When you walk into a "retro" store with games in it ...What do you do?

[scaleworm]

I did so earlier today in Seattle, a record shop that as well sells games.
Systems and games of course and for ridiculous prices.

Tell me folks, how to you keep from blowing your coffee (or other tasty beverage) through you nose (I am in Seattle, we drink a butt-load of coffee here), when you see the prices, and straight-faced, inquire on them, price-wise?

I almost (ALMOST) lost it today when the dude, seriously, was explaining to me in how rare the games were (Tetris for NES, Duck Hunt, etc...), and in how the prices were fair.

I had to leave....

Now I may seem like a troll, but am not (I assure you), and yes I understand the intent of business is to make money, but JESUS, at what level does the overpriced serious faced madness of the retailer get you to blow beverage?

Nostrils plugged in composure-ly yours,
SW

[PreZZ]

For me, the days of finding games in the wild are mostly over. Every flea market, local game stores,craigslist ads, etc. are now asking insane prices to the point that shopping on ebay is better. I have a local game stores with lots of retro games, no prices on items, when you ask they make you wait and they check buy it now auctions with their mobile phones on similar items on ebay and ask the same price. RIDICULOUS. They are not even checking for the prices they sold, so they overprice everything and makes it pointless to buy in their store. Im glad i got most of my collection in the late 90's early 00's when you could find cheap prices on old systems and games. I did find a complete altered beast genny with box in mint condition for 40$ on local ads though...

[ProjectCamaro]

The way I look at it is it's their business and they can charge whatever they want. Of course I can walk in, look at their prices and quickly turn around and walk out never to return again.

The stores that have good prices will continue to make sales and the places that ask stupid prices will not make any money and will either learn and lower their prices or will not survive. It's capitalism at its best.

[spman]

The way I look at it is it's their business and they can charge whatever they want. Of course I can walk in, look at their prices and quickly turn around and walk out never to return again.

The stores that have good prices will continue to make sales and the places that ask stupid prices will not make any money and will either learn and lower their prices or will not survive. It's capitalism at its best.

The saving grace is that the majority of these retro stores are fly by night operations. The owners typically have to pay a certain number of months worth of lease in advance, and once that time is up, the stores typically close down because there is literally no one on the planet delusional enough to pay their insane prices. I've seen this happen numerous times with different stores over the years. Even the reasonably prices mom and pop thrift and consignment stores around here don't usually make it, so the surly comic book guy types have no chance whatsoever. Unfortunately however once these guys have to shut down their retail stores, they quickly relocate to much cheaper Flea Market space.

[ProjectCamaro]

The saving grace is that the majority of these retro stores are fly by night operations. The owners typically have to pay a certain number of months worth of lease in advance, and once that time is up, the stores typically close down because there is literally no one on the planet delusional enough to pay their insane prices. I've seen this happen numerous times with different stores over the years. Even the reasonably prices mom and pop thrift and consignment stores around here don't usually make it, so the surly comic book guy types have no chance whatsoever. Unfortunately however once these guys have to shut down their retail stores, they quickly relocate to much cheaper Flea Market space.

Excellent points.

Lucky for me there's a video game store less than five miles from my house that has a nice retro game selection and everything has reasonable prices. It's cool as they have multiple Sega CD's, Virtual Boys, 3DO's, etc... in stock and of course games for all of them and everything is cheaper than you'd find on eBay.

[The Adventurer]

If I go to a game store filled with over priced games the first thing I do is check over everything (sometimes they slip up, or I find that rare game that I'm willing to pay a crazy price for. Rare, but it does happen)

If I'm not going to buy anything, due to prices and I strike up a chat with the store owner about their items and their business. I'll often, politely, try to explain to them why their items are over priced and why I'm not going to buy anything (because I can find the majority of these common items for much less else where). Sometimes it can be educational for both parties.


I never 'want to spit hot coffee out my nose' over over priced games. I mean its disappointing when you find something you want for 15 or 30 dollars more then what you're willing to pay for it. But its hardly something to get angry over.

[Graham Mitchell]

I did so earlier today in Seattle, a record shop that as well sells games.
Systems and games of course and for ridiculous prices.

Tell me folks, how to you keep from blowing your coffee (or other tasty beverage) through you nose (I am in Seattle, we drink a butt-load of coffee here), when you see the prices, and straight-faced, inquire on them, price-wise?

I almost (ALMOST) lost it today when the dude, seriously, was explaining to me in how rare the games were (Tetris for NES, Duck Hunt, etc...), and in how the prices were fair.

I had to leave....

Now I may seem like a troll, but am not (I assure you), and yes I understand the intent of business is to make money, but JESUS, at what level does the overpriced serious faced madness of the retailer get you to blow beverage?

Nostrils plugged in composure-ly yours,
SW

Is that nannoos or Al's in the u district? They're a well known rip off merchant. They have a swans love will tear us apart cd single in their glass case for $100. It's been there for years. I got the same single on colored vinyl for $10.

Go to pink gorilla or pink Godzilla instead. They're a bit more reasonable and have some cool stuff sometimes.

[Polygon]

The way I look at it is it's their business and they can charge whatever they want. Of course I can walk in, look at their prices and quickly turn around and walk out never to return again.

The stores that have good prices will continue to make sales and the places that ask stupid prices will not make any money and will either learn and lower their prices or will not survive. It's capitalism at its best.

Yep.

A small store opened up here recently selling retro games. I went in pretty excited, until I saw the prices. They were asking $45 for Mario Kart 64. It was a loose cart and it wasn't in good condition either. I can go on eBay and get a complete copy in pretty good shape for that much. This was the story with everything they were selling. I just quietly left and wasn't the least bit surprised when they closed a month later.

[recorderdude]

I've got 2 retro stores around me: Just Press Play and Complete In Box. Most of their prices are pretty fair, though.

That's not to say I've seen idiocy in the past around here.

Some guy selling games out by his house (as a "business", complete with generic business card) wanted $20 for a copy of Sonic 2 because "it's sonic so it's worth that". He also wanted $30 for a copy of knuckles chaotix, which was reasonable but I had no interest in paying full price for one.

Just today I was at a normal gaming store and, when looking through the GG bin, saw the same two copies of shining force sword of hayja I've seen for the past half year at $25 plus tax. I started up a brief conversation about it and the owner just stated that most people don't have game gears anymore so it's hard to sell them. He just moved on from there, though, and didn't even think about changing the price to move the damn things. I didn't walk out with it, but it's certainly a store I've gotten other deals from (the best probably being a CiB Bio Hazard Battle for $3 and boxed 32x Space Harrier for $8)

The most hilarious thing I've ever seen happen with a game store, though, is a certain pricing flaw. I noticed a tintin game for the genesis sitting on the shelves. Two loose copies, two boxed copies (same game, only one even came out here). Had no interest in the game as I played it before on an emulator and it was boring as hell. Decided to check the prices...

The loose cartridge was priced at $10.
The CiB copy? $6.

I thought it was probably just an error, so I checked the other two.

The loose cartridge was priced at $10.
The CiB copy? $6.

The fact that they knowingly priced a loose game for four dollars MORE than its complete counterpart makes me laugh to this day.

[Parodius Duh!]

hmmm I try not to cringe at their asinine prices and try to keep my mouth shut more than anything.

[M.Buster2184]

Is that nannoos or Al's in the u district? They're a well known rip off merchant. They have a swans love will tear us apart cd single in their glass case for $100. It's been there for years. I got the same single on colored vinyl for $10.

Go to pink gorilla or pink Godzilla instead. They're a bit more reasonable and have some cool stuff sometimes.

True that. While I don't mind going to Al's now and again, there are other good game stores in the area, Pink Gorilla being my mainstay. I could possibly find prices if I waited and scoured Craigslist, but I don't have any qualms with supporting local businesses. As far as going to a new game store and seeing stuff overpriced? I usually just keep it to myself and leave the store after a bit.

[BydoEmpire]

I don't know, first I generally think it's nice to see retro game stuff available. Then I usually see the price and think "good luck with that" or "well, there's a sucker born every minute."

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

I look around for anything that might be interesting/rare and see if they have a clue what they have. For instance, I've been looking for a SCPH-1010 PlayStation controller for a while. It looks almost identical to a regular digital ps1 pad, but is much rarer. Some day I might find one lumped in the pile of SCPH-1080s.

A blue ps1 memory card would be a grail find.

[sloan]

First thing I do in a retro game shop I have never been in before is glance around at price tags. If the prices are reasonable to cheap, then I proceed to see if they have anything that piques my interest. If the price tags range from expensive to clueless, then I quickly establish the thought that the proprietors have themselves a nice museum, and not a retail store. There are places for both game stores and game museums in the marketplace. If the prices are obscenely high, then they obviously want to hold onto their museum pieces. I wish them well in their little endeavor and move on to the next shop.

[Gameguy]

A blue ps1 memory card would be a grail find.
You mean this one?
http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-PsOne-Memory-Card-Island-Pc/dp/B00005NGLA

I never really paid attention to variant colours before, I didn't think they were worth much more than regular versions.

[recorderdude]

speaking of memory cards, it surprises me that these aren't worth more than they are.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LARA-CROFT-TOMB-RAIDER-MEMORY-CARD-FOR-PLAYSTATION-Collectors-Edition-/221192950627?pt=Games_US&hash=item3380209363

[Bloodreign]

Oddly enough I have one of those see through blue memory cards, problem is the front's sort of turned green with age, while the back is still a little bluer.

Maybe some sun exposure over the years lead to a color change as it's not one of the emerald green ones. The green front of this card seems to be from the inside board, thing was blue all the way when I bought it many years ago. :(


Edit: It's an SCPH-1020, which in a search tells me squat as all my PS1 memory cards are the same number. :\

[SOL BADGUY]

Thrift stores are basically retro fasion stores without the hipsterdbag prices. But Ive gotten games at used bookstroes, and used cd or movie stores as well and done just as well with reliability of the games working as actual used game stores, and they were way cheaper.

[Tanooki]

I go and check the prices, and if I find it's a place asking ebay or higher I typically won't return, or at least not for a long while to see if they ever got a clue. If they're under ebay or up to ebay sold lower end pricing I'll take a look, and of course I'll dig for anything where a price has been missed.

Back in California in San Diego county I knew of 3 places. Centra/south was Luna Games and another that escapes me. The one I forget the name to was asking like 50% of acceptable paid sales prices on games, most stuff in the case was dusty but the primary operation was snacks, drinks, and trading card game playing nerds and the gear so I can see how that worked out. The other was a mix of under, around, and a few game over ebay but they were fair and trade values were nice enough and it was brick and mortar. Only one shop was in northern county, Game Adx, run by this greedy bastard who gave like 5-10% trade in value screwing people hard and then the prices just in the last few years went to like 2-5x over ebay, like $10 on Top Gun or $25 on Lil Nemo or Goonies 2 on NES. He used to be honorable but the greed got to the jerk, never go there, unless you like having your wallet raped.

Where I am now there's quite a few places, but BME and Half Price Books is what I tend to check, there's another place called Game Force but their pricing sucks and stock too I'm told (sucked 5 years back, haven't been in since.) There's other singular spots like Toy Crazy and others, they're fair, but nothing amazing, it's more of a convenience of not buying online. BME and Half Price kind of range from ebay level or under, it just depends on I think how often they re-mark stuff or if they feel like being generous to get people in the door. HPB used to be a great deal, but they get 'experts' who ebay or amazon now and ask some really bullshit prices on some things and they rot for months, other stuff is cheap or fair.

[Nionel]

The problem is that these retro game stores have to raise there prices to compete with ebay and amazon. If I owned a game store and you brought in a copy of say, Shining Force II, which has recently finished auctions on eBay for ~$35 both complete and loose. Lets say I sell the complete copy for $30 to have my rates be lower than eBay, then you bring in your copy and I offer say $18 to you in trade credit, since I need to make my cut to pay my overhead, why would you sell your game to me when you could list it on Amazon or eBay, and even after fees, get nearly $20 or so more for your game? See the problem here? Unless I charge more to offer you more, cutting into my own bottom line, what incentive do you have to sell your game to me? Of course, on the flipside, if I start chairing more then no one buys from me, making it a very delicate situation.

Sadly, retro game stores are a niche and dying market because of this, most collectors are more than aware of what they have a would much rather sell their stuff themselves then sell to a game store since they can get more for it that way.

[Graham Mitchell]

The problem is that these retro game stores have to raise there prices to compete with ebay and amazon. If I owned a game store and you brought in a copy of say, Shining Force II, which has recently finished auctions on eBay for ~$35 both complete and loose. Lets say I sell the complete copy for $30 to have my rates be lower than eBay, then you bring in your copy and I offer say $18 to you in trade credit, since I need to make my cut to pay my overhead, why would you sell your game to me when you could list it on Amazon or eBay, and even after fees, get nearly $20 or so more for your game? See the problem here? Unless I charge more to offer you more, cutting into my own bottom line, what incentive do you have to sell your game to me? Of course, on the flipside, if I start chairing more then no one buys from me, making it a very delicate situation.

Sadly, retro game stores are a niche and dying market because of this, most collectors are more than aware of what they have a would much rather sell their stuff themselves then sell to a game store since they can get more for it that way.

And that's a shame Because the hunt is half the fun.

I still utilize retro game stores because they're convenient, and a fun outing when I'm with a friend. But when I want something specific I tend to go eBay.

[recorderdude]

Lets say I sell the complete copy for $30 to have my rates be lower than eBay, then you bring in your copy and I offer say $18 to you in trade credit

Okay, that would NEVER happen. All the retro game stores I've gone to give you at MOST, a third of the game's value as trade-in credit, and even less as cash. If someone was seriously offering me nearly two-thirds of their sale price for *any* game I brought in, especially commons, I'd gladly do it for a fair few of the games I'd be looking to sell because it would save me the time and hassle of listing the item, writing a description, shipping it out and handling any customer complaints with little lost. It would be VERY hard to stay afloat as a business giving trade-in rates THAT high, though.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

You mean this one?
http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-PsOne-Memory-Card-Island-Pc/dp/B00005NGLA

I never really paid attention to variant colours before, I didn't think they were worth much more than regular versions.

No, this one:

http://i.imgur.com/XETI9pl.jpg

The solid blue one that came with the earliest PlayStation debugger kits. Almost all are lost now. One has come up for auction in the last 3 years as far as I can tell.

The blue controllers are also incredibly difficult and expensive to acquire. A guy at assembler games offered $150 for one of them, there were no takers...

[black_towr]

You guys tend to forget that a business has employees to pay, utility bills and other expenses. So they price things slightly higher than market value so what. They offer a convenience to the customer. I think i'd rather pay $5 more for an item and walk out the door with it than have to wait a week for it to come in the mail. I like ebay but sometimes condition is important to me and sellers don't often take the best pics so it's a gamble at times. If i walk into a store i have the item in hand and can decide right there if the condition is fine with me. Don't underestimate the convenience factor.

[recorderdude]

You guys tend to forget that a business has employees to pay, utility bills and other expenses. So they price things slightly higher than market value so what. They offer a convenience to the customer. I think i'd rather pay $5 more for an item and walk out the door with it than have to wait a week for it to come in the mail. I like ebay but sometimes condition is important to me and sellers don't often take the best pics so it's a gamble at times. If i walk into a store i have the item in hand and can decide right there if the condition is fine with me. Don't underestimate the convenience factor.

You're forgetting the fact that you needed to pay money for gas to drive there, pay taxes on the games in most places and quite possibly wait MUCH longer for the store to have the game you're looking for in stock.

[Doonzmore]

This ^.

What annoys me the most are stores who don't put price stickers on anything so every time you ask how much they need they say "hang on I'll have to go check" and hit up ebay. Why should I waste my time shopping in your store if I can buy the same item at the same price online in the comfort of my own home?

[Sundowner]

^ I also really hate it when they don't put price stickers on things! The store near me is guilty of putting price labels on about half the genesis/snes/nintendo games. They are always on the label side, but they are stacked up behind a glass case! :angry: Unless it's something I really want I'll just say screw it. I'm not going to bother with asking an employee just to say no in the end. On the positive side, when they do put price tag stickers they are good quality and peel off easy without leaving any residue.

Anyways, first thing I do is look at the Saturn and Sega CD games only to find it's the same old sports titles they've been trying to sell for over 5 years now. I know, because they have the old price labels and they changed them years ago. Every once in GREAT while they have something new.

I also noticed the store near me has been selling less and less games. I guess it must be that more people are buying and not many bringing them in.

[ProjectCamaro]

This ^.

What annoys me the most are stores who don't put price stickers on anything so every time you ask how much they need they say "hang on I'll have to go check" and hit up ebay. Why should I waste my time shopping in your store if I can buy the same item at the same price online in the comfort of my own home?

Agreed, I don't care what kind of store it is. If they don't have their prices clearly posted I just turn around and leave, I simply do not have the time to be asking what everything costs.

[scaleworm]

Is that nannoos or Al's in the u district? They're a well known rip off merchant. They have a swans love will tear us apart cd single in their glass case for $100. It's been there for years. I got the same single on colored vinyl for $10.

Go to pink gorilla or pink Godzilla instead. They're a bit more reasonable and have some cool stuff sometimes.

Yep, Al's, and another one up on Broadway.
I do not mean anyone disrespect, and I am not a cheap-skate by any means, but when I see gullible folks (kids usually on an un thought out spastic purchase) getting bilked out of their $ (Al's by UW is a great "catch an ignorant college kid" store), then my spikes go up.

I am still stupid cheap when it come to game collecting, and with the philosophy that if I get more for less, I can buy even more then (I am a collector) then all is good in the word.

PG is fair, but they get most of their games from hapless folks trading in games, that they give folks very little money for (try it some time)...
I'll (and do) give them away before I "give" (do) a "trade" with PG.

BTW PG used to be a hella much cooler shop when first started, when they were not primate, but a giant irradiated lizard, based...

[scaleworm]

This ^.

What annoys me the most are stores who don't put price stickers on anything so every time you ask how much they need they say "hang on I'll have to go check" and hit up ebay. Why should I waste my time shopping in your store if I can buy the same item at the same price online in the comfort of my own home?

Stores like this should die a horrible death via empty shop syndrome.

[scaleworm]

BTW, y'all are too cool.
I love hangin' here with y'all, my Peeps, in crazy digitpress land...
Digitpress, WHAT WOULD WE DO without you? :)

[scaleworm]

The way I look at it is it's their business and they can charge whatever they want. Of course I can walk in, look at their prices and quickly turn around and walk out never to return again.

The stores that have good prices will continue to make sales and the places that ask stupid prices will not make any money and will either learn and lower their prices or will not survive. It's capitalism at its best.

Too civil, Too Suave....

[scaleworm]

Thrift stores are basically retro fasion stores without the hipsterdbag prices. But Ive gotten games at used bookstroes, and used cd or movie stores as well and done just as well with reliability of the games working as actual used game stores, and they were way cheaper.

If I Could, every day of my life, I would rummage through thrift stores.
I actually do HATE retail.

[Spartan]

I look around for anything that might be interesting/rare and see if they have a clue what they have. For instance, I've been looking for a SCPH-1010 PlayStation controller for a while. It looks almost identical to a regular digital ps1 pad, but is much rarer. Some day I might find one lumped in the pile of SCPH-1080s.

A blue ps1 memory card would be a grail find.

Would that be solid blue or translucent blue?

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

Would that be solid blue or translucent blue?

Solid.

[StealthLurker]

99.9% of the time, I just look around and come out with nothing. Brick'n mortars generally have nothing I'm looking for / interested in.... at least these days. Back in the 90s there actually were physical shops in my town that sold "retro" gaming goods I was interested in.

One in particular that I really dug... the owner was willing to wheel 'n deal and knew his customers well enough to let them know of new stock that they might be interested in. If I recall, I got a great deal on a PC-Engine Dracula X, JPN NeoGeo AES Sengoku 2 and some others from there. Those were the days...

.

[scaleworm]

99.9% of the time, I just look around and come out with nothing. Brick'n mortars generally have nothing I'm looking for / interested in.... at least these days. Back in the 90s there actually were physical shops in my town that sold "retro" gaming goods I was interested in.

Those were the days...

Indeed.
late 80s and 90s were the golden age of thrifting/vintage game hunting... then the web came along, and ebay.