I went into my local GEO the other day and found that they are liquidating their entire stock of Famicom games (as well as SF, N64 and GameBoy) and have signs all over the place stating that they are no longer purchasing retro games. I went to a couple of other GEOs in town and it was the same story. It seems GEO is going completely out of the Famicom business.
For those that don't know, GEO is a major chain of stores in Japan with hundreds of locations. They sell new and used video games and are a rental DVD place too (maybe the Japanese equivalent of Blockbuster or something). Up until now pretty much all of their locations had pretty decent selections of used Famicom games(though their prices tended to be a bit on the high end).
This follows on my local Hardoff dropping its sizeable Famicom section a couple of months ago. I wonder if this is a trend, has anyone else noticed anything similar in other cities?
BTW, everyone (who lives in Japan) might want to check their local GEO if you haven't since New Years, you might be able to find some bargains.
Well, you know, good things can't last forever. These famicom video games are how old? They have to leave some time to make way for brand new items from the year 2010.
I hope they don't throw what they don't sell away though.
Fuck the brand new stuff. Old stuff is better in the case of videogames. I really hate when people say these things, it is annoying.
In America Gamestop was the first to go and next was Game Crazy. I hope Play N Trade is not next to go. I'm not sure about the used video game market in Japan, but we can at least stay optimistic that the older games will live in equality with the new ones.
LOL @ "Fuck the brand new stuff"
My sentiments exactly ;D
Anyway, I don't think the decision has to do with age. They actually only started selling used Famicom games a few years ago, well after the Famicom (and SF and N64 for that matter) were out of production.
Probably it has something to do with their profit margins. They make a lot more selling $50 new games than $5 old games, so why devote shelf space to less profitable old games? At least that is my guess. Whatever the reason, it sucks.
Sad to hear that the same thing is happening in the States. The thing I liked about GEO was that you could walk in and find pretty much any Famicom game you wanted on the shelf. It was pretty convenient and I did buy a few of them there. Fortunately there are more shops around my place so I'm not cut off from the Famicom market, it just kind of sucks that my choices are getting whittled down.
Don't worry senseiman.
This happens all the time. When I first came to Japan in 2002, there were a lot of stores that had a nice selection of Famicom games. Some stores didn't have any at all.
Over the years some stores have changed. One particular store that didn't sell "retro" stuff before have now a pretty decent selection of Famicom, Super Famicom and even Mega Drive and Game Gear games. Another store I often went (and still go) to cut down on retro games in 2005 and last time I went there they had Famicom games again all of a sudden.
What I'm trying to say is, where there are stores that cut down, there are most probably stores that up their stock. Just always have an open eye.
That were manuel's 2 Yen on the matter. ;)
Happy game hunting.
That is certainly good to hear, Manuel!
I'm hoping this will result in a lot of bargains coming up when they dump their remaining inventory on the recycle shops.
At the moment their sale has a few bargains, they've got a CIB Metal Gear for 700 yen that I think I'll pick up today! ;D
Could you tell me if there is a CIB Gimmick in the bin?
Sorry, I saw your post and took a look but no Gimmick! The bins are emptying pretty quick (at least of the good games)!
Damn. If they are clearing out so fast wouldn't you think they sell them regularly unless the games are dirt cheap like 50 cents or so.
Yeah, they put them all on 50% off the marked price. So all their games that were reasonably priced to begin with have been picked over. What they've got left is stuff that was overpriced to begin with (ie 30 bucks for Spartan X loose) and the usual million copies of "Mahjong" that they can't even give away!
GEO is different depending on what location you go to. For example the one in Misawa, right before they closed it down, had only one little aisle of old games, and they were all terribly overpriced. The one in Hachinohe had a whole corner devoted to them, and they were more reasonably priced.
As for better places to buy old FC and FDS games:
- Hard-OFF (Look in the blue bins on the shelves. It will take a lot of digging, but you can find games for 90% less than they'd cost at any other store. So long as you're cool with them not being in perfect condition, the value is ridiculous.)
- Something-or-other GOO (A general electronics store; ours was next to a Hard-OFF/OFF-House.)
- Game Souko in Towada, Aomori Prefecture. Not the best prices on popular 1st party Nintendo games like Mario series titles or Zelda/etc. but the selection is enormous and the prices are generally very low. It's rare to find an FC cart for more than $5, or an FDS disk for over $2. If you buy a system, which rarely exceed $20, some as cheap as $10 (legit, not clones), you often get a free game as well.
- Akihabara-- your LAST resort. You can find damn near anything there, but the prices generally suck. e.g. a brand-new looking HVC-101 (AV Famicom) in the box with the manuals and all the hookups, working, cost me about $15 in Towada. A piss-yellow, missing-the-box-and-manuals HVC-001 (basic Famicom) in Akihabara was damn near $70. You can find bargains but you absolutely MUST devote a few days to shopping around or you will waste loads of money.
Quote from: Epicenter on February 13, 2010, 01:33:27 am
GEO is different depending on what location you go to. For example the one in Misawa, right before they closed it down, had only one little aisle of old games, and they were all terribly overpriced. The one in Hachinohe had a whole corner devoted to them, and they were more reasonably priced.
As for better places to buy old FC and FDS games:
- Hard-OFF (Look in the blue bins on the shelves. It will take a lot of digging, but you can find games for 90% less than they'd cost at any other store. So long as you're cool with them not being in perfect condition, the value is ridiculous.)
- Something-or-other GOO (A general electronics store; ours was next to a Hard-OFF/OFF-House.)
- Game Souko in Towada, Aomori Prefecture. Not the best prices on popular 1st party Nintendo games like Mario series titles or Zelda/etc. but the selection is enormous and the prices are generally very low. It's rare to find an FC cart for more than $5, or an FDS disk for over $2. If you buy a system, which rarely exceed $20, some as cheap as $10 (legit, not clones), you often get a free game as well.
- Akihabara-- your LAST resort. You can find damn near anything there, but the prices generally suck. e.g. a brand-new looking HVC-101 (AV Famicom) in the box with the manuals and all the hookups, working, cost me about $15 in Towada. A piss-yellow, missing-the-box-and-manuals HVC-001 (basic Famicom) in Akihabara was damn near $70. You can find bargains but you absolutely MUST devote a few days to shopping around or you will waste loads of money.
That is interesting. In Fukuoka all the GEO shops charge identical prices for retro games. They must be organized differently in other prefectures.
I agree that Hard-off can be a gold mine (sometimes). I got a Vaus controller for 105 yen at mine and a few other decent games in the 105-210 yen price range. They tend to be hit-and-miss though, I think there are a lot of other collectors around who cherry pick their bins like me so you have to get there pretty soon after they put the new stuff out before it is gone!
LOL@ Hard-Off ;)
Quote from: Nightstar699 on February 16, 2010, 11:11:43 am
LOL@ Hard-Off ;)
"Hard-Off" is a spin-off from a store called "Book-Off".
If they had spun it off of a store called "Book-On" the entire internet would probably have been instantly overloaded by the flood of store-sign photos taken by amused foreigners that would have resulted. :)
buy all the games for cheap and rock out