The games have dried up
So a few years ago I really got back into retro gamming purchasing a genesis and a few games I had as a Kid, I was content with this for a short while upon discovering more and more games I had missed out on the collecting bug bit hard last year, things were good everyhing was something new and unseen and games seemed abundant.
However for the past 8 months to a year Genesis games "in the wild" have all but virtually dried up, nothing new at our local retro shop in many many months and not a thing this year at garage sales or local classifide ads... is it sad that at my meager 100 CIB genesis games has more titles and good tiles then my local retro shop has in stock? they dosnt even have a loose cart of sonic 2! Just a handfull of leftovers and sport games that have been picked over time and again..
I wouldn't say our town is very big nor very small with about 75,000 residents give or take. With the local scene all but dead am I forced to ebay for the rest of my collection or is this just a lull to wait out? Curious as to what you guys might think or past experiences! Thanks
However for the past 8 months to a year Genesis games "in the wild" have all but virtually dried up, nothing new at our local retro shop in many many months and not a thing this year at garage sales or local classifide ads... is it sad that at my meager 100 CIB genesis games has more titles and good tiles then my local retro shop has in stock? they dosnt even have a loose cart of sonic 2! Just a handfull of leftovers and sport games that have been picked over time and again..
I wouldn't say our town is very big nor very small with about 75,000 residents give or take. With the local scene all but dead am I forced to ebay for the rest of my collection or is this just a lull to wait out? Curious as to what you guys might think or past experiences! Thanks
Comments
Originally posted by: nieds16
I've noticed those Nintendo collectors just hunting everything down and buyhing to resell so maybe that's where my sega stuff is going.
I think there is a bit of this going on, but you know, I think more of it is that there is a crapton of stock sitting in basement stores all over the place. Within my state alone, I've been to 4 or 5 places that had floor to ceiling racks of Genesis games - literally hundreds if not thousands of titles. The problem is, 90% is sports games and copies of Jurassic Park. Eventually they just get thrown away. For those few gems you do find, a lot of them time they are ex-rentals and faded or water damaged. Still, I think there are bargains to be had aplenty if you dig around enough.
That said, it does look like certain titles are inching upwards rapidly in value as people try to complete collections or as people buy and resell.
I used to all sorts of games from thrift stores now I don't even see any sport games anymore.
one of my local stores had all the following at the same time:
phillips cd-i
boxed turbo duo
neo geo + boxed/CIB AES games
boxed jaguar
boxed jaguar CD
boxed/loose/CIB/sealed jaguar games
loose 3d0
loose vetrex
CIB lucienne's quest for the 3do
an absolute shit ton of boxed/CIB/sealed 3do games
plus all the other retro stuff: consoles and games galore
Originally posted by: dballin
That is not the case anywhere I've been in CT, RI, or MA. Outside of MAGFest booths, I've never seen a Neo Geo game in person. I've come across jaguar games once. Never seen a CDi game. I've seen one boxed 3DO game (Demolition Man for those curious). Somewhat local store actually had a boxed Vectrex which I was so close to buying, but the box was so water damaged it was near worthless. I wanted a Vectrex so bad too.
even though my local stores have a lot of solid items to pick from, they are pretty much 100% up to snuff with ebay prices. you most likely won't "catch them slipping," as the game chasers would say. just for the record, i have absolutely no problem with brick and mortar stores charging ebay prices. i even support it.
i think they wanted 600 for the boxed turbo duo, which probably explains why it has been sitting in the store for the past couple weeks.
The look from my end is, the Genesis is popular, but just that many people are really aware of how much value their games have, and they want the ebay prices from local stores, which they just can't really give. They have to make their money. Another thing is that the Genesis has a lot of weird titles that are uncommon and rare (i've noticed a lot of pre-Sonic era games are a hell of a lot harder to come by). This coming from someone who works at one of these retro shops. On the plus side, up around here, Sega collecting is pretty unpopular, so we have a lot of inventory (We have 1 boxed and 2 loose Castlevania: Bloodlines). They do sell, it just takes time, but we don't like to just Ebay stuff.
Originally posted by: Gunstarheroes
I live in upstate New York, and we actually have a decent retro game scene (So much so we are having a retro game convention in October)
The look from my end is, the Genesis is popular, but just that many people are really aware of how much value their games have, and they want the ebay prices from local stores, which they just can't really give. They have to make their money. Another thing is that the Genesis has a lot of weird titles that are uncommon and rare (i've noticed a lot of pre-Sonic era games are a hell of a lot harder to come by). This coming from someone who works at one of these retro shops. On the plus side, up around here, Sega collecting is pretty unpopular, so we have a lot of inventory (We have 1 boxed and 2 loose Castlevania: Bloodlines). They do sell, it just takes time, but we don't like to just Ebay stuff.
What is this convention in October that you speak of?
Originally posted by: sparksterz
Originally posted by: Gunstarheroes
I live in upstate New York, and we actually have a decent retro game scene (So much so we are having a retro game convention in October)
The look from my end is, the Genesis is popular, but just that many people are really aware of how much value their games have, and they want the ebay prices from local stores, which they just can't really give. They have to make their money. Another thing is that the Genesis has a lot of weird titles that are uncommon and rare (i've noticed a lot of pre-Sonic era games are a hell of a lot harder to come by). This coming from someone who works at one of these retro shops. On the plus side, up around here, Sega collecting is pretty unpopular, so we have a lot of inventory (We have 1 boxed and 2 loose Castlevania: Bloodlines). They do sell, it just takes time, but we don't like to just Ebay stuff.
What is this convention in October that you speak of?
http://retrogamecon.com/, though the facebook tends to be more up to date on annoucements (which should happen this week). I know we will be vending with a few other local stores. There is also a large fighting game tournament going on as well
Originally posted by: MysticalNinja
Haha its because all the sega stuff from Ontario goes in my room!
LOL!!!!!!
Originally posted by: MissionFailed
Its an abundance of Genesis games here they are just so high. Craigslist mostly but a few goodwill will pop up some sports titles. More N64 stuff and the newer stuff. Just try searching a little further than were u are. Some times u have to take a chance and drive to remote places. I did this and scored big on some factory sealed Genesis games.
I live in Pennsylvania as well and Genesis stuff does seem to be easier to find. I found a guy getting rid of about 17-18 games, many of which were Koei strategy games, and I got them all for $30. Another guy bought out the stock of a retro game store and I grabbed a ton of fairly common boxed games for Genesis and SMS, some with manuals. I paid less than $1.50 per game and walked away with two boxes full.
The good thing about having been a Sega kid is that it's not as sought after as Nintendo so I just look for Sega stuff and the NES is kind of a fun little side project for me where I just grab whatever I don't have yet and don't care about rarity. The other good thing is I've noticed Sega "hunters" aren't as rabid as Nintendo people. NES chasers will pay top dollar for anything worthwhile, whereas Sega stuff there will be some things that slip through the cracks for relatively cheap prices in auctions and such.
Still have a helluva time finding anything Sega CD, Saturn, and 32X. I haven't found a Saturn game all summer save for a VF2 disc only that I passed on because it had gunk on it and I already had the game CIB......