Do you miss "hunting" for retro games?

[CRTGAMER]

To keep from dragging this thread off topic, created new thread for discussion concerning 3d Bluray and 4k TVs.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 6#p1122066

[TK Island Boy Gamer]

There may be "No more games anymore" but you can blame that more on the fact that you just have all of them. Retro collecting may not have fully died yet, but as its grown bigger, people are knowing more and more how to shop and find them.

As for me, I still plan on combing every retro shop I can find during my road trip through the deep south. My pivy little collection has always needed more meat on it including basic commons like RC Pro Am, SMB2, Contra and all sorts of Black Box and Capcom crap.

I'm not too haggly so I'll pay whatever reasonable price the business people will throw at me.

I only visit the United States once a year, and despite there being "No more games" I'm still pressing my luck and seeing what I could find. 2018 seems to be the last opportunity for me to do it.

[Tanooki]

I don't think people are arguing that you can't find the stuff. It's out there, but the argument more is that people have turned it into some assholish competition to charge as much as possible circling the toilet bowl basically. Sure you can find those commons you lack sure, but you won't likely be paying $1-10 for them that they sat at for like 20 years. Enjoy now paying $15 for that one, $25 for another, $30 on the next. It sucks the life out of it when the prices get excessive that you don't want to touch the stock because it's just toxic.

[marurun]

Prices have gone up because there is demand. These prices don’t exist in a bubble. The cheap games are the ones that were either packed in with every system and produced gang busters or the games nobody wants like a lot of the sports games. And those are still cheap. Games that people want to own are either owned or being sold at prices that reflect that people want them. It’s not like we are they few and proud. Collecting these things is hugely common now.

[Tanooki]

Yeah there's no bubble like many talked about for years hoping it would fall off like some beanie baby crazy. It's just an ever expanding swamp. You either get caught in it, or don't. And if you don't, you just walk away or find creative ways to get around it with kits, emulation, or whatever else works.

But because of how things go, pulling back to the question, it makes hunting excessively harder to do, impossible in some areas, so it's easy to miss when you really could have fun finding all sorts of stuff and just exploring the mystery of it all. Those days are done.

[isiolia]

But because of how things go, pulling back to the question, it makes hunting excessively harder to do, impossible in some areas, so it's easy to miss when you really could have fun finding all sorts of stuff and just exploring the mystery of it all. Those days are done.

As mentioned earlier, if you're bargain hunting, things are a moving target. Deals are had when people are dumping stuff - stores clearing out stock, people trading in their old stuff for new, etc. Right now, as noted, that's going to pertain a lot more to 7th gen consoles than others, and prices on them are generally low. However, I do feel like even that's a little past it's peak - local supply (well, Gamestop for me) seems a bit sparse, and low stock online has prices creeping up. It was better a couple years back or so, but really, it's cyclical. We'll probably end up having the retail purge of those systems soon enough, then more 8th gen stuff slide down to the $10 and later $5 bins.

[Tanooki]

Yeah everything is in waves that's for certain, and also another moving target would be to have lots of targets and jump between them all so you have more chance of hitting something (shotgun effect.) I like looking for G1 Transformers locally, more often than not it won't happen, but the second to the last time I went I snapped up the other half of a dinosaur mini casette (Overkill(T-Rex) to the other I already had, and also for $20 the decepticon clones with 3 of 4 accessory guns (full set worth $50 so I bought the missing gun for $9 shipped.) You never know. I look for whatever, but mostly with my lesser interest I just stick unfortunately to stuff that's more sparse around here in variety which are Gameboy games and Gamecube. NES/SNES I have kits for so I'm over that mess but I price watch stuff still to keep up on it.

Each area is unique, mine, most go to half price or more so the book and music exchange(s) local small chain. Problem is, both unless slipping up are over ebay so that's a wash. For me it's the spring and fall neighborhood garage sales and the flea market outside stuff if it happens, and then the daily goodwill check before picking the kid up from school. Doing that routine works, lots of opportunities to see things, get some walking in, and maybe get lucky once in awhile.

[Jagosaurus]

I miss it in a way. This isn't a "look what I found" thread but I'll circle back around. Found:
- Lunar Eternal Blue on PS1 in a stack of CDs at a thirft
- Sealed N64 Ken Griffy Jr at a Goodwill
- E.G.G. on DC among CDs at Half Price Books (was with JoeAwesome)
- Random FamiCom clone at a thrift (was with JoeAwesome)
- 50+ NES carts at a pawn shop for about $75

That's off the top of my head. Know there were others. I miss that "wow, I got this for cheap!" factor on all those... but did I really? I was actually probably spending twice as much overall on gas & games back then. It was also eating up A LOT of time. Time I wasn't spending playing games. Time I wasn't spending with my family. I primarily play games at night when kiddos are asleep versus "hunting" takes place during the days.

I was buying up $4 PS2 games that were maybe $8 on ebay. I was snagging $5 CIB Genesis games that were $9 on ebay. These were games I had interest in playing but likely wouldn't have bought otherwise. I just couldn't pass up "the deal" which lead to more spending.

Getting a good deal and selling extras is still a big part of the hobby to me. I'm not driving all over SETX and killing hours and hours for it anymore though.

For example (non retro), I just found a well priced Xbox 360 250 GB E model. It was about 15-20% lower than ebay & included a 180 day warranty. I only had to drive about 10 minutes to grab it. I enjoyed the feeling of getting a solid deal. If I had to drive across Houston, I wouldn't have done it. The gas money, time, & effort involved just aren't worth it to me for the average deal these days. Maybe I'm at a different place in life where I cherish my free time a bit more than saving $20 on a 360 or $4 off a PS2 game

So yeah, finding those games listed above was a good time, but with deals like that drying up its just not worth the time sink & gas money to me personally these days.

[JoeAwesome]

Jag, the stuff I got around town was good, but it took miles, money and time. Worth it, but only if you don't value your time so much.

Nowadays -if- I go to the thrift stores or flea markets, I go with no expectations, other than to get walking exercise. Almost always, that's exactly what happens.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I really missed out on the "good" hunting times, but overall I can't say I miss it, simply because I never personally had good experiences and had limited options to begin with. I've been internet trawling as long as I've been a gamer, and that's what generally works for me. I've gotten a few good pickups through that, like Cubivore and Harvest Moon 64.