Submitted by HopefulMyriad1 t3_127bxvz in gaming

I've sold almost every physical game I've ever owned to stay afloat during hard times, but I regret selling a few I could never again afford to buy back: particularly the complete copy of Shantae that I owned on the Gameboy color. When the game came out in the early 2000's, it was a bit obscure and my exposure to it happened when it was already tough to find. In 2009 I finally found and bought a complete copy for $120- but in 2016 I lost my job and sold it when I desperately needed money; it was worth around $600 minimum boxed at that time, so I sold it for $300 to make desperate profits. Now? The cheapest copy I've seen is selling for $4,700 boxed on Ebay, with a sealed copy going for $10,000. It tears me up inside that I was so proud to own it and loved it so much, and now it's more or less forever out of my reach- if I ever did save that kind of money, the price could even double by then for all I know, and there's a few other games where that came from but that's always the one that hurts the most.

Have you ever regretted selling off any games that were precious to you now that they're far too expensive to get back again? When I sold off some of my games, I thought about the extra space I'd have, how the save batteries would eventually die, how I barely ever have time to play them... when I should've been thinking about how much I'd miss owning it and never being able to get them back again.

4

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

iMikeZero t1_jee2ui2 wrote

https://i.imgur.com/bY02rxz.jpg

I was trading in a lot of physical games I had during the Xbox 360 era. My biggest gaming mistake is letting Wind Waker/Master Quest combo go.

3

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefd48u wrote

Oh, I had that one too! I never knew it was rare and valuable until the week I decided to sell it in the mid 2010's.

1

iMikeZero t1_jeff2iv wrote

When GameStop offered me $25 for it I should have known better. It was above the usual .03 offerings for all of the other games.

2

Kurotan t1_jefl9ht wrote

Gamestop offering jack sh* is why I've never sold a game and became a collector.

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefft01 wrote

Wow, that is a lot for one of their trade-ins! I don't think I've ever gotten that much credit for a single game in all of my trade-ins. I remember that I was sold a bunch of interesting/rare PS2 titles to a retro game store (Mr. Mosquito, Under the Skin, Mad Maestro, etc.) and got around $90 for them- a week later though when I regretted selling them, I returned to potentially buy them back only to find that they'd already been re-sold.

1

Tupiekit t1_jeedxme wrote

Nope, but I have major regret letting my buddy borrow my GameCube, memory cards, and all of my games and then he lost it all. He's dead now but I still hate him for that shit.

I have OCD and have kept ever single one of my games from when I was a kid I don't think any of them are worth the numbers that you are talking about but I've got a couple that are on the $60+ range.

Jacket chan stuntmaster

Jurassic Park operation genesis

Metroid prime

Super smash brother melee

Final fantasy vii

Final fantasy tactics

Metal arms glitch in the system.

GTA San Andreas pre hot coffee mod

I am sure I ahve more obscure ones that I am forgetting about

3

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefcubl wrote

I'm sorry to hear that; the GameCube really did have an interesting catalogue of titles! I think the rarest GameCube games I ever owned (before selling them, of course) were the Phantasy Star 1+2 Special Edition and that Zelda Collection that they released.

1

Tupiekit t1_jefdwjw wrote

Yeah it really bothered me..hell it still does. I’ve been slowly building back my collection though thankfully.

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jeff1wo wrote

It's certainly not easy, I'm sure of that- with the recent closure of the 3DS eshop, we've seen 3DS games soar in price, so I can't imagine what many GameCube games are going for these days. Back around 2016 when I sold my copy of Shantae, the "last game" I needed for my "Collection" was a game that the seller wouldn't sell for less than $700- that's when I realized that I'd never be able to continue buying retro games at those kinds of prices. Good luck to you in getting them back, friend!

1

Prestigious-Yak4344 t1_jefk2pk wrote

I miss some things from time to time as well, but you know, if you sell something there was usually a reason at the time and it helped at the time. Best to look forward I think and not drive oneself crazy with would have or could have or should have.

3

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefl7nd wrote

Wise words! Why I certainly would like to still be in possession of much of the items that I've sold over the years for one reason or another, I do recognize that I really didn't need most of them, nor did I need a large collection- collecting is addicting and fun, but expensive and difficult to maintain over time, especially if you can't use most of it on a daily basis. Still, my old copy of Shantae is a rare exception to this rule that meant a great deal to me both as a game I really do like and a rare, historical timepiece that I never should have parted with.

2

SpazmusJackson t1_jee8zkg wrote

I used to have a special edition N64 that was blue with a big pikachu on it but I sold it along with my ps2 when i got a ps3.

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefciok wrote

Wow, that sounds very interesting and unique! Special editions and limited releases are probably among some of the toughest pieces to ever recover- I wonder of its value these days. I really wish the supply for all of these games and systems was much higher back in the day to avoid these extreme prices of today.

1

himynameisyoda t1_jeeevz6 wrote

Would you ever make your own copy+custom boxart?

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefc70x wrote

Hmm, that's an interesting question; when I think of owning an authentic, physical game I tend to hardly ever play them and really don't care about the value, so I suppose a custom-made copy would be feasibly worth my time- I know that Shantae for the GBC does indeed have those newer edition releases that WayForward created within the last 10 years or so, but still an authentic copy feels like a truly marvelous timepiece regardless of value and that special feeling would be hard to emulate through a custom creation unfortunately.

1

eyeseenitall t1_jeef57v wrote

Pokemon colosseum and MGS Twin Snakes. I don't feel a strong desire to have them back, but I'd prefer having them now over the GameStop store credit I got for them.

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefba9a wrote

Oh, GameStop trading- I've made that mistake more times than I'd care to admit- even when Ebay exists it still presented itself as an option despite the obvious downsides... I suppose that sometimes we humans repeatedly end up doing things that we'll regret for little reason or lack of reflection.

1

fikeserrano6047 t1_jeep17s wrote

The original star wars battlefront and the original halo combat evolved for the OG Xbox. Great games and miss them tons

2

DirtyMoneyJesus t1_jeez441 wrote

Idk about the OG battlefront but the OG battlefront 2 is on both steam and xbox store for just a couple bucks, OG battlefront could be too

3

fikeserrano6047 t1_jeezb1a wrote

It is, but I've forever lost out on the drip that is owning the original. I'm definitely clinging on to dear life my copies of SWBF2, halo 2 and halo 3.

2

DirtyMoneyJesus t1_jef0nv2 wrote

I never got to play the original but I’m a huge fan of the 2nd. I need a galactic conquest mode with modern graphics in my life

2

fikeserrano6047 t1_jef2e82 wrote

You said it man, playing that shit with my homies was great back in the day. Me and those same homies got together recently and played it all again on the hardest difficult. Still holds up immaculately

3

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefec11 wrote

Oh, I had the original Halo for some time but was persuaded to trade it in when I was so bad at playing it! Looking back, perhaps the Warthog vehicle wasn't so difficult to operate, but those are both indeed great games that I'm sorry you regret selling.

2

Cavissi t1_jeeqsox wrote

Cubivore. Was the last time I ever traded in a game, but I didn't really play it or my GameCube anymore.

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefgugj wrote

oh my; I can't count the number of times when I said "I don't play/use this very much" and then immediately (or eventually) regretted my decision to sell it no matter how much or little money I received in the process- money which was instead used on mundane pursuits such as bills, groceries or loans to family members. Video games, dvds, action figures, collectibles- there's too many times I was quick to do so for sure.

1

DirtyMoneyJesus t1_jeeyxla wrote

NCAA 14. I’m a huge sports video game fans but the same watered down titles every year have left me to just buying a copy every few years, and even then they’re mostly the same thing

The NCAA series is so unique and refreshing compared to modern day titles, for years I regretted selling it along with my old PS3 until I finally caved last summer and bought a copy off eBay. I’ve probably played that game more this year than any other

2

DMind_Gaming t1_jef7h80 wrote

Funny story, I was (and still am) a Fire Emblem fan and back around the time Fire Emblen Fates for the 3DS came out I went to the store with my mom to buy it however the first store we went to sold out and the second store also sold out except for one copy.

Literally the last copy they had was the Special Edition on the display case at the front of the store. I wasn't even planning to get the Special Edition but since I wanted the game so badly my mom got it for me. The box had some crease on the edges (and it's not like I can ask for another new copy) and the store also wasn't willing to give a discount but I got it anyways and now I could probably sell it for quite a lot (especially now with the 3DS online store closing) but I won't.

The thing about FE Fates is that there's 3 versions of the game: Birthright, Conquest and Revelation. There's physical copies of Birthright and Conquest but the only way to get Revelation is either through the online store or the physical Special Edition (which has all 3 versions). So now with the online store closing it means the only way to play Revelation is if you already bought it online before it closed, get the Special Edition or emulate it.

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefaqs3 wrote

Wow! That's a really complex; I hate it when physical copies don't exist or when it's rarer to find them since digital copies of a game were the primary distribution method. Digital games really don't give you the feeling of ownership, and many of them are really only licensed to us in a sense anyway.

2

AlabasterRadio t1_jefx72q wrote

I had Godzilla PS4. Was really excited that I could get 40 bucks for it after I played the hell out of it and sold it.

I regret this decision immensely.

2

HopefulMyriad1 OP t1_jefyq9g wrote

I know the feeling! The temptation of getting generating any sort of money resembling a decent profit off on an old piece of property is something that I've experienced many times- it hasn't been until my more recent years when I've understood the gravity of my actions from a much wider perspective. Additionally; to think that my parents never forced me to sell or throw away the majority of my childhood property like their society instilled into them, and yet I still sold so many precious things of my own volition! Some things truly are priceless (and not in the collector's sense).

2