What to do with old games?

[z22]

Any suggestions on what to do with a collection of about 50 PC games collected over the past 10-15 years? I no longer have that deep attachment to them, proudly displaying them on my bookshelf.

I figured I have the following options:

1. Throw them out, not worrying about the small amount of $ I can sell them for
2. Sell them individually on ebay?
3. Sell them as one collection on ebay?
4. Sell/give them to someone here who wants/digs old games?
5. Have a local company sell them on ebay for me
6. Give them to charity?

They have to be worth something to someone, and I'd hate to just throw them away, but is it worth my time and effort to sell and ship one game to someone for $5?

I still need to go through the collection, but I know I have most, if not all, the boxes, CDs (floppies!), and manuals. The set includes games such as Thief 1&2, Apache Longbow, Unreal Tournaments, Battlefield 2, Battle for Middle Earth, Gunship 2000, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Baldur's Gate 2(?), and many more!!

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

[Slainte Mhath]

You could list them here and let people buy them off you individually or in groups.

With that many games, you likely have enough of each genre that you could split them that way and sell them in lots on Ebay. As long as the price "per game" was low enough, the lot would sell even if someone only wanted one or two of the games in it. I've been on both ends (buying and selling) of games that way and it usually works well.

[Zylon]

...Thief 1&2...

Good lord man. Don't throw those out. Reinstall them and replay them!

[z22]

Good lord man. Don't throw those out. Reinstall them and replay them!

I've replayed Thief 1 and 2 multiple times! Sadly, I haven't even installed Thief 3, which I also own and plan on playing some day (this will be one I keep for now).

[Lantz]

I ran into the same basic problem and signed up for goozex (there's other options out there). It's worked out pretty well as a lot of my older games netted a lot of "points" I used to get some new games I would have otherwise spent money on. The downside is it's a little time intensive since you need to mail things out. Still, turning games I didn't want anymore into games I wanted with a minimal in service fees sure beats the hell out of selling them off for change.

[Boss]

eBay, or use the Buy/Sell/Trade thread at GAF or a place like Cheap Ass Gamer.

[RickH]

50 games x $5 each = $250.

That's probably the absolute best case scenario for eBay, unless you have some true collectors' items like Freespace 2 or the Elite Force expansion pack. In all likelihood, you'll list 50 and sell 30-40.

Also: If you don't already have a seller's account, it can be a pain to get one. If you do list, remember to account for all of your costs in the S&H (ebay fees, paypal fees, shipping costs, envelope costs), otherwise you're taking a loss for no good reason. Some people will like the idea of the boxes, some might have you toss it for a break on shipping.

If you don't want to bother with eBay, consider Amazon sales, which are not time-limited, at least compared to eBay, and have no placement fees. If you don't want to bother with pissy customers, e-payments, and/or site fees, trade 'em with the philospohy that if someone rips you off, you were getting rid of that stuff anyway.

[Shieldwolf]

I started using game trade sites. I have a ton of ds,ps2, xbox 360 and xbox games I'm always looking to get trade for. I wish we had a trade section on this forum (wink, wink) for Boardgames and Videogames.

[Andrew Mayer]

I started using game trade sites. I have a ton of ds,ps2, xbox 360 and xbox games I'm always looking to get trade for. I wish we had a trade section on this forum (wink, wink) for Boardgames and Videogames.

I got Tom to try that once. I think it lasted two weeks.

[Raife]

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

Make them into hats. Alternatively, a boat.

[scharmers]

Put them in one of those study rubbermaid plastic containers with a lid. Sharpie the containers with "retired games". Put them away in storage. Five years later, when you're simply fucking tired of Halo XXVII, Doom Quake 9000, et. al. pull out the storage containers, open them up, fire up WinBox (available at Sourceforge) 3.8 on your Intel Core 6 8-Ball, and have a blast.

That's what I'm doing.

[txa1265]

Goozex is a great way to offer out games you don't want - and you can do so disc only, disc & manual and full package. And you can earn 'points' to get new games.

I've been doing it for over a year and have cleaned out loads of old junk and gotten new stuff.

Take a look and if interested use my referral id and we both get free trade credits.

[Kunikos]

Half.com may net you better moneys than eBay fyi.

[z22]

Thanks. I'll check out Goozex and see if it's a fit.

Anyone here interested in the entire lot of my old games, one giant box(es) of gaming "goodness"!???

EDIT: Googex seems to only be for trading. I'm not interested in getting more games so I don't think it'll work out for me.

[quantum_mechani]

Anyone here interested in the entire lot of my old games, one giant box(es) of gaming "goodness"!???

I certainly would not turn it down (thief 1 & 2 and battle for middle earth are games I've long wanted to try), though there may be others with higher ratio of titles from the bunch that they are looking for.

[Aeon221]

Yeah, I was thinking about saying the same thing re: the Thief series. Have any games that you're looking for from around the same era?

[malkav11]

Really, whatever you'd like to do with them as long as it keeps them available to other people who might want them more than you do. Don't *ever* just trash them. Trust me, there are people who've been looking for anything you've got unless it's still for sale brand new. And even then, people will appreciate a bargain.

[krokodile]

Make a list, so we know what we can be buying!

[unbongwah]

For PC games, I usually toss out the boxes and just save the discs and manuals: takes up much less space and I never know when I might want to revisit an old game. But (A) I'm a packrat and (B) I'm too lazy to sell games on my own if I know they're only worth a few bucks each.

[z22]

I'll compile and post a list over the next day or so. I'm assuming Tom is okay with this? What exactly happened to his trabe/sell/buy forum mentioned earlier? :)

[fuzzyslug]

Would it make sense for us to have a QT3 exclusive trading forum somewhere else? I've always been interested in having a trading spot, especially since I'm an active trader over at Octopus Overlords, and was dissappointed when Tom pulled the plug on the one here. Is there enough interest to make it worth it? I'd even volunteer to host it.

[krokodile]

I could probably trade off a few games that I have.

[Robert Sharp]

Why not just use gametz? Do you only feel safe trading with other qt3ers for some reason?

[Kunikos]

Tom has said several times that he doesn't want any trading activity on QT3. I believe he said that there are many other places out there to do that already and he didn't want QT3 to be involved in any way (perhaps for legal or signal-to-noise reasons).

[brainfromarous]

Keep 'em in storage. Unless they're truly worthless, of course.

Old game magazines should be sent to... me. I collect 'em.

[Morkilus]

I have a gametz account, but I never get any hits.

[John Merva]

I'm assuming Tom is okay with this?

Why assume when you can PM or even email him to ask?

[Alan Au]

I'll compile and post a list over the next day or so. I'm assuming Tom is okay with this? What exactly happened to his trabe/sell/buy forum mentioned earlier? :)

No, we don't have a trade/buy/sell infrastructure on Qt3. However, I'm guessing you're probably okay if it's a one-time thing.

- Alan

[MikeSolita]

Goozex is a great way to offer out games you don't want - and you can do so disc only, disc & manual and full package. And you can earn 'points' to get new games.

Thanks for the heads-up. I signed up last night and already received bids for American McGee's Alice and Curse of Monkey Island. Yay!

[Brendan]

You could always give them away to poor Africans for charity.

My address is...