There's always been at least one near you - or in this case, there was. A local game store (or some place with a game section) that is now gone. Maybe you had some awesome finds there, maybe it was a great place to look around. Or maybe the prices were too high and the owner was an asshat. Anyways, tell us about a particular store or two in your area (or an area you used to live in).

GameTrader, Mall 205, Portland
GameTrader was a local chain that I believe opened up in the 90s. They had a few stores in the area but now they're down to one in Beaverton and one in Battle Ground, WA, and I believe both are now independently owned. The Mall 205 store closed in 2002 or early 2003. Mall 205 was all but dead by 2001 when Montgomery Wards, the mall's only remaining anchor at the time, closed when the company went bankrupt. Fortunately, some new owners bought the mall and attracted new anchors, including Target, 24 Hour Fitness, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath & Beyond (which I heard was the first store in the chain's history to include both a parking lot and mall entrance). The anchors have done pretty well, but the mall portion, despite a renovation, has continued to struggle. GameTrader was one of the few mall stores who stuck around through the renovation. A friend of mine at GNC talked with one of the guys who worked there, and he said that it was so dead that sometimes it just seemed like all he did most of the day was play games.

I never visited the store that often (especially since I didn't start collecting until early 2004), but if I was in Mall 205 for some reason, I'd always look around. The store was pretty pricey, but I do have one particular memory: when I was a freshman in high school, I rode my bike to the mall to buy one of their cart only copies of A Link To The Past for $15. I really wanted the game and at the time, $15 seemed like the best deal for aside from going to garage sales and thrifts and crossing my fingers. I still have that copy today.

GameTrader, NE 41st & Sandy, Portland
This store was located next to the historic Hollywood Theater. My only visit was in the mid-90s, when my mom took me there to pick out an SNES game for a birthday gift. I remember that they had an NES top loader hooked up and Donkey Kong Jr. Math was in it, which I had never heard of until that day. I was pretty sure that I was going to get Super Mario All-Stars, and I got the last used copy, which came in a plastic case with the manual. I still have the cart, but lost the case and manual a long time ago.

In the late 90's, the building the store was in was destroyed in a fire that threatened the theater as well (fortunately, the theater was spared and today the area where the building was is still a grassy vacant lot). It's sad to think of all the games and systems that got destroyed.