My mom made me sell my ps2 (with a ton of games, even with the buzz controllers, microphones, etc.) for 20 bucks. I die inside every time I remember this lol.
She also made me sell my PSP because I "didn't play" with it. Important thing to say: my parents refused to buy me new games, I only had a few and once I completed them I stopped playing...
Never personally sold any of my previously owned consoles, but I did "lose"* my Super Nintendo around 2001 and, sometime in 2011, my older brother messed up my PSone's lid and it "disappeared" shortly afterwards.
* This loss was either my mom or aunt getting rid of it because "nobody is using it anymore, it's just wasting space and gathering dust". The same end my brother's CCE Turbo Game (a brazilian famiclone) had when I was even younger
I've been feeling this lately as well. I'll see people post pictures of display cases filled with all their consoles and it makes me regret giving away my old consoles when I bought a new one.
Console, no. But somehow my parents convinced me to give away my copy of Pokémon Blue to one of my cousins. One of the dumbest things I've done, even if It wasn't entirely my fault.
My GameBoy Pocket, which I sold to get a GameBoy Color, which I sold to get a GameBoy Advance.
I do still have my GameBoy Advance, and I've upgraded it with an IPS screen and USBC rechargable battery. I just wish I had kept all my other handhelds so I could upgrade those too.
I have the same regret, I gave my N64 to a family friend in the late 90s. However, I later bouught a replacement N64 with two new-in-box gold controllers so I can still get my GoldenEye fix.
Not retro, but I sold my Nintendo DS, and copy of Platinum and Heart Gold for like $30 in high school. Probably got McDonald's with the money. I regret it so much.
My modded PS1. It was the first hardware mod I ever did. It was a mess. It booted games sometimes, froze periodically. But, I would love to go back and fix the mod today and play some classics. I do have an unmodded ps1 mini with the attachment screen I have since purchased, but it just isn’t the same.
I had curated perfect-to-me PS1 and PS2 game collections, and had the later, smaller versions of both systems. Both whole collections fit in a bread box, but I gave both away to save space. I cannot believe how much I regret that.
My Dreamcast… I had almost every game downloaded and there was so much choice I never committed to anything and got bored. It taught me a lesson about piracy and the value of attention.
Honestly, piracy for retro consoles is morally correct. Unless you're a collector, physical copies offer users no actual benefit beside "the experience," and only serve to wear down cartridge slot pins/plastic and CD drive lasers/belts.
The original developers are getting no money from retro sales, and people are scalping/overcharging retro games like crazy these days. In nearly all cases, the original publisher/developer no longer even offers these games for sales anymore. No proof of offering for sale means no moral claim to a lost sale. If you want to actually play a retro game, it is totally morally correct to just download it.
Of course it goes without saying, if by some miracle you can still purchse the game from the original developer or publisher, please do so. The developers deserve to get paid for their work, Joe Schmuck doesn't deserve to charge $900 USD for Panzer Dragoon Saga (good game, but not for that price).
Also, sidenote, I find a Dreamcast owner complaining about too much choice because of piracy to be highly ironic considering the Dreamcast lost developer support due to fears of lost sales caused by piracy lol.
Know what's funny? The Sims 2 for PC is officially abandonware. It's not for sale on Origin, despite EA still holding all the rights. You can't "legally" get it anywhere BUT from previous owners.
Twenty... pence? What is that, thirty cents in American money? You'd be lucky to get a piece of candy for that price these days. Yeah, Pops really got screwed on that sale. And so did you, by association.