It wasn't "great" but it was still cool, I know I had fun. As far as it being an annual thing, I'm not sure, I guess we'll find out next year around this time when it rolls around again. It would have been nice if it was in a little bigger venue. I was planning on twittering some pics, but the place was so packed that all you could see was bodies. They had an "arcade room" set up but it was only maybe 4 machines. They could have done without and taken that space and easily moved some vendors in there. Basically, there were a bunch of tables, some back to back, jam packed into a room the size of a dining hall.
Rare stuff, I didn't see a bunch. But it was still cool to see old Apple II games and computers up for sale... One dude was selling Arcade Marquees, but that's all I saw for arcade parts, no PCBs.
Most of the tables were set up nice, but a LOT of stuff was in cardboard boxes under the tables, and you had to do some sifting. One dude had a bunch of Saturn games in a box, and there were some I was interested in, but a some of them had the wrong disc in the case, or the books were swapped, and I didn't want to spend the time organizing this guy's stock. Though I did snag Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire from him.
As far as pricing goes, it was pretty ok. I was checking prices on my phone all day and making sure I wasn't getting screwed. The only Saturn game I thought seemed oddly priced was a Johnny Bazookatone, which was sealed, but marked for $20, And the plastic wrapping was pretty tore up. Oh and there was a dude selling a sealed copy of Chrono Trigger for SNES, and NES Campus Challenge... I didn't bother seeing what the price was.
They had a chinese auction going, but I wasn't interested in any of the prizes they were offering. Also there was supposed to be a couple tournaments going, but again I didn't keep track of what the plan was on those. It would have been nice to mingle a little and talk to people, but everyone seemed to be focused on what they were doing. We handed out some flyers for the site, as well as left a bunch in the bar area though.
Out of our crew, I was the one to walk out w/ the most. I picked up 11 Saturn games, all w/ good cases, some still w/ the foam insert and one was sealed. Most expensive game I picked up was Resident Evil, for $30. Everything was still cheaper than ebay prices + shipping. Kinda wish I could have found either Vitrua Cop 1 or 2 in the Stunner bundle, complete. Or maybe something like an Albert Odyssey.... don't think Matt picked up anything, and our one buddy only snagged a couple games.
Would I go back? I wouldn't mind making the trip again, it's all part of the hunt. Was it super impressive? Not really, but it could be if there were more open space, or a larger venue w/ more vendors.
