What's a reasonable price for an Atari 2600 and 2 controllers?

morbidboy

New member
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
781
Reaction score
9
Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota
What's a reasonable price for an Atari 2600 and 2 controllers?

We sell alot of Nintendo cartridges ($3, $5, $10 or $20 for Zelda Games) and consoles (NES & SNES with 2 controllers for $40. N64 with Red Memory Pak and 1 controller for $50) at Rusty Quarters but I have no clue whats a good buying/selling price for an Atari 2600. I would like to have 2 of each game consoles at all times at RQ. We buy Atari 2600 games for $1 and sell them for $2. Any Help?
 
It's like asking "How much should we charge for soda?" The type of soda matters. ;)

All Atari consoles are not valued alike. One of the early-mid 80s units should be dirt cheap; "heavy sixers" and rarer consoles can go for premiums.

Same with the games. You should probably use Pac-Man cartridges to line your driveway, but others are worth quite a bit.
 
And just because it has 6 switches on top doesn't make it a heavy-sixer.

$30 for a heavy sixer, $15 for a regular doesn't sound outrageous. I would check out atariage.com.
 
i think as a retailer, if you clean it up real nice and test it, and it comes with all the cords and decent working controllers, all boxed up you could easily charge $30-40, especially if you bundle it with a common game or two. i paid 50 for mine, but it came in a nice case with a dozen or so games and both controllers and paddles were in great condition, as well as the console itself. yeah you can get dirty beat up ones on ebay missing half the cords and untested for $10 all day long on ebay, but to put the time into cleaning them up, testing, finding all the proper cords and working controls and boxing it up, as a retailer you would basically be giving it away for $15.
 
I was hoping to sell the set, wires, 2 controllers and a random game (or buy a small ebay bulk of pac-man) for $40

i think as a retailer, if you clean it up real nice and test it, and it comes with all the cords and decent working controllers, all boxed up you could easily charge $30-40, especially if you bundle it with a common game or two. i paid 50 for mine, but it came in a nice case with a dozen or so games and both controllers and paddles were in great condition, as well as the console itself. yeah you can get dirty beat up ones on ebay missing half the cords and untested for $10 all day long on ebay, but to put the time into cleaning them up, testing, finding all the proper cords and working controls and boxing it up, as a retailer you would basically be giving it away for $15.
 
I was hoping to sell the set, wires, 2 controllers and a random game (or buy a small ebay bulk of pac-man) for $40

Try it - get one or two, clean up and test them well, and see if you can get $40 for the set. I think in a retail setting, with it cleaned up and tested, and a willingness to swap it out if it's DOA, you might well get $40. But it has to be clean, and working good.

You can probably do even better if you mod one for s-video output - that makes it easier to integrate with more recent A/V gear, and you should be able to charge a bit more for that. I don't know that you can do enough better to pay for the modding, but it's worth considering.
 
Here's a hint for anyone who wants to sell Atari 2600 consoles... might work for other systems, IDK.

Showcase a 2600 using Sega Genesis controllers. Let your customers play it, since the Genesis controllers (standard or 6 button) will have a better reaction time that the original ones. Theoretically, Genesis controllers should be easier to come by than Atari ones.

Then sell the 2600 with either original or genesis controller. You get to figure out your best selling strategy at this point.
 
Don't let your customers play a 2600.

It will remind them of how sucky it is.

Get them to buy on impulse.
 
Back
Top Bottom