Do you miss "hunting" for retro games?

[Segata]

Very much. I would get far more excited seeing a cool retro game in the wild than just getting it online. Finding a new original Xbox for 8 bucks or Mischief Makers for 2 bucks or R4 on PS1 for 4 bucks was very exciting. Now all that is gone. The longtime Thrift Town closed down. Resellers have everything nailed down now and the Thrift stores have caught on.

[emwearz]

For me "the hunt" was more of a hobby than actual retro gaming, twice a week without fail I would go out to thrift stores and pawn shops, every second Sunday or so I would get up at 5am to go the flea market.

Most days now I can't be bothered even when in a new area to pop into thrift shops, only games I ever see tends to be sing star or something similar. It is too locked down, everything is "rare and collectable", etc, etc.

[Reprise]

For me "the hunt" was more of a hobby than actual retro gaming

Yeah, me too. I used to love browsing the shelves and finding obscure games. I picked up so many games that I knew nothing about. I'd nearly always come home with something, whether it was a game I had been on the look out for, or it was a bargain or just something that looked cool. And it never cost me too much, whether it was Saturn stuff, Dreamcast stuff, Mega Drive stuff or whatever.

It is too locked down, everything is "rare and collectable", etc, etc.

Yup, this is so true.

[Tanooki]

For all that has been said about missing things, segata and emwarez nailed it with their comments on the current situation for some years now. There's little hope unless your little corner (town, tri-county, etc) area you are in still somehow has dodged all that. That's why I said you really just need to keep spreading the net wider for more interesting stuff, but even then that's just a stop gap against the inevitable.

It's not just games, it's anything interesting now. You know when you go into a thrift or a goodwill type and anything unique has an ebay print out on it with their tag next at 1/3 to 1/2 off to justify it - it's just over man, done.

I still 5 days a week hit up a couple goodwill shops, but that's because I have this lost 45min of time between work being over and picking my kid up so it's on the way. 3 years ago compared to right now it's very different even with a wide net being cast. The differences of now to a few months back, to the same gap a year before prices are up on almost anything and shelves are pretty picked off unless you're right there when the stuff comes out or it's such a screwball item no one things to look into it.

Around 6mo ago now I paid $10 for a really cool toy from the 1960-65 period in the box, so rare it wasn't as it stands on ebay past/present and little to nothing through google. It took me questioning around and sleuthing stuff to eventually just get a lead to find out I have the only toy 'set' from the company, made in their later period, few exist complete, that 2 styles of that set exist, and it's easily worth something on the order of $1000-2000 in value to an interested toy buyer into special lesser known stuff. Stuff like that, or just at a flea market finding for $10 a childhood toy that got destroyed (Tomytronic Pac-Man) keeps me going -- along with getting some exercise out of it too.

[Markies]

I still hunt for retro games. In fact, that is all I do.

Since everybody has a phone, even flea markets are impossible to find good deals. Everybody can go to eBay, so you are never going to find Little Samson for like $5. Those days are gone.

However, I try to avoid eBay/Amazon as much as possible. We have such a plethora of a game stores in my area, that I only buy Retro games online when I especially want/need the game.

But, I still enjoy walking into a Retro Game Store and going up to the counter and seeing what is available. I also like to watch games prices rise and fall depending on the market and what is hot at the moment. That will always give me more enjoyment that online sellers will never give.

[prfsnl_gmr]

The “retro” games you should be hunting for right now are 360, PS3, and Wii games.

[Reprise]

The “retro” games you should be hunting for right now are 360, PS3, and Wii games.

Yup. And even some of those are starting to creep up in price.

[prfsnl_gmr]

The “retro” games you should be hunting for right now are 360, PS3, and Wii games.

Yup. And even some of those are starting to creep up in price.

They are! But unlike SNES games, there is still a good chance that you can find rare or valuable titles for those systems for only a few dollars at flea markets, thrift stores, and yard sales.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I guess I'm more more "annoyed" than heartbroken about the scene.

I actually never "hunted" much in the first place. During that "wave" when retro games were cheap I wasn't buying them. Plus, I live in rural Maine. Not a ton of stores in my immediate vicinity.

Since I'm not a hardcore "collector" or anything I'm impervious to the insane stuff like Little Samson and so forth -- no interest in any of that. The prices of "regular" NES, SNES, etc. games is the hardest thing to deal with, I suppose.

Thankfully, I probably already have more than I'll ever need. And as a huge RPG fan I already have most of that covered -- full domestic SNES RPG set, full domestic Saturn RPG set, most of the good PSX RPGs, etc.

I love Atari games and those are still nice and cheap. And the import scene has been more and more appealing lately so I've been turning to eBay for that. 99 cent Famicom games? Yes please.

[Cafeman]

My problem is I've acquired most of what I'm interested in already.

In the east-Pittsburgh area there are still several used toy/DVD/games stores around, I like to browse them, and I've picked up some titles for Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn now & then.

The most recent cool finds for me were the Rev 00 version of Genesis Revenge of Shinobi (got it for $10, it has Batman and Godzilla images in-game), Dreamcast Marvel vs Capcom 1 for $25 (I love this game!) and Michael Jackson Moonwalker also at $10 but that is going back a few more years. I do see stuff out there at stores like The Exchange, Game Again, and Wild & Wooley's ... but usually its stuff I already own or have owned (and don't want again), and yes sometimes extremely overpriced .

But lately I have mostly picked up the C-grade titles, as I find them. For example Sega Saturn Madden '97. It plays like a supercharged version of the best 16-bit Genesis Madden games, and I find it fun and thankfully no horrible low-polygon players.

Seasonal game shows can yield surprises. Pittsburgh has had the Replay FX show and i picked up some Japanese Saturn imports there last year.