Pros & cons of parting out a game (or not)...

joemagiera

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Picked up a poor condition Star Wars today. Never been a game I cared for so it's a flip-it game for me for sure. Got me thinking a little on the various pros and cons of parting out a reasonably common dedicated game or not...

Parting out a game
Pros
-Can often get more money for the parts than the whole game
-You kill your game so that several other games can live
-You can keep a part or two you need for something else
-Easy to ship parts
-Sometimes a game is in such bad condition, you really do put it out of it's misery by parting it
Cons
-You kill a dedicated game. That's one less that will never be brought back.
-You still usually have to get rid of the cabinet (I don't think I've ever parted a game and was able to sell or give away the remaining cabinet)
-You have to deal with mutiple people.

Selling the game whole
Pros
-You didn't kill a dedicated game.
-You reclaim a full size game of space in your garage
-One sale and your done
Cons
-You probably didn't sell it for as much as you could have for the parts
-The one part you needed for another game, you still don't have because you just sold the whole game
-Will likely take you a lot longer to sell the whole thing
-You may have to deal with shipping a whole game

Note I'm only thinking of common dedicated games here, as some of these would not apply to conversions or very rare or unusual games. So, what do you think? What did I miss on the lists above?
 
Sounds right to me. :)

If you get enough parts from several games that would have been trashed, you can make 1 game. That is 1 more game then would have been out there since the cabs would have been trashed anyways.

You cannot keep them all. :p
 
Joe, I gave you a call on the star wars. If you want a quick flip, I'll come down today and give you double what you paid. I had emailed the guy on it as well, but looks like I wasn't fast enough! Id love to get some games off my want list.
 
You can be sure that you'll get this type of response anytime you mention p*** out in here without going through the proper steps (read mclemore's p*** out stickies in the FS forum) to ensuring it's absolutely a last resort. Many will say, "Your game, your choice." Others will say, "You're a murderer."

Personally, I've been given too many good deals by guys in here to even think about p***ing a game out to make an extra buck. Though, I don't deal with as many games as some guys do so I can't really say if my opinion matters.

angry-mob.jpg
 
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I have just resigned myself to selling my games cheap. I try not to think too much about how much I am losing by selling them whole. I don't do this for income, so losing some money on a game is not too big of a deal. I have been selling most games for less than I payed lately though, so that sucks a bit. The last few, I have even delivered over a hundred miles each way just to make the deal. It is part of the fun of this crazy hobby for me though. I am happy when I get a game that I have been looking for, and I like to see other people enjoy that as well. It is also fun to deal with people that just enjoy the games. It is not nearly as fun for me to deal with people that do this to try to generate income. I don't dislike them or anything, but it is just more fun to talk to people who are just as crazy as I am and spend all of their extra cash on this stuff.

Just today I told someone that I couldn't sell for what they offered because just the monitor and board were worth more than that. I ended up selling it to him at that price after thinking it over.
 
If it's a game you dont like and you know someone else would want to restore it then why buy it to begin with ? Or why not just pass it on to someone that will restore it ? And what part on it is that hard to find where you couldn't just find the part you need instead of parting out a game just to get it ?

I can think of a few reasons why I would get a game even if it's a game I don't like:
-I could use the game as a trade for something I do want (there are people that will not sell, only trade)
-I could use it to make a profit to put torwards a game I couldn't afford otherwise.

As to hard parts to find, offhand...
-vector monitors
-logo coin doors (Gottlieb & Cinematronics being examples)
-medium res monitors
-interchangebale PCBs (like an Atari System I, i.e., a Marble Madness daughter board)

And while you or anyone else didn't even ask, I NEVER stated I was parting the game out. I just happened to be thinking of the pros and cons of parting versus selling/trading whole and thought it might make for interesting discussion.
 
I never said you were going to part it out. You wanted discussion, you got it. I think it's a waste to part out a game when a local collector would restore it.
 
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I made this a while ago for a similar thread, and here it is again. :)

You can be sure that you'll get this type of response anytime you mention p*** out in here without going through the proper steps (read mclemore's p*** out stickies in the FS forum) to ensuring it's absolutely a last resort. Many will say, "Your game, your choice." Others will say, "You're a murderer."

Personally, I've been given too many good deals by guys in here to even think about p***ing a game out to make an extra buck. Though, I don't deal with as many games as some guys do so I can't really say if my opinion matters.

angry-mob.jpg

Love seeing these images.
 
The only thing that really matters is how you think you'll feel after destroying the cabinet. Is the cabinet pretty much toast or is it solid as a rock? I've destroyed a perfectly good chunk of wood and felt horrible afterwards, even though at the time no one wanted it. I still wish that cabinet was more screwed up than it was so I didn't feel so dirty about it.
 
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