Sometimes it really is all about who you know. Every single video game I purchased at the CGCC (Classic Game Collectors Canada) Summer Swap this past June was from my friend who regularly sells at these events. We worked out our deal ahead of time and later when Nintendo Joe and I arrived at the swap I handed over my money to Flavio and collected my loot.
Flavio is my source for hard to get Sega Master System games. And although some of the games are not cheap I trust his judgement on fair value. First up are a handful of Sega Master System games. Starting with Dragon the Bruce Lee Story complete for $65 CAD.
Below is the PAL/Euro version of Captain Silver which cost me $25 CAD. I don’t actively seek out variants but when they come my way for a good price and are significantly different I do enjoy picking them up.
The PAL Captain Silver has very unique cover art and it also has six levels compared to the US version with four levels.
Below is my US Captain Silver which I’ve had for many years now. I don’t recall what it cost me.
I know, I know… a sports game. And for $40?! It’s not a common title and these days it’s not often that I come across a Master System game that I don’t have. So here it is, World Cup USA 94 for the Sega Master System. Recent sold listings on ebay show it has sold for between $22-$60 CAD. Prices lower than what I paid were from auction vs. ‘Buy it Now’.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula I already had but I was able to get a manual for $20 to complete it. It feels great completing a game.
I was also missing the manual for this cartridge version of TransBot and Flavio was happy to give me one for free. When it comes to poaching game manuals from him he’ll just charge me the difference of what he’ll have to reduce the games price by after having its manual removed. In the case of inexpensive games he’s been very generous and will often just give them to me.
What he also does for free is allow me to upgrade any of my games if he has one that’s in better condition than my own. I had Alien Storm but the back of the manual had a massive sticker on it and the spine of the cover art also had a sticker on it. Both of these stickers appeared to be from factory and put on because of regional requirements but I still didn’t like them. Now, thanks for Flavio my new Alien Storm is minty new and the upgrade cost was nothing. I’ll also often swap cases with missing hanging tabs for cases with tabs still intact. If you’re a maniacal collector you’ll understand the value in this!
The following two NES games also came from Flavio. $15 for Double Dragon loose. It’s a classic that I felt I should have.
And $5 for Hogan’s Alley, also loose. I felt like having more light gun games in my NES Collection.
The following 6 inserts cost me me $5 total. It was very common for most Sega Master System and Sega Genesis games to come packed with pamphlets/posters/advertisements/catalogs when they were new and I like adding these to any of my games that don’t already have them. It makes the game feel more substantial.
This next addition is a small gift from Flavio. It’s not something I would have spent a lot of money on but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s really very fun to have. My Sega Genesis Phantasy Star III is now super ultra complete! In addition to having Phantasy Star III with the cart, case, manual, map and hint book I now also have the pamphlet that advertises the hint book which was sold separately (unlike the hint book for Phantasy Star II).
This pamphlet is not required to consider your Phantasy Star III complete but it really does rate high on the ‘cool factor’.
All in, it was a good haul thanks to my buddy Flavio!
Retro Megabit 
Good job!
You made me buy the pamplet as well now. So I just had it ordered. But I also needed the map anyway, which I had been meaning to buy for about a decade or so. So I’ll have a complete Phantasy Star III soon too.
Hey, wanna buy my boxed copy of Phantasy Star III I got for FREE when purchasing these said items?
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HaI I love it. Yeah, I’ve purchased whole games before just to try and make mine complete. It works reasonably well. You can keep the best of each extra and re-sell what’s left. I have a Herzog Zwei for sale right now because of exactly this same shotgun method 🙂
And even though Phantasy Star III is the black sheep of the family it still wont be hard for you to sell.
Was it hard finding the hint book pamphlet? I didn’t even know it existed until it was handed to me.
I recently read your article on the ToTotek Mega Cart. Great job! I’ve had the thing for years and I had forgotten what it was for. Thanks for the details! I have a Japanese Sega CD of Popful Mail that I would like to try out. I just have to fix my Sega CD unit first…
ToTotek Mega Cart
http://www.sega-16.com/2007/03/sega-gear-tototek-mega-cart/
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Yes, my friend called it “Frankensteining”, bringing together parts from mutliple copies of the same item to make it complete.
Phantasy Star III is a decent game on its own. but not as good as a Phantasy Star game. It should have been a spin-off, really. I’m still wondering if it started out as a different game and got the franchise slapped onto it in the last minute. Looking at the credits, I see its director also worked on the second game, so maybe it was planned to be what it is from the beginning.
I just made a quick search on eBay, and it was among the search results. So, no, it was quite easy.
Thanks man! Can’t believe I wrote that over 10 years ago. Time flies. Spent so much time figuring it all out. Most of the Mega Cart’s features have been eclipsed by the Mega Everdrive, but I still use it to play foreign Mega-CD games. Last time was when I fired up Dark Wizard a few weeks ago. Popful Mail is such a great game, hope you’ll have fun with it! The US release is a bit frustrating, but at least you understand what they say… ;).
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