Radio Shack's Crazy Retro Game Prices

[Nz17]

Might just be the place near me, but I walked into a Radio Shack and saw:

N64, no game, no controller, no box, no inserts, no manual, might not have even included A/V cables nor power supply (none was in the display case nor mentioned on the price card)
$100

Common Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, loose (no boxes, no manuals, no inserts)
$35

That is asinine.

[Jorpho]

Is Radio Shack in the used game business now?

[FieryReign]

Some of the Radio Shacks near me are closing up shop. Probably a good thing because their prices on everything are ridiculous, even the simplest of cables. Not to mention them trying to shove batteries down your throat if you do buy something. Even had a guy try to push an expensive warranty on me for a $10 pair of headphones.

[celerystalker]

Yeah, I wasn't aware they were trying to get into that market. Sounds like they have no idea how.

[celerystalker]

Sorry, phone double posted.

[JSoup]

Is Radio Shack in the used game business now?

No, they're in the going 'out of business' business now.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/255034573/...store-closures

[Nz17]

The place near here is an independent business which is a combination of a franchised Radio Shack and an Ace Hardware. The "Dirk Labrum Company" is what it's called, and it has been here for decades and my guess is that it isn't going out of business any time soon even if the Radio Shack corporation is bankrupt and goes completely belly up.

[The 1 2 P]

Most of the Radio Shacks near me have closed over the last year. But the one's that are still open(and the ones that have closed) never carried any retro games.

[Tanooki]

I've yet to see one of there stores close up in my area yet and I can think of at least 3-4 of them within a few miles of each other or so.

Those prices are disgusting.

I saw the same today, but at place in Indiana called Buy Backs. They had like a $20 sticker on a Space Invaders SNES cart. $50 on Pokemon Fire Red(has 2 copies, wonder why.) The only stuff under $5 was mismarks or sports crap no one wants. Even the stuff known to be turds was at least $10. I found one mismark I took advantage of and I've never bought there before as they always were high, just never like 2-3x over ebay high before. I got Duke Nukem Advance for $3. They mismarked it as Duke Nukem Forever XBOX on the sticker and I hoped they wouldn't notice it on there and left quickly with it. The game ranges like $15-25~ pre-shipped on ebay for the cart only.

I asked them about the prices in a nice way asking if they used ebay or amazon like half price, they said they don't price them, their main office does it in their computer and they just run the stickers so it's a nationally terrible store I guess.

[Steve W]

The thing is, Radio Shack used to be into the retro gaming business in the early '90s. They had a bunch of stock of new Intellivision and Atari games (probably bought the backstock after INTV closed its doors and bought a bunch of old Atari stock after they got out of the 8-bit console market) that you'd order out of a catalog inside one of their stores. I think I ordered a game or two and a spare Intellivision II controller. I guess it wasn't a success, so they closed that down in a few years. Looks like they're trying something similar again, although not with new product.

[wizardofwor1975]

RadioShack out here in California has pretty much gone belly up. At least 191 RadioShack stores in California will be closing in 2015.

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/s...ng-in-2015.htm

[Edmond Dantes]

Radio Shack isn' in the used games business, but I think some radio shacks (particularly the less-visited stores) have backstock from back when these things were new. One near me still had Nintendo 64 memory cards as recently as three years ago, and I bought one because I needed it and this way I was assured it was a first-party brand and not some off brand (you can pretty much only find 3rd party online).

But yeah, that's my theory--its some old stock these Shacks somehow held onto for years and never sold.

[Nz17]

Then let me debunk your theory, Edmond Dantes, because I know this store well (it's the only one in the area) and they didn't have this used game stuff until a few years ago (less than five). The owner heard from someone about how high eBay prices can get on retro stuff so he bought up a few NES games and hardware and put them on sale for crazy prices. These prices were made even crazier looking by the fact that a few doors down in the same building you can get $5-$8 NES and SNES games from a pawn shop running out of there. I laughed and balked at the prices with my mom back then when we left the store finding the prices to be asinine, but I guess people eventually bought them, making it worthwhile for him to keep going online to buy bulk lots or snatching up sets at Salt Lake City thrift/flea markets because he has a lot more stock on sale these days than back then.

By the way, he is selling the gold-colored Legend of Zelda NES games for more than the regular NES games and gray cart Zeldas because they are "more rare and special"... despite the real-world fact that the gray ones are less common than the golden ones but they all contain the same games.

Also, I used to rent NES games from this place back-in-the-day when NES games were still new, and these aren't those either, because not only is he selling GB & GBC games which weren't ever rented there, but all of these games lack the Radio Shack rental stickers which you would expect to see.

For what it is worth, he is also selling recently manufactured, generic third-party SNES controllers in box for $21 or $22 apiece. Out of all the game stuff which he has for sale, these are the best deal... and they lead me to believe that he is, indeed, not selling the consoles with controllers included despite the high prices of the consoles.

[tpugmire]

What store is this? I ask because I live in Utah as well.

[Gameguy]

Then let me debunk your theory, Edmond Dantes, because I know this store well (it's the only one in the area) and they didn't have this used game stuff until a few years ago (less than five). The owner heard from someone about how high eBay prices can get on retro stuff so he bought up a few NES games and hardware and put them on sale for crazy prices.

So this is less of a Radio Shack thing and just a random thing one franchise owner decided to do on his own? If so it's more or less the same if a franchise owner decided to sell stolen computers or crack out of the back room.

[Nz17]

@tpugmire
It is the sole Radio Shack in Vernal, Utah, the one located near the Jiffy Pawn Shop.

@Gameguy
More or less.

@Edmond Dantes
By the way, I sincerely believe your N64 memory card story. I've seen that sort of thing in stores before, "ancient" electronics still lurking about years after their prime. I've seen old N64 memory paks at Radio Shack during the PS2/3 era, old GBA games at K-Mart during the 3DS era, and old PS1 games at Wal*Mart during the PS3 era.

[fergojisan]

@Edmond Dantes
By the way, I sincerely believe your N64 memory card story. I've seen that sort of thing in stores before, "ancient" electronics still lurking about years after their prime. I've seen old N64 memory paks at Radio Shack during the PS2/3 era, old GBA games at K-Mart during the 3DS era, and old PS1 games at Wal*Mart during the PS3 era.

I found Activision's Boxing for the 2600 in a Toys r Us in 1995. $5.99!

[Tanooki]

Hah nice. I vaguely recall things like this, maybe 10 years after the fact stuff. I remember back west the Toys R Us very late into the SNES era probably creeping up on the N64 and Virtual Boy they still had some NES stuff for sale. They threw it all sloppy and rough all over this couple of shelves at the end of the isle ( not end cap ) and it was a field of goodies. Sadly I had the NES games I wanted, but they had brand new NES Advantage joysticks (a few or so) for $4.99 so I snapped that up. They hadn't made those things since like the like-NES era as those had the earlier 'action set' box look with that white lettering print and bluish/black background with the stars on it. Mind you it's far less nuts seeing it there than a Radio Shack but still, way late. I think they found old stuff in the back somewhere beyond when they were garbage selling the top loaders for like $20 new on a pallet to get rid of the things.

[Steve W]

I used to love hitting the bargain video game racks at Toys R' Us. I got my first Intellivision around 1987 and picked up heaps of $1.99 games like Utopia and Star Strike new. They had a bunch of Vectrex games that I didn't get because I had never seen the console in person and didn't think I would ever have one of my own (man, do I regret not picking those games up). I also remember loads of Commodore 64 Electronic Arts games. Around 1992 I also remember many, many copies of the final Intellivision release, Stadium Mud Buggies, all with those day-glo red markdown stickers on them.

[Atarileaf]

Not exactly the same thing, but around 1992 my wife and I walked into a Radio Shack and they were clearing out everything to do with the Tandy Color Computer for a buck each. I bought it all. No actual computers or hardware but I bought a big cardboard box full of disk and cart software all still sealed. Wish I still had that stuff, coco stuff is going for insane prices lately, especially coco 3's