Random: eBay User Makes Small Fortune Selling Old Pokémon Game Boxes And Manuals In 'Good' Condition

Probably bought by people who didn't read the description and thought they would get the game

I recently had to get rid of most of my old game boxes and manuals to downsize and now I'm feeling REALLY dumb that I didn't think of this!

People pay an extortionate amount of money to say they were there at the beginning.

I don't get this, it's like hoarding but you don't even get the game.

...good for the person making the money though!

I’ve got my all my original Pokémon boxes and trading cards in mint condition. Gonna hold off a few more decades before thinking about selling tho. 😁

@SuperKMx agreed, despite putting “NO GAME INCLUDED” in listings I always message ahead now just to get the buyer to confirm they are aware when it’s just a box or just the pre order incentives. Too often the answer is ‘no’.

I got Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 last year.
Pokemon Black 2 was the most expensive NDS game i have ever bought from Ebay.
I spent Rp 1,500,000 or US$ 101.80 for Pokemon Black 2.
Good news, it came with latest Save Data from previous owner. Last position was 7 medals with Rare Pokemons inside. 😁
While for Pokemon White 2, it was plain vanilla so i started the game from White 2.
I got White 2 from my local online shopping website Tokopedia with cheaper price than Black 2 but it was still very expensive for an used game.

I traded a some DS Pokémon games in to an EB Games not knowing how valuable they till they me my total store credit. For some games that were a decade old, I got 2 day one Switch’s and BotW, personally I think it was well worth the trade, still got a Pokémon Pearl version too.

My mum got rid of all the boxes for my games... my star wars figures... all my Lego... she's so mean.

Got three Pokemon games boxed, Fire Red, Emerald and Black.

From a collection point of view, buying these makes sense to me, however, I am not that invested in collecting to bother.

Now I'm just annoyed remembering Pokémon Pinball exists and that we haven't gotten a new one in 17 years and probably never will...

That seems like a high price. I’ll echo everyone else and say he’ll probably get a message from the buyer “er it hasn’t arrived” or something else along those lines. eBay will always favour the buyer in any dispute - the seller will be basically done over here.

I have sold a small handful of game boxes in the past though - they will sell if in good condition. Anything Pokemon will sell pretty well.

A fully boxed copy of Red or Blue in good condition (including the game!) will comfortably sell for £40-£50.

As a former eBay PowerSeller, I absolutely guarantee that the person who bought this will shortly be filing a claim saying "BUT THE BOXES TURNED UP EMPTY THO."

@SuperKMx This is possible. But even more likely is the buyer will refuse to pay, and not respond to any emails or messages. Leaving you the hassle of claiming the 10% eBay fee back.

I agree that this is probably someone who didn't read beforehand. No way anyone would pay that much just for the boxes and manuals when the lot isn't worth that much money even with the game cartridges included. There were multiple bidders ready to pay the premium even though the title clearly states "Games not included" and the description has the same phrase twice.

@GloverMist What do you mean did you bin your game boxes and manuals?

Like others, I'm wondering if the highest bidder didn't see the "No games" in the description. More power to them if they did notice. Not sure if I'd personally sink that much into old boxes or manuals unless they were really rare.

I still have some (but not all) of my old Pokemon game manuals and boxes. But I'm not ready to part with them just yet.

@PhatToad I, err... might have done that, yes. I had no choice! Can’t believe I forgot that some people would pay money for that stuff.

Well, if you think about it, nobody keeps their boxes in good condition or might lose them overtime, but most of us still has the cartridges or cards...

I have collected all the Pokemon games, for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games, I just bought reproduction plastic DS-like cases for them. For the DS and 3DS games I only bought them if they came with the case. Some 3DS games were easy to find new. The Switch games were all purchased new so they obviously came with the case.

The thing is, a collector should have some kind of case to protect the games and I prefer the plastic reproduction cases because they are sturdier and look very nice on the shelf all lined up together. Manuals are optional but many of my DS games have the manual.

The people who want to buy the original boxes in good condition are not 'ignoring the description', they probably own the games loose and want to complete the package.

@Cevil Try telling that to your 12 year old self!

Collectors be crazy.

@Crono1973 That was my first thought, but it's definitely a lot of money for boxes and manuals. Could still just be a completionist, or someone who wants to resell their games but wants to get the most money for them selling them "complete", but I could also see it being someone who just didn't read the details of the sale.

Honestly, nothing surprises me anymore. Whenever I see some collectable going for way more than I would think realistic, I think "no way is someone going to pay that much" and up jumps someone to say they have already preordered it.

One problem I've found with storing cardboard boxes is a couple of my N64 game boxes became mouldy because of where I stored them. You don't think of these things when you're younger.

Wouldn't pay that much for all those boxes though, that's crazy.

i kept the manuals but i don't know how they have the foresight to keep the cardboard boxes

I bought a case and manual for my copy of Pokémon Pearl cause GameStop never gave me one back in the day. I don’t need any if the cardboard boxes though, that’s a little much for me lol.

Boxes and manuals are way more worth than the actual cartridges
You can save a lot of money by just collecting carts. But CIB collecting is the bomb.

I’ve got a fair amount of this stuff, with the games....I’m gonna be rich! Mwah ha ha ha!

@GloverMist Yes people sell this stuff on ebay etc. You'd be surprised with the amount of people that would pay for boxes and manuals. I was tempted myself to buy a box i was missing from one of my snes games i never went ahead with it though.

I cleaned out my room earlier this year and found my box of Pokemon Leaf Green (along with the manual) in fairly good condition. Even though I was throwing out any trash that I found, I knew as a rule of thumb NOT to throw away anything Pokemon-related due to their desired collectability.

So now along with Leaf Green, I have my boxes of Ruby, Emerald, and almost all the main Pokemon DS games with their manuals. I used to cringe at the idea of selling my Pokemon games if times got tough, but apparently, I could just sell the boxes and still do well.

Yeah, I think I'll just keep mine complete if you don't mind ...

Still doesnt beat my £3,000 for a sealed copy of Crystal!

I loved selling my old stuff on eBay! I games and systems going back to the NES. As I discovered what people would buy, I found so many little treasures in my own stuff! Empty boxes. Manuals. The black plastic cases old NES games used to come in. I could go on and on!

@Fandabidozi
Your avatar picture is really cute

$1375 is a fortune? I mean, it’s decent money off what he was selling, but I was thinking about 5 digits at least.

I started saving my Pokémon boxes realising they could be worth something from around Fire Red/Emerald time so I have those and also save my brother’s Leaf Green and Emerald boxes. I hope they’re still somewhere safe in my mum’s house... aha. I’ve kept all my manuals I’ve ever had though so they’re probably in the attic somewhere.

I still have pokemon gold, ruby, and leaf green boxes in mint condition with all my original inserts and receipts lol. Actually I have about 30 GBA boxes in the same condition.

I sold my boxed Red about 5 years back, had all 131 Pokemon, got nowhere near this much! Just what I bought it for retail years ago. XD I suppose the fact that you can't trade up from G/S/C factors into it's value, though.

I bought a Super Mario Land box and manual for £5 on ebay recently. The manual was genuine but I'm not sure about the box. It looks good though and is the next best thing I guess.

I have the original cartridge from like 1992.

Its because loads of ppl keep just cartridges on tins or drawers and lose the box and manuals (unlike me, lol). Still wouldn't go this far.

Talk about overselling the headline - small fortune? Really?