It Has Begun. [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

Flack

09-06-2004, 06:05 PM

Today I stopped by one of my "lucky" Thrift Stores. Just in my daily travels there are at least half a dozen I drive past on a regular basais, but this one is off my normal patch and I don't make it by there very often.

All the videogame stuff is in the back corner, combined with all the computer stuff. When you scan the area, your mind must decypher what each item is as you run across it. VCR... VCR... Computer Monitor... VCR... Atari 2600... VCR... (sound of brakes squealing) ATARI 2600? Then you quickly scan backwards and see what it was you just missed.

One thing I like about this particular thrift store is that while stuff isn't normally together, it's usually complete. I found an entire Sega Genesis sysem one time. The system was on the shelf, the joysticks were two shelves over and made to look like they were plugged into a VCR (?), and the power adapter was over in the testing area. After a few minutes of scavaging, I had a complete system together for about $5.

Today when I went, the place was bone dry. The shelves had been picked over like a desert carcass. I couldn't even find a crappy 80's PC joystick, the foundation of which all thrift store gaming sections are built upon.

Disappointed, I headed out. On the way out, next to the front counter, was a new glass case. What caught my eye was Sonic the Hedgehog. Under closer inspection, I found this is where all the videogame goods had been transferred to.

In the shelves there was a complete Sega Genesis system. $30. PSX, one controller. $40. Genesis games, $5/each. PSX games, $8/each.

This place is dead.

I saw this happen to another one of my hobbies once. Throughout the 80's and 90's, I collected Star Wars stuff. Believe it or not, back then a lot of people considered that unique. Of course, when the originals were re-released and the new movies came out, Star Wars collecting came in vogue again. People drove the prices way up. After all was said and done, my Star Wars collection ended up boxed up and moved into the garage, where it sits today.

I wonder if the interest in retro videogame consoles is a temporary wave, or if what I saw today is the beginning of the end for finding cheap stuff in the wild for me?

whoisKeel

09-06-2004, 06:26 PM

i too have noticed that they are putting games in glass cases now too. but that is how i got my complete clamshell bloodlines for $3, so don't give up hope yet.

another nice thing, it prevents stealing. there's one goodwill i frequent on the shaddy side of town, they'll always be psx games or genny games, but alas, gameless...damn theives. the one time they had a game in the glass at that store, it was sim city 4 deluxe edition, complete...for $5 or so...score :)

but i think you're right to assume that prices are just gonna go up and up for awhile. more and more i hear about retro gamers in the news, or look at hot topic's line of t-shirts. old games are cool now. and nothing cool is ever cheap.

davidleeroth

09-06-2004, 06:29 PM

I know it's a popular belief that the end is nigh. I have seen the end in some thrift stores, or rather "itsepalvelukirpputori" as we like to call them.

I've seen stuff priced accordingly (not cheap, though) and way too high. If I see the same stuff sitting there for more than a couple of weeks, I take a break for a month or so. More than often when I get back, the place has gone under.
Sometime soon a new one emerges in a different place, the prices stay good for few months before people get to know the value of stuff and from there on it's downhill.

I think there's still hope for us cheap-ass collectors, we just gotta keep ourselves on the run and get there before the "Genny games go for $15" belief spreads.

Griking

09-06-2004, 06:46 PM

I used to get upset about this as well but eventually two things happened.

1) Most thrift store workers know nothing about videogames so all games are priced the same (Combat goes for the same price as Chase the Chuckwagon). And since not many people are going to pay $5 for Combat or $30 for a Genesis console you'll see the proces correct themselves sooner or later. Thrift store workers generally don't like stuff to sit in their cabinets that long.

2) Theft went way down when the games go behond glass. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a box of a game that you really wanted only to find that the game that was supposed to be inside the box has been lifted.

Mitch_Naz

09-06-2004, 07:00 PM

Luckly this hasn't happend to my local thrift store (usally Value Village) but some items are a little bit over priced. For example, I picked a saturn "arcade" controller a good while back for about $5 and came across the same thing again but this time it was $18.99 - Maybe someone who works thier knows this stuff but I usally see snes/gen games for $3, main consoles for $5-8 and game cables for about $3-5. I just hope things dont change much, price wise.

spoon

09-06-2004, 07:05 PM

Just some random thioughts:

Fellow collectors and I have been talking about this for a few years now. "The Find" or any good find has become harder over the past few years. Once your hobby has it's own television channel, or, merchandise sold at Hot Topic/other retailers, things are definitely mainstream.

Pros and cons from the current mainstream videogame explosion

Pros:

More people to trade with online

"collectors" that are selling off their collection becasue those all in one tv joys/pirates are available and easier to hook up/space saving

Games seem to be traded in at a higher rate.

Once (if) gaming/collecting becomes less popular, more "collectors" collections will be up for sale. Hopefully driving down prices.

Cons:

More people to trade with online.

All the "E-bay" pricing at thrifts/stores/auctions/fleas/garage sales

Great finds don't come about as often

Everything is worth a mint. Even Super Mario Bros.

I know there are others, just what I could think of off the top of my head.

I just dislike asking a clerk

"How much is this?" and getting

"Lemme check."

Hops on E-bay.

Retro collecting has definitley hit a high point. It iwll be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Wait 'till CMOSFM checks this thread. Heh.

-hellvin-

09-06-2004, 07:07 PM

This is pretty much how it is in Arizona. I hardly thrift anymore because I have been to every single one in the city and surrounding areas so many times and they are pretty expensive to boot. Now I just rely on game stores and ebay. Maybe the swap meet to...gonna check it out on saturday.

jezt

09-06-2004, 07:21 PM

I have seen this happen around my way as well. Anchorage, AK. A few months back I saw a whole bunch of Sega CD games for two bucks a pop. Complete games. I went home to get my stash so I could come back, and it was all gone. The CDs that is. A shelf full of empty sega cd games. I was mortified. A few weeks earlier, I had purchased a complete sega cd console with genny included for thirteen bucks, so I figured that they were donated at the same time. Now I go in there, (Salvation army) and not only do I see the games behind glass, but I see that they are ten bucks more than they were beforehand. For example, I saw a playstation one for thirty bucks. I was like "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME". It seems that this all happend after I started going in there looking for games and systems as well. I find it quite disheartening when I see people who dont know crap about games try to profit off of it by overcharning, and this looks like the case. The only other collector that I know of out here is Cheesystick, and there arent alot of places that sell stuff like this anyayz, but I hope that this isnt the start of a trend out here. :(

VinnyT

09-06-2004, 07:36 PM

Usually my main thrift has Genny stuff at 2.50, but they started charging 3.75 one week.

It went back down about a week later.

Guess that's what nice about being in a "X-BOX ROXORS!" community.

Graham Mitchell

09-06-2004, 07:49 PM

Things are looking more picked over lately. I know people still avidly trade, but when it gets tough to find stuff in stores, I get nervous (TG-16 is totally gone, for example.) I have this irrational, underlying fear that the collectors will gobble everything up and take it out of circulation, unwilling to share. (No, this isn't an "I hate this type or that type of collector" post. It's just a fear I have). It doesn't help that at hot topic, you can now buy makeup compacts and other accessories made out of gutted 2600 cartridges...while those are overproduced, I dread the day they start using 7800 or NES carts for that type of thing...

NYLatenite

09-06-2004, 08:11 PM

I don't head out into the wild that often, but I have noticed a significant rise on both Ebay and Yahoo in the prices of older stuff - my guess is that a lot of stuff isn't even getting bought up by collectors, but rather by people who think they can make a quick turn around on Ebay and make some cash. (Hence they probably double whatever they paid for something when pricing it)

I look at this as a good thing/bad thing situation - in the short run, it's bad as it makes it harder for people actively collecting to get their hands on the items they're looking for at a decent price.

In the long term, I would hope it turns out to be a good thing in that once the current "retro" craze dies down, there will be large stocks of stuff that will be dumped off at low prices. hopefully the amount of space required to store video game stuff means that once the "collectors" are no longer interested (ie moved on to the next hot thing), the stuff they picked up will move back out onto the market at somewhat more normal prices.

My advice? Be selective - don't pay a premium for something you know you can get cheaper elsewhere - once these sellers start losing money, they'll get out of the business.

Oh, and was anyone else sickened when they read this line in the post above me?

It doesn't help that at hot topic, you can now buy makeup compacts and other accessories made out of gutted 2600 cartridges..

pixelsnpolygons

09-06-2004, 08:28 PM

Sucks. Every thrift store I've ever known has been like that for me, though. Since as long as I've ever gone to them - that or they're empty. Sigh.

max 330 mega

09-06-2004, 08:47 PM

you guys should just be happy to have thrift stores with even a trace of a game in them, there are 2 in my town, not a game in sight. then theres the flea market, every single week, there are different people there selling there crap extremely overpriced. i live in a hick town, so you would think they would sell games cheap... try 40 dollars for a disgusting copy of chrono trigger cart only, or a kirby 64 with no label for 30? it really amazes me , its not that these people know what the stuff is worth, they just all decide to throw insane prices on EVERYTHING on there tables!

i wish i had a thrift store that even had games :(

Ed Oscuro

09-06-2004, 08:56 PM

My main thrift has NES, Genesis, 32x, Sega CD, Game Boy, and (so far only one) Atari VCS carts; all priced at $2.99 each - which is sort of a sweet spot with me. I'll buy most anything at that price (when I have the money for it, that is)! LOL

I haven't seen hide nor hair of anything post-PlayStation outside of a Dreamcast controller, and the Internet Browser which I snapped up. It's rather strange.

slip81

09-06-2004, 09:12 PM

I only have on thrift near me, and they only get stuff every once in a while. But when they do get it they're prices are pretty good, $3 for games, and about $15 per system. I once got Mega Man 4 & 5 and Contra for three bucks each. though I agree that prices are way too high, I've only been collectiong about a year, and not because it's "hip", but because that's when I got a job that allowed me to pay "hip" prices. I mean Contra is up to like $15-17 on ebay and Gamestop.

The problem of mainstream destroying things for collectors is something I've delt with for a while though since I've been collecting comics for about 15 years, and if video games are anything like comics, it will all loose popularity eventually. Once about 6 years ago me and my friends bought three comics at a con and a local store, I got Amazing Spider-Man 121 for $30, and he got Amazing Spider-Man 122 for $11, and Giant Size X-Men for $50, all are in very fine condition. Now, since the movies came out and comics are popular, the two spider-man books are about $150-200 and the X book is over $400.

I'm sure that eventually when all the teenagers into reto stuff now grow up and out of it prices on common games will come down, but there are always gonna be games that will continue to rise in price, like Shining Force 3, Panzer Dragoon Saga, old RPG's and rare 2600 carts because of limited availibility. Just like not too many people are still interested in LP's, but if you find an original Velvet Underground & Nico album with the banana sticker intact, you're gonna pay a few hundred for it. America is a country of passing fads and "retro" is still very young, in 10 years people will be giving Contra carts away

Nesmaster

09-06-2004, 10:08 PM

havent been hit too bad here yet. goodwills price the games at 1.99 or 2.99, depending on the location. salvation army prices them at 2.99 or 3.99, still reasonable. head over to value village, and now i am beginning to see 5.99 - 7.99 for ONE game. luckily the best value village around is still reasonable at 4.99, good stuff usually too ;)

Flack

09-06-2004, 10:25 PM

I'm wondering if other thrifts will follow suit.

There are three thrifts between my work and my home that I hit about once a week. Guaranteed, you can get either a Genesis, SNES, or 2600 for $5. It wasn't so much the fact that this thrift had stuff under glass, it was that everything was set up like museum pieces.

lendelin

09-06-2004, 10:29 PM

I wonder if the interest in retro videogame consoles is a temporary wave, or if what I saw today is the beginning of the end for finding cheap stuff in the wild for me?

In all likelihood more the beginning of the end than aything else. It will become more and more difficult to find cheap videogame stuff of the past. There will be ups and downs of demand in general (!) based on 'fashionable' trends, and for certain eras/accessories/games/hardware (!) which allows to get them cheaper, but overall the trend is it becomes more expensive and more exclusive based on increased demand.

There are three simple reasons:

1) the game industry is a big success, and it becomes established among adults which goes beyond generational game experiences. An increased interest in the present means more interest in the past. Only if the game industry slides in a moderate or severe crisis, then you'll get the old stuff cheaper again. (wouldn't be the first time that a favorite toy is replaced by something very different after years or decades; the only Q is when and how this will happen; right now I can't see it in the next decade or two)

2) Basic motivations playing videogames don't change. Challenge and captivating artificial worlds are always attractive. Depending on the directions of newer games, certain games or hardware of the past will be favored, but overall the demand of playing (!) older games will increase. Again, it's the present which determines the demand: Modern games create vacuums which only older games can fill as a niche demand, and game development is gradual and slow which invites backtracking when it comes to playing and collecting.

3) Online auction sites as a result of the increased demand explained above. Retailers, even thrift stores, become more and more aware of the price of this 'old stuff,' and they are able to sell it beyond face-to-face contact or sell it to online sellers.

The best thing is to look at the situation of other 'collectibles.' Furniture, books, prints, paintings...the demand fluctuates based on current developments and trends in all kinds of eras which has nothing to do with the collectibles themselves. Value changes, changes in leisure time activities, political trends, restructuring of jobs...it's sometimes crazy and hardly foreseeable when something is 'in' or 'out'.

The big success of todays game industry prevents that the interest in and demand for the games past will decrease; not very good prospects for collectors if you don't intend to sell and/or make out of buying/selling a business in order to sustain your hobby.

pookninja

09-06-2004, 10:59 PM

i notice all the goodwill stores i hunt out for games have been raising prices lately.they have done this before.where one store usually sells all cartridge games for 75 cents,it will then go to a dollar,then 2,and so on.eventually,they raise the prices to high,and the games just sit there.after half off day,they mark down the prices again for awhile since the games werent selling.i just wish all the goodwills had one price.some goodwills,cart games are 75 cents,at another there 4 dollars.of course,they lower it when they have a crap load of sonic 2 and mario/duck hunts laying around.

Pantechnicon

09-06-2004, 11:18 PM

My three main thrifts are all pretty much on the collectible bandwagon now (sigh), most games and consoles behind glass. The problem is none of them really have a freaking clue what they're doing. No rhyme or reason to any of it.

My local Savers illustrates the conundrum nicely. Today they had a 50% off sale for Labor Dabor. Place was more packed than I've ever seen it. I walked in and paid $5 for a Sega Master System (console only) that had been sitting out on a shelf, untouched, for a fortnight. This same store has also been displaying a loose Game Boy Color behind the glass for the same amount of time. Asking price for the GBC...$50?! Even with the half-off sale today, I'll bet that thing is still sitting there tomorrow, b/c even at half off that price is outrageous and everybody seems to know it except for whomever does the pricing.

Thrift Town, which has been bone dry for months, suddenly popped up today with a slew of complete Sega Saturn non-sports titles for $3 placed alongside a bunch of loose common N64 carts priced at $15 apiece O_O, to say nothing of the pile of 2600 commons sitting in the audio cassette bin for sixty cents apiece (and yeah, I bought them. It's always nice to have extra commons to sweeten the tradebait).

So you see, bargains can still be had. Of course it helps if your local thrift store is run by people whose ability to recall game systems only goes back five to ten years.

Seriously, as has been said on this board many times before, it also helps to build relationships with the thrift store workers. This cannot be overemphasized. My best thrift is the big Goodwill, where all the game stuff (natch) goes behind the glass. But I've been going there regularly for nine years. I've never spoken a bad word to the employees and I've never bragged about how I'm going make a fortune on Ebay with this omg and u sU><0rz $0ld it 2 m3 4 1$ w00+! I guarantee you I get fairer pricing than the hoi polloi because the employees know I'm collecting for my own pleasure and not to make a buck. Sure, sometimes I do sell on Ebay in addition to primarily trading, but I don't flaunt this at the thrifts.

If less people hadn't done this in the first place Goodwill might never have set up their own auction site. We are largely responsible for creating our own monster here, guys and gals.

christianscott27

09-07-2004, 12:00 AM

come on now, most thrift stores are staffed by volunteers or the recently homeless, even for profit savers/value village is mostly run by booger pickers. these folks sometimes get an inkling of whats worth something but not much, more likely they'll mark up the mario's and pac mans cause they figure thats what people want most. a lot of em dont really keep up with the times either, like the way SNES games are always high priced even though its several generations past. i'm making some finds at the aids thrift near my house, they finally stopped asking $8 for boxed genny games at just made every game $3 or 2 for $5. scored a great stack of saturn RPGs there and then this weekend got a good selection of C64 carts, best of all nobody else ever buys any games at this place cause its deep inner city.

now as for the glass case thing...

pro- greatly increases the odds of getting complete games, in fact for fragile CD games its a must to preserve them

con- when they stack all the games up in such a way you cant read the labels and you have to get the harried cashier to come unlock it, only to find sonic 2.

esquire

09-07-2004, 12:26 AM

come on now, most thrift stores are staffed by volunteers or the recently homeless, even for profit savers/value village is mostly run by booger pickers. these folks sometimes get an inkling of whats worth something but not much, more likely they'll mark up the mario's and pac mans cause they figure thats what people want most. a lot of em dont really keep up with the times either, like the way SNES games are always high priced even though its several generations past. i'm making some finds at the aids thrift near my house, they finally stopped asking $8 for boxed genny games at just made every game $3 or 2 for $5. scored a great stack of saturn RPGs there and then this weekend got a good selection of C64 carts, best of all nobody else ever buys any games at this place cause its deep inner city.

...and let us not forget that for the most part, the money made on these things are going to a charity (Goodwill, Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul, etc.)

Flack

09-07-2004, 12:27 AM

The other thrift store I go to also has all their NES games under glass now too. There were 14 games, there, 2 stacks. 12 of the 14 games were some variation of Super Mario Brothers. The other two were both R4's. I bought those two for $3 each and left the 12 SMB cards (also marked at $3 each) on the shelf for someone else.

Bluteg

09-07-2004, 01:02 AM

Thrifts are very very hit or miss and you can never keep your gaurd down on 'em. My local hick town has never had any games, not even a $4 Combat in the 2 or 3 years I've been checking there. One day on my trip to college I stop by and find 13 complete SMS games for $2 each including a complete Phantasy Star. So for thrifts you just have no give up.

SegaAges

09-07-2004, 01:14 AM

the very last post is dead on. the thrift stores i go to are extremely hit or miss. i have only bought games from there once, but they do sell them. i got a crazy good deal on some psx games once: dbz: final bout (jap), Herc's Adventure, Casper, Castlevania: SOTN all for 2.99 a piece. Last time I went there, the only games they had were a bunch of sports games for genny, and 2 gameboy games (Mario Land 2 and Kirby both for 24.99, neither was complete, just the cart only for them). Sometimes, I get lucky and find games for insane prices (the psx games). other times, the game prices are insane (there is no way in hell i am going to pay 24.99 for mario land 2).

Ed Oscuro

09-07-2004, 02:11 AM

You're serious - Mario Land 2 and Kirby for the original Game Boy were $24.99 cart only? Jeez.

But yeah, you really have to keep going to thrifts, and as I recently found out, don't pick up ANYTHING unless you know you either REALLY want it or have a use for it yourself. I've picked up a few things thinking "this would be nice" or "I maybe could sell this later" ...NO! It never works.

Graham Mitchell

09-07-2004, 07:21 AM

This might be a step in a different direction in the conversation, but most "mainstream" people that want to play the old games don't want the consoles. It's the same concept as with records and CD's: "If I can have it digitally without any bulky stuff taking up space, as long as it works on my computer, I don't care". Hence the success of emulators. I have noticed that emulators have really become popular amongst the non-hardcores that I know, and they don't want all the wires and bulky carts or fragile CD's lying around.

That said, I don't really know why prices are getting higher. We collectors may have created the demand ourselves! LOL

Quickclaw

09-07-2004, 01:19 PM

The only game-related items at my Goodwill right now are two PS1 consoles ($9.99) and a Genesis football title ($2.99). All NES games I've picked up there in the past have been priced at a uniform $1.99.

Cauterize

09-07-2004, 01:51 PM

consider yourselves lucky..... the UK charity shops/second hand shops are awful (the majority of them!) out of 15 Charity shops i have visited in the last month all i found was an old crappy pc game! id kill for thrifts n goodwills etc in the uk!

Fuyukaze

09-07-2004, 02:48 PM

While I'd like to think colectors may have played some large part in the reason for why the prices are so high, I think how ever much it is its not that high. With news and print media always reporting on the sucsess and failures of online auctions all one would realy have to do is check out something like e-bay or yahoo to see how well they are selling. Why the flat price for games though is a bit of a mystry to me though. I can only guess that if they are using online auctions as any indication of selling price that they are not looking very far into it. Otherwise there would be differences in their prices. Complete games like Zelda going for the same price as a loose copy of anticipation on the NES? I dont think so!

As to the whole emulators bit, almost guilty as charged. Be honest, I perfer emulators because I perfer something to nothing. I still havent bought from any online auction and find it rare to find most of the games I am after around town. For a reasonable price that is. Though I would perfer to own the originals and the systems. I still have 3 slots on one power strip and atleast 2 more power outlets at my disposal!

fennec fox

09-07-2004, 03:45 PM

If you look at rec.games.video.classic a decade ago you'll find a lot of posts that say pretty much exactly the same stuff seen in this thread.

What's changed since then? Well, the force of time has brought a great deal of the true classic-era hardware and software out of circulation. That stuff was cheap even back in 93 because the average person perceived it as being cheap -- that's how the classic era ended in 1984, with tons and tons of cheap games. That event has yet to be duplicated in gaming history -- sure, there are closeouts of games whenever outdated hardware dies, but the idea that games may have some intrinsic value besides the price Toys 'r Us puts on them was already firmly entrenched in people's minds by the time the NES gave way to the Genesis.

I think that's the main reason why prices are so haphazard in places like thrift shopes, and I also think that's the reason why someplace like digitpress has such a large readerbase, busy message board, and so forth. In the end, the trend has helped video games in general far more than hurt it.

slip81

09-07-2004, 06:55 PM

come on now, most thrift stores are staffed by volunteers or the recently homeless, even for profit savers/value village is mostly run by booger pickers.

That's not true. Once at a Savers in Warwick R.I there was a really cute skater/punk chick working there, she was much impressed by my Spider-Man credit card :)

Emily

09-07-2004, 09:13 PM

I just went to my local thrift store and scored me a complete Top-Loader NES plus a third sweet little party contoller for it!!!!!! LOL
All for $20.00!!! :cheers:

AFGiant

09-07-2004, 10:20 PM

The thrifts near me are varied. At one, there is a stack of Colecovision and Atari games for $1.99 each. Not owning either system, I don't buy them (although I accidentally bought a colecovision Donkey Kong and I purposely bought Space Invaders and Pac-Man for the atari because my neighbor has one). There are sometimes NES and SNES games for $2 each. N64 games are slightly higher, and computer games are higher still.
At a different one, I found a complete Genny sports game for $2.50. They said they could get more 'games' out of the back room by the weekend. What these will be priced and what systems they're for is unknown to me.
At a third, there was only 1 Genny sports cart loose, but for 53 cents. At 53 cents, I'll pick it up even if I don't care much about it.
So, prices around here are generally low, but I've noticed competition in collecting lately. We'll see how it pans out.

Wavelflack

09-07-2004, 10:49 PM

I got my first Vectrex from a Goodwill store in Olathe. It was marked $80 (this was back around 1990 or so, and there was certainly not a market for it back then), so I figured they had no idea what it was. I was right. I asked the guy why it was $80, and he said it was because it's a computer. They thought it was a black Macintosh!

I convinced him it wasn't, and that it was only an old game console, and he agreed to let it go for $5 (which was what the other old game consoles sold for)

My "golden years" at thrift stores ended about 6-7 years ago. Up until that point, the local Goodwill (we only have one) literally had a fresh stack of 2600 carts every week--a stack of 30-40 games, $.25 each. I could clean them out each week and get a new pile the next. It was like a fountain of old silicon.
The flow eventually started to thin out, but the killing blow happened when they decided to build a BRAND NEW Goodwill store in the "nicer" section of town.

The terrible thing that happened was ORGANIZATION. No longer were there piles of random items to be picked through. Now they had all the room (and lighting) they needed to cleanly and aesthetically display their wares. The people who may have been interested in old games before, but not enough to pick through a pile of dirty toys and waffle irons, now had the ability to shop for Atari junk without worrying about innoculations.

That, and eBay's rise to fame (which happened around the same time), more or less eliminated my weekly haul aways from Goodwill and "The Sal" (as the poor kids refer to it). Not to say that I never find anything these days; I still get gems. But it's not an endless, overflowing mecca of cheap games anymore. in fact, Salvation Army hasn't had a single game or system in it's store for at least 2 years now. I wonder if this coincides with their online auctions?

My take on "It Has Begun" is tidying up the stores has begun. Glass cases are just the first step. If you want a great place (particularly with thrift stores, occasionally with pawn shops) to find incredible things, look for the sloppiest, most unorganized and dirty shops. I've operated on this idea for many years now, and it has yet to fail me. My favorite deal of all time came from just such a place (a pawn shop in Wichita in which you literally had to step through piles of items to make your way around the store). After picking around for an hour or two, I got the following pile assembled:

1. Complete Atari XEGS, in box.
2. Atari Lynx (the original model)
3. TG-16, complete in box
4. SMS 3D glasses, with a spare adaptor card
5. 3DO FZ-10, complete (but no box)
6. Konami Laserscope
7. Intellivision 2 (no PSU...dammit), controllers intact
8. Popful Mail, (Sega CD)- complete and nearly mint
9. Vay (Sega CD) complete and "pretty good" shape
10. 4 Lynx carts (Ninja Gaiden, Toki, Hard Drivin, Gauntlet)
11. 2 Keith Courage carts (yay)
12. 5-6 3DO games...I don't remember which.

The guy let me talk him into $65 for all of it. The guy was probably happy to make some headway in spacemaking, and didn't really care what it brought. At least that was my guess, because he shot me $80 and I said $65 and he just said "okay." I wonder how low I could have gone?

Anyway, I've had this happen many times (never again to that degreee, but..), so look for the junkpiles. The "average citizen" doesn't want to go there, so the treasures are there for the strong of will and antibodies.

Bronty-2

09-08-2004, 12:13 AM

I could write a ton about this but I'll make it short.

The guy who wrote about the strength of modern gaming having an impact on the retro market is spot on. That's a huge driver. The strength of the industry and the fact that collectors are only going to get older and get better paying jobs etc means that quality items will go up. That complete secret of mana or sealed legend of zelda will be worth some bucks. Those $4 combats will be $4 combats forever. My advice is buy the good shit while you can. The crappy loose carts will always be available and will always be cheap. The well-to-do-collectors that fuel price increases and set the direction of the market don't want loose combats, they want complete quadruns.

jezt

09-08-2004, 12:42 AM

I just went to my local thrift store and scored me a complete Top-Loader NES plus a third sweet little party contoller for it!!!!!! LOL
All for $20.00!!! :cheers:

I guess that proves that it is truly a hit or miss type thing. This dude got way lucky. It is all relative to the demand of that specific area. I got a sega cd and genny combo for eleven bucks at my local Salvation army, but then again i see that there is a PSone for thirty bucks behind the glass. It is a combination of a lot of things I suppose. But as I stated earlier it seems that if they see a person come in time and time again looking for game related stuff they will raise prices on this stuff. It sucks but its true. Fucking Thrift store bastards. IF indeed this is a fad that will die down, I hope that it does soon so I can find a philips cdi in the wild on sale for twenty bucks becuase the pricers think that it is a DVD player. :D

Cmosfm

09-10-2004, 03:47 PM

Sit down kids, Uncle Cmosfm has a story to tell....

About 3 years ago, I was at a flea market just looking for DVD's, PS2 games, Cd's, and basically random junk to make a profit off of. When there it hit me, a stack of NES games, I thought to myself...

"wow, I still have my NES packed up at home, I'd love to play it agan"

So I started scanning through em, and there it was, Stinger. One of my favorite NES games of all time. I pay the man his 1.50 and I'm on my way home to play it.

Shortly after that, I realized...wow...I am having SO MUCH fun. I haven't had this kind of fun with the PS2 in a long time. I started reminiscing about the time I had 50+ games for my NES as a kid, all from the flea market, and how much FUN I had with it. That was when I decided that I wanted to collect games, and that I want to own as much as possible...and to have a library of games so vast that I'd never have to worry about having nothing to play ever again.

This is when I started hunting out places to find games, Flea Markets were definate on the weekend, I had 2 days set aside for thrift stores, goodwills, rental stores, etc etc. I was bring home BOXES of stuff for very little money. I'd hit the goodwill and pick up all the .50 NES games and .25 Atari games I could find.

Fast forward 2 years later.

I have a lot of games, and my hobby is still going full swing. I love doing it!

This was when I first seen a guy wearing a "know your roots" T-Shirt. I actually approached the fellow and congratulated him for wearing it. We talked for a bit, he told me he picked it up at Hot Topic. I didn't know what in the world this place was, and didn't really bother to find out.

In the mean time, I was noticing the gradual increase of price...and decrease of stock...on classic games wherever I went.

Then more and more people with the shirts.

Then less and less games available

Fast Forward to present time.

My thrifts are dead.

Flea Markets are wiped clean.

Pawn Shops are rittled with PS2 games and nothing else.

I still find the occasional game here and there, but it's nothing major, and it's been a while.

I was in line at Waffle House last night, a couple of redneck looking fellows were behing me in line. One guy was wearing a "know your roots" shirt, the other was wearing an "all your base" shirt. This alone made me cringe, but when I heard them discussing the NES ROB and Gyromite, I knew I had to get out of there as fast as possible.

My hobby, the one I LOVED and STILL LOVE...is edging toward death. I'm just waiting to see if it's gonna jump over the edge or step back...slowly.

I've turned to eBay bargain hunting to find good deals, .01 NES games with cheap shipping have helped me stay at bay.

The average price of an NES game around here is 5.00

I haven't been on a "hunt" in months.

I am sad.

:(

kainemaxwell

09-10-2004, 03:49 PM

Local Salvation Army store and thrift shop are pretty much hit and miss too, mostly miss as of recently. :(

DigitalSpace

09-11-2004, 03:37 AM

I remember going to Value Village as a kid and I'd always see bags of 2600 games. Nowdays, it's notable if there's even a Pac-Man or Combat in the glass case.

I haven't even tried to get out to the thrift stores before any good gaming stuff is gone - although if I'm near one and I have some time to kill, I'll check it out. I have yet to make a decent find at a thrift store, and it doesn't matter to me if I ever do.

Luckily, I can say the hunt still continues for me. There are 5 or 6 stores/pawn shops that stock a decent amount of stuff at decent prices, and sometimes so cheap it surprises me. To be fair, I mostly collect SNES, Genesis, and N64.

However, I can still name off stuff that it would be tough to find around here - for example, I haven't seen any Sega Saturn or Master System games in months. I hardly see anything pre-NES, with exception of 2600 carts.

I don't feel this post is going anywhere, so I'll end it here.