The Video Game Critic

I know eBay (and sometimes Goodwill) is a good source of old games/hardware (if you're careful), but do any of you get games 'locally', from some sort of local/regional stores?  I can't find anything older than a few N64/PS1 games locally (at EB/Gamestop).

On a business trip I found a regional (I guess) chain of 'Gameco' stores in Kansas City, and they had stuff going all the way back to Odyssey2/Atari VCS days.   Needless to say, I wished I had brought a bigger carry-on bag.

Also, are there any trustworthy online stores that you've dealt with that sell 'retro' stuff?

- Mark

I get ALL of my retro stuff on-line.  A bunch of the sites are listed on my links page, and if you search on google you'll find dozens of others.

I used to pick up a lot of Genesis and NES games for cheap at the local Funcolands, but those stores closed.

I've never had any luck at the local thrift shops.

I reccomend you use Amazon.coms used section. It is suprising how many titles there are from their used sellers. ALthough sometimes they are out of date and very expensive. But I'd say its far superior to Ebay, for theres no pesky bidding.

Gamespots for the most part quit selling Dreamcast and older games.  Recently the gamespot my location had a buy 1 get 1 free than later 75 percent off on N64 dreamcast and PSX games.  They actually got some rare games like Tomba and Einhander  so I took advantage.  Overall, I probably bought about 50 games this way and after all the sales, paid about 2-3 dollar a peice.

Most people don't know this but every game crazy, the gamestore next to most Hollywood Videos sells n64, dreamcast, saturn, and PSx games for 3 to 10 dollars.  I got probably another 20 games this way.  But ofcourse, their collection is probably gone by now.

Other than that, I probably buy my games online at amazon and ebay.  Generally amazon because its easier, but you can get some good deals on ebay if you look hard enough.  But the deal is shipping kills the sales generally, so you will want to buy bigger collections to offset the shipping.   But that creates another problem, a lot of the game collections have a bunch of crap.

[QUOTE=Edward M]
Most people don't know this but every game crazy, the gamestore next to most Hollywood Videos sells n64, dreamcast, saturn, and PSx games for 3 to 10 dollars. 



[/QUOTE]


Whoops, that should say 3 for 10, meaning you can buy 3 games for 10 dollars.

I don't know why you guys buy games at amazon marketplace.  The games are WAY overpriced. 

Personally if you take more than a week looking for a game, ebay yields the best results.  If you hate bidding go to half.com.  Never ever pay the inflated awful prices that "marketplace sellers" try to hack. 

I do all my shopping online and between the sites listed in The Critics "Links" section and ebay, I'm pretty much covered.  Rarely do I go to amazon used section.  New games they sometimes have great deals, but finding a rare classic is gonna cost you an arm and leg.

[QUOTE=JustLikeHeaven]I don't know why you guys buy games at amazon marketplace.  The games are WAY overpriced. 

Personally if you take more than a week looking for a game, ebay yields the best results.  If you hate bidding go to half.com.  Never ever pay the inflated awful prices that "marketplace sellers" try to hack. 

I do all my shopping online and between the sites listed in The Critics "Links" section and ebay, I'm pretty much covered.  Rarely do I go to amazon used section.  New games they sometimes have great deals, but finding a rare classic is gonna cost you an arm and leg.
[/QUOTE]

Some games are expensive there, but you gotta search amazon and you will find deals.  I just found Chu Chu rocket for 3$ plus 3 dollars shipping.

Locally, we have a goodwill and Salvation army. The latter I've only found used computers at (good prices though, $5 for a boxed Vic-20!) , Goodwill you never know-I saw nothing there for months then last week I grabbed THE JUNGLE BOOK for Genesis for 99 cents! We have a little store , coleys comics, I've mentioned quite often, that I TEST systems/games for. They don't carry anything pre-16 bit though. And in our states capital city, Augusta, there is a small store "Used Video Games" (imaginative name!) that I've found Gunstar heroes and Raiden collection/PSX at. You never know what a small tore might have; on two occasions a local RITE AID drug store was blowing out GBA games for $15. Not super cheap but they had some good ones!

Another good place to look is The Video Game Connection.  It is a local chain in Cleveland, Ohio, but also has a pretty solid web presence:

http://www.videogameconnection.com

They do not list everything they have in their stores on the site, but I have had allot of success shooting an email to the owner for certain selections and he always replys back within 1 day (and usually comes through for me).