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Thread: Local game stores, Japan style (lots of pics!)

  1. #21
    Pac-Man (Level 10) smork's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Daft Punk View Post
    That looks like it would take hours to look through there.
    It does. I always find something I want buried behind something else, or in a crate in a corner. When I found my totally mint Towns Marty there maybe a year ago it was after being in the store for ages -- and even then I only found it because I happened to be looking way, way up at the pile of consoles stacked on top of the shelves.

    I'm convinced half the things I am looking for are in that store, they're just hidden somewhere.

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by smork View Post

    Where are you in Hokuriku, anyway?
    I'm in Fukui. It's a pretty unknown prefecture/city, not famous for much other than nuclear power stations and beaches, but full of collectors stores where nothing much moves off the shelf and I can sometimes find some great deals.

    I go round the stores and markets with a Japanese friend of mine who manages to make a bit of cash buying stuff from shops just to sell on Yahoo to Tokyo. Strangely enough the stuff which he is looking for to sell domestically is very different to what is in demand outside of Japan.

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    Cherry (Level 1) Dreamc@sting's Avatar
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    Thats pretty insane, I'm going to Japan next summer and I been saving up, I know if I find a store like this I will be broke..quickly
    Some things never die....Give me all your Sega belongings!!!

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    So....

    I finally had a reason to drive to Chiba last week, and I decided to check out a few of the Kanteidan stores, including the Urayasu branch that Smork posted photos of.

    Whilst they had a nice selection, they had a tendency to overprice anything that even had a hint of rarity, AT LEAST a good 25% more expensive than Akihabara. Most items were pretty dirty and discoloured too. I ended up buying nothing.

    Seriously Smork, why did you make out that these stores were cheap? I wasted money on petrol, and time, thanks to you making out that the stock in these stores were cheaper than those in Tokyo. It's not such a big problem for me, since I live in Tokyo, but I'd hate to imagine someone travelling thousands of miles to Tokyo, and wasting their time on a one and a half hour journey out to one of these stores only to find that the stock is ridiculously expensive.

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) smork's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mimi Nakamura View Post
    Whilst they had a nice selection, they had a tendency to overprice anything that even had a hint of rarity, AT LEAST a good 25% more expensive than Akihabara. Most items were pretty dirty and discoloured too. I ended up buying nothing.

    Seriously Smork, why did you make out that these stores were cheap? I wasted money on petrol, and time, thanks to you making out that the stock in these stores were cheaper than those in Tokyo. It's not such a big problem for me, since I live in Tokyo, but I'd hate to imagine someone travelling thousands of miles to Tokyo, and wasting their time on a one and a half hour journey out to one of these stores only to find that the stock is ridiculously expensive.
    Mimi, if you're going to bash me in my own thread, could you at least have the decency to PM me instead? I really don't like arguing in public.

    Since the door is open, I best close it. To clarify what I thought was clear at the top of this thread, this is not the "Tourst Guide to the Best Game Stores in Japan". This store happens to be the closest to my house and, as I said, an enigma due to weird pricing and very odd (but fulfilling) finds.

    Urayasu Kanteidan isn't a store I normally spend alot of money at -- they have high prices on their modern games (as do most local-style stores), some of their stock isn't all that fantastic, and their "showcase" doesn't look to have been opened in 10 years, even on the chance you can find it. But no deals? I suppose if you don't think boxed Twin Famicoms for 10000 yen (they go for 12-13000 loose in Akiba), a boxed SuperGrafx for (I think) 3500 yen (at least 10k in Akihabara), 4000yen pristine Towns Marty (who knows what they cost in Akiba, I've never seen one there in the 6 years i've been viisitng). I'm haven't even mentioned their boxed SFC games for 200yen or the disc only DC games for 10-50 yen

    There's a style difference at work here. To use a US analogy, it's the difference between shopping on eBay (usually has what you want, prices are known variables within a range of values) versus hunting in Flea Markets, Pawn Shops, and garage sales. If you want a copy of Rez, you go to Gamestop or shop on eBay as they're more likely to have it and you know what it'll cost. But maybe you want to find that good deal --- instead you rummage through the garage sales for that nugget in the rough, the kind of deal that makes you say "YEAH!" (I had one of those with my Koi Koi Mahjong that I found at a local store for under 200 yen. If you find it in a collector store it's more likely to be 20000 yen)

    For me, the enjoyment of collecting isn't just in the acquisition. If I liked only that I could stay at home and buy everything off Play Asia, Amazon, or Y!J. The real thrill is hunting for that something special, that great find you can't wait to come home and tell everyone about.

    Also for the record, I wouldn't recommend alot of the Chiba Kanteidan stores, even to locals. The Soga store is one of the most pitiful stores I've been to, the Chiba Kita branch is WAY overpriced on everything (though I got my Hello Kitty DC for the same price as a regular DC there), the Minami Funabashi branch is only worthwhile at the holidays (when they sell EVERY loose console for 1000-1500 yen and sell tons of games at 2-1 or 3-1). I get the warm fuzzies only at the Shisui and Funabashi branches, but even then you need to wade through overpriced Hu-Cards and weird accessories to find what you want at a good price). Togane is just too damn far. The point, though, is these stores are FUN to dig through, and even if you can't find what you want one time you may the next.

    As far as visitors go -- none of these except for Urayasu Kanteidan and the Minami Funabashi branch are within a whiff of public transportation, so none of this applies to visitors anyway. My only point to the thread is to show my local stores, good or bad.

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    Quote Originally Posted by smork View Post
    Urayasu Kanteidan isn't a store I normally spend alot of money at -- they have high prices on their modern games (as do most local-style stores), some of their stock isn't all that fantastic, and their "showcase" doesn't look to have been opened in 10 years, even on the chance you can find it. But no deals? I suppose if you don't think boxed Twin Famicoms for 10000 yen (they go for 12-13000 loose in Akiba), a boxed SuperGrafx for (I think) 3500 yen (at least 10k in Akihabara), 4000yen pristine Towns Marty (who knows what they cost in Akiba, I've never seen one there in the 6 years i've been viisitng). I'm haven't even mentioned their boxed SFC games for 200yen or the disc only DC games for 10-50 yen
    You've got your Akiba prices all wrong. Dirty, faded, Twin Famicoms, missing cables, in terrible condition boxes for 10,000 Yen isn't much of a deal - one in the same condition would definitely be less in Akiba. A mint early serial number loose Twin Famicom might go for 12-13000 Yen in Akiba, but only at an expensive store like Super Potato.

    Towns Marty's are rare, but one always shows up every few months at Mandarake.

    An excellent condition boxed SuperGrafx would be over 10,000 Yen in Akiba, but not a dirty one like the consoles on show at Kanteidan!

    As for boxed SFC games for 200 Yen, their are loads of Book-Off and Tsutaya stores in central Tokyo that sell boxed SFC games for 100 Yen!!
    Trader 2 in Akihabara has loads of disc only DC games, some as low as 10 yen.

    The reason for me not PMing you was because I was worried by the responses of some of the people on here who were possibly planning to spend a lot of money to travel to Japan and waste a lot of time seeking out these stores in Chiba.

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) smork's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mimi Nakamura View Post
    The reason for me not PMing you was because I was worried by the responses of some of the people on here who were possibly planning to spend a lot of money to travel to Japan and waste a lot of time seeking out these stores in Chiba.
    Thanks for threadcrapping again -- highly appreciated!

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    Quote Originally Posted by smork View Post
    Thanks for threadcrapping again -- highly appreciated!
    Well, perhaps you should make it clear to people that they can find everything in these stores for at least the same price, and most likely cheaper in the far more accessible Akihabara.

    Would you honestly be happy if someone wasted one of their precious vacation days in Tokyo in one of these stores hoping to find a bargain based upon the information you have given in this thread?

    I'd just like to add, for others reading this who are thinking of travelling to Tokyo, and are not too sure of where to go in Akihabara, then PM me and I'll show you around.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mimi Nakamura View Post
    Well, perhaps you should make it clear to people that they can find everything in these stores for at least the same price, and most likely cheaper in the far more accessible Akihabara.

    Would you honestly be happy if someone wasted one of their precious vacation days in Tokyo in one of these stores hoping to find a bargain based upon the information you have given in this thread?

    I'd just like to add, for others reading this who are thinking of travelling to Tokyo, and are not too sure of where to go in Akihabara, then PM me and I'll show you around.
    Please make your own thread instead of criticizing me in mine. Call it "Mimi's criticism of Smork".

    I'm trying to share some information about local game stores and you keep saying "Akiba Akiba Akiba" like you own property there. Quit it. It's really not appreciated.

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    Quote Originally Posted by smork View Post
    Please make your own thread instead of criticizing me in mine. Call it "Mimi's criticism of Smork".

    I'm trying to share some information about local game stores and you keep saying "Akiba Akiba Akiba" like you own property there. Quit it. It's really not appreciated.
    Great work in avoiding my main point.

    I mention Akihabara because it's an easily accessible destination for tourists in Tokyo, but I'm pretty sure you knew full well why I mentioned it.

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) smork's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mimi Nakamura View Post
    Great work in avoiding my main point.

    I mention Akihabara because it's an easily accessible destination for tourists in Tokyo, but I'm pretty sure you knew full well why I mentioned it.
    Yes, and there's less than one day's worth of game shopping there, too. Everybody already knows about Akiba. There's thousands of web pages about it. There's probably hundreds of pages HERE about it.

    The thread isn't about Akiba, it's about some of my local game stores. Full stop. Feel free to post information and photos about your own local Japan game stores.

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    Cherry (Level 1) Xander's Avatar
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    I appreciate the thread because of the awesome pictures of an actual japan gaming store.

    Mimi, if you want to warn people that their might be better deals somewhere else, I think it's cool. You live there, your insight on where to find the best bargains is invaluable to people who are thinking of taking a trip to Japan. But you could have done so in a matter that would have been more courteous to OP, who simply offered to share his experience with fellow DPers. You come off as fairly rude to OP =/

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    I was just wondering are there websites for these most awesome stores you are providing for us and is there a site in which I could look it up throught that would allow for it to be translated because if the price is right I may just buy a famicom and disk drive plus games (I already have a few fami carts so atleast I got a start), maybe a PC-Engine + games, and maybe some Neo Geo carts (if the more modern ones are over priced as they are here). Looks like I have ALLOT of stuff to buy now especially since I just splurged on an early release of the PSP-3000 from Play Asia.

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    Quote Originally Posted by smork View Post
    Yes, and there's less than one day's worth of game shopping there, too. Everybody already knows about Akiba. There's thousands of web pages about it. There's probably hundreds of pages HERE about it.

    The thread isn't about Akiba, it's about some of my local game stores. Full stop. Feel free to post information and photos about your own local Japan game stores.
    Yea id love to come out there sometime myself I've always wanted to minus the language barrier so I may end up getting one of those speaking translators. I do wana see Akihabra atleast once while I'm there and check sum local shops maybe pickup a few old consoles and games, a region free player if they sell any and you can probly guess why I would want a Region Free DVD player and that reason isnt the sometimes often odd Japanese porn (well maybe sum) no its mostly for Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero-One DVDs.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ANONPLOX View Post
    Yea id love to come out there sometime myself I've always wanted to minus the language barrier so I may end up getting one of those speaking translators. I do wana see Akihabra atleast once while I'm there and check sum local shops maybe pickup a few old consoles and games, a region free player if they sell any and you can probly guess why I would want a Region Free DVD player and that reason isnt the sometimes often odd Japanese porn (well maybe sum) no its mostly for Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero-One DVDs.
    It is definitely worth a visit for anyone into games, or anime, or electronics, or just people watching. I'll be down there myself this weekend for some arcade parts and computer parts.

    Believe it or not you can get by pretty well without much Japanese as a tourist, though a translator is a help. My first visit some 6 or 7 years ago I didn't know any Japanese but "arigatou" and knew nobody, but I spent 3 weeks by myself sightseeing, shopping, etc and loved it.

    There aren't any good English websites that I know of for local stores. The cheapest bet for an overseas person is to find a good importer -- there's a couple of threads in import-mania about recommended online merchants!

    Oh, Japan's a pretty poor place to buy a region free player, actually -- they're cheaper in the States

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    Quote Originally Posted by smork View Post
    It is definitely worth a visit for anyone into games, or anime, or electronics, or just people watching. I'll be down there myself this weekend for some arcade parts and computer parts.

    Believe it or not you can get by pretty well without much Japanese as a tourist, though a translator is a help. My first visit some 6 or 7 years ago I didn't know any Japanese but "arigatou" and knew nobody, but I spent 3 weeks by myself sightseeing, shopping, etc and loved it.

    There aren't any good English websites that I know of for local stores. The cheapest bet for an overseas person is to find a good importer -- there's a couple of threads in import-mania about recommended online merchants!

    Oh, Japan's a pretty poor place to buy a region free player, actually -- they're cheaper in the States
    I meant more on the lines of a website that translates non-English websites.

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) refan's Avatar
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    Looks like an amazing place.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Daft Punk View Post
    That looks like it would take hours to look through there.
    It seems they take anything and everything.

    Also do I see Sonic 3 for $8,000 USD? Yes I do.

    Looks like a great store though.
    Last edited by Hitman Tyler; 11-12-2008 at 07:30 PM.
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    looks like I got my importer lol

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hitman Tyler View Post
    It seems they take anything and everything.

    Also do I see Sonic 3 for $8,000 USD? Yes I do.

    Looks like a great store though.
    Really? Where do you see that? I see a Sega Genesis that includes Sonic 3 for 8000 yen, but thats about it.
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    ebay is the only way to price things in my opinion.
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