Last week I posted a video about my own flea market retro hunting adventure. I went with my family and came away with what I initially thought was a good haul, but after second-guessing, I reasoned it wasn't all that great. Here's the video for those of you who haven't seen it.
My friend, Lady_Fi, caught the retro hunting bug and wanted to go with me yesterday to a flea market in the next state, the same one I went to last week. This time I was strapped for cash and couldn't buy much.
We walked around for a few minutes but only found the occasional sports game. My friend picked up Billy Hatcher and Viewtiful Joe though. We headed over to the infamous reseller's table and found out the ugly truth....
(This next part, I don't intend to sully her name, whatever it may be, but I intend to post as a warning to anyone going to Lee County Flea Market: if you see a woman at a table with a lot of games on it, just walk away.)
This woman is a sniper. She showed us the original Genesis and said she had just picked it up that morning, meaning from someone else' table. And she's a definite reseller. Someone out to make a profit off of the idiots. And let me just say: this part of Alabama isn't exactly a shining star. My friend is looking for an NES and I asked the lady how much she had one for.
She said $100.
I'll let that sink in for you....
Meanwhile, here are some search results from ebay :
$100 for an NES.
Not in the box and probably not with controllers.
I would give her $20 and a slap in the face. Prices on ebay are $50+ cheaper. She preys on those who aren't knowledgeable about gaming prices and she doesn't know anything about the games themselves. She's like an independent GameSlop: making money off of people who don't know that better stores exist.
I asked to see her original Game Boy games and she had them priced at $10 and above, and the selection was absolute crap! My friend found Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers on Genesis for $13 but we walked away from the table with nothing and saved ourselves some cash. Later in the day we made our way to Play N Trade and found MMPR for $5.
I filmed it, and its goofy, but its really bad. So bad that I can't salvage it. So bad that I won't try to piece something together. So bad that not even putting a FantomenK song in the background will save it. This video will go in File 13 and maybe in the future I'll do bloopers and use that as a starting point.
The Short-And-To-The-Point of it all:
The original idea of it came from the Retro Hunters. They inspired me to go out to a flea market and look for games. However, these games are often overpriced, overabundant, sports games, or scraps. I can get a better deal at Play N Trade (I say PNT because its the only retro store near me. We don't have a GameCrazy or Gamerz Exchange or GameAttack *cough*franchise, Craig*cough*). I have a list made out of retro games that I want to acquire but it has put me at a crossroads:
Is it all about flea market hunting, or about getting the retro games I want?
Do I shell out $40 for Super Metroid at a flea market, or get six games for $40 at a corporate store?
Support the little guys or give money to the giants?
Its a tough call but its my list and I'm not picky about how I get the games. Play N Trade, which is an underdog when compared to GameSlop, has been good to me and I intend to keep the games I collect for a long while, not just play and throw back like a fish...
That was an Alabama analogy, wasn't it? The place is starting to affect me.
The next planned flea market outing is in late March/early April. I have to save up money again and Valentine's Day isn't helping. In the meantime, I have several games to play that are on the backburner, and even more still that I've never beaten (Mass Effect NG+, O_O).
My friend, Lady_Fi, caught the retro hunting bug and wanted to go with me yesterday to a flea market in the next state, the same one I went to last week. This time I was strapped for cash and couldn't buy much.
We walked around for a few minutes but only found the occasional sports game. My friend picked up Billy Hatcher and Viewtiful Joe though. We headed over to the infamous reseller's table and found out the ugly truth....
(This next part, I don't intend to sully her name, whatever it may be, but I intend to post as a warning to anyone going to Lee County Flea Market: if you see a woman at a table with a lot of games on it, just walk away.)
This woman is a sniper. She showed us the original Genesis and said she had just picked it up that morning, meaning from someone else' table. And she's a definite reseller. Someone out to make a profit off of the idiots. And let me just say: this part of Alabama isn't exactly a shining star. My friend is looking for an NES and I asked the lady how much she had one for.
She said $100.
I'll let that sink in for you....
Meanwhile, here are some search results from ebay :
$100 for an NES.
Not in the box and probably not with controllers.
I would give her $20 and a slap in the face. Prices on ebay are $50+ cheaper. She preys on those who aren't knowledgeable about gaming prices and she doesn't know anything about the games themselves. She's like an independent GameSlop: making money off of people who don't know that better stores exist.
I asked to see her original Game Boy games and she had them priced at $10 and above, and the selection was absolute crap! My friend found Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers on Genesis for $13 but we walked away from the table with nothing and saved ourselves some cash. Later in the day we made our way to Play N Trade and found MMPR for $5.
I filmed it, and its goofy, but its really bad. So bad that I can't salvage it. So bad that I won't try to piece something together. So bad that not even putting a FantomenK song in the background will save it. This video will go in File 13 and maybe in the future I'll do bloopers and use that as a starting point.
The Short-And-To-The-Point of it all:
The original idea of it came from the Retro Hunters. They inspired me to go out to a flea market and look for games. However, these games are often overpriced, overabundant, sports games, or scraps. I can get a better deal at Play N Trade (I say PNT because its the only retro store near me. We don't have a GameCrazy or Gamerz Exchange or GameAttack *cough*franchise, Craig*cough*). I have a list made out of retro games that I want to acquire but it has put me at a crossroads:
Is it all about flea market hunting, or about getting the retro games I want?
Do I shell out $40 for Super Metroid at a flea market, or get six games for $40 at a corporate store?
Support the little guys or give money to the giants?
Its a tough call but its my list and I'm not picky about how I get the games. Play N Trade, which is an underdog when compared to GameSlop, has been good to me and I intend to keep the games I collect for a long while, not just play and throw back like a fish...
That was an Alabama analogy, wasn't it? The place is starting to affect me.
The next planned flea market outing is in late March/early April. I have to save up money again and Valentine's Day isn't helping. In the meantime, I have several games to play that are on the backburner, and even more still that I've never beaten (Mass Effect NG+, O_O).
Keep Playing.
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