Friend coming asking where to buy psx games

The new trader looks horrible. Two floors only for DVD's and adult Windows games?

Although it wasn't that bright even when I was there 3,5 years ago. Only one floor with retro and only a small selection, also far from bargains for the biggest part. The best stuff I found at Super Potato, Retro Friends and in Nakano. Sofmap had quite a lot too, but Osaka was a blast compared to most of Akihabara. It's unbeaten in terms of game centers and athmosphere though.

 

There are still three Trader stores...

 

As for retro stuff, this Trader is now gone. It moved everything into Trader Honkan on the Chuodoori (2nd floor). Quite a lot of stuff to be found there now. I would say it's bigger than the place before.

 

I bought an excellent condition CIB Duo-RX there for 10,000yen a few days before they cleared out Trader 2. Everything was heavily discounted. I'm pretty sure the Duo-RX was more than 50% off.

 

Mee too, I purchased like 10 pce games which I didn't had at that time for 50% off. Was a good chance to push my countdown a little bit toward the "end"

 

If you guys aren't good friends, take him to Super Potato.
If you guys are great friends, take him to Liberty.
If you guys are best friends, take him to a kanteidan store.

 

Liberty has almost nothing good left. And most of it is not in good condition. But it's still one of the cheapest.

Kanteidan mostly do not have good stuff anymore, or should I better say good and cheap stuff. Since they have found out how akiba works, their prices seeming to be even higher for the more wanted stuff (I have seen a loose Darius Alpha for whooping 120'000ens).

I would take my best friend to Retro Friends. It's just the most sympathetic store in akiba. If i want give my best friend best quality, I would take him to Galaxy in Nakano.

 

Go to a Kanteidan store Tohoku, especially Iwate, Akita, Yamagata and Miyagi. They still have treasures for a low price. They don't have the overhead that stores in Tokyo do. Ishikawa Prefecture is also a great place for this. Nagano and Niigata are hit-or-miss, but mostly hit. I am constantly keeping an eye on price trends at these stores, especially the two Mandai Shoten stores in Sendai, Miyagi. I have driven to all kanteidan stores in Tohoku, Kanto, and Chubu. Kanto stores are pretty much not worth the effort.

If you go to a Kanteidan store anywhere in the vicinity of Tokyo (Chiba, Saitama, Tochigi, etc. things won't be cheap.

 

Given that most people tend to visit Tokyo or Kyoto, you would have to want to see something really badly up north to travel up there and the cost in fares to travel would negate any saving you would probably make. I have been to Akita though as it does have a fantastic sake industry, although a Shinkansen would have cost 15,000 one way and take 4 hours, but I made good use of an 18-kippu ticket (which meant the fare was just over 2000 yen) and it took about 14 hours with several stops and had a nice meal in Yamagata.

 

I agree, but I always went on these treasure hunting adventures for the fun of it. Seeing parts of Japan I would otherwise not see. I have learned of different things while on my all-night road trips deep into the inaka. Finding rare things buried in the back of a Kanteidan store are just a plus. I think I have seen every inch of Tohoku over the years doing this. I just get into my car and go. Find cheap love hotels to sleep in along the way, they are a dime-a-dozen along the major ippan roads.

With a 4-day flex JR Rail Pass, you can save a lot. I couldn't get a JR pass with a work visa, but I just had my friends who visit from Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States buy a rail pass order for me under their name. Nobody ever checks to see if the name on the passport matches the one the pass. I even have my sister do it because nobody knows foreign names' gender. 99.9% of the time, people think I am 100% Japanese-Japanese, so I have to do an exaggerated "stupid gaijin" routine when I approach the gate. This is one of the rare times it does not help to blend in so well.