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:)

 

 

Durham Game Convention 2018

Last Sunday April 8th, I went to the Durham Game Convention in Oshawa Ontario.  My dealer, Flavio said he had 1/3 of a table left over if I wanted to sell on it.  I’ve decided that it isn’t worth keeping the good SNES games that I kept from the previous sale last fall.  The reason is quite simply that every single game I kept is already on the unmodified SNES Classic… so great games like Super Metroid (my favourite), Secret of Mana, and my beloved boxed/complete Super Mario RPG were put up for sale.

A few days before the show, the Sega Dude put me in touch with a Kijiji post where the guy was selling a copy of Zombie Nation on the NES for $450… way over priced!  I politely said to the guy that if the game isn’t selling (it won’t) that I would be willing to pay him $300 for it (retail this game should sell for around $380), to which I received no reply.  No big deal… I wasn’t really expecting him to bite at my offer.  However, at the game swap, another dealer was selling the same game in mostly great condition for $350.  I told the guy that if I did well in selling at my table, then I would make him the same offer… $300 if it didn’t sell by the end of the show.

Behold, it didn’t sell, and I told the dude that I did well at my table, and that the offer still stood if he was interested.  It’s now officially my most expensive NES game as Dragon Fighter has really dropped in price since I picked it up… a fact my wife loves reminding me about!  Now I said that this copy of Zombie nation was in “mostly great condition”… the label is mint, and the front half of the cartridge is really good.  However the back half of the cart looks like someone put out a cigarette on it?!  It’s easy to fix, but come on… couldn’t they have put the cigarette out on their tongue like a real man?

This one dude dropped $400 at my table throughout the day and easily bought up 40% of what I was selling.  After all was said and done I sold a total of $600 in games.  I’m not sure how much I “made” as I can’t remember how much I paid for most of it… but I know I made quite a bit.

Pictured above is what was left of my SNES collection… while there was a lot of interest at the show, only one of my boxed games (Diddy Kong Racing) sold. There were also manuals and maps to Zelda, Mario All Stars, and Super Mario World.  As soon as I got home, I listed these remaining games on Kijiji, and in literally under a minute of posting, I had a response from a guy with an offer.  It was a bit low, but hey man I get it.  We agreed on a price and he picked up the whole lot for $400.  A really good deal for both him and I… I know I didn’t pay much for these pictured games, so I’m really happy with the sale.  I could have gotten more if I sold it piece by piece, but then I would have had to have all these people over to my house, put my dog in the back room so he doesn’t eat the customers, etc..

I’ve now got a bit of coin to spend around the retro gaming community.  Of course I’m looking to get the most for the least (who isn’t) and I figure I’ll do quite well at the Barrie Game Exchange this May 6th!

The above games were my other pickups at the Durham Game Swap.  Nothing special, but I didn’t have them, and I negotiated a fantastic price for them!

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 Reason I Sale

Last weekend myself and several friends went garage sailing as the area my parents live in was having their annual garage sale event.  Honestly, the pickings were really slim this year.  It seems to have been in decline every year for the decade that I’ve been going to this event.  The odd common Wii game here, and a copy of Namco Museum for the GBA was all that there was… in other words there was nothing even remotely interesting to look at, let alone talk about on here.  Who knew that at approximately 11:00am I would strike gold!

I found a box of gaming paraphernalia with the above sign taped to it at an unassuming older couple’s house.

The first thing in the box that caught my eye was a PS1 console and the above games.  Nothing to write home about as even though these games are complete, they along with the console are fairly worthless.  So I dug a little deeper…

Ahhh… some SNES manuals.  Not pictured is a sealed copy of all the manuals for the SNES console.  I already have these, but something told me to dig deeper and so I did…

Complete mint in box copies of the above games were found.  Now we’re talking!  Generally I don’t keep boxes unless they are for a really good game, however I already have a copy of F-Zero and I’m not interested at all in Extra Innings.  I used to love to play baseball, but playing the video game versions (regardless of the platform) always seemed really boring.  The Sega Dude expressed interest in having these so I’m going to give them to him.  Now that I was hot on the trail, I kept digging…

What’s this… Turbo Grafx-16 games?!  Even though these are sports titles, you never see games for the TG-16 any more.  In fact this is the first I have ever seen them at a garage sale… and I have been to a lot of sales!  However, this is fools gold compared to the 24K rock that I found at the bottom of the box…

Holy Toledo a Turbo Express and a copy of Bonk’s Adventure!!!  Now we’re talking!  When I first saw this I knew I had stuck gold.  I knew it was expensive but didn’t know just how valuable this was.  I figured it would sell for around $150, but after the Sega Dude told me that the Retro Game Bros. have it currently for sale with a price tag of $500 I was floored!  Can you say Cha-Ching!  I have zero interest in collecting for what is probably one of the most difficult systems to collect for, but I may be able to sell this and buy a really rare NES game that I otherwise wouldn’t have any business owning.  I’m going to keep this for a while to check it out… and see if this puppy actually works.  I don’t understand why it is so valuable as it is just a bulky hand held system with a REALLY small screen, but for some reason people are looking for these.

So, I’m $10 poorer than I was when I set out last Saturday, but I feel very lucky!  I scored huge!

SEGA Corner:  The events described above didn’t happen exactly as I told it… in fact I didn’t even see the sign that said it was all for $10.  I saw the mint SNES boxed games first, and then the Turbo Express… and I knew I had to have it.  When the guy came out asking for only $10 I was giddy with adrenaline.  The other games were just a bonus… if only the previous owner wasn’t such a sports fan but rather was into RPG’s instead:(  Oh well I shouldn’t complain… but there was one more find in that good box…

It’s not very exciting… maybe even a bit of a let down compared to the rest, but I’m going to mention it anyway to keep SEGA Corner alive.

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

How Obnoxious, and Who Knew?!

It’s one thing to get beaten to a garage sale, but the competition is starting to become obnoxious.  While garage sailing this past weekend I went to several sales and gave my usual greeting of “Good morning… you don’t by chance have any Nintendo for sale do you?”  Usually I get told “sorry we don’t”, or “sorry I’m keeping it”, and occasionally I get told “you should have been here earlier.”  Now I can understand the getting there earlier thing and of course the desire to keep these little treasures, but I was told something new last weekend that I hope is just a one off.  I approached this one sale and was told that the games had already sold….no big deal… as I said I get that all the time (hey, you can’t hit every sale at once!)  Now what was interesting about this particular sale was that this family was supposed to have this event two weekends ago, but the weather was cold and wet so they cancelled.  Apparently, some jerk came to their door anyways and asked for the games.  I was astounded… how obnoxious!  I can’t imagine someone coming to my door wanting to buy something when I don’t have a sale going on.  My wife tells me that this is just the type of thing that the people I watch on Youtube do, but I think this is well past most of us.  Or is it… what do you think?

Anyways the above two games are what I found garage sailing as most regular people do, and for the price of $4, how could I go wrong?!  Now when I first saw these games, I recognized Harvest Moon as being a fairly popular title. I had never heard of Radiant Dawn before, but was somewhat familiar with the Fire Emblem series.  Apparently this is one of the rarest, most sought after, and expensive Wii games out there.  Xenoblade Chronicles falls behind all three categories, and that’s saying something because supposedly it is an incredible game.  So no, I’m not going to sell/trade it…at lest not yet.  I want to see what all the hype is about.  Is it just expensive because it’s rare?  Lets face it, the Nintendo has put out some pretty crappy games that are now rare and expensive because no one bought them when they were first released…. Colour a Dinosaur, Donkey Kong Junior Math, etc.).  Is this the fate of Radiant Dawn?  Well I think this is worth a look-see and I plan on hooking up my Wii to give this baby a test drive.  This is the first really rare video game I’ve ever owned so I’m rather excited about it.  And if it sucks I’ll sell it for 100 bucks and take my wife out on the town.  In the end I’m doing all this collecting for her!  I love you honey;)

I found the above book in a bin at a yard sale.  Too bad that this was the only Nintendo item they had.  It would have been pretty sweet to get the games that this guidebook goes with.  In fact, The Legend of Zelda:  Oracle of Seasons is the only Zelda title that I am missing… oh no wait, I don’t have a copy of Hyrule Warriors either so I take that back.

The Sega Dude actually got me to use my PS4 as something other than a device that plays Netflix.  He kind of bullied me into playing a game called “The Division” with him, and I must say I’m rather glad he did.  I enjoy gaming, but lately the newer games are a bit much for me… I must be getting old!  But The Division is actually pretty good.  The mechanics and graphics are great, though I fear it will become rather repetitive and boring as I work my way through the game.  That being said I’ve not entered the Dark Zone yet and I hear this is where it really gets interesting.  I’m going to go rogue and get me some loot!  Anyways after we were done playing, the Sega Dude asked if I wanted to go visit the Retro Game Bros..  As I’ve not been there in a while I figured why not?!  They are a pretty cool bunch of guys that like to talk about retro games.  Hopefully they aren’t getting tired of it yet.  Actually I’m rather envious of them as they have done what I can only dream of doing… opening up a retro game store.  The thing that’s held me back is that I would have to quite my day job that I already do okay at, and don’t entirely hate.  The other reason is that I really feel that the popularity of video game collecting right now is just a fad.  I mean even three years ago games were about half as expensive as they are now.  Those were the days… actually ten years ago were the days for retro collecting.  It is so popular now that it has almost become cliche, and I’m starting to feel like a moron every time I ask for Nintendo at yard sales.  Since when has that stopped me though?!  I just don’t think I’ll be going door to door asking for games just yet… but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures… and times are becoming rough for game collectors like us:(

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe.

New Super Metroid?!!!

Just a short note.  Why isn’t this real?  While I’m a huge fan of Super Metroid on the SNES, I just saw this video on youtube.  It is a 3-D revision of Super Metroid that I don’t believe exists.  Now this is just a demo, but shows us what the possibilities are for a new Metroid.  A re-make… wow I would love that.  In fact that might be all the inspiration I need to purchase a Wii U (the one Nintendo console I don’t own).  Anyways check out this video.  It’s a short “game”, but it shows us the possibilities on the Wii U.  I would buy this game if it were of course much longer… and real!

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe… enjoy the video!

Video Game Vacation

Well it is March Break and unfortunately because of the crappy exchange rate we will not be going down to Florida this year.  It’s hard to pass up all those flea markets on the way down, but the CAN dollar just really sucks right now.  So we are going to the lovely Kingston, Ontario for a few days.  It’s just to get away for a bit.  Of course it doesn’t hurt that Belleville is on the way (I had a lot of success last year at a video game store here last year so I’m anxious to go back) .  Who knows what goodies I’ll come home with?!  However although my hopes are up, I know that retro game prices have also gone up… so Belleville might be a downer… but as it is on the way to our destination it’s worth a look-see:)

After years of trying, I’ve finally broken the Value Village code… I know what day and what time is the best to go and pick up loot.  I can’t divulge all my secrets, but don’t worry… Nintendo Joe has your back!

This was the first pick up.  Now my Japanese is a little rusty, but I believe that this is a game called Peetan.  The game (like many gameboy games) is rather simple in that you have to drop eggs down from the top platform to spring up your chicks that are being hunted by a big bad wolf.  Check out the game here.  I picked it up for $3.50 just because the label looked kind of interesting.  I had no idea that the game was going for $85US on Ebay!  Now I’m not crazy, I know this is only an asking price… and everyone on Ebay thinks their stuff is worth a fortune, but even at half that price I scored big!  I don’t really have any attachment to it, so I’ll probably use it as trade bait.

That’s right… not one, but two Super Nintendo consoles!  For $35 bucks each plus a 30% discount how could I refuse?  Again, more trade bait… I’m hoping to get $50 each in trade as they are both in excellent condition.  I know I could probably get more for them if i sold them on Kijiji, but then you have to deal with the back and forth emails, and meeting up with the person… it isn’t worth the extra few bucks.  Plus you never know what kind of psychos there are out there.

This next game is... and please excuse my rough Japanese translation, but I think it is the Sailor Moon R game for the Gameboy.  Again I paid $3.50 once all was said and done, however this one might be a bit more difficult to unload in trade as the game requires that you speak Japanese.  You can see the game play here.   Please don’t waste your time and watch the entire hour and twenty minute video…. I didn’t.  It goes for about $18 on Ebay, so I hope to get $10 out of it.  Or maybe I’ll just give it to my room mate from college… he was into Sailor Moon at the time… not sure why?!

Sega Corner:  The post wouldn’t be complete if not for a comment on the Sega Dude.  He gave me a few items that are pretty cool.  The first is a Super Mario All Star’s manual.  It is in mint shape, and I’m not sure why he had an extra copy of it, but I’ll give it a good home:)

The next two things he gave me were a copy of Legacy of the Wizard and Shinobi for the NES.  Shinobi is a good game, but Legacy of the Wizard is garbage… however for some reason I don’t have either in my collection so it is a welcomed addition:)

That’s all for now.  Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

 

Got It!

First and foremost, I have to thank the Sega Dude’s beautiful and thoughtful wife for finding (and giving me) a near mint box and instruction manual for my Diddy Kong Racing cartridge for my N64.  Thank you, and this service will not be forgotten!  It will go in the collection and shine with pride:)

 

I’ve been doing a lot of garage sailing on Saturday mornings and I must say that I’m getting much better at it as I gain more experience.  I’ve been watching a youtube channel by some guy named SeeJayAre who documents his garage sale finds and has quite a substantial collection of his own.  I wouldn’t classify him as a reseller, but more of a trader. He seems to trade all his doubles to pick up games that he doesn’t have in his collection.  The big difference between SeeJayAre and myself (well his collection is much grander than mine) is that he collects for pretty much every single system.  I limit myself to NES and SNES… and I dabble in Game Cube, Wii, and the N64.  I have a few titles for the Sega Master System, and Sega Genesis which I usually cover in the ever popular “Sega Corner” portion of this blog;)

Below is a score that I made at Value Village last Tuesday while on my way to pick up my wife at work.  This post is titled “Got It” because of this find.  Nothing in here is really that big a deal (Super Mario All Stars has some trading value), but I swooped in on another guy trying to buy the games.  He asked, “can I see the SNES games” and the person behind the counter gave him half the pile.  I waited for a few seconds and then asked if I could see the other half.  Low and behold in my half there was a game that I didn’t have… Dr. Mario & Tetris double cart for the SNES!  Yay… but more than that the other guys pile of games were worthless pieces of junk like Wheel of Fortune… sucks to be him!  I finally scored (though it doesn’t make up for the “Early Bird Gets the Worm” tragedy where I missed a NES with about 8 games for $5.  I’m still bitter about that one!

 

These games are some of the loot I bought while garage sailing.  While there is nothing special here, these are games that were not out on display at the yard sale.  I used my typical line (picked up from SeeJayAre)… “do you happen to have any old video games like Nintendo or Gameboy, or Sega”  For once the lady said that she actually had a few games inside the house if I wanted to take a look.  She brought them out, and while there was nothing to write home about at $2 a piece for complete games this was a bargain.  I’ll probably keep Pac Man Party and trade the others for more desirable titles.

The Pokemon Pinball came into my collection thanks to my amazing, beautiful, and generous wife.  While I don’t really collect Pokemon, this game was a big hit at the Swap Meet last March.  I should be able to get some good trade-in value for it.  That being said, I just looked it up, and it isn’t worth that much at all, but never the less I still thank my wife for looking out for me and the collection!  Keep your eyes open honey… you might just find something great!

Sega Corner:  A special congrats to the Sega Dude for setting up a youtube page that is becoming ever more profitable for him.  I think he was up to $0.34 the last time i checked.  That’s a lot more than I have earned, but then I don’ t have a youtube channel.  I’m not quite at that calibre yet (I still have lots to learn about this blog page first!).  I’m so proud of him and just a bit jealous!

That’s all for today.

Nintendo Joe

Waterloo Game Swap 2015

Before we get started on this weeks post, I thought I would direct your attention to this website (click here) which has a very funny video making fun of us video gaming nerds.  We’re so lame!

Anyways this weeks post is about the game swap in Waterloo Ontario that happened on March 29th, 2015.  What is there really to say… it was a good swap.  I sold nearly all my merchandise and made a profit of around $220… which I then spent on more games to add to my collection.  Apparently my prices were “really good” and “the lowest at the show” according to several customers.  Hey man… I was able to add to my collection and that’s what counts to this nerd!

This is a picture of my buddy Flavio and I at the swap.  Between him, the Sega Dude, and I, he really came out on top with a whopping $900 in sales… and he was able to pick up several quality NES titles like Toki and Times of Lore for cheap which I am extremely jealous of.  At least the Sega Dude isn’t lording these games over me!

We managed to score a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles for our friend the Stone Mason.  The price tag says $75 but I negotiated a deal for $70 which doesn’t sound like much but the game goes for much more than that in the stores.  I have no idea what type of game it is, but the Stone Mason really wanted it and thus he now has it.  I would promote his site, but I think he has given up on that:(  So let me know…. what type of game is this?  I know it is an RPG, but is it actually any good?  Maybe I’ll borrow it some day from my friend and defeat it, but until then I’ll have to rely on your comments when deciding if it is any good or not.

I picked also picked up a copy of Mario Party 7 for the Game Cube.  It isn’t anything special, but the Mario Party games are kind of fun.  That being said, I bet they were a lot more fun back in the day.  I wanted this title for no other reason than I didn’t have it in my collection and for some strange reason I’ve started accumulating all the Mario Party games.  I’m missing Mario Party 1, 3, and 9… the latter being for the Wii U which I also do not own yet… I’m close though… ever so close!

This is a picture of me and my buddy Jay Bartlett who is starring in the upcoming movie Nintendo Quest.  Actually the movie used to be called NES Club, but Nintendo Quest is a much better name as the former didn’t make any sense at all.  The movie is basically about him visiting game stores all over the United States and Canada in order to build a complete NES collection.  We don’t know his budget, but we do know he travelled a crazy distance in order to complete the quest.  Was he successful?  I don’t know.  As close as we are (which is like fire and ice apart) he wouldn’t tell me.  I look forward to seeing your video Jay, and good luck.  My prediction is that he failed, but I’m hoping I’m wrong.  The reason I’m so pessimistic is because there are tons of obscure NES games and I can’t see how on earth he would be able to buy them all.  One of the rules is that he is not allowed to buy games online… only in person at the stores.  Unfortunately they don’t say how much he pays for the games which to me is a really important fact.  I mean who cares if you picked up a copy of Mega Man for $80… for crying out loud I could do that!  Fortunately I already own this title:)

Sega Corner:  So I managed to pick up a copy of my beloved Phantasy Star II and a copy of Granada for the Sega Genesis.  These games are both awesome.  If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that Phantasy Star II is my favourite RPG of all time… almost blasphemous coming from a website dedicated to Nintendo I know, but true never the less.  Phantasy Star 1, 2, and 4 are the best RPG’s to me. 3 just sucked! Perhaps I’m a bit nostalgic, but ya… they are better then anything Nintendo has thrown at me.  That being said Super Metroid is over all the best game I have ever played so take that Sega!  Granada is a simple but really fun shooter with great graphics and music.  I remember beating the game for the first time in front of all my friends in the Sega Dude’s basement in the early 90’s.  Crazy as it may sound, no one of the female sex was impressed:(  It did however score me a few high fives from the boys!  Oh Granada… how you tried to best me, but in the end it was I who was victorious!

See you next time.

Nintendo Joe

 

Ottawa

My wife and I went to Ottawa to visit a good friend of ours over the spring break.  Along the way we thought we would stop off at the local thrift stores and a small chain (5 locations) called Chumleighs so I could do some retro video game shopping!

These were all pick ups from the Chumleighs at the Belleville location.  Of everything here, the one I’m most excited about is the official NES Cleaning Kit.  It isn’t that it’s worth a lot, but more that I haven’t seen one (let alone in the box) in a very long time.  At $12 the price seemed about right too so I nabbed it.  The four Super Nintendo games I bought are ones that I’ve been looking for for a while, however every time I see them they are in some over priced game store where I have had to take a pass.  Both Ultima games look like fun, and if Lemmings 2 is half as fun as the first chapter then it will be a worth while purchase.  Galaxy 5000 was just at a good price and I didn’t have it yet so I picked it up.

 I already have these games and thus I bought them to trade at the Waterloo game swap which happened last weekend. I will give an update in my next blog of what I ended up trading them for (I still have to take the pictures… also I’m still waiting for the Sega Dude to email me a picture

I got really happy when I found a copy of Mario Party 6 for $4.00 at a Salvation Army thrift shop in Ottawa, however I was disappointed to discover that the game inside wasn’t as advertised.  I bought it anyway as I’ll never get a case and manual for that cheap.  Now I just need to find someone (perhaps jjgames.com) who will sell me just the disc.  I always wondered who in their right mind would ever order “just the disc”, but now I know… ME.

At the same Salvation army they were auctioning off an NES console with 12 games.  While there were a few titles I didn’t have, tucked away at the back of the lot was a mint copy of the elusive Action 52 with manual!  The highest bid was only $120, but seeing as how I don’t live in Ottawa I couldn’t really place my own bid unless I put my friends information down instead of mine.  I bid anyway at $250… cheap for an Action 52 cart.  I probably (actually definitely) should have bid higher but the thing is I didn’t really want it for my collection.  I’m going for a complete NES officially licensed collection and the Action 52 does not fit this part of the criteria.  It would have however been a very valuable trading piece.  It’s all moot however as I don’t think I won it. The auction was yesterday and my friend in Ottawa would have called me by now… or maybe he is just being a dink about it and bid on the game for himself!  Oh well, it was fun to think about for a while.

Sega Corner:  No updates from the Ottawa trip aside from that I will be going back to Belleville at some point with the Sega Dude to visit Chumleighs again.  They had quite a few Genesis games for sale.  The thing about Chumleighs is that while they are a gaming store, their prices are usually what I would call fair… meaning that they are at or slightly below that of pricecharting.com or one of my several gaming price guide apps that I have on my phone.

All the other stores in Ottawa like Microplay were inconsistently overpriced… meaning that they were asking for either WAY too much money, or just a bit too much money that I took a pass.  In fact there was one store in Quebec that we went to that was in the middle of nowhere that had the BEST selection of games that I’ve ever seen.  However you guessed it… asking too much money.  For example they wanted $250 for a copy of Snow Bros. on the NES.  I suppose I could have tried haggling a bit, but you know how that goes when the person you are bargaining with is some underpaid teenager who just couldn’t give a hoot, and we are just lucky that they showed up for work.

I managed to score these two titles at a Value Village somewhere along the way:)

Until next time…

Nintendo Joe