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Why I decided to auction off my outsized, decades-built collection


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Software IMHO is what creates the memories, the nostalgia. It gives personality to the console. And collectors will spend more time chasing after carts/tapes/disks than they do consoles simply because there is more.

 

It even works that way for emulation too!

 

Hardware went for less, because once you own a Commodore 64, Atari 2600, NES, etc. you don't need to buy another one. However, when you have one game or one piece of software, you want another game, and another one, and you want to complete your collection in whatever way you define a complete collection.

 

There are more units of hardware made, then units of software produced, for obvious reasons, making the hardware more common and less expensive, and the software less common, and more valuable. The Exception to this being that Atari produced more Pac Man games than Atari console that existed at the time, assuming people would buy the Atari 2600 just to play Pac Man.

Edited by Hannacek
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Some of the resellers went home around 11 or 12 pm. They either filled their car/truck, spent their budget, or got tired and went home.

 

There was a list of stuff that was not working. Not everyone knew the list existed, and people didn't often know which one was which when there was multiple of the same thing. I don't remember what it said about the PC jrs, but all the IBM PCs were listed "Don't Work?" so even at $10 to $20 I didn't feel like buying one to collect dust.

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Some of the resellers went home around 11 or 12 pm. They either filled their car/truck, spent their budget, or got tired and went home.

 

There was a list of stuff that was not working. Not everyone knew the list existed, and people didn't often know which one was which when there was multiple of the same thing. I don't remember what it said about the PC jrs, but all the IBM PCs were listed "Don't Work?" so even at $10 to $20 I didn't feel like buying one to collect dust.

 

The 3 main resellers did not, unfortunately. ;)

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The 3 main resellers did not, unfortunately. ;)

You mean the big guy in the orange shirt who bought every box of random junk, and the bald guy in the black shirt, I think his number was either 521 or 527. Who was the third one?

 

 

Nothing ColecoVision or Adam computer got over $100, when almost all the lots had a modded system or at least one homebrew game worth well over $100. There were plenty of deals to be found.

Edited by Hannacek
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You mean the big guy in the orange shirt who bought every box of random junk, and the bald guy in the black shirt, I think his number was either 521 or 527. Who was the third one?

 

 

Nothing ColecoVision or Adam computer got over $100, when almost all the lots had a modded system or at least one homebrew game worth well over $100. There were plenty of deals to be found.

 

Right, those 2 guys. The third guy was wearing a Johnny Castaway blue shirt. ;)

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Anyways, I got insane deals on everything despite the resellers. The worst deal was $10 for an Xbox one controller, and I paid a guy $20 for 5 VIC-20 game cartridges. The best deal I got was $20 for a working Coleco Adam Computer (console only) with boxed Super Game Module.

The real best deal I got was an Apple IIC monitor the winning bidder gave away for free I sold on ebay for $100, and I also got an Interact Home Computer for free, and sold it for $100 on ebay.

Edited by Hannacek
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  • 1 month later...

@Bill

So are you satisfied with the result of the auction?

What were the top 10 disappointments and what were the top 10 surprises?

In the end did you get close to what you expected as a total or did it fell way shorter than expectations?

 

Aside from the fact that you got back your basement and more with the sale of "der clutterfux" (aka the biggest collection I have ever seen crammed into too little space sorta like a "Cadillac in a doghouse" [Jeff Foxworthy]) in hindsight do you think that the method you choose to sell was worthy?

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@Bill

So are you satisfied with the result of the auction?

What were the top 10 disappointments and what were the top 10 surprises?

In the end did you get close to what you expected as a total or did it fell way shorter than expectations?

 

Aside from the fact that you got back your basement and more with the sale of "der clutterfux" (aka the biggest collection I have ever seen crammed into too little space sorta like a "Cadillac in a doghouse" [Jeff Foxworthy]) in hindsight do you think that the method you choose to sell was worthy?

 

I got less than half of what it really should have been even accounting for modest interest, so that part was definitely disappointing. The auction house clearly lacked the expertise necessary to handle that volume of stuff in this particular category. They only put 64 items online, when they promised 100. That alone would have made a bigger impact. They also had different people load and unload the stuff, so lots of items got misplaced, so many things that had all the cables, etc., were suddenly missing all of the cables or matching items.

 

So in short, it was something of a disaster, but it still was something that needed to be done. My life has changed dramatically in the past year (heck, just the past month or so), so this was still a good thing that really had to happen one way or the other.

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Wow, I'm sorry to hear of the mishandling.

 

I know you had to go through with it, probably you were becoming slave to it and it was the right thing to do, still it sucks that "professionals" can't really be relied upon to get a fair deal out of such a bounty. I understand selling it piecemeal on eBay was a non starter, these kind of things have to be done "cold turkey" so to speak.

 

In retrospect, if your present self could talk to your former self, would you try to stop him from amassing such a big collection knowing what you know now, feeling the way you do now after the sale?

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Most "professionals" just show up for work. It's still somewhat rare to find someone genuinely into their work - not until you get into the higher and more complex professions. Pushing auction material around, same as fast food workers punching the clock. To them it's just material to be processed through whatever procedures they have in place.

 

As the owner of an extensive Apple II collection; I couldn't imagine anyone but myself taking the time and care to present it at its best.

Edited by Keatah
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Wow, I'm sorry to hear of the mishandling.

 

I know you had to go through with it, probably you were becoming slave to it and it was the right thing to do, still it sucks that "professionals" can't really be relied upon to get a fair deal out of such a bounty. I understand selling it piecemeal on eBay was a non starter, these kind of things have to be done "cold turkey" so to speak.

 

In retrospect, if your present self could talk to your former self, would you try to stop him from amassing such a big collection knowing what you know now, feeling the way you do now after the sale?

 

I didn't do this under duress, I did this because I wanted to do it. So no, I wouldn't change anything. It accomplished a goal, even if it was done poorly. It's just unfortunate that with a few simple tweaks it could have both been more profitable for me and more beneficial for those who wanted the stuff/got the stuff.

 

And I don't think I was ever a slave to my collection. The only burden was having too much stuff. I got considerable personal pleasure out of it and a nice amount of professional benefit that I'm still reaping today.

 

It was also not a cold turkey thing, really. It was more about not wanting to spend the next decade or so selling stuff. And frankly I hate packing and shipping things. I would have been sick of that after the first week.

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