EarthBound – only available on import (pic: eBay)

A reader explains how he made some difficult decisions in terms of which retro games to sell and which to keep from his extensive collection.

Video games are expensive. I don’t think that’s going to be any kind of revelation to anyone reading this; that or the fact that times are tough at the moment and while there’s tons of super tempting stuff around it’s wiser to keep expenses to a minimum right now. Which was a problem for me, because I really wanted a PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2. Even though that was going to cost well over a grand once you threw in some games.

Now, I could have tried putting it on the card but to be honest there’s not much room on there and the girlfriend would definitely have noticed. I don’t like to think of myself as selfish either, so I admit she’s right when she says we’ve got to focus on the important things and making sure we can pay the mortgage and still go out and have a good time with holidays and such.

So, I was in my man-cave and I was looking around at my various games and knick-knacks and it occurred to me that I owned a lot of original retro games that I have not played in years and probably never would, because they’re all available more conveniently digitally or on a mini-console.

The one that caught my eye at first was my boxed copy of EarthBound in mint condition. It wasn’t released in Europe and had a lot of stuff in the oversized box, like scratch ‘n’ sniff cards, that are easily lost or damaged over time. It’s on the Classic Mini SNES though, which is where I played it last, and while I like the idea of owning the original as well… it began to occur to me that I’d like a holiday to Greece a lot more.

I popped onto eBay to see what the going rate was and was shocked to find it could go for £3,000 or more. That could not only pay for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2, plus a bunch of games, it would also be a big help towards that holiday as well.

So then I started checking some of my other games at random and I have to say it does seem random which games are worth a lot and which aren’t. I guess it’s all to do with supply and demand but my boxed copy of Radiant Silvergun was worth only around £200, which is exactly what I paid for it 20 years or so ago. Although back then it wasn’t available digitally, so I guess that’s why the price has stayed flat.

I’d heard about all the nonsense around Super Mario 64 being worth a ton, because of some weird speculator scam, and sure enough my bog standard N64 copy with a slightly tatty box was only around £40. A little more than I expected, given how many were made, but still less than they cost back in the day.

Final Fantasy 7 was also a surprise, as it seemed to be going for as little as £10 or £20 even with the box. I know it was also mass produced but I thought maybe its age and continued relevance would’ve pushed the cost up.

Cubivore was also never released in Europe (pic: eBay)

That is what’s happened with Pokémon Blue though, on the Game Boy, which goes for around £200 with the box and everything. I wasn’t sure I wanted to get rid of that though, so I started getting a bit more obscure and found that my copy of Shantae on the Game Boy Color was going for over £100+.

The only other game I could find that was worth a grand or more is Pokémon Box on the GameCube, which isn’t even a game, it’s just a storage system for Pokémon but I guess that makes it rare. A lot of GameCube games are worth quite a bit now, I found, with Cubivore going for around £400 if you’re lucky.

As you can see, this all started adding up to quite a bit and I was stuck in a conundrum, in that while I want to pull my weight, and there’s no use having things stuck around the house that you never even play, some of these have sentimental value and, I have to admit, I just like to know I’ve got them, sitting there on the shelf.

So I made a decision: EarthBound and Pokémon Box could go, along with Shantae and Radiant Silvergun, using the logic that they’re all easier to play on other formats and really just sitting in my bookcase doing nobody any good.

The end result? Well, let’s just say I heartly recommend the PlayStation VR2, especially in conjunction with Resident Evil Village, and that the price I got for everything left enough money for some nice new suitcases…

By reader Tank

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A reader explains how he made some difficult decisions in terms of which retro games to sell and which to keep from his extensive collection.