Used-game stores depress me

Sam

I hate to rail against mom and pop stores, but used game stores kinda suck. Well they don't suck at all, their retro selections are pretty awesome, but there are never better prices than eBay.

Just looking through those stores gets me down though, and the 2 in my town never get in new games ever, and give you much less (and charge much more) than any chain.

The whole thing just seems a little parasitic. And it's a weird feeling to see all the games I was so hyped about in high school just sitting there, most of them pretty worthless and unremarkable now.

maximumzero

The problem with most mom and pop used games stores is the same problem that Gamestop has, but they can't really help it.

You trading in games doesn't net you a whole lot of store credit, and at the same time, they sell them for much more than they're really worth.

But at the same time, if they didn't do this, they wouldn't make much money and wouldn't be in business long.

-SPI-

I always find them humourous because they more often than not end up being a museum for overhyped crap. You can usually find dozens of copies of Brute Force for instance.

Sam

-SPI- wrote: »

I always find them humourous because they more often than not end up being a museum for overhyped crap. You can usually find dozens of copies of Brute Force for instance.

They had one copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta for 80 fucking dollars. "Because it's out of print"

They can go fuck themselves.

Sam

Maybe I'm conflating my own emotional recollections of my high school days, but it seems like we really got a lot more hyped over games last gen. Moreso than the gen before, and more than we do today. I remember looking forward to a game called Blood Wake coming out.

Blood what?


Exactly.

AJAlkaline40

I don't know, a lot of time used game stores give pretty awesome deals. I picked up MGS2 for $5. That is to say, I bought MGS2 for the price of a sandwich. That's pretty cool.

Bloods End

i honestly have no idea what a mom and pop game store is.

Arceus

Sam wrote: »

-SPI- wrote: »

I always find them humourous because they more often than not end up being a museum for overhyped crap. You can usually find dozens of copies of Brute Force for instance.

They had one copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta for 80 fucking dollars. "Because it's out of print"

They can go fuck themselves.

Eh, by charging insane prices like that they are already fucking themselves because nobody is ever gonna buy that, interest fades with the years, and they lose business. Just terrible pricing strategy really on which no company can survive very long. Take some solace in that, it's what I do whenever I almost burst with rage when I encounter a ridiculous 2nd-hand offer like that (be it in a store or on eBay etc.).

MHYoshimitzu

Bloods End wrote: »

i honestly have no idea what a mom and pop game store is.

A sole proprietorship. An individual person does business under their own name. It's different from a corporation in that the person puts the business in their own personal income taxes, rather than filing separate taxes for the company.

apotheos

MHYoshimitzu wrote: »

Bloods End wrote: »

i honestly have no idea what a mom and pop game store is.

A sole proprietorship. An individual person does business under their own name. It's different from a corporation in that the person puts the business in their own personal income taxes, rather than filing separate taxes for the company.

I know that I've not seen one in operation for probably 20 years.

Captain K

They barely exist anymore, because the profit margin on games is fucking tiny, and it's even smaller when you don't get good deals from distributors in the way that a massive chain like Gamestop does.

Dixon

Sam wrote: »

Maybe I'm conflating my own emotional recollections of my high school days, but it seems like we really got a lot more hyped over games last gen. Moreso than the gen before, and more than we do today. I remember looking forward to a game called Blood Wake coming out.

Blood what?


Exactly.

I was just trying to think what game that was, as I couldn't figure it out then the image of a boat with guns just shot into my head and I think I died a little inside...that game sucked

Darmak

apotheos wrote: »

MHYoshimitzu wrote: »

Bloods End wrote: »

i honestly have no idea what a mom and pop game store is.

A sole proprietorship. An individual person does business under their own name. It's different from a corporation in that the person puts the business in their own personal income taxes, rather than filing separate taxes for the company.

I know that I've not seen one in operation for probably 20 years.

Same here, and I'm only 23 years old. (lol, I've never seen one)

Ohtsam

Darmak wrote: »

apotheos wrote: »

MHYoshimitzu wrote: »

Bloods End wrote: »

i honestly have no idea what a mom and pop game store is.

A sole proprietorship. An individual person does business under their own name. It's different from a corporation in that the person puts the business in their own personal income taxes, rather than filing separate taxes for the company.

I know that I've not seen one in operation for probably 20 years.

Same here, and I'm only 23 years old. (lol, I've never seen one)

Theres one near where I live but while they sell games new and used they also sell comics and TCGs and charge hourly for the use of one of their consoles
They also run a ton of tournaments

MHYoshimitzu

apotheos wrote: »

MHYoshimitzu wrote: »

Bloods End wrote: »

i honestly have no idea what a mom and pop game store is.

A sole proprietorship. An individual person does business under their own name. It's different from a corporation in that the person puts the business in their own personal income taxes, rather than filing separate taxes for the company.

I know that I've not seen one in operation for probably 20 years.

Businesses like them thrive in places where corporations can't really exist. In my area, small businesses on Main Street (auto dealers/repair, hardware stores, barbers, restaurants) are a nice alternative to big business, and you know the people on a personal level.

In cities, you'll find them in the form of corner convenience stores. Are they in operation? Sure. Are they successful? Not really.

Edit- Did you mean mom and pop game stores? In that case, pawn shops are the closest thing.

.la1n

are we referring to mom & pop shops in general or video game mom & pop shops? if the latter then yeah it's been a good 10 years or so since we had one in this area, if we're talking about mom & pop shops in general then they are all over pennsylvania, at least in the harrisburg / shippensburg area.

Shooter Mcgavin

Basically, Mom & Pops need to compete with eBay and still remain profitable. How can this be done? I think M&P's need to evolve somewhat, maybe start thinking about a draw, or another reason for customers to come in. Maybe they could have a "classic" arcade, with all kinds of different, old arcade games, and they could have coffee and pizza or whatever, and they could have a section called "You like those arcade games? Buy the home version here!" and that's where they would sell their used games.

Actually, when I said arcade, I was picturing a wall of TV's with various consoles hooked up. For a quarter or 50 cents or something profitable, you could request to play any game in the store.

Gyral

I can't tell you the last time I saw used games in a store that weren't last gen or newer. I was pissed when my local EBs stopped carrying used SNES and Genesis games, because damnit, I still buy those. And there are still tons of PSone games I'd like to pick up.

MHYoshimitzu

I've almost always wanted to have a sort of arcade in the area; unfortunately, the people that have tried are usually out of business in six months to a year. We had a CCG/video game place in our area about five years ago. It was immensely popular, but it never took off because no one bought anything. They had tables for CCG games and PCs that you could rent for time in the back to play LAN games, but people either brought their own cards and played and didn't buy anything, or they would just hang around inside and bum PC time off of other people. Theft was a huge problem, too.

Another family opened an arcade/birthday party place that didn't take off at all. I would pass the store day after day when I would go to work, and no one was ever there. They were competing against Chuckie Cheese, obviously, and they didn't have anything that CC didn't offer. They actually stayed open for about two years before they closed. I can't imagine how much money they lost from that.

Screampunk

One day I will open an arcade.

It will be glorious.

Sam

Shooter Mcgavin wrote: »

Basically, Mom & Pops need to compete with eBay and still remain profitable. How can this be done? I think M&P's need to evolve somewhat, maybe start thinking about a draw, or another reason for customers to come in. Maybe they could have a "classic" arcade, with all kinds of different, old arcade games, and they could have coffee and pizza or whatever, and they could have a section called "You like those arcade games? Buy the home version here!" and that's where they would sell their used games.

Actually, when I said arcade, I was picturing a wall of TV's with various consoles hooked up. For a quarter or 50 cents or something profitable, you could request to play any game in the store.

I live in a college town, and there are 2 "mom and pop" stores, although mom and pop are actually random unshaven slightly quirky looking guys or college girls who give you shitty prices for everything, dont actually sell any new games, only used(aka stuff they gave some broke guy a shitty price for) and anything that came out in the last 2 years that doesnt suck ass will cost 45-55 $.

One of the stores does run a game room though. Overpriced at 7 bucks an hour per person, but its a cool way to check out a console you dont own on a decent setup, or just play Halo when youre drunk downtown.


the reason i hate those 2 stores is because there is no other place to get any video games whatsoever downtown, and the chains are all way the fuck out at the strip malls. i probably would give those places a lot of business if they carried new games, i dont know, its just that they feel like a dirty pawnshop where i dont want to spend much time at all, though I have to recognize that whoever owns them probably are pretty big game fans and they do make efforts to get stuff like old rare displays and other curiosities.

but those places fucking depress me. I always thought mom and pop game stores would have the potential to create a cool environment to buy games or just hang out, but i guess thats a stupid pipe dream.

Chalkbot

Have you tried Goozex? Way better than the old used game stores. Even browsing the games in the search page brings back the feelings I once had for those games. Often I stumble across a game from 8 years ago that I *meant* to play but never got around to it. I get excited all over again.

Bionic Monkey

Ohtsam wrote: »

Darmak wrote: »

apotheos wrote: »

MHYoshimitzu wrote: »

Bloods End wrote: »

i honestly have no idea what a mom and pop game store is.

A sole proprietorship. An individual person does business under their own name. It's different from a corporation in that the person puts the business in their own personal income taxes, rather than filing separate taxes for the company.

I know that I've not seen one in operation for probably 20 years.

Same here, and I'm only 23 years old. (lol, I've never seen one)

Theres one near where I live but while they sell games new and used they also sell comics and TCGs and charge hourly for the use of one of their consoles
They also run a ton of tournaments

Seriously. I mean, yeah, they're not exactly super common, but I can think of three off the top of my head.

iceberg

Sam wrote: »

-SPI- wrote: »

I always find them humourous because they more often than not end up being a museum for overhyped crap. You can usually find dozens of copies of Brute Force for instance.

They had one copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta for 80 fucking dollars. "Because it's out of print"

They can go fuck themselves.

This kind of shit is the worst. This makes it not even worth looking through all the shit games to find the under-priced gems, since they're now behind a glass case and over-priced.

Darklyre

Hmm...where I live, there's actually a non-chain game store in a large mall nearby, that sells everything from NES and SNES games to used Dreamcast systems to new 360/PStripple stuff. Their prices are comparable with what you'd find on EBay, and since they've stayed in business for at least 4-5 years so far then I guess the proximity factor does help them get customers.

TheSonicRetard

there was a mom and pop game store in houston that, I swear to god, was the greatest game store I've ever been to. I was depressed when it shut down, no joke.

Wall to wall classic gaming. Sega Master System, NES, Turbo Grafx 16 (and PC Engine), C64, Atari 2600, 5600, and 7200. All flavors of gameboy, game gear, virtual boy, lynx. Import games from japan for the Super Famicom, Megadrive, saturn, PSX, the list goes on.

It was glorious, especially because they offered great prices. $10 for a MIB SMS game? Fuck yes.

I'm normally not the type to hang around shops and talk to the sales people, but I got to know the owner. He was a great guy. I'd sometimes stop by to shoot the shit with him, and he'd occasionally give me good deals (10 Turbo Grafx games for the price of 5, for example). He'd also repair old hardware. I got 2 SMS light phasers working from the guy.

Oh, and he had a Super Punchout Machine in his store set to freeplay. And that was the place I first saw Super Mario 64.

That one store has forever given me a good opinion of mom and pop stores. Every now and then I'll look for one and check it out, simply because that place was so great. I miss it still.

TheSonicRetard

In fact, thinking about it, I bought my NES ROB, Powerglove, Power Mat, and U-Force from that store. Along with my PC Engine GT.

Bionic Monkey

iceberg wrote: »

Sam wrote: »

-SPI- wrote: »

I always find them humourous because they more often than not end up being a museum for overhyped crap. You can usually find dozens of copies of Brute Force for instance.

They had one copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta for 80 fucking dollars. "Because it's out of print"

They can go fuck themselves.

This kind of shit is the worst. This makes it not even worth looking through all the shit games to find the under-priced gems, since they're now behind a glass case and over-priced.

Back when I was reading comics regularly, a comic store I stopped in had a reprint of Cable's first appearance in the New Mutants for 80 goddamn dollars. I never went back.

KrunkMcGrunk

I've had an experience similar to TSR.

On the Northside of Indy there's a small chain that was started up in South Bend, I think. It's fucking great! I can't get a lot of the classic games that they sell/trade anywhere else. They recondition pretty much anything that they have the parts for. They can get a hold of practically any system that you'd want, even odd-ball stuff like a Nomad or an Intellivision.

I don't really stick around game stores to talk to the staff, but I'm real cool with the guys there. I'll usually shoot the shit with one of the managers there, and I can often stick around for a couple of hours if I forget about the time. They're great people.

I really enjoy going to the Mom & Pop store near me.

Thetheroo

There's no mom and pop game stores in my area. If I want to hunt for retro games I have to go to the flea market.

rustyzippo

There's one in Ocean Beach, CA that's pretty good. They're knowledgeable and have a lot of older PS2 stuff, so that's a plus though the prices can be a bit more than you'd find on ebay.

DarkSymphony

I really can't find a single problem with buying a used game and same goes for shopping at a mom and pop store that sells said used games.

I mean, I understand the OP's issue and do not discredit him (I mean wtf? 80 bucks for PDOrta? damn), but my experiences have been awesome.

I've purchased some rare titles for really amazing prices (Tactics Ogre PS1 for $7 and Panzer Dragoon Saga on Saturn for $50 complete).

I've even aquired some really awesome used games at Gamestop for damn good prices too. Everytime I've purchased a used game I've made sure it was in good condition before checkout and they've always played 100% perfectly fine.

However, if you're being gouged like that at a mom and pop near you then damn, they need to go out of business for the sheer stupidity of it.

SirUltimos

There's no longer any mom and pop stores in my area, but we do have a Microplay, which is a Canadian chain owned by Jumbo Video. They have great prices, very knowledgeable staff, lots of random gaming merchandise (such as action figures, and I got my Nintendo Monopoly there) and they have a fairly good selection of older stuff. They have a shelf of old PS1 games and a bing of SNES games and Genesis games and NES games.

They also still take old systems (for the most part) so if you check often enough you can find some cool stuff.

Rigor Mortis

SirUltimos wrote: »

There's no longer any mom and pop stores in my area, but we do have a Microplay, which is a Canadian chain owned by Jumbo Video. They have great prices, very knowledgeable staff, lots of random gaming merchandise (such as action figures, and I got my Nintendo Monopoly there) and they have a fairly good selection of older stuff. They have a shelf of old PS1 games and a bing of SNES games and Genesis games and NES games.

They also still take old systems (for the most part) so if you check often enough you can find some cool stuff.

Microplay is great.

About a year ago I moved within two blocks of a Microplay outlet.

It closed down between the time I found my new place, signed the rental agreement, and moved in.

SirUltimos

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

SirUltimos wrote: »

There's no longer any mom and pop stores in my area, but we do have a Microplay, which is a Canadian chain owned by Jumbo Video. They have great prices, very knowledgeable staff, lots of random gaming merchandise (such as action figures, and I got my Nintendo Monopoly there) and they have a fairly good selection of older stuff. They have a shelf of old PS1 games and a bing of SNES games and Genesis games and NES games.

They also still take old systems (for the most part) so if you check often enough you can find some cool stuff.

Microplay is great.

About a year ago I moved within two blocks of a Microplay outlet.

It closed down between the time I found my new place, signed the rental agreement, and moved in.

They knew you were coming and they had to flee.

Mine's been here for freaking ever. It actually used to be a mom and pop store but converted to a Microplay like 7 years ago. I remember my parents going there looking for new SNES games.

Grudge

There is a small games store on my street actually, I try to buy my games there to support them (all other stores in town have been bought out by EB Games or Game), but I think they have a hard time competing with the ease and convenience of buying games through the Intertubes. I don't think they're doing that well, their used games section has shrunk every time I visit (I guess most people go to one of the malls and trade in their games at one of the chains instead), and the guy who owns the place doesn't look that healthy.

It's a pity really, but I guess the Internet is taking over the niche of the independent games retailers (just like what has happened with the independant record stores).

Sam

DarkSymphony wrote: »

I really can't find a single problem with buying a used game and same goes for shopping at a mom and pop store that sells said used games.

I mean, I understand the OP's issue and do not discredit him (I mean wtf? 80 bucks for PDOrta? damn), but my experiences have been awesome.

I've purchased some rare titles for really amazing prices (Tactics Ogre PS1 for $7 and Panzer Dragoon Saga on Saturn for $50 complete).

I've even aquired some really awesome used games at Gamestop for damn good prices too. Everytime I've purchased a used game I've made sure it was in good condition before checkout and they've always played 100% perfectly fine.

However, if you're being gouged like that at a mom and pop near you then damn, they need to go out of business for the sheer stupidity of it.

the only reason i can think of that they stay afloat is because just about everyone I know sells stuff they dont want/need there when they're broke. I swear if you took GTA 4 in there you'd get 20-25 bucks for it and it'd sell for 55. And they're in a primo downtown location, near a hippie gear/headshop, Chipotle and the more popular coffeehouses. Just about anyone who remotely likes games will windowshop.

Anyway they never get any new stock or anything of any kind except what they rip off the customers (although I suspect they add to their collection via eBay, particularly the really cool/rare stuff that's prominently displayed) and if they made use of their primo location to actually be a source to buy new games I wouldn't have a problem but it's hard not to see these particular stores as bummish parasites, or pawn shops for kids.

xWonderboyx

There was a place in my hometown called GameXchange. Super lame name. At first they were awesome. I bought my PS2 from there along with THPS3 with a little bit of trade-in credit, and they had a good selection of Genesis, SNES and NES games. Their Saturn, Dreamcast, and PS1 selection was huge, but the discs rarely worked. They had a few import games, and when I was big into DBZ I bought all the Japanese games from there. They had TVs set up and you could play any game in the store if you asked, which was awesome. I loved hanging out there with my pals and just seeing if we could find some good deals.

Apparently, so did the street kids. They would routinely rob the place and after a while they started having shitty prices and everything went to shit. The building is now a huge liquor store with blowout prices.

Æthelred

I love the used-game section in Game/stop. What's not to like? Good bargains, no ebay hassle.

Fig-D

About 5 or so years ago, little game shops used to be all over Southern California, especially Fullerton. Fullerton had basically a game shop on every street that had more than two lanes and only two of them were chains. There was also this pretty fantastic comic book shop, the place was HUGE compared to most comic places (I think it was called 21st Century Comics? I can't remember for sure.). Today, in the era post GameStop / EB merger, almost all of them are gone. The one down the street from my house is gone. The two down in Irvine were I work are gone. And the ones in Fullerton? All gone now I think. I remember one of those places really well, it was Atomik Games on Chapman and State College in Fullerton run by a pretty cool guy named Orlando. It was his dream to open his own video game store, and the only people who worked there were himself, his girlfriend, and his mom. He had a great selection of PSOne, DC, and NeoGeo Pocket stuff... but he just couldn't compete. The money in game shops is in Used products and accessories, and I bought anything that was of any interest in his used section within the first month he opened his doors. I realize this paragraph has been pretty long but I really liked that place, and all mom and pop's really, lotta good memories.

Be sure to let your local game shop how fucking awesome you think they are, because they might not be there tomorrow.

Taramoor

Æthelred wrote: »

I love the used-game section in Game/stop. What's not to like? Good bargains, no ebay hassle.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for the Wii

New at Gamestop: $39.99

Used at Gamestop: $49.99


THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG HERE!