Anyone have CGE regrets. Buying, selling, bidding? Gambling

[dave2236]

Ok, just curious, I didn't go to CGE but, but heard good things. Now has anyone regretted not buying something you saw there? Or was there something you shouldn't have bought? What about the auction? Was there something you should have bid on?


Let me hear it, I want some stories....What kind of deals did you get or miss out on?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

The big thing I regret is overspending to the point where I had to put my freshly-autographed Q*Bert marquee up in the auction. I'm eternally grateful to the kind soul who bid it up to $90 though. Believe me, the money helped. I got stranded at DFW during some very severe weather on the way home and wouldn't have been able to eat or drink anything while waiting for the planes to start taking off again. Getting home was a nightmare. But back to my original point - my big regret was entirely my doing and my going a little bit nuts out there on the dealers' floor the first day. I lost my ass in Vegas without putting anything into a slot machine! LOL

My other regret: the swap meet was cut SO short. I brought a ton of stuff to swap and didn't get a chance to do it - I wound up taking a lot of things back home with me that I never really intended to. The only swap I managed to accomplish was after the auction itself! Maybe the lecture hall wasn't the best place for it either - not that I can think of anyplace else to put it. People had carts spread out in the floor and my friend kept stepping right through them! Sheesh!

That's really it...all I can think of is to extend it to a third day. Start mid-day on Friday just for the arcade game free play, swapping and vendors - let some of us get that stuff out of the way and hit the keynote presentations. At the same time, I realize that's logistically a tall order.

[MarioAllStar2600]

At the auction I bought a copy of Polo for 260 85 bucks. OUCH!

[rolenta]

My biggest regret was gambling and losing $100. I could had used that monwey to buy other things!

[dave2236]

My biggest regret was gambling and losing $100. I could had used that monwey to buy other things!

Ahhh...damn casinos.

Ok, lets add that question too. Did you win big in the casino? or lose big?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

As a rule, I just don't gamble. Won't get into it any further than that, except to say that I lost my ass in Vegas solely on the floor of the Expo! LOL

[Mayhem]

This year I broke even, which is disappointing considering in my first short session I went $150 up (I only play Blackjack). Last year I left $200 up...

[john_soper]

My wife and I spent about $100 too much at the Glitter Gulch Friday night.
It was one of those "yuppie couple looking for forbidden thrills" kinda deals.
She told her coworkers yesterday , so guess it's ok to post about it.

[Anonymous]

I did alright at the slots this year, coming up about 75 dollars and getting a couple of comps. I didn't regret buying anything because I didn't buy anything :(

[thekeepr]

I always have an" item" I want to pick up at CGE, and make it a habit of going on "a mission" to find and buy it. A few years back it was the Multi-cart for the Vectrex....then it was a MasterPlay for the 5200.....this year it was a Neo-Geo CD system, found it for $150, and some games for it (about 6 various ones I wanted on CD) for about $170....so I did well there. I always find other things I need to complete my various collections, some Sega games, thanks to CGE, now total 300...SNES now at 107....some more games for my C64 and VIC-20, some carts for the NeoGeo color pocket...and a few more goodies, all totaling about $900 spent at CGE this year, and the wife is VERY happy I didn't put anything on the "plastic"!!!! :) :D LOL
The Keeper of the Old Games

[dave2236]

I did alright at the slots this year, coming up about 75 dollars and getting a couple of comps. I didn't regret buying anything because I didn't buy anything :(

You didn't buy anything??? wow!! how dissapointing. any good trades then? I don't believe you went to CGE and didn't even trade a game?...thats like illegal


Anybody win more than $200? I usually win $50 or lose $50 when I gamble. So I don't have any good gambling stories to share.....and somehow I always end up playing the Pac-Man slots the most.

[MarioAllStar2600]

Hey Dave-
I cant gamble but my dad and cousin did. My dad walked out even and my cousin left up $500 dollars.

[Boboduo]

My only regret was not getting together any trade items
before going.

[DDCecil]

Since I didn't make it this year, I'll remember last year's great show:

At the auction, I really wanted to bid and win that brand new Berenstein Bears for the Atari 2600, but I didn't...

Last year, after Saturday night's show, I went to a roulette table, started with $10, got up to $30 (with a funny drunk old guy giving me tips on how to play) but came away empty, and I loved the casino security guard coming up to check my ID to make sure I was over 21... x_x Damn anti-aging forumla... errr... I mean... Dr Pepper!

[SystemFreak]

On Saturday night I went back to my hotel to crash (and dump off all the stuff I had bought). I dropped everything off and went down to the casino floor to get a quick drink and some hands of blackjack in.

At 5:30am I was up $600 and insanely drunk. I bet $500 on my last hand and won.

I woke up with a killer hangover, made a little better by $1100 extra dollars in my pocket.

[digitalpress]

This probably doesn't need to be said to those who attended, but the "buying games" aspect of CGE is just one small piece of the show. CGE is truly an Expo - it's as much about playing, chatting, learning as it is about spending. Consider it a cross between E3 (an Expo where there is NOTHING for sale) and a flea market. It's intended to be just as entertaining and fun to attend for those with no money going in.

I'm only stating this because I've seen a number of posts about the vendors' product and prices, but consider that many of the exhibitors had nothing to "sell" at the show, such as MobyGames, UbiSoft, and Midway. It's about the variety. This would probably be less of an issue with a bigger floor and more booths!

That is all.

[Chunky]

ya know i really wanted to go, but i love craps and that. And it's just too tempting to play $2 table craps when these frickin boats out here in chicago area are $10-20 min. bet. hoohum

[rolenta]

I loved the casino security guard coming up to check my ID to make sure I was over 21

I was playing Blackjack with Patrick Wong and his cousin Ronald (who looks around 14). The dealer asked to see both of their IDs, but not mine. Since I was losing I said "Can't you at least make my day by asking to see my ID too?" He didn't.

[IGotTheDot]

No regrets for me. The stuff I buy at CGE are usually wacky things (like a box of Dragons Lair Fleer cards from 1983) that I know I am not going to find in the wild. Then when I do buy things, I try to only spend a little more than I would pay for them in the wild.

I find it hard to buy a loose 2600 cart for 100 bucks just because it's rare. I also find it hard to buy things that are a good deal and try to resell them for a profit. I never can bring myself to selling something I don't have an extra copy of. So I stay away from stuff like that.

No regrets for me.

Again, it was a great show. The Best Yet!

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

This probably doesn't need to be said to those who attended, but the "buying games" aspect of CGE is just one small piece of the show. CGE is truly an Expo - it's as much about playing, chatting, learning as it is about spending.

That's why I got as much buying out of the way as early as possible - so I could get on with meeting people, hanging out and talking, taking pictures, playing arcade games, gathering video, that sort of thing. That said, I still overdid the buying end of things. :P

[Mayhem]

Same here... I did most of my buying in the first 2 hours. Apart from the Vectrex release and the auction, I didn't buy anything else game wise past midday on the Saturday...

[TNTPLUST]

Well I regret not buying more! See CGE occurs on my wedding anniversery and my wife is a big time gambler. She'll drop anywhere between $500 to $2000 down in the casino. Now most husbands would get mad at this but since I'm upstairs buying all the games on my wish list it works out great. The trick for me is to spend less than she lost in the casino...that way she won't give me grief. LOL . This year I could have spent and extra $500 and not matched her losses!

[Querjek]

I wush I had bought that ROB with complete looking Gyromite for $30 the first time I passed it-the second time, it wasn't there.

[ozyr]

Only regret is spending over $1000 on games at the expo - and I could have spent more if I had the money! :grumble: