If you were opening a classic gaming store...

[icbrkr]

.. what would you carry? When you go into a classic gaming store, what do you want to see?

Lots of Atari 2600 games? Tons of Nintendo stuff?

Books? Manuals?

Why?

Brian

[RetroYoungen]

Everything weird, obscure, and unknown would be in my store for amazing low prices. Looking for that rare Vectrex accessory? Only $299.95! Looking for a Nintendo World Championship 1990 cart? Only $15! (though we can't guarentee it's authenticity). Want that ULTRA RARE Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cart? $50,000,000 each!

Yup, my store would rock. I'd be so fluggin' rich.

[Oberfuhrer Hamm]

Everything weird, obscure, and unknown would be in my store for amazing low prices. Looking for that rare Vectrex accessory? Only $299.95! Looking for a Nintendo World Championship 1990 cart? Only $15! (though we can't guarentee it's authenticity). Want that ULTRA RARE Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cart? $50,000,000 each!

Yup, my store would rock. I'd be so fluggin' rich.

... and desperate for even one customer. LOL

[ApolloBoy]

I'd carry:

NES
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Sega Master System
Commodore 64
Atari 8-bits
Fairchild Channel F
Odyssey2
Colecovision
Intellivision

[MarioAllStar2600]

Please guys be a little realistic. You can carry all these systems, but you need to carry modern to. An all classic just woouldn't cut it.
I hope to one day own one. I would put a Museum in the back. have half of teh store modern. half old.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I think you'd have to carry modern stuff too. But maybe it would also be a good idea to carry imports as well. If you really want to know how I think you could sell people on the old days? Get a couple of classic arcade cabs - the real deals, none of this Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga Class Of '81 stuff, but the real original cabinets - and put them in the showroom so people can play them.

I've always wanted to run a combination arcade/game store. I don't even know if it'd be possible, feasible or legal to do so. But that has always been a dream of mine.

Call me, icbrkr! I'm right down the highway, I've got tons of these useless ideas. :D

[devilman]

I'd carry a lot of Sega & Nintendo 8 & 16 bit stuff. I don't think Atari would sell too well in the UK and Sega & Nintendo consoles are readily available in Boot Sales etc but there's nowhere to easily pick up the games.

As has been mentioned, you'd HAVE to carry modern games to survive. I'd do my damnedest to push the Cube over the PS2 & Xbox and I'd try and get as many Bemani games & Controllers as possible. :)

[AB Positive]

This only reminds me that I need to see if I can raise enough loan money to buy Video Game Exchange. I'd love to run that store, and the owner wants to sell.

...I'd just try to put in a bit more TG stuff... *cough*

-AG

[briskbc]

I would carry new and used mordern games and systems for purchase and rent as well as anime.

There would be classic game section. I would like to specialize in complete items but that would probably mean buying lots (single listings of multiple games) off eBay. Focusing on the most popular classic systems make the most sense. NES, Intellivision, Atari & Coleco would be the main systems. Maybe SMS.

I don't think I would get into toys. That's just a can of worms I don't want to touch.

I would also accept regular movies on VHS and DVD as trade as I do sell these on eBay I already have a working knowledge of whats in demand and what's rare.

I would also stay away from music CDs. I see too many pawn shops with thousand of unsellable CDs just sitting there waiting for the next format to make them obsolete.

I would consider putting in a big screen TV for playing games. I would pick a system and leave it there for the week putting different multiplayer games in each day of the week. The concern of catering to deadbeats and being seen as a free babysitter is the major drawback.

Other than that there are the simple thing like running tournaments, contest, a pop machine, etc.

Edit - #600

[devilman]

I guess one thing to consider is that there are no retro shops in my local area - there's got to be a reason for that. Another World stopped doing Retro stuff and Fiction Factory closed down. Not good signs.

[chadtower]

This only reminds me that I need to see if I can raise enough loan money to buy Video Game Exchange. I'd love to run that store, and the owner wants to sell.

...I'd just try to put in a bit more TG stuff... *cough*

-AG

"put in"? Exactly how would you do that? In a used retail scenario you have to carry what people sell you. The only other way is to find it yourself, which means ebay, which means your prices would be so high you'd go out of business.

I wonder how much he wants for the store... I don't want the store, I just want those 50000 atari carts he has in the back room.

[Oobgarm]

See this: http://www.game-junkie.com/

These guys have the right idea, but they don't carry anything that's pre-Playstation. They're in a fairly nice area of town, which is actually kinda far away from everything, so they're going after the $$ with the newer stuff.

Actually, I don't even recall seeing any PSX stuff there. A friend of mine tried to trade in a mint Suikoden II there and they turned it away. O_O

[Chunky]

carry anything modern you want, but keep the classics.

Print up your buy/sell prices like funcoland used to do, if not just have a common store book on a chain or something, many people will not even bother to ask about a certain game, but would look it up.

be able to order imports or whatnot for other people for say 50% down or something.

[Oobgarm]

Print up your buy/sell prices like funcoland used to do, if not just have a common store book on a chain or something, many people will not even bother to ask about a certain game, but would look it up.

Indeed. Those old Funcoland Green trade-in sheets were super. People still ask about them. O_O One of the local used CD shops had a computer set up so you could see their inventory. Also a good consideration.

[Pantechnicon]

This is a great question. I'll jump on the bandwagon and say you've just got to carry modern stuff, no matter how much against the grain of your retrogaming purity this idea runs. Personally, I'm not really all that big into post-NES stuff, but there's very little local market for the older stuff depending where you live and you've got to pay the bills.

Case in point, our locally-owned Replay Games. The guy running the place has a couple of hundred pre-1985 carts sitting in one case (mostly 2600 stuff, with a few Intellivision, Colecovision and Odyssey2 titles thrown in). The young-un's come into the store, look at this, and go, "huh?" on their way over to new used PS2 stuff. The old guys like me look at the pile and go, "Meh. All common stuff. I've got them all already." and move on. Meanwhile, the pile of carts sits...and sits....and sits. Changes to this pile - additions and subtractions - occur at geological intervals (btw, they're starting to get a hefty stack of Genesis stuff piling up as well).

And despite this, Replay remains open, because the "0wn0rz" know that the money is not to be made from this old stuff they cannot move, but instead from making sure the fourteen-year-old boy whose yuppie mom just handed him $30 can come in and get a copy of Extreme Arena Hentai Jai-Alai or whatever the killer app is this week.

I'll tell you what I would not do if I opened my own store (Are you reading this, Mr. Replay? How about all of you in the Gamestop Market Focus Group?). I would not turn down trade-ins on any working system or game no matter how old it was. I may not give $5 credit on a loose Combat cart, but I wouldn't look like someone threw a dead rabbit on the counter when a kid brings in a stack of old stuff. He'd get a fair deal, not a canned litany about how we only trade in modern stuff. (/end rant)

I would say that the best used game store I've ever seen with regard to showing respect and support for all game systems is Gamedude (http://www.gamedude.com/), located in North Hollywood, California. They sell everything and they take everything in trade without the slightest trace of condescension. If you ever get to visit, please do. They are way uptight on security, but other than that they are a super nice group of folks who like everything related to gaming. If you do open your own store one day, make it like theirs.

[Raccoon Lad]

I couldn't do it, I don't like gouging people.

[Tritoch]

I wouldn't own a gaming store unless I was rich already, and didn't have to worry about the pesky notion of "making money" off of it.

So if I did have one, I'd focus more on spreading the love by carrying EVERYTHING I could get my hands on with very modest markups then actually making any money.

[RetroYoungen]

OK, so I should be more realistic. I'd try to make myself (cash permitting) a small store with two big sections: an actual store, with modern and neo-classic era stuff for sale, and an arcade half, so that when some people are shopping, others are plunking down quarters. Can't afford that brand new XBox game? Play a brand new fighter for only a few quarters!

[omnedon]

The way some of you are afraid of making money, I had to check to see if you were really Americans!

LOL

[XpOsUrE]

I would try to carry all the goodness I can hold, try to make it a super classic type of store, but honestly I would have to be able to hire store keepers due to me playing so much games :D .

[grayrobertos]

I wouldnt open one ive seen like a mill come and go around here, with only the major chains surrviving.

[Half Japanese]

Alright, let's face facts here guys......a majority of older games simply DO NOT SELL. That said, I see nothing wrong with carrying some classics, but that's not where you're going to be making your money, unless of course you live in your own fantasy world where Atari 2600 is outselling the ps2. Someone a few posts up said something about accepting trade-ins no matter what....BAD IDEA. If you get the reputation of being "easy" people will bring you semi-scratched copies of Deer Hunter and Madden 2001 ALL DAY LONG. I understand making fair offers and not rejecting something solely because it's not YOUR favorite, but people always take advantage as soon and as often as possible. There's really no need for a good game store in my town, as we have a great local shop called the Video Game Cavern (weak name, sure, but the store is great). They carry new/retro and give a lot better trade in value than EB and manage to be cheaper at the same time ($5 less on new releases and usually cheaper on pre-owned as well). They also do repairs and every time they get a used system in that's excessively dirty, they charge the seller a small cleaning fee (which sucks for the seller, but for you and I it's great, knowing that you won't get something that looked like it was a substitute for a kickball). Sure, they could use more selection in the new section, but overall I recommend them highly and they pretty much cover my needs :D.

[ROBOTRON]

I'd carry:

NES
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Sega Master System
Commodore 64
Atari 8-bits
Fairchild Channel F
Odyssey2
Colecovision
Intellivision

WHAT HE SAID. :D

[christianscott27]

if you were opening a shop you'd have to carry more than modern stuff, stuff like magic the gathering, wrestling videos, used DVDs that sorta crap. just saw a tiny local shop (gamesbury- word to klimitron) go under cause he couldnt pull in the sales volume.

me i'd like to open a retro funky shop that just happened to have some gamestuff, pure games would never work for me. my wife used to work for this vintage clothing dealer, he's one of my heros, not for the clothing but for the fact that he makes his living scoring stuff from thrifts and fleas.

[scooterb23]

I'd open some kind of video game lounge...where you could come in, play some video games (lots of bean bag chairs, and big screens), buy some games, maybe grab a bite to eat...

Yeah, the controllers would need to be changed out every few hours...but it'd be sweet :)

[MarioAllStar2600]

This is one of my dreams in life. I wouldn't carry N64. Why u ask? CAUSE ITS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nesuser2]

i didn't read the whole post but i think the only way to go is to have a pawn shop, but more video game oriented. there is a lot more stuff that sparks my interest like video games do, like electronics and computers. and somebody mentioned not giving people much for their old stuff, talk it over with the buyer..........give them the deal they want if it's fair and go on. you cant offer too much unless you can say it's already sold when you bought it, or its back to the ghet-to you go. if you start giving people all this money for this old stuff then you will surely break the bank cause this stuff is everywhere, and unless you're going to resort to ebay you'll be stuck with a bunch of old common retro carts.

i would really love to have a pawn shop and not reject people bringing in older stuff. but the pawn shops around here only give you $3 on used dvd's.........so i cant see where it would be that much of a problem. they should atleast be willing to buy the stuff. if it were ideal i would have a regular pawn shop but lean towards gaming and the older stuff i would try to turn around to people interested right here on DP for the same thing i paid for it and maybe a little something for my time. i think i would rather help people out on here than the locals which i've learned to hate.

[rbudrick]

AdamG wrote:
This only reminds me that I need to see if I can raise enough loan money to buy Video Game Exchange. I'd love to run that store, and the owner wants to sell.

...I'd just try to put in a bit more TG stuff... *cough*

-AG


"put in"? Exactly how would you do that? In a used retail scenario you have to carry what people sell you. The only other way is to find it yourself, which means ebay, which means your prices would be so high you'd go out of business.

I wonder how much he wants for the store... I don't want the store, I just want those 50000 atari carts he has in the back room.

I didn't know he was selling.....but knowing Fred, he probably wants a CRAPLOAD. He's invested way too much in that stuff and he's a big gouger anyway. You are talking about the Plaistow store, right?

-Rob

[Kroogah]

This is one of my dreams in life. I wouldn't carry N64. Why u ask? CAUSE ITS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite a few of Game Crazy's top-selling used games are N64 titles.

[chadtower]

I didn't know he was selling.....but knowing Fred, he probably wants a CRAPLOAD. He's invested way too much in that stuff and he's a big gouger anyway. You are talking about the Plaistow store, right?

-Rob

Yeah... I haven't been there in a long time. The one time he let me into that back room, though, I was like WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS! I've never seen anything like it. I don't really begrudge him gouging too much, as he's the only game in town for nearly all of that stuff and he's charging actual collectors' value for most things. It's not like he's a gamestop conning grannie out of $40 for an SNES.

[l_lamb]

I'd want to have a store like Gamefellas in Austin and San Antonio. They carry all the current stuff: new, used, imported, and lots of classics, too. I went to Austin last May and was able to get games for Lynx, Virtual Boy, Saturn (imports), PSone, SNES, NES, and TG-16. They also had stuff for the 2600 (system and games), 5200, Intellivision, Colecovision, Vectrex and others. Tons of used equipment and peripherals, too. Prices were great - I walked out with 22 games, most of them complete, for just over $200.

If anybody from Gamefellas wants to open a store in Houston, I'll run it for you!!!

[VG_Maniac]

I actually really want to open up my own gaming store. Hopefully I will be able to someday.

If I ever do, I will carry games from all eras. I WILL NOT throw boxes and booklets out as most other gaming stores do. I will not try to talk every single customer into purchasing a cleaning kit, or signing up for some "value club" crap. I will try to keep my prices very competitive with other gaming stores (I've been to some used gaming stores that sell .25 cent games like Super Mario Bros./Duckunt for $5! I won't have rip-off prices like that. I'll have TVs in the store with various gaming systems hooked up and every day I'll have different games playing on them. I'll hold video game tournaments as well...and I'll offer a good prize to get more people's interest. Game Crazy has tournaments alot...but nobody ever bothers to show up. Probably because they only give prizes away like a Halo hat, or a Mario Kart: Double Dash pin. I'd give away cash or store credit. Actually...screw store credit. Store credit sucks. When people sell me games and stuff...I'll buy them for cash.

Those are just a few of the plans I have for my future video game store.