a few trends i've noticed lately

[Niku-Sama]

dare I say in the collector world. nothing good nor bad just things I've noticed, also let me know if you noticed these or if its just a regional thing to my area...

any way I've noticed lately that there have been TONS, I think almost literal TONS of original xbox games, systems and accessories all over the thirft-e-verse around my area lately.
as an example, one of my favorite places I like to frequent is goodwill's as-is store and theres a rack of movies and its usually lightly peppered with games. the past month or so theres been multiple rows of OG xbox games. I had finally given up on fixing an Thompson drive in an OG xbox I got for $2 when another system popped up and will boot intermittently that had a Samsung drive that I think I paid $5 for? I nearly ordered a replacement laser off the ebays but I am glad I didn't now.

its just strange that all of a sudden, BAM! controllers, cables, memory cards and adapters and all sorts of stuff for this system all of a sudden, and its been a mix of games, not all sports, rarely any thing I would ever play though.

the other thing I've noticed was PSX, or as some of you call it PS1, memory cards have been quite sparse. which doesn't sound like much but I used to see them all the time but when my memory cards I've had since new started, you know, fucking my saves out of the blue these little fuckers are no where to be found any more. I knew I should have been buying them. I paid $13 today for a official PSX memory card, at least its transparent and I had credit at the place but shit. seems odd that my cards start dying and I cant find any official ones. I figured they would be cheap too. I think next PRGE i'm gonna stock up, one official memory card per PSX game I actually play.

I first noticed these were dead when I remembered there was a high res mode in GranTurismo and I wanted to try it on my sync on green moded PSX on my PVM but nope. been fine for about 20 years and then just seems like suddenly its gonna die. I should get a dex drive or something instead

[Aussie2B]

I can't say I ever recall seeing lots of PS1 memory cards in thrifts. Most of mine I ending up getting through lots, usually ones I bought on eBay. I do remember a time when I was seeing lots of PS2 cards. I went from having just the one I bought brand new to having 5 or so of them.

I'm surprised your old PS1 cards are dying simultaneously. PS1 cards use flash memory, so they have a finite number of saving/erasing cycles, but most people don't even hit that limit, let alone hitting it on multiple cards within a short span of time. I mean, cards can crap out in other ways, especially the junky third party ones, but generally speaking, most official PS1 cards still work fine, as long as you keep the contacts clean and there's nothing wrong with the memory card slot on the system.

[celerystalker]

I haven't noticed anything with PS1 memory cards, but I hadn't really been paying attention to them either. I've really scaled back on hitting thrifts, as it's been ages since I found anything really interesting game related. That said, when I do go, Xbox and PS2 are basically all I ever see anymore, and it's been that way for at least 5 years. Rough looking Xbox consoles and stacks of PS2/Xbox sports games and copies of Just Dance for Wii.

Realistically, I feel like even most retailers around me now don't get much through trades, and are buying ebay lots to resell.

Here's the deal as I'm seeing it locally:

Customers who trade in retro systems and games are in two main camps: those who need money, and those looking to trade up to new systems.

Most retailers who deal in retro games don't do much with current gen consoles, eliminating the bigger part of the trading crowd.

This leaves trade-in customers to look at different ways to sell their games, going to ebay and facebook groups, keeping them off of the used retail market.

Retailers have to find different ways to keep desirable games in stock, resorting to buying lots online to supplement the lack of trades. They pay more than they would to a walk-in customer, causing prices to stay elevated.


The last time retro games were cheap, FuncoLand and GameStop still dealt in them. People traded in old games to stores that sold new games for credit. The new, lower margin games and system were bait to attract older, high-margin used products to sell to retro fans. It's all too far gone now, and the traditional secondary video game market collapsed, giving rise to individual resellers, digital re-releases, repro and counterfeit makers, everdrives, and other distribution channels. The business models that kept the retro supply chain going are what kept prices low. When availability moved from stores to the internet, all hell broke loose on pricing. That's where GameStop was stupid. Not only did they abandon their successful model for profit gauging like extended warranties and reservations to drive sales of low-margin new product, but then they tried to re-enter the retro market as if nothing had changed in 15 years after seeing how losing sales volume to digital distribution and not having stable retro product to drive margin over depreciating current/last gen systems that have yet to stabilize in the marketplace.

There's some oversimplification there, but that's my theory.

[Koa Zo]

I'm surprised your old PS1 cards are dying simultaneously.

I'd bet it's an issue with the memory card slot and not the cards.

Regarding the appearance of Xbox stuff... A few weeks ago I found an old Halo edition xBox in an abandoned cabin on top of a mountain north of here. Not sure if that has any correlation tot he thread though

[Niku-Sama]

No it's the cards. Checked across multiple psx and ps2 systems, same result. They were 3rd party ones though

[Aussie2B]

If they're third party ones, then I'd say you've been lucky if they've been reliable all these years until now. My very first card was a third party one, and it started acting flaky within the first year I bought it. I then bought an official one as a result and never looked back.

The problem, though, is that many third party PS1 cards VERY convincingly look like official cards. At least as far as the standard grey ones go. It feels a lot like examining GBA carts to see if they're legit or not. Going back to my aforementioned PS1 lots on eBay, I've had a ton of cards pass through my hands. I've tried to get rid of all the third party ones, while saving the official ones, but I wouldn't be surprised if a third party card has slipped into my collection, with me none the wiser. But I still primarily use the transparent blue one I bought brand new and know is official, so it's all good.

As for the Dex Drive, it was cool back in the day, but it's a pain in the ass to use one with any modern-ish computer. The thing is more obsolete than the PS1 itself.

[WulfeLuer]

Third party PS1 cards plus PS2 (especially the slim model) equals RAEG. The PS1 emulator on later PS2s doesn't play nice with them.

There is a trend of Xbox stuff having more of a presence in the second-hand market, and here it's being accompanied by more PS1/PS2 stuff including the 'goodies' of the era (anything normally $30 or above used). It's a good bet that a lot of stuff is being dumped to afford a Switch or the second-generation Xbones and PS4s, throw in Andromeda for fun. The 'starving gamer' mentality at work again.

[SpaceHarrier]

A few weeks ago I found an old Halo edition xBox in an abandoned cabin on top of a mountain north of here. Not sure if that has any correlation tot he thread though

Sounds like the Necronomxbox.

One thing I notice a great deal of now is the Wiis at the swapmeet. All of them have the top hatch ripped off. Every last one.

[SparTonberry]

If you mean the GameCube controller/memory card slot covers, I've knocked those off before.
If I wasn't concerned with keeping the console nice with pieces intact, I'd have probably just left them off too.

Or you know, people playing Smash Bros. with GC controllers and just taking it off for CONVENIENCE. :P

[Niku-Sama]

I think you can still order replacements on Nintendo's website still. Been meaning to stock up on them to be honest

[Rickstilwell1]

I try to buy PS1, PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast, Gamecube and Nintendo 64 memory cards if I see them, but I don't use PS1 and PS2 cards much anymore because I just back them up onto PS3. You don't even need Dex Drive for anything if you've got PS3, memory card reader and a flash drive (for copying saves from PS3 to PC and back if desired).

I have seen original Xboxes all the time up here in Washington since at least 2010 when I really started going to thrift stores. They show up slightly less often in the stores I go to regularly, but then I go to a less frequented store and I see 3. So I figure it hasn't died down too much. There have always been original model PlayStation systems popping up and since the final slim versions were discontinued, I've been seeing a lot of fat PS2's. I think lately I see more PS2's than Xboxes and since I like those more and they aren't as heavy I buy them if they're under $15, have the cords attached and a memory card in the slot. So I've got some spares to lend or give to good friends who want them. I did find a few slims at a Goodwill in 2014 but haven't seen one since.

In all this time I've come across 2 silver Gamecubes, 2 black Gamecubes and one Indigo Gamecube that I bought due to good prices ($7-$15 range, once with a game in the system, other times with memory cards). I still occasionally see them but usually pass on them because of overpricing what I think they're worth, and lack of cords.

I see Wii's a lot but the pain is getting all the cords you need. If they don't have the cords they're cheap but if they do or if it comes boxed, it gets priced too high. I was seeing a lot of DS lites last year. None this year.

In the last 2 years I got lucky and even found 2 Dreamcasts, 2 NES, 1 SNES, 4 Genesis, and 1 Saturn. The NES and SNES were priced higher but I had a coupon. Everything Sega was cheap. They always want to overprice their Game Gears though for some odd reason.

Oh, and I got lucky and found 2 working PS3s for $30 each. One was an 80GB with low moddable firmware, the other was a super slim.

I do see PS3 games a lot now along with the Xbox 360, Wii, Xbox and declining selection of PS2 games. Occasional Gamecube games. I've even seen a couple PS4 and Xbox One games. Just bought Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil for Xbox One for only $10. I saw NES and SNES games the other day and passed just because they're ones I don't want or ones I already have. They were sold before today. lol today I saw Combat for Atari 2600 for $5 hanging in the toy section. Sometimes I see the Game Boy games end up there.