Decent Stores in Marietta/Smyrna/Alpharetta/Rowell, Georgia

[Epicenter]

I'm looking for somewhere to find NES, Genesis, and maybe GameBoy (original) games for a good price, in Smyrna, Marietta, Roswell or Alpharetta, Georgia. I'm ruling out the EB Games and GameStop, naturally. SwapUSA's employees are sent from hell and charge $12.99 for a 'Non-Sports Title' (Translation: If you want the game, it's a 'Non-Sports Title') out of its box with no manual, coffee stains and a torn label. I suppose I am down to pawn shops and flea markets, but the only ones I've seen just had 2 N64 games and 5,000 TVs. That's all :P

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[neuropolitique]

There are at least three thrifts in that area, all on Roswell Rd. A Goodwill, Value Village, and a Bargain somethiing. take 400 to the Mansell Rd. exit. Go west on Mansell. When you hit Roswell rd. hand a right and Goodwill is immediately on your right. Then head south on Roswell and the other two will be on your left after you cross over Holcomb Bridge.

These are part of my route, but marietta is not, so I need to look em up. I have a list of all the Goodwills in the Atlanta area, give me a minute and I'll see if there are any others.

Now, if you start bragging about your finds, and mine dry up, we'll have to have words.
:P

And yes, GameSwap is the devil.

[Epicenter]

GameSwap? Is that what the bastards used to call themselves?

[neuropolitique]

Thier full name is Video Game Swap USA. Sometimes, for some reason, I call them Gameswap.

Here's the marietta Goodwill. Take 75 north to exit 263. go west on the 120 loop, towards southern poly. Go to Cobb parkway, take a right. Take a left onto Trade Center. Go left into the shopping center with cub foods in it, it's on the far right of the plaza.

[portnoyd]

Even though I haven't been there in a year, I was able to find some decent Genesis deals at 3 different SwapUSAs. I wouldn't count them completely out, because they can be pretty oblivious on some things. Not a weekly check though, I'd say monthly at best.

dave

[neuropolitique]

You probably hit all of them then, as I believe they opened their fourth store recently. NES games go for $5.99 a piece, regardless of whether it comes in a box, or with a manual. They also have a buy two get one deal pretty much all the time for NES. There are some rare games, R5 to about R7 or so, so there are certainly deals to be had. The only stores I can think of that carry boxed NES are the Discover Mills and Lawrenceville stores.

Genny games, as stated above, are just plain ridiculous. Pretty much the same can be said of the other systems as well. Lynx games at $10. GB starting at $5.99 but rising quickly. The Discover Mills store has a boxed top loader for $129. For anything playstation and newer they use a stickered pricing scheme. Green stickers are $5.99, red $9.99, on up. Makes it easy to price, but I find it annoying. Some games should be sold for $7.99. Why not just price individually?

Overall, I just get a bad feeling every time I buy from them. I don't know why. I know one of the guys that works at the stores, and he is the nicest guy. The owner is alright, too. Just something about the place.

[Dire 51]

This is good info to have. Now maybe I can start finding older games again...

[Atari7800]

Swap USA is a bizarre store. The employees are truly clueless and just stand around the big TV and play games ALL DAY at high volumes.

I agree the sticker system is stupid... find a game you like (worth no more than $10), look on the wall at the sticker chart... it's $35. No, thanks.

That Genesis deal... $10 for a loose game? Buy two and you get one free, but almost $7 for a loose Sonic still isn't good. Notice the price list above the games? They have a list of all the rarer and/or more popular games with separate pricing... you're supposed to TELL the game-playing employees that the Bomberman is really $25 and the Time Killers is $35 and neither is included in the 3 game deal. I believe I forgot to mention it.

I did get three (I think) complete Wisdom Tree games for $20... not bad.

Also bought a Saturn D & D Collection there for $40 (they do carry cool imports, I'll give them that) and sold it on Epay for $120.

I still go in there occasionally, though. Never know what you will find. I keep finding more and more Sega CD games in there ($10 a game... sucks!) and wonder who is bringing these games in.

:o

[le geek]

I actually kind of like going to SwapUSA. Their prices aren't great but they carry a lot of stuff (i.e. they still have Game Gear, SMS,T16 stuff) also at least at the roswell rd store you can trade in DVDs for credit on anything. I picked up a bunch of SNES games that way.

I've been to one of the Mayretta fleas and one of them has a videogame booth with a good selection. I picked up Splatterhouse 2 complete, Tom Jam Earl 2 complete, and Mr. DO! SNES with box there.

If you don't mind driving to Athens there is a good flea out there as well. For good prices though, yard sales and good wills seem the best bet. When do goodwills put out new stuff in ATL BTW?

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. How many Atlanta collectors do we have!?

[Dire 51]

P.S. How many Atlanta collectors do we have!?

I relocated to the Atlanta area a little over a year ago. Maybe, if there's enough of us here, we should start some kind of meet or something here in the area. It's an idea, anyway...

[037rally]

I used to work at Gamestop in the Atlanta area and when we fazed out the Dreamcast, Super Nintendo, Genesis, and Nintendo all of the local stores shipped their stuff to our big store up at the Mall of Georgia. I haven't been to it lately but i have been told that they still have a lot of stuff. The store is a Gamestop located in a small shopping center in the Best Buy parking lot. Try there.

[D-ville Gamer]

try a new store called "Play and Trade" off of barrett pkwy in kennesaw, they are new but i found some good deals there this past weekend on sega master and snes games....

[neuropolitique]

I used to work at Gamestop in the Atlanta area and when we fazed out the Dreamcast, Super Nintendo, Genesis, and Nintendo all of the local stores shipped their stuff to our big store up at the Mall of Georgia. I haven't been to it lately but i have been told that they still have a lot of stuff. The store is a Gamestop located in a small shopping center in the Best Buy parking lot. Try there.

Right now they have one full table of SNES, and one table about 1/3 NES and 2/3 Genesis. They only have one little shelf of Dreamcast. The Gamestops I've been to shipped their games to stores at the Mall of Georgia, Winder, or some place in South Carolina. Winder has very little left, mostly SNES. Haven't sunk low enough to drive to South Carolina yet.

I have only a vague idea of where Kennesaw is. I'm sure it's too far outside my usual haunts.

An Atlanta meet could be interesting. Maybe a good trade opportunity. :D

[Dire 51]

An Atlanta meet could be interesting. Maybe a good trade opportunity. :D

I'd love to go to one. Seems that there's no meets or anything like that this far south... maybe it's time there was one.

[v1rich]

Hello everyone!
I want to move to the North Atlanta area. My Fiance wants to be close to the mountains and I need a place where I can get a good job in the Computer field (ie .Net Web Development). I have found that there are quite a few jobs in the area in my field of expertise that pay pretty good, especially in Norcross area.

My question is: What is a good place to live in that area and what are the bad places? I am looking to move once I get my Master's Degree (after September or October). I think I will be moving into an apartment for a while before buying a house. I am looking to live North Atlanta for a while. I don't want to live in any heavily populated areas. I am looking at other cities but Atlanta looks the best so far. I live about 6-8 hours away currently, in Mobile AL.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!

[le geek]

My question is: What is a good place to live in that area and what are the bad places? ...I am looking to live North Atlanta for a while. I don't want to live in any heavily populated areas.

I think if you want less urban areas, you'll want to look Outside the perimeter (285) from the NW (I-75) to the E (78). Then it depends on if you want to live in or near "strip mall city" or want to be near local businesses etc. Also traffic can be annoying in Atlanta, so you may just want to be close to your job for starters. I work in Norcross myself and Old Norcross has a nice small town feel to it...

Conversely, I'm looking to move inside the perimeter as you can get to the more interesting restaurants, movie theaters, etc much more easily...

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. Swap meets could be fun. I've met with some other classic gamers in Atlanta from the Atari Age site. Denis Debro, who wrote Climber 5 for 2600 is an Atlantan :)

[Dire 51]

All I know is that if we can get one organized, I'd gladly participate or help out any way that I can.

[neuropolitique]

All I know is that if we can get one organized, I'd gladly participate or help out any way that I can.

Well, I guess we need pieces of info from those interested: Dates available and Location. Weekends are probably the best time to have one. I get one weekend off a month, along with the following Sunday. This month, both weekends are already being taken up by my girlfriend's birthday, so I couldn't do it till May.

As for Location, I'm probably the furthest out, as I live in Buford, just down the street from the Mall of Georgia. We'd probably want to meet someplace closer to the perimeter. We need to find out how many people are interested before we decide on an actual location. Just a few people and we could just use some public place. Any more and we'd have to look at renting a place. Actually, renting something as small as a motel room may not be a bad idea. We could set up some TVs and systems, show off some games. Maybe even have a contest. Just throwing out some ideas.

[037rally]

Hello everyone!
I want to move to the North Atlanta area. My Fiance wants to be close to the mountains and I need a place where I can get a good job in the Computer field (ie .Net Web Development). I have found that there are quite a few jobs in the area in my field of expertise that pay pretty good, especially in Norcross area.

My question is: What is a good place to live in that area and what are the bad places? I am looking to move once I get my Master's Degree (after September or October). I think I will be moving into an apartment for a while before buying a house. I am looking to live North Atlanta for a while. I don't want to live in any heavily populated areas. I am looking at other cities but Atlanta looks the best so far. I live about 6-8 hours away currently, in Mobile AL.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Alpharetta is a good place to live. A lot of good restaurants, a few movie theatres, a few big bar/restaurant style arcades close by. Most importantly Alpharetta and just north of here are a ton of IT jobs. Cingular, ATT, Virizon, Cox Comunications, and many others have offices in this area. If you get a job inside the perimeter though the highway to Atlanta is an absolute nightmare in the mornings and evenings. Also living in an apartment isn't that expensive but buying a house is very expensive. Land is appraised at 100,000 an acre. No joke. On top of that Fulton county property tax is very outragous. Farther north isn't that bad but longer commute for a good job.