Video Games, Movies, Comics, & Pop Culture

It’s been over a year since I went game hunting at garage sales and a few people in the area had reported resounding success in game collecting groups I’m in, so I had decided to finally get back to garage sale hunting.

There were no listings on Craigslist – other than one an hour and a half drive away that was ultimately cancelled – so I just headed to a cluster of them where a couple of neighborhoods were having HOA-wide garage sales.

Much to my disappointment, I found nothing but a single $2 copy of a Just Dance game for XBox 360.

It was nearing 10 o’clock when I stopped by a Half Price Books I often frequent, but only picked up Dead or Alive Ultimate on XBox. As it started to rain, I decided to head home, but would stop by a game store in the area.

Retro Madness is a cool store that buys & sells both video games and toys and is settled in Retro Plaza in Bedford, Texas right between The Quarter Lounge – an arcade that charges a modest entry fee to subsidize keeping their arcades at a quarter per play – and The Vintage Freak – a store that sells mostly vinyl records but also clothes, furniture, and oddities. It was still an hour before Retro Madness would open, so I decided to check out a few other places in the area.

First stop was a Cash America Pawn Shop, but they had almost no games whatsoever. A shame, as I’ve had some luck with good prices and surprise finds in there before. Next, I went to Thrifty Pirates, which has a booth owned by Miniboss Games & Collectibles. I spotted a copy of Ninja Warriors for SNES, which I’ve been looking for and really want to get my hands on for $90. A decent price, but the cartridge was discolored on the back shell and I let myself pass on an expensive purchase. It’s not unimaginable to find a copy for equal price in excellent condition at a convention.

I stopped by two antique malls in the area, one of which has a booth with games, but even they were getting scarce on inventory. Finally Retro Madness was open, so I headed back there.

At first, I was debating a few Genesis and Sega CD games – Dungeonkeep II, Chakan, and Vectorman 2 as well as a tempting Captain America & The Avengers (but no manual had me pass), but then I looked in their glass case and found some great titles. Titles I was looking for. The eye catcher was Ristar, which proved to be complete in box (only missing the fold out coloring poster), though the box was fairly rough. Quackshot caught my eye, but I couldn’t remember if I already owned that one.

Then I noticed Lufia & The Fortress of Doom complete in box. The box had only a small nick in the front and otherwise was in great shape. The map was in excellent condition and the manual was near pristine. I already had the game, but since I have Lufia II complete, I’ve wanted to have Lufia to match it. It was a smooth $100, which is a little over online prices, but reasonable for the condition.

Overall, I was looking at $265 or so with Quackshot and they said they’d do it all for $240. Removing Quackshot, as I was fairly certain I had it, came down to an even $200 offer. Now, Ristar and Lufia were worth that, so I decided it was an excellent deal to get Vectorman 2 and Chakan essentially for free. However, I didn’t want to spend that kind of money just now.

They put everything on hold and I headed home to pile up some things I was willing to trade in. I still had a lot of games I had accumulated along with a few things from the mega haul of 2017 I hadn’t been able to get rid of, so I piled it all together and took it in. All in all, they offered me $140 for everything, bringing my bill down to $60. I added in a fan cart of Secret of Mana 2 with a fan-made cart, box, manual, and map for another $30 and gladly paid up.

At this point, I decided to make one more stop to a place called Found It Electronics & Video Games in Watauga, Tx. This place has something of a love/hate reputation with game collectors in the area. When they first started, they frequently spammed the heck out of Craigslist, making it hard to see anything else listed. Over time, they’ve shifted their business to focus more on games and they claim to offer excellent trade in credit. They’ve definitely been doing something right as their inventory is quite often amazing with titles you rarely see in a game store. They always run a Buy 3, Get 1 free and a friend and I had recently been in to use that, but they were closing so I had to go back and double check a few titles.

Most of their prices are a little higher than eBay averages, anywhere from $1 over to $5 with a few higher value titles going up to $20 over. I mostly went back for one game – Final Fight 2.

The huge haul of 2017 had netted me a Final Fight 2 box and manual, so this game priced right at $50 gave me a $100+ complete in box value.

Overall, not a bad day of game hunting, even if they weren’t mind blowing finds of those mythical “high value for nothing” garage sale stories. However, with just 2 months ahead until Retropalooza Houston, I need to focus on selling off things I’ve accumulated around the house and store up some cash for that convention. It will be my first year attending and I’ve been told there are usually a lot of vendors willing to work great deals down there. Hopefully it proves true!