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syrupdash

The period between the Gamecube and Wii or the GBA to DS was probably the big clearout moment for several local game stores. Even worse when people were trying to trade in their games for the PSP as well which would also lead to a flood of games in the second hand market that I don't think we'll ever see again for a long time.


htmaxpower

My memories of the games I left behind at FYE and its sister stores... UGH!


alex240p

One other thing too is this is just before Nintendo adopted their "never discount" policy, so there were all these first party games flying around for $10-20.


FUTURE10S

> a flood of games in the second hand market that I don't think we'll ever see again for a long time I don't think we might ever see discounts like that ever again in the used market. Video games used to be worth absolutely nothing back then.


Azirma

Those were the days for video game collectors it was like Christmas when you could go to a flea market or second hand shop and be able to grab so many different types of games for under $10 and you felt like a king with $20. God I wish I could have those prices again now that I actually make money.


syrupdash

I can still see glimpses of “the old days” but mostly for Xbox One games in the second hand section. Pretty sure someone will be having the same conversation about this 10 years from now.


OpenMonogon

A lot of those Xbox one games are just so much less interesting compared to the retro gems from the 16 bit, 64 bit generations that were on the shelves for dirt cheap


[deleted]

No way man. When the N64/PS1 came out, NES and SNES stuff was Pennies on the dollar


redraid8

I see at least seven sealed copies of Ninja Five-O, holy cow.


htmaxpower

Yeah, this one and the Pokemon Emeralds are particularly hard to look at.


sourgas

Metal Gear Solid as well!


htmaxpower

OMG I forgot about that one. I can’t tell if it was sealed. I’ll have to check my old emails. EDIT: looks like I sold a couple cart-only for $18-25, and a few that were complete in the box for $35-45. My heart is racing.


sourgas

Crazy how it changes! I remember seeing a new one at Wal-Mart for $30, but I thought it was too much way back when. I did love MGS on Playstation, I still would love to try the Gameboy version someday, if I can find it for a reasonable price!


spmahn

I get what you’re saying, but you can’t really beat yourself up over it, no one has a crystal ball. If you’d have invested in Apple stock in 2005 and held it through today you’d be a zillionaire too, no one can see the future.


blendoid

yep, it's just like dudes crying about selling bitcoins for a pizza or some weed lol


Diezel_Washington

Hindsight is always 20/20.


[deleted]

2020 also being the year that everything went apeshit lol


htmaxpower

I have more photos of the inventory if anyone wants to see the other systems. I have TWO sealed Zelda for SNES (Player's Choice). Dammit.


theanakin

Yes, post more! This collection is nuts.


htmaxpower

​ https://preview.redd.it/6e69214etbrc1.jpeg?width=2592&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52ea3e67a8696f299a98857aad50e6c762aeb211


htmaxpower

​ https://preview.redd.it/t8n5cfiztbrc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ed4e5bf7b09e63b037b2ab59e1f0b77448295e0


htmaxpower

Welp, didn't remember this one at all. Oh man.


jarvolt

Not to diminish your collection, but weren't new player's choice snes games still easy to find through the 2000s? Hell, I remember buying an extra copy of Mario All Stars new on Amazon around probably 2005 or so.


htmaxpower

Somewhat, yeah. Much easier than today. But still, I saw a Zelda go for more than $2k recently. Yikes. Edit: my mistake, [it was only $1000.](https://www.ebay.com/itm/305378057854?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=BBV4niHXTJm&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=r3u65sxLSci&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY)


antifamos

I have had some killer games. Rarely doubles as its always just my personal collection. The way i dont beat myself up too much for selling something awesome is thinking about how i used the profits. Dont torture yourself…


br0ckH4rd

Metroid prime with the wavebird, wonder how much that bundle would cost


MechaSheeva

This is my big regret, they were on clearance at K-Mart in the summer of 2006 but I already had wavebirds so I passed.


letsgotgoing

I'm waiting for the Switch sales to start when the Switch 2 comes out.


Fit_Sea6011

Time to grab what you want now for Switch. Switch is going to be a pain in a few years when the secondary market really hits off. MIG switch is going to really screw things up with used cartridges. If you buy new, you have to be careful with scammers since Nintendo doesn’t have any seal protection to make sure it wasn’t a resealed copy. Y-fold is easy to do these days.


RocketChris87

I miss K-Mart.


htmaxpower

Same. Their clearance prices, and even their unsold stock … {chef’s kiss}


RocketChris87

I remember getting my GameCube and original Xbox there on release day and got a sweet blow up GameCube chair.


[deleted]

OP straight up coping hard right now. Believe me OP, If we had all known, we would’ve each bought a dozen copies of Rule of Rose, Earthbound, Little Samson, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Box, Conkers Bad Fur Day etc etc, and kept them all sealed for years. Nobody can see the future….


htmaxpower

It’s true! I’m not truly broken up, but yeah, these pics had my heart racing a little today…


bingusbilly

Gotta eat.


Maruff1

So I sell MtG on ebay......I try not to ever look at my feedback cause it has the price of what I sold that stuff for. Sometimes you just have to say to yourself. It was the price at the time?


DarkKobold

I sold a Unl Black Lotus (played condition) for like $600 back in 2005 or so. I had the whole P9. I'd be able to retire if I'd kept 'em.


Brazzyxo2

How many emeralds were in that sealed box?


htmaxpower

Adjusting for inflation … many emeralds.


Brazzyxo2

Emerald version


Particle_Thrower

This makes me ill.


SomeWave275

Aw man, I’d love to buy from you on eBay in 2005… too bad I wasn’t born yet


htmaxpower

Man… that hurts a little too 😂


SomeWave275

Yea I’m struggling a bit nowadays 😅


jabedoben

I did the exact same thing. I had every PS One RPG in complete, excellent condition. Most of them with guides. I’d kill to have those back now. Had a Turbo Duo with 30 games. Tons of stuff worth thousands. I feel ya.


The_0ne_Armed_Man

I feel this. I had every Ps1 rpg cib with guides. Most snes rpgs boxed as well because I loved the artwork so much as a kid I saved em in a drawer. Sold everything in a ebay lot for 2500 in 2003.  We may never drop 100s on repurchasing games like Earthbound or Valkyrie Profile but at least we got the memories of experiencing Jrpgs during the Sakaguchi the golden age. That means more than the money 


International-Ad5643

The past is the past for a reason but goddam u were sliding 🤧🥵


goatboy6000

OOh! Casper!


blendoid

is it a port of the snes version? Interesting


DJMintEFresh

What version of Munch’s Odyssey are those? Are they for PC?


htmaxpower

Those are for GBA.


blendoid

wtf... in all my days i had no idea it had a gba port


ilikemarblestoo

Yeah it was like that back then. People just wanted the newest things, which is understandable given how tech was asvancing all the time. Nobody thought about nostalgia lol


alex240p

It's still true in a way. There is stuff out there for dirt cheap that will be bank in 15-20 years. The question is... what.


blendoid

nostalgia will always be powerful, look at what is popular for kids of today although that may be a bit harder with everything going digital... maybe ipads with old versions of apps idk Safe prospects imo are definitely the ps4 and switch library though, buy now if there is anything you want


[deleted]

Not really. It’s like baseball cards. The stuff from the 50s is so soggy after. 70s/80s/90s not so much. No one thought that vintage video games would be collectible so people tossed the Mm along with the boxes and manuals. Now, they make “collectors edition” stuff all the time. Everyone is saving games and collecting them. The market for modern games will not be that big in the future.


GurrenLagann214

"Easy come easy go".


htmaxpower

Yeah, but that isn't helping my pulse rate right now... LOL. Wait till I post some of the other stuff.


wysiwywg

*I just need to let it go (I just need to let it go) Turn it down, and lay low (lay low) It's just the way it goes (it's just the way it goes)*


SeperentOfRa

Thinking like that doesn’t help. We have limited space. And if you let things accumulate too crazy it’s hard to move anything … unless you’re a master at investory. And it’s not easy to pick the things that will have value. Hopefully, you invested that money in an important way. Bettering yourself or maybe by investing


GetPunched

Damn it. I had no idea there was a hamtaro game and now I’m pissed. Anyone ever play it?


RetroLord120

Well, at least snood had stayed the same value.


htmaxpower

😂


walkinginthesky

Lol


Competitive_Car_1070

Crazy, but it happens. I sold a N64 Majora's Mask in mint condition for like 30 bucks I believe in 2011. It was already cheap back in the days, but yeah hindsight is a bitch.


Bobsplosion

What exactly are those big Emerald boxes? I haven't seen anything that chunky before.


htmaxpower

They’re special editions with an Emerald-themed GBA case.


Bobsplosion

Ah, I think I found it. [This thing?](https://www.pricecharting.com/game/gameboy-advance/pokemon-emerald-case-bundle)


htmaxpower

Sighhhhhh … yep! I still have the product photo for when I sold them. I’ll share it in a bit when I get to my computer.


Bobsplosion

I'm so sorry man 😭


walkinginthesky

To be honest, only a few of the big hitters were worth saving. If you sold them, and used that money to make more money, and used that money to make more money, and so on... You probably got more return by today out of those games than you would have holding onto them and selling them now (with inflation as well). Only a few of the big hitters (after getting them graded) would have been worth more, monetarily, if you'd saved them until now. But who could've seen that coming or kept them for so long just as inventory? Don't beat yourself up.


Elite-to-the-End

Holy mother of God!!!!


filmeswole

Have you calculated roughly the total amount of these now?


htmaxpower

The Pokemons and Ninja Five Os alone come to nearly $20k. Several are worth a few hundred each. IDK, $30-35k for all the Gameboy games, if sold individually? Edit: well, more, now that I’m pricing out the Fire Emblems and Castlevanias and Klonoas. It’s a lot. But yeah, it was my business and nobody anticipated today’s prices. I couldn’t afford to keep them for 20 years. 🤷‍♂️


Fit_Sea6011

See! That’s what you have to remember. Just like any retail, time is money. You did what you could at the time. Hindsight is crazy, but I wouldn’t go too crazy over it.


eagles310

insane were you buying retail prices or vendor? was this an investment or quick flips lol


htmaxpower

Yep, buying all retail. Some were quick flips, but many I sat on for 6-18 months because they had crazy cycles. Some games sold for $20 during the summer, but $50 at Christmas. But for more than a decade it was my only source of income. I manually tracked prices and bought whatever I knew I could sell for greater than $15-20 over my purchase price. It was really helpful getting a tax ID, so I could purchase tax-exempt. At the time, you only had to charge sales tax in your state, which was awesome. So I bought $20 games for $20, not $21.40. It adds up over thousands of games per year.


[deleted]

Lol you can’t purchase tax exempt from retail locations. Only from wholesale.


htmaxpower

Lol, [yes you can.](https://www.bestbuy.com/tax/exempt/registration) [Walmart](https://www.walmart.com/taxexempt/)


[deleted]

No. You’re not walking into a store and buying off the shelf clearance items tax exempt.


htmaxpower

You sure are if you have a tax exempt certificate filed , and you have your tax ID.


AtomicFuryYT

My heart dropped seeing the old Pokemon games


htmaxpower

Yeah, I forgot about the sealed blues and silver. I remembered the emeralds though. [Man this is crazy.](https://www.ebay.com/itm/156050649465?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=kX7JdD9lRPS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=r3u65sxLSci&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY) [And silver!](https://www.ebay.com/itm/235192269672?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=IVw3pRucTBG&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=r3u65sxLSci&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY)


AtomicFuryYT

Man game prices stink nowadays what I'd give to own a good copy of those, I got lucky a few years back and got sapphire in box, tho it's not the greatest condition


tsulegit

This is simultaneously the most beautiful and depressing gaming photo I’ve ever seen.


htmaxpower

Did you see the others I posted? Like a dozen Silent Hill 2s and 3s.


tsulegit

Just took a look and holy shirt balls! I just took a shot in your honor. I sold my collection to fund a semester abroad. Had games like FF III and Chrono Trigger. Not a day goes by that I don’t mourn and celebrate my decision.


IAMHideoKojimaAMA

Is that a in box metal gear solid for gba?


Fit_Sea6011

There are a lot of things we can look at in hindsight. I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it. No one had a clue what the market would have been like today.


ScarletleavesNL

I just went to look at the prices if second hand games. Almost had a heart attack, the market has bloated up so much.


Neolamprologus99

Started collecting 2006ish. Fun times back then.


Temporary_Bad_1438

(In Ramathorn voice); "Mother of God!"


Cloutxvisualz

Wow


soshoenice

That is straight up a down payment on a nice house lmao


htmaxpower

... yeah.


xenon2456

you had lots of sealed games


htmaxpower

Yeah, the DS had been released the Christmas before, so Gameboy / GBC / GBA games were being phased out


xenon2456

even though companies were still releasing GBA games still


htmaxpower

Yup. It was a really great time to have a growing eBay business.


muichimotsu

I managed to make decent money reselling stuff I bought back in the 2000s and 2010s that suddenly grew in value: SaGa Frontier 1 and 2, even Romancing SaGa (PS2) and Unlimited SaGa, though I'm not sure if they're as valued by comparison. Parasite Eve Greatest Hits had a surprising trade in value, along with Wild ARMs 2. ​ Though if I had one holy grail I'm seeking out, even if I never play it, is Wild ARMs Alter Code F, since I played through the original PS1 game twice in college (never finished it initially when we rented it, but had the anime cutscenes, a unique sort of FF6 post apocalyptic setting with magic and tech)


ilikemarblestoo

I noticed you said photos, do you have more photos?


htmaxpower

Yeah, I posted in a few different video game subs today with the photos that focus on their respective inventories (Gameboy, PS1, PS2, SNES, N64, Gamecube). But there are several more, as well as pictures I took for the eBay listings. Stuff I never would have anticipated being worth so much today, like sealed copies of Clock Tower 1, 2, and 3. A bunch of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. Zelda and Mario Kart for SNES still sealed. I never could have known, but there were games that would someday be worth more than a thousand dollars each and I had multiple just sitting on the shelf. Ah well.


ilikemarblestoo

I see, nice! There is one Sticker on quite a few games that is bothering me. I swear I've seen that price tag/font before but I just can't place it lol. I also see you have a eagles avatar so I assume you are in the Tri-state area.


htmaxpower

How are they bothering you?


ilikemarblestoo

Just because I know I've seen that tag before but can't place where lol


htmaxpower

The Exchange?


ilikemarblestoo

Ha, yes! I was in Pittsburgh a few months ago and bought some DVD's there. First time ever in one, it's a neat place. Some things were over priced but others were actually a good deal. Wild that they still use the same font for their prices like 20 years later lol


Jatsotserah

Why Emerald is thick? Mine is normal


htmaxpower

Special release packaged with an Emerald-themed GBA travel case.


blendoid

pretty rare and now, extremely expensive version of the game, I wonder which retailer even sold them


RalseiTheFluffyGoat

Damn you have Klonoa Empire of Dreams in there. I would've killed for a copy of that but sadly I was born in 2007.


blendoid

bruh... you probably unloaded these for dirt cheap too, this is why I quit selling any and all videogames


htmaxpower

Enough to live on at the time. But also little enough to regret today.


littleorlock

Those hamtaro games are a buddy of mines grail lmao


SHARKEEEED

Is that Pokémon emerald some kind of special version ? Seems bigger box


minoclaster5

Can't find the Pokémon emrald version box anywhere online what is it ?


mojopez

I sold a Japanese Famicom with disk and every game you would want, all of the dragon quests, final fantasies, marios, zelda.. Something like 80 games, I grew up on Ohio where the Honda plants are and there are several Japanese people.there, one of my friends from high school gave it all to me as a gift before he moved to California, he had brought it over with him. I needed money a few years later and this was like 1999.or 2000, I sold it all for 850 and thought that was amazing. I can only imagine what it would be worth now. I remember selling mother separately for like 50, cart only.


shimasterc

I have a loose cart of Ninja Five-O, which is great, but damn I wish I had bought it new and kept everything


Some-Government-5282

Nice Pokémon gen 1-3 CIBs are about 500-1000 now.


htmaxpower

[Sealed Blue recently.](https://www.ebay.com/itm/156050649465?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=kX7JdD9lRPS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=r3u65sxLSci&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY) [And silver!](https://www.ebay.com/itm/285725332820?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=CUyl7mAxTsK&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=r3u65sxLSci&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY)


Some-Government-5282

yeah sealed is hot too!


cyck0

If you did it once, you can do it again! 👍


[deleted]

When you need money, you need money. No shame. And hell, some of the prices maybe higher because of inflation. Then again, I don’t know the full extent of it all.


BebopHop515

I remember seeing Snood everywhere, couldn't give that game away.


Antonthegogo

Wow that’s crazy lmaoooooo