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Thats one of mine aswell. I got a PS2 amd Xbox copy at the same movie gallery's going out of business sale... and that was with me walking in as the only reseller in town at the time was walking out with over 100 games. He completely missed them.
Lucky! I had two local game rental places near me called Good Time videos. The further away one promised to call me before the going out of business sale started. But never did and when I heard about it, Futurama had sold. I legit cried 😂. I was a kid at the time. So it hurts me. But I did buy one last year that was case only with multiple scratches for $110 from another reseller. A quick $5 got the disc looking new! A reproduction manual for $30 and I’m happy. Can get a legit manual for under $100 but the reproduction one looks great besides missing the fill out card on the back of the manual.
New/Sealed copy of Atari Karts on Jaguar would be mine. I got it in a "killer deal" lot of 16 CIB Jaguar games (2 sealed, including Atari Carts), a working Jag+controllers, for "only" $600.
Atari Karts sealed now bounces around $500 to $1,000+
EDIT: OH! I forgot about my Fairchild. I managed to get the elusive Fairchild Channel-F "Democart 1" at a goodwill auction. Those are so rare they really don't have a "set price", but I got it for next to nothing.
Best get; A CIB copy of Conker’s Bad Fur Day for N64, from a neighbor who gave it to me for helping them rake leaves.
Best score? Two legitimate copies of Pokémon Emerald, for 2.99 a piece at a flea market/garage sale bazaar. Stuck at the bottom of a bucket of shovelware
Came here to also say CIB CBFD. Sure I did pay way more than what it initially released for, but nowhere near what it costs now. Maybe got everything for slightly less than the cart.
Mine was from Amazon. Supposed to be CIB HeartGold for $120. Came loose! Amazon said not to bother returning it. So after I verified it was legit, I got a full refund no questions asked.
Finding one of my childhood NES controllers that had been sold or given away at some point at a flea market more than a decade later.
I know it was the same one since it had my last name burned into it.
Oh yeah, totally.
I was with a couple friends and we were at a booth with a decent amount of gaming stuff on the ground. Huge rat nests of cables and controllers. Me being me I asked how much for controllers and cable, I responded if I spent the time to untangle untested stuff it should be cheaper. He laughed, and we went to town untangling and chatting with him. We untangled pretty much everything hoes the shit of it.
While untangling I was grabbing things I wanted or needed and you always need more controllers. So I had a little pile of things growing. At first I didn't even notice it, it wasn't until we were done and I was kinda inspecting everything that I noticed it and was like "holy shit!". And one of my friends who was next to me asked me what was going on. And I just showed him. Just shock from both of my friends. I showed the guy who ran the booth and he laughed and was surprised also. not as much as you would expect. He still made me pay the price we discussed which I was fine with.
I still have it. Last time I told this story someone asked me to post a pic because they didn't believe me. But I don't know what that would prove other than I have a controller with my last name on it. And my last name is not a super duper common one like Smith where it doesn't really matter.
Anyways, it was wild finding that. definitely one of my top finds for a different reason than "omg I got $4000 worth of games for $20"
I bought a boxed Steel Battalion controller and game for 20 bucks at Pawn America and Secret of Mana cart far 2 bucks at the same place. The people that worked there at the time didn’t give a damn.
Paid $10 for a Sega Master system and 12 games back in 2001-2002
Got a CIB copy of Packy & Marlon for like $10 around the same time
Dad the hoss bought me Final Fight Guy around that same time for xmas
I few months ago I got culdcept saga for $40. Now because the 360 store is closing it has gone up to $130+. We'll see if it stays there but I got it at the right time regardless.
In 1999/2000, I paid something like $75 at a thrift market for Shining Force 3 along with a Sega Saturn system. At the time I thought it was a brutal overspend because it was a dead system at that point and I was maybe 17/18. To be honest I don't even recall how I had the money for it and I probably had to talk my mom into entertaining me.
On launch day I went to pick up Ocarina of Time with my friend from what at that time I believe was still Electronics Boutique. We both had preorders for the CE, but when we got to the register the employee said "this is the last CE copy we have, but we gave the standard still."
I can't say I'm proud of this, but teen me snatched that game like I was dying in the desert. And technically speaking that selfishness was rewarded.
Knuckles Chaotix, Doom and Flickies Island. At the time 32x games weren't that expensive, but now, especially since the doom game was CIB its probably a lot closer to the value of PDS now.
$50 for a broken Vectrex. The seller picked it up in a trade and just wanted to get rid of it.
I bought it and it sat around for a few years until I got to it and it turned out to just be a dirty power switch. Tedious but easy fix.
It's remarkable how much valuable electronics like that gets sold or given away for next to nothing while having really easy fixes. Not exactly a collectible but I got a very cheap Vive VR headset a year ago, and all I needed to do was replace a single LED for it to work. Got it at 1/10 the retail price
Knuckles Chaotix box. I had the game loose, but really wanted the box. Saw one on eBay listed, sent an offer...
Got lucky because they had not one, but two of them so he was willing to give me the second one for cheap (I offered what it said it was worth on Pricecharting). And it's in great condition.
A lot of my Nintendo stuff, but particularly the CIB copy of Drill Dozer and my boxed copy of Chibi Robo that I nabbed for 5$ each. Would be nice to have Chibi Robots instruction manual but at that price I couldn't complain.
Godzilla PS4. Always been a Godzilla fan so it was day one buy and bought it again when it was dirt cheap.
Also Rhythm Heaven Fever Wii. Got them at Walmart for $0.03
Bought a DS lot off eBay for $75. The seller included 3 CIB Solartorobo’s that weren’t on the listing. I felt bad cause it was from a game store and an employee obviously made a mistake. But they never asked for the back.
Pokemon Box at a Goodwill. I only bought it because it was $0.50. I didn't think it would be useful or anything, but it was cheap.
Pretty grateful to have bought it, in hindsight.
Sealed Halo 1 for $0 because it was marked at $2.99 but I bought 5 other things, so it became $0 with Disc Replay's buy 5 get 1 free constant promo. I knew it was a lucky pickup at the time but looking back on it now makes me realize it was a perfect combo of right time right place because there's no way that copy would have sat on the sales floor.
A close contender would be both Pokémon Sapphire and Emerald CIB in good condition for $106.98 after taxes.
Picked up a complete GameCube kiosk along with multiple boxes club nintendo controllers, regular controllers, 5 GameCubes of various editions, boxed resident evil chainsaw controller for the GC and roughly 60 gamecube games, most decent, for £600.
Tales of destiny 2 (US) with a four player adapter for 50€. The game is now around 260€. Tales of destiny (also US) for 30€, now around 260€. Also Pocky and Rocky 2 for 30€, which is now 180€. Also the DS version of Chrono Trigger for 50€ which is now 370€.
I’ve been lucky to have several.
Back in the Summer of 04 I started getting into retrogaming when GameStop was getting out of it. Still they had a few SNES games left in a cardboard box including Demon’s Crest for $6.
Later that Summer I decided to get Kirby’s Dreamland off eBay. I thought I got a steal at $15 when GameCrazy wanted $30 for it.
The next year I had gotten a Saturn and purchased Christmas NiGHTs into dreams for like $10 from GameDude mail order in CA. I also got Sonic Jam for $8 back when GameCrazy let you order games in their system. It was loose though.
Flash forward to 2007-2008. I share with a high school friend that I’m in to retro games and he’s looking to sell his. I think I bought a bunch of games for $6 a piece including Super Mario RPG and Ninja Gaiden 3. I also got a Top loader sometime in that time frame from eBay for $80 or $90. Back then that included like 3 games including Mega Man 2 and Bionic Commando.
Definitely in 2008 I picked up Soulstar and Metal Storm for $10 each at a game store.
Finally back in the late aughts early new 10s I shopped Gamecube games a ton at GameStop. Picked up Billy Hatcher and Alien Hominid for $5 each if I remember correctly ;)
Somewhere in there I also randomly picked up Skeleton Krew for probably $2 at either a game store or resale store. Don’t remember when and it took a while for that to explode in value.
In 2019 I bought a DS Lite and Pokémon games on Offer Up for $130.
The games included:
Pokémon Black CIB
Pokemon White CIB
Pokémon HeartGold CIB
Pokémon SoulSilver (cart only)
Pokémon Pearl CIB
Pokémon Diamond CIB
Pokémon Conquest CIB
Pokémon Emerald (cart only)
I played through all of them and transferred my Pokémon out.
I haven’t played Conquest yet, but plan to.
I’ve listed or already sold the rest and Emerald alone I profited from the original purchase price. The prices hadn’t quite taken off at the time, but I still knew I was getting a good deal when I bought it and offered over asking price ($100) and made myself available to meet up at the seller’s preference in location and time.
For $130, I was able to play a bunch of amazing games and then sell them individually years later for well over $1,000.
I don’t think I’ll ever come across a deal like that again.
9 year old me keeping the packaging and Pokewalker for Soul Silver, Def an age when all that kind of stuff I usually would throw away or (in terms of the pokewalker) lose. But some how and some way Ive kept it all.
Asia copy of metal gear rising revengeance for the PS3 for 4€ on a random cash converters or maybe dbz tenkaichi tag team for the PSP for 10€
Also i got a GBA and a gameboy color with pokemon yellow and a game and watch cart for some shirts I didn't use anymore
Traded a small selection of magic cards at the time valued around maybe $120 for a guy's Super Nintendo and handful of games
Biggest hitter in the group was Earthbound, but the majority of the main classics were all there. That was maybe 15 years ago and I still play all of those games quite frequently
Yeah, as a Scandinavian I got a pretty rude awakening a few years back when Mr. Gimmick kept popping up on "UBER RARE GAEMS NEVAR RELEASED OUTSIDE TEH NIPPON" listicles. All this time I thought it had a full US/PAL release 🤡
Anyway, as an edgy teen me and some classmates popped into a MediaMarkt after the movies to browse and I walked out with the PS2 version of Barock for what I think was around the equivalent of €20. I still have the trauma and the game has since sixtupled in price. Success?
I remember the early days of that. People were talking about it like it was a Japanese exclusive, but they used the name of the Scandinavian release (in Japan it was called Gimmick!).
I did not realize that what I had was valuable until around 2009 or so when I saw a cart go for about 2500 SEK on Tradera and thought "wow, that's a lot for an old NES game"). That's nothing compared to its current value
I think i got some, like legend of dragoon for 5€, folklore ps3 for 13€, .hack// 1+3+4 (the first games not GU) for 40€ together. And more but these just popped into my head. =)
Here’s a few:
Futurama for ps2, got it brand new sometime in 2007 cause I was obsessed with the show for pretty cheap
Silent Hill 1 before it got super expensive
Lies of P Deluxe Edition this one I just got lucky with a cheap listing.
And Inscryption Special Edition, only got it cause I loved the game and now it’s one of the most expensive PS5 games
I bought a ps2 bundle which came with 6-8 games. This was on Facebook or Craigslist. The games weren’t really easy to read but in there was Xenogears for PS1. I think the price is paid for everything was $60. I sold the ps2 off for $25. I remember thinking at the time Xenogears alone was worth more than the bundle.
Skylanders Imaginators big box for Switch for $3 at GW. I almost left it as I am not a big Switch collector and don't have room for boxes like that. Then it became a very low print run, and it turns out I did have room for it, in my back room closet with my other Wii U toys to life boxes!
Animal Crossing for the Gamecube
got it for €20 in 2017 to complete my collection of mainline Animal Crossing games, though i didn’t play it that much
but when i started using Gameye, i saw that its value skyrocketed to almost €100 at its peak, most definitely because of the success of New Horizons
Scored metalstorm with manual for 20 bucks about 15 years ago...someone had it on hold with the store owner, they never came back to buy it, so he sold it to me instead...dont know if id consider that my best score ever money wise, but it was a good one that stuck with me...also at that time i had never heard of the game but the owner reccomended it to me so i went for it, ended up loving it and beat it through both cycles up until the second time you fight the final boss, just couldnt get that one down pat, lol...
I found a box full of PS1 games over a 100 titles only paid 100$ the box was worth more than 4k its all still in my collection & if you check my profile you can see the find & even a little story to go with it :)
I picked up Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament NIB on Amazon for like 20 bucks in 2014. It was just a game I played as a kid and thought it would be cool to have it new, and then it exploded in value and is now one of the most expensive GBA games
Not sure about “Lucky” completely as I did hunt for it for a while back in the day.
But “lucky” in the sense that I decided to get it when I did but anyway
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance got it back in the day at a used game store when used game prices were actually used game prices
Pretty much everything i bought prior to 2010. I was focusing on getting all the best games for NES, SNES, 64, and Dreamcast. Most of the games i got at the time are easily 5-10x what I paid for them now.
Around 2000, i bought a Saturn lot at a pawn shop, that turned out to be a very good deal. I paid $25, and got the system and around 20 games, with most of them being worth $100+ each in 2024 prices. Sadly they all got stolen when I was in college.
My best recent find was a copy of Metal Warriors for $2 in 2017. I asked at an ebay consignment shop that also sold in store if they had any video games, and the lady brought out a bin of SNES games, and said they were worthless, so she had never put them online. I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw it there. The guy behind me in line must have known what it was worth because he was trying to tell the lady at the counter he would give her more for it, but she just ignored him.
Got tons of stuff, mostly from around 2009/2010 before things became insane. I remember Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn both ran me $20, picked them up at the same time. MGS The Twin Snakes was $15, same for Skies of Arcadia Legends.
Would say the craziest is Shepard's Crossing 2, one of the most expensive DS games, still sealed for $20. Bought it for my girlfriend when it came out as she loved the first one, she already picked up a copy for herself so I just kept it.
Never found anything extremely cheap besides my Wii which was 8 bucks at Goodwill. Aside from that I’ve gotten lots of Pokemon games for cheap at GameStop years ago, definitely pre pandemic.
Conker's Bad Fur Day
I bought a second-hand copy used from a Blockbuster just because I liked the game when I rented it. Paid like $15 for it. Still have it complete in box. Goes for about $250-$300 the way I have it.
In recent years I've stumbled across a couple garage sales that were held by guys that were Sega enthusiasts. Lots of Saturn and Dreamcast games at $5 per. I managed to get Resident Evil, Panzer Dragoon 2, Sonic R and Saturn Bomberman, as well as some rare Dreamcast titles in great shape.
When I was a teenager, around 2000, I went to a garage sale where they had NES games for $2 per. I spent all my money, probably $30, but I got Ducktales 2 and didn't know it was valuable until probably 2015.
Project Justice back in 06. Got it for $30 from a friend who worked at a local store. He was getting rid of his Dreamcast and GameCube stuff (he decided to start collecting retro games) and he knew I liked fighting games. To be honest, I didn't even hear of it until he brought it up. Still have it and some of the other games he sold me.
I guess recently that happened to me with Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for PS2. I picked it up for 25 bucks like 2 months ago knowing almost nothing about it, but 2 weeks later the game spiked to over $100.
Guess the Fallout TV show made people interested in the "black sheep" of the Fallout series. Game isn't the best, but hey, it's still a really lucky find!
the descriptor fits pretty much everything that i bought because most of my collection is from the times before retro game collecting became mainstream and stupidly overpriced (for the most part). i bought everything i own for way cheaper than what it's worth now.
honorable mentions:
-bought day 1 or preordered every DS pokemon back when they were new, starting with diamond. bought some of the gameboy ones back in the 2000s too but not when they were new (except sapphire. i got that one new at a gamestop in 2008 for $40).
-drill dozer for $12 in 2013.
-sealed nes gauntlet for $20 in 2010
Snes jr and nes top loader. Had these for years, while I was selling off everything I just couldn’t come to grips parting with either. Both old Craigslist finds. The snes was maybe $20-$25. The top loader $60.
Mr Mosquito
Though it's dropped in price recently.
Oh and FFIII for the SNES.
And I also guess Kawasaki Superbikes for the Sega Game Gear
I have no idea what happened with that price but yay me lol
...should have just sold it when it spiked to 2 grand from like 50 bucks lol
I got really into Yo-kai Watch around the time the first game was ported to the west. I fell in love with the series, and would get all of the games when they came out in the west.
Yokai Watch 3 came out at the end of the 3DS lifecycle, and when the franchise was already waning in popularity. My local grocery store got 1 copy and I bought it day of release.
It’s jumped in price to about $400 now. It’s a shame that the franchise failed and so few copies were made. Yokai Watch 3 is arguably the best game in the series and is one of the best JRPGs on the 3DS.
Back in 97-98 or so I got a CIB Virtual Boy with every North American released game CIB and about 6 Japanese VB games CIB while on a class trip to the nation's capital for $29.99 at a Cash Convertors. Now hauling back a VB with all those games on a school bus would of been a big problem, so I tossed out the boxes and manuals and just kept the games and system loose and fit it all in my luggage.
In December of 99 I wanted to come up with some cash for something, so I decided to put up my VB collection on eBay for sale. I sold it to a lady with all the games and everything else for $20. She left me negative feedback because during shipping a hairline crack appeared in the stand for the console.
I also sold 3 copies of Little Samson for $80 each back in like 2000 or so.
Remember nobody cared about retro video games then and $80 was a huge amount for an NES game and I was happy. I remember people buying and selling Stadium Events on eBay for $300 back around that time and thinking whoever was buying it was insane to spend that much on a video game.
Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright I got for relatively cheap back when I was trying to get a complete ace attorney set. Looking at it now I’m glad I got it when I did. Thanks high school me
Easy, it’s Chrono Trigger. I found a copy still sealed for like $60. Got it from the guy in the cage at Toys’R’Us back in 95.
But seriously, the two games I picked up used in the late 90s or early 2000s that are worth a ton today are Sword of Hope 2 for Game Boy and Sparkster for Super Nintendo.
Posted this ages ago but picked up a PAL copy of Rule of Rose for 79p out of a secondhand store that was undergoing refurbishment and they had dumped all the PS2 and OG Xbox games into a bin to sell fast.
Either $80 CIB Mario RPG back in the 2000s or like ~2018ish I got really lucky on an eBay lot for all 4 .hack and all 3 .hack gu ps2 titles with dvds and soundtracks for $100
Got fire emblem: path of radiance at a yard sale for a dollar like 10 ten years ago. Didn’t know how valuable it was although it was a lot less back then
Really a lot of the stuff purchased from GameStop and Game Exchange back in the early 2000s before prices jumped.
Panic Restaurant cartridge for $10. I picked it up because the cover looked hilarious.
Pocky and rocky 1 and 2 cartridges for $10 each. Disc only Samurai Western for ps2 for a quarter when GameStop was clearancing out their ps2 games.
I found twisted metal 2 at a thrift store a few years ago, one of those "wow a game I actually regonize" kind of fines, usually you find some stuff you've never heard of a day in your life or a sports title
Game went up in value after the twisted metal show released
Rule of Rose for $20
Haunting Ground for $15 (both from Kmart)
Blood Will Tell for $10
Resident Evil Gaiden CIB for $12
2x Samurai Westerns for $7 each
Marvel vs Capcom ps2 for $3
Wind Waker GameCube for $3
Majoras Mask 3Ds xl new for free
Silent Hill 1 CIB $2.50
Silent Hill 2 cib ps2 $10
SH2 loose ps2 $3
Lots of others… lol
Super Bowling 64 at a pawn shop for $35 Canadian. Expensive at the time, but the shop owner told me it was rare.
Conker's Bad Fur Day loose cart at a garage sale for $1.
For some reason, my family owned 2 copies of Mario Kart: Double Dash when I was growing up. One of these has the Zelda Windwaker demo bonus disk included.
So I own a CiB limited edition copy of Mario Kart: Double Dash, and I couldn’t say how. It‘a not the most valuable thing I own, but it’s probably the coolest and definitely the luckiest.
Not really a pickup but I think it’s cool.
I once traded a shitty Pentium III laptop I salvaged from an ewaste bin for a breadbin C64, with a 1541, a C2N and all the cables. Twas a great trade as the laptop was pretty much useless as the Core2 series was hot, P4s were trailing edge, and the P3s were considered trash utter trash at the time.
Hello /u/A_Fnord! This is an automatic message that gets posted on every post to remind you of a few of our rules: • Is the title of this post asking about the authenticity, identification or value of an item? If so, please delete it, and ask in the megathread. • Are you trying to sell or trade something? Did you post it to a 'for sale/trade' (r/gamesale or similar) type subreddit first and crossposted it here? If you did not, delete it and read our rules please. • Is this just a screenshot of a CL/FB/etc ad that is overpriced or obvious troll, or for some other notable reason? These would all be considered low effort and should be removed. • Memes cannot be posted unless if it's on Meme Monday, which is the first Monday of the month. • No self-promotion/video submission of any kind, unless if already approved by mods prior to submitting. **Failure of deleting your post that violates these rules may result in a temporary or permanent ban.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gamecollecting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Futurama for Xbox. I got it for like 5 bucks ten years ago and according to gameye it’s my most valuable game I own
Thats one of mine aswell. I got a PS2 amd Xbox copy at the same movie gallery's going out of business sale... and that was with me walking in as the only reseller in town at the time was walking out with over 100 games. He completely missed them.
Lucky! I had two local game rental places near me called Good Time videos. The further away one promised to call me before the going out of business sale started. But never did and when I heard about it, Futurama had sold. I legit cried 😂. I was a kid at the time. So it hurts me. But I did buy one last year that was case only with multiple scratches for $110 from another reseller. A quick $5 got the disc looking new! A reproduction manual for $30 and I’m happy. Can get a legit manual for under $100 but the reproduction one looks great besides missing the fill out card on the back of the manual.
New/Sealed copy of Atari Karts on Jaguar would be mine. I got it in a "killer deal" lot of 16 CIB Jaguar games (2 sealed, including Atari Carts), a working Jag+controllers, for "only" $600. Atari Karts sealed now bounces around $500 to $1,000+ EDIT: OH! I forgot about my Fairchild. I managed to get the elusive Fairchild Channel-F "Democart 1" at a goodwill auction. Those are so rare they really don't have a "set price", but I got it for next to nothing.
I found 2 copies of Chrono Trigger in a baseball card shop's used game bin. They cost me $2.50 a piece, this was back in like maybe 1997-1998.
That’s crazy. It was never a cheap game
yeah best I could tell they didn't realize what they had, it was legit just a big ole box full of random NES, Genesis, and SNES games lol
Best get; A CIB copy of Conker’s Bad Fur Day for N64, from a neighbor who gave it to me for helping them rake leaves. Best score? Two legitimate copies of Pokémon Emerald, for 2.99 a piece at a flea market/garage sale bazaar. Stuck at the bottom of a bucket of shovelware
Came here to also say CIB CBFD. Sure I did pay way more than what it initially released for, but nowhere near what it costs now. Maybe got everything for slightly less than the cart.
Mine was from Amazon. Supposed to be CIB HeartGold for $120. Came loose! Amazon said not to bother returning it. So after I verified it was legit, I got a full refund no questions asked.
Finding one of my childhood NES controllers that had been sold or given away at some point at a flea market more than a decade later. I know it was the same one since it had my last name burned into it.
Sick
That must have felt really weird stumbling upon your old controller like that!
Oh yeah, totally. I was with a couple friends and we were at a booth with a decent amount of gaming stuff on the ground. Huge rat nests of cables and controllers. Me being me I asked how much for controllers and cable, I responded if I spent the time to untangle untested stuff it should be cheaper. He laughed, and we went to town untangling and chatting with him. We untangled pretty much everything hoes the shit of it. While untangling I was grabbing things I wanted or needed and you always need more controllers. So I had a little pile of things growing. At first I didn't even notice it, it wasn't until we were done and I was kinda inspecting everything that I noticed it and was like "holy shit!". And one of my friends who was next to me asked me what was going on. And I just showed him. Just shock from both of my friends. I showed the guy who ran the booth and he laughed and was surprised also. not as much as you would expect. He still made me pay the price we discussed which I was fine with. I still have it. Last time I told this story someone asked me to post a pic because they didn't believe me. But I don't know what that would prove other than I have a controller with my last name on it. And my last name is not a super duper common one like Smith where it doesn't really matter. Anyways, it was wild finding that. definitely one of my top finds for a different reason than "omg I got $4000 worth of games for $20"
In 1999, one of my friends offered me his NES complete in box for $20. So I bought that and promptly threw away the packaging and manuals. Uggh
Both Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for 50 cents each is the first one I think of
Duck Tales 2 CIB 50 dollars about 10 years ago. Really mint as well.
Chrono Trigger for DS back when DS games were still being sold.
I bought a boxed Steel Battalion controller and game for 20 bucks at Pawn America and Secret of Mana cart far 2 bucks at the same place. The people that worked there at the time didn’t give a damn.
Paid $10 for a Sega Master system and 12 games back in 2001-2002 Got a CIB copy of Packy & Marlon for like $10 around the same time Dad the hoss bought me Final Fight Guy around that same time for xmas
I few months ago I got culdcept saga for $40. Now because the 360 store is closing it has gone up to $130+. We'll see if it stays there but I got it at the right time regardless.
In 1999/2000, I paid something like $75 at a thrift market for Shining Force 3 along with a Sega Saturn system. At the time I thought it was a brutal overspend because it was a dead system at that point and I was maybe 17/18. To be honest I don't even recall how I had the money for it and I probably had to talk my mom into entertaining me. On launch day I went to pick up Ocarina of Time with my friend from what at that time I believe was still Electronics Boutique. We both had preorders for the CE, but when we got to the register the employee said "this is the last CE copy we have, but we gave the standard still." I can't say I'm proud of this, but teen me snatched that game like I was dying in the desert. And technically speaking that selfishness was rewarded.
I got Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness for $35 a piece in 2020, both CIB
panzer dragoon saga for $75
Trade a 32X and 3 games for mine!
which games?
Knuckles Chaotix, Doom and Flickies Island. At the time 32x games weren't that expensive, but now, especially since the doom game was CIB its probably a lot closer to the value of PDS now.
meh, still worth
$50 for a broken Vectrex. The seller picked it up in a trade and just wanted to get rid of it. I bought it and it sat around for a few years until I got to it and it turned out to just be a dirty power switch. Tedious but easy fix.
It's remarkable how much valuable electronics like that gets sold or given away for next to nothing while having really easy fixes. Not exactly a collectible but I got a very cheap Vive VR headset a year ago, and all I needed to do was replace a single LED for it to work. Got it at 1/10 the retail price
Electronics can be daunting for people who don't have any experience!
Knuckles Chaotix box. I had the game loose, but really wanted the box. Saw one on eBay listed, sent an offer... Got lucky because they had not one, but two of them so he was willing to give me the second one for cheap (I offered what it said it was worth on Pricecharting). And it's in great condition.
A lot of my Nintendo stuff, but particularly the CIB copy of Drill Dozer and my boxed copy of Chibi Robo that I nabbed for 5$ each. Would be nice to have Chibi Robots instruction manual but at that price I couldn't complain.
Godzilla PS4. Always been a Godzilla fan so it was day one buy and bought it again when it was dirt cheap. Also Rhythm Heaven Fever Wii. Got them at Walmart for $0.03
Bought a DS lot off eBay for $75. The seller included 3 CIB Solartorobo’s that weren’t on the listing. I felt bad cause it was from a game store and an employee obviously made a mistake. But they never asked for the back.
Pokemon Box at a Goodwill. I only bought it because it was $0.50. I didn't think it would be useful or anything, but it was cheap. Pretty grateful to have bought it, in hindsight.
I got Zelda 2 classics series (grey cart variant) CIB for $4.99 in 2002 ot 2003. I still have it and it still has the price tag sticker.
Sealed Halo 1 for $0 because it was marked at $2.99 but I bought 5 other things, so it became $0 with Disc Replay's buy 5 get 1 free constant promo. I knew it was a lucky pickup at the time but looking back on it now makes me realize it was a perfect combo of right time right place because there's no way that copy would have sat on the sales floor. A close contender would be both Pokémon Sapphire and Emerald CIB in good condition for $106.98 after taxes.
Which disc replay?
Picked up a complete GameCube kiosk along with multiple boxes club nintendo controllers, regular controllers, 5 GameCubes of various editions, boxed resident evil chainsaw controller for the GC and roughly 60 gamecube games, most decent, for £600.
Tales of destiny 2 (US) with a four player adapter for 50€. The game is now around 260€. Tales of destiny (also US) for 30€, now around 260€. Also Pocky and Rocky 2 for 30€, which is now 180€. Also the DS version of Chrono Trigger for 50€ which is now 370€.
I found a disc only copy of Chibi-robo for $3 at a flea market. Took it home and it worked perfectly!
I’ve been lucky to have several. Back in the Summer of 04 I started getting into retrogaming when GameStop was getting out of it. Still they had a few SNES games left in a cardboard box including Demon’s Crest for $6. Later that Summer I decided to get Kirby’s Dreamland off eBay. I thought I got a steal at $15 when GameCrazy wanted $30 for it. The next year I had gotten a Saturn and purchased Christmas NiGHTs into dreams for like $10 from GameDude mail order in CA. I also got Sonic Jam for $8 back when GameCrazy let you order games in their system. It was loose though. Flash forward to 2007-2008. I share with a high school friend that I’m in to retro games and he’s looking to sell his. I think I bought a bunch of games for $6 a piece including Super Mario RPG and Ninja Gaiden 3. I also got a Top loader sometime in that time frame from eBay for $80 or $90. Back then that included like 3 games including Mega Man 2 and Bionic Commando. Definitely in 2008 I picked up Soulstar and Metal Storm for $10 each at a game store. Finally back in the late aughts early new 10s I shopped Gamecube games a ton at GameStop. Picked up Billy Hatcher and Alien Hominid for $5 each if I remember correctly ;) Somewhere in there I also randomly picked up Skeleton Krew for probably $2 at either a game store or resale store. Don’t remember when and it took a while for that to explode in value.
In 2019 I bought a DS Lite and Pokémon games on Offer Up for $130. The games included: Pokémon Black CIB Pokemon White CIB Pokémon HeartGold CIB Pokémon SoulSilver (cart only) Pokémon Pearl CIB Pokémon Diamond CIB Pokémon Conquest CIB Pokémon Emerald (cart only) I played through all of them and transferred my Pokémon out. I haven’t played Conquest yet, but plan to. I’ve listed or already sold the rest and Emerald alone I profited from the original purchase price. The prices hadn’t quite taken off at the time, but I still knew I was getting a good deal when I bought it and offered over asking price ($100) and made myself available to meet up at the seller’s preference in location and time. For $130, I was able to play a bunch of amazing games and then sell them individually years later for well over $1,000. I don’t think I’ll ever come across a deal like that again.
9 year old me keeping the packaging and Pokewalker for Soul Silver, Def an age when all that kind of stuff I usually would throw away or (in terms of the pokewalker) lose. But some how and some way Ive kept it all.
Asia copy of metal gear rising revengeance for the PS3 for 4€ on a random cash converters or maybe dbz tenkaichi tag team for the PSP for 10€ Also i got a GBA and a gameboy color with pokemon yellow and a game and watch cart for some shirts I didn't use anymore
Traded a small selection of magic cards at the time valued around maybe $120 for a guy's Super Nintendo and handful of games Biggest hitter in the group was Earthbound, but the majority of the main classics were all there. That was maybe 15 years ago and I still play all of those games quite frequently
Yeah, as a Scandinavian I got a pretty rude awakening a few years back when Mr. Gimmick kept popping up on "UBER RARE GAEMS NEVAR RELEASED OUTSIDE TEH NIPPON" listicles. All this time I thought it had a full US/PAL release 🤡 Anyway, as an edgy teen me and some classmates popped into a MediaMarkt after the movies to browse and I walked out with the PS2 version of Barock for what I think was around the equivalent of €20. I still have the trauma and the game has since sixtupled in price. Success?
I remember the early days of that. People were talking about it like it was a Japanese exclusive, but they used the name of the Scandinavian release (in Japan it was called Gimmick!). I did not realize that what I had was valuable until around 2009 or so when I saw a cart go for about 2500 SEK on Tradera and thought "wow, that's a lot for an old NES game"). That's nothing compared to its current value
Maybe a pikachu n64 with controller? If you go back further my copy of lain fit psx, was a hundred then and now it’s $500-600?
Silent Hill 2 [greatest hits] for 7.99 at a game store before covid prices hit.
I think i got some, like legend of dragoon for 5€, folklore ps3 for 13€, .hack// 1+3+4 (the first games not GU) for 40€ together. And more but these just popped into my head. =)
Here’s a few: Futurama for ps2, got it brand new sometime in 2007 cause I was obsessed with the show for pretty cheap Silent Hill 1 before it got super expensive Lies of P Deluxe Edition this one I just got lucky with a cheap listing. And Inscryption Special Edition, only got it cause I loved the game and now it’s one of the most expensive PS5 games
Got Pokemon HeartGold CIB and SoulSilver loose for $10 at a garage sale 💪
I bought a ps2 bundle which came with 6-8 games. This was on Facebook or Craigslist. The games weren’t really easy to read but in there was Xenogears for PS1. I think the price is paid for everything was $60. I sold the ps2 off for $25. I remember thinking at the time Xenogears alone was worth more than the bundle.
I picked up a new copy of "Blue Reflection" on a whim for $30 at GameStop. It has increased in value greatly.
Skylanders Imaginators big box for Switch for $3 at GW. I almost left it as I am not a big Switch collector and don't have room for boxes like that. Then it became a very low print run, and it turns out I did have room for it, in my back room closet with my other Wii U toys to life boxes!
Sealed copy of contra legacy of war for sega saturn. Got it for 15 bucks around 2011/12
Animal Crossing for the Gamecube got it for €20 in 2017 to complete my collection of mainline Animal Crossing games, though i didn’t play it that much but when i started using Gameye, i saw that its value skyrocketed to almost €100 at its peak, most definitely because of the success of New Horizons
I think I would have to say I'm sure glad I didn't throw out the game boxes and manuals of games when I was younger.
Monster Rancher 4 complete for 12 bucks probably
Scored metalstorm with manual for 20 bucks about 15 years ago...someone had it on hold with the store owner, they never came back to buy it, so he sold it to me instead...dont know if id consider that my best score ever money wise, but it was a good one that stuck with me...also at that time i had never heard of the game but the owner reccomended it to me so i went for it, ended up loving it and beat it through both cycles up until the second time you fight the final boss, just couldnt get that one down pat, lol...
I found a box full of PS1 games over a 100 titles only paid 100$ the box was worth more than 4k its all still in my collection & if you check my profile you can see the find & even a little story to go with it :)
I’d probably say Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service for Dreamcast for only $30 was a steal considering only about 5000 copies exist.
Cart and box copy of Stadium Events NES for $5 at a Salvation Army in Las Vegas back in 2004.
Either a copy of Crono Trigger for replacing a friends brakes or Conkers Bad Fur Day from Blockbuster for $10
I picked up Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament NIB on Amazon for like 20 bucks in 2014. It was just a game I played as a kid and thought it would be cool to have it new, and then it exploded in value and is now one of the most expensive GBA games
Blitz the league 2 $70 bucks now I just love football and got it for $10 a few years back Amazing game too
Complete copy of The Adventures of Tron Bonne with the demo disc nearly unused. For $10 Held onto it until about 5 years ago and made over 10x that.
Not sure about “Lucky” completely as I did hunt for it for a while back in the day. But “lucky” in the sense that I decided to get it when I did but anyway Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance got it back in the day at a used game store when used game prices were actually used game prices
I had Bonks Adventure on NES and have no idea who gave it to me. I didn't have it growing up.
Bought Rhythm Heaven Fever and DS for $10 each back in 2016
Pretty much everything i bought prior to 2010. I was focusing on getting all the best games for NES, SNES, 64, and Dreamcast. Most of the games i got at the time are easily 5-10x what I paid for them now. Around 2000, i bought a Saturn lot at a pawn shop, that turned out to be a very good deal. I paid $25, and got the system and around 20 games, with most of them being worth $100+ each in 2024 prices. Sadly they all got stolen when I was in college. My best recent find was a copy of Metal Warriors for $2 in 2017. I asked at an ebay consignment shop that also sold in store if they had any video games, and the lady brought out a bin of SNES games, and said they were worthless, so she had never put them online. I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw it there. The guy behind me in line must have known what it was worth because he was trying to tell the lady at the counter he would give her more for it, but she just ignored him.
NES with several popular games and weird accessories all for free, it’s a long story but I was one happy camper
In 2014 a got a loose game boy micro with charger, super mario advance 4 (mario 3) and a bunch of other random games for 15€
Got tons of stuff, mostly from around 2009/2010 before things became insane. I remember Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn both ran me $20, picked them up at the same time. MGS The Twin Snakes was $15, same for Skies of Arcadia Legends. Would say the craziest is Shepard's Crossing 2, one of the most expensive DS games, still sealed for $20. Bought it for my girlfriend when it came out as she loved the first one, she already picked up a copy for herself so I just kept it.
Never found anything extremely cheap besides my Wii which was 8 bucks at Goodwill. Aside from that I’ve gotten lots of Pokemon games for cheap at GameStop years ago, definitely pre pandemic.
Conker's Bad Fur Day I bought a second-hand copy used from a Blockbuster just because I liked the game when I rented it. Paid like $15 for it. Still have it complete in box. Goes for about $250-$300 the way I have it.
In recent years I've stumbled across a couple garage sales that were held by guys that were Sega enthusiasts. Lots of Saturn and Dreamcast games at $5 per. I managed to get Resident Evil, Panzer Dragoon 2, Sonic R and Saturn Bomberman, as well as some rare Dreamcast titles in great shape. When I was a teenager, around 2000, I went to a garage sale where they had NES games for $2 per. I spent all my money, probably $30, but I got Ducktales 2 and didn't know it was valuable until probably 2015.
Ninja five 0 for 20 bucks off Amazon before GBA collecting went nuts
An empty silent hill case for free
I mean, I bought Yokai Watch 3 when it came out (actually I preordered it) and now its worth nearly 10x retail price
Bought a copy of Dragon Quest V for DS years ago for like $25. Never opened it because I never finished DQ4 until recently.
Project Justice back in 06. Got it for $30 from a friend who worked at a local store. He was getting rid of his Dreamcast and GameCube stuff (he decided to start collecting retro games) and he knew I liked fighting games. To be honest, I didn't even hear of it until he brought it up. Still have it and some of the other games he sold me.
I guess recently that happened to me with Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for PS2. I picked it up for 25 bucks like 2 months ago knowing almost nothing about it, but 2 weeks later the game spiked to over $100.
Guess the Fallout TV show made people interested in the "black sheep" of the Fallout series. Game isn't the best, but hey, it's still a really lucky find!
CIB R-type 3 for like 15 bucks
Probably Pokemon Emerald and Crystal for 35 bucks each 5 years ago. Wasn’t a good deal at the time but I’m glad I bought them when I did
About nine years ago I got weird and tried for a complete n-gage library. Bought a sealed civilization for $100 and it's worth about $1,300 now.
Saturn Powerslave for $15. Could have sold it to buy the Collectors edition from Night Dive.
the descriptor fits pretty much everything that i bought because most of my collection is from the times before retro game collecting became mainstream and stupidly overpriced (for the most part). i bought everything i own for way cheaper than what it's worth now. honorable mentions: -bought day 1 or preordered every DS pokemon back when they were new, starting with diamond. bought some of the gameboy ones back in the 2000s too but not when they were new (except sapphire. i got that one new at a gamestop in 2008 for $40). -drill dozer for $12 in 2013. -sealed nes gauntlet for $20 in 2010
chrono trigger DS. It was readily available on Amazon for $20 new after the 3DS was out. I wish I bought a truck load, but I at least got one.
Snes jr and nes top loader. Had these for years, while I was selling off everything I just couldn’t come to grips parting with either. Both old Craigslist finds. The snes was maybe $20-$25. The top loader $60.
Teen Titans for the Xbox, bought for like $80. The clerk told me it was rare but gave me that low price because I was a regular at that store.
Mr Mosquito Though it's dropped in price recently. Oh and FFIII for the SNES. And I also guess Kawasaki Superbikes for the Sega Game Gear I have no idea what happened with that price but yay me lol ...should have just sold it when it spiked to 2 grand from like 50 bucks lol
I got really into Yo-kai Watch around the time the first game was ported to the west. I fell in love with the series, and would get all of the games when they came out in the west. Yokai Watch 3 came out at the end of the 3DS lifecycle, and when the franchise was already waning in popularity. My local grocery store got 1 copy and I bought it day of release. It’s jumped in price to about $400 now. It’s a shame that the franchise failed and so few copies were made. Yokai Watch 3 is arguably the best game in the series and is one of the best JRPGs on the 3DS.
Back in 97-98 or so I got a CIB Virtual Boy with every North American released game CIB and about 6 Japanese VB games CIB while on a class trip to the nation's capital for $29.99 at a Cash Convertors. Now hauling back a VB with all those games on a school bus would of been a big problem, so I tossed out the boxes and manuals and just kept the games and system loose and fit it all in my luggage. In December of 99 I wanted to come up with some cash for something, so I decided to put up my VB collection on eBay for sale. I sold it to a lady with all the games and everything else for $20. She left me negative feedback because during shipping a hairline crack appeared in the stand for the console. I also sold 3 copies of Little Samson for $80 each back in like 2000 or so. Remember nobody cared about retro video games then and $80 was a huge amount for an NES game and I was happy. I remember people buying and selling Stadium Events on eBay for $300 back around that time and thinking whoever was buying it was insane to spend that much on a video game.
Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright I got for relatively cheap back when I was trying to get a complete ace attorney set. Looking at it now I’m glad I got it when I did. Thanks high school me
Easy, it’s Chrono Trigger. I found a copy still sealed for like $60. Got it from the guy in the cage at Toys’R’Us back in 95. But seriously, the two games I picked up used in the late 90s or early 2000s that are worth a ton today are Sword of Hope 2 for Game Boy and Sparkster for Super Nintendo.
Super Mario RPG in the clearance bin at Toys R Us for $10 in the late 90s. I had already played it, so I’ve kept it sealed to this day.
Probably Mega Man X4 on Saturn. I paid like $35 for it some years ago
Posted this ages ago but picked up a PAL copy of Rule of Rose for 79p out of a secondhand store that was undergoing refurbishment and they had dumped all the PS2 and OG Xbox games into a bin to sell fast.
Silent hill 2 for free from someone giving away a not working PS2 slim 🫡 I had no idea that that game was valuable like 5 years ago.
Either $80 CIB Mario RPG back in the 2000s or like ~2018ish I got really lucky on an eBay lot for all 4 .hack and all 3 .hack gu ps2 titles with dvds and soundtracks for $100
Got fire emblem: path of radiance at a yard sale for a dollar like 10 ten years ago. Didn’t know how valuable it was although it was a lot less back then
Yeah, only $130 back then. Now it's around $200. \*shrug\* At least, that's what I sold mine for back then.
Really a lot of the stuff purchased from GameStop and Game Exchange back in the early 2000s before prices jumped. Panic Restaurant cartridge for $10. I picked it up because the cover looked hilarious. Pocky and rocky 1 and 2 cartridges for $10 each. Disc only Samurai Western for ps2 for a quarter when GameStop was clearancing out their ps2 games.
I found twisted metal 2 at a thrift store a few years ago, one of those "wow a game I actually regonize" kind of fines, usually you find some stuff you've never heard of a day in your life or a sports title Game went up in value after the twisted metal show released
Rule of Rose for $20 Haunting Ground for $15 (both from Kmart) Blood Will Tell for $10 Resident Evil Gaiden CIB for $12 2x Samurai Westerns for $7 each Marvel vs Capcom ps2 for $3 Wind Waker GameCube for $3 Majoras Mask 3Ds xl new for free Silent Hill 1 CIB $2.50 Silent Hill 2 cib ps2 $10 SH2 loose ps2 $3 Lots of others… lol
Similar price for Rule of Rose $15 off Craigslist. Met at a Subway across from a trailer park. Totally worth it.
Bought FF7 Remake for PS5 a couple years ago for $50 or $60 at a local game shop, it’s still sealed.
Pretty much all my DS Pokemon games, got them in stores new
Super Bowling 64 at a pawn shop for $35 Canadian. Expensive at the time, but the shop owner told me it was rare. Conker's Bad Fur Day loose cart at a garage sale for $1.
Pokémon Crystal and Emerald. eBay is now full of fakes or high priced listings.
For some reason, my family owned 2 copies of Mario Kart: Double Dash when I was growing up. One of these has the Zelda Windwaker demo bonus disk included. So I own a CiB limited edition copy of Mario Kart: Double Dash, and I couldn’t say how. It‘a not the most valuable thing I own, but it’s probably the coolest and definitely the luckiest. Not really a pickup but I think it’s cool.
I once traded a shitty Pentium III laptop I salvaged from an ewaste bin for a breadbin C64, with a 1541, a C2N and all the cables. Twas a great trade as the laptop was pretty much useless as the Core2 series was hot, P4s were trailing edge, and the P3s were considered trash utter trash at the time.