Why even thinking of disposing them? I have a lifetime of regret to remember over when i foolishly sold my SNES console over the shinier PSX (now PS1). Games like Chrono Trigger and FFVI can never be replaced with a newer console!

And also, consoles are meant to generate revenues and hold its position in a particular generation for at least 5 years(with the exception of a few, Virtual Boy, and Dreamcast for example, God bless that Sega Machine, and i still mourn for its demise), that's the general lifetime of a console. You might have been buying the console late in its life, hence thinking that they pulled the plug early on it.