GamerVaultWhat are my video games worth?
Somewhere between what a trade-in counter offers and what a listing asks. Here is how to find the real number for your copies, and why the difference is usually bigger than people expect.
The three numbers, and which one is yours
Every game has at least three prices. There is the price a retailer will give you in trade credit, the price a game actually sold for recently between two people, and the price someone is asking on a listing that has not sold. Trade-in offers are the lowest by a wide margin, because the store has to resell the game and carry the risk. Asking prices are the highest, because anyone can ask anything. The number that matters is the middle one: what copies like yours have recently sold for.
Price guides such as PriceCharting track that middle number across thousands of sales, broken out by condition. That is the figure you should have in hand before you walk up to a counter or list anything.
Condition changes the number more than the title does
A loose disc and a sealed copy of the same game can differ by ten times or more. Complete in box, with the manual and any inserts, is typically worth noticeably more than loose, and for cartridge-era Nintendo games the box alone can be most of the value because so few survived. Graded and sealed copies live in a separate market again.
So the first question is never "what is this game worth?" It is "what is this copy worth?" Check the case for the manual. Check the cart for a reproduction label. Check the disc for scratches. Then look up the price for that condition, not the headline number.
Modern games: the trade-in trap
If you are pricing a shelf of PS4, PS5, Xbox or Switch games before a trade-in, know that store offers are set by an algorithm that assumes it will sell your game at the used retail price minus margin. For common titles that offer might be a few dollars. For the ones that went out of print, had a limited physical run, or are in a series people collect, the private market can pay several times the counter.
The useful move is to value the whole stack first, sort by value, and only trade in the bottom of the pile. The top five or ten titles are almost always worth selling separately, or keeping.
Valuing a whole collection in an afternoon
Looking up a few hundred games one at a time in a browser is how people give up and take the trade-in. The practical way is a collection tracker with a price guide built in: scan each case or search each title, mark the condition, and the total builds itself. You end up with a per-copy value, a per-platform total, and a number for the whole shelf that updates as the market moves rather than freezing on the day you looked.
That number is also the one your insurer, an estate, or a buyer of the whole lot will ask for, and "I have a priced inventory" is a very different conversation from "there are some boxes in the basement."
What makes a game worth more than you think
- Short print runs and late releases on a console's last years, when fewer copies were made.
- Regional versions that were never released in your market, or were released only in small numbers.
- First prints and variants (long-box PS1 cases, black-label versus Greatest Hits, early cart revisions).
- Complete boxes for anything from the cartridge era.
- Nothing at all for reproduction carts and fan-made games, which is why they should be flagged in your catalog rather than counted.
See the real value of every copy on your shelf
GamerVault shows loose, complete, sealed and graded values from PriceCharting for every game you log, with a total for each platform and the whole collection. Scan cases, search carts, import a list you already have. Free, no ads, and the numbers update as the market moves.
Value a shelf before the counter does. Free, no ads, no account needed to start.
Frequently asked
Are old video games worth money?
Many are, and a few are worth a great deal, but most common titles are worth a modest amount loose. Value concentrates in complete-in-box copies from the cartridge era, sealed copies, regional rarities and short-run late releases. Check your specific copies rather than assuming either way.
Why is a trade-in offer so much lower than the price online?
The store has to resell the game, carry it in stock, and make a margin, and its offer is set by an algorithm that ignores condition detail. Private sales between collectors pay closer to the market price for the copy you actually have.
How do I find out what my whole game collection is worth?
Catalog each copy with its condition in a tracker that has a price guide behind it. GamerVault totals the values automatically and keeps them current, so the collection number is always today's, not the day you last looked.