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The 7 - Random - Original Atari/Kenner Prices from 1977-1982
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Simba
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#1 Posted on 3.2.05 0930.51
Reposted on: 3.2.12 0935.36
I'm trying to figure out how much money my parents spent on Atari and Star Wars toys during my childhood. The only thing I can remember is the original Kenner SW figures were around $2-$3. However, I can't remember anything about ships, playsets, etc. I remember waiting forever to get my Millennium Falcon because it was "expensive", according to Mom.

I'm also trying to remember the price of the Atari 2600 games when we bought them new. $30 seems to stick in my mind, but I could be off. I'm also curious about the orignal console price, although my parents went the cheap route with Sears Tele-Games.

Google didn't turn up much, other than current auction prices. If anyone can remember or find a source online, I would appreciate it.
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Guru Zim
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#2 Posted on 3.2.05 1321.47
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1322.09
You could try to track down a Sears catalog from the time frame that you are interested in. It should have all of the items that you are looking for.

I loved demoing Atari games at Sears when I was a kid.
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#3 Posted on 3.2.05 1336.30
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1337.29
Your local library may have Consumer Reports back issues - IIRC the November issues tended to have electronic toys sections and are an excellent reference and the old buying guides probably have price info as well.
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#4 Posted on 3.2.05 1359.17
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1402.42
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Atari-2600

According to this, the original retail cost for the Atari 2600 was $199 and in the package came the motherboard system, controllers and 6 games.



(edited by Blanket Jackson on 3.2.05 1500)
Zeruel
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#5 Posted on 3.2.05 1419.22
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1419.36
    Originally posted by Blanket Jackson
    http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Atari-2600

    According to this, the original retail cost for the Atari 2600 was $199 and in the package came the motherboard system, controllers and 6 games.



    (edited by Blanket Jackson on 3.2.05 1500)


According to this inflation calculator, http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/InflationCalculator.asp , that $199 in today's money would be around $448.35 (225.30% inflation rate)
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#6 Posted on 3.2.05 1427.12
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1429.01
Your local library may also have the Sears catalog. I checked the Sears Archives site trying to find a scanned catalog, but I did find a list of libraries that have them on Microfilm. Here's a link to the info I found there: http://www.searsarchives.com/catalogs/questions/findcatalogs.htm

We have them here locally according to that page, so I went to our library site to see if they might be in PDF. Looks like it is still Microfilm.

http://sdplweb.sannet.gov/Web2/tramp2.exe/do_keyword_search/guest?SETTING_KEY=ACREMOTE&index=default&material_filter=all&language_filter=all&date_filter=all&servers=1home&query=microfilm+sears


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#7 Posted on 3.2.05 1544.41
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1549.08
According to my Dad (yes, I called him from work), he paid about $180 for the system I had in 1978 . I do remember games being about $30 a pop.

Al I remember it coming with was Combat and Pong.
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#8 Posted on 3.2.05 1600.36
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1600.38
Mrs. JJD bought me the Atari Anthology for PS2, which is apparently $2550 worth of Atari games for $19.99. I'm astonished that we found these games entertaining just 20 years ago.
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#9 Posted on 3.2.05 1622.27
Reposted on: 3.2.12 1623.22
I distinctly remember buying Kung-Fu Master for the 2600 for $50 at Toys 'R' Us back in the day.
Simba
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#10 Posted on 4.2.05 0743.22
Reposted on: 4.2.12 0746.45
Thanks for the advice on checking out the library for catalogs/magazines. I'm so accustomed to finding everything online that I sometimes (well... always) forget about libraries.
vsp
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#11 Posted on 4.2.05 0927.00
Reposted on: 4.2.12 0929.02
I have an Intellivision box in my closet, from Christmas 1981, still bearing its $249.99 price tag from Lionel Kiddie City.

atariage.com has a bunch of the old Atari Age magazines scanned, which include (first-party) pricelists like this one.

JayJayDean
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#12 Posted on 4.2.05 1046.11
Reposted on: 4.2.12 1046.54
I LOVED Intellivision. "9-4-1-8."
Spaceman Spiff
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#13 Posted on 4.2.05 1112.31
Reposted on: 4.2.12 1113.38
    Originally posted by vsp
    I have an Intellivision box in my closet, from Christmas 1981, still bearing its $249.99 price tag from Lionel Kiddie City.

Great, now you've got that theme song stuck in my head.

"At Lionel Kiddie City, turn that frown, upside down!"
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#14 Posted on 4.2.05 1237.33
Reposted on: 4.2.12 1238.47
I remember 30 bucks being the barometer for Atari games as well. Sometimes, a REALLY COOL game-- like Pitfall 2 would check in at 40 bucks. I remember my dad's friend bragging about placing his 34.95 Atari Pac-Man pre-order at Sears. I also remember saving up 34 bucks of paper route money for the Smurfs video game. Missile Command was originally a premium game, but fell to below 30.

Alot of the Atari-branded games would routinely fall to the 20-25 dollar price range. Stuff like Night Driver, Chase and Video Poker. Activision's core titles often fell in that range. Stampede or Skiing would be 20-25... but the cool stuff like Chopper Command, Keystone Kapers or Seaquest would be around 30.

Star Wars figures were 2-3 bucks. 2-2.50 for the Target and K-mart places. Sometimes below 2 bucks when on sale. I remember getting alot of crap from my big bro when I started getting into the "expensive" 3 dollar GI Joe figures. Also why I never plunked down money for Super Powers and Secret Wars figures..they were 4 bucks!

Stuff like the X-wing, TIE fighter, Snowspeeder was about 15 bucks. The AT-AT (Walker) was a biggie at 35-40. The "mini-rigs" were 5 to 8 dollars. I remember getting my Falcon for 30 bucks...but I didn't get it until the second movie came out.

Also depends on where you bought most of your stuff. Target and Kmart were pretty normal, but the mall toystores like Circus World, KayBee, Toys by Roy would usually gouge ya'. The big box Lionel, Children's Palace and Toys R Us were closer to the Target prices. Catalog stores like LaBelle's/Best and Service Merchandise were notorious for selling things at CHEAP prices.
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#15 Posted on 4.2.05 1332.34
Reposted on: 4.2.12 1332.54
To add another touch of retrospective to this: My father bought my brother and I an Atari 2600 when we were kids, and tha ended up being the END of his peaceful sleep-in Sunday mornings...because I'd always wake him up when I got up (which was at 5:00am or so) to bug him to play Indy 500 with me.

That would eventually end when my father taught me how to boot up out Commodore 64 :-)
vsp
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#16 Posted on 4.2.05 1529.58
Reposted on: 4.2.12 1531.15
    Originally posted by JayJayDean
    I LOVED Intellivision. "9-4-1-8."


Heh. That's a post pattern, IIRC.

    Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff
    Great, now you've got that theme song stuck in my head.

    "At Lionel Kiddie City, turn that frown, upside down!"


I ransacked Kiddie City's clearance sales when they were going out of business years ago, though I wish I'd gone even further. I remember seeing rows of Vectrexes sitting there on clearance and thinking "Heh, I won't get one of those, I'll never find new games for them." Let's just say that they would've appreciated nicely. (I have three now, but they were hard-won through the flea market circuit.)
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