She’s Going Down!

I’ve just done a recalculation of my collection… and for all my wheel and dealing, I’m lucky if I broke even at today’s prices!

The above games are an example of what I overpaid/traded for.  Collectively I traded $850 dollars worth of merchandise for these three games… which was an exceptional deal at the time!  Now collectively, these three games sell for around $610… that’s a 29% decrease in price since two years ago.  This is the reason I’m holding off on selling a lung and kidney for games such as Little Sampson, etc.!  I’m like a water : camels compared to NES games : Nintendo Joe.  I can wait dude!

I was missing these guys, so picked them up at the last Barrie Game exchange for a total of $30.  Not the best deal, but I haven’t seen them very often.  Honestly these games blow, but as I said they have been very elusive to my collection.

Back in the day, a guy offered me a mint condition version of this game for $125. Clearly this game was meant only for rich people!  I thought he was out to lunch… am I really going to pay that much to fight bloody carrots?!  Nope, I was going to pay $250 for the experience 4 years later and this was actually a deal even at today’s prices!

Maybe I’m getting old, and am thinking about my retirement in 20 years, but these games are just so damn expensive, and are going down in value!  If only I had invested in Google and Amazon when their stock was low I could quit now!

NintendoJoe1985 and Ultimate_Megatron on Instagram:)

 

 

Almost Famous!

The title will make sense later.

Last weekend I traveled solo to the Barrie Game Exchange as this will likely be the last big convention before next fall.  That’s a huge drought, but it gives me time to save up some money to buy more games.

After being at so many of these shows, you start to recognize the same people (both dealers and customers) which is both good and bad.  You know the dealers who are willing to haggle, and those that expect to receive no less than top dollar Ebay sold listing prices for their wares.  The other customers is kind of fun as you get to catch up on how their personal collections are coming along.  Watching the people new to the hobby is kind of fun, but I have to bite my tongue and not tell them that this is almost the WORST time to get into collecting games… prices are crazy high!  I saw one guy trying to sell his good condition Little Sampson for $1700.  Good luck with the sale!  Another dude was selling a boxed copy of Phantasy Star IV on the Genesis for $150… it’s a great game, but not worth that much!  However who made me the expert; the price of games literally seems to fluctuate daily.  For example, you’ll remember I traded for the Snow Brothers for the NES a few weeks ago, and already the price guide is telling me it is going for an additional $70!  As I say, it is the wrong time to start collecting retro games, and pity those of us schmucks who are already in too deep!

Anyways, lets check out my loot from the Barrie Game Exchange:

That’s right… Greg Norman’s Golf Power is now mine… no big deal… no really it is no big deal!  Just another crappy sports game that I didn’t have.  In fact this is what I was looking for… any of the 30 remaining games that are not on my wish list.  The other 12 NES titles pretty much out of reach… for now.

These next two games are titles that I’ve passed over for the last six years, but have no idea why.  I’ve never played them before, but the price wasn’t usually too bad.  For whatever reason I decided that today was the day to pick them up.  Of course I didn’t pay sticker price, but I have to say that in order to keep my marriage intact.

These three games were not purchased at the show, but were picked up in the early years when I was still trying to define what exactly it was I going to start collecting.  Back then I bought everything that was cheap, but as my goal is to have a complete North American NES collection (minus Stadium Events) these games don’t really count.  They are unofficial and therefore have no business in my stash of games.  None of them are particularly valuable.  In fact I think the Adventures of Dizzy goes for a mere $19 in good condition (which my copy is not).  I’ll be lucky to get $10 for it.  Captain Comic is what I’ll probably get the most for listing it at $18 and taking $14.  Quattro Sports is pretty useless and isn’t worth really anything.  The only other games I have for sale are most of my PS2 and XBOX 360 games.  I’m keeping a few for the memories, but most of them have got to go immediately!

Okay, onto the big news.  I’m kind of a big deal now thanks to the Retro Game Bros..  They saw a slightly below average looking dude and decided to include a few seconds of me in one of their awesome YouTube videos.  It took place a few weeks ago at the Durham Video Game Swap, and I think this makes me a star!  They have about five or six videos that they’ve made and they are actually really well done.  I met their video editor/videographer a few times and he seems to be a really friendly guy… more importantly he does a fantastic job creating their videos!  Also, you know how some people just have it on camera… Matt and Evan are quite the personality and I recommend checking them out at retrogamebros.com

That’s all for now, so until next time….

Nintendo Joe

SEGA Corner:  There hasn’t been a lot of news on this recently because honestly there isn’t much I need for my small SEGA collection.  The few remaining games I need are the first Mickey Mouse game, Quack Shot, Gaires, and Air Diver on the Genesis.  As far as the Sega Master System is concerned I only need Fantasy Zone and Psycho Fox.  Thanks to the Sega Dude and a few lucky pickups I have managed to score the rest of the games that I have nostalgia for.

It’s Been a While…

I looked at the last time I posted and it goes back to October 2016.  It’s been a while, but the NES collection and others continue to grow.  I’m now at a whopping 566 NES games after these new additions.

Recently the Sega Dude and I went up to Barrie for a video game swap.  While I didn’t bring anything to trade this time, I was hungry.  Hungry to buy more NES games to add to my collection as I haven’t really made much progress recently due to the fact that I rarely ever go to Value Village anymore as they have gone crazy in terms of their pricing of retro games.  $30 for Super Mario… give me a break!  If they can get some sucker to pay that amount, then more power to them… but it’s finds like this that scare me away.

Another reason I haven’t been game hunting lately is because Kijiji and Craigslist are also flooded with WAY over priced games… higher than even the local game stores around here!  What’s worse is that these people won’t budge on their prices as they think they are holding on to the Crown Jewels!  I’m tired of seeing the same ridiculous ads that have in some cases been posted for over a year.  Buddy… your games aren’t worth your “asking” price… nobody is buying them!  EBAY is a dud for the same reason…plus the global shipping fees.  The only solution is to occasionally go to retro game stores to try and swing a deal.  There prices are lower than Kijiji, and they have an overhead cost to think about which at least justifies why they are charging what they do.

Garage sale season is fast approaching, but honestly I’m not really looking that forward to it as my collection has become so vast that what are the chances I’ll find something I need?!  It’s a lot of racing around town in the wee hours of a Saturday morning for not much return.

So, retro game stores and shows seem to be the way to go, and now that I’m finished my rant I’ll get back on topic to the Sega Dude and I going to the Barrie Game Exchange.  It was actually really good!  I had previously made a deal with a guy I/we know for about 10 NES titles…

… the games got all shuffled up in my loot bag from the show so I can’t remember which titles I purchased from him, and the games I got from other vendors.

On the way to game swaps, the Sega Dude often asks me what I’m looking for, and I always tell him I want the remaining three Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games… only to be disappointed.  Well you do see Heroes of the Lance often which is fairly common but I already had it… despite the awesome cover this is also the worst game in the series.  Alas, at this show I found all three missing games.  Pool of Radiance (the best game in the series) was actually part of the bundle that I previously arranged, but I did see other vendors selling this game at the show.

These sticker prices are a bit crazy but I was able to swing a deal.  I paid close to $150CAN for the three games I was missing which is a deal considering Hillsfar goes for around $120 alone.  Dragon strike came with a mint manual which is rather nice.

Bomberman and Wizards and Warriors 3 I actually managed to score from Kijiji during the Christmas holidays.  Bomberman is in great shape, and W&W 3 is mostly decent except for the top label which is peeling.  I have seen W&W 3 a few times before, but none of the labels are ever great so I decided to pull the trigger on this one.  I think both games cost me $40CAN.

This is a game that I have never played before… and for whatever reason (it isn’t that rare) have never seen in stores.  However the while out game hunting, the Sega Dude texted me a picture of what the store had in stock.  This was the only game I didn’t already have, and the price was decent so I went for it.  I’ll have to give it a try and get back to you on that.

I’m not really collecting much for the SNES anymore as I already have the games I want for this system (except Donkey Kong Country 3 which the Sega Dude has and Lords over me).  However I was in a store called Pawn Pals in a neighbouring city and saw this complete Gemfire game.  I have heard good things about this one, but at the price of $50 tax included I couldn’t resist.

On to some miscellaneous pick-ups…

I found this game the last time I was in a Value Village (it was months ago) and thought it looked interesting for $2.  I’ll probably never play it and will put in my trade pile.

This t-shirt is from an arcade in Ottawa Ontario.  A friend of mine lives there and happened to be passing by so I asked him to pick one up for me.  This place has been around for a while and I think I even used to go there as a kid whenever I was in the area.  I just thought it would be neat to have an arcade shirt.

Ah, a remote NES controller.  The Sega Dude gave this to me for Christmas and is a welcomed addition.  No more cord limitations!

So ya, that’s where I’m at right now.  A bit cheesed off at the high prices of games (though they have gone down in value over the past few months… if I’m ever to complete my collection I hope this trend continues!  Also the rarity that I find games that I need at fair prices is also a bit discouraging.  In fact I was thinking on selling off my Game Cube, Wii, Game Boy, and a few GBA titles so that I can focus on my NES collection.  It’s just gotten too expensive and while I want to continue collecting, I don’t want to have to take out a second mortgage to do so.

SEGA Corner:  

The Sega Dude (have I mentioned him enough in this post?) picked these games for me on a forum.  The price was good, AND it completes my Wonderboy collection for the Master System which I’m kind of excited about!

Target Earth (or Assault Suit Leynos on the Japanese Mega Drive) is a game that I used to love.  It is VERY hard to beat without cheating.  I think there was a cheat in the game where on the first level you had to destroy the boss ship only… leaving everyone else alone… and that got you every weapon in the game which were quite hard to come by on normal play.  So yes I was able to beat it, but only by cheating.  I did get quite far on it in normal mode once… but only once.  I look forward to trying this game out again.

Until next time… and it might be a while since I’m not quite as active at game hunting for the aforementioned reasons… plus Judge Judy is on twice a day!

Nintendo Joe

The Hunt Must Go On!

 

I remember when I first asked the Sega Dude if he wanted to go game hunting with me, he thought that I wanted kill a deer and eat it.  I was shocked when he told me an emphatic “NO!”, but then later realized what he thought I meant.  Anyways… So I went to the above three events looking for games and I came out with some pretty cool titles.

First the pick ups are from Fan Expo.  What’s interesting here is that there was a store represented here called The Blue Gryphon which is a place that I visited in Gatineau, Quebec last year… but at the store their prices seemed a bit high… however at Fan Expo the games were not only at a good price but the owner was also willing to deal with me.  Also I finally acquired a title that I’ve been looking for since I started collecting for the NES… Might & Magic:  Secret of the Inner Sanctum!  I’m a huge fan of the M&M series and as this was the only title on the NES I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find; I was wrong.  In fact I had only seen the game once before at a store called Buy & Sell Kings but they had it complete with the box and that jacked up the price to over $100+tax… even though it is a cool game, it’s just too much.  Besides as you know I lik to buy my own boxes thanks to the help of the universal game cases, and thecoverproject.net (which by the way was down for a bit, but is now back up and running business as usually…phew!).  Might & Magic is an RPG that is from a first person POV.  There are many monsters to defeat, and many items to acquire… I can’t wait to get started as I’ve only played the beginning on an NES emulator for my Mac.  So in addition to M&M, I also bought Rollerblade Racer, Rally Bike, Garry Kitchen’s Battle Tank, and Tecmo Baseball, all for $70 cash.

For whatever reason I just didn’t have Tecmo Baseball in my collection… it is such a common game.  I sifted through several boxes of games and managed to pick out the few I didn’t already have from his common titles.  In his “rare” bin there were a few I needed but just didn’t want to spend the money.  One title that I kind of regret not buying was Nobunaga’s Ambition 2 for the NES.  The price was fair (I can’t remember how much exactly) but as I said, he wasn’t giving it away for a song:(

We went to Fan Expo on Friday night, and hit up the Barrie Game Exchange the following Sunday.  While I didn’t win any of the door prizes (they were actually really terrible prizes) a good time was had.  I met up with a few people I knew who were selling games including the Retro Game Bros., Flavio, Fred (my guy in Lakefield ON), and also had a chance to meet SeeJayAre who does a live garage sale pick ups video on youtube (he was just selling games like other vendors but no one knew who he was except me.  You should actually check out his channel as it is pretty cool… he was one of the pioneers of the hidden camera at garage sales video (at least up here in Canada).  He is actually from a city just outside Toronto… and man does he have lots of luck… but in a way he makes his own luck.  You’ll see what I mean.

Anyways the Barrie Game Exchange was bigger than I thought it would be… at least compared to the July exchange last summer it was fairly big… like 90 tables.  Still though it was no Waterloo Video Game Swap Meet which puts on the best game exchange in the area.  I believe the next one is on May 29th.

Above are the pick ups from the Barrie Game Exchange, the most notable being Rainbow Islands that I picked up for $30 which was a deal as most other dealers had it up for $50.  At least I didn’t talk myself up in price this time!  Paperboy has been a title that I have wanted, but the price was always too much for the game that it is.  I haven’t played it on the NES, but I have played it on the Commodore 64 and I remember thinking it was pretty good.  But the $20 most vendors wanted just didn’t seem worth it.  I managed to score Paperboy, Paperboy 2, and Jackal for $30 all in.  Not bad eh?!  F-15 Strike Eagle was part of the Rainbow Islands deal… this s a game that isn’t really worth speaking about so I won’t.

 

 

 

 

 

The above carts were traded to me from the Ice Man for the store credit that I had accrued last Christmas.  While the credit wasn’t “free”, it sure didn’t feel like I was spending my cold hard cash.  If you’ll recall, back last Boxing Day I went into the Ice Man’s store in Peterborough ON, and traded in pretty much all the doubles I had collected in a year… usually I sell these at the game exchange, but the Ice Man gives the best trade in value in town… the downside to this is that his games are also fairly expensive, but if you look hard you can find a deal.  The best deal that I found was for a copy of Dusty Diamond All Star Softball which according to RetrowareTV.com is the second most rare sports game on the NES (Stadium Events was not included in this top 10 list but rather as an honourable mention).  This is officially the rarest game in my collection.  The game normally sells for around $70 – $85CAN, but this carried a $65 price tag.  I’ve never seen the game before so jumped at the opportunity to trade for it.  Plus when you trade there is no tax on retro games… that’s another 13% savings:)  The other titles were fairly pricy… too much for my wallet, but not for trade.  To acquire the $450 in store credit, I probably spent about $100… so $4.50 on the dollar isn’t bad and makes these pick ups great as I probably would not have otherwise have gotten them.  Anyways the titles are Conan (obviously cool), Mickey’s Adventure in Numberland, and Nigel Mansell’s World Championship.

There is absolutely nothing remarkable about the above two games except that I once owned them and they disappeared.  I had the universal game case complete with covers printed, but somehow managed to lose these games.  The Sega Dude swears he didn’t steal them… and I believe him… which means they disappeared into thin air which does happen from time to time around these parts.  Anyways my North American NES black label collection is now complete:)  What is interesting is that this was all I started out collecting.  Then it got out of control, but that is a story for another day.

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe