So I went Hunting for the first time in ages ...

[LAGO]

I'm focusing on NES, SNES, and SMS. Back in the day I did pretty good at pawn shops. I work five minutes from one and cruised over on my break. I spy some Atari 2600 stuff, and the urge to buy everything in sight comes rushing back. I stifle it and ask if he has any NES stuff. A German Shepherd comes out of nowhere to check things out. The guy says any NES stuff we get goes straight to Ebay. And, I will not be coming back.

Visit two more after work and, to be honest, I'm a little excited, they don't carry it. I call three more and hit a Goodwill and nothing. Big ol' goose egg for my first time out in a while. Hopefully I'll be able to shake the rust off and have better luck next time.

[bb_hood]

The guy says any NES stuff we get goes straight to Ebay.

Thats the problem with these shops, nowendays they have this idea that any old game is worth $$$$ so they gotta look everything up. Then they ask the average ebay price or whatever rediculous figure pop up on the screen. Its like, whats the point? Retro gaming has become soo hyped up that nobody's willing to give people deals anymore. If I can have it shipped to my house for the same price why even bother going to these shops anymore. It feels like the party is over and all the deals are gone.

[Gameguy]

Then they ask the average ebay price or whatever rediculous figure pop up on the screen. Its like, whats the point?
It sounded like that store wasn't even willing to sell the games in the shop, they just list them all for sale on ebay which is even worse as you can't even buy them locally then.

I don't even expect to find games anymore from pawn shops or thrift stores, I just go hoping that I might get lucky and something worth buying would show up. I actually look more into video tapes and DVDs now at these places, or other electronics or toys in general. It's very rare for me to buy video games now, basically anywhere actually. Even when I do find stuff it's mostly forgettable, I can't remember too well what I bought a few weeks ago but I do still tend to buy things from the thrifts I visit fairly often.

[celerystalker]

In my area, once in a great while a game will show up at a thrift or a good arcade deal will pop up on craigslist, but I'm nor even talking once a year for thrifts. I rarely buy games these days, but it's as much from having most of what I want as it is from lack of good deals. There are plenty of local stores around me, so I can get most games locally if I needed them or wanted to pay top dollar, but there's not much there.

It's okay in a way... I either buy cheaper, more recent games at stores, or I stay focused and save up my fun money for a good arcade pcb or something. There are deals to be had, just not on NES, SNES, Turbografx, Neo Geo, etc. PS1-3, though, and 360 have a pile of stuff that is loads of fun and cheap, even for someone like me who doesn'r enjoy most modern games. That's not much help when you have those specific consoles in mind, though. Best of luck. Maybe try and talk games with people at work, church, or other social settings. There are still finds to be had in those channels from people who are just happy to know that their old stuff is making someone happy again and aren't worried about online pricing.

[bb_hood]

It sounded like that store wasn't even willing to sell the games in the shop, they just list them all for sale on ebay which is even worse as you can't even buy them locally then.



Yeah, I know. Same thing pretty much, whether its in the store or in the store's ebay shop, you aint gettin that loose copy of Mike Tyson's Punchout with the torn label for any less than 75$. Because NES GAMES = OMG SO RARE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[mailman187666]

I have to say that I've been hitting flea markets every summer for just about the last 10 years. This year is the first time I haven't even bothered to step foot in a flea market. The reason is because there are no more good deals. Last year I pretty much found nothing at all. I used to be able to walk out of there with bags filled with games, or even had to drop the bags off at my truck because I couldn't carry it all. I got to the point where I'd get mad because I had so much fun going to the flea market finding games, and now everyone is foaming at the mouth and trying to bite through each other's throats just to get a deal.

I've been into coins and metal detecting lately and let me tell you.....people aren't nearly as rabid over GOLD as they are classic games. While I still enjoy reading stories and love having my collection that I have gathered while it was affordable, I think my hunting days are coming to an end. All I have to say is thank god I bought all the Saturn games when I did because they are no longer affordable these days.

[Tanooki]

Don't want to burst your bubble, but you just met reality, a reality that has been strongly growing into just that over the last 5 years at a good clip.

Finding deals in the wild now are not normal, not regular, and are very much a combination of both dumb luck and also regional behavior along with supply.

You can hit a big collector/gamer site and you'll find pages of people bitching about finding: NOTHING, only commons, beat up crap, and prices that suck, or that it goes straight to ebay. Then you'll find a select few jokers and I find a few states seem(areas within them) have better luck on things cropping up and they'll giggle and tease what they got and how little they paid like pricks about it as the others whine to get a rush off of it and do it a lot as they have a honey hole of a town/county area or a specific spot.

The reality of it is now the last few best bets are to find something at a garage sale, a one off pull up dude in his car at a flea market (and be there like an hour before they claim to be 'open' if they don't have a gate to lock up), maybe craigslist/letsgo if you can beat out the app using don't have a real job/life squatters who call on stuff damn near instantly. Others already said it in here, the fun of the hunt and good days of it are basically dead, at least if you're after any consistency in the least bit. I can find a LOT of games every week at the flea market, problem is it's the indoor guys, they will price around ebay. Unless I find a slip up, I don't buy because why should I waste 20+min driving there (and another back), the gas involved, and the rest when I can click a bid on ebay and never have to lift my ass off the chair to do so? I'm not going to say they don't get it, they do, they just don't care because someone will show up eventually or they have other items for sale so it can just rot for all they care.

As mailman said below, it's done man, and be thankful you have held onto anything of fun/sentimental value you currently have. I've done this. I've actually been for some years now due in part to this shit selling off my collection down to the bones of what I had pre-21st century I almost exclusively bought myself or was gifted one way another and it still amounts to a good amount of stuff. He went metal detecting I went into vintage/antique toys and things, g1 transformers and late 80s/early 90s Lego to amuse myself as they're not vile, nasty, vicious, vindictive and predatory to enjoy.


Hey let's edit this with a positive end note. Do you want a suggestion on something old and gaming worthwhile from notable makers? Go to handheld gaming, loose carts, specifically Game Gear and then all things Gameboy. You'll find that like 90% of their library of games can be had in the $3-30 range, a vast amount of that in the middle of that or under. Few of the games will crack the $50 barrier on their own, so it's not like you'll end up having to cough up $100 for a game or $1000 for another which is too common on NES, SNES, SegaCD, NeoGeo(AES and MVS too), TG16, TGCD (and PCE counterparts), etc. Sega Genesis itself also has few games over the $50 mark loose too, the last 16bit hold out not to be a ripoff still.

[homerhomer]

I'm find that I don't go out to hunt for games as well. My issues is my time is worth more than the it's worth for find a deal. So if I find a game that's worth $20 ( ebay prices ) but I find it for $4-$5 at a thrift store that's great but if I had to spend all freaking day to find it, that's horrible. It's just not worth my time. I originally would find NES games for good prices then they went up in price, so I moved to collecting Genesis and now I'm getting priced out of that market too.
(rant time!)
We should all start a pact to stop buying on ebay & amazon and only from mom and pop shops. Who's with me?

LOL

[LAGO]

Wow. This took a depressing turn. I'm still going to collect what I was going after, but my tactics will definitely change.

Are the sales boards here still really active or has that slowed as well?

[celerystalker]

They're slow, but at any given point there are usually a couple of people liquidating collections.

[bb_hood]

Wow. This took a depressing turn. I'm still going to collect what I was going after, but my tactics will definitely change.

Are the sales boards here still really active or has that slowed as well?

Yeah, sorry to bring you down..

Lately there has been alot of new sales in the 'for sale' thread. Oobergarm had some really good deals; Ive pretty much stopped collecting games but I couldnt pass up Super Spy Hunter. Love that game.

[celerystalker]

Yeah, sorry to bring you down..

Lately there has been alot of new sales in the 'for sale' thread. Oobergarm had some really good deals; Ive pretty much stopped collecting games but I couldnt pass up Super Spy Hunter. Love that game.

Super Spy Hunter rules. I'dve gone after that if I didn't already have one. I'm always surprised that it hasn't gone bonkers in price yet!

[stlgamer75]

I am a member of a couple retro gaming facebook groups and look at local sellers online (craigslist, offerup) and have success there. I'm also lucky enough to live in a metro area with some decent flea markets and used video game stores that focus on retro games vs. only re-selling current gen stuff. I still hunt but its focused on a few places where I'm confident I can find something, even if I end up paying market value for it as opposed to a steal. Those are just harder and harder to come by now.

[LAGO]

I am a member of a couple retro gaming facebook groups and look at local sellers online (craigslist, offerup) and have success there.

Could you point me in the direction of the FB groups?

[Tanooki]

The facebook groups are local, you got to try and find one in your town there or close enough driving distance to bother. If you attempt a national one, expect to get gouged as bad as ebay or craigslist.

As others said, sorry for the downer reality check but things just went south over the last few years. There are others selling off entire collections or chucks off it in bursts (which I'm doing.) I'm not done with it, just don't want to be abused anymore so I'm letting go of mainly whatever I picked up post 2000 for classic systems (mainly nintendo made.)

I find the best thing is to either take the abuse if you can tolerate it, and if not, get creative. Find a fun system (or more) that aren't being price screwed. From there decide if you want to make it local (if possible) or if you have to buy online, set some goals. You can only watch for badly done BINs, lots, or closing stuff on ebay and hope it falls under say 20% of average, and if it doesn't, you hold firm and wait. Make a game of it, at least it's some kind of a hunt still.

[otaku]

facebook groups and sometimes craigslist have deals but you gotta sort through a bunch of overpriced stuff waiting for this bubble to burst

[Steve W]

Oddly enough, I only go thrift store and flea market shopping when I go on vacation now. My local stores have been stripped of anything gaming related. Used to be, a couple of thrifts in my area would always result in something good, I'd be surprised if I didn't buy anything. Now all the eBay flippers instantly grab anything they can (or at least the stuff the employees don't get first). I've gone to my favorite thrift about three times in the past five or six months. It's not worth the feeling of sadness. People just view video games as a commodity now.

[calthaer]

I figured this was the reality, but I wonder how long this will last - where's the demand coming from? NES games were really expensive when they came out, and while some families could afford to buy the games back in the 1980s, a lot of us probably made do with rentals. So you have this situation where there are a lot more people with fond memories of the game than there were who actually purchased it.

I know I built a lot of my rather small NES collection out of favorite games I had always wanted wand / or titles I remembered fondly from the rental days - but I did that in the 1990s, just when people were trading in their NES games to get dough for their PS1 games. Even then, some titles - like a few of the Mega Man games - weren't exactly cheap.

So...I am guessing that a lot of this is wish fulfillment. People who finally have a few bucks to spare and are desperately trying to recapture the joy of childhood, and there aren't that many copies of the game for everyone who wants to do this. Video games have a unique ability to fascinate - the focus and concentration required for some of those old games can make the world melt away, and it's right up there with books and movies for creating a time portal to yesteryear.

Some day the market on these might bottom out, but that probably won't be until our generation is entering hospice and these collections are finding their way to estate sales.

[Tanooki]

Grim, but I doubt retirement home age would be the far out date for it. I think it will be more when people get fed up with it enough you have a wide enough percentage of pissed people who see more value in not keeping the stuff than keeping it. Those who just say fuck it and sell it, or those who say that, do that, then download what they had and use any other free or nearly free means of usage for their favorites. When the collecting mentality cracks over price, that'll be it before it's people being put into a home or dying of old age I think. It just comes to how long before people crack because they're fed up and/or another cool thing of the 90s or 00s takes its place. Maybe there will be in the next 5 years a huge swing towards card battler games and people will start peddling the hell out of pokemon, yugioh and other cards, especially the more obscure within sets or obscure in general (like MagiNation brough up today on the site.) You'll get people wnating them graded, sealed packages, sealed boxes of packages, the marketing crap, etc. Stacks of cards take up a lot less space than stacks of Nintendo cartridges. You just never know, but something always kicks the teeth out of what's being abused to be the next one.

[Tron 2.0]

Super Spy Hunter rules. I'dve gone after that if I didn't already have one. I'm always surprised that it hasn't gone bonkers in price yet!
Prices for that is moderate from what i've seen.Now what's insane is how crazy expensive the famicom version is now that being battle formula.

[celerystalker]

Prices for that is moderate from what i've seen.Now what's insane is how crazy expensive the famicom version is now that being battle formula.

Oh, for sure. Battle Formula costs way too much. Even the PS1 disc with Gimmick costs a bunch these days.

[Tanooki]

That costs too much because it's collectard cancer basically. Once it gets too expensive to own on one format, people look to others, then the sellers figure it out and jack the up the price knowing they can hound the more gamer centric types who want in who collect too, because the big time collectors will just eat the cost for an original. It's a vicious cycle, very easily seen in how famicom prices have spiked just in the last few years after the NES stuff (especially post SFC/SNES) went up hardcore. It wasn't long ago you could get Lickle (Samson) famicom for very little, then it shot up over 100 really fast. Same can be said with others like Bubble Bobble 2, the disney sequels, panic restaurant, etc. Oddly Bonk is still $20-30, not sure why, but it's the stand out where you can get the same game and not screwed out of $300.

[SparTonberry]

I've never seen Bubble Bobble 2 under $100, for either NES or Famicom.

I feel I lucked out getting a Captain Saver CIB years ago, for a sane price from a site that usually overcharged on game.

I thought the price on Battle Formula was affected by one Famicom collector in Japan that announced he had a complete set. If I remember, there was some confusion as to whether BF was his hardest-to-find game or his favorite.

[bb_hood]

I thought the price on Battle Formula was affected by one Famicom collector in Japan that announced he had a complete set. If I remember, there was some confusion as to whether BF was his hardest-to-find game or his favorite.

On GameCenter CX, the guy who had the complete set mentioned BF as his favorite, and he also mentioned that it was hard to find. I remember he mentioned a different game that was rarer.

Regarding Super Spy Hunter, it will go up sooner or later. Maybe once people realize that its more like a shooter than a racing game. People go crazy over shooters

[Tanooki]

Count me in the surprised box Super Spy Hunter price doesn't suck. It's a post-SNES release if I recall right and the game is beyond solid, a true stand out visual treat as well sort of like how Recca does some crazy junk in Japan in relation to how the background layers respond. It's a shooter, just happen to be in a car is all, not an arcade driver overhead like Spy Hunter equally was so.

I'm not really sure why I'm doing this to myself, but since handheld aren't toxic to me and after finding back in early spring that small cache of 3DS/DS stuff which had Super Mario 64DS in it it got me wanting after a decade of being gone to play some stuff I had before and also try new ones as the DS had a lot of stuff that wasn't just licensed garbage. I found DQH Rocket Slime less than a week ago, can't remember the last time I had that much fun playing some game and it's just so screwball like I vaguely remember it being. A bit DQ, a bit Zelda, and a bit 1on1 tank brawling with sabotage. I'm really liking it, and I have shortly Metroid Prime Hunters, Zelda Phantom Hourglass and New SMB on the way too. I've actually got more DS than 3DS stuff currently. Kind of a weird flash back of how I had more Wii than WiiU and PS3 than PS4 stuff. It's like the newer stuff gets where they add more in a way that it's less (fun, less good) so I look back and find far more gems and variety.

[Sailorneorune]

Oh, for sure. Battle Formula costs way too much. Even the PS1 disc with Gimmick costs a bunch these days.

For cheap alternatives to buying expensive import PS1 games (and getting a Japanese/modded system to play them on), Japanese PSN is your friend, and mine.

$7 Rakugaki Showtime says hi. :-D

[Emperor Megas]

I found DQH Rocket Slime less than a week ago, can't remember the last time I had that much fun playing some game and it's just so screwball like I vaguely remember it being. A bit DQ, a bit Zelda, and a bit 1on1 tank brawling with sabotage. I'm really liking it...Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime is my favorite DS game. Granted, I haven't played quite that many DS titles, but of the ones I have played it's definitely the one I've enjoyed the most. The tank battles are so damn fun! It's such an awesome 'modern old school' game, if you understand what I mean.

[Tanooki]

Completely. It's this screwball mix of the 2 classic franchises of DQ and Zelda (overworld play and items) but then it's almost like one of those awful tower defense type games, except it doesn't suck and is some coining shitty IAP mess all those titles are -- it's just fun throwing out stuff to knock down enemies, their weapons, or using them as weapons on their own stuff...it's 100% unique and fun in all the right ways.

[Niku-Sama]

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime is my favorite DS game. Granted, I haven't played quite that man DS titles, but of the ones I have played it's definitely the one I've enjoyed the most. The tank battles are so damn fun! It's such an awesome 'modern old school' game, if you understand what I mean.

I think a Fred Meyer near by has that game new still. I was always curious

[Tanooki]

Get it, you won't regret it. If us talking don't sell it, go fire up a video play through, move it maybe 3 hours into the game, and let it run for 15min so you can see a tank battle and some terrain. It's good.

[Niku-Sama]

so I went and checked it out and it was Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2

[Tanooki]

Half price just up the road from here has the original Joker for $15 on the shelf, been there for months. I had it back in the day when it was new and I never got more than probably 20 hours into it before it got really boring so I never tried out that sequel.