I traveled from over two hours away to pick up a $20 Craigslist item and I was determined to make it worth it by hitting up local game stores and flea markets. When I was finding them all closed or out of business, I started calling ahead. That's when I spoke to Comics Plus and they told me that they had lots of retro 8/16-bit stuff and were very much open for business. "Great! I'll be right there. Thanks!"

When I got there the person I spoke with was helping someone with special needs who had arrived at the same time as us. This left the owner, who was not immediately distinguishable from the regulars sitting at tables around tha area. He did not get up from his card game to help us even when we wondered out-loud about where we could find what we wanted, so we never found the 8/16-bit game stuff. We also expressed our desire to play their Killer Instinct 2 arcade machine and he completely ignored us. "Man! I would sure love to play some Killer Instinct 2, but all the machines are turned off." No response. Later, we directly asked if they ever turn the machines on and they he said "yes" without telling us when or if it might be possible to play. Great job responding to our interest there, guy!

Anyway, the closest we came to finding the 8/16-bit stuff was when we came across large mostly empty tables each with a Retron 5 + TV and one with an NES + TV instead. The tables were clearly set up to be customer-accessible for customers to play, though nothing was actually plugged in. My brother looked under the *publicly accessible table* and pointed out two original and one mini SNES consoles. All three had new AV cables and "No Power Cord" labels on them, which tells me that these were intended for sale (the Retron 5 was the demo station).

Almost as soon as we notice the SNES consoles the owner FINALLY spoke to us saying "Mind telling me why you're digging through MY drawer?" I suppressed the urge to say anything but I was thinking "Huh?! How about asking if you can help us before you bite our heads off when we resort to looking around ourselves?!" Instead, my brother apologized and said he thought they were for sale. The man responded saying "Well, they aren't. They're for customer demo." Well? Guess what: WE WERE POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS! I wanted to say "How about asking us what we are interested in and pointing us in the right direction?!

I also don't think they were really "for customer demo" because of the labels and because they wouldn't need more than one. Why would they need to tell themselves that they don't have power cords and how would they demo anything without one?! Also, they had Retron 5 consoles set up for that. It's clear that this guy wasn't even interested in helping us so we didn't bother to call him out on that. Instead, we were apologetic and exchanged about three polite lines from across the room (he never left his card game) before I realized that he was just continuing to be an unapologetic jerk no matter what we said. He also wasn't about to get up and help us no matter what we asked.

I no longer cared about what I missed out on and I was ready to leave despite having only just arrived. Before leaving, I had to say something: "Why did you have to snap at us like a jackass instead of offering to help?" Of course, he didn't answer but responded to say that there were children there... as if "jackass" were a curse word. Sure, "jackass" is not nice/flattering (that was the intention), but it's not vulgar. It means "stubborn/unruly donkey," while the vulgar word refers to a posterior. Even so, I apologized without defending my use of the word and continued, saying "If you had actually got up to service your customers we wouldn't have had to look around and help ourselves." Nothing even remotely vulgar. I was clearly fishing for an apology. He responded "I'm going to ask you to leave." I told him that I came in there from over two hours away expecting to spend about $300 and that he should not expect everyone to be familiar with his store and what was off limits. These were just tables set up for customers to use in the middle of the room and not locking display cases or anything like that.

Though he never actually asked us to leave, we assumed that he is one of those ignorant people who equates [stating future intent to ask] with [actually asking] (it must sound smarter to him), so we left on our own. My write up doesn't begin to describe just how polite we actually were, even when he started becoming the comical stereotype of an anti-social, abrasive, and rude comic book shop owner. I went back to the flea market and spent that money there instead (a vendor who was closed when we left before).

PS: If you're in the area, Go to One Stop Retro Shop at Smiley's Flea Market instead. MUCH more pleasant experience, even with 98° weather.

Sounds like a terrible experience. I would probably post it here though about your experience so people actively traveling through there later may see it. http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess...

More like:

I saw a big table in the middle of the area with an NES, a couple of Retron 5 systems, and a few LCD TVs (nothing is connected). I looked around a bit, wondering where all the games are, I figure they're obviously in the customer-accessible drawers. Card/comic shops very often have their inventory in drawers for customers to flip through the comics / cards / games / whatever. Right below the NES, I checked one (and only 1) drawer, which seemingly confirms that is where the other retro game stuff is. I see 3 SNES systems in a row (2 classic, 1 mini), each neatly arranged with a new-in-box AV cable and each with a display card that says "no power cord" (presumably to let you know you'll need to buy a cord to go with it). The boxed AV cables looked like Retrobit brand or something similar. Newer stuff. It was clearly stock to sell. Without looking in the drawer, you wouldn't even know they had a real SNES because they had none of them out on the table.

Across the room, I hear a voice from someone I assumed was just a regular customer playing cards: "Mind telling me why you're going through my drawers?"

I replied: "I thought this is where you keep your inventory of retro game stuff." My assumption seemed to have been confirmed immediately by the only drawer I looked in.

He said: Well it's not. [something else about customer demos]."

That's when my brother said something like "Mind telling me why you have to be an ass about it?"

Anyway, yeah. The guy was abrasive and seemingly didn't want to sell any games. Kinda like the comic book guy who doesn't want to sell any comics.

You're right. That's where I actually composed it but then I thought that it might be shooting myself in the foot if it gets them added to the list.  
 

Wow. Yeah fuck that guy. Id never be in that area but if I were I know where not to go. Edit: if you're ever in Toronto Ontario, particularly Scarborough. Don't go to game swap, that place blows. Go to retro game Bros five minutes away, way better

That's messed up. If I'm ever in the area, I'll be sure to skip that place.

Man, that encounter was so bad it almost made me forget about another vendor at Smiley's Flea Market. I don't know the shop's name but he's the biggest game vendor there and has a shop in the air-conditioned building.

Long story short: Pick something because it's a good price and this super-slow dude raises the prices for anything under PriceCharting values, no matter how minor the difference! He does this AFTER the customer has selected it based on the stated price. THAT'S NOT COOL. I understand that he doesn't want to get ripped off, but since when has PriceCharting been the minimum for ALL titles, popular or not?!

His building was closed when I went by at 7:45AM. I went by again at 10:45AM and found no sign that it had ever been open or that he was coming back. I left wondering what kind of cool stuff I was missing out on. After my Craigslist meet and my Comics Plus incident, I stubbornly came back to the flea market and was happy to see that this vendor was now open.

First, he's not negotiable AT ALL and almost all of his prices are ridiculous. He was constantly trying to see what I was doing on my phone (checking my list) while listening to every word exchanged privately between my brother and I. For example, Ichinisan wanted to verify with me how much our sealed Pokemon Puzzle League closed for last year because this guy was charging 3x as much for a loose copy. When I told him and expressed surprise, the vendor interrupted to say that he has to pay $300 rent a month. Not only is that COMPLETELY irrelevant to what a game is worth, but so what? ALL vendors have expenses. Even personal sales on eBay need to cover expenses to be worth it.

Even though almost everything was GROSSLY over-priced, there were several things that seemed right and a few that were probably worth it. I picked out several things from the display case and asked to see a few more because their prices weren't visible. He took about 5 minutes to pull out each one from the stack but he was old and his hands were shaky (clearly due to some condition; I didn't complain). I gave him advice: you might want to put only one of each title in the display case and keep the others locked up in a more accessible case. That way you often will not have to reach in to pull games from the middle of a huge stack." He just said "I have a game shop to run." Uhh, yeah. That's why I was giving you advice. :/

Compounding him taking 3-5 minutes to pull each game out (not exaggerating), he would completely stop and start looking something up on his phone after each game. My knees were KILLING me from leaning on his concrete floor telling him "fourth one up from this column; first gray cart; sitting on top of three black carts; no, that's one of the black ones; I need the first gray one from the bottom." I swear, I repeated all that 10x for one game and had just as much trouble with others, so I was very frustrated when he'd just leave me straining down there to do whatever he was doing with each one. After about the third one I couldn't believe 20mins had passed and yet he had the nerve to say that I should pay him for all the time this was taking! D: I mean, complaining about having to retrieve the merch people want to buy from you is pretty bad business, but I shrugged it off, smiled, and said "well, they gotta come out at some point to be sold, right?"

A short time later I realized that the reason he was taking so much time between pulls was that he was on PriceCharting looking up prices and RE-STICKERING EVERY SINGLE GAME I SELECTED! He had a sign that said he reserved the right to change prices, which is BS because no one can just reserve the right to bait and switch. We had to go through an hour's worth of effort to pull out barely anything and now he's basically PriceCharting: The Videogame Store for everything?! Why don't I just buy it off price-charting?!

I haggled about how I wanted Return of the Joker for Mr. Gimmick so the value of RotJ is not so relevant to me (yeah, not the best logic on my part). I pointed out that he had another copy of Arkista's Ring stickered for the same price as before he changed this one, etc. I managed to get most things for the sticker price but had to meet him in the middle for some of the others. What got me was when he called them his lower prices "anomalies" if the price came up higher on PC than he had stickered them for, even if it was clearly a recent spike of only a few bucks on a $20 game. The only reason he seemed willing to do what he did (let me have them near sticker price) was because he was trying to close. He told me "I don't mean to rush you but I have to be closed by X:XX." I had to stifle some internal laughter because he was the reason this was taking forever. I walked in, picked 8 games I wanted, and it took him a freakin' HOUR to get them ready for me. Actually, he rung up 7 and forgot to get the 8th until I said something!

Well, I can TOTALLY see how he has trouble paying his $300 rent when it takes him that long to sell to an eager buyer... and he only has two days a week to sell... and spends half of the day closed... and he might as well not even price games since anything appearing to be worth it gets changed to a price you could get it for any day of the week right in front of your eyes... and almost everything else is at least DOUBLE PriceCharting prices.

Good luck to him though. Clearly, he needs it.

Are you trying to visit all stores in GA?  

I wish I had the time.   The three closest shops closed unexpectedly within a month's time and now I do feel like I need to visit as many as I can before it's too late.  

Man both experiences sound absolutely terrible. Why bother pricing stuff if you're just going to look everything up at that moment anyway? I can see why paying the $300 vendor bill was such a big deal to him when I am sure he loses money every week with his poor attitude and salesmanship. If I had the time to kill I would have expressed more interest in even more hard to get to games, but you were doing him a favor anyway seeing as he used your interest to reprice every game along the way. I more then likely would have said I don't have time for this and walked out. Some people just have no business running a business.

As for the first comic guy, he would have received alot more colorful language from me besides "jackass"  

Why do you even bother? I understand your points but it seems those guys were either having a bad day or sick of customers who go on their phones or are feeling the itch to tell them how to run their shops. Granted they are bulshit shopowners from what you described, but your perserverance can be itchy too.

Stay away from Max Video Games in Woodstock, GA if you're ever near there. They offer the same service and mess up your games by breaking them upon resurfacing them. I learned that the hard way, they destroyed my copy of Smash Bros. Melee and the owner is the same unhelpful jackass you discribed.
 

As someone who has worked at flea markets and pop-up retailers, don't expect customer service. You seem to think everyone is entitled to treat potential customers with respect and bank on their every whim because they're selling things and you're interested in buying. The sad fact is that these are people with 0... Z E R O.. expectations of building a continuous customer base. They are there to sell their wares to whoever will buy. They're not retailers seeking return business and they're not worried if you feel inconvenienced. That being said, while I do agree their behavior is a bit crass, from what I read I would like to analyze this from another perspective: the seller.

As for the guy with the demo units, it sounds like he was just being cautious of his merchandise. It appears no one asked him before going through his drawer so ofcourse he's going to be a bit on edge. So I really wouldn't blame him for being an ass, but wouldn't call him out on it either.

The other seller sounds like he might have been running that shop because he can't work a stable job. After all, it sounds like his shaky hands were not being very productive. Also, not to sound like a dick, but if you had issues with his attitude and him changing prices, then you should have left. The fact that you stayed and bought his merch was enough for him to get away with that behavior. Sure he may have had good deals, hell he may have had Stadium Events for a steal, but you supported his business and shit attitude. Also, any game reseller shop I've ever been in has stacks upon stacks of carts in the main case. This drives business. If they kept one of each in the case and the rest in the back, then they wouldn't look stocked and ready to sell.

Also, it's never good on the buyer's part to suggest to a seller how to do business. You might be paying for their next meal, but you're coming off as much of an ass as the shit seller, and some sellers will probably be quick to deny you service. So just because they might be a bad seller, doesn't mean you can be a bad buyer in return. Not saying you are, but it seems by your complaints that you had ample opportunity to take control of the situation.

"Perserverance?" I didn't even finish looking in the display cases, much less, the rest of the store. He/I only had time to get 7 when I was interested in much more. What I did was best-case scenario for any vendor: I was ready to buy it; all he had to do was pull it out and ring me up. It blew my mind because I've never had a shop owner complain that I wanted to buy their things. I've never heard of a shop owner who thinks selling his wares is too much trouble and would rather not sell them.

I announced exactly what I was doing on my phone "Let me see if I have that one on my list... nope! Not on my list. I'll take it." A customer who buys something simply because he doesn't already have it? Sounds like exactly the kind of customer he should want! Worst thing he heard from me was "Hmm. I might have bought that one earlier today so it won't be on my list yet. I'll pass, but I will get this one." His reaction was to look over my shoulder constantly.

His reputation procedes him online too. I read about this exact guy in a Nintendo LAge or Reddit thread when I was looking for game shops near Warner Robins.

The only complaint he heard from me was a painful grunt where I stood up and told my brother that my knees were killing me. I didn't complain to him about his store or prices or practices even once. I even paid more when he raised the prices on everything. I was a DREAM customer for this guy. His defensive "rent" response was when I answered my brother's question earlier, which he should not have even been listening to. The guy had thousands in the display cases alone and had the nerve to complain about the effort to get them out before I had even selected 4 (only got 7 in the end).

I just heard a vendor say yesterday that you should never resurface GameCube games because it usually destroys them.   

I believe there are resurfacing machines with smaller disk slots for gamecube games. At least this is what one store told me, but i have never tried it.

Comics Plus was not at the flea market. The guy who was at the flea market was actually inside an indoor mall area (Smiley's Flea Market actually distinguishes it from the flea market as the air-conditioned ""Smiley's Mall."). He says that he's been there 17.5 years, rings you up on a register, and charges tax, so it's safe to say that it's really a storefront.

As for being there to sell his wares to whoever will buy with no concern for repeat business: SURE DIDN'T SEEM SO! He knew I wasn't coming back because I told him: I told him how glad I was that he was open on my return trip because I lived over two hours away and would likely never be here again. I was probably the easiest buyer he's ever had and yet he put up a lot of resistance and complained that I wanted to buy his things!

I go to flea markets and yard sales every single weekend I have off so I am perfectly familiar with how they operate. You're right: a lot of these people do this because they'd never cut it if they had to answer to a boss and satisfy regular clientele. They want to be their own boss specifically so they can do what they want and not take crap from anyone. I get that, but believe me when I tell you that this guy was WAY out of line.

I never told him how to run his shop. I am VERY mindful about that. It blew my mind when he actually complained about having to pull games out that a customer wanted to buy. Rather than express shock at this, the nicest way I could respond was by sympathizing while suggesting how he could make things easier for himself. I apologized and sympathized repeatedly for each game I picked without a hint of complaint despite my hidden shock/disbelief.

There were THOUSANDS of unorganized NES games stacked from the bottom to the top all the way against the glass and hundreds (possibly thousands) more behind them that no one could see making it even harder for him to get games from the front. A display case that conceals games and prevents you from selling even the games customers can see?! It was borderline ridiculous and not the typical display you are imagining. Removing dupes would have gone a long way to making it the kind of display case you're thinking of. These were just locking customers away from browsing and making it almost impossible to sell.

For the comic shop guy: we made it clear what we were looking for and he made no attempt to help. This was not a locked drawer or a display case. This was not even a fixture for merchandise. My job for a major retailer is to spot clients who look like they need help and then dispatch a sales associate/manager/security. We have similar situation probably 50 times a week. Even when it's a situation we think requires security or additional scrutiny, we do not start with a snarky accusation (usually ask how we can help; listen to the response). In a situation like that, we've already failed by not engaging the client and offering help when they clearly needed it, but it happens even where I work and I already know how our response would have been: "I see you've found out demo units. Would you like to see our related merchandise?" He caused the situation by neglecting his clients and then responded to his own failure in the absolute worst way possible.

It was a table for a customer to sit at exclusively like it was a desk. We literally could have sat in the chair without an issue. As the eye in the sky, we approach at least 50 people a week

I think I would have flipped out on that vendor at Smiley's Flea Market. Either that or laughed in his face.

I thought everyone on the east coast were jackasses.

I'm still gna go there.

Awwwwww...  

Don't say I didn't warn ya!  
 

Never said the comic shop was at the flea market, but yeah, he could have acted better. You are, however, comparing his establishment to yours, his is a small business, probably has one other employee and makes probably 10-20 sales a day. Yours is likely a retail chain or a large well established local business, likely with a large workforce with managers and security with probably sales in the hundreds per day. You can't expect the comic shop guy to care, especially with your passive-aggressive way of coaxing an apology for giving you the shit treatment. Did you even tell him someone said you sold videogames and you were interested in buying? If you did, it wasn't implied.

As for the guy at the flea market, he's just a douche shop owner, no argument, but yeah I have seen local game stores with glass cases so full of NES stacks it looks like a huge grey brick. You just go up and ask to look at them and they pull out a stack at a time and you pick what you want. It sucks, but that's how they display inventory, and it saves room in the back.

All in all, it does seem you had a tough break and ended up spending your time and money dealing with douchebags. I'll give you props for that, cause I wouldn't have given them a word nor dime.

And the west coast. And... Everyone inbetween!