Atari 2600: Study in Overproduction

[number six]

Did anyone over produce as much in terms of software as the Atari 2600?

We all know the now-confirmed story of the landfill Atari carts.. but beyond that brand new sealed atari games have been readily (and cheaply) available since they were originally released 30+ years ago.

During the early 80s they were new so they were everywhere. After the 'crash' they hung around in discount bins for awhile.. sometimes almost a decade at some spots (like Toys R Us). In the late 80s to even early 90s they showed up at discount stores as special clear outs.. usually for a buck or two. Even this didn't kill the over supply.

During the 90s you could find them at a number of mail-order spots including Best Electronics that still has plenty of stock 25+ years after the system was completely 100% dead.

The 00s brought ebay into play where games have been cheap and common ever since.

Of course there are rare atari carts but its still mind boggling that all these years hasn't exhausted the supply of Star Raiders or Kangaroo carts. 

I'd imagine the problem was the boom then sudden crash. In '82 these things were selling like crazy so everyone ordered large runs assuming they'd sell through.. then it kinda fell apart.. but damn.. the excess.. it's mind boggling.

[Niloc]

Nintendo sure as fuck isn't gonna make that mistake!

"Our initial run of the Switch is going to be 6."

"6 million?"

"No, 6."

[HFK]

There are still rares but not as many as we used to think thanks to South America a few years ago.

I'm getting to the point I'm about ready to sell off my console stuff but I've always said my 2600 stuff will be the last to go. Being in it for so long if you bought some rares 10 + years ago you are losing some money while games that are still rare really haven't gone up much. Old homebrews though do fetch a premium.

It is just a pain in the ass to sell the stuff now too. I really find it hard to trust eBay with their return policies and the buyer is always right stuff but it does tend to bring the most money. Has anyone used/had luck with GameGavel? I signed up years ago and bought a couple of things but they just really never had any volume of visitors.

[HighProtein]

ATARI 2600 didn't age well.
NES aged very very well.

Fill in the blanks for any other meaning about production numbers...

[wizard1969]

"ATARI 2600 didn't age well."  - HighProtein

SACRILEGE!

[Marshall]

There are still rares but not as many as we used to think thanks to South America a few years ago.

What happened in South America? Is that where all the oddball carts and overflow Chase the Chuckwagon were exported to? 

[Baiter]

ATARI 2600 didn't age well.
NES aged very very well.

I agree 100%.  2600 was looking terribly aged in the early 80's but it was still fun.

[Niloc]

Speaking of overproduction, how many more controllers, extension cords, etc. for the NES Classic must have been produced vs. the NES Classic console units themselves?

[number six]

Speaking of overproduction, how many more controllers, extension cords, etc. for the NES Classic must have been produced vs. the NES Classic console units themselves?

I was just thinking that. I bet some of these companies figured they'd run a bunch as people would keep buying them as they found units.. oops!

[Maverick1978]

I agree 100%.  2600 was looking terribly aged in the early 80's but it was still fun.

A few years back, containers full of product were discovered in South America - I'm not sure how many. The ones that I bought at the beginning of this were mostly computer/Atari stock from Sierra (ie Sierra On-Line, Sierra Online, and On-Line Systems). These had labels from Media Play (if you guys remember them). I have no idea if all of the stock came from Media Play, or how many of these containers there were. I'm guessing quite a few as the ebay supply has yet to dry up.

Though in response to the OP, I'd be more curious if this were a study in overproduction, or a study in the demand of common carts?? - I'm thinking probably both.

[number six]

Though in response to the OP, I'd be more curious if this were a study in overproduction, or a study in the demand of common carts?? - I'm thinking probably both.

Thing is, no other system has as many games still floating around sealed at this point like Atari systems.

For example look for sealed Nintendo games. They are out there sure.. but it's not like you trip over them.. or that you can find sealed copies of 'Super Mario Bros.' for $3 like you can find the equivalent game (Pac-Man) for the Atari 2600.

This seems to be an ongoing problem for Atari as Lynx games are also still readily available sealed and in high enough quantity to be super cheap. If it was just a few hundred carts or something even low demand games would have eventually been bought up over the decades but here we are in 2017 and you can still get sealed Atari games for $3.