Have you checked out your local retro game store? If so, how was it? Any interesting finds?
I finally visited my local one a couple weeks ago, been putting it off since it’s a 30 minute drive and I’m so glad I finally did! Tons of awesome old games, in great condition, and things I didn’t expect to see like old console demo stands. Staff there are super chill and it was a ton of fun talking to them.
I actually got lucky in a sense because I mentioned to that I’m trying to salvage an old Pokemon Crystal cartridge that I have; because it got a Dad DYI battery swap w/ the wrong tools 10+ years ago… Turns out the employee I was talking to has experience with doing chip swaps and told me he could transfer the chips to a JP cartridge for me if I got a hold of one. Managed to get one in great condition for cheap and now I’m hyped to bring it back to him and have that modified cartridge made.
It honestly was such a great experience and I’m super glad I went. If you haven’t visited your local one I’d definitely recommend it since it’s the kind of experience I was always wishing for at stores like Gamestop.
So we have quite a few game shops now - quite the turnaround from when GameStop ran them all out of business during the Xbox 360/PS3 era. Usually they’re combined with book stores, comic shops, or hobby shops (or all of them together).
The one closest to me I’ve been trying to support for the sake of it - but I’ve not felt good about their business model all the time. i felt under-paid for a massive horde of games and TCG stuff I sold to them and feel like I got kinda ripped off for the used PS4 Slim I bought from them a couple months ago. And even just this week I saw their used copy of TOTK was SIXTY FIVE DOLLARS.
But I’m trying to support my local brick and mortars the best I can. Net positive and all.
Dang, $65 for a used copy of TOTK is crazy! I guess we can’t count on them all being reasonable.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the prices at the one near me. Their prices have all been within a few bucks of the average price online and everything I’ve bought from them has been CiB.
Definitely gonna be going back to support them. Hope your local one improves their business model!
I’ve checked out a couple of the used game stores in my area and they’ve been a bit of a mixed bag. One of them has bounced around maybe 5 different locations in the 15 years I’ve known about them and they feel pretty barebones now, lots of old NBA 2K, FIFA, Madden, COD, etc. They used to have a fantastic selection back in 2012ish and the store they had back then felt a lot cozier and more like a fun hangout spot. The new spot has way too much empty space inside and it’s a very boring and plain looking interior, not a whole lot of cool decorating going on in there anymore.
Theres another shop I visited that had pretty decent prices and the place was packed with all sorts of cool games and decorated like a classic game store. I was pretty excited to see gameboy and gba games being sold in their old beat up boxes, hadn’t seen those in forever. My biggest gripe with that place was that it was pretty dirty, smelled musty and one of the two people working there was walking around barefoot in the store. Probably not a big deal for some people but it grossed me out lol
Around my area (similar to EposVox’s) there’s a few options. I end up at the local Half Price Books every 1-2 months because it’s somewhere for my family to go after dinner on a weekend. There’s a GameXChange (a small retail chain) close by, but most of the inventory on the shelf is sports, COD, Assassins Creed, and shovelwear. All the interesting games are in the display counters with prices higher than I’m willing to pay. I also end up at the local Vendor’s Village/Peddler’s Malls. There’s 1-3 sellers who have booths in multiple store around the city. That’s starting to become underwhelming. There’s still one seller who has a varied inventory, but I feel the rest have cut back over the past 2 years. You also don’t get the interpersonal connection with the seller. The local arcade expo will be happening in March, and it’s a good time to go looking at what vendors bring and find out if they have stores and where they are.
I’ve visited some places whose main focus is tabletop/TCG/Comics with used games off to the side. I end up feeling a bit awkward (still happens to a middle-aged adult) since I’m not engaged in those hobbies.
Honestly, I’ve hit the point where I’m not picking up titles anymore. There are a few specific games I’m looking for, but I rarely see them pop up locally. It may be different if I were visiting locations on a regular basis, but that’s not practical with my life. I’m not Sheldon who goes to the comic book store every week.
Tangentially, I was on my way back from a conference in Nashville and stopped in a used game store on the north end of town. They had a large inventory of games and systems. I didn’t find anything I was looking for, but I was amazed to see a PC Engine IFU-30 (briefcase style with CD-ROM), Neo Geo X, and Panasonic 3DO in one of the display cases for prices I didn’t thing were unreasonable ($150-$250). I’ve also found a used game store south of Cincinnati that has an even larger inventory.
Yeah just feels like our area is “drying up” at the moment. The hobby game shops tend to have good niche VHS things I find sometimes, but I dunno.
I remember going to GameXChange when they first popped up and they had crazy inventory. Ugh.
My immediate local place has been good for PS1 pickups lately, but anything newer than that I feel ripped off. And my brother in law was excited by their anime inventory, but all way too expensive too.
There’s a handful in my area that I enjoy supporting. One is based out of a house turned business funny enough that I hit up when they do their monthly X console game’s discount. Really small space, they don’t have the most insane collection, but I can usually find a game or two each time I’m in for a reasonable price.
The other one I frequent is a little more of a drive, but is also clearly in it for the love of it. Prices are rather reasonable, got quite the selection and they offer a really great promotion on their anniversary that lines up with my birthday rather well; so I frequently will pickup a console around that time. I got talking to them about Gameboy repairs and how I was troubleshooting a ribbon cable issue, and was mentioning how I needed to grab a part online to which they said that they actually had one and just let me take it. (Was a cheap part mind you, but still appreciate the gesture.)
I know ultimately the pricing could be better if I hunted ebay or marketplace deals, but that also takes a lot of time and is very competitive. I’m totally good with supporting local business that aligns with a niche that I love, obviously as long as they’re reasonable with their pricing.
Personally though, I just won’t both selling to a store unless I’m just trying to move a lot of stuff quickly.