The Australian retro hunting rant thread

Cart only you'll find nearly any where here, it's when items are CIB that's when they become expensive...

 

I haven't really been actively hunting for a while now. Perth is an odd place and requires a LOT of driving to find the good stuff. I once drove 90 minutes each way to get a MegaCD I found advertised in the paper. The fact that it was in the paper tells you it was at least 10 years ago.

Cashies around here used to be decent but I'm not sure what's happened over the last 4-5 years or so. Stuff like (unboxed common as dirt) N64 carts went from ~$5ea to ~$20. When I got my Dreamcast it was probably $50. Now if you could even find one you'd probably be paying over $200. There was a SMS2 at one of my local Cashies for $110. That store still has a lot of older games but I think only because they're priced so high nobody will buy them. I'm not sure if they just took that long to find out about eBay and raise the prices or what. I think one of them saw a management change recently because there was quite a bit of stuff being sold off cheap. Original XBOXs, PlayStation 1&2s were all out the front of the store at $5ea (console only). Now those same things are at least $40-50 each.

Stuff was different back when I was more active/younger. Garage sales were THE PLACE to get good stuff in the 90s. I remember my Mum bringing home a box of 2600 carts she bought for $1ea at a garage sale around the corner. I still have them. Every single garage sale you'd go to would have a SMS2. Those things were everywhere. Now they're $110 in poor condition in a glorified plastic bag. Bleh.

I'd go to swap meets maybe 6-7 years ago and had a couple of okay finds. Dude selling NES carts between $2-5ea (sadly they were all common), Amiga stuff, C64 stuff etc. Haven't had a chance to get to one lately but I imagine it's different now.

 

I think auctions in Australia have died off somewhat, I know in Brisbane they are few and far between. They used to have the Police Auctions not far from me at Burpengary and at Lawnton, but they shut down.

 

One of my relatives bought a Porsche 9-11 from one of those auctions, bought from drug money so he got it for half the cost of one new.

Then went back to the same auctions in say 5-10 years, and bought a Ferrari Testarossa the same group I think and got it for half of what it's worth. He's the luckiest person I know in person lol

 

Good score lol! I remember there was a R33 GTR Skyline that had a bag of money thrown at it and it was seized via a drug raid, not sure what happened to it though.

I spoke to Mum earlier, she said she went garage "sale'ing" and op shopping with "the girls" (she is in the Moreton Bay region Breast cancer group) and said no console stuff. But she also said that store owners do pounce on that sort of stuff and get there early.

 

Wow! lucky one. But even half-priced, those 2 cars are still expensive

 

QLD Public Trustee used to have their auctions at Albion. Of course that got shut down under the current government.

That's where I got my 29" PVM, on a pallet with about 9 other TVs. For $3.

 

Most of those machines end up in used car lots for the "usual" price

Usually that's the case with op shops, Salvos have console stuff from time-to-time but sadly they now price things stupidly. Playstations for $50 etc..

 

What do you reckon they do with all those TVs they have now? Saving up perhaps for something big?

 

They still use auctions for disposals, but they use private auction houses, and they're all over the place.

 

I am just keen to go to an auction to say i have been to one. The ones i have found are during the week damn it.

 

Hmmm I've never been to one but they do sound fun! I guess one would need a trailer or van to load the heist onto the back? :biggrin-new:

 

lol I guess I have been watching to many "Bid America" and the like!

The old police auctions were great apparently, a friend of mine went and would come back with some great stuff, think tools, TV's and the like. I think he bought stuff because he could.

 

I remember going to a couple of auctions when I was younger. One in Perth with a friend & his stepdad. This was probably around '93 and he bought so much computer stuff (386s woo!) he had to go hire an enclosed trailer and make 2 trips. The stuff he bought literally filled the spare room of their house. My friend & myself spent entire weekends in that room building up PCs and learning. Another was in Sydney in the late 90s, of which my memory is pretty vague.

They still have them in Perth but from what I've heard you rarely get a bargain these days. That's if you can even find anything worth bidding on in the first place.

edit:

 

For some giggles I went around a few "Life Lines" today......nothing.

 

Hahaha, the cartridge is GOLD! It must be worth more!
Is Life Lines the new Vinnies?
I remember buying some random game carts from Vinnies back in the 90s.
I had no system to connect them to. They were just damn cool. I wonder what they were? :biggrin-new:

 

$35 for superman? Out the door prices right there. They should make an ad with one of those really loud guys saying all prices are slashed or something hahaha.

 

Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man!

 

MM for $125, they're dreaming! Yet... someone will buy it, world is full of impulsive people

 

The situation is pretty similar (or worse) here in Argentina... It is cheaper for me to pay whatever price is on eBay (even if overpriced) rather than buying locally. And that's for current gen games; retro games and consoles are pretty hard to find (other than NES, SNES, and Megadrive).
For instance: if a PS3 game costs USD 50 in the USA, it'll cost USD 100 (no kidding, that's the lowest price in any store down here for the latest games).