They can charge whatever they want.

Point I was trying to make earlier is with online being such an ease of use thing, why would anyone bother going to their store if you can just point and click and get something shipped right to your door instead?

There has to be an incentive rather then just getting it "in hand" that very minute. With gas prices being what they are, the "well you save on shipping!" argument is even more invalid, especially if the person is an adult that values their time and doesn't want to waste an hour driving to pay retail online prices.

If you're driving for an hour (assuming your talking about 1 way), that's usually about 40 to 50 miles, so a round trip will cost around $10 to $12. Even if you bought 3 games, you'd be balanced out on shipping versus gas, except you'd get to play the games instantly, test them out, and even make a new connection as opposed to ebay, which you'll have to wait, test the game out, deal with a potentially bad seller, and if you send it back for a refund, you're generally out of the shipping.

Now, depending on how much you make, gas will be a factor, but if gas is that big of a factor, people shouldn't be buying games anyway lol. If you're driving that far away for a retro store, find something else to do in the area as well - grab lunch, hunt around for yard sales, etc. The whole driving & gas thing is a moot point.

we arent saying they cant sell it for that. Im all about them be allowed to get max value for their stuff. We are saying in a local town setting 99 percent of the time you will not get those kinds of prices for obscure rare games. We are saying he should just take that game off the sales floor and sell it online rather than letting it sit for years on a shelf while maybe 1-2 people a week look at it and say hey thats rare. too pricey for me though.

Didn't say driving for an hour is a guarantee, but used it as point regarding time spent out and about. You can pretty much chalk any trip that isn't right down the street from you in this day in age up to about 30 minutes to an hour.

If you're an adult and do a 40+ hour work week, then your spare time is probably important to you, (even more so if you have a family or friends you want to see now and then if not as much as possible). I love game hunting, but I only go when I'm not working, it presents itself, or Sunday mornings before work (during the summer). I'm not married but live with my girlfriend, have a full time job, live fairly close to my family, and occasionally get together with some of my sisters friends for pen + paper RPG stuff... and although I wouldn't say I'm swamped... even I tend to treasure the spare time I do get.

If you or anyone suggests that it's worth my time to spend some of that spare time to go pay retail at a game store when I can easily get something for retail online and not have to worry about traffic/time spent/what I want not being there... well then yeah, I will order online everytime. Not only that, but flip it around: the ease of having something shipped thus saving my valuable time... and the nature of online auctions being so "protected" nowadays trump the "in hands" argument a retail-priced gamestore could argue makes them worth visiting.

Actually the handful of gamestores in my area that charge retail... I never bother going and have never spent any $ there, while the places that deal with you on prices... I've spent lots of $. And I cannot be alone in that logic.

It's funny: I wonder if there ever will be a game hunting wiki style website that has "definitions" of the terminology we all banter back and forth.

The "in the wild" stuff earlier in this (very hijacked) thread in particular is fascinating to think about considering the different viewpoints on what it constitutes.

Oh, I get what you're saying with your time and whatnot. For me, my spare time is spent rarely playing games and more on working on stuff that makes me $$, so I'd prefer to just cut to the chase and go on ebay or on here. I do go to the retro stores in the area from time to time, and they're generally more expensive than ebay (once in a while there will be something reasonably priced, or priced to where I don't mind paying), but I don't make it a sole trip to just go there. Friends and I will make plans and if we're in the area of a shop, we'll stop in. Everyone has their own things they'd do, so I'm not knocking anyone for their trips to game shops or whatever, but even if it's an hour each direction or hour round trip, try to plan something with your significant other or friends so that way you're not wasting a trip, ya know?

If I had to drive 2 hours to pick up a ducktales 2 cart only for $30, I'd honestly probably just pass as I'd have the potential to lose $200+ with what I do outside of my main job (of 40+ hours a week). That's me though, not you or anyone else. I know people who'd drive 4 hours each way to save $20 - $30 on a game.

I own a game store and I can tell you right now that people do come in and buy the rare games. Sold a copy of Little Samson for $500, for instance. Yeah, some things don't sell that well in a store (CIB cart games, for instance) whereas other things sell better, but as a store owner I'd never price something cheap just b/c I think it won't sell in the store or take it off the sales floor. Stuff like Hagane, even in that shape, is the kind of game that draws people in and gets them excited. We take pride in having rare titles and attract collectors by having things like Little Samson, Snow Bros, Sculptor's Cut, etc etc. Heck, if you want to severely pay through the nose for something, we'll even sell you Speed Racer/Mountain Bike Rally. Yes we have it, but it's mostly display only since getting another copy would involve stupid amounts of money and more than a little luck. (We've actually got a full run of SNES and N64 U.S. releases, but don't put them out since we'd have to replace whatever sold.)

I would have picked up little samson for that price and put it on my ebay store. 500 is not a bad deal now. Id have resold that and had it as a showcase item.

also Little Samson is one of the most popular well known rare games

At first I was like "well, that makes sense" but the more I think about it I don't understand it. What's the benefit of spending the business' money on inventory that you don't move?

exactly. keep the popular stuff in the store and sell the other for big time online. If someone comes in looking for rare carts tell them you have some on ebay and will pull them for them if they want to buy it, and then you can show them the games. That way you can "brag" about having rare items and you can move them. Rare carts at a local store are niche. Yes there are many people that come in and look at them. Usually isnt the main reason they came in but real retro game collectors coming in are pretty niche.  I worked at a gamestore for quite a while so I have a feel of running a store that has retro games. Most people that come in for retro games are looking for a system and mario kart/donkey kong and occasionally an rpg title or something they played as a kid. Most people arent coming in looking for a rare "hagane" cart. and if they do you can say hey man I got some rare games online that you can buy at a discount here if you want to see them. 


mobius it sounds like your retro stuff in your store is more of a collection than something you are trying to run as a business and actually make money on.

Eh, I just didn't bother explaining it at the time. We actually do special orders for customers on games we don't have, and if we get someone asking for an SNES or N64 game, we will sell the one we have on hand and order another copy online (so the customer doesn't have to wait for it to arrive). The reason we don't just put those two collections out is that 1) it IS the personal collection of one of the owners; 2) it's something that brings people in, knowing we have every game for those two very popular systems; and 3) we loan it out to SRGE for the game room, so they too can say "we have every game available for the SNES and N64."

The store was started by three collectors, and we've pretty much kept most of our collection out of the store, but some things are too cool to not want to either display (Speed Racer/MBR) or semi-use. A good chunk of my collection actually was sold in the store when we first started and didn't have a lot of inventory. Now the store is self-sustaining so we don't need to put our personal collections up for sale.

Oh, okay. So basically it's not really store inventory in the first place.

This game IMO is rare,
but not as rare as the current market makes it out to be. 

This game is one of those titles that fell victim of being hoarded. I remember having the same idea of hoarding them (wish i did lol) But never acted on it. This game was nothing more then unoridinary.
I remember sometime in about 2006 -07 ish looking on ebay and seeing at least 5 to 12 copies of this game with the lowest BIN being $14 and the highest being $35 or so. I remember thinking "" hmm this is a cool game, i should stock up on a few copies for the future and maybe others will realize how cool this game is" well i never did and kept spending my cash on stuff i didnt already have. Which reminds me my buddy got this game mint, i mean mint mint back when it was nothing. i was at his house last week and just see it sitting on his shelf in no case or nothing with all his other snes games. Im like "yea u know that game is selling for retarded money now, he's like yea whats it up to now like a few hundred. Im like yep, and he was like "ok ....yea i dont even remember where i got it, probably a ebay BIN" lol they are out there. lol

Fast fortward to the NA Hype Train, game gets reviewed on youtube, someone all of a sudden says OMG it was a rental exclusive, and boom you got 10 collectors sitting out there with 3 and more copies of this cart. GUARANTEED PEOPLE. They were available on amazon and all of a sudden every copy vanished in one day. I talked to a collector not long ago who bought 45 copies of the subscriber edition NP mag 285. This stuff happens all the time, and this game is a prime example.

Anyways IMO if you pay or trade more then $130 for that horrendous cart, it is a bad move IMO
If any game is ready for a crash in the market ......its this one

Trust me!

I remember hearing about someone who would buy up any copy of Fun N Games he came across b/c "it's a rare game I'm going to manipulate the market by owning every copy!" Cut to today and damn if I don't wish I'd followed his advice.

Happens all the time and mostly in the shadows, mainly cause its like a feeling of guilt if you admit it. Plus its kept a secret so you can slowly liquidate them under the radar for top dollar lol. Happens in any hobby though. 

Ok, seems like bunch of dumb rattle....the end of story what? Did you buy it, trade it or what?

he already said he bought it for a cheaper price earlier burried in the thread

Cool thanks, and what was the price?

i think he said 150

Haven't purchased it yet, but I have a deal with the store owner, who is going to keep it for me until next week - when I will purchase it for $150. So,you could say it's on 'layaway', so to speak.

Id buy it everyday for 150 in any condition. Nice job

Yeah 150$ for a Hagane (if it's a legit and not a pirate copy, you should double check if you can by opening it!), is a very good price.

If I came across one at that price I'd snag it as well.

Not bad for $150, but that's about as much as I would pay for it in that condition (I am currently looking for it). I would also make a custom cart for it (nice and fresh with an alt design), but obviously hang on to the original one with the torn label as suggested by NA members in a thread I had about custom labels. This is a title I am holding out for though because I believe it is one of those carts that could easily slip through the cracks at a random sellers table. There are definitely still people out there that sell games without doing the old eBay price check before they do. Anyway, if I saw this in front of me for $150 I would 99% buy it.

If he lists it on Amazon, it WILL sell for $250-300. Some people will pay Amazon price instead of risking being upbid/outbid on eBay. If it's cheaper than an inflated BIN, they will buy it, regardless of label damage. It might sit for a while, but even if he sold it at $250, after fees I'd guess he would get roughly $215. He might even have someone walk into the store and pay $200 for it, not knowing that they might be able to snag one on ebay for $120-170.
If he's patient, he'd sit on it. If he'd rather have cash now, he'd be wise to take $140, as it is more than he would get from eBay'ing it after the fees.
He could also take your CT-which would net him $150-200 in it's condition, I'd imagine. Retail stores have the luxury of marking things up for no reason and selling it quick because people don't want to go online.
I recently had a friend recently get excited about seeing a Mario RPG for $55 and Secret of mana for $65 in a local retro game store. I then told him he could get them online cheaper, but to hold off because i could find them for him cheaper than online.