RANT: The Incident At The Retro Game Store

[Justin]

Interesting perspective and story from Jeff and Steve Fulton on the Into The Vertical Blank Podcast.

In this video, the Jeff and Steve Fulton share their story of a recent disappointing visit to  retro game store, where they discovered that items on display were just empty boxes and were quoted proces that continued to change based on how they responded to them. This leads them into a broader conversation about the importance of transparency, fair pricing, and customer respect in retro game stores—a perspective that resonates with collectors and enthusiasts who value authenticity and fair treatment. It’s an intriguing critique for anyone invested in retro gaming culture and the survival of small video game stores:

 

 

[RickR]

We have a few stores like that here with no prices.  You have to ask for a price, and then the person behind the counter looks things up on ebay and gives some pretty silly prices. 

This gets a giant NOPE from me and I don't go to those stores again.

 

[Justin]

I was traveling once about ten years ago and stopped at Software Seconds in Irmo, SC. They had a ton of TurboGrafx-16 systems brand new in the box, but none of them had the pack-in game Keith Courage, and most of the boxes were a little sun faded as though they had been sitting in the window for a few years. They all had sticker prices on them, I believe around $199 which was about right for the time. I took one up to the counter and asked the sales person if these were new or factory refurbished, or what the deal was with them being labeled "new" but they were missing games, etc.

He didn't seem to like my question, although I had asked it politely. He basically snarled at me like a dog, and said he'd call his manager to find out and get back to me. I said that wasn't necessary and that I'd like to purchase the system. I was traveling that day and didn't have a ton of extra cash on me, and they didn't want to accept American Express (they enforce return policies) so I let him know I was going to use the ATM next door and would return with cash.

When I came back, all of the TurboGrafx systems had their price tags removed, which I thought was ominous and strange. I went up to the counter, cash in hand, and the sales person said "The price just went up. How much are you willing to pay?"

🤨

[RickR]

Dang.  Not cool. 

[MistaMaddog]

I swear, the people who run these types of stores are extremely rude and only interested in buying retro games to either collect or sell at the outrageous eBay prices.  They act like they run an antiques store instead of what they really are...a pawn shop (including GameStop).

Those places end up closing up because they have a reputation of selling "broken" systems.  Plus they refuse to sell any Atari carts unless they are bundled with a 2600 console to sell for at least a hundred.  (One of the stores I've been to was literally called "LameGamers")

I've only been to only one or two game shops where the people behind the counter are actually nice and sell the games at a fair price, but honestly I rather buy my old games at flea markets.

 

Edited November 11 by MistaMaddog

[sramirez2008]

IMO, the only way we're going to get games at a fair price is if we sell/swap among ourselves. Finding good deals in the wild is nearly impossible today, and yeah, the video game stores are selling games at eBay pricing. A lot of them don't really know what they have and use eBay to determine pricing.  

[RickR]

I agree on getting fair prices from other collectors.  But a LOT of stores do sell at fair prices.  When I say that the bad ones use ebay pricing, I mean they look at "for sale" prices instead of "sold" prices.  And also that they look them up on the spot instead of pricing things ahead of time. 

I absolutely have no issue paying a fair price at good stores, and there are many of those here in Portland. 

I'm definitely not asking any store to sell things at a loss or for silly low prices.  There are always those gamers that brag about "I bought Mario Kart for $1" or "I talked this lady at a garage sale into 50 cents a game!".  No offense, but I always tune these types out. 

It's kind of like homebrew pricing.  $50-$75 for a boxed game is perfectly fair once we realize the time it takes to create the game and create small-batch carts/boxes/manuals.  No issue at all.  But when a store doubles the fair price....well, no thanks. 

I guess I'm trying to say that when you find a game store that sells things fairly...support them as much as you can.  They deserve all the support they can get, and it is a lot of fun to browse in person.

[Justin]

1 hour ago, sramirez2008 said:

IMO, the only way we're going to get games at a fair price is if we sell/swap among ourselves. Finding good deals in the wild is nearly impossible today, and yeah, the video game stores are selling games at eBay pricing. A lot of them don't really know what they have and use eBay to determine pricing.  

 

I like the idea of us selling and swapping among ourselves. We set up Atari I/O Marketplace set up to help out with this, and our Swapmeet page which aggregates all the latest offerings from our Trading Post, For Sale, Wanted, eBay Auctions, and Price Check! forums into one page where everything can be easily viewed.

Sometimes there are also special discount bundles made available exclusively to Atari I/O Members that appear there as well. We also have a feedback forum so that we can earn a good reputation here.

I'd like to see more of this.

I've had a couple of outstanding trades with Atari I/O friends over the years. @MaximumRD once sent me some TurboGrafx-16 games he was getting rid of, and they're still a part of my collection today.

[sramirez2008]

1 hour ago, RickR said:

mean they look at "for sale" prices instead of "sold" prices.  And also that they look them up on the spot instead of pricing things ahead of time. 

This is exactly what I’ve experienced. 

1 hour ago, RickR said:

I absolutely have no issue paying a fair price at good stores, and there are many of those here in Portland.

There aren’t really any left around here. Most charge as per above and don’t carry much inventory for systems pre-Nintendo. I’m fine as I’ve purchased all of the OG games I want. I mostly buy homebrew these days and will soon move to buying ROMs only. 

[CrossBow]

There is really only one retro game store I visit from time to time where I live. When they first opened up about 12 years ago or so, their pricing was very very very good. So much so that I actually advised them on a few prices they should mark up a bit more on some of their Atari stuff at the time. It was obvious they didn't know the market on anything older than the NES and I was happy to bring them up to speed. Over the years, they have obviously gotten more up to date and pricing and essentially use the sold listings price to get an idea and then take an overall average from that on what to price their games at. So they aren't quite ebay level but not far off in most cases. But they still have stuff come in sometimes that they are willing to sell at a decent price. They also offer pretty decent trade in value as well and I've gotten a few games I wouldn't normally have been able to afford through the use of various trade ins for duplicates I've gotten over the years or for use of my services to fix up some of their systems.

They have been a good source for junked consoles they deemed (not repairable) for spare parts too.