Selling Broken & Damaged Consoles & Games

18 guides to selling consoles & games that are broken, damaged or incomplete. Every one covers what it is worth at Fair and For Parts, how to grade and photograph the defect, and what buyers ask before committing.

Consoles fail in patterns that buyers already know by name — drifting sticks, failed HDMI ports, dead optical drives, overheating from dust. That familiarity is why faulty consoles sell so readily: a repairer can price the fix from your description alone. Discs and cartridges are a different market again, where surface scratches are routinely resurfaced and it is the case, manual and label condition that move the price.

Before you write it off

Try a different HDMI cable and port before concluding the console is dead, and blow out the vents. Overheating shutdowns are almost always dust, and a controller that drifts is usually a £4 stick module rather than a failed board. On disc drives, listen: a spinning drive that will not read is a laser or a belt, both routine, while total silence is worse.

What a defect actually costs you

WishThrift grades run New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts. Fair is roughly 45% of the working price and covers heavy use or a described fault; For Parts is roughly 25% and covers something not working or incomplete, sold as seen. Grades are seller-declared — nobody inspects them for you — so an honest grade plus a clear photograph of the defect is what actually closes the sale. All five grades explained.

Across the 18 guides below, For Parts prices run from about £1 at the low end to £225 at the top, against £5 to £900 for the same items in sound condition. Those are guide figures in sterling; WishThrift lists in your local currency and does not convert for you.

Every consoles & games guide

Frequently asked questions

Do faulty consoles actually sell?

Consistently. The common failures are well known and cheaply fixed, so repairers can price a job from your photographs alone. Name the exact symptom rather than saying ‘faulty’ and you will get better offers.

Are scratched games worth listing?

Yes. Disc resurfacing is cheap and routine, so surface scratches move the price far less than people expect. What matters more is whether the case, manual and original artwork are present, and on cartridges whether the label is intact and the save battery still holds.

Listing is free and there is no commission. Neither side pays a buyer-protection fee either — create a free account to list yours, or browse the full faulty and damaged index.