+cvga Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 What do you think is the best city to buy classic games? I just came back from Phoenix and only had a couple of free hours but stopped at Fallout Games, Bookman's, and the AZ Collector's Market. Fallout Games has an amazing selection of nearly everything. So many systems and lots and lots of boxed games. They even had a Coke Wins. Wish I could have visited all of their locations. Bookman's had a whole wall of older Nintendo (NES, gameboy, etc) but little Atari related stuff. I didn't see any video games at AZ Collector's but they did have some cool Pac-man stuff. Overall, I'm guessing Phoenix is a pretty good place to be a collector. What's your opinion of Phoenix or other cities? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Anytime you can go somewhere new is great. Grab those business cards and call ahead before you go next time. They may have stuff you want in storage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I can tell you right now the best city isn't Washington DC- even during the late 90's and early 2000's the pickings were slim compared to what collectors in other areas were posting about. Not to say that we have bad pickings here- we're just not the most fertile ground for finds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manoau2002 Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 It would likely be a big city with a high age demographic in their thirties and fourties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGQuarterly Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I haven't been to *that* many cities, but I do get to go to Phoenix a couple of times per year for work. And when I do, I make sure to hit up a couple of Bookman's locations. I just recently heard about Fallout Games, so will be going there as well next time. Portland, OR has some stores that sell retrogames, but since that's the hipster capital of the universe, you have to expect to pay out the nose. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Is this thread limited to American cities? If not, I recommend Edmonton, Alberta. The main store is Nextwave Games (one store in the city, two more out in the suburbs). There is also Game City, with multiple mall locations around the city. Prices are not cheap, but the selection is decent. There are also a few single-location/independent stores (these tend to open and close with some frequency). Honourable mention goes to Games, Music, Inc. in Red Deer. Prices vary wildly, but the selection is very impressive. Alas, there are no more specialist video game shops here in Calgary -- just the usual assortment of picked-over thrifts and grungy pawn shops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Whoops, upon first glance at the heading, thought there was a store called Best City and they were merging with/purchasing a store called Classic Games. Agree with Manoau2002 though. Chicagoland used to be great for thrifting, but now that most people are internet "savvy", suppose you're a lot less likely to find any real deals anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertJets Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I'll give a shout out to my own town, Albuquerque. Despite being a smaller city I think we do well when it comes to older games. The two big players when it comes to retro stuff are Noble Collectibles (which also carries a lot of DVDs and comics) and Gamers Anonoymous. My pref is for GA over Noble, in my experience the staff at the two GA stores is heads and shoulders above Noble. But both stores don't have much in the pre-NES stuff. There is another place, Doc's Video Games and Comics that I have not been to in ages, despite it being walking distance from my place. And for whatever reason there is a large number of thrift shops, antique, indoor flea market type places. I haven't spent much time checking them out. But there are all relatively close to each other and could be easily hit up in a single morning or afternoon. There is also a local chain called Hastings, similar to Bookman's, that carries used games of more current systems. I've been to the Fallout Games in Tempe about a year ago and I liked it a lot. Good selection and the older Atari/Inty/Colecovision stuff was actually in good shape and there was more than just a million copies of Combat and Pac Man. Last time I was in Denver in October I made it around to a few places. I went to both of the Doc's locations in Aurora. I liked the one on Illif better, picked up a copy of HERO for the A8 for 12 bucks and chatted up the older guy running the store (perhaps it was Doc himself). The store on Illif had some more esoteric stuff, including a very minty looking 1200XL CIB. There was another place that was further west on Illif, Gameforce that I went to, plus they had another location on Parker in Denver proper. The location on Illif I thought was a little better, the one on Parker seemed very NES/SNES heavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gredler Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I haven't been to *that* many cities, but I do get to go to Phoenix a couple of times per year for work. And when I do, I make sure to hit up a couple of Bookman's locations. I just recently heard about Fallout Games, so will be going there as well next time. Portland, OR has some stores that sell retrogames, but since that's the hipster capital of the universe, you have to expect to pay out the nose. I am in San Diego, and our hipster population also inflates the prices at retro stores. "yes, thay copy of mystic defender with no box or manual is properlly marked at 30, and contra is 60." err.. ok, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I really want to follow this post. I live in Dallas which isn't terrible. We actually have a retail Pinball specialty store, but it is very expensive even for pinball. We have a Play N Trade that I've never been to and another local shop called FX. Craigslist is very active here and you could do a decent deal every month if you don't mind A LOT of duplicates etc. Austin has the hipster thing but has several locations of a store called "Game Over" which has nice staff and a good selection. They also offer video game original art and participate in the SxSW art and software fests. Austin also has Pinballz which I still haven't been to but could be one of the best arcades in the country. There is also a certain someone who runs the AA website who lives nearby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyperboy Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I've done the best in Pittsburgh, Be it good timing or good luck I always find lots of deals when I go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gredler Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Marc from ClassicGameRoom is from that area and always says how he got games for a couple bucks, then I go try and find it and it's 5-10 on ebay (+shipping) and 10-20 in the stores here in San Diego. The Burgh looks like the spot! I've done the best in Pittsburgh, Be it good timing or good luck I always find lots of deals when I go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGQuarterly Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I am in San Diego, and our hipster population also inflates the prices at retro stores. "yes, thay copy of mystic defender with no box or manual is properlly marked at 30, and contra is 60." err.. ok, thanks! Last time I went to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, there was a seller there peddling CIB NES titles. I seem to recall him asking $200 for Contra. All of his prices were on that same ridiculous level. Makes me sooo glad that I I pretty much bought what I wanted back before retrogaming was the "cool" thing to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGameCollector Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Seattle, WA is pretty mediocre. Too many resellers live here. Every once in a while you get lucky but you'd be hard pressed to find anything legitimately rare in the wild other than in an actual game store. People here are pretty tech savvy so most people know what they have and what it's worth. The best deals I have found only happened when stores went out of business. Then and only then did I catch a great deal. Right now, yard sales still mainly consist of Gamecubes, Xboxes and PS2's, just like Value Village and Goodwill. Finding NES and SNES stuff at every yard sale has disappeared a long time ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrogamer64 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Edmonton, Alberta. Where games from around the two countries and sometimes the world end up. Many small game stores, a chain store, and many many pawn shops a whole two roads devoted to them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrogamer64 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Is this thread limited to American cities? If not, I recommend Edmonton, Alberta. The main store is Nextwave Games (one store in the city, two more out in the suburbs). There is also Game City, with multiple mall locations around the city. Prices are not cheap, but the selection is decent. There are also a few single-location/independent stores (these tend to open and close with some frequency). Honourable mention goes to Games, Music, Inc. in Red Deer. Prices vary wildly, but the selection is very impressive. Alas, there are no more specialist video game shops here in Calgary -- just the usual assortment of picked-over thrifts and grungy pawn shops. Yes dude! Someone agrees with me yeah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falconhood Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Well, it's NOT Raleigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manoau2002 Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Edmonton, Alberta. Where games from around the two countries and sometimes the world end up. Many small game stores, a chain store, and many many pawn shops a whole two roads devoted to them! Are there lots of intellivision, colecovision, and vectrex games in edmonton? It might be worth the trip if there are. (that and a trip to the west edmonton mall) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 Are there lots of intellivision, colecovision, and vectrex games in edmonton? It might be worth the trip if there are. (that and a trip to the west edmonton mall) I have not lived there for a few years, but (generally) the answer is no. Atari, NES, and SNES are reasonably easy to find at retro game shops; thrift shops will sometimes have these, and almost always Xbox and PS 2 sports games. Some of the shops will have Intellivision games and I saw them occasionally (like one per year) in thrift shops. I have never seen any Colecovision games AT ALL, and only once I saw a clearly damaged Vectrex for $25 at Value Village. Play-Me Games at the West Edmonton Mall closed a few years ago. The nearest retro game store would be in Jasper Place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 Had some free time in Louisville today. I stopped at a place called Toy Crazy Collectibles. They have a bunch of older games but the store is so cramped it's difficult to move around. In addition the games were all in display cases so I couldn't see everything they had or the prices. There were plastic bins marked Atari and Colecovision but I couldn't get to them. I did pick up an Atari 7800 at a Peddler's Village Flea Market for $25. If it cleans up well and works I'm going to have it modded for either composite or component video. Any recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Had some free time in Louisville today. I stopped at a place called Toy Crazy Collectibles. They have a bunch of older games but the store is so cramped it's difficult to move around. In addition the games were all in display cases so I couldn't see everything they had or the prices. There were plastic bins marked Atari and Colecovision but I couldn't get to them. I did pick up an Atari 7800 at a Peddler's Village Flea Market for $25. If it cleans up well and works I'm going to have it modded for either composite or component video. Any recommendations? The recommendation I have is that if you possibly can go back and check those bins you didn't get into. The one single rule of hunting is to leave no stone unturned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted May 18, 2014 Author Share Posted May 18, 2014 The recommendation I have is that if you possibly can go back and check those bins you didn't get into. The one single rule of hunting is to leave no stone unturned. I know. It just wasn't practical with the lack of space and the number of people there. There were several bins. They were labeled something like Atari A-D, Atari E-J, Atari K-N, etc but the bin that caught my eye was "Best Atari and Colecovision". I really wanted to see what was in there. I'm pretty certain they knew what they had and it would have been priced accordingly. I left it for someone else to 'discover'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookem Posted May 19, 2014 Share Posted May 19, 2014 Austin has the hipster thing but has several locations of a store called "Game Over" which has nice staff and a good selection. They also offer video game original art and participate in the SxSW art and software fests. Austin also has Pinballz which I still haven't been to but could be one of the best arcades in the country. There is also a certain someone who runs the AA website who lives nearby. Also a certain someone who wrote "Ready Player One" living here... Austin is great city for classic/retro gaming, but forget about scoring any great thrift finds. It's all in people's collections or at stores like Game Over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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