No Escape! from eBay
I've recently started doing something that I should have started doing some time ago. What is that something you might ask? Well, even if you didn't ask, I'm going to tell you anyway! I've started selling the many duplicate games I have, putting them up for auction on everyone's favorite marketplace, eBay! Anyone who's been to my place knows I have video game hardware and software crammed into every conceivable space. Some of these items I've been moving about the country for many years, and it's ridiculous that I carry around stuff that I simply do not need! I could probably put several hundred items a week up on eBay for at least a year, without even digging into my core collection. Here's a link to the auctions I presently have online:AtariAge eBay AuctionsLet's see, there are 160 items up for auction as I write this. A few of these are NOS (New Old Stock) items, but most of them are used games for a wide variety of platforms. This number will fluctuate for a while, sometimes more, sometimes (more frequently) less, depends on the energy I can muster to continue putting items up on eBay. And during E3 there will definitely be a lull. Feel free to bid on anything that catches your eye. And please, even if someone you recognize from AtariAge has already bid on it, go ahead and outbid them!
I have a love/hate relationship with eBay. It's a great way to unload items you don't want or need, but it's also takes a lot of time and effort to list items on eBay and manage auctions, at least if you want to do it with some style and would like to be somewhat attentive to the auctions. This means taking nice pictures of the items, testing the items, writing up good descriptions, answering questions in a timely fashion, communicating with those winning your auctions, and carefully packaging up and mailing out winnings after you've received payment. It's difficult to justify the time to do this for individual Atari 2600 carts that only sell for a few dollars. When you consider how much time you put into that single auction, and then take into account eBay fees, PayPal fees, and any additional costs (such as the labels for the postage printer I use, packing material, etc.) you really begin to consider hiring one of those big, metal dumpsters you see at construction sites and just throwing all the stuff you want to get rid of into it. :)But no, I won't do that--it's bad enough that we recycle plenty of common 2600 games for homebrews, and I'd rather the duplicates in my collection get into the hands of other classic gaming enthusiasts and not into the dumpster. And of course there are plenty of items that will fetch more than a few dollars, making the effort to put them online more worthwhile. But really, my main goal is to just GET RID OF THIS STUFF (and when I say "stuff", I mean all the extra carts and systems I have that I absolutely do not need). It's also somewhat tempting to just cart (no pun intended) some of this "stuff" to one of those places that will sell items on eBay for you and let them do all the heavy lifting, but I haven't gotten to that stage just yet. And I know they wouldn't put as much time into the individual auctions as I do, but then, they may be smarter than I am where that's concerned!Oh yeah, back to that love/hate relationship thing. One thing I hate about eBay is they have a million rules, and it's pretty easy to trip over them. I've had them cancel auctions for various reasons and none of them are nefarious (like, selling body parts). And it's very easy for other members to "rat" on you and get your auctions canceled, thanks in most part to the wonderful DMCA we have in this country. Good luck selling prototypes on eBay, for instance. Of course, this can work to my advantage when someone is using images from AtariAge without permission, especially when they don't state that the images they are using are not representative of the item being sold. We are usually generous in allowing other people to use our images (especially when people ask in advance), but not for eBay. Also, it seems that prices for classic gaming items have come down quite a bit. This of course fluctuates and will depend on who's looking at a particular auction, but I've noticed that lately prices seem pretty low. If I still have many of these games come August, rest assured that those attending the vgXpo show in Dallas will have ample opportunity to pick through it. Whatever doesn't sell may end up in the dumpster out back. Oh, wait, I didn't just say that, I don't want people waiting out back at the dumpster when the show ends!But hey, I need to get rid of this "stuff" before the "stuff" drives me crazy. Or at least to a new level of crazy that involves me renting the previously mentioned dumpster. ..Al
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