How cold Atari collecting is

[number six]

So I was at a small comic book convention over the weekend. They had some video game vendors.. very ebay level pricing on just about everything.. except the 2600 games which apparently they didn't know anything about. Picked up Avalon Hills Death Trap for the 2600 for a few bucks. It's a R8 which is pretty damn rare. Same rarity level as Chase the Chuckwagon. Although not the rarest game I've ever found it's probably the rarest Atari cart I've ever found.

Anyway, if this was a Nintendo game it would be probably Little Samson level of rarity.. maybe even rarer. However because it's an Atari cart it's only worth about $50.

That shows you how low the Atari market is right now. There's a few choice rares that will net you big bucks (some even tens of thousands) but everything under that 'Elite' level of maybe a few dozen carts.. not worth a whole lot in the grand scheme.

Upshot is.. if you have never collected Atari or would like to grow your collection.. now is definitely the time. It will all cycle back at some point.. the Nintendo+ era stuff can't be the only popular retro stuff forever.

Now Intellivision.. that may be a few centuries before that takes off

[bjones]

Not sure atari cart collecting has ever been truly 'hot', right now it's the home-brew market that's booming.  And some of the games are really good.

[number six]

Not sure atari cart collecting has ever been truly 'hot', right now it's the home-brew market that's booming.  And some of the games are really good.

It was hot in the early 90s when that's what everyone was collecting.

I like the homebrews but i'm not paying $400 for some game somebody knocked off in their garage 2 years ago. That's crazy.

[bjones]

Home-brew games are actually very affordable.  Atari Age sells most titles with custom labels and everything for about 25 bucks.

Scott Dayton from the west palm area is going to have some of his games at Free Play.   I got 'hung'r shark' and 'fat albert' from him for a total of 60 bucks

[number six]

Home-brew games are actually very affordable.  Atari Age sells most titles with custom labels and everything for about 25 bucks.

Scott Dayton from the west palm area is going to have some of his games at Free Play.   I got 'hung'r shark' and 'fat albert' from him for a total of 60 bucks

I do have the Halo 2600 homebrew.

I think they are neat but its just not something i really collect.

[lordtakuban]

That's good to know.  Currently, I'm only missing a 5200 and a lynx for consoles.  And I don't have many games for the ones I do have.  I just need to find more places selling stuff.

[number six]

That's good to know.  Currently, I'm only missing a 5200 and a lynx for consoles.  And I don't have many games for the ones I do have.  I just need to find more places selling stuff.

The Lynx should be relatively easy (And cheap) to find. Really fun system if you haven't had one previously.

The 5200.. <sigh>

[lordtakuban]

Yep.  Every now and then I look for a lynx on eBay, but then get stopped deciding between the 2 revisions and which one I want or should I get one of each... etc.  I'll figure it out eventually.  the 5200 is just a matter of paying the money for one of getting lucky on a find.

[number six]

Having both i'd say the Lynx II is probably the better system. It's smaller and a little bit more manageable. Unless I'm mistaken its also easier on batteries.

[Shimoda]

I'd love to have an Atari 800XL and my cart of Eastern Front 1941 again.  Can't believe I ever took that, a Radio Shack Color Computer II and a couple other similar things to Salvation Army! 

[TimothyC]

I haven't followed pricing on Atari stuff, but in the past month of browsing threads on NintendoAge I routinely see people mention the fact rare cart pricing for 2600 games has fallen for all but a handful of carts.

[Marshall]

So what are some of the rare Atari carts? I've got a couple hundred, the bulk of which were gathered from thrift store runs down the west coast of Florida in the mid-90's.


Stopped collecting when the $0.99 games dried up. 

[Raikus]

Mike scored a Pepsi Invaders cart here in Tallahassee from a local game store bin about two years ago. There's still good Atari stuff out there if you look.

[lordtakuban]

Thanks for the tip on the lynx II.  That's probably the one I'll get.  I don't have the Atari 800 either.  But finding room for the consoles is now a bit of a concern.  haha.  I have a couple duplicate 2600 carts that I was going to list on eBay, but when they only sell for a buck or two, it's just not worth the effort.

[number six]

Atari Age Rarity List: http://atariage.com/software_list.php?SystemID=2600&searchRegion=N&orderBy=Rarity&orderByValue=Descending&recordsPerPage=100&currentPage=2

Atari R8s are usually worth around $50. R9s usually are in the 100s but some of them can dip under that. The R10s are typically in the thousands but once again it depends on the game. A pepsi invaders for example is worth about $1k while a Red Sea Crossing will probably still net you somewhere in the $10k+ range, maybe more.  I think somebody sold an Air Raid with the box (only known complete copy) for something like $40k.

When you get to the high rarity games you are dealing with an elite bunch of collectors that will spend the big bucks.

But most everything R8 and under is literally cheap as chips. When you get down to R5s you'll pay more to ship the cart than you will for the cart.