How much is a Game Boy cartridge worth?
Gray Game Boy carts, Color carts, and fakes of the expensive titles. The label and a boot in a real Game Boy are the check. The battery save may be dead.
Game Boy cartridges are the small gray or color-specific shells for the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and, in a different shape, Game Boy Advance. Loose common games are everywhere. A few titles, especially some Pokémon carts, are both genuinely sought and heavily counterfeited. A cart that does not boot, or that boots and will not hold a save because the battery died, is a used cart with that fault. Dead batteries are ordinary. They are also a repair, and a repair is not the same as a tested saving copy.
Fakes of the expensive titles often have the wrong label sheen, the wrong screw, or a board that does not match photos of an original. If you are paying a rare-title price, look at the board or do not pay that price. If you are selling, and you have not looked, say you have not looked. The video-game article in the journal is the wider aisle. This page is the cart in your hand.
What to look for
- Label and region
- Title, Nintendo seal, and a model code. A Japanese cart, a North American cart, and a European cart can be the same game and different objects, and some will not play on a regional console without hardware that is not the cart. Read the label. Do not assume language from the plastic color alone.
- The shell
- Cracks, a worn label, marker, and a third-party shell. The plastic color changed by system. A Game Boy Color cart has a different edge from an original gray cart. Use the right system name in the title.
- Save battery
- Many games save with a coin cell. If the game says the save failed, or the battery is corroded when you open the shell, say so. Replacing a battery is a known repair. Disclose a replaced battery. Some buyers want it. Some want untouched. Both deserve the truth.
- Board, on expensive titles
- The chips and the “Nintendo” marking on the board are part of how fakes are spotted. Compare with a current, trusted photo reference, not with your memory of a thumbnail. If it does not match, do not sell it as original.
What moves the price
- Title and system
- Original Game Boy, Color, and Advance are different markets. A common puzzle game and a chased RPG are different markets. Comp the exact title, region, and condition.
- Saves
- A cart that plays and does not save is worth less to anyone who wants to play a saving game. It may still be worth something as a repair project. Price the fault, do not hide it for three listings and a return.
- Fake tax
- You do not get to use original comps for a fake, and you should not pay original comps when the seller will not show the board of a title everyone is faking. Walk.
- Boxed
- Box and manual are a different, much less common object. A loose cart is the default. Do not borrow boxed comps. The complete-in-box note in the journal is the rule.
Where to sell
- eBay
- Exact title, region, tested notes, and a board photo if the title is one that is faked. Untested is allowed if you say untested. It is not allowed as a synonym for tested.
- Local game buyers
- Fine for a bag of common carts. Sort the titles first so a better cart is not averaged into a dollar-a-piece offer you did not have to take.
- Keep and play
- A common cart in a Game Boy you already own is one of the better small thrift buys. The battery may be dead. The game may still be fun on a playthrough that does not need a save.
What a photo can settle
Front and back labels, the edge contacts, and, if you opened it, the board without glare. Worth can read the title. It cannot see a counterfeit chip through a closed shell, and it cannot know if the save battery still holds.
Questions
- Is a dead battery a ruined game?
- The game can usually still play. The save is what fails. Replacing the cell is a standard repair if you can solder or if you pay someone who can. Disclose the dead battery either way. Do not call the cart fully working.
- Why are some Pokémon carts faked?
- Because buyers pay enough that a fake is profitable. That is the whole mechanism. The defense is the board and the label, compared carefully, plus a price that is not magically low from a seller who will not show either.
- Does the color of the shell tell me the system?
- It helps. Original Game Boy carts are gray. Color carts are often translucent or a different shape at the edge. Advance carts are a different, smaller format. Read the label anyway. Third-party shells exist.