Wow, A&C Games is really expensive. I am opening with that comment despite the fact that I did buy something from this retro video game store that I feel was over priced. Which technically implies that they priced it right… but never you mind such logic. I’m sticking to my guns. A&C Games is really expensive.
I was in their neighborhood and I had time to kill so I went into A&C Games to have a look around. To their credit their inventory of retro video games is huge… but like I said; they’re expensive.
While browsing a shelf of boxed retro consoles and accessories I found a boxed Sega Control Stick for $55 CAD plus tax (no manual). I actually have a boxed Sega Control stick but mine is missing the Styrofoam packaging from inside the box. This one from A&C Games (pictured below) still had it’s Styrofoam.
I’m sure you know where I’m going with this. I spent a total of $62 CAD (~$51 USD) just to get the Styrofoam packaging. Even if I turn around and sell the spare box with the actual Control Stick for a more realistic price of $20 CAD I’ll still have spent $42 on Styrofoam. Plus whatever my original boxed Control Stick cost me all those many years ago.
“You FOOL! Oh why?! Why did you do it?!”
It’s a fair comment. Here’s how I was able to justify it to myself. I’ve been in the hobby for a long time now and from visiting local game shops and retro video game conventions over the years I know that finding something like this with any amount of it’s original packing is hard to come by. I’m also a bit of a sucker when I’ve already got something in my collection that’s not 100%; either not in good enough condition or not complete. I’ll sometimes feel compelled to go that extra mile to make that something whole whereas if I didn’t have it at all I might just be content to forget it entirely.
So, while leaving sound financial judgment far behind check out my now boxed and complete Sega Control Stick with it’s amazing Styrofoam packaging material!
Before I try to sell my double (and slightly crunched) boxed Control Stick I went to the forums on Sega-16.com and posted it for trade. I was hoping to swap this box and joystick for an original Sega Master System Model 1 power supply. Nothing has come of this yet and if after some time no trade materializes I’m sure I’ll sell it for cash. But at the moment I’m more interested in trading.
Now that I’m talking about my Sega Control Stick accessory I might as well show off my other boxed Sega peripherals and consoles.
The Sega Light Phaser. Totally cooler looking than Nintendo NES Zapper!
This boxed Light Phaser I purchased from ebay a very long time ago. I don’t remember what I paid but it wasn’t expensive and it’s in really great condition.
My boxed Sega 3-D Glasses were one of the first things I found when I got into collecting for the Master System. I found it in a Hock Shop for $20 CAD in 1998.
I also have two boxed Sega Master System Consoles to go with these peripherals. The first being an early Master System release:
And this second one being a later release. I still need a manual for the included Hang On & Safari Hunt and a power supply before this second Sega Master System is complete.
There are quite a few accessories for Sega Master System such as the rapid fire unit and sport pad controller; which I have loose. And there a bunch more that I don’t have at all. The accessories pictured above are likely the most common and I don’t expect to find any others boxed and complete.
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!
Wow! This was amazing. I just did not have enough money for the GTA GameX event. It was a small retro video game venue but it was bursting at the seams.
I went knowing that my buddy Flavio was selling at this event and he had put aside a few Sega Master System games for me. I was guaranteed to come home with some cool stuff; which is a good feeling. What I didn’t expect was a barrage of video games that I would have loved to buy. At several vendor tables I found a lot more Sega Genesis and Sega Master System games than I’m use to seeing at these events. But the money just wasn’t there and I had to make some choices.
One of the first games I discovered was X-Men for the Sega Genesis and I thought for sure that I must already have this common and affordable game. The cover art looked so familiar. I took a moment to checked my inventory on my cell phone and I only had X-men 2 so I was really pleased to snap up this complete X-men for $20 CAD (~15 USD). When I got it home I was able to verify that my inventory was correct (this time) and I did not have X-Men. It’s now a very nice addition to the collection.
I usually have Sega on the brain but I’m also watching out for cool NES and SNES games as well. In particular Japanese Role Paying Games (JRPG’s) and a handful of other Nintendo games that I’d love to play. As it turned out at the very first table I walked up to I found Axelay. I love shooters (who doesn’t) and this game shows off some some really nice looking effects. For a long time now I wanted to try it out first hand but in my local area it felt like it had become an expensive game. Everyone who didn’t have it for sale said it was worth $30 and everyone who actually had it wanted to sell it for $50. Even though I had passed on it about a year ago for $30 it felt like this was no longer the going rate. So I made an offer on Axelay and another very exciting SNES game from the same seller.
With my first sampling of Axelay I was not let down. The graphics are excellent and the gameplay is fast. What I noticed right away is that the mode 7 scrolling effect is a little bit hard to deal with at first. I’m thinking it’s either something I’ll get use to or hate forever.
The other game I purchased with Axelay was Lufia and it’s a solid SNES JRPG and I was really surprised to find it for under $100 CAD.
Both Axelay and Lufia combined cost me $105 CAD (~79 UDS) and it was a pretty exciting purchase. At first I did feel a little trigger happy buying these games before I saw more from the rest of the conversion floor. But later, as I browsed around I noticed that anyone who had Lufia was trying to sell it loose for about $100 CAD. I felt like I had done well. Nintendo Joe who was with me also felt the same. I do like getting his option on NES and SNES prices. He pays close attention to the going rates. Although, about one or two years ago he did pass up on a NES Snow Brothers for $150 CAD (~$113 USD).
The rest of my purchases came from Flavio who is even more diehard about collecting Sega Master System games than I am. I’m still not interested in ebay so he’s really my best source for SMS games and he really goes a long way to help me out.
But first, my only NES purchase for the day. Ring King is a game I use to really enjoying playing at a buddy’s house way back in the day. It’s no Punch Out but it’s still a fun boxing game. And at $10 it was an easy purchase.
Next up are the Sega Master System games that Flavio put aside for me.
Deep Duck Trouble cost me $70 CAD (~$53 USD). It’s a Euro release and not a common game to come across.
And for $45 (~$34 USD) I got Asterix and the Secret Mission. Another Euro game that is hard to come by in Canada.
Crash Dummies for $25 (~$19 USD).
Tecmo World Cup ’93 for $25 (~$19 USD).
GP Rider for $20 (~$15 USD).
And finally the awesome Bubble Bobble for $70 CAD (~$53 USD). At first we both over looked that the manual is not complete. It’s just two pages and the rest is missing. Flavio is going to get me a replacement as soon as another ones comes his way.
Update: Good to his word (as always) my replacement Bubble Bobble manual has arrived.
I already had Strider II but it was missing the manual which I picked up for $20 (~$15 USD).
Of all my Sega Master System and Sega Genesis games I have eight games from each collection that are missing manuals. So I really do love any chance I can get to pick one up. I don’t think I’ll ever have a complete library of all games for any particular console but I love the idea of everything I have being complete. Right now I have 252 Japanese Sega Mega Drive games and all of those are complete. And my much smaller collection of 39 Sega Mark III games are also complete. No big deal.
When I got Strider II home I had a closer look at it and I noticed that the staples in the manual were so rusted that they almost completely disintegrated on touch. Unfortunately the rust had damaged the paper in the surrounding area. So with very little effort I removed what was remaining of the staples and got ready to replace them.
On some pages there was a fine black/brown dust which I wiped away easily. It’s really only the dark brown stains near the staple holes that shows.
I was pretty sure that I would not be able to do a good job replacing the staples with a stapler so I did it by hand. I lined up one page at a time and carefully inserted the staples; this took some time and patients. It was easier than I thought to push down the arms of the staples. They bent in the correct position and laid down nicely.
This little project worked out very well except for the cover page. The paper on the front page was so damaged by the rust that there wasn’t enough paper left for the new staples to hold onto and the cover is just resting on top and is not actually held in place. But since this repair job Flavio had already acquired another Strider II and he was happy to give me a manual that is in better condition.
The same rusting was also happening on my manual for Asterix and the Secret Mission. I did the same staple swap for it and since the rusting was so much less severe I’m still happy with the over all condition.
So all in it was an expensive day but I do enjoy the new additions and as trivial as staples might sounds I also enjoyed these little restorations and preserving these games as best I can.
While browsing my local classifieds (Kijiji) I found someone selling a nice looking boxed Sega Master System. It was listed as complete and from the images included it really did look reasonable. After exchanging a few emails we worked out a deal and for $105 CAD I got a boxed Sega Master System and two complete sports games for the Sega CD. For simplicity, lets say this boxed Master System cost me $100 even. I’m typically not too interested in chasing variants but for the Sega Master System Model 1 I’m only aware of three significantly different versions that were released in Canada. So for a fair price it was fun getting one step closer to having all three.
I didn’t have a chance to take a close look at the packing or the console itself until I got home. When I did, I discovered several things that really hurt the over all appearance. The outer paper layer of the box was pealing off the cardboard in several places and the bottom of the box had two large rips where at some point the box could no longer support the weight of it’s contents. There was also a small price tag right smack in the front and center of the box. At $9.99 someone (once upon a time) got a much better deal than I did!
And although technically complete with the power base unit itself, joystick, 3rd party audio/video cable and 3rd party power cable it still felt less than whole.
The good news about the paper pealing away from the cardboard was that is was still pretty well intact. There were no folds, wrinkles or rips. So I grabbed a glue stick and went to work. I even had an idea for the tears on the bottom of the box. I knew they couldn’t be glued and stand a chance of holding as they were so I cut out some cardboard and glued the new piece to the area surrounding the tears. All things considered I think it turned out very well.
Despite seeming thin for cardboard the piece I used to mend the tears at the bottom of the box was too thick. In hind-sight I should have used something similar to the thickness of the sheet of cardboard that slips into a comic book bag. I ended up tearing the top layer off the added piece of cardboard and then flattening the exposed cardboard ridges to make it thinner. It’s not pretty but it’s entirely out of sight and holding the bottom together well.
The condition of this box before any of the work I did was still pretty good considering the age. But this felt like a big win. After about 30-45 minutes of work I feel like it’s now looking really good. Surprisingly removing the price tag from the front of the box was really hard. I used a hair dryer on the sticker until the surface was good and hot but it still did not want to let go. I spent a long while pulling up the edges about one milometer at a time until it was fully removed.
Alright! Time to play some Sega Master System with my new Sega Master System Power Base! It is after all ‘The Best Video Game System”. Says so right there on the box.
I powered it up without any game inserted to see if it had the Snail Maze game built in or Hang-on and Safari Hunt. Turns out this unit is a bit older and has the Snail Maze game built in. Back in the day when the Master System was new the Snail Maze game was an Easter egg and was not advertised. This was pre-Internet and there weren’t a lot of ways to find out about stuff like this. When a friend told me to power on my Master System and hold ‘Up+Button 1+Button 2’ during the SEGA logo splash screen at boot up to find a hidden game I did not believe it. Yet there it was. It was a real ‘Wow!’ moment. Sega was really smart to keep it secret. It’s a really simplistic game and doesn’t merit a purchase on it’s own but the surprise of it made it feel like a really significant bonus. I did not stop playing the Snail Maze game until I had beaten it. It is a fun game and you will need a lot of attempts before you’ll be able to clear all 12 stages. It felt awesome when I finally beat it. It was fun and free and it was another big win for the little Sega Dude!
Flash forward to 2017 and the Sega Dude is attacking the Snail Maze again! That’s right, it’s still fun and challenging. It had been a very long time since my last play through and I was navigating more on instinct than memory. The tiny Snail sprite was the embodiment of pure fury under my control! Then at the final moment of round 11 with only one more maze to go… my new Sega Master System Power Base died… With a pop and a crackle my TV went dark and fury fell to anguish.
I tried powering it back on a few times and nothing happened. In my inexperience with electronics I headed over to SMSpower.org for some help.
The first thing that was suggested to me was to replace the capacitors. If you’re into the Retro Video Game scene you’ve likely heard of the term ‘cap kit’. Which refers to buying the required set of capacitors to replace the old ones from a particular Printed Circuit Board (in this case the PCB for a Sega Master System).
So I purchased a Sega Master System cap kit from Console5 for $2.95 USD. After replacing all 16 capacitors my Master System would still not turn on. With more help form the SMSPower forums I then replaced the voltage regulator (also purchased from Console5).
In the first picture below I’ve circled all 16 capacitors in red and on the far left circled in purple is the voltage regulator. The first picture is actually the finished project with all the new components that I installed. I still feel new to soldiering so I was more focused on the work than documenting it.
The second image above is a typically capacitor. The long leg being positive and the short leg being negative. When placing a capacitor into a PCB it’s very important to get the polarity right. The holes on the PCB where the capacitor is to be place will indicate which is which with a + and – symbol. I’ve circled these details in the third image. The only other consideration is to be sure that the capacitor you’re installing is appropriate for replacing the old one. The benefit of purchasing a cap kit is that someone else has done this part for you. The remaining images above show caps being installed and then soldered into place. Once the soldering is done I cut off the excess legs and I was done. In order to get access to one particular capacitor I had to remove (de-solder) the power switch and then re-install it once the new cap was in place. If you look close at the blue plastic on the power switch you can see where I accidentally melted part of it. Fortunately it’s just cosmetic damage and the switch is fine.
In the end it turned out that it was the voltage regulator that had died. Once it was replaced my SMS would turn on again. I didn’t have to replace all of the capacitors but I am glad I did. When comparing this SMS with my other one I can see a distinct difference between the two. My newly repaired SMS shows a brighter and sharper image compared to the other SMS with it’s old capacitors.
By chance I was recording my gameplay when my SMS died. Not only was I able to capture the distorted video quality but also the actual moment when my poor console died.
**Viewer discretion advised. The following might not be suitable for all audiences.**
What the video doesn’t show very well is how much better the the visual quality is after the repair. Somewhere during recording via composite and re-encoding and playback on non-CRT displays the fine details are lost. But the distortions were captured well in the first recording.
With this Master System working again I went through my box of miscellaneous things and I found a few items to make it more complete. Now it has the Power Base, Hang On & Safari Hunt, RF AV Cable (hidden under the game), two control pads and a Light Phaser. I just need an original power cable***, a manual for Hang On & Safari Hunt* and a manual for the Master System** itself. Eventually those things will come along and I’ll pick them up when I can.
*Update: I was able get a free Sega Master System manual from my buddy Flavio. All of Flavio, Nintendo Joe and myself were playing some outstanding Genesis games like Vapor Trail, Golden Axe II, Forgotten Worlds and Eliminate Down while munching on pizza when I noticed a SMS manual sitting right next to us. We checked Flavio’s two boxed Master System’s and they were already complete with manual so this spare became mine. Thanks Flavio!
**Update 2017-11-6: I now have a manual for Hang On & Safari Hunt.
***Update 2018-01-29: I managed to find an original SMS Power Cable from my local classifieds (Kijiji).
The other boxed Sega Master System below I purchased in the early 2000’s at a hockshop. I’ve forgotten what it cost me. It is complete and also in very good shape. It even has the two thumb sticks that screw into the center of the joystick D-Pad. The idea was to make the joystick feel more arcade like. They don’t work well at all and aren’t worth using but I love that I have them for this set.
I’m already planning on replacing the capacitors on my other Master System Power Base just because of the difference in visual quality that I can see first hand between the two of them.
After this experience I’m no longer worried about these old consoles dying. With a bit of work and low cost we can bring them back to life and make them function like new again.
On September 25th Nintendo Joe and myself went to the Waterloo Game Swap as we’ve done many times now. And just like all of our previous visits we had a lot of fun digging through piles of retro video games.
This time I was a little concerned about how much money I might spend considering the fact that I had already spent $205 CAD on games from this very convention before I had even arrived at it. A friend of mine who was planning on selling at the Game Swap showed me a list of games he would be bringing. I fired off a wish list and he fired right back with some nice Bro Deal discounts and right away most of my spending money was gone!
Below are the 9 games I purchased from my friend and Sega Master System King Flavio!
First up are six PC-Engine games. In my experience you wont find PC-Engine (or Turbo Grafx-16) games very often out in the real world. Online is the only reliable way to get your hands on them. The two main highlights for me among the six are Wonder Boy III Monster Lair and Bikkuri Man World; which is actually Wonder Boy in Monster Land. I’ve always loved the Wonder Boy series and it will be fun trying out the PC-Engine’s take on these classics. I’ve already played Monster Lair and it is really good. Classic running and jumping just like the original Wonder Boy mixed with flying shooter style levels worked really well. Both the games visuals and sound are also really great.
As for the other 6 PC-Engine games… well, at the moment I can’t play them. I have a TurboGrafx-16 with the CD add-on. Being region locked I’m not able to play Japanese HuCards and because I only have the base System 2.0 card and not the Super System Card (or Arcade Card) my TurboGrafx-16 doesn’t have enough RAM to load the region free Japanese Super CD’s. The Super System Card for the TurboGrafx-16 is very rare and wildly expensive. I won’t be able to get one. But I have a plan. I’m going to region mod my TurboGrafx-16 so that it can play Japanese HuCards; which will allow me to use a Japanese Super Card or Japanese Arcade Card. At the moment those are more affordable. That project will be a post all on it’s own when I get around to it. Here’s the break down of what each game cost me: Bikkuri Man World $20, Fatal Fury 2 $10, Cyber Core $20, Street Fighter II $35, Monster Lair $40 and the Baseball game was free.
Next up are three Sega Master System games. It’s been a long time since I picked-up some SMS games and it feels good because the Master System is where my retro video gaming collecting started.
Here’s Mortal Kombat complete and in Very Good condition. -$30
Followed by Crash Dummies which is also complete and in Excellent Condition. -$25
And last is The Simpson’s Bart vs. The Space Mutants. The case and cart are in excellent shape but the manual is pretty beat up. However, it is complete! – $25
Just because he’s a good guy Flavio gave me some manuals I needed for Free. Someone colored in the title for Space Invaders but it’s still in good shape and both Air Rescue and Secret Command are Excellent. Only 12 more manuals to go for my current Master System collection of about 220 games. Not bad at all. 🙂 It’s a great feeling digging through your collection and completing a few games!
And so ends Flavio’s reign of terror over my wallet! I’m joking of course. I’m very happy with these games. Thanks Buddy!
Under my own steam I spent a few hours cruising around the convention occasionally bumping into Nintendo Joe. Surprisingly I didn’t buy a whole lot more. At one vendor I found a very good condition NES Bubble Bobble loose cartridge for $25 CAD and at another vendor I found a very good condition manual for Bubble Bobble which cost me $10 CAD.
I’ve been aching real bad for manuals for my NES Zelda and Zelda II and the same guy who sold me the Bubble Bobble manual also sold me the manual for The Adventure of Link for $10. Yeah, I don’t have original boxes but I still really do love what I have. Check it out. That Link looks soooo goooood!! 😀 I’ve been playing it very recently and it’s still a great game. I would not change a thing.
Every Waterloo Game Swap I’ve been to has always had a lot of cool door prizes. As it turns today was my day! I won a loose Game Boy Advance and a few loose carts. Below is the advertised picture of this door prize. What you see is pretty much what I won except I got a GBA instead of a Game Boy Color handheld. I do have a pretty awesome GBA collection with a nice Game Boy Advance SP and even though I’m not really interested in the older Game Boy stuff it was still a very nice treat. Thanks VGCC.ca and 1UP Games!
I usually just browse to see what people are selling never really looking for any particular game. But this time I had been asking everyone if they had ActRaiser for the SNES. Everyone who didn’t have it said it should cost $20-30. Everyone who did have it was selling it for about $50 – $60. So I held off and did not buy it. After winning the cool door prize I went back to the cheapest vendor with ActRaiser selling for $50 and I offered a trade. He was willing to give me $35 for my door prize. So I handed it over and an extra $15 and now I have a very nice loose cart of ActRaiser for the SNES.
What’s extra special about this score is that it’s a game that Nintendo Joe does not have and would LOVE to have in his collection. But on this particular trip Nintendo Joe exclaimed that he will only be hunting for NES carts and nothing else. So I didn’t have to snake a friend and I have this very cool game to lord over him for a while. That’s a win-win in my books!
So I went and have returned from VGCC’s Waterloo Video Game Swap. And something strange happened…
I went home with more money than I came with. And against all odds I did not buy a single game.
Below you can see Nintendo Joe (left) looking like someone who has been standing all day and Flavio to the right.
Flavio and I with our combined Sega Master System (SMS) and Japanese Mega Drive games dominated the Sega presence at this event. If you divide the table in half all those SMS games on the right half are Flavio’s. All the Sega stuff to the left is mine. Flavio’s commanding lead in inventory made him the day’s top earner of the three of us. Flavio said he made just about $1,000 in the five hours we were there. He also had two large boxes of NES games for sale which were very popular.
Nintendo Joe and Flavio!
For myself, I was selling a lot of cheap and often complete Sega Master System games and I thought more would sell. People in Canada seem to be very Nintendo crazy 🙂 But I did sell some; including SMS, Mega Drive, Genesis, ColecoVision and maybe one or two PS2 and xbox original games.
Since Nintendo Joe picked us up and did all the driving Flavio and I split the cost of the table and gas. After my expenses I went home with an extra $260. It’s not amazing but it’s OK.
Busy Busy!
I don’t know Nintendo Joe’s final tally but I’m sure he’ll be posting it soon at MyNintendoDimension. As you can see from the image above this small venue was packed. Which is why we all did so well. People were having a very hard time just walking around!
Even though I didn’t buy anything that does not mean I went home empty handed! Thanks to Nintendo Joe I came home with three Super Nintendo games and Dungeon Lords for the PC. Haven’t heard of Dungeon Lords?! If you’re OK with old games that look old but are still awesome check out Dungeon Lords. I’m sure Nintendo Joe only gave it up because he’s all Mac now and does not have a PC. …but I still love him anyways.
Courtesy of Nintendo Joe. For my Nintendo Corner!
Two of these SNES games are ports of SNK Neo Geo games which added a lot more interest for me with my new found Neo Geo collecting. Nintendo Joe could have easily sold these for $10 each but instead he sent them my way. Thank you! *Update: After becoming more particular about what I collect I ended up giving these back to Nintendo Joe.
Speaking of new games; just before the show I picked up some Master System games from Flavio. He gave me a great deal on a stack of games. It really pays off having friends into the same stuff you are.
For this Game Swap I decided to try something out. Something to get the SegaDude out there! And ingrain myself deep into pop-culture!!
In most of my games I stuck in a business card that I made up using the artwork made for me by EvilKalman. I also scattered these cards on the table top so people could just grab one if they wanted to. The idea was to see if I could find anyone who might want to check out what I have going on here 😀
SegaDude Business Cards!
Before I left for the Game Swap there were 96 of you wonderful people subscribed to my blog. And now a week after handing out my cards at a jam-packed video game venue?!… there are still 96. A quick calculation tells me that is a net gain of zero (0). I bought 250 cards (still have most of them) for $70. Well, whatever, I still think they are cool and I believe Nintendo Joe is a wee bit jealous so they are worth every penny. 😀
When we drove home the car felt just as packed as when we went there. Of maybe ten boxes of stuff 8 were coming home again. I’m done with my doubles and I want them gone! So I start putting them on Kijiji (Classifieds) and that same day I was able to sell my boxed SONY PSP for $80 and the next morning I had sold all of my remaining 66 Japanese Sega Mega Drive games. I was willing to sell them individually but I also offered the entire lot of games for $280. And poof! they were gone. Someone just getting back into the Sega Genesis bought them all. I got rid of them and he got all those games for less than $4.25 each. That’s a win-win in my book.
Don’t forget about Dungeon Lords. It’s an excellent open world action RPG. It’s also good and hard!
Retro Megabit 