How to Get a Never-Ending Supply of Free Retro Games and Consoles

[senseiman]

I think I have just found a way in which it would be theoretically possible to get a never ending supply of free retro consoles and games for the rest of your life.

http://famicomblog.blogspot.jp/2012/04/freakonomics-how-to-enjoy-endless.html

Anybody care to put this theory to the test?  It would make for an interesting long-term experiment to see if it were possible.

[senseiman]

Jedi Quest Master - I`m hoping I will reach that point at some stage where I can part with some of my stuff.  At the moment I have too much of the collector in me to say goodbye, at least with Famicom stuff.

80s Freak - I`m afraid not   This is all just theory after all

[L___E___T]

I actually pretty much am in this situation.  I have way too many games right now and I barely play my xbox.

[manuel]

If you buy and sell wisely, yes I think that should work.

[L___E___T]

The thing I would throw in there is the daemon I have always faced....

POSTAGE.  even if buyer pays for postage for your old games, you have to fork out for your own postage on acquired games.

Something I've noticed is - if I have a Famicom and Powerpak now and a PC with MAME, by the time I've played all the retro games I'd like to that I couldn't before, there'll be a similar scene for PS1/Saturn games and in turn PS2 and Xbox.  Heck, there already is if you have the right kit, but I mean an idiot-proof option like the universal flashcart for SNES and SFC that is now available.

[security16]

Currently all the famicom carts i own i got in a box from a charity shop here though i'm 100% certain they are all pirates and it cost me $10 for the whole box of the stuff which included some superfamicom games too! This was a complete fluke though because i don't think there are many aussies who would have a famicom just sitting in the shed doing nothing! 

[NintendoKing]

I have actually done this with Famicom cartridges, making me able to play new games without really spending much more money, which has refined my collection to games I want and like.

[manuel]

POSTAGE. 

That's why you have to buy/sell wisely.
If you do it right (and probably you need luck, too) you can sell your games with enough profit to cover the postage fees you paid.

[senseiman]

Yeah, postage is the only thing you can`t get for free.

If you sell the games for a profit you can overcome this, but unfortunately it isn`t guaranteed that you could do that on everything so there might be some expense in doing it.  Fortunately it isn`t too much unless you are buying heavy sixers or Twin Famicoms or something.

[Jamtex]

There are a few things wrong with this.

Inflation - If i buy something this year for £100, then next year I would have to sell it for £104 (assuming inflation at 4%), else in real terms I have lost money.

Exchange rate - If the US dollar / Pound / Euro do get stronger against the Yen (and it has slowly started to go that way) then things from Japan will get cheaper, so buying something this year for say £50 might easily drop to £25 next year, even if the yen price is the same.

Supply / Demand - Just because game x is worth £40 this year does not mean it will be worth £40 next year, it could go up and it could go down. Especially if extra copies of them start to appear. Circus Lido on the PC Engine was a fantastic example of a game going for 4 figures going down to 2 figures in 5 years.

Paypal / Ebay - If you use Ebay / Paypal to sell stuff then you might get scammed and if you do then you lose money...

Fees - If using above then you will tend to lose money, buy something for £100 sell it for £100 and you will end up with a lot less...

Time / Effort - I did spend days, cycling and visiting shops to find games / consoles in, a few times I came away with some nice things but personally the time I spent could have been better spent earning real money.

JRPGs, Horse Racing, Baseball, Football, War Sims - These are generally worthless unless you can find some idiot that doesn't know what they are...

[L___E___T]

Agreed with all of the above, but the way I am right now I basically stick to hardware as that goes up and up in value.
 
Ok we're still in a depression now you could say and it's generally a buyer's market, but it's all swings and roundabouts.  
By the time the next boom comes I can probably sell my new factory fresh Famicom for twice what I paid for it.  Some things 10X what I paid for them.
 
When I've collected all the hardware I want I will be stopping that and enjoying this as a hobby only, it's just getting too expensive and time consuming for me.  One day I'll sell all my new stuff and stick with a TEA 4 TWO Famicom and flashcarts.  I'd like to keep a FC, GB, SFC, VB and GBA to play all sprite-based games on as I'll always love them.  I have a PSP for other emulation and a PS3 for newer games that's 100% back-compat and region free.  
 

 
On top of that, building an arcade cab in the summer, I see myself set with games for about a decade.  The next gen machines are going to be expensive and not as collectable for multiple reasons.  So I am drawing the line after PS3.

[fredJ]

Jamtex you need to rethink your opinion on JRPG, I think... maybe you haven't found the right place to sell.

But baseball games have started to make me lose interest in collecting for GB; I received some lately and thought "why am I collecting this crap" ? Even the boxart is terrible.

[L___E___T]

I quite like the Famitsu-esque boxart for all those baseball/racing games

[crade]

Unfortunately, the other caveat that they forget to mention is you must be able to sell things for the going rate.  If you live somewhere where shipping costs a lot more than the average (like I do) you can usually only sell things for significantly less than the going rate and always lose money on these transactions unless you get really lucky.