Anyone Else Refuse To Buy Classic Games Online?

[Cambot]

I, for one, enjoy the "thrill of the hunt" so to speak. For one thing, buying old games on sites such as Amazon or eBay usually means overpaying. Plus, nothing beats the feeling of finding that old, neglected classic on the shelves of a moldy thrift store and hearing the lady say "they're two dollars each." I have quite a few complete games doing it this way.

Though I may have purchased a couple of newer games online for convienience's sake, (I think I got Shenmue for Dreamcast about a year ago from a seller on Amazon), but for the older, hard-to-find stuff, I'd rather pound the pavement. I just think it's more fun.

[Flack]

It's definitely more fun, but unfortunately it becomes less possible and less practical to do every year. If you own a lot of systems without many games then you can still get a lot of stuff this way, but once you get all the commons it becomes harder and harder to find things you don't have, especially at reasonable prices.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Yes, definitely. It's getting harder all the time to find stuff in the wild, even in areas like NYC. You just don't see old stuff sitting around like you used to. In my experience, buying online is fast becoming the only option if you really want to find anything that you actually want.

[lkermel]

It is indeed getting difficult to find stuff in the wild. And, personnaly, I think they are the ones who inflate prices ! Few weeks ago, I went to a garage sale and a guy had a boxed version of Pac Man for the 2600. I asked how much it was (expecting an answer around $2), and the guy said, " $50, this is highly collectable you know..."
I still happen to find interesting stuff in garage sales, but most of my shopping happens online. And I still think in can be cheaper (it has been for me in many cases). Super Famicom games are cheaper to buy on Ebay, including postage from Japan, than at my local import game shop...

[Damaniel]

I've found a few really nice items 'offline', and have actually built up most (well, more than half, anyway...) of my NES collection from offline sources, but these days I usually buy games online. It gets discouraging to go to thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales, and find nothing but stacks of SMB/DH and sports titles. Since I work full-time, my only opportunities for game hunting are on weekends. This pretty much means that by the time I head to the local thrift/game stores, any inventory updates have already been picked through multiple times, leaving only commons that aren't even suitable for trade bait. And don't even get me started on the local game stores that have started to price their inventory by logging onto eBay and picking the highest sale price (right in front of you, no less! :angry:)

Yes, this means that I end up paying a few bucks more than if I had found the same game in a thrift store somewhere, but it also means that I won't spend 10 years trying to find a copy of Ultima: Warriors of Destiny or Faria. :)

[Darth Sensei]

With the price of gas and the low likelihood of finding things near me, there just isn't a point to looking locally.

[lkermel]

local game stores that have started to price their inventory by logging onto eBay and picking the highest sale price (right in front of you, no less! :angry:)

I forgot about this. This also happened to me a couple of times. The second time I just told them I wasn't interested by the games anymore... I couldn't believe it ! They literally logged-in onto Ebay and checked for the prices from there ! I do not mind if they do it, but not in front of the customer ! I hate that !

[jferio]

I still try to avoid buying online if I can help it, but then, I only really hunt the thrift and game stores within four miles of me, or in areas where I'm there for something else, and have a few minutes to spare that I can drop in and browse.

There's a couple games on my list, though, that I'll have to bite the bullet and start hunting ebay for.

[mailman187666]

I don't do my hunting online unless its a Buy it Now for a really low price. I have a couple flea markets and a couple of game stores near me, so most of my collections come from that. I found Chase the Chuckwagon for $5 at a local gameshop, but the same store is selling Shining Force 3 for $100. Also the flea market I go to gets completely raided first thing in the morning by the game vendors so any good deals are snatched up by him and raised in price. But even then, the guy who buys everything off everybody there can be talked down pretty easily and he always has a couple rare games that you can get him to go lower than ebay on. But I feel like going online is kinda cheating (only in my opinion) so the only online shopping i do is in the winter or if its a game that i really want and would probably never find.

[FantasiaWHT]

Nearly everything of interest I've come across in the wild has been ridiculously overpriced- way over ebay prices. I've pretty much given up except when my wife wants to go bargain shopping for something else!

[googlefest1]

i would if i could but i can't

[boatofcar]

Everyone in the wild inflates their prices. Buying online has been cheaper for me for years now.

[Synergy]

Yes, definitely. It's getting harder all the time to find stuff in the wild, even in areas like NYC. You just don't see old stuff sitting around like you used to. In my experience, buying online is fast becoming the only option if you really want to find anything that you actually want.

Ding Ding Ding! Correct.

But seriously, I don't have that many places around me (northeast PA), and working on the weekend when the flea markets open up sucks. I'd imagine it being overall harder to find complete games in very good condition in stores, in my opinion. But on the other hand, NES games on eBay are so inflated. $50 for a complete Contra? $99 for a boxed Mario Bros. trilogy? $40 for a complete Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!? :eek 2: Yeesh. Also, CueWarrior brought up the gas prices which is also a good point.

In summary, yes it's more fun to pound the pavement and go hunting, but it's not as fun as it used to be.

[Steven]

I, for one, enjoy the "thrill of the hunt" so to speak. For one thing, buying old games on sites such as Amazon or eBay usually means overpaying. Plus, nothing beats the feeling of finding that old, neglected classic on the shelves of a moldy thrift store and hearing the lady say "they're two dollars each." I have quite a few complete games doing it this way.

You, my friend, are definitely, gotta be, in the minority. (Mostly) cutting off resources such as eBay and online in general is WAAAY too limiting yourself, IMHO. In an ideal world we would find tons of classic games on our want lists at the store 15 minutes away from our homes for $2 a pop, but that is not reality.

The bold I quoted you on -- eBay is the HOME of bargains, but you have to be patient and know when/how to strike. I've gotten countless good deals on eBay and online in general. Of my nearly 1,000 games, I'd say 80% came from buying them online.

But if you prefer the wild, more power to ya. Less competition for me ;)

[Ed Oscuro]

It would be basically impossible for me to import without the Internet. So nope. Though I did have a $90 set of two soundtracks "lost in the mail" (apparently) recently...

[Kitsune Sniper]

You, my friend, are definitely, gotta be, in the minority. (Mostly) cutting off resources such as eBay and online in general is WAAAY too limiting yourself, IMHO. In an ideal world we would find tons of classic games on our want lists at the store 15 minutes away from our homes for $2 a pop, but that is not reality.

The bold I quoted you on -- eBay is the HOME of bargains, but you have to be patient and know when/how to strike. I've gotten countless good deals on eBay and online in general. Of my nearly 1,000 games, I'd say 80% came from buying them online.

But if you prefer the wild, more power to ya. Less competition for me ;)

This is quite true. I've spent months, sometimes years waiting for the right bargain to appear... and I get lucky most of the time. :)

[mills]

I bought very few games online, most of them I find at cash converters or game crazy.

Recently I found dragon force for sega saturn at cash converters for 3.99 @_@

[JerseyDevil65]

I try to avoid buying online, but I do have a couple of favorite online retailers for classic games. I almost always avoid buying one game at a time because shipping can double the price you pay for a game.

I do a lot of driving for my job so I have access to a lot of Game Crazy, Pawn Shop, Goodwill, etc., thats how I find most of my stuff.

[Cambot]

I, for one, enjoy the "thrill of the hunt" so to speak. For one thing, buying old games on sites such as Amazon or eBay usually means overpaying. Plus, nothing beats the feeling of finding that old, neglected classic on the shelves of a moldy thrift store and hearing the lady say "they're two dollars each." I have quite a few complete games doing it this way.

You, my friend, are definitely, gotta be, in the minority. (Mostly) cutting off resources such as eBay and online in general is WAAAY too limiting yourself, IMHO. In an ideal world we would find tons of classic games on our want lists at the store 15 minutes away from our homes for $2 a pop, but that is not reality.

The bold I quoted you on -- eBay is the HOME of bargains, but you have to be patient and know when/how to strike. I've gotten countless good deals on eBay and online in general. Of my nearly 1,000 games, I'd say 80% came from buying them online.

But if you prefer the wild, more power to ya. Less competition for me ;)

I guess I can understand that. You go with whichever method has brought you the most luck. Maybe I'm still feeling the euphoria on the heels of this Salvation Army find, yesterday:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/ckeene/DSCN0966.jpg

And a while back I scored this about a mile away from from the last place:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/ckeene/lot.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/ckeene/FinalFantasyII.jpg

All those game came out to less than $2.00 each. Plus many other smaller and single game scores. I guessing it's the instant gratification I like. I'd be happy to learn how to score decent deals on eBay. So far, I've found their prices appalling.

[Synergy]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/ckeene/FinalFantasyII.jpg

:eek 2:

:hail:

Man, that's nice. Less then $2? Wow. My favorite game of all-time, by the way. :)

Nice find on Shining Force CD too.

[Cambot]

:eek 2:

:hail:

Man, that's nice. Less then $2? Wow. My favorite game of all-time, by the way. :)

Nice find on Shining Force CD too.

I must rescind that comment, I got those 15 games and a beautiful SNES with everything for $70, so I depends on how you do the math.

[Nature Boy]

I see buying online as being pretty much the same thing as finding it in the wild, although I don't just go to eBay when I get the itch, I pick my spots.

For example, the last console I wanted for my collection is a 5200. I've *never* seen one for sale here in Toronto. I haven't combed thrifts or pawn shops for it or anything, I've just never come across it.

When someone on this site casually mentioned they had one for sale (but doubted anyone would pay for shipping) I jumped at the chance and bought it.

I still had the thrill of the hunt, as I've been wanting a 5200 for quite a few years now, and I finally had a chance to purchase one (and from someone I trusted to boot).

I find the hunting aspect you mentioned is much more a part of my modern gaming purchases. I'd never buy a PS2 game online, as I enjoy hunting my local shops for the Baldur's Gate IIs and Gradius III & IVs (both of which I hunted for over a year for, and finally got).

[NES_Rules]

I've never bought anything online and don't plan to. I love spending half of my weekend searching garage sales and flea markets looking for treasures. Also I know if I pay regular price for a game on the internet, I'll find it for a quarter at a garage sale the next weekend.

[mailman187666]

I wonder what will become of the market once everybody has thier stores set up with all thier inflated ebay prices. I've seen many places with $15 Super Mario World and $10 cart only 2600 pacmans. Do you think that eventually all of the good games a good deals are going to be gone for good and the only way to find them is to pay those rediculous prices? I think that jacking up the ebay values everywhere is going to cause many people to pass on what some places have for sale which in the long run is going to drive all the values down and even cause some people to become uninterested in collecting (if the prices become too high on everything good.) Thats just a hypothesis but I can see that happening in a couple years.

[cyberfluxor]

I was buying on-line for a few months this year just to pick up some bulk Saturn titles. There is a weak and tiny market where I'm at with that system. I had some good late minute bids and boosted the collection well but I've cut back and don't think I'll be buying on-line auctions for awhile but may do random trades from time to time.

There really isn't anything better than driving around to many different places and finding things for dirt cheaper than getting on eBay or other auction. Sure, gas prices are high and it can be expensive to move around but there's so many stores around here with SNES, NES, GEN, N64, PS1/2, GC, ect games that I'm bound to find something random when driving out. In addition I usually swing by the shops on my way to work, other people's houses, visiting family, going to the movies, and other things so it just fits into my life style.

As for the harder to find things in the wild; I do come across a lot of duplicates and I generally pick them up anyways because it may be in better condition than what I currently have, plus the reselling of it may bring decent profit towards newer games or systems. I'm still under the 800 game marker so there's still a ton of commons to find, also (as most have seen what I post in the finds) I don't buy sports titles unless they are in some bundle price with other things I want. I count sports games as $0 towards prices of bundled games to be sure it doesn't affect how I price it myself. There's a few games I have picked up (ex. Furry Football [SNES]) for $1 because I figured they were well worth it and not as common as say Madden.

Lastely, sometimes buying cheap commons that sometimes have blown up prices on-line (ex. Punch-Out, Final Fantasy, Mario) you can either resell them there or locally at specialty game stores and get good trade-in values to go towards purchases of more uncommon/rare games you want your hands on. I got some common N64 games for $2 each the other day and traded some in for over double their price that just jumped my money and can make a $70 game more like $30 true cost on my end. Once I bought a bunch of NES games that cost me $15 and resold them for $70 elsewhere, and they don't generally sell on eBay so bam, good profits. Just need to know as many stores in your area as possible and where to go and when if you have the time.

[obliterator918]

Just got back from hitting thrift stores. We went to about five thrift stores. Only one even had any old video games, and we bought both. (NBA Jam for Sega 32x--nothing special, and XMen for Sega Saturn).

There's just nothing left around here. It's all at Vintage Stock and Game Exchange.

[obliterator918]

Just got back from hitting thrift stores. We went to about five thrift stores. Only one even had any old video games, and we bought both. (NBA Jam for Sega 32x--nothing special, and XMen for Sega Saturn).

There's just nothing left around here. It's all at Vintage Stock and Game Exchange.

[TurboGenesis]

I enjoy going to shops and buying my games but they are all pretty much void of anything of real interest to me. I also look for Turbo Grafx games and can not find much any more(and I'm looking for China Warrior and Victory Run). So I am left pretty much with online purchasing.

I can say I have never bought a current gen game online and the only PSX games I have bought on line were Philosoma(I wanted the long box) and Motor Toon Grand Prix. Come to think of it I don't think I have bought any NES games online either. I seem to buy alot of Turbo and Saturn games online.

Around my way, when ever I see vintage games I only see sports.

[nintendorocker]

"I am a treasure hunter! argghhhhh."(in pirate voice) is usualy my response to anyone who talks to me about ebay. i know ill evenetualy have to use it but im at 555 nes so far without it.

[diskoboy]

I have never, and will never buy or sell games online.

There's nothing like walking into a store and unexpectedly finding your holy grail. Plus it's the instant gratification thing - I hate having to wait for shipping. I want it now!! :D

Plus I just don't deal with people that aren't physically in front of me. Lessens the chance of getting ripped off.

[Parpunk]

ahhh i love these kind of topics. they are so interesting to read lol and since im bored and nothing to do i might as well post my 2 cents as well.

Ok for me i absolutely cant WAIT until the weekend to go out and hunt stuff. And its a blast! Either i have a buddy come along with me or my girlfriend and its always a blast. Cruising around hitting yard sales, flea markets, and everything that would carry old game is awesome. Now for the gas price, yea well they suck, but hey what can ya do. People pay money for a hobby and i guess crusing around hunting games is a hobby uin itself, let alone the collecting part. but i have to say about 90 percent of my collecting has come from "the wild". And i have found some extremely nice things, factory sealed gameboy games 10 bucks a pop, final fight guy complete 7 bucks, boxes and boxes of like 20 to 30 games for SNES, NES, N64 for like 10 bucks for a whole box of 30 games or so. And its awesome finding trade material. I found a virtual boy Demo unit for 5 bucks before, and NES Systems out the ying yang lol. Also some very minty CIB NES Games. And all that stuff was from just this summer!!!!!

And yea of course there were those crappy weekends were i didnt find anything lol. But its also just for fun geting out a huinting for stuff. I mean what else am i gonna do at 6:30 on a saturday morning! What sleep???????
hahaha i have all winter for that lol

But then for the biggest and best score of my collecting journey has came from a huge trade online which got me, caltron 6 in 1 CIB, Bubble bobble 2 CIB, all mega mans CIb, little samson CIB, Tenegen Tetris CIB, and about 20 other CIb games. i ended up trading like an xbox, ps2, and a gba sp, for al those games. Now i know i would have never found those games in the wild, and i still never have. but i found xbox's and ps2 all the time at the flea market so it all evens itself out and works in a big cycle lol. Whcih is actually awesome and lot of fun. Im 20 years old so the whole factor of being an adult hasnt kicked in yet i guess haha!
-Mark

[Tron 2.0]

NeoGeo,TG16,Famicom online purchase for me.

GC,PS2 etc for current systems offline when i have a choice.

[sirhansirhan]

I probably buy most of my classic games online (eBay, mostly), but would prefer to buy them in shops, and if the opportunity presents itself, I'll even overpay for them in shops I trust rather than buy them online.

A good recent example is that I broke down and bought Lunar: Silver Star on Sega CD on eBay near mint and complete for $26 shipped a few weeks back, which is quite a good deal (they often go as high as $50-55 in that condition on eBay). Inside of a week, one of the better local vintage game shops got one in, and it really pissed me off. In reality he probably would've charged $30-50 for it, and it may not have even been in as good shape (I didn't ask or inspect it; ignorance is bliss), and the deal on eBay went smoothly, but still, I'd've much rather bought it from the shop.

[MarioMania]

I'm done buying online for a while, I got what I wanted

Ninja Gaiden III - NES
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy - SNES
Gunstar Heroes - Sega Genesis
Mega Turrican - Sega Genesis

all I need is Bonk's Adventure on the NES

The only places here is the Value Center, Thrift Shop, Goodwill & SA Thrift Store

In the Thrift shop a small one..the guy has a Genesis 1 & a Sega CD2 Combo for $30 should I get it

All for old Games...for new games, Gamecrazy

[Iron Draggon]

local game stores that have started to price their inventory by logging onto eBay and picking the highest sale price (right in front of you, no less! :angry:)

I forgot about this. This also happened to me a couple of times. The second time I just told them I wasn't interested by the games anymore... I couldn't believe it ! They literally logged-in onto Ebay and checked for the prices from there ! I do not mind if they do it, but not in front of the customer ! I hate that !

If that ever happened to me, I'd tell them very rudely that if I wanted to pay ebay prices, I know how to log onto it too!

As for finding things online vs finding things in the wild, I get the same thrill out of both. Sure it's alot more fun to rummage through physical game racks than it is to rummage through virtual game racks, but aside from that it's just as much fun to get a good deal on a game that you've been looking for online as it is to get a good deal on a game that you've been looking for in the wild. The only difference between the two for me is that you have to wait a little longer before you actually receive the game online. Having to pay shipping and handling can be annoying too, especially if the seller is overcharging for shipping, but I just remind myself that if I was buying the same game in a physical location, then I'd have to pay sales tax instead of shipping and handling, so it's really about the same to me.

And Steven is right, you have to know how to shop on ebay to avoid overpaying. It took me a while to figure it out, but I think that I know how to do it properly now.

To each his own, but there's a certain thrill to opening one's mailbox and finding that game that you've been wanting forever in it too. No pounding the pavement in the blazing summer sun to get it necessary, except from your front door to your mailbox and back again. Sure you miss out on all the hustle and bustle of places like flea markets, but that's more of a plus than a minus for me. But if you get a thrill out of haggling with sellers, I suppose that it is alot more fun to haggle in a flea market than it is to do it on ebay. You can haggle to some degree on ebay now that they have the "best offer" feature, but it still needs some work. When they say best offer, your first offer had better be your best offer, because it won't let you make anymore offers after that. Most buyers and sellers agree that this isn't quite how it should work, but hopefully ebay will take our suggestions into consideration and improve it for us.

Anyhow, I get just as much of a rush out of finding a game that I've been wanting online as I do out of finding a game that I've been wanting in a physical location. I guess that finding games in the wild may have a little more appeal than finding games online for some, since it is alot more difficult to find games in the wild now than it is to find games online, but why torture yourself if all you really want is the game? I'd rather make my searches easier, not more difficult. And even searching online, it's taken me years to find some of the games that I wanted, so why wait longer?

I also agree with Ed that if it weren't for the internet, it would be impossible for me to collect imports now. There's just no way that I would still have as many imports as I do now without the internet. There just aren't enough import shops with physical locations anymore. You can find anime shops in any major city, and in many minor cities as well, but most of those shops don't carry any import games, and if they do they likely only carry games for modern systems, they don't carry any games for classic systems. So I pretty much have to shop online to continue collecting imports.

[bangtango]

Your local stores are only as plentiful as the stuff that people (or stores) once had. You can spend a couple years looking through thrift stores for certain games you refuse to buy online, but you have to remember something. If nobody nearby HAD the game to begin with, then can you really expect to find it? Sooner or later, you have to consider the option of buying online. I wouldn't ever expect to find (insert random game) for the Turbografx 16, since I've never seen any evidence suggesting that somebody in my area even had a TG16. Same with some NES or 2600 games, I just can't picture anybody nearby having those, since I knew most every family in a wide radius who had consoles.

[Gurn13]

Buying online is not my preference, but sometimes necessary especially for uncommon systems.

Locally, today I found a non-working Virtual Boy for 1.21 with Wario Land still in it, and a bag of random stuff (old cassettes, 8-tracks etc) for 1.81 which also had Kung Fu & Tetris for the NES, Kenseiden & Double Dragon for the Master system, as well as SNES Super Mario Kart. You just never know. If I had bought that stuff online, it would have been priced at least $50 plus shipping.

[smork]

I never buy anything online, unless it's a new PS2 game or something like that. I'm perfectly happy collecting only by buying in stores, even if it's going to take me longer and give extra expense and frustration to do so. I just like looking on a shelf or in a case or in a box and finding that thing I am looking for. Buying online just doesn't do it for me.

I'm going for a complete Neo CD collection now (over 70% complete) and haven't bought a single item that I haven't found in a store and walked to the register myself.

[NickmasterX]

I use ebay alot, but I prefer finding games in the wild. I mostly go to my local flea market, but there used to be a nice buy/sell/trade place where I got a lot of good NES stuff but theyve since had less and less. I've never gone to thrift shops for games, am I missing something? The ones in my area never have any game stuff but then again, thats only from me going like once.

[XYXZYZ]

I only look for common domestic stuff in the wild. Ain't no way in hell I'm ever going to see Japanese PC Engine CDs or Neo Geo cartriges on a store shelf. So, most of my games come from the interweb.

Isn't it sad? eBay is quickly becoming the ONLY option we have for a lot of things. But we still have the buying and selling forum here on DP, I need to use that more.

[bangtango]

I only look for common domestic stuff in the wild. Ain't no way in hell I'm ever going to see Japanese PC Engine CDs or Neo Geo cartriges on a store shelf. So, most of my games come from the interweb.

Isn't it sad? eBay is quickly becoming the ONLY option we have for a lot of things. But we still have the buying and selling forum here on DP, I need to use that more.

I know what you mean. I have a hard enough time finding the Turbo card games released in the friggin' U.S., let alone all these imports that people from this board always report about finding in the "Finds" thread. I'd love to know where they are picking some of this stuff up locally, because I sure as hell am not finding it.

I could go to all the stores in my area, probably a 30-mile radius, every single day for a whole year and never find a Neo Geo game or the Panesian NES games. That's just the reality of the situation. Same thing with the flea markets, which are all over the place. Every old codger with bad teeth at a flea market had an Atari or NES, how many of them really had a Neo Geo or some games, or would still be peddling one as of 2006?

Hell, I have to buy online just to get some stuff that is kind of common since it is either grabbed up quickly or just not showing up to begin with in the thrifts, game stores, pawn shops, flea markets or lawn sales.