HoshiChiri

I've been having a hard time trying to figure out the right way to say my thoughts on resellers/flippers, so I'm just gonna spout words and hope it comes out right. I don't think resellers & flippers are that bad... in fact, I kind of like them. It's easy to say 'oh, horrible jerks, buying up all the bargains so I can't get any- get a real job!' It doesn't really work like that, though. Think about it- when was the last time you gave a good, valuable game to a thrift store? I know I don't- I'd sell them here. Or give them to friends, or co-workers, or give them away here. Then I'd trade them for credit at my 2 favorite local shops. Only if, after all of that, I still had games would the thrift store come into play. That's never happened. People rarely donate good games. People rarely donate old games (we have them all already!). In order to make a living flipping games, you'd have to hit places every day, as soon as the new stuff came out. If a store puts stuff out multiple times a day, then you have to be there multiple times a day. Then, you have to take good pictures for your online listings, figure out postage, deal with flaky non paying bidders & ebay claims... if you have a brick and mortar store, you have to hope the things you found sell fast enough to pay your bills, your rent, and payroll for the person(s) running your store while you hunt for more stock. That sounds like a proper job to me. Quite frankly, if someone can't handle working a typical 9-to-5 (and some people really can't), I'd rather they run around flipping thrift store tat over taking an unemployment check and buying booze to drink the day away. When you get right down to it, it does benefit us- if, say, I want a copy of Survival Kids for my Game Boy Color collection. I can spend weeks/months/years hitting all the pawn and thrift stores, bugging people at yard sales, and otherwise dumping a huge amount of time into the hunt... or I can pay someone on Ebay who did the legwork $30 and spend my time playing instead. I've never once seen that game in the wild. Hell, I decided I'd pick up an original Xbox if I found one cheap out there- and I cant even do that! I've seen 2 in the 'wild' in the last year for under $40. One didn't eject, one didn't load discs. If something as common as an original Xbox is hard to find in working condition, what chance does something good have? Even when games were common, it was largely a bunch of madden titles on the shelf. Basically, yes, it does suck that the hunt is largely over. I wish I could find something good every few weeks again instead of once or twice a year. But unless people both stop paying decent money for decent retro, and start donating everything to their thrift of choice, we aren't going back. We just have to adjust how we find games- stalking ebay for under-the-radar auctions, checking the fair game stores that do turn up, hitting up pawn shops for last-gen goodies before people decide they care about them. All while still, occasionally, hitting up the thrift stores & yard sales for that rare find.

I second the storage boxes- they aren't expensive, you can probably find some stuff on sale/clearance (it's prime turnover season for craft stores). Sterilite has a wonderful modular drawer line I use for controllers, but should convert to most systems quite easily. (The amazon link is only for a 4 pack, but the individual drawers are available at Wal-mart and Target.) You could also look into shelf risers, like for dishes. That'll give you a 'stack' that doesn't touch. Provided you can find a multi-tier, anyway- normally it's just 1 shelf.

Currently 12, with plans for a few more. Nothing pre-crash is in the permanent setup. I have an a/b switcher mounted to the side of my shelving setup, effectively giving me an easy access coaxial port to plug the older stuff into as needed. Only the 'a' port is open for that, the 'b' side has the NES toploader hooked up. Aside from that, I have one of those 8-in hong kong switchers that are so readily available these days (mine's branded mt-viki, but I don't think there's really a difference). Composite only, so it's kinda crappy picture, but it's what works for my current setup. I also have a Kinivo 5-in HDMI switch for the newer stuff. The only thing that's given me any sort of grief via ground loop is the PS3, which has a mighty hum- the problem seems to be less my setup and more our ground itself, as moving the system to another tv with just a DVD player plugged in had the same hum. It's plugged into an adapter that eliminates the ground (all my systems are plugged into surge protectors, so it does still have some protection.) As for the rat's nest nest of wires... a few months ago, I took the entire setup out, dusted, and carefully put everything back while tying off the extra cable length. I chose my shelving based on it's open design, so I ran the cables up and down the support bars. End result? Very little visible cabling, no rat's nest. Although, removing anything would still be a chore, as I'd have to follow the wires, un-doing and re-doing the Velcro bundles along the way, to get any cables back out with ruining the whole thing.

Yeah, I really didn't think I'd get that lucky. Oh well. Someday, saturn... someday...

Dangit! I wasn't fast enough! Umm... dibs if it falls through?

Model 2 Genesis, Model 2 CD, the RF shield is present. No mods or anything, and quite frankly the CD probably needs some work- it does that loud grind for a couple seconds on bootup thing sometimes. Also pictured are two of my obitsu dolls, since I took this for that blog. I never could get a good shot, it's not a well lit shelf.

Excactly- while your odds are slightly better of finding stuff for Wii/Gamecube/PS2/Xbox in a thrift store are slightly higher right now, people don't really donate games anymore. Why would you when you can get a couple bucks from a used game shop? I know I have a couple game shops, several friends, and the market here that get games before a thrift store enters the picture. It's like going to a thrift store for a diamond necklace... no one's going to willingly give that away. You may get lucky and find one someone thought was costume jewelry, but it's not likely. The pickings are definitely getting slimmer, but right now the best deals from a price perspective are Wii games at Gamestop- they have an incentive to clear our slow-moving inventory to make room for new systems (or, more likely, more pop vinyl figures). You can find some decent stuff cheap- I got a complete copy of De Blob for less than a dollar before Christmas. It's kind of a weird mental exercise- you have to look for the thing no one wants, figure out what's good to have there, and then wait 10-15 years to see how you did.

This, plus the good ol' "genuinely went under the radar" item. Last summer I went to a goodwill with my sister, and spotted a set of the 3 main D&D rulebooks in the case. I think they wanted $30 or $40 for the set? I texted my fiancé, and he said to pick them up because he could use loaner set for his siblings. I did notice they covers were different than his- black with sliver art- but I didn't think much about it until we got to the car. I opened one to flip through and check the pages, and a letter from WOTC fell out that thanked you for buying the leather-bound special edition books. Turns out they normally sell for between $50-75 each. Needless to say, those aren't the loaner set. As far as gaming stuff goes, it's really best from a cost standpoint to focus on the lowest interest systems. Right now is a good time for Wii, for example. The hardest part of that is, they are 'low interest'- it can be hard to get excited about the stuff that's cheap. Hype really does mess with your head sometimes.

It's certainly the most recognizable theme music of all time... but best? I don't know. I'm partial to the Guardian Legend myself. Or Lightening Force. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKr35iNATrc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo6WpkvYESw

I only actively collected cases/manuals for disc-based games, and handhelds from the DS-era on. This is largely due to the MASSIVE expense of trying to have them for the older games- quite often getting a 'complete' copy means doubling the price. For some systems, like the Genesis and Master system, I have the space & the cases are great, so I get complete when I can. For others, like the Atari 2600, space is a big issue, so I skip it. I do find myself often coming here to check the manuals for new acquisitions I don't know how to play... but it's never something I can't remember going back to it later, so I don't mind. I bring up cases because the completionist in me likes to keep everything related to a game as together as feasibly possible, so if I have a manual, I usually hunt down a case (and vice-versa.) When I graduated from high school, I got a nice planner that came in a fairly heavy plastic box that just so happens to be the same height/length of a sega CD box. The loose manuals and papers I do have go in there, and stay with the sega CD games. Considering I have a few pack-ins for that whose case design won't allow the manuals to ever be kept with the games, it seems like a good solution. I LOATHE that so many new games don't come with manuals. From a function standpoint, it kinda-sorta makes sense on the Vita- the interface for that allows very easy access to the on-game manual. But on other systems, like the PS4? It's awful. There's nothing intuitive about accessing an on-disc manual, you're stuck with nothing to interact with while the inevitable 20 minutes to an hour of startup patch downloads happen... not to mention the sheer difficulty of shopping for any version of the game other than shrinkwrapped brand-new. I've only had my PS4 a few months, and I've already spent way too much time standing in a gamestop, a used case in my hand, looking up Ebay listings on my phone to see if there's a manual I should have. I do have to give props to Square Enix... they added 'physical manual' to the info box on the back of their games, so it's far easier to check on that.

I just picked up the European version from Portugal myself. It's in English, but there's very little to be translated so I doubt you'll see much else. My advice for game hunting- hit the foreign markets. You'll find better/cheaper options outside the US. For example, I just won a Yahoo Japan auction for Pokémon Breeder Mini CIB, for $1400 yen. After deputy fees and shipping to the US (by far the most expensive part) I suspect to out no more than $40 for it. Good luck!

If you're into it, the Dreamcast is one of the most hackable systems out there... for example, running an import game just requires popping in a boot disc, no console mods nessecary. A very good choice if you want to make it do what it ain't supposed to do.

Me too... this honestly just makes me sad, I'd probably shell out for a Microvision with a nice, new screen.

Oh, you're NOT allowed to 'have dibs' if you volunteer. Of the people I've known who work/worked in thrift, that's a constant. If they're setting stuff aside while volunteering, they are breaking policy. The real question is, does immediate management know, or care? I've known a person or two who broke policy when no one was looking (not gonna lie, that's how I got my dreamcast keyboard way back when).

I don't think much of these 'shame' things.... no one will ever have to play/watch/read/listen to everything. Even the really good stuff. I don't think it's worth feeling oh-so-inadequate for having the very human problem of needing to stop and sleep at some point in your day. Plus, just because something is an acclaimed masterpiece doesn't mean it'll appeal to you. But, since the point here is to share a "shame", I'll just pick something that might surprise people... let's see... ah, I know. I've owned it for years, but I've never played Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. How's THAT for "shame"?

That is a big plus for me as well- I've never used anything to catalog my games that wasn't missing at least 1 title I wanted to add. Being able to do so- and have it be added instantly, as opposed to going into some queue to maybe, possibly get added in later- is a big plus. I genuinely don't get the fascination with shelf view. Oh boy, a digital facsimile of what my stuff might look like in a Blockbuster video... yay? As long as images are available for speedy browsing, I don't see the need to clutter things up with shelf and wallpaper graphics. I like stats. The old club IGN page from years ago had the best stats... stuff like approximated value, what publisher/system/genre you had the most games of, average review score. I'd much rather see the 'pie chart' page over at vgcollect get some new values added to it than anything else.

I found out about this 2 days too late to buy in... I totally would have. I love the idea of a zapper game that doesn't require a CRT, so I can make use of it. Plus a new party game is always a good thing in my circle. As far as the concept being 'morbid'... is it really worse than what we normally do in videogames? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMSHU6Q-2cY

I get the feeling his wife told him to offload the 'stupid videogames' and this is his way of being able to tell her no one would buy them. Seriously though- who do these people think they're selling to? No collector would buy a lot like this, they'd have the common stuff already & just want to cherry-pick the titles they need. No reseller in their right mind would pay the price you want (average of $47-48 per game). Even if they money wasn't an issue, the logisitics of moving all of it would be a nightmare. I don't get it. Also, why do so many of these big game collections have such terrible setups for the actual consoles? Looks like he's got like 4 piled on top of each other next to a 13 inch off brand tv... how do you actually play in a setup like that?

This- on the very, VERY rare occasion I left a system leave my possession, I'm always more concerned about where it's going that what I'm getting out of it. The two systems I had that didn't work/broke on me were taken to used game stores, in the hopes that their parts could bring another system to life. When I got my PS2 back in high school, I gave away my PS1 to a friend. Same thing when I got my Game Boy Color (kind of regret getting rid of the grey brick, though.) Last year I sold my spare NES set (toaster, 2 controllers, zapper & hookups) to a co-worker for $35. About half the going price on Ebay, but I was promised it was going to her husband's new game room. I'm told after she surprised him with it, she'd catch him peeking in the box and giggling (they had no games/shelf to set it up on right away.) That's good enough for me!

I can basically confirm this is the case. I have a sister-in-law working in a local thrift store. Their place doesn't have a set "put-out" time for new stuff. Once they have a full load of freshly tagged items, it goes to the floor. They quite literally have people camping in the store, open to close, jumping every new cart that comes out. As I've been told, items for the lockup case tend to be watched by security, who will throw out anyone who jumps the cart prior to the items going into the case. As for the rest of the store? Wheel out cart to correct area, run to protect yourself, come back when the piranha are done feeding and put away what's left. (Also, never leave your cart unsupervised. If you have anything good, it'll get taken.) As for the quality of service... most thrift stores run job-training programs. Which means anyone who isn't a register jockey is probably someone who literally can't hold a job anywhere else. These are the people sister-in-law manages in the back. Imagine someone who, in the middle of their shift, pulls out their phone, calls their kid/friend, and tells their boss (their boss!) that it's an emergency call- we don't know where we're going for dinner tonight! I am not making this up, these are things that happen. She really wants out, but she's helping mom deal with her dad's medical care, and the thrift store does offer ridiculously flexible scheduling. I've long since given up on finding thrift deals. On the one hand, I live just south of Mr. MetalJesus, so there's enough gaming around that it does roll into the thrift shops. On the other, there's enough people after it that anything really good is gone instantly. I've opted for the 'stalk ebay and hope you get lucky' method of deal hunting... it's not great.

Up, down, left, right, hold A and push start on the title screen. One of the few codes I've never forgotten. Aladdin on the Genesis had a code where you could, at any point, pause and enter a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a... and finish the stage. Straight-up instant complete. I remember finding a demo kiosk at Disneyland, and doing that over and over again. Beat the game in 5ish minutes, I think. There was a very confused man who came to see the credits rolling as I walked away.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. Heck, this is my handheld collection: The bling is important, dammit!

Bump again, since Lunar 2 has been acquired & the list has been updated