[Gromit]

I actually haven't tried to run any of my late 80's/early 90's games. I guess I should probably start looking for an antique that will run them...

[Giles Habibula]

Some folks run DOS emulators to get em running on cuurent machines. Others keep their old rigs around just for this purpose. I'm one of those. My old 486 still happily runs Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Frontier: Elite 2, and dozens of others.

Ah, a fellow spirit, although I only have a Pentium 133 as my oldest machine. I'm thinking of firing up Realms of the Haunting again (which can even run on newer machines if you use VDMsound).

Hello brother.
I've currently got ROTH loaded on my Packard Bell 133 which is stuck in the closet, and has been for 2 years. Just your mentioning it makes me want to dig it out and fire up my last saved game. Never did finish the thing, though I thought it was one of the all-time greats. I wrote the "Spotlight Review" for Amazon on Sept 25, 2002 if you want to read my glowing praise of that game.