Looking for cheap consoles for my collection

Hello everyone, been busy busy busy on places like Ebay and Amazon, but it seems consoles like Sega Genesis, SNES, Nes are all 50+ dollars, a bit up there really. I was wondering if any of you knew a good site that sold consoles at a more fair price. I have been to places like Dkoldies, JJgames, and lukie who all seem to either sell consoles I don't want or price them very high. ANy help or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much!

 

Anyone selling on the internet (especially large volume sellers) are probably checking sales and pricing accordingly. Your best bet is probably offline at flea markets, garage sales, goodwill, and pawn shops. places that don't primarily deal in that stuff.

Deals are still out there (I picked up a garage sale Nes for $5.00 a while back) but when you consider that all of those systems have been discontinued for over a decade you have to figure that the well is drying up on dirt cheap systems.

 

I find deals on eBay from time to time with massive hunting. Most of my collection minus the 1 rare item were cheap stuff off eBay. My model 1 Sega Mega CD (US NTSC model) was an auction I won with minimum bid. Got it with like 30 games and a model 1 Genesis for just over $100 USD. That is a steal considering how hard finding these models in good working order is not to mention the extras I got with it.

Most non working models go for like $70+ still...

The 1 rare item I got was still a bargain considering the average price it should be going for when taking inflation and junk into consideration. It should have cost me $400+ but I only paid $265. Last one on eBay went for around $300 and that was only because I stopped bidding on it there. Winner obviously put a really high bid in on it. Item in question is the fabled Sega Demo System DS-16. The only cart switcher system for the Sega Genesis excluding the Mega Tech arcade system.

 

Can't go wrong at flea markets. Depends on your location...

 

I am in Charlotte North Carolina, I live 10 mins from a fleamarket, good sellers there, and 30 minutes south to a place called Lyons arcade, and 40 minutes from save point games, I don't even care if the console is broken, I make a hobby in fixing and complete restoring them to look new, including cartridges inside and out, polishing the pins etc. But yea flea market and stores are a bit rough for me I have no car and my family is pretty much always telling me... tomorrow...tomorrow...tomorrow...tomorrow.....maybe the following week v-v... god I need a car again XD

 

I got a model 1 Sega CD for $15 at a small outdoor flea market. But really, thrift stores are your best bet. Thrift stores often have consoles and accessories for very low prices. Usually not games, but they often have hardware.

 

I usually hunt on the "other systems" section of eBay. I got a working Game.com for $6 shipped, and a wonderswan for pretty cheap (shipping has been a pain). If you have absolutely no reservations on what you get, look there.

 

Flea markets, garage sales, rummage sales, antique shops, thrift stores rarely, CL?

 

check ebay at stupid oclock in the AM and at weekends, watch items with no bids, bid at last min you could get lucky

 

Many of my best finds have been at swap meets and thrift stores and consignment sales, some greats:
Toploader NES for $20
Playstation 2 Debug unit and 3 GBA protos for $90
Playstation 2 Debug $40
SCPH-1000 Playststion for $20
Large stack of ps1 gamecube and treamcast games for $30 (All expensive RPGs!)
Mostly complete Final Fantasy III SNES for $5
Like new boxed SNES for $25
Like new Japanese Gamecube for $45
About 20 SNES games for $70 (8 RPGs! including 1 complete zelda)
Super Metroid for $5 (twice in 1 day!)
Non-TMSS Genesis for $5
Dreamcast Kiosk unit for $25
Gamecube for $25, had 2 Wavebirds and a BroadBand Adaptor
Pioneer Laseractive for $10
Mountain Dew Xbox for $45
Tomba for $2
Thayer's Quest arcade laserdisc for $1

Surplus Dealers and Junkyards are sometimes good too.
NPDP Cart and Wideboy 64 for $8
Dreamcast BroadBand Adapter for $2
Super A'can (I don't remember the price but it was at allelectronics)

Don't ignore the local retro game stores:
Playstation 2 Start-up card for $10 (twice! both from the same seller)
Broken Sega CDX and Atari Jaguar CD for $50
Broken Sega CDX for for $25
Playstation 2 Tool for $1000 with network adaptor, DTL-T14000 kit, and 3 Protos: Warhawk, Twisted Metal Harbor City, Score International Baja 1000
Factory sealed Koudelka for $30

 

I just checked ebay in the US and there's a few original genesis models for less then fifty bucks. Even a High Definition one.

Just search abit. Plus most of them will come with a few games.

 

Have a look at the BST section on the site, as well as amibay.org ,Sega-16 and AtariAge.

Your lucky to be from the US and I agree with every one above your best bets will be fleamarkets, Swap Meets, Garage sales, thrift stores and Pawn shops, just go regularly and seek out new ones via craigslist.

Here theres no Swap Meets, Garage Sales, Car boot sales, Pawn shops dont care for old consoles and fleamarkets dont sell second hand goods :/

 

LaserActive for $10.... if it worked that's a HECK of a deal!

 

Look anywhere you may find old electronics and used CD/DVDs being resold.

There is a certain law of obscurity: The more neglected an item is, no matter what it's worth, the cheaper it will be.

A working PS2 hiding under a pile of VCRs and obsolete cable boxes might be an obscure $2 takeway.. a unique and creative alternative to the easy-to-locate, there-when-you-want-it $50 PS2 in a dedicated video game shop.

 

lol, you guys bumped quite an old thread. I wonder if the OP ever did find the cheap consoles he was looking for. I still from time to time find great stuff at garage sales and flea markets, even though I'm rarely looking for more stuff.

 

< man, this thread is old_)

These come up so frequently, I didn't even realize it was from 3 years ago.

 

I find sometimes consoles appear on Etsy and they are remarkably cheap. I got a Famicom for about £40, about half its normal eBay cost.

 

Consoles on Etsy?

 

God's truth.

 

It's a shame that my closest thrift store doesn't have many games recently but I did find a lot of stuff there.