Your Best Local Game Store - What's It Like?

[DuManchu]

All I have is two gamestops, and odd little places like Vintage Stock, but their prices are actually WORSE than gamestop. They seem to have a bare minimum price on old games. Whereas viewtiful joe is $3 at gamestop, but it was $13 here.

I find that Vintage Stock has decent prices, either that or I have no idea what good prices are.

I just picked up Solar Jetman (NES) and Warhawk CIB (PS1) for $2 and $7 respectively (from the VS on Metcalf).

There's also this little hole-in-the-wall called Gameco (though it may be a chain) that usually has a fantastic selection but their prices are right in line with eBay save for a handful of games (I picked up "Mario is Missing" for NES for $5). Not many steals and/or deals to be had there but it's a good place to find games you want to play NOW at a _somewhat_ reasonable price.

[IcKy99]

well in a 5 mile perimiter from my house there is 2 gamestops, 1 game crazy, and 1 play n trade.

play n trade actually carries, genny, saturn, dc, snes, n64 so i tend to go there for old games with fair prices no saturn game is over 15$

[kingdomheights777]

I have a friend who runs play n trade and he calls me weekly for anything that comes in that is really rare or interesting, and of course we have gamestop, same thing there. The manager calls me for anyone trying to trade in old stuff and i just pay them cash for it.

[corn619]

I'm forunate I have 5 Gamestops within 15 to mins away, 2 Gamecrazys 5 mins away, Play n Trade 10 min away and countless pawnshops and Fleamarkets within 20 mins for me. I should be dirt poor, thank god for willpower.

[TheyCallMeTheSwede]

Over here in western CT, we used to have like 6 gamestops withing 20 miles and one good pawn shop... but I helped a guy open a Play N trade Franchise, and so far everyone who comes in wants to live there. We even have 2 ex-gamestop employees working here. We have some rare games, a buncha retro, and you can try any game in the store before you buy it. How sweet is that? I only with someone would trade in a Turbografx Duo, or a Neo Geo. Then itll be perfect.

I've heard our prices are mostly a lot cheaper than GS, and trade in's are better valued, but of course we have the few people who come in and are like, "What?? you want how much for that xbox 360?? That pawn shop had it for 30 bucks"...........

hmmm, seems like I should check that place out, since I am from the west side of Connecticut.

[superlarz]

I have a small chain called Game Store, which carries everything from the early 70s to PS3. Sometimes they have a lot in stock, sometimes they dont have anything good. Prices are all over the place, systems and controllers are always over priced, but sometimes you can find sales, in Nov they had an unopened copy of Virtua Racer for $1.

Also have a Play N Trade, but they dont ever seem to have anything in stock

Have a store called game magic, always over priced, never has any rare things, but does gave a ton of more common things.

There are also several thrift shops, they are always hit or miss with tons of game stuff or none at all.

[shallowgamer]

We have a local place that I kinda like... at least I did like until Friday when I stopped in the owner was restocking the PS3, XBOX360, and WiiPlay on his shelf with items he just purchased at Target. He even used the Target receipt to price the items...

Sadly, this is one of the easier ways for independents to offer new hardware at their stores. Distributors don't like dealing with low volume (non-chain) stores. Back in the day, our local game xchanges couldn't get xboxes from distributors. They claimed that Microsoft was dealing directly with chain stores.

[ott0bot]

Here in phoenix we have a ton of choices, and for vintage games we have some great places.

My favorite used game store hands down is Bookman's. They sell used everying, music, books, movies, games, toys, electronics...etc. They inventory is based on trade in's only so somtimes there is a dry spell, but they are one of the only places that gives decent trade and cash for vintage games. Some of there prices are a bit high, like all NES games are usually 4 or 6 bucks, and ps1 rpg's can be inflated, but other than that they are awesome. That coupled with giving you trade credit for anything known to man makes it pretty easy to trade what you want for. I've found everything from a mint complete 10 dollar copy of Lunar II, 30 for Valkyrie Profile, 12 for MUSHA(cart), and so many great Saturn and genesis titles. There SEGA stuff is priced really fair, the Nintendo stuff can be so-so. Now this is true about the store near my work in Phoenix, but the one in Mesa usually has much higher prices. Though I've found some deals there too.

There are a couple little mom n pops that are cool too, but some are really overpriced. TrX2 is decent (by 2 genesis titles get one free last week) as is Rockstar Records.

For chains I prefer GameCrazy over gamestop, there always 3-5 bucks cheaped than most Gamestops around here, and ther staff are much more friendly. No a big fan of the fact that store inventory has alot of rentals, but over all I like it better. There are like 6 Play n Trades, here too but all are very far away. The only one I visited was super over priced on vintage stuff and new games. Not a big fan.

[Unleaded Logic]

We have a place here called Moe's Games. Its a pretty decent shop and has tons of stuff. I'm actually helping the owner move his store online.

He is abit pricey, but I've given him honest feedback on the prices and admits that he hasn't kept up with it and will get abit competitive.

[Ack]

2 Gamestops, literally across the street from each other. And I also live close to a Replays, with another Replays in nearby Northport. Replays is an odd place...their pricing is way off, in either direction (I've found $50 games for $20 there, and $1.00 games for $12.00), and they never clean anything so I have to cleanse any games I pick up from there. Still, it's the best I've got, and it's the only store in the area that carries SNES games, so I have to make do.