Original Xbox on the way out at Gamestop...

[KanYozakura]

I don't know if this has been posted or not, but as of February 9th Gamestop will no longer be accepting original Xbox trade-ins of any kind.

Here's the story.

I know that pretty much everyone on this site hates Gamestop and I've had many, many bad experiences, but this is bad news for Xbox collectors.  I remember that when they phased PS1 games out, the prices on eBay and the like shot up like no tomorrow.  I was waiting on games like Persona 2 to drop in price, only to have them yanked out from under my nose.  Persona 2 was $25 used at Gamestop near the end of the PS1 era and was available in almost every store; just look at how the price has ballooned now. 

If there are any holes in your original Xbox collection, I'd suggest bargain-surfing ASAP before they get pulled of the shelves.  Almost all of the games are under $10, and most are under $5.  As long as you're careful about the condition of the games you can score some real deals.

[VideoGameCritic]

I remember when I first got my Xbox way back in November 2001.  I was up in Towson (north of Baltimore) one night with my wife and her friend and they stopped at some arts and crafts store.  I went into the CompUSA next door.  I didn't think I'd be able to get an Xbox for a while (they were hard to get), but I asked the guy behind the counter and he said they had THREE!  I bought one and three games including Halo and Dead or Alive 3. 

Before walking out into the parking lot, I think I asked the security guy to keep an eye on me in case I got jumped (joke).  I remember it was starting to rain just as I was sticking the Xbox in the trunk.  I played Halo when I got home and I was captivated.  It one of those magical nights that gamers live for.

[KanYozakura]

Yup, I had the same experience Critic, although it was ironically at the end of the Xbox's retail life.  My then girlfriend now wife got me the Bawks for Christmas in 2005, the last major time it was available at retail, and Fable: The Lost Chapters, which I had been talking about for a year.  Playing that opening scene for the first time was one of the most enjoyable videogame experiences I've ever had.

I have to say that while my collection isn't nearly as large as the Critic's, I do have all the major ones from the 2600 to the present (still looking for that damn Odyssey...) and the original Xbox is my favorite of them all.  Its games had some of the best graphcis of its generation, and many of them still hold up to this day (even the early ones).  It has a number of exclusive and excellent PC ports that console gamers would have missed out on (Doom 3, Serious Sam, etc.) and Xbox Live was and still is the best online service around.  Plus there's even a number of exclusive niche Japanese game to break up the FPS domination.  Add on the massive HDD, custom soundtracks, ergonomic controller and great reliability and you have a classic console.

It's sad to see the original Xbox's retail life finally come to a close, but at least the prices are rock bottom and the availability sky high.

[Ozzybear1]

I've been going through the different bargain bins like crazy here getting my collection built up as much as possible for my xbox as it is my fav system at the moment. I think it sucks that this is happening, but so be it, luckily here, we have a good bit of vintage game places so can still get a good bit of games there.

[Edward]

Its amazing how cheap Xbox games are.   Its pretty much the perfect system to get a huge collection for.   Yeah,  I've bought many xbox games from gamestop than for probably cheaper than what they would cost for shipping alone online.   Most of its best games like Jade Empire, MechAssualt, Crimson Skies, and JetSetRadio Future I got for around 5 bucks from there.  

I would recommend everyone hurry up and get there to get the deals, but be sure and check the quality of the disc.   Its amazing the kind of crap gamestop will accept.    One time I tried to buy Super Monkey Ball Deluxe from them and it looked like someone keyed the back of the disc.


And don't buy from gamestop's website.   The one time I did, the game came with no case and manual, and the disc had 5 cracks in it.

[Ozzybear1]

I've been doing the same thing, its amazing how many extremely great games you can get for under 5 bucks right now, and most being some extremely underrated games!

[Gentlegamer1]

There's at least one good reason that the XBox was great: it generally has the best versions of the various arcade game compilations.