Buying Videogames
If you're like me, you've always got your eyes out of the latest retro game deals. What you wouldn't give to fix a boxed Tengen Tetris, or gold Nintendo World Championship cart, at a garage sale, marked for only a buck. Well, wake up, it ain't happening. But we do have a tool available to us that wasn't available a decade ago. And you're using it right now.
No, not that tool. You sick little monkey. The internet. It's become an invaluable source for collectors out to add to their collection. However, if you're thinking about eBay, you are MUCH better off elsewhere. Seriously. Getting an item off any auction site is always a big risk. You might end up getting something that is amazingly rare and in good condition, but for the most part, you'll end up bidding on what you hope is a Star Fox Competition cartridge,only to find it's a normal Star Fox game that looked like it had been sitting in the toilet of a chili-dog fan for half a century.
Small, privately owned on-line game stores are an excellent source of both older and new generation games. Since they normally operated by people who are hardcore gamers themselves,you know that you'll be getting a carefully cared for product. It might actually cost a bit more than using an auction site, but the fact that you won't end up in a bidding war or having to deal with a seller who might ignore you for weeks, it is more than worth an extra dollar or two.
One site I'd like to highlight is Game Addiction (www.egameaddiction.com). Run by pure gamers,they operate by the philosophy of "What you see is what you get", which means, they don't use stock photos. They take a digital picture of each product and put it on the site, with a full detailed description of the game, right down to such facts as if the manual has a dog-eared page or if the back of the box has a marker line through the bar code. I ordered the import only N64 game Sin and Punishment, and it arrived in exactly the condition they advertised.It's also a great place to find near complete games from the 8 bit and 16 bit era. Looking for a complete copy of Secret of Mana? Bam! They got it. Castlevania 3 with everything right down to the dust sleeve? Boo yah! They've got it. They're also always adding to their inventory weekly, and you can check out what's new on the front page of the site.
If on the other hand you're looking for deals for today's generation of games, look no further than Byte Size Deals (http://www.bytesizedeals.com). Basically just a discussion board, you can find forum after forum of great deals on not only video games, but DVDs and other products as well. This is the site that broke the big Toys R' Us clearance deal weeks before the storeseven knew about it.
Tune in next time as I explore the phenomenon that is the "Dirt Mall" and learn how to make a working TG-16 out of chewing gum and common household items.
No, not that tool. You sick little monkey. The internet. It's become an invaluable source for collectors out to add to their collection. However, if you're thinking about eBay, you are MUCH better off elsewhere. Seriously. Getting an item off any auction site is always a big risk. You might end up getting something that is amazingly rare and in good condition, but for the most part, you'll end up bidding on what you hope is a Star Fox Competition cartridge,only to find it's a normal Star Fox game that looked like it had been sitting in the toilet of a chili-dog fan for half a century.
Small, privately owned on-line game stores are an excellent source of both older and new generation games. Since they normally operated by people who are hardcore gamers themselves,you know that you'll be getting a carefully cared for product. It might actually cost a bit more than using an auction site, but the fact that you won't end up in a bidding war or having to deal with a seller who might ignore you for weeks, it is more than worth an extra dollar or two.
One site I'd like to highlight is Game Addiction (www.egameaddiction.com). Run by pure gamers,they operate by the philosophy of "What you see is what you get", which means, they don't use stock photos. They take a digital picture of each product and put it on the site, with a full detailed description of the game, right down to such facts as if the manual has a dog-eared page or if the back of the box has a marker line through the bar code. I ordered the import only N64 game Sin and Punishment, and it arrived in exactly the condition they advertised.It's also a great place to find near complete games from the 8 bit and 16 bit era. Looking for a complete copy of Secret of Mana? Bam! They got it. Castlevania 3 with everything right down to the dust sleeve? Boo yah! They've got it. They're also always adding to their inventory weekly, and you can check out what's new on the front page of the site.
If on the other hand you're looking for deals for today's generation of games, look no further than Byte Size Deals (http://www.bytesizedeals.com). Basically just a discussion board, you can find forum after forum of great deals on not only video games, but DVDs and other products as well. This is the site that broke the big Toys R' Us clearance deal weeks before the storeseven knew about it.
Tune in next time as I explore the phenomenon that is the "Dirt Mall" and learn how to make a working TG-16 out of chewing gum and common household items.
posted by Josh Nickerson at
11/23/2004 05:32:00 PM
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