Guide to buying retro videogames
Before wanting to buy old computers, consoles, video games or magazines connected to them, it is necessary to know any negative aspects that can be encountered, in order to be prepared, and on occasion avoid or accept them without being disappointed.
Obviously, the following does not want to discourage the collection of retrogame material, but it is evident too often you buy badly because you do not realize what you are buying, the dangers to which you are encountering and the real value of the object.
The rarity and value of retrogame material
Computers and consoles of the past have often been produced in millions of copies, just as individual video games have often been produced in hundreds of thousands of copies, consequently the really rare material is few and hardly seen for sale, unlike very common machines. like those Commodore, Atari, Nintendo and Sega that have sold so much that high prices are not justifiable even if the machine is perfectly maintained and in working order. The same goes for video games that have had quite a lot and therefore have become famous.
However, it seems that the logic works on the contrary, the more a system or a game is famous and the more it is sold at a high price, but this does not make sense, it is famous material because it has been sold in so many copies and therefore is worth little.
Therefore, before you buy, find out how much a certain retrogame material has sold to avoid paying for something rare or expensive.
The fact that the material is not on sale does not mean that it is rare, and therefore it is not necessary to overpay it in order to have it, as mentioned, there are still an infinite number of specimens in circulation.
Furthermore, the concept of rarity does not exist in the retrogame if you are looking for something to use it: today it is possible to relive any game or game system of the past for free, through the use of emulators and rom images of the games easily downloadable in a free and fast way. which also have very useful options absent on the originals and which work on any modern device, without the problems that modern TVs often generate with old systems.
Even old video game magazines have been scanned and are freely available on the internet.
So is it worth it to be plucked like a chicken from the retrogame market when you can do the same things without spending a euro? Well, at this point you can also buy but aware of this situation and the fact that you have to spend little.
If an item is not for sale on the internet, it does not automatically mean that it is rare and valuable, but it can also mean that it is not of interest and therefore sellers do not want to waste time putting it up for sale because the proceeds would be too much. low.
The golden rule is: rare does not mean valuable, but instead the value of any item depends on how much it is sought after. If a very rare item is not sought after, then it is worth nothing.
And there are hundreds of thousands of video games produced in the past, but only a few of them are really sought after, because people usually buy the games they were fond of when they were young, and therefore the ones that were popular at the time.
The basic rules of those who buy retrogame material
Collecting must be done in an intelligent way and accumulation which is a disease must be avoided, as well as compulsive buying, which involves only a waste of useless money comparable to those who have the habit of gambling. It makes no sense to buy things so as not to use them and not to display them, just as it makes no sense to buy duplicates. We are always talking about an area where there are copies produced at least in hundreds of thousands of copies, and therefore for the next decades they will always pop up on the markets, whether they are computers, consoles, video games or magazines, and therefore it is not worth having copies of reserve (unless they give them to you at free prices).
The golden rule is: any price you pay is always too high if it is something you don't need, in fact you don't buy things just to accumulate or because the price is good, but you buy something because you need that object. . And always wait because the opportunity sooner or later happens: don't spend more than necessary just because you don't want to wait.
Remember another golden rule: any retro game items today may be non-functional or damaged, so unless you are able to repair them, always make sure they are working properly before buying them, therefore items that are sold as untested are to be considered as potentially non-functioning and as such should be evaluated.
Don't buy on impulse! Many sellers shoot pumped-up prices hoping for impulse buying: this is a real trap that you must not fall into. The very people who fall into these traps are the explanations for those objects sold at high prices.
Never buy retrogame thinking of making an investment, but rather you have to buy it thinking that that money is lost forever, unless you are a businessman who intends to resell everything in the short term. Remember that we are at the peak of speculation on the retrogame, prices in the future will drop until they collapse, and therefore in any case you will find yourself paying a lot more than you can get from reselling.
Retrogame is a fashion, and fashions pass, it is not a precious asset that maintains its value constant over time: basically these objects are worth nothing, it is outdated technology and it is the demand that gives them value (like for example of old mobile phones that are worth nothing today because there is no fashion to collect them despite the popularity of their time).
Retrogame material is not an asset for investment, but something that 10 years ago was worth 5, today it is worth 50 because it is in fashion and in 10 years it will be worth 5 again. you will find in conditions in which you will have great difficulty in selling at 15 euros what you have bought today at 100 euros.
It is a common destiny to all collections of objects that in reality have no value but it is the demand that gives them, and when there is the fashion to collect those objects the price rises dramatically and then plummets (remember what happened for the telephone cards).
Now there is the retrogame trend, but it will pass (and it is to be understood that a trend on obsolete objects is underway). In the same vein of retrogame collecting, interest, and therefore value, shifts from older systems to more recent ones.
In fact, most importantly, people buy what they lived in their youth. This means that the more years go by and the fewer people are interested in older computers, consoles, video games and magazines, i.e. interest moves forward in time. The value of retrogame material is always demanded, which however decreases over time for older objects.
On the other hand, would you spend money on some old retro game product that you haven't experienced? Would you buy computers, consoles, video games and magazines that do not belong to your gamer memories, that do not belong to your era when you used to play?
The retrogame field is different from other collecting fields because it is based mainly on the nostalgia effect: a nostalgia for what one experienced, a nostalgia for what at the time was desired and could not be had, a nostalgia for anything. which takes us back to a certain moment of our life.
So imagine what will happen when people who do not have nostalgia for the retrogame material you collect disappear from the market, demand will drop brutally and with it the value and the possibility of recovering even a part of what was spent.
The evaluations of the retrogame material
All the retrogame material, the old computers and the old consoles have no value, because they are obsolete, outdated electronic material: they are not objects that have an artistic value! People simply give it a completely subjective value, at random. So the same object for one person can be worth 10 euros and for another it can be worth 100 euros, but they are both right precisely because the value of these objects is a subjective thing based on what a given person wants to spend or cash in a particular moment.
Let's start with the basic rule: if you find an object for sale at a certain price, it doesn't mean that it's worth that money, but it just means that there is a guy who tries to sell it at that price, which maybe no one is willing to spend.
Many have not understood this thing and look at the prices on the internet, see that the seller is selling a thing at a given price and think that it is its value, putting in turn identical items for the same price, thus causing prices to rise far beyond the real value of the object.
We also have the problem of fools, because there are stupid people who buy at high prices and create the precedent. Because if someone who then goes to sell that object goes to see when the fool has paid for it, then he will put it up for sale at the price paid by this person plus an additional amount, which generates a constant and uncontrolled price increase. , an inflation of the retrogame material.
This is why today it has gotten to the point that everything is sold for much more than its real value: because there have been fools who have bought at high prices.
The market valuation, including that of fools who spend high amounts, can always and only be obtained from the amount of items sold, which is the real price of how much a thing is sold, for example by looking at items sold on Ebay and not remitted. for sale (which means that it was not a fake trade to raise the market value).
It is always necessary to take into account whether the operation of the object has been verified or not, because if the object is sold untested it may not work, and in that case it can even be worth zero if you are not skilled repairers. The value of the retrogame material differs greatly depending on whether it is guaranteed to work properly or is sold untested. Out of ignorance of the high risk of systems and games malfunctioning, this aspect is often overlooked.
Unless you are a technician who knows how to repair them or use them as spare parts where possible, a non-functioning object is worth zero, whether it is a system or a video game. Especially since games cannot be repaired, and old media such as cassettes or floppy disks have a high probability of demagnetization given the years that have passed.
Evaluation is also closely linked to the completeness of what you buy. A computer or console without the original box is worth much less than one that owns it, as is a game without a manual or box that contained it. And the condition of the garage also matters a lot.
In the case of games, the value drops if they are incomplete, that is, only the cartridge, cassette or floppy disk or CD. On the other hand, theoretically a game that does not have the package that contains the data carrier is not considered collectible, especially when it comes to vintage computer games.
It is perhaps superfluous to add that pirated copies of the time have very little value compared to the originals, and this also includes the newsstand boxes for systems such as the Commodore 64, although perhaps ignorance on the subject often leads these objects to high selling prices. The same is true for the cheap re-editions of the past, which are worth much less than the standard original editions. Indeed, this type of retrogame is the one that is worth less.
It is also worth mentioning here that machines like the Commodore 64, Vic 20 Amiga 500, IBM PC, Sega Megadrive, Nintendo NES, Playstation 1, etc. millions of copies have been sold, and therefore they are common objects that have a low value, and therefore you do not have to pay a lot for them, although there is currently a speculative bubble and it is almost impossible to find these products sold at fair prices.
It should also be remembered that the games have had a circulation of hundreds of thousands of copies: necklaces like those Kixx, The Hit Squad, Futura Games or even the famous games are very common, so they are not worth much. The same newsstand cassettes for Commodore 64 were also produced in a million copies every year at the time, so they are far from rare.
Both these computers and consoles and these previously popular games are actually easy to find in very good condition, peripherals included, so there is no particular increase in value based on the high conditions, rather they are the items in poor condition to be being out of business and worth very little.
The stuff is there, and the fact that there are currently few pieces on the market does not mean that they are rare and therefore of value, and in fact, on time, just wait for it to be put back on the market.
Buy on Ebay, Subito.it, Facebook and the markets
The premise you should already know: never overpay anything in any place, even if you crave it, but think about if you really need it and wait for the right price. Furthermore, the ideal purchase is made in person, with live proof of the functioning of the purchased item.
The deal in front of a computer is almost impossible to do, you have to physically move and walk around, because there is too much competition on the internet.
Ebay is full of retro game material, but it is also the most popular with buyers and therefore there is a lot of competition. Ebay is the tool that everyone uses to give evaluations, but paradoxically it is the least suitable if you do not know how to use it.
Be wary of a phrase such as "on ebay I saw it at" or "but on ebay it costs this amount", in fact one thing is the selling price and another thing is the purchase price. It is also possible to sell something that is worth 10 euros to 100 euros, but this does not mean that it is worth it.
On Ebay the prices of the items for sale do not indicate their real market value, on the contrary they are often sources of amounts that are truly random, but to find the real market value you have to do a search on the site for the items sold. So you understand how much interest that object has and how much it was sold. But beware, there is the possibility that it was a fake sale to raise the market price, and therefore you have to check if the item has been relisted by the same seller.
Unsold items in expired listings are also important because they indicate that that price is too high and / or that there is no interest in that product.
Unless you are truly naive, bids in Ebay auctions must always be made in the minutes or seconds before the auction expires, never before, otherwise you only burn useless money due to the raise mechanism and put yourself in the hands of the crafty ones. ebay, where essentially the seller's friend is asked to make fake offers to raise the price. If you see constant raises there is a risk that the seller's accomplice is driving the price up.
And remember the golden rule: in auctions, set a budget, never go beyond that. The same thing will surely come out in the future at a lower price, it always happens like this.
Obviously, do not fall into chicken traps, that is, advertisements that have a very low amount such as "buy it now", and very large shipping costs which then actually constitute the true price of the object: in fact, in case of problems or returns of the goods, ebay and paypal will return the amount excluding shipping costs, because for them the seller is obliged to return only that.
Also on Ebay, pay attention to the description of the objects that must always be read because important information can be hidden (for example the material can be untested or have defects), as well as attention to those who sell non-original video games often disguised as loose copies (without packaging) pretending not to understand and that he is selling material he found in a larger batch.
Subito.it is a good channel for purchasing, but it is advisable to view the purchased items live, due to the presence of many crafty or improvised sellers who can voluntarily or involuntarily hide defects.
Facebook trading groups are a great place to shop but beware of scams. If you know the person well then you can pay without problems, but if you don't know them well, ask mutual friends or those who know them or pay with Paypal with the option to purchase goods and services.
Often the seller is a great connoisseur of the sector, but be careful in this case if you increase the price too much with the excuse that the piece has been cleaned, overhauled and tested in all its parts. If an object has a certain value, it does not double it because it is well kept and tested, at least it can only value more if it is a rare object, but certainly not for common ones.
For all internet shopping channels, you have to be careful what you buy. If you see unclear photos or a single photo, ask for more photos because there may be defects not easily visible in the posted photo, and then you end up being dissatisfied with the purchase.
Beware of those who tell you I have no cables to test, until the other day it worked, especially when the seller has other retrogame stuff for sale. Beware of those who say that up to 10-20 years ago the object worked. Be wary of those who say that the light comes on but cannot verify anything else, because the light is not an indication of correct operation. Get photos of its operation sent to you, or at this point buy it knowing that it may not work. And in the absence of certainty of operation, the object is worth much less, do not forget it.
Markets can be a source of precious material or colossal scams where objects are sold at exaggerated prices because the seller overestimates the value due to ignorance on the subject.
Many have retrogame material in the cellar, in the attic, in the garage that they do not know what to do with and therefore you could get it as a gift or you can make a symbolic offer to buy it.
The risks of purchases
Assuming that there are people who by trade scam the fans of this sector, taking the money and then disappearing, here are the risks of buying from people who are not scammers.
Before buying retro game material, be aware of the dangers of the trade, it is stuff that is many years old, you will never find it perfect.
And precisely because they are objects from many years ago, it is unthinkable to sell them as if they were modern objects for sale in shops. These are things that may not work overnight.
All the computers and consoles of the past can have defects or even not work, even if kept in a maniacal way, just as the games can be unreadable or demagnetized. Sometimes humidity and sudden changes in temperature are enough to make cassettes or floppy disks unreadable. Even games on cartridges that are well preserved and with clean contacts may not work and not be recoverable in any way.
The fact that the games worked years ago is no guarantee, so you have to buy them recently tested.
Indeed it is necessary to know that the more machines of this type remain stationary the greater the risk that they cannot work, because they should be used periodically, just think that for example the capacitors dry up or the belts harden with non-use.
The chips can heat up much more than normal as over the years the thermal paste between the heatsinks and the chips has dried up, which has a real probability of causing damage to the chips themselves due to too high heat.
The players of games on cassettes, called datassettes, age very badly, and it is very likely that they have malfunctions or even that they work well but with use they can break in a few days. This is because the datassettes are affected not only by the misalignment of the head, but also by the stiffening of the belt, by the deformation of the spring that pushes the cassette onto the head from above, and by the hardening of the rubber that rotates. And when the belt is changed, everything does not magically go into place, because the belt speed also changes and therefore the motor speed must be adjusted.
But this is more normal than you think, datassettes have not been designed to last until today, regardless of use, because for example the soft components harden and the springs deform even if they have never been used.
Therefore, the datassettes are likely to need maintenance or repair.
Basically, the main risk of buying retrogame machines and peripherals is the possibility of finding yourself with some or all of the hardware not working. However, if you are good at fixing the electronic part of ancient machines, then you can also take a risk on their purchase, but do not buy bad things if you are not able to fix them and if you buy untested material be aware of the danger. For games there is nothing to do if they don't work.
Even magazines and manuals, as well as cardboard boxes, can have problems: presence of mold, yellowing, and that unbearable damp smell: always ask if magazines, cardboard boxes and manuals smell like damp, as well as ask if have written.
Always with the assumption that you have made sure that there are no tears and stains; always ask if a magazine has all the pages and does not have any clippings, especially if there are central pages, all of which can be verified by the progressive numbering of the pages of the magazine.
As well as the cardboard boxes, which often have worn side corners, or have snags or dents in the cardboard, and there may also be the presence of hated price stickers or offers of the time, which then it is not possible to remove without doing huge damage (cardboard tears very easily). Sometimes it is even possible to find patches made with markers on the worn parts of the play boxes.
Also pay attention to transport, the cardboard boxes are fragile and tend to get bruised if shipped in soft envelopes, better spend a few euros more and opt for shipping in a rigid box than having them arrive dented. This also applies to games sealed with cardboard in the blister and anything that appears fragile.
Also watch out for rigid plastic play boxes, which can be injured or broken.
And there is the usual problem with any non-current computer or console: they tend to look pretty bad on modern TVs, the quality gets a lot worse and they therefore require a CRT TV or monitor from the era for correct and quality viewing. , or they require a modern 4: 3 screen that renders the original quality well.
Therefore, if you want to use a modern TV, you must first find out if that system will display the graphics in a satisfactory way, but it is always good to use the old cathode ray tube TVs or monitors of the time. If it really is impossible, you can try with modern TVs or monitors, possibly square in shape and with a fairly small screen.
Beyond the inevitable loss of quality on modern televisions, it must be said that interference or anomalies may appear in the video that occur only on that TV but not on another.
These problems concerning television concern not only vintage computers and consoles, but also modern reproductions called mini consoles which do not have an HDMI connection but which have a scart, composite AV, RCA connection.
And it is essential to avoid the antenna cable attack if possible, because the quality is really poor or even it can be impossible to view on a modern TV. If there is no other means, you should use an RCA or AV or Scart cable, usually bought separately, as they often only include the antenna cable.
But the real connections to TVs / Monitors that give optimal quality are S-Video and RGB cables, which however not all televisions and systems support.
For example, for the Commodore 64 it is advisable to avoid both the antenna cable and the component RCA cable, but you must at least point to the S-Video or Luma-Chroma cable to have an optimal quality and avoid graphic artifacts. Clearly few TVs or monitors have an S-Video socket.
Of course, just because a common item has been cleaned and tested does not mean that it is automatically worth much more than normal, it is simply the pieces that are sold as untested that are worth much less than they are.
Carefully evaluate if there are the necessary cables for connecting, for example, a peripheral to the machine or even the simple connection cable to modern TVs: its absence will involve having to make an additional purchase from another vendor, to which they will be added the inevitable shipping costs, and therefore also these costs increase the investment necessary to have a working machine.
Always inquire about how the original item you want to buy should be presented because the retrogame market is full of partially or completely counterfeit products.
For example, it is common practice to sell copied video games as originals, perhaps by printing a color cover that is put in a bag together with the floppy, up to the color label that is affixed to the floppy disk, while it is a universal rule that cassettes, floppy disks and CDs have names and logos printed on them: in any case, always check how the original looks. These are modern copies that are made cheaply and passed off as originals whose packaging has been lost or you simply write cunningly that they are found in a lot in order to lead you to doubt that they may be authentic.
Another common practice is to sell vintage pirated copies as if they were original games, and even here it is important to see how the original game looks before buying, because at the time they made both pirated copies by taking anonymous media and putting a color cover on them. , and both sold pirated copies by changing the name of the game and applying personalized stickers on the support itself. This second type of pirated copies is not infrequently mistaken for an original game type, but unauthorized copies of the originals that were made industrially at the time always remain. Sometimes the same seller, being ignorant on the subject, thinks in good faith that the games are really original, so it's up to you to inform yourself in advance.
At the Hardware level, check the equipment that the computer or console you are going to buy should have, because some pieces or connection cables may be missing. Check that the keys have the same color between them or in any case have the same color as those of the original machine, because sometimes they are replaced.
A separate mention for Joysticks or controllers that often have problems, in the sense that they may no longer be sensitive in taking certain directions or the buttons by dint of being used may require much more decisive pressure to make contact, or these buttons can make contact once yes and once no. Do not underestimate the issue of inaccurate buttons because it is quite common and makes the device unusable.
Another problem is related to the vintage joysticks never used, which can be very hard to use the stick and therefore uncomfortable to use, and it is therefore better to have joysticks that have already been used to avoid this annoying rigidity. Theoretically it is possible to get hand cramps and use them until they soften, but it does not always happen and above all it is difficult to have this patience nowadays.
These joystick problems are less present in microswitch joysticks, but more present in reed joysticks.
We must also be careful with the different formats of the games that you buy, for example floppies can have bad sectors, cassettes can be demagnetized and cartridges can not be read (even after cleaning). The most unthinkable things happen, for example a game for megadrive that seems new and complete then tested does not work even if you clean the contacts with alcohol and cotonfioc. or do you have cassettes for systems like the Commodore 64? Well, when you buy them let them tell you if they are rewound or not, because if they have been unrewound for almost 30 years and with a portion of the tape exposed, then it is possible that that point has demagnetized, even if the cassette was in a case. all this time. It seems strange, but it happens even if we don't talk about it.
Finally, always ask that the material you buy is tested, that it is sold to you as working, both the main machine and the peripherals, both the games and the joysticks. As noted above, there is a huge difference in value and usefulness between working retrogame material and non-working material.
The universal rules that you must ALWAYS follow when purchasing
Be aware that there are many people who make money by SCAMING retrogame fans, even on low amounts
Never use paypal friends or relatives unless you are actually shopping from friends or relatives
Never use the postepay card top-up unless you are a person you know well
Always try to use paypal payment when purchasing goods and services because it is the only one that guarantees the recovery of the sums in case of scams
Try to buy on Ebay from sellers with positive feedback because it is the only platform that can best protect you when combined with paypal
Be suspicious when you see items for sale that are too cheap
Avoid untraceable shipping like Post4 because you can't get your money back if the seller doesn't ship or if they make the package disappear
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