My retro collecting pet peeves

When ordering from Japan you should always ask the seller to use a tracking number service. For light items EMS is actually cheaper than standard airmail with tracking. So anything under 3kg should be sent via EMS. It's peace of mind for once the parcel hits domestic shores.

 

Since last year, retro video games at the nearest flea market from my home became very expensive. I can't believe they're charging me 25 bucks for a game like Bubsy (i ended up buying Gumshoe for 20$)! The exact same seller used to sell games at a good price a year before. Also, they sell bootleg multis at a ridiculous price (around 200$) and i've seen games like Super Mario World go up to 40 bucks. And don't get me started about those 60$ Famicom adapters. Now if want retro games i have to go to my local Goodwill but they sell the retro stuff in less than a hour. Same thing at local Microplay. I got lucky one time when managed to buy Super Mario Bros. at Microplay for 10 bucks. At the time, they weren't selling retro games for more than 20$, even if it was something like a sealed copy of Chrono Trigger. But now they charge way too much. If anybody know where i can get retro games for real cheap in Montreal, please tell me.

 

Resellers ruin everything now. I'm sure I'll offend some people on this site, but I don't care. A world where everyone agrees is boring. Places like goodwill have begun opening their own ebay/amazon stores and just selling directly because they've caught on. If you ask me why this is, I'd say it probably doesn't help youtube is filled with hundreds of people bragging about their "goodwill" or other thrift store finds. I went to a garage/yard sale last week where the guy said he had someone drive an entire state away to snatch up his super nintendo games.

I mean, come on. I haven't found a cart in years, my area is full of people handing out business cards to sell games to them. It's quite ridiculous I need to compete against a middle aged man trying to buy a young kid's games at rock bottom prices just to resell them on ebay. It's gotten to the point it's not even worth the time investment for me to drive for 6 hours to find a few decent xbox/ps2 games for a couple bucks each, but I still manage to find the rare good deal, the thrill of the garbage-searching, like getting a like new Wii with multiple sets of controllers, 5 games, and the wi fit board for $20; this being in contrast to some guy trying to sell me a Wii covered in LITERAL DIRT for $50. Sounds like an amazing deal, but it took me weeks of hunting to find something decent. All that gas I wasted is the equalizer. And that's what pisses me off the most when I go to someone's driveway and they're trying to sell me a used, scratched up PS3 for $100. Do you think I drove around for 2 weeks so I can pay the same price, or even more, than I'd get something for online? Wii sports alone was worth like at least $10. I have no problem getting it for that price because like I told the guy, I have a use for it. Wish I could have seen the face on the reseller who probably came rushing in after me.

I have a story where I went to target because they were clearancing out copies of Animal Crossing for the Wii for $11ish dollars, so I was curious and went to the store to buy one. When I got there I no joke, saw some dude buying piles of the game. They must have had 30 copies, and he bought them all. I went to a different target and I was lucky enough to get one. Jesus Christ, man. I don't mind competing against other deal hunters, but to have to deal with jerks buying out stocks of clearance items just to sell them back to the same people interested in the games at markup is something else.

Sometimes I look up the price used games are being sold for on sites like Amazon, and I'll see pics of the cartridge sitting on someone's lap inside their vehicle, which means they literally could not wait 1 second to list that game after jacking it from some dude for a few dollars.

 

That's why I went with Japanese retro collecting people in Japan aren't dicks. They respect gaming and gamers. Plus it seems people here in the west could give two shits about the Famicom or Super Famicom. Even Japanese PS1 games are decently priced.

Oh my Kirby 3 finally arrived yesterday in Amazing condition I have no idea why it took 7 weeks to get here though.

 

Nice. RPGs are my favorite genre so collecting japanese games isn't that great for me, since I don't have any idea what's going on.
I remember playing earthbound as a rental as a kid and I didn't think the game was that great, now it costs $100+ online. I think it's like a girl/guy that isn't interested in you until you are already taken. The nerds didn't care about earthbound until it was hard to find.

 

I only want Chrono Trigger, and I have NO idea how I'm going to handle getting it. I could get the Japanese Cart, then just run the US Version through a flash Cart. I have the PS1 version so I could just not bother. But I really REALLY want Chrono Trigger. There's also the issue of getting a US Cart to play in my Japanese Super Famicom. Pass through converters aren't cheap.

 

I mean, chrono trigger has already gotten re-releases on PS1 and the DS, though the disc version is inferior. I think you can still get both brand new from square's site. You probably already know that tho. I regret as a kid trading in my secret of mana and chrono trigger, lol, but at least my super mario rpg, final fantasy iii, and lufia 2 carts survived

 

Final Fantasy III is also on my BUY IT list. I'm thinking just getting the Super Famicom Versions, dumping the roms myself and applying Translation patches then transfer over to an SD2SNES when I Finally get one.

 

I have FF3/6 on SNES, PS1, and GBA 'cause I love the game so much lol

 

If you have the PS version then just run it on a PS2 with the faster loading enabled. I never played that version extensively but as far as I've heard the long load times on the original PS were the main annoyance but if you could get over that it was fine. Same with Final Fantasy 5 and 6. I think Final Fantasy 4 from what I remember faired a lot better in the loading times.

 

I do have the PS1 versions of both Chrono Trigger and FFVI My PS3 is also my PS1.

 

Then what is the issue? Play the PS version or load it on your flash cartridge.

 

The owning the most original version in my native language thing

 

Then pony up the money. Seems like the only option. Otherwise just live with playing a ROM or the PS version.

 

I have to disagree there is a very dark side of japanese game collecting

Have you ever tried getting some of the more obsecure japanese exclusives for the snes megadrive sega saturn ps1 etc.

There are many exclusives in Japan beat em ups shoot em ups action platformers wich were never released in the west very great ones at that. Not to mention pretty much no text or even english texts for arcade like games.

Those prices are high very high in allot of cases at least hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars even when being sold in Japan.

Sure allot of expensive games in the west are (very) cheap in Japan, however over there those games are common very common.

 

I'm a Saturn owner

Need I say more?

I'm looking into buying a Cart to play Burns with it's so bad.

 

Get a modchip. It's better than a cartridge exploit. Although if that MPEG card slot ISO playing device comes out, that will be even better. I forget what its current name is now for that project.

 

I would but I have a Model 1 Saturn, which would make installation quite difficult.
I'd have bought a premodded Saturn back in 2011 had I known what I'd be dealing with now.