Man, my local game shop just keeps getting worse...

[drunkninja]

It's a Vintage Stock store, for anybody familiar with the chain.

Seriously, when they first opened, they were freakin' fantastic. Good classic game selection, and they had a majority of their games on the shelves with only the real rare stuff behind the counter (like Chrono Trigger and such). But as of late, the store has gotten more and more "chain"-like. Prices suddenly inexplicably rise on games that were half of their current price a week ago (you can see this if you happen to find a cartridge they haven't marked up), and trade-in values have gone WAY downhill (big surprise there:roll:). Then today, I see they've replaced their tidy and out of the way price stickers (typical yard sale style) with huge yellow stickers with the price in huge text and a bar code. Not a big deal....except that they saw it fit to place them RIGHT ON TOP OF THE CARTRIDGE LABELS. Yeah, so much for that mint condition cartridge, eh? I hope that stuff is easy to remove... Which brings me to one last complaint: as far as sale value is concerned, they don't even care about the condition of the cartridge. Last time I was there, there were two copies of Mega Man X, one in near mint condition, the other, torn, dirty, and written on all over. The price for both? $10. I mean, WTF? I know for a fact that they didn't BUY those cartridges for the same price...

Oh, and this isn't related to gaming, but they outright sell Taiwanese pirated anime DVDs, game OSTs (I'm talking Alion, EverAnime, and the like), and such for full price. Stupid. (Not to mention illegal:|)

I know, I know, this is probably a pointless rant, but seriously, this store is such a shadow of it's former self and it just sucks, especially since it's basically the only place in town that has a large selection of classic used games.

[Malon_Forever]

^ Atleast you have classic gaming store near you. The closest thing I got is GameCrazy...


I hate when game stores put the sticker on the label of the game. I remember trying to buy used N64 games a while back, and all of them had stickers on the labels...

[Clownzilla]

Our Vintage Stock in Springfield, MO does the same thing. Price stickers right across the front of the label. One of my favorite OMG moments at the store was when they had Return Fire for PS1 in the "clearance bin". I believe that is was around $15 which was nice but the funny part was that they ended up cutting the long box manual in two so it would fit in a smaller case. That made me sick (they did that with all their long box manuals).

[Tupin]

Most of the classic game stores around here are local chains that keep the prices reasonable or mom and pop stores that have a better selection but more expensive games.

There's also a national chain that is locally owned (Play N Trade) and its competition is a local chain. (Slacker's)

To compare, I bought Ms. Pac-Man for the NES for $4 at Play N Trade and I saw it for sale at the mom and pop store for $17. Of course, they have to compete.

[swlovinist]

While I have AWSOME indie stores in Portland(Billy Galaxy, Game Trader, Game Wizards), There isnt crap in my home town(45 minutes away from Portland). I would take a crappy local game store over Gamestop or Gamecrazy anyday.

[Malon_Forever]

There use to be a local classic game store in Buffalo called Game Station, but was closed one day I went there. :(

[Therealqtip]

I remember when game crazy sold classic games, I knew I shoulda bought that metal gear for NES...oh and Twin Snakes for the Gamecube, guess how much? yea 8-13 dollars, god that coulda been a 40 dollar profit or better, something to add to my collection. That's where I got my boxed dreamcast for only 20 dollars (not sure if it came with styrofoam but still has the plastic you put the wires.) Ah good times

I blame Rock Band and guitar hero for taking up way to much space in stores.

[sirhansirhan]

I blame Rock Band and guitar hero for taking up way to much space in stores.

I like that theory.

[Therealqtip]

I like that theory.

It's actually is EGM's theory in their August 08 issue hehe, they had an article of it so yea it's the truth I mean I finally saw how big a damn Rock Band box is, you can't fit much with that in the way.

[Wraith Storm]

It's a Vintage Stock store, for anybody familiar with the chain.

Seriously, when they first opened, they were freakin' fantastic. Good classic game selection, and they had a majority of their games on the shelves with only the real rare stuff behind the counter (like Chrono Trigger and such). But as of late, the store has gotten more and more "chain"-like. Prices suddenly inexplicably rise on games that were half of their current price a week ago (you can see this if you happen to find a cartridge they haven't marked up), and trade-in values have gone WAY downhill (big surprise there:roll:). Then today, I see they've replaced their tidy and out of the way price stickers (typical yard sale style) with huge yellow stickers with the price in huge text and a bar code. Not a big deal....except that they saw it fit to place them RIGHT ON TOP OF THE CARTRIDGE LABELS. Yeah, so much for that mint condition cartridge, eh? I hope that stuff is easy to remove... Which brings me to one last complaint: as far as sale value is concerned, they don't even care about the condition of the cartridge. Last time I was there, there were two copies of Mega Man X, one in near mint condition, the other, torn, dirty, and written on all over. The price for both? $10. I mean, WTF? I know for a fact that they didn't BUY those cartridges for the same price...

Oh, and this isn't related to gaming, but they outright sell Taiwanese pirated anime DVDs, game OSTs (I'm talking Alion, EverAnime, and the like), and such for full price. Stupid. (Not to mention illegal:|)

I know, I know, this is probably a pointless rant, but seriously, this store is such a shadow of it's former self and it just sucks, especially since it's basically the only place in town that has a large selection of classic used games.

This sums up EXACTLY how I feel about Vintage Stock.

They used to be a VERY VERY good store but as you said, have become more chain like and have just been going downhill since. The ones here in the Tulsa area have actually started keeping the game disc in the case and then shrink wrapping it. So now you can no longer open the case first and inspect the condition of the instructions or anything.

Their prices have skyrocketed and I honestly think that they back most of their prices against Ebay. I have seen many changes at the store over the years that has lead me to believe this. .. which SUCKS. I love Ebay but it has destroied a thing called "Local market Value".

The ONLY decent place that I have found around the Tulsa area is still Game X change. They have their problems too, but they much better then the Vintage and Gamestop.

[Kitsune Sniper]

At least you still have game stores.

Down here, I had three choices, but now it's down to two:

* Gamestop (and we all know how we feel about Gamestop)
* Chinese / Korean stores which sell super common PS1 games for $35 and rare PS2/GC games for $70

The locally owned Tavio's Games apparently closed down sometime this month - I was on my way to the flea market when I noticed the place had a "For Rent" sign on it. The prices WERE higher than retail but they were on par with eBay's prices (after shipping costs). I was sad to see the guy go. I haven't even seen his booth at the flea market lately...

[dao2]

All I got is fuckign gamestop :| 2 in the same mall too...

[drunkninja]

Our Vintage Stock in Springfield, MO does the same thing. Price stickers right across the front of the label. One of my favorite OMG moments at the store was when they had Return Fire for PS1 in the "clearance bin". I believe that is was around $15 which was nice but the funny part was that they ended up cutting the long box manual in two so it would fit in a smaller case. That made me sick (they did that with all their long box manuals).

Heh, this is actually the one I was talking about. I live about 25 miles north of Springfield. I saw this today in the store on Kansas, I assume the Glenstone store has done the same...*sigh* I miss the good ol' days of Caveman (before Vintage Stock completely took over).

And Wraith: I totally forgot about GameXChange, there's a couple in my area too. I'll have to remember them, they used to be THE place before Vintage Stock and Gamestop came along, and I just kinda forgot about them...

[Steve W]

Around here, Vintage Stock ended up buying out the Movie Trading Company store locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. They've been bringing in a few classic games, and thankfully, they don't seem to realize what they've got. They do tend to mark up a few NES games that they think might be worth something, but stuff like loose Atari 2600 cartridges are all $1.99. I've bought a few fairly rare games there (Rescue Terra I!) for those prices. Although I don't understand why they charge $9.99 for loose Colecovision carts, which are all dirt commons. They have some odd pricing ideas there. But I manage to score good stuff there, so I don't mind.

[Clownzilla]

Heh, this is actually the one I was talking about. I live about 25 miles north of Springfield. I saw this today in the store on Kansas, I assume the Glenstone store has done the same...*sigh* I miss the good ol' days of Caveman (before Vintage Stock completely took over).

And Wraith: I totally forgot about GameXChange, there's a couple in my area too. I'll have to remember them, they used to be THE place before Vintage Stock and Gamestop came along, and I just kinda forgot about them...

Unfortunately, they both are the same. The Glenstone store doesn't have their shrink wrap machine.........yet. I agree with you on Caveman being a much better store. They would treat me right and have good customer friendly business practices. Vintage Stock is FAR from that reality:(

[Sergeant Sega]

I wish we would have some vintage gaming stores here in Norway, but alas, the last we had got bought up by Game. That chain of stores was called Spiderman, and they got some inflated prices, but the prices are like that in all of Norway anywho, I was just happy to visit a different consept store.

Now we're stuck with Gamestop / EB Games as well as Game and of course the chain I work in, Spaceworld.

[emceelokey]

All I got is fuckign gamestop :| 2 in the same mall too...

You live in Daly City?
Serramonte mall is the same way.

It seems like the malls that had an EB Games and a Gamestop tend to keep both stores open.

As for the op's original rant. I live in Vegas and within about a 3 block radius there's 2 Gamestops, a Game Crazy, a place called Game Rapair, and a place called Game Over. There used to be a place called Game World and they closed down early last year. Unfortunately out of all of those shops, I would probably prefer GameCrazy over any of them. Game World used to pretty much be like that vintage Stock store you mentioned and it pretty much ended the same wat VS has seemed to evolved to. Towards the end they had the BOOTLEG ASS games that they were trying to pass of as official and charge the ebay prices for them. I remember they had a bootleg version of Intelligent Qube for Playstation and not only was it bootlegged but they tried to sell it as an import version with their photocopied cover of the Japanese version. They were trying to sell that for $50 and this was in like '04. It just totally didn't make sense because the only reason people cared about that game was because it was hard to find the American version... so they make a bootleg version of the Japanese version?! Not only that but they were selling NES emulator compliations for the Dreamcast for $30 and stuff like that.

You really make me want to rant about that store. But basically all of the Indy stores abide by eBay prices now. Game Over just opened up late '07 and the first time I went in there I, first off sawsomeone working there from Game Repair that is a total dick, but I checked some of their stuff out and they had a "new" as in Gamestop type of new (opened) pool game for the PSP. I think it was like Detroit Hustle or something like that and they were asking for $30 for that when you can go to Best Buy or Walmart and pick that game up NEW for $10 and then I saw an import version of Soul Calibur 2 for GAme CUbe and they were asking for $35 for that when you can get an official U.S. version for less than 10.

I would love to have a great indy store but it's pretty much highly unlikely that one will be able to have both a great selection with decent prices nowadays. eBay and online retailing have pretty much made those placed endangered species.

[Sergeant Sega]

It seems like the malls that had an EB Games and a Gamestop tend to keep both stores open.

The same has happened in Norway, but not with EB Games / Gamestop. Gamestop bought up Free Record Shop in Norway, and chose to have both the new "Free Record Shop Gamestop" and the orignal Gamestop (or EB Games in some places still) open.

I don't understand why, because they have to pay twice the rent, twice the personell cost and compete with themselves to get the same customers. Makes no sense... So in the shoppingcentre I work in, we now have Spaceworld (my store), EB Games, Gamestop, Platekompaniet (huge record, video and games store) and Lefdal (kind of like Best Buy only smaller). Pretty good to be a gamer in that shoppingcentre :D (atleast if you want games for this generation)

[Battlehork]

I have about eight gamestops within 15 minutes (two were EB, two were Rhino) and a store called "Game Force" which some time ago basically stopped selling new videogames and started selling mod chips, bootlegs and cellphones.

[maxlords]

Most indy stores HAVE to price at eBay or higher, otherwise people with no jobs come in, buy up their stock, eBay it, and don't trade anything in. All of the sudden the store has squat for stock and no one goes there. I've seen that happen to more than a few stores.

Now that's a worst case scenario of course. But it happens. I know several indy store owners who price up their rarer games just to keep em on the shelf long enough for people to want to come back to look for rarities. At this point, I rarely buy retail and trade for most of my stuff at one of the VERY few indy stores that gives good credit. I pay him back by bringing him ALL of my trade stock....and a lot of it is good stuff. I get most of my new games dirt cheap this way. Credit is a sucker's game anymore most places though and people know it. To be cost effecdtive, most places have to give almost no credit for anything and price it up like crazy. Welcome to a recession/depression economy.

[Hardcore]

We had Rhino. Rhino had one location in one town near me, and another in another town about 30 minutes away. Great stores. Great people, great classic selection.

Then GameSlop bought them all out. I will never purchase a game from them again. I recently walked into one of the former Rhinos. Two boys stood behind the counter while I looked around, and completely ignored me. Didn't even ask if I needed help as I approached the portable section near the counter. Gamestop will never get another cent from me.

[Tupin]

The only thing that stores around here really lack are imports, and when they do have them, they are bootlegs.

I did find one store that sold imports for a third of what they are being sold for on eBay, but the store was in terrible condition and I can only assume the games were too. Plus, everything smelled of cigarette smoke, so I can only assume their SNES selection isn't doing so good either. :puke:

Still, might have to hold my nose and go there again.

[nildem]

I work at the Vintage Stock store in Independence, Missouri. Regarding the yellow stickers that were mentioned in the OP, they are incredibly easy to remove. I LOATHED the older square white stickers which were nearly impossible to remove without damaging whatever they were on. I'm not sure why the employees at the store you're near decided to place them on the label itself, though. That's ridiculous.

[icbrkr]

Our Vintage Stock in Springfield, MO does the same thing. Price stickers right across the front of the label. One of my favorite OMG moments at the store was when they had Return Fire for PS1 in the "clearance bin". I believe that is was around $15 which was nice but the funny part was that they ended up cutting the long box manual in two so it would fit in a smaller case. That made me sick (they did that with all their long box manuals).

Caveman (before Vintage Stock bought it in Springfield) used to have great prices as well as did the Book Barn in Joplin and even the Vintage Stocks in my area. Then one day, they decided to 'corporatize' the whole chain and the prices went through the roof. Gone are the good deals I used to get - now their stock just sits there at insane prices. It's too bad, a few of us would go in there on weekly pilgrimages (we have 3 Vintage Stocks in my area) but if you walk into one and see what the prices are, you know that even if you found it at any of their other stores it would be the same price. It took the fun out of it.

[brykasch]

Our Vintage Stock in Springfield, MO does the same thing. Price stickers right across the front of the label. One of my favorite OMG moments at the store was when they had Return Fire for PS1 in the "clearance bin". I believe that is was around $15 which was nice but the funny part was that they ended up cutting the long box manual in two so it would fit in a smaller case. That made me sick (they did that with all their long box manuals).

neat another springfieldien!, ya vintage stock was much better when it was caveman, but I guess somethings better than nothing...

[SegaAges]

Gamers here in Omaha did the same thing.

They have some games they think are rare, but are really not. Whichever college foorball game for snes that had frazier on the cover, they got him to sign it, and then proceeded to sell the game for $75. This was years and years ago, and I am pretty confident that the game is still there.

I will say though, if you are shopping for something they are not ready for, you can get a great deal (apparently they just give almost all their sega cd games a pricetage of $5. all are super common though)

[drunkninja]

I work at the Vintage Stock store in Independence, Missouri. Regarding the yellow stickers that were mentioned in the OP, they are incredibly easy to remove. I LOATHED the older square white stickers which were nearly impossible to remove without damaging whatever they were on. I'm not sure why the employees at the store you're near decided to place them on the label itself, though. That's ridiculous.

Yeah, nearly the entire NES/SNES stock is like that. There's a few that are on the back of the cart or under the label, but yeah. Hopefully they are as easy to remove as you say, I'd hate to find a good game and take it home, only to accidentally rip off the cartridge label along with the sticker.

But I agree with icbrkr, as soon as they 'corporatized', as he put it, that's when things went downhill. And not just the games department either. My brother used to be an extremely loyal Vintage Stock/Caveman customer when it came to comics, but it seemed after they changed the way they do business, he started getting missed subscriptions, and they just generally seemed to care a lot less about it. He has since taken his business to Gamemaster (another local shop around here) and couldn't be happier. Vintage Stock just doesn't have that "feel" anymore. Can't really describe it, but I'm sure a number of you know what I mean.

[Coldguy]

Have you consider going on to http://retromap.net to find more stores in your area. Maybe another one is a little bit further but has a better selection.

[mnbren05]

8 Game Stops/EB's within 15 miles... my area has 9 (within 15 miles) and the one mall houses 3 of them all within a 300 foot radius. Not to mention 2 GameCrazy's and such. Only one local game store is in my area and they are the rudest, most ingnorant, and greedy game store I have ever been to. (I've ranted about them before on here and AA). Act of god last week though and the place mysteriously burned down (accident or fraud you decide), and I could care less if they re-open. I will never miss shrink wrapped (in their machine of course) Ultra Rare Super Mario Bros for $40.

[drunkninja]

I will never miss shrink wrapped (in their machine of course) Ultra Rare Super Mario Bros for $40.

We're talking Zimbabwe dollars, right? RIGHT?

That's just effing crazy, lol.

[Tupin]

We're talking Zimbabwe dollars, right? RIGHT?

That's just effing crazy, lol.
Hey, if it was really factory sealed, it would be worth like $130.

I seriously wonder if there has ever been a guy who resealed a loose NES game and tried to pass it off as factory sealed.

[plastic]

For living in Northwest Arkansas, we actually have a great selection of classic gaming stores, however, some are less than desirable.

We have a Replay, FIVE Game-X-Changes, three vintage stocks, and a "Game Lot". All of them are fairly decent (Game X Change seems to have random greatness, and I found a copy of Mars Matrix for $10 at Replay)

But, MAN... I hate going to Vintage Stock. They have outrageous prices... The kicker being, that yesterday I found a handful of good Dreamcast titles. They all had Game X Change stickers, with fair prices... Then, right next to it was the Vintage Stock label, almost double the cost. Idiotic. You would think they may have the sense to at least REMOVE the previous store's labels.

Game Lot, oh man... I walked in, saw they had a huge stock of vintage games and accessories... Asked where the Dreamcast stuff was, to be asked, "Why would you want that? We don't stock Sega." Goodbye.

[murdoc rose]

vintage stock sucks

:smash:

Like most game stores they just suck plain and simple. Very often the only place worth looking is a bargain bin that is still usually overpriced and they often hire people that don't know jack about video games.(personally something that pisses me off) I rarely go to those places but luckily there is small game shop in town that isn't bad. By no means great but isn't bad. The thing I like about them is they sell nes games at 4 bucks or buy 2 get one free. This doesn't go for every nes game but most of them. I go in there enough to casually know the people that work there so its a fun friendly environment.( They also don't mind me taking my dp guide in the store like some places) I don't know why all game stores can't be like this. I should probably add that I'm the only person that has actually buys the nes games.

[darkwingduck13]

plastic, so you're the one I'm competing with in the NW Arkansas area! ;)

Actually, I'm not on the hunt as much as I used to be. Game X-Change has been a major factor in my collection, though, and I'll never ever forget getting the harder-to-find Saturn RPGs at the one in Springdale for $9.95 and $14.95 apiece right after the system died off at retail...or picking up Valkyrie Profile for the PSX for $9.95 at the Game X-Change in Harrison.

Then there was the manager at the Game X-Change in Mountain Home who liked to buy my anime. I'd pick up the DVDs for $3 apiece at Dollar General or Big Lots and trade them in to him for $7-8 credit. That one went out of business last year, though, unfortunately...though I can see why.

Typically, I hit up 2 in Fayetteville, the one in Springdale (along with Vintage Stock) the 2 in Bentonville/Rogers (along with Vintage Stock), the one in North Little Rock, the one in Ft. Smith, the one in Harrison (which used to be a haven for Genesis/Sega CD titles).

I agree with most of the sentiments about Vintage Stock, though. The last time I traded any games in there (which was sometime last year) the guy at the counter actually looked them up on eBay in front of me before shooting me a trade-in value. It was high vs. what I paid, so I took it...but the way the store is run in general these days is definitely not great. The stores in Springdale and Rogers still have some NES carts with the old Caveman stickers on them...or they did the last time I went in. :P

[icbrkr]

For living in Northwest Arkansas, we actually have a great selection of classic gaming stores, however, some are less than desirable.

We have a Replay, FIVE Game-X-Changes, three vintage stocks, and a "Game Lot". All of them are fairly decent (Game X Change seems to have random greatness, and I found a copy of Mars Matrix for $10 at Replay)

If you're mentioning Replay, then you've gotta be right down the street from me :) Replay is owned by one of the people who used/may still own the Game Xchange in Fayetteville (by the mall). I hit Replay occasionally for used Wii/360/GC stuff. Back before the Vintage Stock started to suck, I found a Astrocade with 30 games (2 protos) and a PC Engine Duo at the Rogers VS.

@Darkwing: Actually, you're competing with me and Heath (Grimbal) more than anyone. We pretty much drained this area dry over the last 5 years :)

[grimbal]

Replay is owned by the same person that owns the GXC stores in Fayetteville and Fort Smith for sure, probably owns more of them now. Used to work with them at the Springdale GXC back in 97-99.

I loved V.S. back before the change. I've been in there once or twice in the last six months. I pretty much stick to Replay, GXC and the thrifts. Don't go to GameCrazy anymore after the manager became a jerk. Gamestop I don't bother with. I'll hit up EB only for pre-orders or special sales.

[darkwingduck13]

icbrkr: Makes me glad I started my freshman year of college then...1998. ;)

God, the number of games I've gotten out of Game X-Change...I couldn't even count them all. It helps that they give $2 credit for strategy guides. Back in the day I'd buy them for a penny apiece at Toys R Us (Fayetteville & Ft. Smith) and Best Buy (Fayetteville & Ft. Smith) and trade them in...spend .54 at Best Buy for 50 guides and make $100 in credit between 5 Game X-Changes? Heck yes. :D Too bad I don't have the time or motivation these days...but it's nice that those places financed my 8-bit NES through GameCube/PS2 collections. And I didn't even usually have to trade in multiples of each title to each store. :)

[icbrkr]

icbrkr: Makes me glad I started my freshman year of college then...1998. ;)

God, the number of games I've gotten out of Game X-Change...I couldn't even count them all. It helps that they give $2 credit for strategy guides. Back in the day I'd buy them for a penny apiece at Toys R Us (Fayetteville & Ft. Smith) and Best Buy (Fayetteville & Ft. Smith) and trade them in...spend .54 at Best Buy for 50 guides and make $100 in credit between 5 Game X-Changes? Heck yes. :D Too bad I don't have the time or motivation these days...but it's nice that those places financed my 8-bit NES through GameCube/PS2 collections. And I didn't even usually have to trade in multiples of each title to each store. :)

You win there. I didn't move here until 1999 and didn't actively start collecting until 2001. So.. I guess it's been 7 years I've been taking up all the deals :)

Grimbal still does your penny guide thing - I think that's the only way he buys games anymore :D Nice to see other fellow collectors around here - I thought I knew everyone by now!

[darkwingduck13]

Yeah, back when I was starting out I was bloodthirsty about the guide thing. I seriously would be at Best Buy the morning the guides dropped and fill a cart or a handbasket, depending on how many different guides dropped that week. I had a friend that would watch for the drops for me and make a list. This was back before CheapAssGamer got big, and I maintained a drop list on the other game deals site which I can't even remember the name of now. :P

I literally hooked it up with a Genesis, Sega CD, X'Eye, Nomad, Gamecube, PS2, and hundreds and hundreds of games for pennies apiece during those days. I sort of miss it sometimes...toward the end, when my free time was dissipating to the point that it wasn't worth it any more, I noticed that people were buying the few penny guides that I would leave behind at Best Buy for the next guy who came along and trading them into the Game X-Change on Joyce...might have even been you guys. :D I'm just glad I wasn't the only one doing it.

Do either of you two know the Hispanic guy who seems to more or less be the manager of that particular Game X-Change? He's usually sort of a dick to me...not very personable at all, and I know I've never been less than polite to him. Even when milking the penny guide thing for what it was worth, I never traded in multiple copies or tried to trade a bunch that he already had in stock, so I find it hard to believe he was pissed at me about that.

The manager over on 6th Street is awesome though. I asked him about official Model 2 Saturn controllers, and he got some in stock soon thereafter...and he's always happy to just talk games. :)

[plastic]

WOW! It is certainly a small world.

I always thought the Joyce Game-X-Change and Replay had something in common; they had the same "sale" tags as one another... I assumed there was a connection.

As far as competition goes, I honestly steer clear from RPG's. Arcade style is what I dig.

Also, I live at the Cliffs in Fayetteville, if either of you know where that is. U of A student; shoot me a PM if you ever want to scour some game shops.

EDIT: As for the Mountain Home Game-X-Change... That's my hometown. That location went up while I was still in high school, and has since been shut down. Almost ALL my friends (and some old band-mates) worked there, so I got some fairly regular hookups. Good times.

[darkwingduck13]

Yeah, the one in Mountain Home was owned by the same older lady who owns the one in Harrison, or so both the manager of the Mountain Home store and the older lady who was running the one in Harrison told me. I was always surprised they opened one in Mountain Home...it was a nice thing to have around, but I always wondered what kind of business they did in a lake-side, mostly retirement-age community. I was really sad when it shut down, and not just because the manager was a cool guy. :(

Vintage Stock has a ton of potential, but they just don't have the business sense when it comes to games. The employees who work at the Springdale location and the newer location on Joyce have always been nice to me, good personable helpful people, but the pricing scheme is just ridiculous. I used to buy a ton of G1 Transformers from them as well, before their prices went insane. :(

[nildem]

Vintage Stock has a ton of potential, but they just don't have the business sense when it comes to games. The employees who work at the Springdale location and the newer location on Joyce have always been nice to me, good personable helpful people, but the pricing scheme is just ridiculous. I used to buy a ton of G1 Transformers from them as well, before their prices went insane. :(

The owners and higher-ups seem to be more comic/movie/sportscard guys than gamers. There doesn't seem to be anyone in the company with a finger on the pulse of the video game market. From what I've seen since I began working there, they have their standard pricepoints ($49.99, $39.99, $32.99, $29.99, $24.99, etc.) and each game released is priced at whatever pricepoint is next in line below the retail price. Once a game goes out of print, that's it. No more markdowns unless quantity becomes excessive. That's why many games are so ridiculously high. Astro Boy, for example, sells for $2.99 at GameStop, but we sell it for $16.99. (It gets $7.50 in store credit, BTW, for those looking to flip. :-P)

This can open up a slight advantage to the collector. Games that suddenly explode in value (Final Fantasy VII, Silent Hill, etc.) will always be at or above eBay prices, but several obscure games that slowly creep up in value won't be marked up in the company price database. I've managed to snag quite a few games rather cheap since I started working there: Burning Rangers: $3.99, Mars Matrix, GunBird 2, GigaWing 1 & 2, Fatal Fury MotW: $9.99, Ikaruga: $16.99, Zone of the Enders 2: $14.99, Earthbound: $54.99.

Stadium Events, if it's ever traded in, sells for only $3.99. ;)

[darkwingduck13]

This can open up a slight advantage to the collector. Games that suddenly explode in value (Final Fantasy VII, Silent Hill, etc.) will always be at or above eBay prices, but several obscure games that slowly creep up in value won't be marked up in the company price database. I've managed to snag quite a few games rather cheap since I started working there: Burning Rangers: $3.99, Mars Matrix, GunBird 2, GigaWing 1 & 2, Fatal Fury MotW: $9.99, Ikaruga: $16.99, Zone of the Enders 2: $14.99, Earthbound: $54.99.

Stadium Events, if it's ever traded in, sells for only $3.99. ;)

Yeah, that is the upside of their pricing scheme. I remember cleaning out Toys R Us during one of their insane clearance-combined-with-buy-2-get-1-free deals and taking the games to Vintage Stock. I think I spent $22.xx including tax and traded the stuff I didn't want to keep to Vintage Stock for around $80 or so in credit. :rocker:

[Daria]

WOW! It is certainly a small world.


It's really funny seeing you guys talk about the game stores in Arkansas. Although I don't live there, I was born in Fayetteville, and my dad's family all lives in and around Rogers. Last time I was visiting I hit a Game-X-Change in Wal-Mart Town, first one I'd ever been to. Weird chain though, I don't like the way they display original boxes that they don't sell. I've also been to Springdale, my dad shops at this Warhammer store that doubles as a t-shirt design printing place.

[Trade-N-Games]

Most indy stores HAVE to price at eBay or higher, otherwise people with no jobs come in, buy up their stock, eBay it, and don't trade anything in. All of the sudden the store has squat for stock and no one goes there. I've seen that happen to more than a few stores.


My store sells alot of vintage games. I get 3-4 people a day calling or walking in all asking for the same rare games just wanting to flip them on Ebay. Thats ok with me but they rarely buy anthing if they cant resell it so its mainly a waste of time. I price my harder to find items a little under Ebay prices most of the time. I see alot of stores say its worth that much with shipping and I tell myself next time I wont bother going in since I can save gas and shop on line for the same price.
A local store to me in St Louis is Slackers and they tell you their rare stuff is on Ebay only and look there and then you go look and they are the highest on Ebay almost every time.
By the way I ave tons for sale on my site www.tradengames.com
Jason

[icbrkr]

My store sells alot of vintage games. I get 3-4 people a day calling or walking in all asking for the same rare games just wanting to flip them on Ebay. Thats ok with me but they rarely buy anthing if they cant resell it so its mainly a waste of time. I price my harder to find items a little under Ebay prices most of the time. I see alot of stores say its worth that much with shipping and I tell myself next time I wont bother going in since I can save gas and shop on line for the same price.
A local store to me in St Louis is Slackers and they tell you their rare stuff is on Ebay only and look there and then you go look and they are the highest on Ebay almost every time.
By the way I ave tons for sale on my site www.tradengames.com
Jason

I've been to Jason's store a few times and walked out with a trunkload of oldschool stuff.