Well, some of you may remember the post in which I talked about a retro gaming mega-store here in Japan with one of the biggest ranges I have seen anywhere. If not you can take a look at it here:
Anyway I had a few minutes over lunch today, so why not head out before the golden week rush for a “junk” run right? I am extremely happy I took the time, as it seems that this shop (the mega-store of all mega-stores in my area) had reduced the prices of all the retro games to sell – this is the good news if you’re wondering. Prices were all the same regardless of titles too! Knowing the stock of this place, the bargains people would have gotten before me would have been insane.
The bad news is that it looks as if they are taking focus away from retro all together. 🙁 Shelving has reduced in size, with some shelves even have disappeared since I was last there. This is sad, sad news for the long term as this place was (past tense used with great sorrow) a goldmine…..
So today I went out in a blaze of glory with over 300 games purchased in one go. Here are a few pics:
I did speak with the guy behind the counter asking why there were reductions in prices, and he answered “they were always this price”. Um, no they weren’t. I was there only a week or so ago and they weren’t this cheap. I will go in again soon and ask someone else. I seriously hope they are just making space for more stock, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like it. 🙁
So as you can see I cleaned up on PCE, MegaCD, 3DO, NGCD, Saturn, and DC. The amount of cool DC and NGCD games I would have missed out on though….
It really is a time of great sadness even though I got so many great games. I feel totally torn – on the one hand I got some great games that I have been after for a while, but on the other hand this place may cease to exist!
I will keep you posted….. 🙁
Oh man, that is a bummer. I was really impressed with the pics of that place in your last post about it. Also, if I may say so, WOW! 300 games in one go? That must have been some sale!
Actually I probably bought close to that many when my Omocha Souko closed down last month, only it was spaced out over several visits rather than all at once. I had the same feeling too – torn between happiness at getting some good deals versus sadness at the end of the store.
Something similar happened here about 2 years ago when all the GEOs in Fukuoka simultaneously liquidated their retro game stock. They marked everything down in stages – 50% off for the first month, then every remaining cart for 100 yen each for the month after that and finally 50 yen for everything left over after that. I bought so much stuff during those sales but felt pretty bad about the loss of the store. I think in the 4 years I`ve been in Fukuoka there has been a definite reduction in the number of places selling retro games. Sad.
Yep, over 300, and I am seriously thinking of going back today (seeing as it’s a day off) too.
It really is mixed feelings though. This place definitely had the best wow factor around me, and the prices were good. There would be no way I could get the games I did this cheap again, so I had to grab them while I could.
The deals I missed out on though!! Put it this way, there would have been Radiant Silverguns for the Saturn, Rainbow Island for the PCE, and MetalSlug for the NGCD for under 500 yen a pop…..
It’s not going to be easy finding another store like this. *sigh*
Yeah I know what you mean. When you see them that cheap it is `now or never`. If it wasn`t for going out of business sales (or at least getting out of the retro game business sales) my Famicom collection would be about half the size it is today.
I think it is best to pull the trigger when you get the chance too. When the GEOs here liquidated their stock I was a bit selective with my purchases at first. Then after a couple of days I decided `Wait, these are ridiculously cheap, I should be buying all the good ones I need en masse`. By then it was too late though and I had missed out on a ton of the really good stuff. I still got loads of deals, but even after two years I sometimes think to myself `WHY didn`t I get that CIB copy of (several games) when I had the chance?`
I wonder if there is some decline in the market for retro games here. I`ve seen lots of stores close or stop selling retro games in the past 4 years, but I have yet to see a new store selling retro games open, so the available shopping options are getting smaller and smaller.
Retro gaming definitely doesn’t have the following in Japan compared with home, but my guess is there will be a boom of sorts once it gets scarce. I do know of one younger guy (early 20s) here that is well into retro gaming, but he is definitely the exception and not the rule.
Yep, this time I didn’t want to be kicking myself for not picking up as much as I could – it’s happened too many times before….
I just opened everything and there are some gems! I will be posting some pics later once I clear a section of floor to lay them out in the respective companies.