What's with Microplay in the U.S.?

[CartCollector]

A Microplay near me moved to another part of town, then dissappeared recently. The marquee for the store at the strip mall was there, but the store was cleaned out. I guess this stuff has been happening to others (see thread) (also here). Is Microplay really closing its stores in the U.S., as its website and recent mergers would suggest? If so, then too bad. Always liked the staff and selection.

Speaking of which, does anyone know of a good used game store I can go to in the Allentown area?

[50TBRD]

The Microplay here where I live in GA has been gone for a loooong time. All the Swap USAs around here are going too. The last one of the three or four that they had is one of the few places that I know of that still sells Old School games in a store especially since EB and Gamestop quit them. I found out about two Rhino stores in my area by looking in the telephone book. Rhino's a little exspensive but every once and a while you find something. I do miss Microplay though.

[Rabid Peanut-Butter]

Wow! I had no idea any were still around. There used to be two in my home town that closed down probably close to 10 years ago. That was a great store.

[Xexyz]

My local MicroPlay is still kicking. I can't share the same views on the store as you guys though. They're old-school used games are always overpriced...

[heyricochet]

Yeah I had one but it closed down like 3 years ago, was only open for a couple years anyway. They took my first preorder ever, DDR Konamix

[50TBRD]

Their prices, as I remember, are similar to Rhino or Swap USA where commons are a little over priced and populars are way over priced but you could still find some good deals on rare unheard of ones.

Microplay was the first place that I started shopping to find my old school games. I started my collection there. It is a shame that thier gone. Old School stores are disappearing fast and I could sure use them. Pretty soon Ebay, DP, GameTZ, and a few other places online will be the only places that you can get them.

[jdc]

I ran a Microplay franchise for 4 years here in Canada. I was managing with option to buy at the end of the 4 year term, so I got to take it for a really good test drive before laying down my cash.

I didn't buy it. Franchise fees were high and you got nothing for them. The distributorship that they owned was a nightmare. You were always getting the latest games after all of your competition had them. Allocation was tight. Expect maybe 6 - 10 copies of something like Halo, when you've got 50 people that want it.

The old school stuff was and still IS overpriced. I was looking at buying a few months after the Xbox had launched. The rental and used inventory of old PS2, PSX, N64 and DC software was high enough that it put far too high a selling price on the franchise.

As a consumer I still buy all of my games and consoles from them, but don't have to deal with the headaches of owning the thing.

[jezt]

The Microplay out here is awesom. Anchorage, AK. The guys are knowledgable and there is always something old behind the counter.

MICROPLAY

[c0ldb33r]

We used to have 3 here.

The last one shut down about 2 months ago.