Sean Kelly in the Reader

[The Unknown Gamer]

To those of you who don't know The Reader is a free tabloid newspaper
here in Chicago, there a bit hip and are know for going after the tough stories. They have quite a good rep. But what happend when I picked up the lastest edition on this very day....

For there in section 1 page 10 was a photo of Sean Kelly. Of who I must say I heard of more often than anyone else of when it comes to classic gaming.
The more I read, I not only learned more about him. But he had also opened up a store which has always been his dream. So here it is:

Videogames etc
4351 N. Harlem Ave.
Norridge,Illinois

I decide to post this simply because folks. It's Sean Kelly were talking about
and I feel he needs are support. Besides I'm even damm curious what of the 1000's of games and etc that he has for sale. So I now call upon all of this forum members who live in the Chicago area to make it a point to give Sean Kelly our support by not only visiting his store but making a purchase or 5.

[Chunky]

It's a neato store, has just about everything but neo-geo(not for long that is trade-ins). and he seems to be doing pretty good, since he wil pay back cash for a trade in where the other 2 stores close by don't. couple blocks away from his house, nice location and all. Great srote to check out, much better than the similar retail chains.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I remember hearing him talking about the "timeline wall" at CGE. I think we need pictures. And the more, the merrier. :D

[Sean Kelly3]

Thanks for the kind words guys. The store opened two months ago and I intentionally opened kind of "quietly" at a slow time of year for this type of business. I didn't want to make a big fuss out of it and possibly get bombarded with a bunch of people before I knew what the hell I was doing there. I was afraid of the whole buying from customers deal. I would know exactly what to pay if someone brought in a stack of 2600 or Intellivision cartridges, but I saw myself paying idiotic prices like $25 for a used PS2 Madden 2001 (it's only worth about $2). I'm starting to get into the swing of things now and am far more knowledgable about the newer consoles than I was before I opened.

I'll try and get some pictures posted somewhere. The timeline thing is really difficult to photograph though. It's not really a "wall" but rather a soffit. The building I am renting is 110 feet long and running for about 90' hanging down about two feet from the south wall is this soffit. It looked to me like the perfect place to build a display of videogame consoles. So what I did was make a timeline running from a Pong to a Gameboy Advance with a system every two feet. I get people coming in all day long just staring up at this display walking along pointing-out to their friends which systems they had. In fact, people find it so interesting that they walk along the display and walk out talking about the old days with their buddies. Some of them forget about the most important thing - TO BUY SOMETHING! :) Though most of them are back within a few days.

A few interesting notes that people here might appreciate....

To date, I've sold twice as many Atari 2600 systems as I have PS2's and Xbox's combined.

Two of the "suprise" systems have been the Turbo Grafx and the Sega Master systems. Games and systems sell very well.

By numbers, the most popular item in my store has been, by far, NES cartridges.

The most popular console for people to trade-in is the Genesis console. I have taken-in about five times more Genesis consoles than any other console. The funny thing is that I actually sell a few of them from time to time also. N64 and Dreamcast consoles are close seconds.

Last but not least, people are SWINE! Some of the stuff I take in looks like it's been a play toy in the gorilla cage at the zoo! I can only imagine what people do to their stuff. I had a guy a couple weeks ago sell me his copy of Xbox Knights of the Republic just TWO DAYS after it was released. He had no instructions, no case, and the disc was completely scratched to the point where it wasn't even recognized by the Xbox. I couldn't help myself with this guy...I HAD to ask. "Dude! How could this game have possibly gotten so messed-up in just two days?!?!" His response was "We played it alot." I felt like reminding him that you're supposed to put the disc into the Xbox to play it....not drag it from a string attached to the bumper of your car.


Sean Kelly

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

LOL LOL LOL Funny, but sad. After dealing with true collectors, this has gotta be a bit of a culture shock kick in the junk for you!

[digitalpress]

Sean sent me the article in PDF format. It's kinda big (650K) but a good read and three pages long!

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/arc00097.pdf

[ubersaurus]

Well, if I'm ever in that area, I'll have to make it a note to check the place out...

SMS games are hard ones to find around here.

[Lady Jaye]

Hey, according to the article, Sean is also working on a book about Atari. Sounds like a great idea (let's face it: Zap is far from the best videogame histoiry book out there... and its re-release was not a new edition so the book still ends in 1983).

Too bad Chicago is so far! I'd sure love to see Sean's store in person! :)

[ubikuberalles]

According to the article CGE has been held in Las Vegas since 1997. What? :o Did I miss a show? And that World of Atari show I went to in 1998, was it really called CGE? If so then why did all of the signs say World of Atari? I'm sooo confused. @_@

[Goodwill Hunter]

Like the sub-head on the article..."Game Boy". The photographer should have slid the 2600 in front of the TV, but I guess Sean's mug makes the shot pretty enough on its own. What are the hours on the shop Sean? Are you open on Sundays? Looking forward to making the trip to check it out!

Rich

[Sean Kelly3]

No, you didn't miss a CGE...they're just stupid. :)

We're open from 11am until 9pm Monday through Saturday. Noon until 6pm on Sunday.



Sean

[Queen Of The Felines]

I don't suppose you need an extra hand in running the place, do you?

I really, really, really, REALLY need a new job.

Really.

I mean it.

Please? :D

Kristine

[Classicgamesdepot]

Congrats shawn, I know Id love opening a game store, there's nothing better than actually achieving and doing that long thing you've been striving for, good luck in The game biz!

[Queen Of The Felines]

Sean, visit http://www.actsofgord.com/index.html ...

THAT'S how you run a game store. :D

Kristine

[rbudrick]

Qof...I can't believe you've been to acts of Gord..that site rocks!! It's so funny..all those true stories he tells...damn.

-Rob

[Chunky]

I don't suppose you need an extra hand in running the place, do you?

I really, really, really, REALLY need a new job.

Really.

I mean it.

Please? :D

Kristine

yeah...we might just come shopping there more often...if we can stare at her and not you! ;)

[The Unknown Gamer]

Come on Forum Members you certainly can plan a vaction to Chicago at least once in your life. Even if you don't drive Chicago has excellent public transportation and Norridge is within Chicago( It's kinda like a suburb with the city deals) you can get directions and travel information from:
www.transitchicago.com

[Arcade Antics]

Sean is awesome. Nuff said. :)

Congrats and best of success to you Sean on the new venture!

[Ed Oscuro]

Planning on getting any import stuff?

Oh, and careful about the Neo Geo units...later models don't have such hot clarity on the graphics, but eh. Who's gonna know, they'll buy em back anyways.