GAME HUNTING TIPS?!?!

So I asked this question on Instagram and got a bunch of ‘likes’ and not a lot of responses.

In an age where collecting video games is insanely popular and competition is fierce, building a collection can be discouraging for someone just starting out. If you could condense your years of video game collecting experience into a single nugget of wisdom to pass along to a fledgling collector, what would it be?

I’m specifically looking for game hunting tips; whatever tricks and techniques and practices you guys have developed over the years to find retro video games out in the wild.

I live in an area with a LOT of people on the dole with false disability claims, and they spend their every waking hour scouring the area for anything that can be sold even for a 1% profit on ebay. It's a bad place to be a game or toy collector, for sure. Before TRU closed, they told me that the usual types would come in on stocking days and just buy whole cases of toys. Before I gave up on, well, everything, I would hit rummage sales, flea markets, community sales, and the like, but since everyone got an iPhone in 2007, pickings have been nil. Your mileage may vary, and it's been years since I've seen any games that aren't EA sports garbage anywhere.
What I would do when I had time, money, and the desire to leave my office, was to check the classifieds for sales, mark down their starting times and locations, and then make a path to hit them all. I bought a bunch of 3 button Genesis controllers, a flatbed scanner, and a PowerMac G4 867 Quicksilver for about $25 combined at a flea market about 40 miles south of where I live about 8 or so years ago. Three or four years ago, I got a pair of older computers that had lamentably been stripped of most of their expansion boards and all of their hard drives for $20 each at a yardsale in a wealthy neighborhood out in the country. Got some random Xbox and PS2 games at some community sale in western Pennsylvania a a few years back, around the same time as the computers. One rare time in the past five years, I stopped at a Salvation Army thrift store, and got a half dozen decent PS2 games. Mostly Capcom stuff, DMC, RE4 and the like.

I suppose I can boil it down to: go to places you would normally only expect old people to shop (barring obvious dead ends like clothing consignment shops). Avoid hunting on days where there are known regular sales. Go the days before.

As old a member as you are you should have acquired many things over those years that you won't find now. Like the poster above said desperation is making people flip for 1% profits and now that everyone has a smart phone they know what they have. With the way the current market is , it's not a good time to start collecting nor be out hunting. You'll spend more in gas time and wear and tear then you'll have payouts. I mean you'll find some stuff but it won't equal to the effort that goes in. Best best is emulation and mods and let the resellers pop this market bubble and have a market correction.

A lot of the serious collectors started focusing on other things to resell to fund their collection. So if you are going out hunting don't just pay attention to video games. Familiarize yourself with what's popular and has value. That's going to be the stuff you find. You'll see when you're out hunting the resellers at the garage sales and flea markets and you'll hear the sellers saying they been asked about games multiple times. You'll see the people using their cell phones to scan at goodwill and thrift stores.

The old people idea from the above poster is something that used to work. I specifically used to target those areas retirement places, and can say I never found anything good. Even the old ladies are checking stuff out on their phones and going back and asking their kids and grand kids about the video games they own.

The hobby right now is saturated by people who have no interest in video games other then monetary capitalization. From the resellers to the people in the industry marketing new retro products.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

whatever tricks and techniques and practices you guys have developed over the years to find retro video games out in the wild.

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If you just want anything physical, living in an area where bootlegs thrived helps :​P (and I don't mean the modern shitty bootlegs that stop working after 1-2 weeks, I mean the older ones from back then that could hold on their own just as well as legit copies and with snaps that were harder to open than winning against Segata Sanshiro) You even find copies of games that went unreleased!

On a more serious note… yeah no clue, you may as well give up as there are people desperate to turn these into museum pieces worth thousands each. Focus on only getting the games you actually want to play and not everything you run into, trying to collect absolutely everything is how we got to this situation in the first place.

I didn’t mention this because I didn’t think it would affect anyone’s responses, but i’ll clarify that I’m not looking for advice for myself. I have a nice game collection that has pretty much plateau’d, as I now have most of the games I want that aren’t prohibitively rare or expensive.

I really just want to hear about the practices of other collectors. Are you still hitting up thrift stores and flea markets? Do you go out every day or just on certain days? Have you written off flea markets and thrift stores entirely and just stick to Craigslist, OfferUp, etc? Do you hit up garage sales and church swap meet events? Do you go out at a certain time?

Stuff like that. Game hunting was/is fun for many of us, there’s surely a bunch of us that still do it and have developed a loose strategy.

I think its over. Everybody has a mobile phone and can check ebay prices on the go. In the long run the overpriced, common and overrated stuff will drop and level. And the rare and sought after games will climb even higher. Unless you have a time machine you will have a hard time finding fun in collecting these days. One possible strategy is to get rare nintendo switch carts now. So that you may trade them for the retro carts you really want, at some point in the future.

Its 2019. Give up.

Everything I used to do no longer works. They all caught on. You will notice I don't buy a whole lot of retro games. I used to. I still will from time to time but in the wild...almost never any more. It's done.

I gave up a few years ago and never been happier, hate to say the raspberry pi cliche, but yea thats what I do now.
I have over 100 genesis carts still at my parents.
I still would say the best tip is thrift stores that typically do flat pricing or someone selling games at a flea market that don't really know much about games, tho it is becoming less and less.

I do still look for video game accessories like arcade sticks and such., so I'm not completely out of hunting.

I kind of have to agree with a lot of the cynicism in this thread. Game hunting isn't what it used to be. So many people are picking up games just to re-sell or add extra dollar signs to their collection value. When I was a kid in the early 00s, my favorite old systems were the Genesis and Atari 2600. I remember how easy it was to find games and accessories at thrift stores. My dad used to take me all the time to find new games for cheap. Now these items are much more scarce. I don't really collect games very much. I'm pretty happy with the stuff I already have. Still, I love going to thrift stores as often as I can, mostly for electronics and sometimes games if they have something interesting.

I'm always seeing people combing through thrift stores with their phones trying to find shit to flip. It's more than games too, a lot of cool stuff you used to see on thrift store shelves is being scooped up for resale. Even the thrift stores themselves are starting to open eBay stores to auction things off.

I still have a few tips:

1. Just visit thrift stores a lot. You never know what you might find, and could get lucky.

2. Visit smaller mom-and-pop or charity stores over chains like goodwill.

3. Look out for garage sales and visit them as early as you can.

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Originally Posted by Sik

no clue, you may as well give up as there are people desperate to turn these into museum pieces worth thousands each.

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Originally Posted by MushaAleste

I think its over.

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Originally Posted by Moirai

Its 2019. Give up.

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Originally Posted by SegataS

It's done.

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Originally Posted by EddieJ1984

I gave up a few years ago and have never been happier.

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Originally Posted by ComradeOj

I kind of have to agree with a lot of the cynicism in this thread.

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I’m honestly surprised by the amount of cynicism here, even though I see where you guys are coming from. I actively hunt for stuff (not just games anymore) quite often, and I usually find at least one cool thing a week. And no, it’s not always “brag-worthy,” but I find uncommon games & consoles and get good deals regularly enough that I can’t agree that there’s nothing out there or that it’s not worth looking. If having to compete with more rival collectors than ever and having to deal with more stupid resellers has spoiled the experience for you, I guess I just don’t understand. Was your hobby just LOOKING for games? I still get joy out of what I have and what I find. The thrill of the hunt is a big part of collecting, but it’s a just a bonus... it’s not the be-all, end-all.

I'm not sure if these are tips, but these are some of my personal rules to buying games:

In General:
1. Make a list and the price you're willing to pay. Know what you want and are looking for.
2. If you find a deal, even if it isn't on said list, buy it. Then sell it or trade up towards something you do want.

In the Wild:
1. Don't be afraid to walk away, especially when people try to 'price-check' items online.
2. Don't be afraid to strike gold. If someone is selling something for far less because they simply don't know, don't be a martyr and tell them.

In the e-Bay/Online:
1. Ask questions. If that seller doesn't answer your question, bag it. That to me is a sign the seller doesn't care about their listing or you buying it.
2. Always ask if they accept offers. You'd be surprised how many people are open to offers, and if they say no, at least you asked. What I've saved in asking, I've been able to put towards the next game.

Those are some of mine.

I feel that the biggest change in the field today from when I started buying over ten years ago, is that reproductions have become very sophisticated and has made knowing what to look for that much harder.

Here's one that I rarely see anyone bring up. Talk to friends, family, and even trusted coworkers about your hobby. Let them know that you just enjoy playing old games. Notice that I didn't say collect, but enjoy playing. I've had people literally just give me stuff or let me know when stuff is available from simply knowing that I'm on the look out. Psychologically, knowing that you enjoy something also makes people feel good about giving you their unwanted goodies.

Flea markets still have stuff. Again, let friends/family/coworkers know. I've had people find and text me for stuff that I would have NEVER found on my own. I paypal'd/venmo'd/ect the money with a little extra for their effort and got some uncommon stuff that way. Go early, stay away from the resellers, stick to families that just want to get rid of stuff for whatever reason.

Random thrift shop trips. I won't go out of my way, but if I'm in the area of a shop, I'll make a point to at least drop by. No reason to waste gas/time if you don't have to. It all comes down to luck anyway. Occasionally, I see NES carts, and recently I came across a DC & Gamecube with GBA player + games.

Keep up to date with homebrew development. Some of it is quite good and it seems to be improving all of the time. Sometimes, there is a long window (Super Russian Roulette) to get something, but other times (Ultracore comes to mind) you have to be on point. Good homebrew seems to also go up in value once it isn't as easy to acquire.

Honestly, it's not the opportune time to get into this hobby, but with patience, a hobbyist is bound to run into something eventually.

Game hunting in the wild is long over. The hobby of classic game collecting was hunted to extinction by collectards.

I have the good fortune of having a job where I travel all over the southern region of the country. You'll generally find, that the more money that is in a city or town, the more expensive old items are being sold for.

-We have Half-Price-Books all over the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Stores in the Northern side of the metro-plex tend to price games higher, while a town like Midlothian, or Mansfield will have gems selling for half the price of what you find in Northern Dallas. I always look forward to having a job in the Mansfield area, because i always find at least one good deal there.

- I usually avoid chain video game stores, because their prices are usually fixed for every store. You'll occasionally find a management discount, but it it's usually on newer stuff that isn't selling. We do have a small chain in Texas called Game Over. I did get a fairly rare C64c bundle from there for $99, which was a steal considering its condition.

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/attachm...4&d=1562030682

I bought my TG-16 at a yard sale about 12 years ago for $10. I got my 32X, boxed, missing only the Genesis 1 adapter cable and the RF shields, for TWO DOLLARS. The last NES I bought was at Goodwill, and it was the system, 3 controllers, 2 zappers, a power pad, and Mario/Duck Hunt/Track Meet for ten bucks. When Gamestop was dumping their fifth gen inventory for pennies on the dollar, I got Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Legends 2, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, Mischief Makers, and Conker's Bad Fur Day for $12 each or less, at two different stores in the same summer.

Look at the prices for anything I got back then, now, and tell me the market hasn't been ruined. The best thing you can do is get a console, get controllers from Japan (cheaper than getting them domestically in most cases), and get flash carts. Then you can play everything on real hardware, with first-party controllers, and not be tricked into doing dumb stuff like paying half a grand for Magical Chase. Or if you want to do it as cheaply as possible, get a $2 PSX to USB adapter, a Dual Shock 2, and emulate everything. For comedy's sake, do it on an older computer with a video card that can output in s-video or composite, and pipe that out to a CRT, then run the games in fullscreen.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

I’m specifically looking for game hunting tips; whatever tricks and techniques and practices you guys have developed over the years to find retro video games out in the wild.

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It depends on the system. If I was going to start collecting I would go for OG Xbox given how cheap the hardware and most of its games are. eBay and the internet has killed the days of getting classic games on the cheap, even one Gran can type a game in and get to see how much it goes for. But you can still get some stuff for a decent price if you look around one game that is Rare in Japan might be quite common in the USA vice versa, so just go for the cheapest, does a game have to be in amazing quality or does a system need to be boxed with instructions and some times look for job lots; in amongst the junk might be a gem of a game or system and also look to mix and match.. Look to get an unboxed version of a 'said' game and then look to see a seller, selling the same said game that's marked/scratched doesn't work, while the box and instructions are in good cond.

And also sometimes its worth remember a lot of the games aren't that much more, than why they 1st came out

I gave up on collecting physical copies years ago. As has already been said, the old methods almost never work now and it just isn't worth it.
I've spoken to collectors of various items (toys, comics, watches, guitars, you name it) and they've all told me that items they once could acquire somewhat easily are now: "SUPER RARE!!!, L@@K!!!, I KNOW WHAT I'VE GOT!!!".
Over the last ten years or so, Ebay has changed from being a helpful tool for collectors to being the bane of every collector's existence.

Sadly, while resellers and ebay chancers have made everything harder for collectors, I think that some collectors have brought the problem on themselves.

Well, other than responding with "get lucky," I'd have to say that you have to learn your area. Around here, the thrift store chains have been around forever. They constantly have terrible prices these days and are always picked through. Specifically, there is a Goodwill bargain bin, and there is a group of a few people collaborating who are there every single time I am there, and they are always shoving people out of the way to be the first to look through the fresh stock. However, I work in an industrial area of town, and about five years ago, a thrift store opened about two blocks from where I work. It took a while for people to find this, and it isn't nearly as picked through as other places. It has been my go to place, and I go there once or twice a week. A local place also holds warehouse sales regularly, and I go there the first day of the sale to try to scoop up some 50 cent media before it gets thoroughly picked through. The flea markets here are tough. You have to get there right as they're opening or else the resellers there will buy everything the regular people have, and the resellers are either dicks or don't know what they have as they typically sell their games at 3-4 times eBay prices and are unwilling to negotiate. There's one guy who is pretty cool and knows exactly what he has, but his prices are either right at eBay or $5-15 lower depending on what they normally sell for.

So yeah, basically just go out there and figure out a plan based on what happens in your area, be happy with the finds that you do come across, and don't get discouraged too quickly. It's not very good advice, but it's what works for me (to an extent).

Honestly the smartphone combined with online sales and just a spike in popularity destroyed the affordability of the hobby. I was totally guilty of being one of the people who just scoured flea markets and sold most of my stuff when the prices started to get hot in order to make a quick buck. Probably ended up making $2000-3000 between Amazon and forums and whatnot when I was actively hunting and looking, not chump change but for a guy in college it was pretty solid. I was truly hooked on buying a game at Goodwill for $5-8, and throwing it on Amazon and watching it sell in what felt like 45 minutes for $30+. Anything with Mario on it commanded cold hard cash quick. I had stopped playing games for the most part and just saw the stuff collecting dust on the shelf. When I moved out of my college apartment I basically sold what I had left in bulk for $900 cash. And the prices have even gone up in the years since then. It's truly unbelievable what the smartphone has done for the video game market. Seems like everyone in our generation has a job now and more disposable income than is truly recommended, and people are just paying obscene amounts for these old video games now. I used to find plenty of stuff at the numerous flea markets and thrift stores near me, now people basically just sell the same old PS1 and PS2 junk, or some Xbox 360. My last find in the last year was a cart-only copy of Pokemon Ruby for $5.

I hate to pile on the general consensus as well, but with the amount of ways on the internet people can sell stuff for, it's now become a super side-hustle to buy and sell video games of any kind. My real question is: Who is actually paying these prices to keep this stuff in their house? I'm sticking with the Classic Mini systems and loading everything on there. Just way cheaper, and way less hassle. Everyone is selling something these days. Can't blame them in this economy, and there's a thrill to finding stuff for cheap and flipping it. It almost doesn't even feel like work. But for someone who wants to actually enjoy a hobby on a budget? Forget it.

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Originally Posted by Baloo

Honestly the smartphone combined with online sales and just a spike in popularity destroyed the affordability of the hobby. I was totally guilty of being one of the people who just scoured flea markets and sold most of my stuff when the prices started to get hot in order to make a quick buck. Probably ended up making $2000-3000 between Amazon and forums and whatnot when I was actively hunting and looking, not chump change but for a guy in college it was pretty solid. I was truly hooked on buying a game at Goodwill for $5-8, and throwing it on Amazon and watching it sell in what felt like 45 minutes for $30+. Anything with Mario on it commanded cold hard cash quick. I had stopped playing games for the most part and just saw the stuff collecting dust on the shelf. When I moved out of my college apartment I basically sold what I had left in bulk for $900 cash. And the prices have even gone up in the years since then. It's truly unbelievable what the smartphone has done for the video game market. Seems like everyone in our generation has a job now and more disposable income than is truly recommended, and people are just paying obscene amounts for these old video games now. I used to find plenty of stuff at the numerous flea markets and thrift stores near me, now people basically just sell the same old PS1 and PS2 junk, or some Xbox 360. My last find in the last year was a cart-only copy of Pokemon Ruby for $5.

I hate to pile on the general consensus as well, but with the amount of ways on the internet people can sell stuff for, it's now become a super side-hustle to buy and sell video games of any kind. My real question is: Who is actually paying these prices to keep this stuff in their house? I'm sticking with the Classic Mini systems and loading everything on there. Just way cheaper, and way less hassle. Everyone is selling something these days. Can't blame them in this economy, and there's a thrill to finding stuff for cheap and flipping it. It almost doesn't even feel like work. But for someone who wants to actually enjoy a hobby on a budget? Forget it.

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It's funny you mention this because I have conversations with resellers about this. I explain to them how they exploit a hobby and ultimately it's people like me that dictate the prices. Collectors like me are the final steps to where something doesn't reenter circulation and it usually determines the demand and market value of something. Otherwise it's passing hands from reseller to reseller. I sell on ebay to many game stores and famous youtubers. A lot of common games are passing through many hands where everyone is trying to make a spread on it before it gets to its forever nesting home.

Over the years seeing my territory get stepped on and invaded I've made it a mission to bleed the resellers dry. The same people are starting to see me everywhere and its like hey I'm here out of passion and hobby, I was doing this before games were popular and I never was a bandwagoner that got back into video games, I always been collecting like Pete Dorr.

When they see me I want them to shake their boots and instill fear like I'm taking food of their table, give up your frivolous disability and get a job and stop being out here nickel and diming my hobby.

That's how it was this morning when I saw a old guy reseller at goodwill who is a reseller to the local flea market. I see the resellers regularly. My knowledge lets me get the best of things but now a days they will just pull anything games to the side and look them up one by one, so it's literally a race. The thing is I don't depend on it to pay bills or put food on the table, when you do depend on it for those things its going to run you off quicker.

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Originally Posted by Baloo

Honestly the smartphone combined with online sales and just a spike in popularity destroyed the affordability of the hobby. I was totally guilty of being one of the people who just scoured flea markets and sold most of my stuff when the prices started to get hot in order to make a quick buck. Probably ended up making $2000-3000 between Amazon and forums and whatnot when I was actively hunting and looking, not chump change but for a guy in college it was pretty solid. I was truly hooked on buying a game at Goodwill for $5-8, and throwing it on Amazon and watching it sell in what felt like 45 minutes for $30+. Anything with Mario on it commanded cold hard cash quick. I had stopped playing games for the most part and just saw the stuff collecting dust on the shelf. When I moved out of my college apartment I basically sold what I had left in bulk for $900 cash. And the prices have even gone up in the years since then. It's truly unbelievable what the smartphone has done for the video game market. Seems like everyone in our generation has a job now and more disposable income than is truly recommended, and people are just paying obscene amounts for these old video games now. I used to find plenty of stuff at the numerous flea markets and thrift stores near me, now people basically just sell the same old PS1 and PS2 junk, or some Xbox 360. My last find in the last year was a cart-only copy of Pokemon Ruby for $5.

I hate to pile on the general consensus as well, but with the amount of ways on the internet people can sell stuff for, it's now become a super side-hustle to buy and sell video games of any kind. My real question is: Who is actually paying these prices to keep this stuff in their house? I'm sticking with the Classic Mini systems and loading everything on there. Just way cheaper, and way less hassle. Everyone is selling something these days. Can't blame them in this economy, and there's a thrill to finding stuff for cheap and flipping it. It almost doesn't even feel like work. But for someone who wants to actually enjoy a hobby on a budget? Forget it.

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Remember when everyone on here was bitching about the popularity of Genesis games vs. SNES? Well now they got what they asked for, and the prices have started to climb. 5 or 6 years ago, I was seeing titles like Lunar: The Silver Star Story (Sega CD) selling for under $10 and now the price is pretty insane. You're better off buying stuff for less popular systems like the Atari Lynx, Atari 7800 and Colecovision, but the Colecovision prices are starting to climb. Buying games for the Wii, Wii U, PS3 and 360 right now, are at a great value, but the prices will probably start to climb in the next 5 or 6 years.

Its not just gaming, Retro is now seen as cool and in vogue, some of the prices of old items of clothing or trainers are amazing. I still I my old Pentium PC with Voodoo 3 card and now see the old 3DFX Voodoo cards are starting to rise in value too

Starting to? Even getting a 1MB ISA SVGA card is a pain. Idiots want a hundred damn dollars for them, with no confirmation of functionality. 3DFX stuff is priced like it's platinum-plated gold.

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Originally Posted by Team Andromeda

Its not just gaming, Retro is now seen as cool and in vogue, some of the prices of old items of clothing or trainers are amazing. I still I my old Pentium PC with Voodoo 3 card and now see the old 3DFX Voodoo cards are starting to rise in value too

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This was years ago, by a friend of mine had an old Voodoo card. One of those huge dual GPU ones. He ended up pulling all the chips for some art project against my advice. I wonder if he could have just put it on eBay instead.

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Originally Posted by ComradeOj

This was years ago, by a friend of mine had an old Voodoo card. One of those huge dual GPU ones. He ended up pulling all the chips for some art project against my advice. I wonder if he could have just put it on eBay instead.

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I still have my Voodoo 3 2000 boxed. I'm amazed at the prices 3DFX cards are getting these days. But its not just the gaming sector, I know mates in work selling old classic trainers or clothing items for silly money on eBay, more so if its a special sporting top.
It just seems anything Retro is cool now and can make money.

I am beyond happy I have a near complete collection of Gamecube games I've wanted over the years. Not a full collection but almost all the games I've ever wanted. The prices now are beyond fucking retarded and I wouldn't pay what my shit seems to be worth these days.

I unfortunately have to echo what others have been saying, hunting retro games in the wild is mostly a thing of the past. I still take a look if I'm at a flea market or thrift store and can still snag some old PC games that way or some good sports games that have just been forgotten, beyond that though even overpriced consignment shops rarely have anything worth looking at. There will eventually be a time when a lot of these collections are going to end up on the market again, lots of people are already growing sick of having them, so the best thing to do is wait for the market to return though that may not be any time soon. People like me are happy to hold onto their collections and the hunt is largely over for us, but that means that there's a lot less out there to find.

So there really aren't any tips I can give, as all the things that used to work are no longer the case. People are either wise to what games are worth these days or they're collectors who aren't selling. I'm just glad I collected most of my games back when nobody else wanted them.

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Originally Posted by Team Andromeda

Its not just gaming, Retro is now seen as cool and in vogue, some of the prices of old items of clothing or trainers are amazing. I still I my old Pentium PC with Voodoo 3 card and now see the old 3DFX Voodoo cards are starting to rise in value too

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I'm really kicking myself for not picking up a Quantum3D Obsidian2 several years ago when there was some seller from Canada selling them (with medusa cables) for $100 a pop. I kept putting it off, and then they were gone. Now apparently I can expect to pay over $500. A boxed one apparently sold last month for $700.

Guess I'll have to stick with the pair of Voodoo 2's I already have. At least I got those when they were cheap.

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Originally Posted by BonusKun

I am beyond happy I have a near complete collection of Gamecube games I've wanted over the years. Not a full collection but almost all the games I've ever wanted. The prices now are beyond fucking retarded and I wouldn't pay what my shit seems to be worth these days.

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Yeah, I switched focus a few years back from the 8- and 16-bit consoles to GameCube, PS2, and DS. I have pretty have all the games I want for those systems, and now that those prices are starting to go up, I've been transitioning over to Wii, WiiU, and PS3. There aren't as many games from those later consoles that I want, but the prices are still cheap, so might as well get while the getting is good. I still find decent deals on NES and Genesis games every now and then, though.

I got a majority of my stuff over the last decade plus (while a lot of stuff that is expensive now, wasn't expensive), if I had to start over, I wouldn't. The joy of collecting is still within me, but prices have brought me back down to earth on what I could realistically buy. I've almost 1,250 games, there's still stuff to get that isn't too expensive, but I've written off stuff for the 16 bit consoles, the Saturn, and the PS1 (the Gameboy is still a cheap handheld to buy games for, for now at least) that is incredibly pricey (like that one PS1 Goemon game where the entire joke of the game is recycling), or some of Capcom's beat em ups for the SNES (Knights of the Round, and the mediocre Captain Commando port), or stuff for the Mega Drive that is quirky (Dahna, Devil Hunter Yohko, Sailor Moon, Twinkle Tale, and the Shin Chan game).

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Originally Posted by sidewinderl

I'm really kicking myself for not picking up a Quantum3D Obsidian2 several years ago when there was some seller from Canada selling them (with medusa cables) for $100 a pop. I kept putting it off, and then they were gone. Now apparently I can expect to pay over $500. A boxed one apparently sold last month for $700.

Guess I'll have to stick with the pair of Voodoo 2's I already have. At least I got those when they were cheap.

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I gave away my other 3DFX card and I see it can go for over £200 now. My biggest mistake and regret. I once saw a local shop selling complete Wing Commander collection (including the film can version of Part III) for £20 and I never picked it up :(.

Last December, I saw a big box Ultima IV for the Amiga. Half-Price-Books was selling it for $34. I was going on vacation the next day and didn’t want to run short on gas money, so I didn’t buy. It turned out that I was going to have plenty of $$ left over for the trip home, and when I dropped by the HPB the next week, it was gone.

This game demands a high asking price.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...tmima+IV+Amiga

Given the current state of the market, if I did have any 'GAME HUNTING TIPS?!?!' I definitely wouldn't help the current generation of resellers and ebay chancers by sharing my methods on an open forum.

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Originally Posted by Mad Moham

Given the current state of the market, if I did have any 'GAME HUNTING TIPS?!?!' I definitely wouldn't help the current generation of resellers and ebay chancers by sharing my methods on an open forum.

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tou·ché

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Originally Posted by Mad Moham

Given the current state of the market, if I did have any 'GAME HUNTING TIPS?!?!' I definitely wouldn't help the current generation of resellers and ebay chancers by sharing my methods on an open forum.

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Good lord you ARE bitter, aren’t you? Does this entire topic just chafe your butthole or what?

When you go on a dozen hundred-mile trips in a row and still find nothing even tangentially-related to games and tech, you may become embittered as well.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

Good lord you ARE bitter, aren’t you? Does this entire topic just chafe your butthole or what?

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There's an excellent ointment for that called Pinxav. Whenever any of my babies have gotten bad diaper rash over the years, that stuff has cleared it right up.

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Originally Posted by Raijin Z

When you go on a dozen hundred-mile trips in a row and still find nothing even tangentially-related to games and tech, you may become embittered as well.

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...or you might not. I don’t really have any sympathy for the half-empty crew in here. Peace out, Moham.

It really does depend on your location though. I would for the most part run into sports games a lot for the Genesis and SNES. Any other game that I would find I already own it and it wasn't an in demand title. The absolute best time to snag up all these games was probably back in the late 90s. I did snag a Model 1 Saturn and a Virtual Boy at an estate sale back in 2013. The best tip I can give you is if you can get a good paying job and have a ton of disposable cash then you can really look past prices. I was at the point where I could realistically buy Taromaru and Daytona Net-Link. But not anymore