Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
Hey guys,

I am thinking about starting a retro gaming collection, and am unsure on the prices that I should be paying for old consoles, does anyone have any tips, ideas on what old consoles are worth?

at the moment i have

original gameboy
mega drive (genesis)
game gear
playstation
n64
dreamcast
ps2
gamecube
ds lite
wii

I am going to buy a nes later today, but am unsure what it should cost, I am also after a snes and jaguar and similarly have no clue what to pay for them. any ideas guys? any tips?
 

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
Good call :) I find retro consoles much better than any others (cept maybe the Wii, but that's an entirely different setup).

NES? I'd probably pay about £20-30 depending on the state its in. Controllers should be about £5.

SNES? These can vary wildly. As always the best bet is to find somebody with a SNES and ask if they're willing to sell it. Checking local papers is good too. On eBay and other auction sites they know what they have so they will cost more.
To put it into perspective - I'm buying a SNES off a friend soon. Mario Kart, some rare Bomberman game, GB adapter and many rare unknown games that go for a mint on eBay. I'm getting this for £40. If I sold just 2 of the rare games then it's paid for itself on eBay. Car boot sales can be gold mines too. I picked up a near mint condition Mario Bros 3 for £3 several years ago from a car boot sale woman who literally didn't know what it was!

At the moment my collection stands at (I'm quite the connoisseur of good handhelds)-

Spectrum
Amiga 600
NES
Mega Drive
GB, GB Pocket
PS1
N64
GBA, SP, Micro
Dreamcast
Gamecube
Xbox
DS, DS Lite
Wii

Hopefully be getting a Game Gear later this year. Another friend is selling one with 20 games for just £30.

Good luck hunting. It can be hard to find a good quality, working retro system. And be sure you don't have an LCD/Plasma TV. Old connections look horrendous on new TVs. That's if they work at all! My NES won't run on my Dell 2007WFP, though worked on the 2005 model. :confused:
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
thanks for the info, am having great fun collecting at the mo...

just bought a nes for £25, and bought an extra controller for 99p and the gun for £1.99, which i thought was a good deal.

picked up 10 games for £16 too, i got:

Jurassic Park
Captain planet and the planeteers
chip and dale rescue rangers
super mario bros
bart and the space mutants
supermario bros/duck hunt
tetris
teenage mutant hero turtles
super mario 3
metroid

i choose them because they looked like fun, and also to rehash the old cartoons i used to watch back in the eighties and early nineties, such as captain planet and chip and dale. I suppose the question is though, are there any classics here?

thanks again for the imput
 

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
Whoa! Good deal! You've almost got my entire NES collection right there :D
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
ok i think there may be a problem, basically all but 2 of the games make the on light blink red...is this normal? I also can't get a signal to the tv...any ideas? The guys in the store i bought it from said it had been tested and worked, but i'm not sure why i dont get a signal...any ideas?
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
so, i can get round the blinking light thing and its now connected to another tv...so all is good. Man this console is fantastic!
 

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
I never thought about passing my devices through a VCR! Theres a spare DVD player that has inputs floating around. I'll give that a shot.

Also - RGB Scart to composite doesn't work on my Dreamcast either. Or RGB to S-Video!
 

DISCOMUNICATION

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2004
831
2
Cambridge, MA USA
I never thought about passing my devices through a VCR! Theres a spare DVD player that has inputs floating around. I'll give that a shot.

Also - RGB Scart to composite doesn't work on my Dreamcast either. Or RGB to S-Video!
Yeah, the display information under the menu says 300somthingx200something when the consoles are hooked up directly to the monitor. When I pass them through the VCR it simply reads the signal as NTSC or in your case I guess PAL.
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
just picked up the snes i was looking for on ebay, managed to get a snes, 2 pads and 18 games for £38

Rise of the Robots;
Super R-Type;
Desert Strike;
Killer Instinct;
Kick Off 3 European Challenge;
Clay Fighter 2;
Phanton 2040;
Super Morph;
Striker;
Rival Turf;
Choplifter III;
Zombies;
BOB;
Super Dropzone;
The Chessmaster;
Terminator 2;
Cybernator;
Super Soccer.

do you guys reckon its a good deal?
 

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
That's quite a B-List of games, but still it's a great price for the system and games. Too often SNES's go for £40 and just a couple of non-rare games. At least you got lots!
 

asxtb

macrumors 6502
Sep 1, 2005
322
0
Wirelessly posted (Vodafone/1.0/V705SH/SHJ001 Browser/VF-NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Don't forget Virtual Boy! The best Nintendo system!
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
so i may buy super mario kart and super mario all stars later (both snes), how much should i be paying, the guy is offering them for around £13 each no box...is that good coz it seems expensive to me?
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
just to let you guys know, i bought both (which are excellent by the way, especially all stars) and got them together for £17, so £8.50 each...hope that wasn't too much for them!
 

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
On a reflective note - people complain about the Wii's VC being expensive, but it really isn't compared to what we're paying for millionth hand games now. They were good prices, student_trap! Mario All Stars goes for 15 quid at my Gamestation.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.