AAAAARG!!! Game finds have dried up!

[smokehouse]

This is frustrating! Lately I have been coming up empty handed when it comes to my gaming hunts. Local pawnshops have dried up and the ones that do have something decent now feature “internet pricing” which basically means going on EBAY, finding an item, clicking on highest price and setting the sale price to that. Goodwill stores? Nope. Hell, I even went to EB games to take advantage of their game sale and NOT ONE OLDER GAME! Not even N64!

Bummer…

I have to say that I am truly envious of you guys that have found anything decent in your local areas. I’ve wanted a Neo Geo and Turbo Duo for some time now and in the 10+ years I’ve been hunting, I’ve never come across one. To be honest, I’ve never even seen or played either of them for that matter!

[Ronfar]

I haven't found a good find all year in my area. Except for an N64 with racing wheel for five bucks at a thrift store.

Online though, I traded a sealed Donkey Kong Jr. for 7800 for King's Quest and another SMS game. I was pretty proud of that one.

[Emily]

Go to yard sales. Sure you go to like 5 before you find anything, but so what?
Also try mini storage places. The owners will sell off the stuff of people who dont pay the bills. Ive had some nice find this way.My favorite being my $25 Double Dragon arcade cab ;)

[PDorr3]

Same thing for me, goodwill is dry, salvation army is dry, and i have had no luck at garage sales for some time...ebay is my only remaining hope :(

[McBacon]

Yard sales are the best. As they are trying to make a quick buck on the weekend, as oppose to making a living, you can get some cheap deals. As long as the stall doesn't have loads of games, they won't know whats worth what.

[Yamazaki]

I found a lot of good stuff lately LOL

serious: any special needs? since I'm going to osaka again on saturday.

[Sothy]

I found a lot of good stuff lately

serious: any special needs? since I'm going to osaka again on saturday.

how bout that chick in yer avatar?

[Teo]

I tried to offer a guy money for a game that didn't sell that I looked at once and forgot to bid on. Hes said he wasn't going to auction it because buyer are drying up, so which is it the buyers or the finds @_@ I can see how one might affect the other bt maybe its a psychologic thing actually.

[Yamazaki]

I found a lot of good stuff lately

serious: any special needs? since I'm going to osaka again on saturday.

how bout that chick in yer avatar?

Go on! My ex-gf belongs to you! You only have to pick her up. She actually send me an email if we could become friends again. If a girl that dumped you asks that, would you say she wants to f*ck you again or rather just become friends - since she returned to her ex-bf.


PS: this pic new gf.

[smokehouse]

I have found that yard sales have changed in my area. 5-7 years ago is was NES, SNES and Genesis titles being commonly sold but now it’s PS1 and N64 titles. It had to happen, times change. Most N64 titles stink (I was never a fan of that system) and of the PS1 titles that are decent, I own most of the ones I want anyway, Anymore EBAY is the only route to get many hard t find items. I don’t mind paying slightly higher prices for EBAY items due to the fact that you are paying a premium for the convenience factor but I’m not will to pay what some are asking. I refuse to pay the obscene amounts of $$ required for an EBAY Turbo Duo or Neo Geo, that just pisses me off and other than the Saturn and Atari 7800, those are the only systems I have yet to purchase. It’s frustrating sometimes.

[norkusa]

I found a lot of good stuff lately LOL

serious: any special needs? since I'm going to osaka again on saturday.

I'm looking for anything Pioneer LaserActive related (besides the system). If you can find any LaserActive games/accessories, I'd definitely buy or trade you for them.

Also looking for Virtual Boy Virtual Bowling (complete) :P

[junglehunter]

My area's shops/thrifts have been quite dry lately, also. Check out everything possible (garage sales, thrifts, flea markets, etc). Don't get your hopes up because you don't find something bigger in value like a Turbo Duo/Neo Geo AES. Some people (like me) have never found stuff of that calibur and simply never will. It's not that big of a deal, really. :)

[poe]

It's been pretty light lately for me, too, partly due to some pawn shops and thrift stores using eBay for pricing. I think with the warmer weather and increase of garage sales near me, people are just choosing that route over dropping off "junk" en masse with anyone willing to take it. Despite that, I did find complete, excellent condition Suikoden 1 and 2 a couple weeks ago for $5 each. Just shows you have to keep on checking.

You might also change the stores you go to. In my area, between pawn shops, used game stores, thrift stores, and chain stores, I've got about 35 potential hotspots within a 20 minute drive, and over twice that many within an hour drive. If I don't find anything for a long time in the 8-10 places I check regularly, I just go to a different set of stores next time.

[The Manimal]

I found a lot of good stuff lately LOL

serious: any special needs? since I'm going to osaka again on saturday.

I'm looking for anything Pioneer LaserActive related (besides the system). If you can find any LaserActive games/accessories, I'd definitely buy or trade you for them.

Also looking for Virtual Boy Virtual Bowling (complete) :P


also sneak a Pioneer HLD-X9 out of a store when no one is looking. i'll pay you for it :D

[Flack]

Ebb and flow, to and fro, come and go ... such is the nature of the beast. Personally, that's the reason I'll buy a dozen games at a time -- so when a slow week comes, I still have new old games to play.

eBay pricing will continue to be a problem until people quit paying it. When a store marks a SMB/DH for $5, there's a reason -- somebody, somewhere is paying that. Eventually, either someone will buy it, or they'll mark it down. So even if you're not paying that kind of price, the fact that some other n00b WILL keeps the prices up. We'll weather this storm eventually and prices will go back to "normal".

[smokehouse]

I was just lamenting. To be honest with you we don’t have many places in this area (Peoria). I have possibly 10 pawnshops to go to (I don’t count the local chain stores like EB games etc). Like stated above, I think that for the most part I won’t be seeing any large deals come across my path any time soon. Instead of buying a Neo Geo home system, I’ll probably buy an MVS/Jamma arcade system and some games.

The Turbo Duo on the other hand…that’s just frustrating, I want the Y’s book so bad I can taste it, I just can’t justify the EBAY pricing!

[Flack]

I was just lamenting. To be honest with you we don’t have many places in this area (Peoria). I have possibly 10 pawnshops to go to (I don’t count the local chain stores like EB games etc). Like stated above, I think that for the most part I won’t be seeing any large deals come across my path any time soon. Instead of buying a Neo Geo home system, I’ll probably buy an MVS/Jamma arcade system and some games.

The Turbo Duo on the other hand…that’s just frustrating, I want the Y’s book so bad I can taste it, I just can’t justify the EBAY pricing!

I recommend the MVS route, although I'm an arcade guy so it makes sense that I would. I just can't justify buying an AES system knowing the game prices that lie ahead.

Looking at Mapquest, I'd be planning some road trips to Springfield, Indianapolis and Chicago if I were you! It looks like all those places are within a couple hour drive which might seem like a lot, but not if you've wasted two hours looking around Peoria and not found anything!

[Slate]

Don't give up!

Keep at it.. Take EVERY Chance you can Get to go out thriftin'!

And look everywhere (well, almost everywhere) And you'll find Jewels!

NEVER GIVE UP... If you do, you'll miss out on great stuff! Like yesterday, I was just coming into a yard sale and missed out on a NES ROB. All because i was too lazy to get out earlier! If i did get up earlier, I would have got him. GROAN... Instead of ROB, I got a doggone Aura Interactor. It Gave me aches when i tried it out..

You'll find your gems!

You have just as much chance as anybody to buy 500 Sealed, UNIQUE NES games for $50! (Maybe even Including stadium events!)

[Yago]

I do recall finding mass stuff many years ago. However, more and more people are jumping into the VG collecting hobby, so items would have a better chance of being picked up by others on hunts like you. Also, many people are not donating like they used to for the reason that they can now use places like Ebay to get money for their items, instead of just giving them away for free. Heck, I was at the Mile High Flea market on Wednesday and was disgusted after seeing this one small video game booth had a beat up old NES for $39.99!!! WTF is up with that??? I walked right out. The place was dry, but a lot of booths were not open, and usually don't open until the weekend, so I'll try again, and again, and again...

[AFGiant]

I just started collecting last year, and finds never were exactly plentiful. I've taken to buying stuff I don't really want just to make it seem like its not a total loss. The thrifts around here are really picked dry. Also I think I've got competition on the Albany area. A guy on DP said he lives around here for one. One time at the Goodwill my brother checked the day before, there was nothing. I went again the next day at like 2 pm and there were a couple of crap sega genesis games. The lady said that someone had got the majority of the games a couple hours earlier >_< bad timing! I bought them anyway, and lo and behold there were two genesis era posters (one of them sonic!) folded up in the boxes! I got the last laugh that time. If there are any games at this Goodwill, they are snes or genesis sports games. Which I always buy so it doesn't feel like a loss. Overpriced psx games are also there on occasion.

At a Salvation army one time, my brother and I entered through the downstairs entrance. That was a bad idea. As we walked out upstairs we saw these two older people leaving with SNES games in hand, leaving behind sports games (which I ended up purchasing). One of these days, rivals, I'll best you! Just watch out for AFGiant!

[smokehouse]

Yeah, I miss the good old days. Back when you’d walk in a pawnshop and find a stack of NES titles for “$2/game or 6 for $10” and the titles included games like Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaiden, River City Ransom and others. Thankfully I was the guy buying them. Now, had I been smarter I would have picked up the duplicate copies and funded future purchases with the sales. Oh well.

Don’t get me wrong guys, a higher market also means that what I now have is actually worth something and that’s a good thing. I won’t give up the good fight, trust me, I’m just a little soured. Hell, a few weeks ago I picked up Contra Force loose for $2, not bad. It’s not all doom and gloom around here, collecting at a reasonable price is just requires more effort than before.

It makes me feel better in a sadistic sort of way that other collectors are in the same boat as me, kind of a shared misery thing. Thanks for the words of encouragement guys, its highly appreciated.

Oh, I stopped into a newer pawnshop last week to find a $90 NES (NO controllers or cables), a $25 original Gameboy in crap shape and Game Gear games for $20/piece. I smiled, shook my head and walked out. Too bad, he had Streets of Rage for the GG, I would have picked that up had it not been for the insane $$.

[The_Kodiak65]

i know exactly what you mean.....
around my area, there are no gems left.....
none.....i know i bought the last one when i got secret of mana for $7...that was about a year ago, since then, if you find find any nes, snes, etc games, they are mainly R1 or R2, most of which are sports games, and they are INSANELY priced! Im talking $25 for Super Mario World type of priceing! every once in a while, a boxed nes game will show up at good will, priced at $1, but the box is beat, and theres no manual.....beggers cant be choosers, i guess....anymore, it's a waiting game, just waiting for a chance to hit some yard sales, and maybe, MAYBE finding a great game for a good price....
oh well..... :roll:

[Lothars]

Well im lucky I still don't really have any collectors around

but I haven't did to many yard sales this year yet, or really any flea markets I plan to start every weekly

I love flea markets though, or bigger yard sales...

hmm gonna have to look around for some.

[vincewy]

If you want Turbo and Neo-Geo stuff, come to St Paul and check out Hi-Score Games (http://www.hiscoregames.com), it's worth the drive here.

[swlovinist]

look at it on the bright side...your games are worth more now!

I feel your pain, but like everything else, you have to understand that the older something gets, the less likely you will come across it...espically when you are hunting rare game stuff like Neo Geo and Turbo Grafx stuff. Remember that Neo Geo came out at $799.00....fat chance that you will find any of that stuff donated at a goodwill or salvation army. Most people that bought the system then were hardcore gamers...smart enough to keep on to the system. I feel that it is a good deal even on ebay buying a system boxed at under half the price of the system when it came out.(I am happy with mine) The bottom line is that you need to be reasonable about what you are going to find in the wild these days or you will constantly be unhappy. Games are becoming more collectable and valuable. When I go out in the wild, I am happy to find any game that I dont have or something I can trade. Personally I think that waiting to find a Neo Geo for cheap is crazy. I wish you luck!

[TEND]

If you think it's bad that finds are drying up now for you people who have been collecting for years, think about people like me who are just starting their collections. I do find stuff, but it's a lot more expensive than I'd like, when my brother started his collection things weren't nearly this expensive.

[smokehouse]

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not expecting to find a Neo Geo of Turbo Duo in the wild. The chances of that happening are slim to none. I’ve just found that games in general are getting hard to find, most places are drying up. They’ll have every EA game made for the SNES and Super Mario/Duck Hunt for the NES.

Add to that the fact that I have 95% of the games I want and that makes the chances of a find even more rare. I know, it’s self-inflicted. I guess I’ve come to the realization that in order for my collection to grow, I’m going to have to start shelling out the big $$.

[sirhansirhan]

I'm not entirely sure what part of Illinois Peoria is in, but you should head down to St. Louis, which is a great city for vintage video games. They all have to be bought in video game stores (so the prices are about what they should be--a little less than eBay, or roughly what it says in the DP price guide) as opposed to pawn shops and flea markets and whatnot, but they have three Game X Changes, seven Slackers, Trade-N-Games, Game Force, Neutral Zone, Game Trader, etc.. Any one of these stores has a better selection of vintage stuff than any store I've seen in any other city.