Play N Trade is hit and miss, they are all franchised out and most have a crap selection and horrible customer service...however, I did get lucky with one last year, it was actually the first one I ever went too. All the bad experiences came from other ones later. Anyway, there was a huge thunderstorm that day and I was searching Google for online game stores that had Atari Jaguars and it popped up a Play N Trade store about an hour away from me, I figured I'd give them a call...They said they had one in stock with two controllers and that they were having a sale, everything 50%-75% that day only and they had a quite a few retro consoles in addition to the Jaguar. They said we have a Virtual Boy Complete Set, Sega Saturn Model 2 With 2 Regular and 2 3D Controllers (One in box), NES with two controllers, SNES with two controllers, Sega Genesis Model 2 with two controllers, a Pikachu N64 with four controllers all with good joysticks, and a Dreamcast with two VMUs and four controllers. So, after I recovered from the pure shock, I asked what would my total be for all that and the reply was $176.86!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I think I still have the receipt somewhere!!!!) So, I said please put all that on hold for me, I'm coming now!!!!!!!!!!! It turns out nobody came to that store that day because of the aforementioned thunderstorm, so, in what could be considered the smartest or the dumbest move ever I braved the storm an hour to get there and the hour back. The most amazing part about it was it actually stopped raining when it came time to load up my car and it started again as I left the parking lot!!!!!!!! They were out of business literally two weeks later!!!!! A couple new Play N Trade stores began popping up even closer to me over the past year...however, all the people are generally rude, there is no selection, everything is NOW overpriced and they are basically a waste of time now, best to go to the Mom/Pop shops and retro game websites. In short, basically, you might get lucky with one going out of business which usually takes these stores six months or so from opening but you're better off with the solutions in the paragraph above. Sorry for the long winded nature of the story and the grammar mistakes I'm sure are in here, just in a hurry and figured I would give my two cents before heading out!
Sounds like they were doing a big clearance, knowing they were closing down. I've been to a couple stores (not play n trade) who've had to do this. They were primarily music stores but they had games too. I LOADED up the car with stuff. Other times people close a store but keep the inventory and sell it out of their garage every week. Got me thinking about whoever mentioned them using a stock photo. That's probably what most of them do. If they are close by, can't lose by stopping in for a few minutes. Their game prices are generally very fair, but the condition of the items is the MAJOR issue. I don't think they play test most of it. I found the console prices to be ridiculous, for systems that had a lot of wear, no box, etc.
I've only been to one in Cary, NC, but from someone who admittedly doesn't play games much anymore, I liked going there. The staff is usually helpful/friendly (if a bit awkward) and I've gotten some good deals there. Their selection is hit-or-miss, and this goes for all of them. Sometimes they'll have a ton of good games, sometimes it's all crap. As everyone else has stated, it's a franchise, so "your mileage may vary."
I once found a (previously) unopened boxed PSOne with the sleeve, but the employees had to check to see if everything was inside. Other than that, great deal for a complete PSOne. But my closest Play N Trade only has a 7 by 10 foot area for retro stuff, all the rest is modern and the tournament area.
You are lucky to have PnT shops close. I checked, the nearest PnT shop is just north of Detroit, almost 90 minutes drive away. At $4 a gallon of gas, it's an expensive trip. I do have Video Game Connection 20 minutes away and they do have crapload of Atari 2600 (systems and games) to Wii U PS3 and XBox360. They even have a top loading NES (too expensive for me) and a Genesis 1 with CD model 1 and 32X (including the audio cable and hard to find Genny 1 to 32X video cable). Oh yeah lser disc players to Blu-ray stuff. Best part? Lot of those stuff are cheaper than avergae buy it now prices on scamBay
