Update Coming Soon!

Check back here in the coming days - I've got some mail arriving later this week that will push the collection to 700 and beyond! Thanks for reading!

A Bit of a Dry Spell...

Well, there hasn't been much luck finding games lately despite a few trips to some game stores and flea markets. I was able to spend some time today at Trader's Village, a very large flea market on the west side of town. Although I didn't pick up any new NES games for the collection I did snag some Sega Master System games for a buck each, a new Genesis for $5 (replacing my current one that has a warped AC adaptor plug) and the little guys pictured above.

I distinctly remember going to McDonald's as a kid and getting Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meals. The little toys included the Luigi and Goomba shown here, as well as a raccoon Mario and a flying turtle. It's fun to find little bits of Nintendo memorabilia such as these, and at $2 a piece they were an instant buy. The vendor also had the Mario toy, but it was broken. The DVD's were $3 each, by the way. Guess which one is for the wife...

Summer is just around the corner, hopefully there will be some excellent garage/yard sales and a bit more productivity in my flea market runs. Until next time...!

#698 & 699 - Urban Champion & Captain America

Games #698 & 699

Urban Champion & Captain America

Paid $11

Evil eBay

Ah, eBay. So simple to find what you're looking for, but so difficult to find it at a decent price. There are many resellers of retro games on eBay, and at times it can feel like they're all working together to keep prices high. I blame the "Buy it Now" option. Often when you see a game at a high "BIN" price, if you look at the recently completed auctions you'll see that most of those high priced listings didn't sell and the few copies that went on open auction sold at a significantly lower final cost to the buyer.

What's even worse is actually seeing a good deal get ruined by wacky shipping prices. I mean, does it really cost $6.95 to ship a Nintendo game? I know from experience that no, it does not. I could go on ranting about the ins and outs of using eBay, but instead I'll just focus on two recent mail day deliveries - Urban Champion and Captain America & The Avengers.

As I mentioned in my DK Jr Math post, I prefer to pick up the 'black box' games if they actually come with the black box. While Urban Champion itself is by no means a rare game (it's rather common in fact) finding it in the box can cost a good amount - especially on eBay. So this is another one that I don't mind picking up loose and just hope to stumble on a box later.

Captain America I could've bought about a year ago for a few bucks, but didn't for some reason and I haven't seen it again since then. I've seen some gameplay footage on the fantastic website www.nesguide.com - so I might try this one out later, once I finish playing through the excellent but unknown Journey to Silius.

The next game in the collection will be #700 - which is crazy. My plans are to check out some garage sales and flea markets tomorrow - check back later for an update and wish me luck!

Funcoland!

Not much time this week for game hunting - so I thought I'd pull out an interesting piece from the collection and write about it for a bit.

Behold! A Funcoland price sheet circa March 1999. For those too young to remember or not blessed to live in a select part of the country, Funcoland was a new/used video game store in the '90s and early 'aughts. I recall the big draw to the store being the row of TV's with systems hooked up, and a store clerk would (begrudgingly) allow you to give whatever game you were 'interested in buying' a quick test drive.

Of course all the Funcoland franchises were bought up by and subsequently transformed into GameStop stores, and the cartridge-based games stopped being sold quite a few years ago. Sadly, most of my original Nintendo collection wound up being traded in to a Funcoland once I reached high school and got a car that required, y'know, gas 'n stuff.

Looking back, the stores were pretty amazing for their time with their walls and racks filled with classic plastic. I guess they got a lot of phone calls from kids or parents wanting to know how much a certain game cost, so to circumvent this (or maybe to let kids save up their allowance money) the stores produced a monthly newspaper-like price sheet for all of their used games.

It's funny (and heartbreaking) to read the prices on the sheet. Most of the games are less than $4, including many that are less than $1. If only I had a time machine and $20...

Here's a quick sample of the 1999 Funcoland Price and the current lowest "Buy it now" price on evil eBay (which should never be used as a guide to what a game is actually worth, but it's convenient for this list):

Bandit Kings of Ancient China - $0.29 ($36.99)

Gun Nac - $1.99 ($29.99)

Flintstones 2 - $6.99 ($249.99)

Pesterminator - $0.29 ($25.19)

Panic Restaurant - $2.49 ($96.99)

Power Blade 2 - $0.79 ($119.99)

Little Samson - $3.99 ($195.89)

Wayne's World - $0.49 ($32.35)

Zombie Nation - $1.99 ($64.99)

and...

STADIUM EVENTS - $0.29 ($39,999)

Don't even get me started on Stadium Events...

#696 & 697 Bomberman 2 & Donkey Kong Jr Math

Games #696 & 697

Bomberman 2 & Donkey Kong Jr Math

Paid $10

4/30/11 - Sunny Flea Market

Flea markets are awesome. Usually there are a many 'ordinary' people there to clear out attics, closets and storage units - much of their stuff is of the garage sale variety and they just want it gone. Having several of them all together in one place to save you the hassle of driving around sketchy neighborhoods and getting lost trying to follow posterboard signs sure is convenient. Almost all of the sellers are willing to haggle a little bit, so I don't feel bad talking their initial price down a couple of bucks, even when I'm picking up rarities like these.

Most flea markets also have semi-permanent tenants that are there every weekend to peddle whatever wares they specialize in. Power tools, dresses and makeup, jewelry, etc. can be found en masse along with at least one or two video game resellers. Often they will have a good selection, but generally higher prices than the normal folks. Don't worry, they'll bargain with you just the same. One thing I have noticed is that ANYTHING with Mario on the cover automatically commands a $15-$20 price. Even common as dirt SMB/Duck Hunt carts. You should never pay more than a dollar for one of those.

The Houston area has several flea markets within a short driving distance. This was my first (and likely last for a long time) visit to the Sunny flea market located in a not-so-great part of town on the north side. While there were many vendors and booths set up and a couple of other fleas next door and across the street, the video game finds were sparse. Only maybe 6 booths (out of several hundred) had video games, mostly PS2/Xbox. I was able to snag these games for $5 each, and that made the trip entirely worth it. Bomberman 2 is uncommon and in demand - online copies go for $50+ and the only one I've seen in a brick-and-mortar store is going for $35. DK Jr Math is an uncommon 'black box' game - a subset that I prefer to collect in the original boxes. The half dozen games in the set that I still need are incredibly expensive to collect in the box, so a cart only of this educational game is fine by me, especially at this price.

One more quick thing to note about this flea market - it had a Dinosaur Land. Smack in the middle was a little courtyard with dinosaur statues and some benches. No, you weren't allowed to climb on the dinos. Very strange...

So there - after a couple of $20 pickups (boo) and an Easter gift (yay) a real bargain find to share with you. Only 3 more to go before hitting the 700 mark!