I can’t remember where I saw it, probably Twitter, but there was an interesting conversation going on based on a question I’d like to ask you all. The question was: what ‘trade-in’ do you regret making most? Of all the games, cars, technology that you might have traded-in or even just sold on eBay — which transaction do you wish you could unmake.
One person (I think it was Kotaku reader McGarnigal) said that he traded in his GameCube for $15. I almost wept then and there.
We’ve all been stung, we’ve all waved goodbye to old friends and regretted it. I gave my GameCube away for free, I lost my PS2.
I traded in Ico. [Sob]
What do you most regret?
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61 responses to “Off Topic: 30 Pieces Of Silver”
My Super NES and all it’s games. About the only thing I’d take back. That console and it’s games shaped me as a gamer, and I’d kill to have it all back again.
EDIT: Oh, and the Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior dual screen Game and Watches I hocked on eBay years ago. =( I was desperate for cash at the time and so regret it now.
I regret my parents giving away my Lego and snes some years ago, does that count? Can’t say I’ve sold or given anything away that I would of kept
I’ve never traded hardware (I collect it, much to my darling wife’s dismay), and I have only traded a couple of games. One was Yoshi’s Story for 64 (don’t regret one bit), and the other was Secret of Evermore for SNES, which I did regret and purchased again some time later.
All my PSP game collection when PSP got a cracked screen 🙁 Then I got a preowned PSP and bought the games back from the same place later on!
I regretted selling Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 on Ebay. They really were great games. I’m not sure what I was thinking.
Oh wait, I remember. I was broke!!
Not quite game related, but I sold my first motorbike for well under the market price. She was in tip top condition since I pedantically maintained her. Maybe because she was my first, but to this day I still miss riding her. And it makes it worse knowing that I let her go for really cheap.
Game-wise I regret getting rid of my original Fallout 1 game with the original box. That would have made a neat collector’s item.
Oh, my mate threw out his Fallout 3 PipBoy alarm clock which was subsequently worth a lot of money.
Probably both the NES and Mega Drive. Put it down to still being young and hadn’t developed the ‘collecting’ bug.
Specifically the NES, we went from NES to the Mega Drive (I know that seems odd), but as we already had the Mega Drive, my mother was pushing to offload the NES. We had many games and I remember she ended up selling the lot for $50 to our cousins, way under priced and never seen again.
It doesn’t seem ‘odd’ it seems like TREACHERY! Those days were the height of the Console Wars! How could you?
I was easy and cheap, moved to the Playstation after that and they’ve kept me satisfied the rest of he way. :p
There were moments of temptation, I tried both the 360 and Wii this gen, but there wasn’t enough to keep me.
Actually probably stems from never owning a Gameboy (of any kind), I imagine that if I did then I probably would have stayed with Nintendo more along the way
More of a sale but I still like to think of shares as a tangible item… I was given 1200 shares for a company at $7 each on an interest free loan when I was like 19. I left that company and rather than taking a (remaining)$7k debt with me, I sold the shares for $8 making a $1k profit.
Kinda hurt a few years later seeing those shares at $33 each though.
No gaming regrest that I can think ok. I’m not one for playing old stuff so I move on fairly well.
I gave my Commodore 64 plus peripherals to my brother, who was into ripping apart computers and ‘fixing’ them. I miss my C64…
I miss my old 86 Celica. It was a fantastic little car that I got myself into way too much trouble with.
Really miss my N64 at times but I wonder if its better to just keep that in my memory.
Man, back in my mid 20’s I had an 88 Honda Prelude which I absolutely loved. Ended up trading it in because it was just getting too old (had about 280,000kms on it when I traded it, and I didn’t want to still be driving it when it hit 300,000). Got a Mazda 3 which was a good car for what it was, but not really the kind of car you fall in love with. I missed that Prelude for years until earlier this year when I got a Nissan 370Z which has finally filled that void in my heart 😀
Blinded by “Shiny New Thing” lust in my desperation to get a Gamecube at a time when i was flat broke I decided to trade in for it. I traded my PS1 with almost all my games (only hung on to FF7, 8 & 9) and most of my 64 games which included Zelda OoT and Mask of Majora in the beautiful golden cartridges and my completely completed Goldeneye. I think I traded about 20 games. While I had a great time with my Gamecube and by no means regret getting one I have massive regrets over the games I’d traded. *sob*
in the 90s I sold a copy of spider-man #1 signed by Todd McFarlane and Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All on vinyl so I could buy weed. Then I traded in my N64 and library for a Dreamcast, then bought it back a week later. What a stupid child.
I keep wondering how long I should hang on to my Spawn figurines. Maybe I could retire on their value when I’m 70.
Most of my biggest regrets were just me undervaluing things and throwing them away, I’ve had a few seller regrets but nothing gut-wrenching.
Never traded in any games, but I regret mistreating the boxes for my adventure games when I was a kid. :'(
I hold on to most of my gaming stuff long past it’s shelf life and don’t trade anything in, but I always end up giving it away. Eventually you run into someone who would enjoy playing the SNES more than you’d enjoy keeping it, so why not let them have it?
My biggest regret was trading in my green and gold GB Colour, which I think came out for the Olympics in the lead up too 2000. Also traded in Pokemon TCG for GBC, such a fun underrated game.
I once completed two sets of collectible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards – the one based on the 80s cartoon and the one based on the movie. I traded both for a Transformer. I didn’t even like Transformers, I just thought a physical toy was cooler than a stack of cards that didn’t do anything.
I think I lost it somewhere within a week, though looking back, I think the kid I traded with might have regretted his decision and decided that instead of trading back with me, he would just steal his toy back and keep everything.
Side note: I completed the set of cartoon-based TMNT cards a second time (there were only 77 in the set) and gave them to a girl. Not a girl I had a crush on, or a girl who really liked TMNT. I just completed the set, turned to the nearest person, and said “here you go”.
I have no idea what I was thinking.
I still have both sets 🙂
Ever since then, I have kept everything I have collected. Anything remotely collectible that I have a decent or compelted set of, I have set aside. I know none of it will ever be worth anything, but I feel like if I throw them away I’ll be annoyed about it. Thankfully I never really felt motivated to collect much ever since I had a folder full of basketball cards go missing in 6th grade and a lunchbox full of Guardian CCG cards go missing in 7th or 8th grade. I picked up Magic after I lost all my Guardian cards, but never had a very good deck to speak of. I played green/red and it was worthless against blue/white and blue/black which were totally OP back in the day. Nevertheless, I still have my cards somewhere.
Definitely my Commodore 128D & Amiga 500 and all the games I had with it.
Also the late 70s/early 80s lego I had.
Amiga 500 was my first computer and first gaming experience. They were incredible for the time.
My first computer too. So many adventure games.
Discworld 2. A family friend spotted us playing it and hadn’t been able to find it anywhere himself. He offered to buy a replacement game for us of our choice, if we let him have Discworld 2. We chose Theme Hospital.
…We chose poorly. Of course, years later through the magic of the Internet, I now have Discworld 2 again.
Theme Hospital was pretty great though. Pretty REAL great. 😀
Well, yeah. It’s not like we traded chocolate for carob… but Discworld 2 was still the vastly superior title. Especially for rabid Pratchett fans.
I’ve only played Discworld Noir, alas.
Gasp! I had totally forgotten that game existed! Thank you, DC. Thank you. 🙂
The magic of the Internet will bring me more joy soon…
DN can be a pain to get running. The PSX version is lower res, and it doesn’t have the opening text, but it’s also far less buggy.
aaah, all those people with elephantitis… that was pretty great
edit: replyfail :/
Still have the music in my head to this day.
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/theme_hospital
$3 on GOG! 😀
INTERNET MAGIC. First purchase from GoG was Torment, which marks, like… the third time I’ve bought the game.
There is something to be said for a digital future without missing/scratched discs.
I’ve rebought all my adventure games on GOG just because I don’t want to scratch the discs of my favourite games. Now if only LucasArts or Disney would allow games to be sold here.
really regret trading in my copy of the original (Uncensored) version of GTA3
also wish i had kept my first bike, Suzuki SV650S
I regret trading in my copies of Tenchu II and Makai Kingdom. It was a time when I young(er) and foolish.
I once traded my music CD collection to Cashies for $100. I then realised I needed to buy petrol so that hundred quickly went too. THEN I TOOK A GOOD LOOK IN THE MIRROR AT THE MONSTER I HAD JUST CREATED. WHY? WHAT WAS IT ALL FOR? Nothing. It was all for nothing.
Now I hoard like the weird people on Hoarders.
My dad had a bunch of old vinyl, including original prints of Beatles albums. He was hard up for cash one day and took them to a record shop. Walked back out when the guy only offered him $300 for the lot.
I don’t know what happened after that. Presumably he still has them somewhere, but I don’t talk to him a lot anymore so it’s never come up.
Smart move.
I traded Timesplitters 2 and Chronicles of Riddick (plus a couple of other games I can’t remember) for Halo 2 when that was all fancy pants and new. Mainly due to pressure from my housemate at the time. About halfway through the campaign I started regretting it, and three quarters through I stopped altogether.
Trading in my Xbox towards my 360 based on their lies regarding backwards compatibility was a bad move, too. I spent years wanting to replay Midnight Club 3.
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/the_chronicles_of_riddick_assault_on_dark_athena
Haha! Oh man, I’ve got to stop posting links to GOG. Atleast until they start giving me commissions. 😛
Yeah, I bought Assault as soon as it came out. I think it was the “newness” of the original Butcher Bay which sold me so heavily – I was also a massive Pitch Black fan, and being able to play as Riddick before they ruined the character was fucking awesome. Riddick’s gameplay isn’t quite so unique any more, unfortunately, but it still makes for an enjoyable game.
No more trading for me, obviously.
Years ago I bought 3 neo geo cartridges for $60 and sold them immediately for $200. I still regret it.
I regret trading a plate of corn muffins for a man to paint my chicken coop, and he never did it!
Losing Team Buddies. It’s worth up to $300+ on eBay!
OMG Team Buddies! I had that! No idea what happened to it..
I regret when I traded in my N64 and all the games (there was a lot) back around 2000. At this point all I had was a Dreamcast (I’d sold my PS1 to my brother to help fund that purchase) and a Gameboy Colour;
That Xmas my wife ended up surprising me with an N64 and Ocarina of Time so I could finally finish it (I had regretted not doing so)
Still have the old system but I’m considering jettisoning it again as I feel I’ve truly moved on nowadays.
I’ve never traded. I’ve always kept everything.
I’m not really attached to stuff any more, though, and I’ve got a few real classics sitting around. I’ve been thinking of selling them, but I don’t really know where to go to get their true worth. eBay seems a little hit-and-miss, and I don’t know if collectors would find the listings.
Sega slam soccer on the GameCube. Yeah it was a fun game for some bashing with non gaming friends but the real reason it was a bad trade is my brother didn’t check it when he took it to trade it in…..and it had windwaker in the case. NOOOOOOOO. I’ve been tempted to rebuy off eBay a few times but people often ask crazy money for it (and I know I likely will never play again it was just something I wanted to keep)
Sega Saturn with around 20+ games. Sure, it payed off my Dreamcast for launch day, and by the gods have I had some amazing times/memories with my Dreamcast, but I miss a lot of my Saturn games, and a lot of the saves. Some mad times on Daytona I may never see again.
Yeah that was me with the $15 for a GameCube 🙁
I had the good sense to hold onto my copy of Wind Waker with the Ocarina of Time Master Quest and Resident Evil though. It helps that the Wii was backwards compatible so I could at least still play these games.
I traded in my Wind Waker with OoT Master Quest… GOD i miss that disk
The only games I’ve ever traded in were ones I bought specifically for trading. Everything else I’ve ever owned I still have. Though my sister sold her GBA with Tony Hawk 2 and Kuru Kuru Kururin to Cash Converters, for sweet fuck-all. I regret letting her do that, and wish I still had those games 😛
A little while back I went looking for my original Optimus Prime which I remembered packing away into its box (it did have a few pieces missing from inside the trailer) and putting up the top of my wardrobe. I can’t imagine ever having let it get sold, but it seems to have completely disappeared and I have no idea where to. One thing I do regret is letting my parents sell my Power Rangers toys – Megazord and Dragonzord. Stupid kid.
Speaking in terms of games and gaming only, I have to say that I regret trading in my PS2 and more specifically Dragon Quest VIII on PS2. I used the console and all those lovely games to purchase my PS3 for a “discounted” price.. but I’ve barely touched my PS3 in the years following, other than to use it as a blu-ray player. If I could do it over, I would have kept the PS2 and still not have bought a PS3.
In regards to other things.. there was a guitar (electric) that I traded in over 20 years ago now.. and that guitar was the best guitar I ever had.. it wasn’t any particular brand, didn’t have expensive bits and pieces… but it was clearly a custom made thing from multiple brands of parts… and the synergy of all those parts together made it better than all the guitars I’ve owned since then… *sigh*.
I traded in a Classic 70s Fender Stratocaster for a new electric piano and electric/acoustic guitar. I got good value and have used them pretty well, but it feels bad trading a collectible for new items.
i used to have a morris ute from the 50s, needed a bit of work and i didnt have the room to store it till i could afford to fix it.
I gave my Nintendo 64 and all my games to my cousin for $50. Heaps of first-party games too, really regret that one now…