CRTGAMER wrote:
Wow, all kinds of treasures! I saved both of the pages to my PC hard drive for reference, so many games to discover and research. I see SNES Mario Picross buried in one of the pictures, a nice exclusive Japan game! I need to get a Mario Paint Mouse, wionder if it will work with it?
The door to door search might be awkward, maybe there are garage sales or even Swap meets to look out for? Not that you need to, looks like tons of retro stores and only so many days before the return flight.
I'm pretty sure you have been asked this before, maybe a shopping list from members here before your next trip. Of couse you should charge a extra for your time. You could even give PM updates to prices say five days before you leave Japan to close out any PayPal transactions before buying the additional luggage of goodies. I am definitely in if you do this, have to study all the pictures ten or twenty more times! 
That is a lot of CRT TVs left on the curb and I thought the US was bad at dumping CRTs.
If not mistaken, I think HardOff and BookOff are part of the same franchise. Here in the Southern CA, I do see a small bit of price disparity between the different locations. However, one BookOff in La La land has very high prices compared to the rest of the stores.
Curse you, I am now heading out the door to BookOff. Meager selection compared to your pictures, hopefully score a few games at least.
There are no 'swap meets' or 'garage sales' in Japan. There is the occasional flea market, but it's nothing like flea markets in the US. Door to door isn't really all that awkward. I mean, it was my wife's idea and she is Japanese. If you introduce yourself properly people are willing to hear you out. It's not like here in America where people are suspicious of you and want you off their property. I mean, Japan is a country where people leave the front doors unlocked for the mail man and salesmen just open the door and walk right in and give their sales pitch at the entrance of your house. This is only done in the countryside, though.
Those CRTs are in front of a recycler. People just didn't leave them there as garbage on the side of the road. That would be unheard of! HEh.
I am always open to shopping lists. I've done it before. I just keep a list on me and if I see something on the list, I buy it. I don't usually go out of my way to find it, it's just if I see something in passing I pick it up. It's usually something I wouldn't pick up otherwise. Just give me a list and I'll be happy to pick up whatever you're looking for if I see it.
Yes, Hard Off and Book Off are the same company. They have a lot of different "Offs". Hard Off, Book Off, Off House, Garage Off, Comp Off, Kimono Off, Mode Off, Hobby Off, JUNK HOUSE, K'S DENKI. I think that's all of them. But there are bunch of smaller chains owned by the Hard Off corporation. B-Style, B-Sports, B-Kids, etc etc. It's a big company. I see Book Offs whenever I'm in Los Angeles but I never bothered stopping by. I do go to the Book Off in Honolulu (I'm in Hawaii at least once a year) and the prices there are not bad. Maybe because they have easier access to stuff in Japan. Most of the goods at Book Off in Honolulu are imports that are just a tad bit over Japan prices.
