# Gold in the Toy Box



## publius (Jan 28, 2012)

See what I found digging through an old (12 year old) box of toys that my adult children said I could have!



















Yes, that is a Japanese GameBoy cartridge. The American penny is there for scale.


----------



## Geo (Jan 28, 2012)

seriously, those things bring big money on Ebay.


----------



## philddreamer (Jan 28, 2012)

"seriously, those things bring big money on Ebay."

YUUUUP! 8) 

Phil


----------



## slickdogg (Jan 28, 2012)

publius

yup those fingers on the nintendo games are pretty big.

i tore about 60 of them games apart last week

there the pile of fingers next to the plastic container


----------



## publius (Jan 28, 2012)

It has been on eBay and didn't sell. Americans can't read Japanese and the game, without modification to the American GameBoy, will not fit. And, it is not just the fingers that are gold. All the traces are too. Look at the photo of the back and where R1 through 3 are. :lol:


----------



## Claudie (Jan 28, 2012)

I think you would get far more money from the games than the Gold they contain. :|


----------



## MMFJ (Jan 31, 2012)

publius said:


> It has been on eBay and didn't sell. Americans can't read Japanese and the game, without modification to the American GameBoy, will not fit. And, it is not just the fingers that are gold. All the traces are too. Look at the photo of the back and where R1 through 3 are. :lol:


How long did you put it up for and at what % from other, "similar" American ones?

I ask because I've got an old Nintendo (no details in front of me - been sitting on a shelf for several months, but I think it is 'original') that works fine, but, yep, all the writing on the screen is in JAPANESE!

Not being a player on such games, I have no idea what might go on in play, if/what games fit, etc. (unfortunately, no stack of games with it to try out - seems there was only a 'default' one??)

If anyone knows something about it, I'm happy to dig it out, get pics, etc. I didn't want to fuss with it when I got it (from a Russian friend's house that moved 'back' to Japan for health reasons) and hadn't thought about it much since then. I am sure it is worth more in working condition than as scrap, though it is sitting over on the 'what to do with' area (I used to call it my "chicken shelf" for items I just prefer not to mess with for one reason or another - the only problem is that "shelf" has turned into a couple full rolling carts!


----------



## Anonymous (Jan 31, 2012)

LOL @ Phil.....

YUUUUUP!


----------



## publius (Feb 1, 2012)

MMFJ said:


> publius said:
> 
> 
> > It has been on eBay and didn't sell. Americans can't read Japanese and the game, without modification to the American GameBoy, will not fit. And, it is not just the fingers that are gold. All the traces are too. Look at the photo of the back and where R1 through 3 are. :lol:
> ...


This gameboy game was up (solo) for 7 days at $0.99 +1.00 shipping for 7 days, 3 weeks in a row.


----------



## kuma (Feb 1, 2012)

Hi all , how are tricks?
I hope all is well!
I sold a Nintendo ( NES , english PAL version ) that had been in a cupboard for about 20 years or so ( a guy had won it in an MTV competition , played with it once then packed it away for years. The day he took it into a charity shop I was right behind him and picked it up for £5 , score! 8) ) , everything was there and the box was in mint condition.
I sent emails to a fair few places and asked around localy , and the average that I was offered was £40.00.
Needless to say , I took the £40.00 in the end , but thought that with the box in mint condition it would be worth a fair bit more , I guess it's just that there's still plenty around.
But yeah , some lovely looking fingers on them cartridges! :mrgreen: 
All the best and kind regards ,
Chris


----------



## Geo (Feb 1, 2012)

in this part of the US, theres a store named Game-stop that sell vintage NES, SEGA Genesis and playstation that bring almost as much as new game consoles. they purchase old consoles but at a much lower price then they sell them for.


----------



## kuma (Feb 1, 2012)

Hi chief , how are tricks?



Geo said:


> in this part of the US, theres a store named Game-stop that sell vintage NES, SEGA Genesis and playstation that bring almost as much as new game consoles. they purchase old consoles but at a much lower price then they sell them for.



That's a pretty big markup , but I guess we all have to make a buck down the line , I once saw ( I think it was on fee-bay and I found it through trying to sell my NES ) that an original and still packaged Nintendo ' Track and Field ' game sold for around $12,000.00 , now that's a markup! :shock: 
I've just found this for refference , a few examples of what some original NES games can sell for ;

http://tinyurl.com/73tth9e

Might be worth checking any vintage games before destroying them! :lol: 
All the best for now , and kind regards ,
Chris :mrgreen:


----------



## MMFJ (Feb 1, 2012)

kuma said:


> I've just found this for refference , a few examples of what some original NES games can sell for ;
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/73tth9e


And, one of the lines from that page is worth repeating (and putting on your "OH, That's Why!" wall....)


> While the game itself is valuable, the winning bidder was most interested in the cardboard box it came in. Since most kids threw the box away after tearing open a new game, intact boxes for any game are really hard to come by


----------



## gold4mike (Feb 1, 2012)

One of the things I do when deciding what to scrap and what to sell is checking "Completed Listings" on eBay's Advanced Search feature.

If you scroll current auctions you see what an item is listed for but not what recent one's have actually SOLD for. 

I just closed two auctions yesterday for Exabyte and Sony backup tapes that netted me $44.15 for four tapes. I still have 27 more to sell. These were thrown in a box of wires and mice that I picked up from a local school board for free. 

I bought a distillation apparatus and a Rotavapor-R at a recent surplus sale for $130.00. I just sold the Rotavapor-R for $310.00 on eBay and still have the distillation glassware.

That reminds me - does anybody need some Medium size rubber gloves? I bought a box of them at the same auction for $1.00 thinking I could use them but I need Large.


----------



## AztekShine (Feb 8, 2012)

I googed it but cant find any weights on Au in game chipboards. That would be interesting !


----------



## kuma (Feb 8, 2012)

Hi all , how are tricks?
I hope all is well!



MMFJ said:


> kuma said:
> 
> 
> > I've just found this for refference , a few examples of what some original NES games can sell for ;
> ...



For sure! That's what I thought would net more for the NES in the longrun , ah well , I suppose it's gone to someone who will genuinely appreciate it.
In all honesty , I only ever looked at it as a kind of investment from the start anyway , hoping that it might be worth something when I got around to sell it.
That's why the box was still shiny , I hid it from the kids and the missus , :lol: 



AztekShine said:


> I googed it but cant find any weights on Au in game chipboards. That would be interesting !



Hi Aztek , welcome to the forum! :mrgreen: 
If you do manage to find any rough data on the precious metal content of different video games cartridges , be sure to share it here! 8) 
All the best for now everybody , and kind regards ,
Chris


----------



## MMFJ (Feb 13, 2012)

Someone PM'd me and asked for a serial number, etc. on the Playstation we've got.

Here's a link to the ad on our site where there's a bunch of pics of the unit and the original box - from just about any angle you'd want... hopefully that answers tons of questions.
http://tcoa.com/?id=2619 (I know, 'for sale' has its place elsewhere online, but this was discussed here - )


----------

