Atari 7800 at Big Lots : How long ago?

[fultonbot]

Our Pic n' Save had nothing, but the local 99 cent store had a few 5200 games.\

Instead I purchased an  NIB 7800 with about ~40 NIB games for $75 mail order in 1995. 
Best purchase ever, I think.  

[mike99mccarthy]

This is the best thread ever! I was dying to buy some Atari stuff off of websites in the late 90s but my parents refused to allow me to “put their credit card on the Internet”(or over the phone for that matter lol).

Unrelated to 7800/big lots; I started my eBay account in September 2001 to buy a Sears Tele games pong sports VI for about $20 including shipping. At this point I had my first job. I had to mail a money order to the eBay seller. I still remember the user name; “Jimala”. Good times

[7800Knight]

I can relate.  It was about 1998 or 1999 I started using EBay.  I bought old comics, videotapes and video games off there.  I also paid with personal checks before getting a Paypal account.

[jstrotha0975]

I'm from NYC and didn't have a Big Lots but I remember Radio Shack selling Atari games for $5 or less in the late 80's. That's how I got a 7800, its was only $39 I think.

[+discotronic]

Pikeville, KY Big Lots had 2600 games and Jr's. I remember the games were $2 each. Not sure if that was all the games or that is just what I remember. Also, they had the 7800 in a bundle for, IIRC, $49.99. Unfortunately my wallet met reality and reality won. 

[Cousin Vinnie]

Just to chime back in on the timing of the cheap Atari 7800 Big Lots sale that I experienced in South Knoxville:

 

I brought a bunch of Atari 7800 games to my friends house and we started playing my brand new Midnight Mutants from Big Lots and one of my pals was surprised that the opening cut scene stated that the return of Dr. Evil was October of 1992. Which was the month we were playing the thing in. So the sale probably happened June/ July/ August/ September of 1992.

 

Vinnie 

 

 

[christo930]

I hit that up back in the 90s.  Maybe 95.  I still have the 42 (?) games that it came with. About 20 I think were 7800 games.  IIRC, it was 79.99 for the bundle.  It was a great deal.  There was an outlet store for these guys in Lancaster PA that had them too.  I bought a few games at that store that I didn't have, but they weren't a buck a piece.  I think radio shack still sold 2600 games at that time out of their catalog.

[ZippyRedPlumber]

Does this include 2600 games?

[Cousin Vinnie]

2 hours ago, ZippyRedPlumber said:

Does this include 2600 games?

It did... 29 years ago

[Deathstalker V]

Just to chime in, Big Lots in GA got in the 7800/2600 stuff in right after Christmas in January 1991. My aunt and I went and bought a 7800 console and games, they had a big mix of titles including the 1990 releases. 7800 games at that time were priced at 7.88 and 2.88 depending on the game, atari 2600 games were 1.88 each. The 7800 console was priced at 24.88. They did have Atari Jr, but we never saw 5200 stuff at our stores. The Big lots sticker is still on my console box so will upload a picture for reference. I really miss Big Lots, went into one in Alabama last year and has it changed!

[Atariboy]

They've became more of a furniture store than anything in recent years. I'd say 65% of the floor in the two I've been in around here are now furniture (It used to just be one small corner of the store but now the entire central part of the store is dedicated to it). Still can get good DVD and Blu-Ray deals though, especially if you're willing to weed through a lot of junk.

[rockman_x_2002]

1 hour ago, Deathstalker V said:

I really miss Big Lots, went into one in Alabama last year and has it changed!

We didn't get a Big Lots in our area until the late 1990s and by that time there was no Atari stuff, of course.  It did have a decent selection of PC games and a few console/handheld games of the era (GBA and DS mostly in the early 2000s was what I saw mostly).  Every once in a while I'd find something nice there.  Now it's all second-rate movies on DVD and Blu-Ray, and cheap electronics.  The Big Lots of today wears the Big Lots of yesteryear like a skin-suit, unfortunately.  I miss the way it used to be.  

[+littaum]

I never lived around Big Lots/Odd Lots back in the early 90's, but thanks to people on Usenet sharing the deals I was able to stock up on NIB 2600/7800 titles back in the day for cheap.  

[boog]

My local Big Lots currently has a few PS4, Xbone, and Switch games on a shelf behind the registers. Not many, but they still sell videogames...

[Trebor]

O'Shea is still champ to me for the best deals, circa late 90's - they were all brand new boxed games:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/19970415125908/http://www.oshealtd.com/

$0.80 each! 

 

Hindsight... Should have purchased a motherlode of Ballblazer back then... lol.

[+sramirez2008]

4 hours ago, Trebor said:

$0.80 each! 

Too bad I hadn’t joined the scene back then.

Edited June 9, 2023 by sramirez2008
spelling

[Asaki]

17 hours ago, Atariboy said:

Still can get good DVD and Blu-Ray deals though, especially if you're willing to weed through a lot of junk.

Oh, do they still have movies?
I haven't been since before the pandemic, and when I try looking at their online ads, they don't list any...

[+x=usr(1536)]

2 hours ago, Asaki said:

Oh, do they still have movies?
I haven't been since before the pandemic, and when I try looking at their online ads, they don't list any...

Some do, some don't.  The ones around here are pretty inconsistent in what they have from store to store, though the furniture seems to be a staple.

[leech]

In Utah we have the Deseret Industries, where people just donate crap.  Back in the 90s they had tons of 2600 games for 50 cents.  We were there for the Atari 8bit stuff though, that's where I got my XEGS, 130xe, and had a bunch of 1050s, an IndusGT, etc.  Weirdly I found a receipt that said I sold 4 1050s for a copy of HDdriver for the ST...

 

If only I'd bought a bunch of 2600 games... not sure if they had 7800 ones, but I bet they did.

[jhd]

 

Sadly, we do not have Big Lots here in Canada. (There was a similar retailer called XS Cargo, but that chain folded some years ago.)

 

I was last in the Big Lots in Bangor, Maine perhaps 15 years ago. I do not remember seeing any video games in stock at that point, but I did purchase a pile of DVDs -- and I also clearly recall buying a package of instant grits. 🤔 

[Jet-X]

Not 7800 related, but a friend at work had a new in the box E.T for the Atari Computer, and I asked where he got it. He said .99 Cent store in Southern California. I had to visit a couple weeks later, went into one near my parents house and found stacks of new in the box Atari 5200 Gremlins, Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus. They had a minimal amount of Missile Command and Ms PAC Man.  I got a shopping cart put my arm on the shelf and swept everything in. About 30-40 copies of each of the three titles, bought them all. Looked at other .99 stores that day but they didn’t have the rare ones, just common.

 

then resold most on on the newsgroups.  This was about 1996