Collecting in the city

[fpbrush]

We all know the suburbs are fertile grounds for classic gaming and collecting (plenty-o garage sales and well, garages). But how do my fellow city dwellers feel about the collecting scene in the more densely populated areas we call home? At least here in NYC, anyone with anything remotely 'retro' automatically assumes a high value. Craigslist is dominated by ridiculous people asking $40 for a stack of Dreamcast burns, and gaming stores are essentially picked over. The few classic gaming places that do exist might as well be classic gaming museums with their prices.

Couple this with the general lack of space.. it leaves me to wondering how folks approach collecting in the city?

[raptor94k]

I can't say that I live in a city as densely populated as NYC. I actually live in Baton Rouge, LA. There are a couple of used game stores around here and they are reasonably priced and decently stocked, but I can't find ANYTHING when it comes to garage sales. Other than the occasional find at a thrift store or on craigslist there isn't much here.

I also have very limited space to keep my collection in. I live in a house with three other roommates and I have a lot of music equipment. So I have one closet (maybe 3 feet by 4 feet) that I keep my drumset in (not set up), various other music equipment and stands, and my collection. Unfortunately, I just don't get to display them as nicely as I would like.

I guess to answer your question...I don't really have enough money to collect games right now anyway.

[Gameguy]

I live slightly north of a major city, finds aren't that bad. I feel there's a better chance to find rarer games in or near a populated area compared to a less populated area, the rarer/less popular games wouldn't have been released in the middle of nowhere.

[walrusmonger]

I live in NYC (queens) and the only time I ever had finds was when I was working at a gamestore and people would bring in old games we didn't accept as trade ins. Got a LOT of great finds that way.

[Richter Belmount]

''Collecting in the city?''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ-8O2agUhY

[duffmanth]

I live in a large Canadian city, and most of the game stores here are priced higher than you would find in little suburban cities. But you have to expect to pay more in the bigger cities. Prices range from what you would pay at any store in any city, to completely off the wall. You can find the rarer games more easily in larger cities, simply because there are more people and more stuff gets traded in on a daily basis. The only downfall is that most of these stores know what the true value of these games are and price them accordingly, so don't go to any big city and expect to find many deals.

[TheClash603]

In Buffalo, NY; which isn't too big of a city, the used game stores have high prices.

I visit my parents in central NY, and when I hit up the garage sales and game stores, I get all of my retro items for half of anything I would pay here.

Collecting in a city kinda sucks. You have far more people who are also collecting, so the prices are out of this world. Take a nice day trip and you can relax and pick up some good deals in central NY like I do.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, NYC is a collecting wasteland. When I'm here and I'm looking for something game-related, I generally turn online, but, for the most part, I don't really shop for games much while I'm living in the city, except for buying imports online because I know I wouldn't be finding those in the wild anywhere (yes, I know there are rare exceptions). I get my game hunting fix in the summer usually since I'm fortunate enough to have family elsewhere, and I not only get to live with them for a couple months of the year and hit thrift stores and garage sales but I also store a large part of my collection at my mom's house, saving on my limited space in NYC. For collectors that live in NYC 24/7/365, you have my sympathies (although it does suck to not have all of my stuff accessible at any given time).

[NPLgamer]

I live in portland and there are thrift stores on every block and craigs list is great always tons of deals. i've got about 94% of my collection in the wild.

[jcalder8]

I live in portland and there are thrift stores on every block and craigs list is great always tons of deals. i've got about 94% of my collection in the wild.
I love portland but I think the OP was talking about a city a bit more densely populated.

[NPLgamer]

I love portland but I think the OP was talking about a city a bit more densely populated.

Oh, downtown Portland gets real busy. The thing with Oregon IMO is that it rains so much people just tend to not have a lot of garage sales so they keep stuff tucked away in the garage or attic for years and years. I've got some crazy craigs list deals in Salem. I went to this farm once and this guy had a box full of nes games about 50 of them for $30 bucks. Tons and Tons of gems. This guy had about 12 cars from various years surrounding the barn.

[FayeC86]

I live in Albany, NY. The finds around here are pretty poor, and ive been thinking of going to NYC for a weekend for better finds. Looks like that might be a bad idea.