Portable Gaming – Is there Still a Market for Nintendo DS Consoles?

The Nintendo DS is starting to show its age. Since the original DS came out there have been several other variations released, including the Nintendo DS Lite and the 3DS. If you still own one of the original DS consoles and you’re looking to upgrade, then you may be wondering what to do with your old hand-held.

There is still demand for the original Nintendo DS. Nintendo consoles and hand-helds have a huge following and there are still people who want to buy Game Boy Advances and even older Nintendo consoles!

There are many reasons why people may want to buy your old Nintendo DS. For starters, there’s a big homebrew scene around the DS. People who like to make their own homebrew games find it easier to work with the DS than some of the newer consoles, so they’ll be glad to take yours off your hands when you upgrade to a 3DS or a Vita.

 In addition, the older DS hand-heads are bigger than the DS Lite and far more robust. It makes sense to give a younger child something that’s a little harder to break and this makes the original Nintendo DS a popular first-time handheld console, just like the old Game Boy used to be.

Trading in Your DS

If you decide to sell a Nintendo DS, you’ll need to shop around to find a good deal. Keep your eyes open for special trade-in deals at your local game store. If you time your trade-in well you could get a big discount against a new hardware purchase.

If there are no offers going at your local store, you may find it better to trade in online instead. Stores such as Music Magpie offer good deals on entertainment-related trade-ins, including consoles and games. You can get a quote online and if you’re happy with the offer, then it’s easy to arrange a courier to come and pick up your handheld device and anything else you’re trading in with it. Make sure you have the original stylus, charger and any other bits and bobs that came with the console before you start the trading process.

Go through your games collection carefully before trading in your DS and check the value of your games on eBay. With most consoles, it makes sense to just trade in your games in-store or online, but there are some incredibly collectible games for the DS and you may be lucky enough to have some of them in your collection. The original Phoenix Wright games are particularly collectible, as are original Zelda titles and some of the Harvest Moon games. Do some research before you trade those games in four standard store prices.

Cameron Oliver is a tech blogger and gadget lover from Sussex. He enjoys handheld gaming on both the 3DS and Vita and believes that now is a good time to sell a Nintendo DS. His crowning gaming achievement is completing a speed run of Super Mario in six minutes.