vintage computer games

[keziak]

Anyone with experience with these?

A friend gave me a lot of them. In the past I sold a ton of them with just the discs and papers because I didn't have boxes. Now I have them in boxes but my experiment so far auctioning them has been a bust.

I thought I checked sold history and it was OK, though Fixed Price. In your opinion are these the sort of "longtail" items that need to sit in a Store for a while? If so I do not know where I could store them.

I also will need to be careful that I have boxes. The games I auctioned have been paired with boxes already.

[chevymontecarlo88]

What type of disks? 5 1/4" Floppy, CD-Rom ect.. Are they console/computer specific? If you  are not sure, pictures you post will help.

[keziak]

they are really vintage, 3.5" disks for the PC.

I am a little confused because during covid these games sold with lots of bidding at auction even without the boxes. People would ask for the boxes. Maybe that boat  has sailed or I am not marketing them successfully. 

One that is currently listed ends tomorrow if you want to look "The Grandest Fleet". Mine is the lowest price. But only two sold recently (April) so maybe it's a dud. 

[bennotbill]

The real old games that seem to fetch a good price on the UK site are mainly cassette tapes for the likes of BBC B, Spectrum, Vic 20, Commodore 64, and old Atari cartridges.

The machines fetch a good price as well. I wish I hadn't just given mine away all those years ago.

[chevymontecarlo88]

There are some collectors that still do buy them but i think the Covid rush might of been a blip on the radar as you suggest. These may be something to list and forget (Fixed Price) if you want to find buyers (or buyer). Add a Best Offer if you are not sure about your listing price.

Game emulators have changed the vintage game market but if you have ones sealed or with packaging, there will always be someone that NEEDS it. 😉

Edit.... You may want to look for some vintage game boards (Reddit ect.) to troll your listings...

[onefootflipper1]

I sell a lot of vintage computer games and I would never, ever list one at auction, always fixed price. Essentially every single title is longtail. And don't even think about not having the best price (for condition / completeness) as there are just so few copies of each individual game listed that the smallest price difference will matter and the offer seekers are going to start with the cheapest price listed, not the guy priced up $5.

I recently listed a large number of APPLE II games, I listed all of them at the best price on ebay. I don't even have offers turned on and people immediately were sending me offers via message anyway.

Game emulators in some way have driven the market for vintage video games. All that stuff was emulated full speed before vintage video games was even a thing. Access to the emulated versions makes people interested in collecting the real thing.

[chevymontecarlo88]

I had and still have a bunch of early Atari 400/800, 520 ST and 1040 ST games and consoles. As much as i like the nostalgic part of having them, i would rather play frogger on a emulator than having it load from cassette that takes 20 minutes. 😀

That being said there are a few games that i do enjoy playing once in a decade or so.. The original Gamstar Baseball on 5 1/4" Floppy.

If you don't mind me asking, where do you source your vintage games?