Looking at the used game's shops

[Tatsu]

I wonder how is it in your area: for which systems do you find the most stuff, what systems are non-existent, for which systems exists the biggest exchange of games and other stuff you may have observed.

I only have an Easy Cash store near my home that caries all kinds of stuff, not only games. But I sure can say the most demanded games are for the PS2, the PS2 consoles are also away very fast if they get them. X-Box comes second, but they cary less games, even if the console itself appears more to be available. The Came Cube is more or less inexistent, I saw one single Cube since the shop is open (maybe half a year or a little longer) and they don't have much games.

From the older consoles the PS1 gets the most games and also sells the most as much as I can say. They have a shitload of games for the N64 and they have N64 consoles every other day. It would be very easy to get a neat collection out of those games, it just seems that they rarely sell N64 stuff. Nobody seems to be interested in it. Old Gameboy games are also a hot topic, they cary some GB colours games and GBA games are also wanted. But they don't get that much new stuff.

The oldest games they have are NES and S-Nes games, they are very wanted and the good stuff is away very fast. Dreamcast games are not common but they do have them sometimes, I also saw a Dreamcast some days ago. It was away fast.

So, to make it short, PS2 has the biggest marked from the newer consoles, Nintendo is only big with the old stuff and Sega is nearly inexistend (they don't accept Mega Drive games but I got a used Saturn console for cheap there).

Is that more or less the same in your area, are there regional differences? Tell me everything about it!

[Kejoriv]

Only stores that have retro games like snes and earlier is Salvation Army sometimes. All the EB and Gamestops, dont carry that stuff anymore. I still find plenty of nes and snes games at the flea markets though

[Tatsu]

Flea markets are not that common here. And there are not much games around at the Salvation Army either. I just saw five or six NES games, that's all. Anyway, thanks for the info, I didn't know that NES S-Nes games are no longer sold in the used shops in US. What a pity...

[kainemaxwell]

On occasion I'll find SNES, NES and Genesis stuff at the Salvation Army or thrift Stores in my town.

[syd]

At the EB Games I have near me the oldest system they sell for is Dreamcast, and even thats pretty sketchy. The second hand store Traders has everything from SNES and Genesis up to modern consoles, even though their prices aren't the best. Nintendo World deals with a lot of NES games, but they also have lots of SNES, N64 and modern stuff. The prices these stores sell stuff for is out of whack though. $25 for a loose Super Mario 64!

On the other hand, the flea markets aren't as bad in some respects. They sell all sorts of stuff but most of their prices aren't too good either. $30 for a LOOSE FF1 and $15 for a loose Super Mario All-Stars made me laugh last week!

[jdc]

You can find anything in this small city. Retro systems here aren't "retro"....they're just old "junk", and the average person views them as trade in fodder for PS2 and Xbox stuff.

The problem with the large majority of used disc-based software that I see is that it's severely fingerprinted and scratched, regardless of how current it might be. If there's one thing about the modern used game market that pisses me off, it's that the majority of places will give some asshole the same trade-in value for his beaten up copy of Halo 2 as they do for your pristine copy. It gives the average slob absolutely NO incentive to keep his games in decent condition, thus making it increasingly difficult to find good used discs in the wild. That's my mini-rant.

[boatofcar]

Starland is paradise for all kinds of games. They carry the largest amount of used games and imports I've ever seen in a chain store.

[machine.slave]

The EB's up here in Canada have been selling SNES & NES games for quite a long time now. They just did a big sale on them a few months ago to reduce stock, but it's all still there. Also, I don't know what the market's like for our neighbours to the south, but we've got a lot of independent stores here that deal with the classics. The only downside is that most of them use Ebay as a reference for pricing

Also, pawn shops are always a good place to start.

[robotriot]

In my town, the only store to get used games from is EB, and they only carry PS2, Xbox, GC and PS1. The large department stores also have a couple of PS1 games, but that's it really. I occasionally find something older on the flea markets, but there are no thrift shops around :(

[Fuyukaze]

In my area, there are plenty of places but for the most part the systems they carry the most of are SNES and PS2 titles. Sadly the games are atleast 60% sports titles as well. Every so often you can find a good game but its somewhat rare. Systems like the Saturn, 32x, Sega CD, Gamegear, and Mastersystem are almost never around. The biggest problem with the Saturn is that one of the biggest store chains in the area has a group of emps who when ever anything is sold to them for it, they buy it imidiatly. It doesnt even hit the shelves!

[FlufflePuff]

Plenty of places to find games here and plenty of thrifts to keep me busy. Unfortunately, many of the good, locally owned game stores have jacked their prices up recently. Example: game store near me is selling Rainbow Island for $80!! I told them they could get that for Bubble Bobble 2 and I got told, "well I sell them all the time at that price." If only they would knock about $5 off each of their games they would be in great shape.

[Tatsu]

Now that you mention it I have to agree about the sports games. It's especially extreme with the PS1 titles, more than half of the games are sports games and racers. But if you look closely you can still find good games and RPGs. FF games pop up sometimes and also other classic stuff like Bust-A-Move. With the newer consoles the games are more mixed. You find stuff from every category all the time, also new games.

I forgot about the second place where you can buy used games in my city: a stand on the market that is there on Thursday and Tuesday. He hardly caries games for the older systems and absolutely no hardware. But besides that it's the same as in the other shop. Mainly PS2 titles but X-Box comes close there, there are more games available for the Cube as in the other shop. But the consoles still comes on third place.