Where do you buy your games?

[soera]

My personal experiences. First most of my PS1 collection was bought straight off the shelf when it was current. Alot of my PS2 crap was the same thing so no help there.
Ebay: Ive bought quite a lot of stuff from Ebay to be honest. If you watch auctions and stick to a limit, eventually you will win one.
Amazon: I dont use it as much cause nothing is negotiable. I did however send a guy a message once and got him to part out a game to me and it was worth it on both ends.
Thrift stores: Its all a lucky random there. Sometimes Ill see SMB for 9.99 and then there are times Ive found (for example) Die Hard for $1.80, Mt Dew limited halo for $6.99, etc
Garage sales: I personally have never bought anything from a garage sale. I have heard of amazing scores though. I just never seem to be on the receiving end of it.
Craigslist: Ive gotten stuff from there but most people in my area think that craigslist prices should be Ebay + 10%. Its really annoying. I did meet one couple however in my area who just find stuff in storage and I buy it from them. So far Ive gotten a top loader NES, Snow bros, and motor city patrol for $50 total.
Local stores: There is a good side and a bad side to them. Most of them are knowledgable enough on the games that the prices are really not a score. But sometimes their system doesnt get updated and the current high price game goes for next to nothing. My best find was TMNT tournament fighters for $10.95 (their system only recognized the SNES version).
Other forums: Most of my collection has come from Nintendo age/Sega age/here. A lot of collectors (myself included) really prefer to deal with other collectors. I have gotten a lot of great deals so far.

[shoryuken4u]

You gotta hit them streets, Son! 

/died laughing

I have been hitting the streets! Haven't had much luck yet but I'm going to keep trying until I luck up. I haven't seen any of the games I'm looking for on craigslist, but I have purchased from CL in the past. Never been robbed, hooray! The closest Game Xchange to me is in CT and that's a 6 hour drive. There are no stores similar to that in my area either. :/

My personal experiences. First most of my PS1 collection was bought straight off the shelf when it was current. Alot of my PS2 crap was the same thing so no help there.
Ebay: Ive bought quite a lot of stuff from Ebay to be honest. If you watch auctions and stick to a limit, eventually you will win one.
Amazon: I dont use it as much cause nothing is negotiable. I did however send a guy a message once and got him to part out a game to me and it was worth it on both ends.
Thrift stores: Its all a lucky random there. Sometimes Ill see SMB for 9.99 and then there are times Ive found (for example) Die Hard for $1.80, Mt Dew limited halo for $6.99, etc
Garage sales: I personally have never bought anything from a garage sale. I have heard of amazing scores though. I just never seem to be on the receiving end of it.
Craigslist: Ive gotten stuff from there but most people in my area think that craigslist prices should be Ebay + 10%. Its really annoying. I did meet one couple however in my area who just find stuff in storage and I buy it from them. So far Ive gotten a top loader NES, Snow bros, and motor city patrol for $50 total.
Local stores: There is a good side and a bad side to them. Most of them are knowledgable enough on the games that the prices are really not a score. But sometimes their system doesnt get updated and the current high price game goes for next to nothing. My best find was TMNT tournament fighters for $10.95 (their system only recognized the SNES version).
Other forums: Most of my collection has come from Nintendo age/Sega age/here. A lot of collectors (myself included) really prefer to deal with other collectors. I have gotten a lot of great deals so far.

As far as eBay goes, I guess I haven't had the patience to bid on an item, instead preferring to either go the "Buy it Now" route or head over to Amazon. Although GameStop can be a bit annoying at times (more than once I've used the Pickup@Store option only to go there and discover the game was not available) I've found a lot of my PS2 games there. Need to hurry up and get what I can since I've been told they are phasing-out PS2 games. There are just no local stores in my area that sell older games unfortunately.

[soera]

Well, thats the good thing about forums like this. We have a thread dedicated to what other people are looking for. Just add your stuff to it! http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,1437.0.html

[shoryuken4u]

Well, thats the good thing about forums like this. We have a thread dedicated to what other people are looking for. Just add your stuff to it! http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,1437.0.html

Awesome--thanks!

[videogamecollector]

I found a new video game website  that has better selection and pricing compared to lukiegames, dkoldies and jjgames the website is www.mikesclassics.com . They pretty much only sell classic vintage games like Nintendo, Sega and Playstation although want to expand to new generation games in the future. This place is great, because they don't sell any crummy games! The guy who started the business is a video game collector and everything he sells on the website is Original, good condition and a best selling popular title. They don't sell old sports games and try to stick to the most popular genres of gaming which is a nice change to the online marketplace. They also offer bulk discounts and are about half the price of Lukiegames which seems to the most popular retro gaming website that isn't called Amazon or EBAY.  I had a few good experiences here

[scott]

Just looked at this Mike's Classics site. Man I hate when places merge Game Boy and Game Boy Color games into one category. Other than that, it looks like some good deals in there. But I think they are harming themselves by limiting themselves to "only the best & most popular video games with a rating of 8 out of 10 or higher!"  ha.

[trinitis]

I've been *trying* to buy games on Ebay.  But the sellers keep canceling my bids for some reason.  When I check their reason why they say Explanation: Miscellaneous Reason.  I try to contact them and ebay just gives me an error message with "the seller cannot answer your question" before I even get to ask it.  Its almost like these people are banning me from auctions or something and I have no idea why

[ko1ru]

I've been *trying* to buy games on Ebay.  But the sellers keep canceling my bids for some reason.  When I check their reason why they say Explanation: Miscellaneous Reason.  I try to contact them and ebay just gives me an error message with "the seller cannot answer your question" before I even get to ask it.  Its almost like these people are banning me from auctions or something and I have no idea why

Are you new to Ebay?  A lot of sellers are suspicious of/avoid anyone with little feedback, especially on higher-priced items.

[kimimi]

I've been *trying* to buy games on Ebay.  But the sellers keep canceling my bids for some reason.  When I check their reason why they say Explanation: Miscellaneous Reason.  I try to contact them and ebay just gives me an error message with "the seller cannot answer your question" before I even get to ask it.  Its almost like these people are banning me from auctions or something and I have no idea why

Are you new to Ebay?  A lot of sellers are suspicious of/avoid anyone with little feedback, especially on higher-priced items.

If it's not because you're new/have low feedback it might be because you don't have a credit/debit card linked to your Paypal account or you've got eBay strikes for non-payment on previous auctions. Sellers can set it so that people who fall under those conditions get automatically blocked from bidding/buying.

If it is just because you're new - make the effort to contact them *before* trying to buy, and make sure you emphasise that you understand the auction description and you just want to buy whatever they're selling. A lot of people block newbies because they tend to not read auction descriptions and leave negatives for bad reasons - I've seen reliable sellers neg'd for Japanese games being in Japanese by new eBayers.

[ko1ru]

... I've seen reliable sellers neg'd for Japanese games being in Japanese by new eBayers.

Ugh, people.   

[disgaeniac]

... I've seen reliable sellers neg'd for Japanese games being in Japanese by new eBayers.

Ugh, people.   

Well said 

[burningdoom]

1. Goodwill - You can't find better deals than at Goodwill. Cartridge games for $2-$3 a piece, PS1 & Dreamcast games for $3.99 (because they lump them in with music CDs), and PS2 & beyond for $4.99 a piece. And it doesn't matter what the title is or if it's complete or not (and disc-based games there are ALWAYS complete).

2. Video Exchange - A local used movie store in my town. They also sell a butt-load of video games used. The prices here are reflective of eBay, which is kind of disappointing. But then you don't have to pay for or wait for shipping and you get to physically browse which is always more fun.

3. eBay/Amazon - Because you can find pretty much any game between the 2 sites and once in a while you do find a good deal.

4. GameStop - I don't come to GameStop nearly as often just because I purchase a lot more retro-games than I do modern games. But when I do get modern games, it's usually at GameStop because they have pretty decent used prices.

[ko1ru]

The Goodwill in my town will rip you right the eff off.  I think there's some guy in the back checking eBay pricing or something...  Last time I went in there I found a few crap Game Boy carts at $10 - $15 and Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening was priced at $20!  At Goodwill?!   

I got lucky in there a while back and got a handful of decent SNES carts (some with manuals) for like $2 or $3 apiece.  I don't think that guy was working there then...

[anton]

Well i mostly import my game from China or Hong Kong now, since it's cheaper.
But, i'm really lazy to add them to the database everytime, so, it might take awhile until i update my collection.

No offense but, most of the games in the database are NA, a few PAL tho.

[scott]

No offense but, most of the games in the database are NA, a few PAL tho.

Ya, it would be nice to get more EU and other regions listed. But I know for myself, that when it comes to foreign titles I start to get lost pretty quickly.

Also, I hope to get the ratings systems for other regions listed asap.