PS1 Worth?

[JuanMena]

How much is a PS1 with box, manuals and controllers worth?

My brother-in-law says it's worth "a lot" as it is, but I keep telling him it's not that expensive.

So... who's right?

 

[FAST6191]

As ever something is worth what someone else is willing to pay.

What controllers? There are two broad classes (with analogue sticks and without) for the PS1, without tending to mean an older model and also less useful.

There are millions of them sold around the world, don't think you will have a particularly dry local supply either (enough will have floated across the border). Even more so if you count the PS2 and other backwards compatible options. Emulation is also a thing people do, though still a bit fiddly compared to some things where you set up a controller and load a ROM.

They are an optical drive based system so lasers being iffy is a common enough problem with few particularly nice fixes (no easy replacements with most being sourced from other dead ones, optical emulators kind of a thing but not widespread, no USB loaders) which does not help market confidence.

There are no particularly desirable models (outside of the obvious debug/developer stuff), though some decorative ones do exist which can be more desirable in some instances.

Modded (I assume that is almost the default around you, though earlier can use external cheat devices, or need nothing at all in some cases) means not so much.

Demand is not all that high -- while it was arguably gaming going mainstream then not so many seem in a great hurry to re experience it.

With box and manuals can mean something if the box is a particularly special example (quality or rarity) for someone to put on the nerd shelf. If it is something that had its corners bumped by being in an attic for the last few decades then maybe not.

To that end I would not be surprised if it funds a new game or two, or an evening out, or would be money you are really upset to lose from your wallet. Not going to retire off it and I doubt it would be "wow shipping costs more than I sold it for" either though.

Now PS1 games and accessories. Those can be a different matter.

 

[JuanMena]

Thanks FAST, that's what I told him. The Box is rat chewed so it's not in optimal condition.
It has two controllers one of each, that is one with analog and the other without them.

As for manuals, I don't think they're complete, it has a small booklet with screenshot of games, the manual on troubleshooting, a memory card and the cables. No games unfortunately.

But whatever, I knew this isn't worth that much... I'm starting to believe he's a SONY fanboy or something.

 

[djpannda]

....about $100 tops for great quality .. unless its a rare version. like the "Net Yaroze" but a normal ps1 is not worth that much

 

[FAST6191]

I would not bet on him being a fanboy.
I would bet more on "saw the prices for something like a vintage NES, SNES, Master System, Megadrive" and thought "ooh I might not have to pay rent out of my wages next month*" and ran with it, possibly more so if he also saw N64 ebay prices (or maybe some chancer at a local market) and thought "it was released at the same time so surely".

*hopefully you have not got the lesser seen "if I hold onto this for 10 years then" version.

If he knows enough to call it a playstation then probably not going to be the "it is old and old is valuable" thing, though I could be surprised.

 

[isoboy]

My PAL hdmi/sd card modded ps1 says hello.

 

[FAST6191]

I get treating the big PAL 8 and 16 bit systems as generally worthless pieces of junk by dint of the usually lousy ports of games and limited library even then (mind you prices of PAL games from that era might say another story, though that could just be a function of rarity). For the PS1 was it such a problem? By then, and especially when modded (which is a trivial act), it was just another console -- all the same games, controllers, features, video out, reliability issues...