What do you regret throwing away?

[VectorGamer]

Boxes for the Atari 2600 games. That's what you were supposed to do, right? Isn't that why they sold the storage bins with the slots for your carts and another slot for the manuals?

 

All my Electronic Games magazines. I'm pretty sure I threw them away shortly after I was done reading them.

[tsgthesportsgamer]

Some of these answers are genuinely sad - I get the feeling some people feel honestly depressed about investing too much of their youth (and early adulthood) into gaming. Anyway, I was kinda a pack rat in my youth and saved many of my NES/SNES/Game Boy boxes perfectly flat in a box. My mom actually did a lot of this storage for me, and I still have these boxes in relatively mint condition to this day. It wasn't really for collecting purposes, just that I liked having them. I also have a pretty large stash of old gaming mags sitting at my parents house (though I'm often reminded by them to take time off and travel back so I can deal with all this stuff - which would cost probably as much money as I could get for selling them)

 

My mother did step in and return a brand new Virtual Boy I bought for $20 when Shopko had them on clearance. I played with it for a bit and she thought it would give me a brain tumor. We both didn't think of the possible value in just storing it, so it was a battle I guess I was more or less willing to lose. Would love to be able to flip that boxed Virtual Boy console nowadays. I also missed on a $20 boxed Genesis III console that sat on the Toys r Us clearance shelf well into the 32-bit era, it must have been there for two years at least. Always thought it was funny sitting there, now that memory is staring right back at me with the last laugh.

 

I have less regret about tossing stuff away, since that was exceedingly rare in my life, than selling something too early for too little or selling something that I now wish I had anyway. I collected 3DS games early in the console's life and had nearly 100 before I decided to sell off the entire thing for $1000. Sometimes I still wish I had that collection since for the first year and a half of the 3DS I was likely the only person out there cataloging all the specifics of the 3DS releases and variations. But it was bleeding my wallet keeping up with it, so it was probably good to let it go.

[Csonicgo]

I gave away my entire comic book collection.

 

Also, my parents threw out my Planet of the Apes treehouse and action figures!

OH lord. I had to talk down a person from selling all his comic books. The reason? His wife told him to "grow up". Which is hilarious, since she has an insane Barbie Doll collection.

[The Usotsuki]

What a hypocrite, the wife I mean.

[omegadot]

My mother did step in and return a brand new Virtual Boy I bought for $20 when Shopko had them on clearance. I played with it for a bit and she thought it would give me a brain tumor. We both didn't think of the possible value in just storing it, so it was a battle I guess I was more or less willing to lose. Would love to be able to flip that boxed Virtual Boy console nowadays. I also missed on a $20 boxed Genesis III console that sat on the Toys r Us clearance shelf well into the 32-bit era, it must have been there for two years at least. Always thought it was funny sitting there, now that memory is staring right back at me with the last laugh.

 

 

I bought one of those Genesis 3s at a KB Toys in the same situation. I bought it over the 80bazillion Jaguars and Virtual Boys on the shelves. I picked wrong. The 3 I got was incredibly fragile and I don't see it as having much value over the 2 I now have. I had a lot of fun with it but I wish I'd picked up a Jaguar since now I'm not willing front the cash for the novelty of playing a Jaguar.

[+save2600]

Like so many, I too used to throw away my 2600 boxes BITD. Pengo and Atari Video Cube are a couple of the more rare game boxes I threw away back then that quickly come to mind. Sure I'll think of more later and become further depressed. lol

[Papa]

I've lost/thrown away most of the above stated (and then repurchased in throes of mad overkill after 'growing up') , but one thing rings out to me in my memories...

 

MY G1 MEGATRON! (yes, I know we didn't call them G1 back then.)

 

I had a previously owned one without the scope or extras but I played with it a lot and knew how to transform it perfectly.

One fine day at the grove (run down park behind the projects where I lived for a short time with wieners and twats carved into or drawn on everything) I was playing with Megatron while my brother was begging to 'hold' him. If anyone has siblings they know that when one asks to 'hold' your toy it usually means 'DESTROY'.

This case was no different. I said "Maybe later!" to which he answered by ripping it out of my hand craftily and then hurling it into the air. I'm sure he wasn't aiming for anything in particular but, wouldn't you know it, my transformer landed in a giant oil-drum-trash-can filled to the top with water from a recent rain. I reached into the water as far as I dared but didn't feel anything. I tried to tip the drum but wasn't strong enough.

 

He also got in trouble once and, for whatever reason, opened my door, grabbed my Night Rider KIT model that one of our babysitters brothers glued together for me one night, and SPIKED IT LIKE A FREAKING TOUCHDOWN onto our hardwood floor, TOTALLY DESTROYING IT!!

 

I've also had many prized possessions 'confiscated'. This is a method of attaining goods without having to pay for them that my old family (whom I shall disown one glorious day) has mastered, whereby, if you ever need their help in any way, they relieve you of all you own as payment (comics, toys, game systems, whatever!). That happened at least once.

 

Thanks for helping me peel back those never-properly-healed wounds! I will now go shudder in a corner until my wife feeds me beer...

Edited January 12, 2016 by Papa

[Buttons]

 

MY G1 MEGATRON! (yes, I know we didn't call them G1 back then.)

 

 

Don't worry, Papa! I just got you a CIB G1 Takara Megatron Reissue!! What goes around, comes around.

 

A lot of these comments just make me want to cry! CIB 3DO??! MUSHA??! Boxes??!! Oh, my goodness!

 

I can't bring myself to throw away ANYTHING. There is potential hidden in those twisty ties, 10-free-hours-on-AOL CDs, plastic sock hangars, cardboard inserts, and cat-food-bag string, not to mention the really important things like game boxes, mags, and computer parts. That's what attics and basements and garages and closets and bedrooms and hallways are for!

 

Shame on wives who "make" their husbands do anything they don't want to do, and shame on husbands who listen to them. :-)

[Austin]

My full-size N-Gage QD kiosk. Doubt I'll ever find one of those again.

[jhd]

Maybe I am unique, but I have no regrets about having disposed of anything gaming or computer-related. Examples include:

 

-- My original Coco I with a large selection of game cartridges; I gave many of the games to a friend, I honestly do not recall what happened to the Coco itself

 

-- I had two Coleco mini-arcade games (Pac-Man, Frogger); again, I do not recall their fate

 

-- My first PC (a Tandy 1000 SL) went to my cousin

 

-- A complete run of Byte magazine; 1987-1998; my Folks were moving house in 2001, and I needed to reduce the amount of stuff I would be paying to store. I offered the whole lot for free locally, but there were no takers (other than one person who wanted me to deliver them)

 

-- Someone gave me a non-working CIB Colecovision; I have no desire to spend money to repair it (and I do not buy or sell things online), so I passed it along to a local thrift shop

 

I have no desire to repurchase anything that I have ever disposed of. Indeed, I am getting ready to further weed my (extensive) book collection because I soon have to move it again, and every excessive pound costs me more money in moving and storage fees.

[Papa]

My full-size N-Gage QD kiosk. Doubt I'll ever find one of those again.

 

I bet that was a cool way to play Tomb Raider!

[Guest LiqMat]

My Nelsonic Frogger watch. Gave it to a school friend in the early 80s.

[Ashevent]

Up until about 7 years ago I always had to trade in my old stuff to get the newest system, so there's LOTS. But particularly painful in retrospect was my Power glove and my N64 copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day. and the thing I miss the most...My original Fairchild Channel F I had as a kid and all our games. Have an old one I bought recently and trying my best to get it running.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Ashevent

[Austin]

 

I bet that was a cool way to play Tomb Raider!

 

Nah, it was a lot more comfortable sitting in a chair and playing it the normal way. But it was a cool kiosk to have (full size, about 6/7 feet tall).

[HoshiChiri]

I do regret tossing my gaming mags as well- not so much because I want them back, but because I wish I could've found someone who wanted them instead of recycling them. I had several years of NextGen, Tips n' Tricks, and a nearly complete run of PSM with all those wonderful hand-drawn covers from the early years. I did keep Game Players- it's got a lot more sentimental value for me. I may have kept the short-lived Dreamcast Magazine too, but I'm really not sure.

 

The only thing I've gotten rid of that I think I'd want back is my old original Game Boy, which I gave to a friend when I got the Game Boy Color. I can't really justify buying one at the going rate- I know I'd never play it specifically, I just want it for nostalgia value. Maybe someday I'll get lucky and find one dirt cheap. What's funny is, I was clearly developing my collector-ness when I got the color, because I still have the box for it!

[dj_convoy]

I didn't throw it away, but when I moved out, I left my 5200, SMS and Genesis games at home, assuming I would be able to grab them at some point down the road. For various reasons, I was unable to do so. I've replaced 99% of these, but that REALLY sucked.

[omegadot]

I didn't throw it away, but I did drop my squish Game & Watch during a drinking and gaming party and the two hinges broke. Always regretted that. I do still have it.

[empsolo]

I regret selling my NES and SNES collection when I had to move away in the summer of 1998. My parents ended making it up to us by picking up an N64 and PSone later that year after we settled in.

[schuwalker]

My Nelsonic Frogger watch. Gave it to a school friend in the early 80s.

I "had" that same watch when I was a kid.

 

I'll never forget it's fate though. Was in 5th grade at the time ('83). I was in the bathroom just got done using the urinal... yep you guessed it - the damn thing took a plunge. Somehow the band broke on it right when I was done doing my business. And of course it happened to land at the most convenient spot possible. I did manage to get it out of there, but it was fubared... (bizarre how I remember this)...

 

I was looking to get another one recently and can't believe some of the prices these are going for AND actually selling!

[schuwalker]

While were on the subject of boxes... did you guys know anybody (I'm talking around the 2600 era) that actually did keep the boxes? I know I didn't.

 

Thinking if I was a couple of years older back then that I would've kept the boxes. I wonder if age played a role in this mentality... it did for me in the NES era.

 

If only I had the older *mindset* I kept all of my Star Wars' items in boxes.

[+Random Terrain]

While were on the subject of boxes... did you guys know anybody (I'm talking around the 2600 era) that actually did keep the boxes? I know I didn't.

I kept mine back then. It kind of pained me when I eventually flattened them to save space. I also kept NES boxes, SNES boxes, and random other boxes.

[schuwalker]

I kept mine back then. It kind of pained me when I eventually flattened them to save space. I also kept NES boxes, SNES boxes, and random other boxes.

Not to put you on the spot... but *roughly* how old were you around the 2600 era?

[jhd]

I received a 2600 in Spring 1982, and I sold it about a year later to buy an actual computer. I kept all of my boxes (and manuals); indeed I used them to store the games, so they were in less than pristine condition. Of course I only had about six cartridges: Combat, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Bezerk, and Pitfall.

 

I would have been 11 to 12 years old at the time.

[+Random Terrain]

Not to put you on the spot... but *roughly* how old were you around the 2600 era?

I was 17 in 1982.

[+Ransom]

I kept all my boxes and manuals, too. I was 12 when I my parents bought me the VCS (light sixer). I kept the games and instructions in their boxes, on a shelf in the entertainment unit that held the family TV and the VCS.