Buying vintage Atari 2600 games

If your still learning and wondering how much money your gonna have to fork over to get started buying vintage Atari 2600 games then rarity of the title is a huge factor.This is one of the things that makes this hobby so much fun! You can buy games like Combat or Pac-Man and pay more for shipping than for the game itself.

Then you have your harder to find titles that can go for hundreds of dollars. Some of these games were available my mail order only or just had limited runs in the marketplace. I have often wondered what was going on with production at Atari because even as the company was going under they kept the printing presses rolling and kept churning out carts like their was no tomorrow.

Well, there was no tomorrow for the Atari staff but since they produced thousands of copies of certain titles it makes our fun with this hobby that much easier. As a side note it's widely rumored all over the net that Atari buried thousands of E.T. cartridges in a New Mexico landfill. It's interesting because on more than one occasion over the years while on the hunt at the local Goodwill store I have come across an Atari system with a pile of games and sometimes it will have two copies of Pac-Man or E.T. with it.

Their is nothing worse than coming across a vintage Atari 2600 game only to discover that some kid named Mike used a Sharpie on it back in 1982 to let everybody know that this game was his! Unfortunately, this happens from time to time and as with any collectible on the planet condition plays a huge roll in the price point. Here is the small list of what you should be looking for.

1. Does it work? Has it been tested? I have found that games made by Atari themselves are some of the toughest ever made. Carts made by third party publishers like Activision don't seem to be as reliable because of the design of the cartridge case left the ROM-chip exposed to the elements.

2. How does the game itself look? Are the labels badly faded or peeling? Any pen or crayon marks on the game?

CIB- Is short for complete in box. When buying vintage Atari 2600 games this means that your getting not only the cart but the instruction booklet and box that it all came in as well. CIB titles will always command a bigger price than the carts by themselves. This is especially true with harder to find titles like Swordquest Waterworld.

I once saw an unopened copy of this game go for over $500 on EBAY! I know what your thinking because I thought the same thing. If it's unopened how do you know if it works or if the real game is even in there? That's more faith than I'm willing to put into an online seller.

While EBAY and Amazon are still the giants when buying and selling vintage games online their are other options and they are starting to gain some steam. Many smaller more niche based auction sites are cropping up because many sellers felt like the listing fees at EBAY were getting a bit to steep. One of these sites that is gaining in popularity is called Chase the Chuckwagon. It's an auction based site that is dedicated to classic and modern gaming enthusiasts. If your shopping around you really should check it out.