>Go to convention>Small job in a middling city far away from the capital pretty much for locals>Bunch of stalls selling games>Everything is sealed in plastic, some shit graded stuff in plastic cubes>Nobody is buying anything, just looking at the prices and backing away>Lowest prices were £50 but went as high as £950 for ps2 and snes games>Every stall run by some balding, bespectacled greaseball who looks like he has not changed since 1993 and runs a nasty bowling alley in his off time>By end of the day people are leaving with bags full of manga, anime and horror movie blu rays and posters and plushies and shit but the retro game stalls remain fully stockedI mean i'm sure selling one single game to some mouthbreather thinking hes found his next speculator investment for the ebay slob market pays for the stall costs and its not like this is a recent development but does anybody actually buy games from cons anymore?I think the last i bought was Forbidden Siren 2 for £25 back in 2018. Saw the same game at this con in worse condition for £170
>>12678918Most people are cutting out the middlemen lately, I look at my local fbmp and I can buy pretty much anything I want at 20-40% off pricecharting. It's good for resellers and the consumers.
>>12678918these are not for people that play games anymore they are for speculator investors buying the things metaljesusrocks tells them to buy as part of an ebay auction hustle ring. They just picked up the idea from Rudy and Magic the Gathering.
I play games. I don't collect plastic. All my consoles are modded.Fuck that.
>>12678918I like some of the American conventions, you got people like Champ games or 8 bit guy where you can buy stuff and save a lot on postage. At mine they had those retro books like Sunsoft history, impressive how thick and heavy they were.I brought the game Sol Cresta and even had Yuzo Koshira sign it in front of me. Well worth it.>>12679027That had someone like that but the boxes had small scuffs while mine were almost mint since I saved them from when they were new. Zelda N64 is ridiculously common compared to pretty much any Amstrad GX4000 game, I'm looking for real rare stuff like 64DD.
>>12678918>Every stall run by some balding, bespectacled greaseball who looks like he has not changed since 1993 and runs a nasty bowling alley in his off timeFucking soul.
>>12679232I play games and collect the plastic to do so. None of my systems require modding. Fuck yea.
>>12679336I bought 8bit guy's one puzzle vic 20 game at a con. He even gave me a discount off the price.
>>12678918I actually had good experience buying from gamestop online, prices were better than ebay in many cases and free shippingHowever, if you care about games CIB and in good condition that's probably not your best bet
I think one of the only game things I bought at a con was an MVS cartridge because I was able to get it for cheaper than ebay pricing. Would have been about a decade ago at this point.It's been a long time since I've gone to a convention, not even sure if there are any gaming-focused cons still active in my area, I think most are more general entertainment conventions or "retro" or collecting conventions that aren't specifically about old gaming. Paying to go to a con where they have an arcade, old consoles/computers, and booths selling old games is fun, but I don't have as much interest in going to one where it's just random old stuff and focused on people trying to flip whatever the fuck for ridiculous prices, at that point I'd just as soon go to a flea market.>>12678918>graded stuffThat seems like such a stupid thing to try to hawk at a con, given how few people in the world want to and are able to buy them; it's to the point I have to imagine it is simply dickwaving or a "after seeing my sealed 'n slabbed copy of Super Mario World with a $50,000 price tag on it, my loose copy over here for *only* $50 doesn't seem too bad, huh?" thing. Don't get me wrong, I collect games and enjoy buying them, but when that becomes the entire focus of an event, I quickly lose interest.
i go to a big convention every year and buy GB, GBC, and GBA games.
>>12679232this most consoles have nice softmods now i rarely buy games unless i find them at early 2000's prices
>>12678918>When did you last cry about the prices of games?Do the tears of laughter I had reading your angsty little poorfag shitpost count? If so, then then
>>12679406most people have considered ebay a wash selling at rube prices to posers for a while, which is a shame.
Convention? There has never been one within 2 hours from me, but I wouldn’t go even if there were. Living out innards long enough and you start getting panic attacks going to the grocery store. I have some “not for sale” con anime VHS tapes that a friend in the 90s traded me with, but they’re exactly the same as the standard ones sold in stores, with a sticker.
>>12680707> innardsInnawoods. I would only use an apple phone if it were free, here we are.
>>12679336i feel like actual collectors goes for printed stuff over the games themselves. Issues of stuff like Newtype or the old high quality printed walkthrough books. I got one for Crystal Chronicles a while back and makes the modern guides they make for stuff like fromsoft games look like coffee table fodder.
>>12680707geoguesser time: utah or west virginia?
>>12680714Alabama. I’m that guy. I literally live in a swamp and used to live a 30 minute drive to the nearest store or gas station.
I know its whining but im just so sick of every fucking hobby or enthusiast thing becoming part of the scalper grift economy. When i learned there are discords that have bots camping hobbyist youtube channels to flag terms and brands for what to automate buying second 1 preorders of the whole thing just seemed beyond repair to me. Its scalpers selling to scalpers who think they are scamming each other over tat that is secretly gold bullion on the downlow. But its really just media sealed in plastic enjoyed by nobody ever and its just kinda sad.
>>12678918Never.
>>12678918>When did you last buy a retro game from a convention stall?cringe>Lowest prices were £50 but went as high as £950 for ps2 and snes gamesholy fucking cringe> but the retro game stalls remain fully stockedwhat happened is that you have a bunch of fucking retards that bought up a tonne of useless shit during covid when prices for old shit were high and product was in demand. what you're now seeing are a bunch of fucking idiots that can't reduce the prices too far because they'll lose a tonne of money. they hope they can get some dumb cunt to buy whatever it is and refuse to barter
Never. Who the fuck is going to this gay shit?Temporarily blocked by the gay janny. Fuck you nigger. Go post another nights into dreams thread ya faggot.
>>12680827Your mental health is not your fault but it is your responsibility. I hope you one day find a way to power through and become the man your father wished you would become. Namaste.
>>12680835>Your mental health is not your fault but it is your responsibilityWe….. live in a society?
>>12678918I live in Saudi Arabia where it's expensive and a pain in the ass to get retro video games. There's almost no market for it here. Usually I get games shipped to my parents' house and return once a year to pick some up, or I have a few packages collected at a warehouse and shipped to me all at once.But there was a collector con near me recently with some old games. They went as far back as NES but there weren't many CIB earlier than PS1 era. So I bought a few PS1 games -- Silent Hill, Stuntmaster, Bushido Blade, a few others. I overpaid compared to eBay prices, but didn't have to pay tax or shipping, so I came out about equal and got to play them right away.
>>12680878Dude, you can’t just emulate in Saudi Arabia? I can’t imagine that copyright holders of 30 year old games would prosecute you there. Idk how it is there but I could get any pre-2010 game for free in 30 seconds.
>>12680881Do you know how many hours the slaves pushing the big wheels in the power plant under his high rise would need to work for that?
>>12678918>Looking to buy a JP import>Game store has it for $60>Firm pricing, no room for negotiations>Look up the game on eBay>$52 with free shipping>The listing is from that very same storeHope he enjoys that >15%eBay sales fee + taxes + cost & labor of shippingThese days you either buy from a fellow collector or you go online, feels like only suckers prone to impulsive purchases enjoy conventions
>>12680878i recall meeting people living there in the early 1990s that were deep into piracy scene because it was easier to deal with wares than with government restrictions and trying to import anything into the country.
Is CEX the worst its ever been in Bongland? everytime i walk past the window cases at my locals when im doon tha toon i always see shit like:>Gameboy colour, unboxed, slightly damaged £90>Ocarina of Time in box £150>Rule of Rose or Haunting Ground £1450>Bunch of stolen ipods £90-£400>Single Steamdeck thats been there for a few years £250Its just a pawn shop at this point.
>>12680881Idk why but I have everdrives for my cartridge consoles (and Sega CD) but I use physical for disc-based games. I collect too though so I want physical>>12680889Yeah that makes sense. There was also almost no culture for games pre-PS1. There was Japanese Nintendo stuff, Atari, and I think Genesis had a small base, but it was pretty niche until PlayStation
>>12680895> I collect too though so I want physicalWell, even here in the US I’d call you a faggot. I have my childhood early 90s collection and nothing more. Even the games I own I just emulate on PC. It’s just software. God isn’t real, fuck Saudi Arabia - you know, the Saudis did 9/11. I don’t feel good about that.
>>12680885back 2012 or so, local pawn store started increasing prices. no real apparent reason why. started noticing things that used to be common disappearing. all that was left in the "games" was pure sports slop and other shit that needed bespoke controllers that are nowhere to be found. turns out this guy decided to use ebay as a valuation tool and sell all the merchandise that would be useful on ebay at over inflated prices, well above market value.>Hope he enjoys that >15%eBay sales fee + taxes + cost & labor of shipping when you mention the ebay take and other costs to such people you can see them slowly have a mental breakdown and they still stand firm. that's sad and desperate - not a real business.
>>12680895>Yeah that makes sense. There was also almost no culture for games pre-PS1.before the 1990s things were pretty wild in that country so it's taken decades for the saudi government to just relax just a tiny little bit. it's progress. that country has come a long way in the last 30-40 years.
>>12680885I go to TooManyGays every year and always walk away with something interesting. It helps to be social and know what vendors to avoid, but you can find deals, oddities and those few that are there to just not have to take so much shit home on the last day. I will say that it use to be that(and still is to an extent) non game specific cons that will have people potentially selling games at (comic cons, retro nostalgia shows) will have games cheaper. Usually at shows there will be one vendor with a weird thing im looking for and i can get it under the cheapest ebay price.
>>12680931I always think of going to an anime con and a stall randomly had the Figma figurine of the Silent Hill 2 Nurse for £30 and i snapped that up and the next day at a retro game con saw the exact same figure for £95. Absolute scam artists.
>>12680936Yep. It's also a matter of people looking to just sell their excess shit and those thinking they can maintain it as their primary source of income. I'm friends with a guy who does the con circuit every year, but its just a side hobby really for him and lets him build up his own collection in the process. I also started selling at a small game show near me where i basically just off load extra stuff of mine twice a year i end up with from flea markets and thrift stores, though honestly i rather just trade stuff for things i want. I always price atleast 5 sheckles below the lowest ebay price, because thats how i buy. If i can order something for less immediately, why would i buy something you are unwilling to negotiate on?
>>12680902>I'm a retarded angry poor schizoYeah I don't really care desu>>12680917I don't know what it was like back then, but from what I hear it was a weird mix. White foreigners could get away with big parties and raves, but locals and Arab foreigners would get beaten if they met in mixed male/female groups in public
>>12678918I got a copy of Star Wars Episode III for PS2 for like 10€ at an anime con in May. There were a couple of stalls with games, mildly overpriced, but nothing too excessive. They had some Japanese imports, though nothing that would interest me, not to mention I can import those myself for a better price and in better condition at that.
>>12678918Well that's easy: I didn't.
>>12680902God is real and shooting strays like that will catch you strays. Anyway conventions are probably all out of control price wise, but if you live in the back waters of some places yardsales are the place to go. Meet nice people, and usually they have at least one retro game to sell. I’ve had some pretty great success at yardsales and some thrift stores in the Deep South. I absolutely would go to a con tho for retro gaming just for fun tho. If the cons encouraged trading that would be awesome because I have a massive collection and I’d definitely be down to trade stuff but I have no idea if that’s even a thing that goes on there.
>>12680749You can thank shows like Pawn Stars or Storage Wars, articles about how old shit could be worth thousands, and even gambling culture, combined with a general feeling of a lack of availability of upwardly mobile jobs. The concept in the past used to be that you find a low level job, get your work experience, get your education, and after a few years you have a nice salary. Now more people view that as an impossibility (or at least too hard), so people are increasingly seduced by the concept of finding some cheap shit that's actually worth thousands or millions, or being an early adopter of something that skyrockets in value. You could fight for an interview for a 5 year work experience listing that pays barely above minimum wage, then endure HR hiring games and endless interviews, to get a job that will maybe one day blossom into a $100k+/year career, that itself could even one day be baleeted due to AI and/or outsourcing... or you can camp out at Target and line up some orderbots to scoop up the latest Pokemon card releases, with the hope that those cards wind up becoming the next hot thing that you can grade (or even resell as-is), allowing you to turn a $2,000 investment into $50,000, or scavenge estate sales with the hope that you find a box filled with sealed games for $100 that you can flip for $100,000.And to be fair, there are presumably people who made a lot of money by hopping on the graded sealed game racket early on (how many of those were "normal" people and not just insider buddies of hypemen is up for debate), just like a lot of Pokemon card hoarders probably made big bucks by scooping up tons of cards on the cusp of the boom, or even just sitting on shit purchased decades ago.Basically, a lot of people view that their only way to make it is by getting lucky with investing heavily in the next hype train before the train leaves the station.
>>12682034And yes, obviously this is unsustainable in many cases, and a lot of these markets are basically just these hustle investors selling off to the next group of hustle investors who happen to think the price ceiling is even higher, but at least for now, there are enough people who don't think the ceiling has been reached, so the buying and selling will continue, even if a lot of genuine fans have been priced out of sections of the market.
