I'm just curious how other Famicom collectors go about, well, collecting.
I began collecting when I lived in Fukuoka. Most of my purchases came from second-hand resale shops like Hard-Off, Book-Off, and Geo.
A lot of these resale shops have a great selection of loose carts and hardware at really good prices. Often, only 100-500 yen. Even boxed/CiB games could be had for only a few hundred yen on occassion. You wouldn't come across the *really* rare/expensive stuff very often, but you strike gold once in awhile.
For more rare, high-dollar items, I'd check out the Mandarake locations in Tenjin and Kokura. Every now and then I'd check Amazon for loose carts, most often when I saw something that looked interesting at Mandarake...but didn't want to pay the store's price.
When my wife took a job in Tokyo, I found that collecting is a whole lot different here.
Places like Book-Off and Hard-Off are still around, but their selection isn't as impressive. The prices are probably twice what the averages were in Fukuoka. Boxed stuff, even more so.
Most people seem to know that, if you're looking to sell your old hardware/software, Akihabara's the place to do it. The result is that, in Akiba, on any given day, you could probably find *anything* you were after...if you were willing to pay for it. Places like Mandarake, Super Potato, and Retro Game Center have damn near every cart ever released, and an eye-popping amount of hardware to boot. But at prices hovering around what you'd see online. Still, I have to pass through Akiba on my way home from work nearly every day, so if there *are* deals to find, I'm often in the right place at the right time.
How do you folks collect? What's your routine?
Since I'm collecting import stuff, the only routine I have is checking Ebay and the local equivalent for what I'm currently looking (or sometimes just checking what's changed) either to get a good grasp what the prices are on those sites or see if I can get anything for a good price, sometimes I strike it lucky. My collection isn't that impressive for that reason (importing is expensive).
All local game stores I used to know are either gone or have become crappy so they are useless.
When I go to Japan I look in all Book-Offs and similar secondhand shops I see, far from all of those have games though. If I have something I've been looking for when I'm going to Akiba I buy it there despite the price. At least I won't find it in the same shape cheaper on Ebay anytime soon. You are lucky to be able to go there often enough to find deals there.
When you say that collecting is very different in Tokyo do you mean that in a bad way or good way? Or maybe both? I would think the selection is bigger but it's harder to find deals.
In Tokyo (especially in Akiba) the selection is overwhelming. With very few exceptions, you can find nearly anything that saw a retail release every day of the year. But since just about every retailer knows *exactly* what they've got, *excellent* deals are few and far between.
In the other places I've lived (Fukuoka, Kitakyushu, Hiroshima, and a few others) the selection isn't nearly as expansive, and you'll rarely find anything eye-popping, but the prices are far below what you'd expect to pay online. I picked up a CiB Rockman 4 for 700 yen. The first boxed Famicom I bought was 3,000 yen. I snagged a first-run Gameboy console for under 1,000 yen. I passed on a CiB Virtual Boy console for 5,000 yen last year. If you're looking to start building a collection, doing so outside of Tokyo is a great idea.
I'm going back to visit my family next month. I am going to absolutely load up on game to bring back with me. I didn't appreciate how incredible racks and racks full of 100-800 yen games were until I started working in Akiba. The Book-Off here has about a dozen Famicom titles, and half of them are Mah-Jong...for 500 yen each.
(Not bagging on the Akiba Book-Off, btw. Even if they're not the ideal place for Famicom stuff, I *did* see a boxed AV Famicom for 7,000 yen (loose ones fetch 13,000 these days). And it's a FANTASTIC place if you're into PS1, or nearly any kind of book/manga.)
i started by getting games i had and i enjoyed the most in my childhood, first i was buying on some market but there were not lot of games, then i started to look on the internet, i saw ch3ch3 webpage and couldn't belive how many cartridges he has, but when i found this awesome Famicom world forum , i succeed to collect all the games i wanted...
now i have so much cartridges and that's enough for whole life, but for sure there is more games that i never played and surely they're great , but i'm sorry that i didn't keep my personal cartridges which my parents were buying in late 90's , i gave all games to one kid and he gave to somebody else and i never saw them again...
Quote from: Shumi Nagaremono on July 08, 2014, 06:42:10 pm
I began collecting when I lived in Fukuoka.
LOL, that is funny, I began collecting when I lived in Fukuoka too! Manuel too I think.
You are right, the shops down there, especially the Hard Offs and other recycle shops, had a really good selection at really good prices compared to Tokyo or other larger cities.
You must have lived there a few years ago, in around 2010 all the GEOs in Fukuoka liquidated their Famicom (and other pre-PS2) inventory. My collection grew quite a bit while they had that sale! I do miss living down there, it really was a great place for retro game collecting. I suspect that other mid-sized cities are also pretty good, they don`t have as many collectors competing for stuff so its possible to find some bargains.
I lived in Fukuoka prefecture from 2006 until 2010.
Did you ever visit the retro game store in Nishijin? It was in between Don Kihote and the Hard Off/Off-House (which closed in maybe 2010?) It was a *godsend* for certain harder to find SFC titles.
And speaking of the Hard-Off nearby...crazy, right?
Quote from: Shumi Nagaremono on July 09, 2014, 04:18:55 am
(Not bagging on the Akiba Book-Off, btw. Even if they're not the ideal place for Famicom stuff, I *did* see a boxed AV Famicom for 7,000 yen (loose ones fetch 13,000 these days). And it's a FANTASTIC place if you're into PS1, or nearly any kind of book/manga.)
When I studied abroad in Tokyo we bought a cheap PS1 in a secondhand store and then went to book-off to get multiplayer games to play in the evenings. PS1 games was really easy to find. Before we went home we gave away the console and most of the games to other students.
Shumi,
That's about my story too.
Moved to Nagoya and though I had earlier idea that I would stop collecting games, as I sold most of them before I left for Japan and thought I'd have a different lifestyle.
Went to an A-Too which is a mostly used game store, though they do sell a lot of the newer stuff too.. Anyway, they had some really inexpensive loose carts in a bin on the floor.
Dug out Kirby's Adventure among a few other things.. Sort of a memento.
Before I knew it, I was making trips there every weekend, along with every hardoff I could find.
I also found a Mandarake and a few others prime locations that were more expensive... In the end, I ended up ordering anything I hadn't seen yet, or hadn't picked up yet, on Amazon.jp.
By the time I went back to the states, I had accrued probably about 1000 games... and sent them all back to the states for my return, ahead of time.
I'm full on crazy now. :crazy:
Keep in mind though, the huge majority of my collection consists of games I picked up within that 105-525yen range, leaning toward the former.
Very proud of it. Even have a number of good boxed stuff.
I buy everything from people on here. Particularly Senseiman, whose blog convinced me to start collecting Famicom in the first place. :P
Quote from: Shumi Nagaremono on July 09, 2014, 05:46:55 am
I lived in Fukuoka prefecture from 2006 until 2010.
Did you ever visit the retro game store in Nishijin? It was in between Don Kihote and the Hard Off/Off-House (which closed in maybe 2010?) It was a *godsend* for certain harder to find SFC titles.
And speaking of the Hard-Off nearby...crazy, right?
We would have overlapped then, I lived there from 2008 to 2012.
I think I know the shop you are talking about in Nishijin, kind of a smaller place? I used to browse there sometimes but never bought anything.
My favorite was hte Omocha Souko in Kaizuka, which sadly went out of business in 2012.
The best Hard Off in Fukuoka was this one out in Higashi ku, kind of hard to get to. It was near Costco in the suburbs. It could be hit and miss depending on whether they had gotten any new stuff in (and whether they had priced it cheaply or not) but sometimes I hit the jackpot out there.
Oh, cool! Are you still teaching in Japan?
Yeah, but sadly not in Fukuoka anymore. I love that city, in part because it was a way better place to find games!
I've got wishlists of the consoles I want to buy the games in the future for, so that way I can remember the ones I want.
In terms of 8th gen collection, I got about a dozen of Wii U games which I wanted although for PS4 still nothing because the games I want for it are yet to be released so I'll just get the console + games in 2015/16.
Quote from: FamicomRetroGamer on July 11, 2014, 04:48:42 am
I've got wishlists of the consoles I want to buy the games in the future for, so that way I can remember the ones I want.
In terms of 8th gen collection, I got about a dozen of Wii U games which I wanted although for PS4 still nothing because the games I want for it are yet to be released so I'll just get the console + games in 2015/16.
Yeah man, save your money. :bub:
I wouldn't mind buying them but they're just so generic and bland it makes me wonder why anyone would want a PS4/XO at this stage considering its best games are still yet to be released.
I didn't buy into the PS4 hype like many others did because I'm a Nintendo guy that and it always comes down to "where are the games?".
Back in PS3's launch I remember playing MotorStorm and had a blast playing it, still to this day is a ton of fun and looks graphically great too.
on one hand i love my wii u and i cant wait for mario maker, super smash bros, hyrules greatest warrior (im gonna retry the game genre again for the sake of being a L.O.Z. fan) etc. to come to wii u and i love just getting comfy in my bed and using the tablet to play games and watch shows on netflix plus you get alot of discounts and rewards with nintendo like club nintendo, Deluxe console discount, and tons of other deals like with mario kart 8 its awesome and you dont have to pay to play online
but with that being said on the other hand i still enjoy shooters (not an overkill of them like theyre producing ::)) and i enjoy some other games that i know wont be available on the wii u like the elder scrolls online :'( i loved skyrim and now i cant play the sequal :( so in my opinion i could see why someone could still get excited for the ps4/xbox one and i would just see it as an investment to be able to play something besides shooters
(do you ever think that in the future people will look back at shooters like i (and presumably you) look back at sports games for the nes/snes/n64 etc. ?)
You guys who started collecting in Japan are all making me super jealous :'(
I started collecting last year during the spring because I had planned a trip to Tokyo in the fall and I was getting impatient. I buy a lot from here, ebay, stores in NYC. I've found a couple of great deals, but no where near the dollar games people in Japan buy. Once I finally took my trip I bought a duffel bag full of games to bring back home. Best trip ever. I'm DYING to go back to Japan, especially to some town away from Tokyo to see what that's like.
;D It was definitely a good time.
Let me tell you though.. I probably spent about as much in shipping my whole collection back as I did in acquiring all the games in the first place.... whew.
Still a good deal methinks. ;)
I'm eager to go back myself, this time on vacation, whenever I can find the money for it.
I really want to go to US not because of the country but the games' over there in market flees tend to be very reasonable compared to the prices in UK, I've looked up eBay / Amazon / Gumtree and the sellers are going by what the online sales of the games they have and make their mind through those prices.
Unfortunately I don't have a passport instead a European ID which limits me to Europe so it's a bit shitty, and then to buy a passport it costs around £70 which is $120 or more. I just wanna go there, buy a shit-ton of retro games, have a good time, eat a ton of meat and then return.
P.S.: A gaming store nearby has a Neo Geo X which at first I got excited when I saw but then they told me it costed £140 without any games and poof, heck, that's exactly as much as it costs on eBay except doesn't have any games. Bunch of thieves.
I got my first official Famicom game (Batman) back in 2007 at the Classic Gaming Expo from famous prototype collector DreamTR. I believe every other FC game I own has come from the message boards here from various members and I don't think that will change anytime soon.
You don't see a whole lot of variety out in the wild though, at flea markets and such..
Your best bet just may be online, preferably with users on sites like this.
Heck, senseiman's famicom games are cheaper than you'd even get them in Japan.
Quote from: FamicomRetroGamer on July 16, 2014, 01:41:01 pm
I really want to go to US not because of the country but the games' over there in market flees tend to be very reasonable compared to the prices in UK, I've looked up eBay / Amazon / Gumtree and the sellers are going by what the online sales of the games they have and make their mind through those prices.
Unfortunately I don't have a passport instead a European ID which limits me to Europe so it's a bit shitty, and then to buy a passport it costs around £70 which is $120 or more. I just wanna go there, buy a shit-ton of retro games, have a good time, eat a ton of meat and then return.
P.S.: A gaming store nearby has a Neo Geo X which at first I got excited when I saw but then they told me it costed £140 without any games and poof, heck, that's exactly as much as it costs on eBay except doesn't have any games. Bunch of thieves.
Eat a ton of meat? Do you mean this literally, or is there some sort of slang going on that American-English speakers just don't comprehend? If you are being literal, that is quite funny, I know we enjoy eating a lot of meat, but never heard of anyone wanting to visit the USA for that reason.
Haha all Europeans likes to eat a ton of meat wherever we go. I'm more surprised that a passport is 70£ in UK. That's almost the price of a temporal passport in Sweden that you only buy if you don't have time to apply for a real passport. Insane!
QuoteI just wanna go there, buy a shit-ton of retro games, have a good time, eat a ton of meat and then return.
LOL that was my aim for when I went to Japan except instead of meat it was fish. Now I want to go back. I wouldn't mind living there for sometime, working somewhere, and enjoying being within the culture. Another vacation would be awesome, but no one wants to accompany me as it's so expensive to go.
Quote from: Raverrevolution on July 17, 2014, 06:36:46 am
QuoteI just wanna go there, buy a shit-ton of retro games, have a good time, eat a ton of meat and then return.
LOL that was my aim for when I went to Japan except instead of meat it was fish. Now I want to go back. I wouldn't mind living there for sometime, working somewhere, and enjoying being within the culture. Another vacation would be awesome, but no one wants to accompany me as it's so expensive to go.
I'd like to visit Japan someday too though not for its food but to buy whichever games I'd find interesting for the cheap prices (I'd probably end up spending more than I should, lol) they go in Japan.
I don't have any problems paying £70+ for the passport but when I do I'd have to have things ready to travel and that just isn't prepared.
The food alone is one reason to go to Japan really (Taiwan too)! And it's generally cheap too. I often ate out when I was an exchange student, even if it's just Yoshinoya or some cheap soba place it's almost always very good.
I swear to you that all food in Japan must contain crack or something. There was absolutely nothing that I didn't like. It didn't matter if it was junk food, a snack, or something randomly weird everything had some type of sauce, cream, or something that tasted delicious.
God damn I love that country. Their lifestyle is on such another level. I would love to be eating Japanese food, hitting on hot Japanese girls, and collecting old video games daily. That would be heaven.
You really don't know anything about Japanese society then. ;)
Oh don't get me wrong here, I know all the negatives as well. High suicide rate, family and society hate you if you're a failure, racism, their keeping everything to themselves mentality, no heat and a/c in most houses, etc.. Still though, after visiting they were some of the nicest, most peaceful people I've ever met. Going there once just to visit changes your life. And for the record, about 90% of girls I passed were hot or close to it. ;D
Quote from: Raverrevolution on July 18, 2014, 10:56:22 am
Oh don't get me wrong here, I know all the negatives as well. High suicide rate, family and society hate you if you're a failure, racism, their keeping everything to themselves mentality, no heat and a/c in most houses, etc.. Still though, after visiting they were some of the nicest, most peaceful people I've ever met. Going there once just to visit changes your life. And for the record, about 90% of girls I passed were hot or close to it. ;D
I used to think the same about Taiwanese girls...90% you passed were hot. But after you live there for a few years, you begin to distinguish between hot and not, and there is quite a difference ;)
Haha this thread title just took on a whole new meaning pretty quick.
Hitting on them straight-up isn't going to work. In Japanese society, only delinquents take the direct approach. Otherwise you're expected to shy and indirect. ;)
I collect purely from buying the games off ebay, since I'm in Canada :P I don't need any boxes or instructions, just the cart. However, I prefer a case and art insert for collecting FDS games!
As for the other topic being discussed in this thread, I agree that visiting Japan can be life-changing. I don't think I would actually consider living there unless I was rich, because you literally work 24/7 in Japan. I couldn't imagine working 12hour days 6 days a week so I can just get by... I also don't really like the lack of personality and individualism in people in Japan that we Canadians, and Americans, really value. Although Japan seems like such a nice paradise, I think being a citizen could be really stressful. But that's what you get in return for a society that is polite, structured, has low-crime, and full of rewards like all the nerdy/fascinating/weird/girly/crazy/silly stuff that we find so cool.
I also find the cannabis laws to be overly inhumane in Asia, especially Singapore(death penalty for 30g+ of cannabis, life in jail for any amount).
Japan just has 5 years in prison, but still. Ridiculous for a culture that has an ancient history of cannabis usage. Another dumb law you may know about is that Japanese women are required to wear a bra by law indoors if there is air conditioning. Exposing nipples through your shirt is illegal, only for women though.
I think that some of the thoughts on Japan in this thread are a bit outdated.
...Care to elaborate?
Sure! :)
Nobody here works 24/7. Sure, plenty of people work longer than the US standard 8 hour day, but they're usually compensated for it. People also get more paid holidays and other benefits.
I don't know where this "no individualism" thing comes from. Other than the ethnic makeup of the country, people here are no more or less "individuals" than people from any other country.
There are *very* few people who work twelve hours per day, six days a week "just to get by". The people who *do* work that much usually do *quite* well, financially.
The drug laws (not just for pot, but across the board) are pretty strict, but not nearly as strict as people seem to think. I knew a guy who got busted for meth three times before he finally got put in jail (for a year).
That "women must wear bras" law *is* a real thing. And it is immensely stupid AND sexist as hell. But it's one of those archaic laws like "no throwing snowballs at trees in Wisconsin" type things. It's not enforced in any meaningful way.
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About the individualism thing, I think Japan do have a bit stronger collectivism than your average western European country (and that's not a bad thing IMHO), it's a bit of how European countries used to be in that regard. But I don't agree that the Japanese lacks personality at all (on the contrary). In a society with strong individualism you are supposed to boast and stick out which is something I rather be without.
Of course there are backsides of strong collectivism as well, like if you are living in a way that's too different from the norm it seems to be harder for you than compared to living that way in a society with weaker collectivism.
I only lived in Japan for half a year but that's my impression of it anyway.
Regarding bras I don't see how that law is any different from any other countries laws. Even men can be arrested for "offensive behaviour" for going topless in town or other place where it's considered inappropriate (i.e not a beach or similar) in about any country. It has nothing to do with sexism or anything, it's just about not bothering your peers (in other words, not being an ass).
Quote from: L___E___T on July 18, 2014, 11:25:48 am
Haha this thread title just took on a whole new meaning pretty quick.
Hahaha