My name is Steve. I've been collecting retro video games for about 15 years. I'm a deal hunter, and I do a lot of reselling to bring my overall spend down. This has been a great way to build a collection at almost zero net cost. But: aggressively chasing cheap games puts me in a lot of weird situations, and fighting for deals frequently forces me to ask questions about the direction of the retro gaming market, the ethics of buying low and selling high, and my own obsessions and greed.
Do you want to spend 10 minutes, a couple times a month, reading about my finds and eavesdropping on my internal monologue as I try to figure out what compels me to keep buying all this stuff??? Then you’ve come to the right place. Click the button below to subscribe.
I'm not sure how many times per day I open the Kijiji app on my phone. At least 10? That sounds about right. And I'd say about one in every 100 checks of the app yields an actual lead on some games I'd like to buy. And of those leads, maybe half materialize into an actual purchase.
I've never had a gambling addiction, but I imagine it's similar. A behaviour is VERY occasionally rewarding. The infrequency of the reward makes the behaviour more compelling than it otherwise would be. And that’s because somewhere, in your unconscious mind, you’ve had a bleak epiphany: you have to lose a lot — an awful lot — to get those wins. (The difference between gambling and game hunting is that, with game hunting, it actually is possible to beat the house.)
A few weeks ago I was on the app. In my feed I saw an ad with no photos at all and this subject line:
"Free Box of PlayStation 1 games"
And here was the seller's description:
"I have a printer-paper-size box full of PS1 games mostly but also a few PS2 and Dreamcast games. I'm moving out tonight so person will need to pick up between 3:30 and 5:30. Not at home right now so I can't take a pic of what's in there but can say there are some racing games, sports games, Spryo, Crash Bandicoot, etc."
A printer-paper-sized box? Full? Of PS1 games "mostly"? But ALSO DREAMCAST? For FREE?
While my brain was still processing all of this information, my thumbs were moving. I typed out a reply: "I will take this. Tell me where you are and I'll be at your place by 5:15."
After a couple minutes with no reply, I figured I'd probably been outflanked. But I just HAD to see what was in that box. So I typed out an addendum: "Happy to give you some money for the box, as well. Sight unseen, based on your description alone, I'd do $100."
Why $100? For one thing, it seemed like a large enough amount of money to impress someone who thought their games had no value at all. For another thing: how could I lose? How many Playstation and Dreamcast games would you have to put in a printer-paper box before you could reasonably consider it "full"? Probably at least 40 or 50, I thought.
And what's the average price of a Playstation game? About $14.50 Canadian, according to Pricecharting. The average for Dreamcast games is even higher.
So, assuming a random assortment of Playstation and Dreamcast games, that box should, I figured, be worth $500 or $600. At least.
In any case, it seemed like I was going to get a chance to find out. The seller messaged me her address and took the ad offline.
It was a 45 minute bike ride to her apartment, which gave me plenty of time to think about the deal I'd just arranged. There were a couple things I hadn't fully taken into consideration when I was doing my hasty math. One, my estimate of the box's value would only be valid if this was a truly random assortment of games from someone's personal stash — not a picked-through box of some collector’s low-value leftovers. And two, I had assumed that by "a box full of games" the seller meant a box full of 50-ish games in jewel cases. What if I was getting a pile of 400 scratched-up loose discs? Or, worse, CD-Rs loaded with pirated games from some mid-2000s peer-to-peer hellhole? Would I still honour the deal in that case? I would pretty much have to, wouldn't I? Nobody had forced me to take this risk. And it was only $100. I could afford to lose that much.
(Wait, maybe I do actually have a gambling addiction.)
The one thing that gave me hope was the detail about the seller needing the games gone because she was moving. That's a legitimate reason to dump some perfectly good games for not a lot of money. Even so, I tried to brace myself for disappointment.
I arrived, and the seller placed at my feet a printer-paper box with the words “video games” scrawled on the lid in Sharpie ink. I opened up the lid and then...
And then...
And then...
(I got excited and unloaded half the box into my bag before I remembered to take a picture. Sorry.)
There they were: 59 Playstation, Dreamcast, and PS2 games, almost all in jewel cases, their black-and-white spines lined up perfectly like little piano keys. An oddly high percentage of the games were fishing-related, but I could see a few gems in the mix. That $100 was a bargain.
The find:
Time Crisis Project Titan (PS1)
Tomb Raider II (PS1)
ChuChu Rocket (Dreamcast)
Twisted Metal 4 (PS1)
Twisted Metal (Greatest Hits) (PS1)
Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (PS1)
Resident Evil (black label, jewel case variant) (PS1)
Ridge Racer Type 4 (PS1)
Rayman (Greatest Hits) (PS1)
Crash Bandicoot (Greatest Hits) (PS1)
Crash Bandicoot Warped (Greatest Hits) (PS1)
Oddword: Abe's Odysee (PS1)
Crash Team Racing (PS1)
International Track and Field (PS1)
Test Drive 5 (Greatest Hits) (PS1)
South Park: Chef's Luv Shack (PS1)
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (PS1)
Gran Turismo 2 (PS1)
Reel Fishing (PS1)
Jampack Vol 1 (PS1)
Cart World Series (loose) (PS1)
Andretti Racing (Greatest Hits) (PS1)
Colin McRae Rally (loose) (PS1)
Test Drive 4 (Greatest Hits) (PS1)
World Series Baseball 2K2 (PS1)
Driver (PS1)
Car and Driver Presents: Grand Tour Racing '98 (PS1)
Pro 18: World Tour Golf (PS1)
Playstation Underground Jampack (PS1)
MLB Pennant Race (PS1)
Pro Pinball Big Race USA (PS1)
Demolition Racer (loose) (PS1)
Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey (PS1)
Ford Racing (PS1)
The Italian Job (PS1)
V-Rally 2: Need for Speed (case only) (PS1)
Knockout Kings (loose) (PS1)
Rage Racer (loose) (PS1)
Fisherman's Bait (PS1)
Porche Challenge (loose) (PS1)
VR Baseball 99 (PS1)
Triple Play 2000 (PS1)
Touring Car Challenge (loose) (PS1)
Interactive CD Sampler Pack Volume Three (PS1)
Playstation Magaine Vol 34 (loose) (PS1)
Playstation Magazine Vol 1 (loose) (PS1)
Gran Turismo 3 (no manual) (PS2)
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)
Spryo the Dragon (loose, resurfaced) (PS1)
NBA 2K1 (Dreamcast)
Sega Marine Fishing (Dreamcast)
Monaco Grand Prix (Dreamcast)
F355 Challenge: Passione Rossa (Dreamcast)
Generator Volume 2 (loose) (Dreamcast)
Generator Volume 2 (in sleeve) (Dreamcast)
Sega Bass Fishing (loose) (Dreamcast)
Sega Rally 2 (Dreamcast)
Test Drive V-Rally (Dreamcast)
Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)
What's happening to the haul?
The keepers: As massive as this haul was, there wasn't a ton in the box that I wanted to keep for my personal collection. When it comes to Sony games, I only keep items that resonate with me on a gut level. Basically, the rule is: if I wouldn't have impulse-bought it out of a bargain bin when I was a kid, I'm not keeping it now.
Time Crisis Project Titan falls into the "would buy out of bargain bin" category for me. I've always loved light-gun games. This one is a Playstation exclusive that I personally have never seen for sale before. Apparently it's a "direct sequel" to Time Crisis 1. But there is another game, Time Crisis 2, that is also purportedly a direct sequel to Time Crisis 1. How does Project Titan fit into this extremely confusing Time Crisis chronology? I guess this is my big chance to find out. Hooray?
I'm also keeping Chu Chu Rocket, an iconic Dreamcast game I didn't already have and have never played; Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions because I'm a fan of the series and this copy is in perfect condition; Oddword: Abe's Odysee (same reason); and Sega Marine Fishing, mostly because I like the cover (just look at that fish). I'm also keeping the two pinball games.
The stuff I’m putting on eBay: The highlight of this box, without question, is that black-label Resident Evil. This edition of the game — not to be confused with the more common Resident Evil: Director's Cut — has become very scarce on the secondhand market. This disc will sell for $90 to $100 on eBay. And that will be my $100 investment back, almost. (Ebay and Paypal collectively take a 15 per cent cut, so a $100 sale is $85 in my pocket.)
Also nice to see: lots of other big-name PS1 games that, while not particularly uncommon, are fun to play and will therefore still fetch decent value from buyers. Particularly interesting: Twisted Metal 4 (already sold for $37.50), Twisted Metal (already sold for $25), Crash Bandicoot (already sold for $29), Ridge Racer Type 4 (listed for $43), Rayman (listed for $24), Crash Team Racing (already sold for $25), Driver (already sold for $14.50), Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (listed for $25), and Tomb Raider 2 (already sold for $14).
There were also a few Dreamcast racing games in the box. Sega Rally 2 (listed for $34), Monaco Grand Prix (listed for $23), Test Drive V-Rally (listed for $42), and F355 Challenge (listed for $38) will definitely sell for decent prices if I leave them up on eBay for long enough.
The leftovers: The seller or someone in her family must have spent a good chunk of the 1990s stuck at home and yearning for lake bass, because there were four fishing games in this box. Which is about three more than I would consider reasonable
The trade-in pile.
I took those (with the exception of Sega Marine Fishing), plus almost every other game not mentioned above, down to my local retro game shop and swapped them for $60 in store credit. The loose discs have practically no resale value, and I'll likely toss them in the trash — except for Spyro, which might fetch ten bucks on eBay. We'll see.
Total paid: $100
Likely earnings after eBay fees: $450
Value of games kept for my collection: $115
Trade-in credit: $60
Total profit: $525
(All prices in Canadian dollars)
Questions? Comments? Insults? Threats? Contact me at thisisgamehoarder@gmail.com