Chicagoland here:
At flea markets? Great. Almost anywhere else? Forget about it.
God I would kill to find ONE decent sega saturn or dreamcast game a month, or any at all for that matter.
Garage sales are generally good though so I cannot wait for summer.
This is all provided I get up early enough though. By 8AM or so all the flea markets are picked over, so yeah, there's a ton of competition in my neck of the woods.
Is it better or worse in California?
Last edited by wingzrow; 04-19-2012 at 05:55 AM.
I have a few spots here, but I've cherry picked them to stuff I don't want. Then I went to Texas, I found the motherload in San Antonio, Sunset Valley, and Austin (the one in Houston I didn't visit). The shops are called Game Over, but prepare to pay a bit on some of their games. Found out about the one in Austin from an older thread made here a few years ago.
Lately there hasn't been much of anything. I frequent a number of Goodwills, Targets, flea markets and yard sales and although I've found some good stuff this year it's usually only one or a few things at a time. I'm going to a big ass once-a-year flea market next month so hopefully I turn up something worthwhile.
ALL HAIL THE 1 2 P
Originally Posted by THE 1 2 P
Slim pickings in my area.the goodwill closeby has never had any games and they won't ever be selling any.Only place for any kind of retro stuff is bookman's which is over an hour away and i haven't been there in over 7 years.
Things are pretty decent here in the Portland area. Of course, prices can be another thing...
I almost forgot! There's actually a barber shop in Sterling, VA that sells some used games and movies. I picked up a copy of View Point for the Genesis there.
http://www.retronick.com/2010/09/thi...-strange-shit/
A few stores are about an hour away which sucks, but I thinking of going to one for my birthday to get NES/SNES games. Also I considering checking at random yard sales this summer to see something interesting they might have.
We have a local chain called The Exchange/Record Exchange. They carry stuff all the way back to the NES but they aren't a specialty shop. Even so, they aren't idiots, so no copies of Earthbond or EVO for 2 bucks or anything like that, but you can quite often find pretty great deals on the lower profile retro games. I just grabbed about 20 SNES games for 35 bucks today. Nothing especially awesome, just bulking up the collection a bit. Definitely not some eBay lot with 4 copies of Mario Paint, 6 copies of Bulls vs Blazers, and 3 copies of Super Scope 6 just to get a copy of MMX1 or Mario All Stars. All titles that I am happy to have on my shelf and nothing that I would just want to throw away like in those stupid lot auctions.
Lots of independent game shops and whatnot too. It's a good town for gamers, which is good, because the weather blows, so staying inside and playing VGs is a great way to avoid whatever crap is falling from the sky at that moment.
Things have been a little dry in my area as of late. The Goodwills in my area were pretty well stocked toward the beginning of the year (gotta love grabbing nearly every 90's id FPS for less than $10), but have really tapered off lately. I haven't purchased anything in the past two weeks since everything there is either overpriced, beaten up or both. A scratched copy of Crysis for $7? Yeah, you can shove it.
The indie shop here has had some real gems though. I purchased a new copy of Double Dragon Advance for $15 a month back. Good thing too, because the next week I went back, all four copies they had were sold. I also scored a copy of Magic Knight Rayearth a few days ago after asking the owner if he had any 'good' Saturn stuff. I paid a pretty penny for it, but the disc and manual are virtually flawless.
Now that I've graduated and am out of school, I'm hoping I might have time to go out to the flea market on the weekends. I'm not going to be taking a full-time job until the fall, so one last fruitful summer for game hunting would be a great way to cap my college career.
There basically is no game hunting scene in NYC. Thrift stores are nearly nonexistent, and the same goes for garage sales (few people even have a garage or yard). Pawn shops aren't like what I've been to elsewhere. They're usually pretty sketchy, REALLY tiny, and only deal in stuff like gold. I doubt there's much in the way of flea markets either, although I've never really been into that aspect of hunting. So if you want older games, you're basically left with a few indie game shops scattered about, but they're all horribly overpriced. A few are kind of cool to look at like a museum, but don't even consider buying anything. But considering most of my game buying these days is for really oddball stuff, I'd have to go online anyway.
When I stay with family in Washington state, I go hunting for general game stuff, though. It's decent, but it takes a whole lot of persistence. Most places I hit usually have literally nothing or damn near close to it, and prices usually aren't spectacular (I'm jealous when I see people shopping at places that price games at 50 cents or a buck, usually where I go prices don't get lower than 2.99, if that). Most of my purchases are fairly run-of-the-mill, but every now and then I make an impressive find. "Impressive" by my standards is getting something for 2-3 bucks that is worth $30+ bucks. I know with finds topics on here and elsewhere, people get so desensitized to seeing people with amazing finds that everything is "meh" unless you find Panzer Dragoon Saga or something, but I'm not so jaded myself.
I live in the midwest and have been blessed. I will not divulge my exact location to keep the competition at bay.
Basically, I have built a massive collection of all the classic systems over the past three years with minimal ebay shopping. I have 8 Goodwills within a 45 minute radius of my house, 4 Salvation Army stores within same radius, 2 Catholic charity thrifts within same radius, 5 pawn shops, and 4 used game stores.
The charity thrifts have been the best deals. Found a SNES console for $5 yesterday, along with a complete NES system for $10.
A couple weeks ago, I found a rarity 9 VCS game at Goodwill for $2.
I used to live more rural, and my current collection would not have been doable because of the lack of thrifts and used game stores. Collecting by ebay alone will ruin you financially.
I am in a hunting paradise in a way and it sucks in others. On one hand I have more dedicated gaming stores around here than I'd know what to do with. How many is that? Approximately 1 dozen stores dealing in retro game stores are within 30 minutes of my house. 2 of which have what I'd consider "god like" stock available. Meaning their current inventory of retro games exceeds the several thousand cart range. The problem? 1 of those shops is basically ebay prices and the other is INSANE prices. The pricing in the other stores ranges from very good to ebay. But pretty much everything is available for virtually every console (except AES, still never seen one around here, ever) if you have the bankroll to back it up. On top of that we are a flea market mecca (close proximity to amish country) so that's a complete goldmine as well. Competition can be fierce as the number of "collectors" seems to have blown up over the last several years but it's doable. So yeah overall, I'd say this is a great area to hunt.
Stores that specialize are always gonna be pricey. They know what the stuff is worth, obviously. Flea markets are great, if you've got em in your area. Best deals ever come out of those places.
The places I shopped at varies. They are mostly random and sometimes you will find stuff that are worth the hassle while there are times that there are nothing worth buying. It's the life of being a treasure seeker
I lived my life with no fear nor hatred... For these traits are certain to the content of my immortal being.
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