christianscott27
09-13-2003, 08:27 PM
i'm a hardcore collector but as a rule i dont go for imports, too much money and too many games to manage. that being said i had a small but respectable super fami collection going thanks to an old japanese co-worker. i had the console and 15 games, good enough for not really trying. so imagine my surprise this morning.
i make a point of hitting the flea markets in the fog lifting hours, i have too much local competition to wait until later. today i was going thru the rows as the tarps and tables went up, a smattering of NES commons here, overpriced N64 here and as always the beat up genny with 3 sports games :roll:
years of game hunting have tuned my ears as well as my eyes so when i heard the sound of tumbling plastic i was there in a flash. a pair of dominican trash mongers were trying to stem the leak in their shopping cart. at first glance it looked like N64 stuff, but then my eyes noticed the curve and distinctive four color button flower of superfami games.
20 or so games on the ground, no time to pick thru the titles, imports arent gonna turn up every weekend. so i started the price please routine, bad sign, there wasnt a word of english between these two sellers. luckily my long career as a city chef has taught me a functional level of spanish, even with the island cracked spanish of dominicans. i'll spare you my poor spanish writing skills and translate it, leaving my iron monkey style phrases intact-
me holding up games- how much?
the men consult- $3
me- how much all?
men- 3 each
now $3 each is my price point for most games, its a fair amount to ask and usually with US game piles i only need a small handful, but the japanese game pile continues to pour out of the shopping cart and i'm only holding $31.
oh my, so now its 28 games, wait theres more, and more until we have 34 carts! do the math thats $100! i cant explain that purchase to the wife LOL time to change the tactic a bit, i dig heavily into my spanish
me- 100 bucks, oh my friend here is not a place to have rich people!
me- what is game from?
them- television
me- chinito? these are chinese games!
men- ahh... yes chinito
this seems to have rattled their confidence, they must have trash picked these somewhere thinking they were N64 games. chinito is not usually a good word in latino culture.
me- i need to see china machine for TV
men- uhh...have you seen that?
me-where is machine, need special television, see chinese!
men- my friend, my friend, if next week you see me i maybe bring machine, house so far away, next week i think.
advantage: customer!
me holding out wallet- look its this or nothing, no more money here
the men consult, laughing, damn i'm gonna lose this fish! i extend the the cash with a "what can you do?" look.
men- pays for the space, first sale!
me- $30 I need one dollar para cafe si o no? (i gotta keep one dollar for coffee, dominicans are big into coffee, they agree)
then the men bag up the pile, still laughing, 34 games- thats 88 cents a cart!
theres going to be a detailed cart list posted in the import section soon, a few doubles will be up for trade i think. its gonna take me awhile to figure out the ones without english titles...lots of stuff by koei, final fantasy IV and V, lodoss war, far east of eden, dragon warrior games and so on plus some sports annuals and a couple common US games like starfox and dk country. i'm pretty damned pleased with myself today :-D
i make a point of hitting the flea markets in the fog lifting hours, i have too much local competition to wait until later. today i was going thru the rows as the tarps and tables went up, a smattering of NES commons here, overpriced N64 here and as always the beat up genny with 3 sports games :roll:
years of game hunting have tuned my ears as well as my eyes so when i heard the sound of tumbling plastic i was there in a flash. a pair of dominican trash mongers were trying to stem the leak in their shopping cart. at first glance it looked like N64 stuff, but then my eyes noticed the curve and distinctive four color button flower of superfami games.
20 or so games on the ground, no time to pick thru the titles, imports arent gonna turn up every weekend. so i started the price please routine, bad sign, there wasnt a word of english between these two sellers. luckily my long career as a city chef has taught me a functional level of spanish, even with the island cracked spanish of dominicans. i'll spare you my poor spanish writing skills and translate it, leaving my iron monkey style phrases intact-
me holding up games- how much?
the men consult- $3
me- how much all?
men- 3 each
now $3 each is my price point for most games, its a fair amount to ask and usually with US game piles i only need a small handful, but the japanese game pile continues to pour out of the shopping cart and i'm only holding $31.
oh my, so now its 28 games, wait theres more, and more until we have 34 carts! do the math thats $100! i cant explain that purchase to the wife LOL time to change the tactic a bit, i dig heavily into my spanish
me- 100 bucks, oh my friend here is not a place to have rich people!
me- what is game from?
them- television
me- chinito? these are chinese games!
men- ahh... yes chinito
this seems to have rattled their confidence, they must have trash picked these somewhere thinking they were N64 games. chinito is not usually a good word in latino culture.
me- i need to see china machine for TV
men- uhh...have you seen that?
me-where is machine, need special television, see chinese!
men- my friend, my friend, if next week you see me i maybe bring machine, house so far away, next week i think.
advantage: customer!
me holding out wallet- look its this or nothing, no more money here
the men consult, laughing, damn i'm gonna lose this fish! i extend the the cash with a "what can you do?" look.
men- pays for the space, first sale!
me- $30 I need one dollar para cafe si o no? (i gotta keep one dollar for coffee, dominicans are big into coffee, they agree)
then the men bag up the pile, still laughing, 34 games- thats 88 cents a cart!
theres going to be a detailed cart list posted in the import section soon, a few doubles will be up for trade i think. its gonna take me awhile to figure out the ones without english titles...lots of stuff by koei, final fantasy IV and V, lodoss war, far east of eden, dragon warrior games and so on plus some sports annuals and a couple common US games like starfox and dk country. i'm pretty damned pleased with myself today :-D