/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.2038949]

Hey /vr/, so the Christmas shopping season is upon us, and I was wondering, where are your best places for buying physical copies of your favorite games? Local or online.
I want to get my boyfriend a CIB copy of either Paper Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie, and I've checked out EBay and I'm just a bit worried about being ripped off. On the other hand, a local game store has some nice copies, but are FAR more spendy. What do?

[Anonymous No.2039012]

>>2038949
I honestly prefer locally, but it depends on the store in question. One here tends to have great selection, reasonable prices (low end of online with even more subtracted off of it, since a happy customer tends to be a repeat customer, and lower prices than elsewhere around here certainly help), is willing to ship between locations if another store in their small chain has a game you're looking for, and great employees. Another place here is hit and miss: they can have really high prices for common, popular titles, but reasonable to outright low ones for some of the harder to find, more niche ones. Really depends on what they've gotten in. Most other places out here charge way too much for any older games though.

>CIB copy of either Paper Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie
You're likely to pay a good bit for complete copies of those either way, as N64 boxes (as well as ones for earlier systems like the NES, SNES, Gameboy and GBC) were rather flimsy (compared to, say, the more sturdy cases of the Gamecube later), and I think people had a tendency to lose, accidentally ruin, or trash the box and manual, only keeping the game itself (not always the case, but common where I live). If buying online, make sure to ask the seller for details, get pictures of the game in question, etc.

As far as what's a reasonable price, for them, you might want to see what the average for them seems to be, or maybe check something like, I don't know, PriceCharting. Just some thoughts

[Anonymous No.2039030]

>>2039012
I prefer locally too, but the town I current live in has only two retro stores, one has NO CIB and the other has boxes and boxes.. but for a price.

Thanks for the PriceCharting thing, I didn't think of that. It said that Paper Mario goes for 60USD complete and 150USD new. I'm willing to spend up to like, 90USD on this so thats good. I'll remember what you said. Its one of his favorite nostalgic/comfy games, so I just have to get it for him cib.

[Anonymous No.2039050]

>>2039030
>I prefer locally too, but the town I current live in has only two retro stores, one has NO CIB and the other has boxes and boxes.. but for a price.
There's about four stores specializing solely in selling used games where I live, but they're all in surrounding towns since Gamestop's so heavily entrenched in my actual town that nothing that isn't a Walmart, Best Buy, or some multimedia place than does more than just games can stay in business. And of those only one's remained excellent all around; most of the other act like anything remotely good or uncommon is worth a ton, and in some cases I'm not even sure how they stay in business when I don't see much coming or going at all (that one store I like with the better prices and selection is always busy, with people constantly buying, selling, and trading during hours people are off work or out of school).

And honestly, if you can find a copy for less than that, I'd say go for it. Even if $60 if the average or "reasonable" price, that doesn't mean everyone's going to charge that much for it if you can get a bit lucky with it, or patient in looking. Just use that as an upper threshold I guess and try not to spend much more than that if possible. I mean, to use an example, a complete copy of Xenogears goes for about $30-40 where I live currently. Not too pricy, but it was something that was making me a wait a bit until I had the money to throw at it (also the fact that PS1 games tend to be easily emulatable), and I wasn't keen on spending more than that. So when I found one for $5 one day last year I sure as hell wasn't complaining (though admittedly that was a spot of patience paying off and some good luck; think I found Koudelka for $12 that day too, which wasn't a bad find either). Still, I suppose it's worth bearing in mind that if buying for a holiday or birthday you are dealing with a time crunch of sorts, so patience might not be as much of an option. Good luck though.

[PB No.2039074]

See if anyone will sell what you want in the BST section.
Or you could put together a set by finding the box and manual online and game locally, etc

[Anonymous No.2039094]

This is so not the season to buy games... or anything.

[Anonymous No.2039095]

I go to Play ' n' Trade. They deal in literally everyfuckingthing. If I don't go to them, flea markets are pretty good for finding old systems and games. If you are lucky, many vendors have no idea what they have, and might sell them off on the cheap. I never use Ebay, or Craigslist. Yardsalesite can be a win though if you take the time to dig through it.

[Anonymous No.2039101]

UPDATE:
I realized its our anniversary this weekend, so I looked around on EBay and found a CIB of Super Mario 64 for 45USD and got it. He's going to be a happy man.

>>2039074
Didn't think about that, either. Will try that for christmas.
>>2039050
Isn't Xenogears hard to come by? Or no? Because one of my friends was complaining that it was.
Good finds are few and far between, though, sadly. But lucky you, man.

[Anonymous No.2039134]

>>2039095
I miss Play'n'trade. The last local one was pretty damn good but had to lose a few years ago for a combination of reasons, more than a few stemming from how small a business they were.

>>2039101
Xenogears isn't what I'd call rare (in the US anyway, I know it was never localized in Europe or other PAL areas, and I'm not sure how common it is in, say, Canada), especially since it did get a Greatest Hits print. It's been holding it's $30-40 price tag where I live, not pricy (if were a rare game I estimate it would be seeing the same prices Tales of Destiny and Tales of Eternia/Destiny II do where I live, ranging from $80-120 depending on the game and store), but not exactly cheap either (Wild Arms 1 and 2 are pretty inexpensive, ranging from $16-25).

>Good finds are few and far between
True, but it's finds like that that remind me that patience, persistence, and a bit of luck pay off occasionally, and keep me checking back. Just have to be there for when it happens. Unfortunately the store that those really low priced finds keep happening at for me don't have much of an SNES or N64 selection (mostly just sports games for both, and not many in general), so no dice on cheap games for those systems.

[Anonymous No.2039196]

>>2039095
PnT went the way of the dodo in my area. All of them shut down except for one. That one just converted into an independent game store a few months ago (to be honest, a better one than PnT)

[Anonymous No.2039225]

>>2039196
How did the ones out were you are go under? I know how the last local one here did.
>Store at such an angle that only traffic going east can really see it.
>Owner of the corner they were on refused to let such a small business do any roadside advertising.
>Distribution companies outright refusing to send them versions of certain games even when they had plenty of preorders for them (apparently they were too small and the limited editions and such were better for them to just send to Gamestop instead).
Saw them packing up one day and asked what was up. They said they were just getting the store cleaned and would reopen in a week. Checked back a week later. Still closed. Checked back after two weeks. Still closed. Checked back a month later. Nothing happenings. Eventually they were replaced by a dry cleaners and a Gamestop moved in across the street. Shame, because they had pretty decent selection and prices.

I miss the days where there were more decent local options here for buying older games. Unfortunately when Gamestop stops carrying anything, it creates an artificial shortage in availability, since even if a game is common, few places are carrying it suddenly.

[Anonymous No.2040539]

>>2038949
I tend to support locally, because every time I've used ebay I've been ripped off. But local places are just the ones fucking me over personally when I try and buy directly from people at yard sales and the like, so it's sort of a pick your poision type deal.

I prefer buying directly from other private sellers, especially people who collect/ed this stuff, because it's usually in good condition, and I know I'm supporting someone, rather than paying the wages of a bunch of neckbeards who think they can put off living in the real world by building a clubhouse where they sell retrons and super mario beanies to kids. No offence to anyone trying to make their way in the world, but you fuckers are the ones scrounging my city for any kind of deal so you can mark it up to "what its worth" ie "what it went for on ebay one time with s&h/fees included" Also aggravating because my local places all seem to survive on Nintendo shit.

one of the reasons I'm selling all my shit tbh. Emulation and all that being what it is.

[Anonymous No.2040546]

Check eBay compare prices
Ask here
Your boyfriend is lucky the only things I ever got from girls as a gift were of the sexual persuasion
not that I could really complain