How to Sell Consoles & Games

Used consoles and games sell for roughly £5 to £900 on WishThrift, and listing it costs nothing — no fee, no commission, no buyer-side charge. Consoles and games are the fastest-moving category on any second-hand marketplace, because the buyer usually knows exactly which model they want and simply needs one cheaper than retail. Completeness beats cosmetic condition every time — a scuffed console with every cable and a working controller outsells a pristine one missing the stand.

The short version

Guides in this section: 18
Range covered: £5 – £900
Every guide covers: prep, the photographs that sell it, the title, buyer questions and the fee maths
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price

How to sell consoles and games, item by item

What you keep on a typical sale

On a £120 sale — around the middle for this category — a 20% commission would take £24 and a 10% one £12. On WishThrift you keep the whole £120, and the buyer pays no surcharge either. The full fee comparison sets out what each marketplace actually charges.

When consoles and games actually sell

Gaming peaks hard from early November to Christmas, and consoles listed then routinely sell within days. The other reliable window is the fortnight after Christmas, when people sell the console they have just replaced and buyers spend gift money. Values step down whenever a new hardware revision launches, so there is rarely any advantage in waiting.

Before you list anything

Two things decide most of the price in every category, and both are settled before you write the listing. The first is the condition grade: WishThrift uses five — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each one means is worth reading, because grading optimistically does not raise the price, it just produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else. The second is the price itself: the gaming value guides price each item across all five grades.

Ready to list? It takes about two minutes and costs nothing — create a free account or see how selling works.

Frequently asked questions

Do consoles sell better with games?

Almost always. Bundles attract fewer lowball offers because the buyer sees a complete setup rather than a console they still need to spend on, and discs are cheap to add to a parcel.

Should I factory reset before selling?

Always, and deactivate the console from your account first. A console still tied to your account causes real problems for the buyer and is the commonest complaint in this category.

Does controller drift stop a console selling?

No, provided you say so. Drift is extremely common, cheap to repair and well documented, and buyers price it in calmly — but they will not forgive discovering it themselves.

See also: all selling guides · what consoles and games sell for · browse live gaming listings.