I've worked on my SNES collection quite a bit recently with heavy-hitter stuff like
Earthbound, but I've had a major setback in my NES collecting:
GA Game Shop, the best local place to go for retro games, suddenly closed their doors without warning.
I actually went there Monday looking for a big title as number 400 and found that they were closed on Mondays. When I went back Saturday I found that
since Monday they had a blow-out sale and had already closed their doors for good. They are the only place I knew with stuff like Mario's Time Machine, Frankenstein Returns, and so much more. Their prices were appropriate too.
I wouldn't be nearly as disappointed if I got to actually take part in their blow-out sale. I know that they had D.D's All-Star Softball too and I would have saved some money on that. Mario's Time Machine was already $5 under market value and the 20%-off blowout would have saved me another $10. There were tons of other cheap titles that I would have bought at 20%-off because that was more than enough to bring them down to or below market price.
*sigh*
Well, here's what else has happened since Monday:
The same pawn shop that sold me
Donkey Kong Classics had another copy for less than half the price they stickered it at last time. I probably paid 60% more for my previous copy from the same guys.
These guys follow the online price tracking guides to set their prices, which is how they knew what it was valued at last time. I thought that they accidentally priced this one as if it were normal Donkey Kong except that the normal Donkey Kong cart has an even higher value. Now I'm guessing they missed a key on the price tag machine. Of course, I bought this copy too so I can use it as trade fodder.
I got tired of seeing
Xexyz missing from my collection when I used to have it last year. I bought one on eBay for 20 times what I paid last time: $10. If that sounds like I got ripped off, understand that the reason I sold it last year was because it turned out to be a prototype and it sold for almost $300. I paid $0.50 ~15 years ago when Blockbuster Video was clearing out their 8/16 bit inventory. It was a trade-in from their "Game Rush" wanna-be GameStop operation, not a former rental.
I bought a dupe copy of
1942 for my brother's coworker but it's been added to my collection as a dupe until he pays us for it.
I picked up a couple boxed games from Gamers in Carrollton, GA:
George Foreman's KO Boxing
Bill Elliot's NASCAR
These guys re-seal their boxes and don't note whether or not they have the manual or dust-cover inside first. After I pointed this out on an earlier visit they opened them for me and, sure enough, there were no manuals and only KO Boxing had a dust sleeve. I was surprised to see them make the same mistake again, but I negotiated the price down for the missing manuals. KO Boxing's dust sleeve looks completely different than a normal black dust sleeve (texture is way off). I've heard of newly-produced replicas with different textures but I also noticed that this cart and PCB were manufactured by Akklaim and not Nintendo. I wonder if Akklaim made their own dust sleeves too. Konami made their own game paks sometimes but they were still made in Japan and had more similarities.
On Saturday I got a few games from a flea market vendor who basically runs a full game shop. Nothing special, just
Captain Skyhawk, Othello, and a couple Genesis games from the $3 bin. I got a few dust covers and a clamshell case too. While I was there some kid that works there offered me a broken Super Mario Kart for $5, but something wasn't right:
The back had molded plastic care instructions instead of a label even though the front label said "Made in Japan" (cheaper reprintings with the molded shell are made in Mexico). It had the original label but the non-locking shell design but perhaps some later console bundles were like this. Also, I had never seen a first party title reprinted in the cheaper shells. I decided to come back with my special screwdriver (GameBit NEC External Line Head) to make sure it wasn't an incompetent made-to-order knock-off from China, which might explain why it "doesn't work." I half expected to see a board with no DSP chip in there (required for Mario Kart).
In the mean time I realized that a European-region GBC game in his 2 for $4 bin was never released in the USA: Thunderbirds. For $2, why not?
When I came back the kid could not find the broken SMK at first because the owner had stickered it for $28 and put it back in the display case. The boy explained that it was because the owner didn't know that it was returned as "not working" but I don't believe this for a second. You see, without testing it he insisted that a broken copy of Zelda we returned to him just needed to be cleaned. He blatantly restickered it and put it back right in the display case while my brother objected.
Anyway, I brought two of my personal copies of SMK to compare (original and Player's Choice Million Seller re-release; both different PCBs). It was legit inside so it was probably just a shell swap after the back shell got ruined sitting in whatever puddle caused the corrosion that damaged it beyond working. This time though the owner said he usually doesn't sell broken games. For a moment I felt like I had come all the way back for nothing, until my brother pointed out that there were a few titles that they didn't have the day before, including Super Spy Hunter. At that point the guy perked up and showed us some other stuff he had just received but had not put out:
Mega Man 5 and Mega Man X2!
Megaman 5 is worth $90 so I offered $70. I ended up paying $75. Mega Man X2 was worth $100 and I offered $80. He accepted.
Super Spy Hunter was stickered at $15, which was below market value so I didn't haggle. I realized later that two screw posts were broken and the back shell is cracked, but it works. We added
Thunderbirds for GBC with Ecco the Dolphin for GameGear for $4. We may already have Ecco but we have three GameGears and it's a better choice than anything else in that bin. The agreed-on total was $174, but we only had $163 without going to the bank. He happily accepted one of our two copies of Super Mario Kart for $11 credit.
Another flea market vendor wanted $130 for an NES with a decent condition Zelda II. We laughed but he wouldn't budge, so we walked away. I got a loose copy of
Castlevania Symphony of the Night from another vendor for $1! I also got a
Platinum GBA in decent condition (few scratches; intact battery door) with
some Nickelodeon game for $5. That's two absolute steals! I played quite a bit and Castlevania seems to work despite being scratched. Audio skips every now and then but the game loads and the FMVs I watched played fine.
I got a bunch of stuff from Gamers in Carrollton and Villa Rica. I was disappointed to see that they finally sold their NES-101. The HiDef NES Kit has caused a price spike so I was finally ready to spend what they wanted on it (mod and sell). While I was there they told me that someone is buying all their heavy-hitter stuff, like Castlevania Dracula X and Bomberman II. I was going to make an offer on Bomberman II.
AD&D Heroes of the Lance
Athena
Championship Pool
Desert Commander
Dirty Harry
Goal!
Heavy Barrel
Hydlide
Jordan Vs Bird One on One
Legacy of the Wizard
MTV's Remote Control
Ring King
The Simpson's Bart Vs. The World
Spot: The Video Game
Spy vs. Spy
Star Soldier
Treasure Master
Volleyball
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Winter Games by Epix
My local Wal-Mart screwed up by putting almost all their Amiibos on clearance for $5 or less (MewTwo was $2.50), so I spent several hundred buying those to sell/trade.
Inkling Boy
Inkling Girl
Tom Nook
Mabel
Green Yarn Yoshi
Pink Yarn Yoshi
Ganondorf
MewTwo
Modern Color Retro Mario
I actually went back for everything I left on the shelf when friends on NintendoAge asked me to.
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