VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: chexmixbreath on February 12, 2021, 08:10:31 pm
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I already posted about one missed opportunity in this thread (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11303.0.html), but of course I have many more and no doubt others do too. Let's hear about them.
I guess I lucked out by getting a single copy for myself at all, but I'm still haunted by the memory of the giant bin of pristine, shrink-wrapped copies of Drill Dozer for the GBA going for FIVE (5) dollars each at a Target in 2007 or 2008. Indeed I grabbed one for myself, fun game, good game, but I should have bought EVERY SINGLE ONE in there, there were at least a dozen copies arghhhhhhsjkngksldfnglkf.
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There have been several over the years. Symphony of the Night and Suikoden for 15 bucks each was a deal I wish I had taken back in the early 2000's.
Then when our local toy store went out of busines back in 2005 they sold out a ton of old games from their storage. I bought a bunch of them but of course I could not buy all of them, my biggest regret was not buying a brand new 32X for 30 bucks, I actually had it in my cart but decided against it at the last minute.
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I remember around the time I began collecting Target and Walmart were getting rid of their PS2 stuff and had a ton of it parked down on clearance. I remember seeing shelves of brand new slim PS2s for like $40 each at one point, but passed on them thinking why I'd want another PS2.
Even longer ago I remember the Sam Goody at my local mall had a ton of clearance greatest hits PS1 games. They ranged from like $5 to $15 depending on the game. I remember buying a brand new copy of FFVII as a backup in case I ever wanted to play it. Funny enough I ended up selling that copy for like $200 on ebay in the mid-2000s, but wha I regret is not buying more of their greatest hits PS1 games at that price.
My local KB Toys had a ton of N64 games on clearance in the early 2000s. I don't remember a lot of the specific titles, but they were all like $10-20. I do remember them having Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 64, but don't remember anything else beyond that.
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Guitar Hero Live when everyone had it for $20.
Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World with Yarn Poochy amiibo was floating around Walmart for a while and the amiibo is now one of the more valuable ones. I purposely never bought any amiibo though.
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I remember seeing Metal Gear Solid for the GBC in the bins frequently just chilling there alongside Austin Powers: Oh Behave!, Razor Freestyle Scooter, etc. marked down to $9.99 or lower...
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My local KB Toys had a ton of N64 games on clearance in the early 2000s. I don't remember a lot of the specific titles, but they were all like $10-20. I do remember them having Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 64, but don't remember anything else beyond that.
This is what I really remember, too. Not necessarily any individual titles, but just when I started to see all the N64 markdowns. Mostly because it was around the time I got my first job and had some pocket change. Never got any of them, though.
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(EDIT) I posted this many times but I still have the same grudge
99% of games period I'll never own or play being 100% of the in the 8th and 9th console generation, I just won't buy those consoles, because of how much space you need to install them and
the fact you can sometimes only hold 12 games on a 500 gig PS4, and if you want something else you either fork it over and buy another console or put it onto an external hard dive. or you will lose that game once the PS4 servers are shutdown.
As a 1990's and 2000's PC gamer I realize how much game data (plus a Windows Operating System) you could hold on a 500 gigabyte hard drive, in the year 2000-2007 a (500) gigabyte hard drive was considered a HUGE hard drive to fill. In my day we would call any game or software over 5-10 gigabytes bloatware, jokes on you. What do you call a 100 Gigabyte game plus patch and plus profile data for the same game?
I realize that I could hold a heck of lot more games (just save data) for a PS2 game console on one 8mb PS2 memory card and that is saying a lot.
I am sorry for this same rant but,
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(EDIT) I posted this many times but I still have the same grudge
99% of games period I'll never own or play being 100% of the in the 8th and 9th console generation, I just won't buy those consoles, because of how much space you need to install them and
the fact you can sometimes only hold 12 games on a 500 gig PS4, and if you want something else you either fork it over and buy another console or put it onto an external hard dive. or you will lose that game once the PS4 servers are shutdown.
Then buy the physical game. I've got like 70 PS4 games. Never bought a second console or another hard drive - just deleted what I finished and then reinstalled from disc if I wanted to play it again.
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My local KB Toys had a ton of N64 games on clearance in the early 2000s. I don't remember a lot of the specific titles, but they were all like $10-20. I do remember them having Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 64, but don't remember anything else beyond that.
This is what I really remember, too. Not necessarily any individual titles, but just when I started to see all the N64 markdowns. Mostly because it was around the time I got my first job and had some pocket change. Never got any of them, though.
Kinda sorta video game related, but my KB also had a basket full of Base Edition Pokemon Card booster packs for a buck each around the time the mall they were in was closed permanently. This was around 2004 or 2005. I ended up buying one, but looking back I wish I'd bought the whole basket; there were easily 50+ booster packs in there. I would have probably opened them all, but if I hadn't those things sell for insane money now.
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Off the top of my head, it'd be Suikoden II around the time it was first released. This was during FuncoLand days and they let me try it out to see if it'd be worth the purchase. I dunno; I wasn't feeling it. Well, most folks know what happened with Suikoden II's price ever since.
The good news is I won a copy many, many years later from a drawing so yay for that.
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The literal piles of Earthbound for SNES on clearance for $25. Probably 1998. I bought one, but damn I should have gotten them all.
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I think the biggest thing was with pokemon cards
An example being ex holon phantom packs in 2010 2012 era for less than 4$ a piece brand new cheaper than in stores. you could get tons online with booster boxes also many years after. I got some pretty nice goldstar cards out of them wich are worth a pretty penny in the current era. but when you think about it.
Nowadays lose packs not even in the factory sealed box sell for over 150 or 200$ a pack that's an increase of 50 times it's msrp in a short a pretty short amount of time.
Pokemon go craze sure made those booster packs go crazy. Sure prices where high well before but not that high.
I missed allot of deals for retrogames but if where talking easy money, buying pokemon booster boxes of allot 3+ year old sets that where still cheap normal msrp before pokemon go was the way to get rich in the more recent era. the gains are quite insane. forget the base sets wich where already pricy. ex holon phantoms, crystal guardians hidden legends ex unseen forces ex deoxys. those where the kinda things you had to get.
I will say though nowadays the cards are way to shiny and modern pokemon art not really being my cup of tea. The perfect era was the inbetween classic and modern era. my favourites being stuff like holon phatoms or unseen forces. If where talking the old school era Neon genesis was peak. There was something special about the art and the card layout.
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For me it’s gotta be SNES and Turbo Duo games.
I had started working full time around when PlayStation was released. I focused mainly on those and passed on the majority of the $5 bargain games at just about every store that sold them.
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Guitar Hero Live when everyone had it for $20.
Or less...
(https://topspot123.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/five_below_2017_guitar_hero-dmid1-5cvvj3sn9-640x360-1.jpg)
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I already posted about one missed opportunity in this thread (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11303.0.html), but of course I have many more and no doubt others do too. Let's hear about them.
I guess I lucked out by getting a single copy for myself at all, but I'm still haunted by the memory of the giant bin of pristine, shrink-wrapped copies of Drill Dozer for the GBA going for FIVE (5) dollars each at a Target in 2007 or 2008. Indeed I grabbed one for myself, fun game, good game, but I should have bought EVERY SINGLE ONE in there, there were at least a dozen copies arghhhhhhsjkngksldfnglkf.
I too shared a couple of my regrets in the previous thread (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11303.0.html), but luckily I've picked up most of the games I've wanted shortly after they've come out. And since I've been collecting steadily since the '80s, I don't deal with trying to track down a rarity very often. It happens, of course, but not very often overall since I've usually bought what I've wanted when it was readily available. Plus I buy to play, not for collectibility or future value so I'm frequently surprised by some of the current collector prices of games in my collection. Once I own it, I don't follow prices much, you know? I had no idea Drill Dozer was going for that much!
But another regret I have isn't actually my own regret, technically. You've heard of the US video game crash? As a youngster during the time I had no concept of a crash. I still played our ColecoVision all the time and constantly wished we had new games to play. One day my parents come home from a shopping trip with a brand new one. It was a Cabbage Patch Kid cartridge for the Colecovision and was meant mostly for my little sister. Ok, that's fine. She deserves games just for her too. But they described how they got it from the mall. "They had a big bin filled with brand new games for only a dollar each!" they exclaimed.
"And this was the only one you bought?!" I cried back! Moments like buying brand new video games for $1 are nearly once in a lifetime, and they didn't think to get as many as they could!
Even if the other titles were lackluster, and who knows what other games they had, I really regret that they didn't buy more of them.
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I already posted about one missed opportunity in this thread (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11303.0.html), but of course I have many more and no doubt others do too. Let's hear about them.
I guess I lucked out by getting a single copy for myself at all, but I'm still haunted by the memory of the giant bin of pristine, shrink-wrapped copies of Drill Dozer for the GBA going for FIVE (5) dollars each at a Target in 2007 or 2008. Indeed I grabbed one for myself, fun game, good game, but I should have bought EVERY SINGLE ONE in there, there were at least a dozen copies arghhhhhhsjkngksldfnglkf.
I too shared a couple of my regrets in the previous thread (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11303.0.html), but luckily I've picked up most of the games I've wanted shortly after they've come out. And since I've been collecting steadily since the '80s, I don't deal with trying to track down a rarity very often. It happens, of course, but not very often overall since I've usually bought what I've wanted when it was readily available. Plus I buy to play, not for collectibility or future value so I'm frequently surprised by some of the current collector prices of games in my collection. Once I own it, I don't follow prices much, you know? I had no idea Drill Dozer was going for that much!
But another regret I have isn't actually my own regret, technically. You've heard of the US video game crash? As a youngster during the time I had no concept of a crash. I still played our ColecoVision all the time and constantly wished we had new games to play. One day my parents come home from a shopping trip with a brand new one. It was a Cabbage Patch Kid cartridge for the Colecovision and was meant mostly for my little sister. Ok, that's fine. She deserves games just for her too. But they described how they got it from the mall. "They had a big bin filled with brand new games for only a dollar each!" they exclaimed.
"And this was the only one you bought?!" I cried back! Moments like buying brand new video games for $1 are nearly once in a lifetime, and they didn't think to get as many as they could!
Even if the other titles were lackluster, and who knows what other games they had, I really regret that they didn't buy more of them.
When I was a kid, I would walk down to Revco (A drug store) and they had an entire table on Atari 2600 games (all brand new) for $1 each. I got $2 for my allowance, so after scraping together a little change, I would go and buy 2 a week. IDK how long that table was there, maybe a year...but it was always full.
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Panzer dragoon saga in one of those sealed blister pack for about 15 euros they had atleast 5 of them sitting in a cabinet alongside a bunch of other saturn games on clearance, i only could buy one game and bought manx tt instead.
My friend at the time had panzer dragoon saga so diden't really feel the need to buy one myself as i could borrow it from him whenever i wanted. Pretty sure we were the only 2 people at school who had a saturn.
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Of course there’s a lot of hindsight involved, but here’s the 2 instances I regret the most.
I bought Clay Fighter Sculptor’s Cut from my local Blockbuster when they were clearancing their old stock in the early 2000s. It turns out I made the right choice, since it’s the most valuable game I own, but I also had the chance to buy Transformers Beast Wars Transmetals for N64 at the same time, another BB exclusive. I’m pretty sure at some point I saw Final Fight Guy being clearanced too, but I don’t know if it was at the same time (probably not).
I worked in the video game department at Toys R Us back between 2003-04, and they had literal piles of unsold N64 games on clearance, including a ton of Bad Fur Day. If I knew then what I know now, I would have bought up a bunch of that stuff.
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Not me, but here's a cool story a collector told me that relates to this topic.
A local collector lived on the same street as one of the kids who won an NWC cartridge during the 1990 NWC event; he told me his name a long time ago and I verified it, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was now. But anyhow, the collector also competed with him, but didn't get very far. After winning the NWC event in his league, the collector's neighbor had his NWC displayed like a trophy in his room and had some concept of its specialness since he never wanted to play it when the collector asked him if they could.
The collector and him had somewhat grown apart in middle school and high school despite living on the same street, so they rarely talked. However, one afternoon they started talking and eventually the collector asked if he still had the NWC cartridge. The guy laughed and said he did, but it was packed away with some of his childhood toys in his basement. He then told the collector he could have it if he wanted it, which the collector said he'd pass since he didn't have an NES anymore, and also didn't think anyone would want it since it was just short bits of three common NES games in a single, boring looking cartridge.
Years later after the collector had moved out and moved halfway across the country he'd started getting nostalgic about growing up with the NES and SNES and started out like many by just picking up games he used to own s a kid. Shortly after this started he discovered how insanely valuable the NWC cartridge was and pretty much dropped everything to find his old neighbor. This was in the early 2010s so social media wasn't as insane as it is now, but still he tried hunting him down online, and the best he was able to do was find out that he lived in a different city and was married. He also found out the guy's parents still lived in the same house. He decided to drive like 900 miles back to his old neighborhood where his parent's no longer lived, but he'd make up some lie that they still lived in town and was visiting. He arrived at his old neighborhood and rang the doorbell of his old friend's house. The friend's mom let him in and they caught up on things before the collector asked about getting in touch with the friend. This whole time he just wanted to go in the basement and find the NWC cartridge assuming it was still there, but he wasn't going to steal from or deceive his old friend's mom to get it.
He called his old friend and they chatted for a while and reminisced about old time. The whole time the collector just wanted to ask about the NWC cartridge, but tried to play it cool and bring it up naturally in the conversation. Eventually he did bring it up, and the response he got made his heart sink. The collector's old friend said that his parent's had a garage sale while he was in college and assumed he didn't want any of his old stuff since he was then in his early 20s. They sold all his childhood toys including lots of HeMan and GI Joe stuff, but also his old NES and all of his games. The collector's friend then asked him, "you want to know what happened to the NWC right?" which somewhat surprised the collector since he didn't think his friend had been into video games in a long time. Apparently he wasn't, but his name was known as one of the people that won the NWC contest and received a cartridge. He said that collectors have been contacting him for years wanting to buy it off him, but pretty much told them the same story. I guess his mom sold his NES and about a dozen games including the NWC for like $20 thinking no one would want it anymore and it was essentially worthless. The friend said it haunts him everyday.
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Not me, but here's a cool story a collector told me that relates to this topic.
A local collector lived on the same street as one of the kids who won an NWC cartridge during the 1990 NWC event; he told me his name a long time ago and I verified it, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was now. But anyhow, the collector also competed with him, but didn't get very far. After winning the NWC event in his league, the collector's neighbor had his NWC displayed like a trophy in his room and had some concept of its specialness since he never wanted to play it when the collector asked him if they could.
The collector and him had somewhat grown apart in middle school and high school despite living on the same street, so they rarely talked. However, one afternoon they started talking and eventually the collector asked if he still had the NWC cartridge. The guy laughed and said he did, but it was packed away with some of his childhood toys in his basement. He then told the collector he could have it if he wanted it, which the collector said he'd pass since he didn't have an NES anymore, and also didn't think anyone would want it since it was just short bits of three common NES games in a single, boring looking cartridge.
Years later after the collector had moved out and moved halfway across the country he'd started getting nostalgic about growing up with the NES and SNES and started out like many by just picking up games he used to own s a kid. Shortly after this started he discovered how insanely valuable the NWC cartridge was and pretty much dropped everything to find his old neighbor. This was in the early 2010s so social media wasn't as insane as it is now, but still he tried hunting him down online, and the best he was able to do was find out that he lived in a different city and was married. He also found out the guy's parents still lived in the same house. He decided to drive like 900 miles back to his old neighborhood where his parent's no longer lived, but he'd make up some lie that they still lived in town and was visiting. He arrived at his old neighborhood and rang the doorbell of his old friend's house. The friend's mom let him in and they caught up on things before the collector asked about getting in touch with the friend. This whole time he just wanted to go in the basement and find the NWC cartridge assuming it was still there, but he wasn't going to steal from or deceive his old friend's mom to get it.
He called his old friend and they chatted for a while and reminisced about old time. The whole time the collector just wanted to ask about the NWC cartridge, but tried to play it cool and bring it up naturally in the conversation. Eventually he did bring it up, and the response he got made his heart sink. The collector's old friend said that his parent's had a garage sale while he was in college and assumed he didn't want any of his old stuff since he was then in his early 20s. They sold all his childhood toys including lots of HeMan and GI Joe stuff, but also his old NES and all of his games. The collector's friend then asked him, "you want to know what happened to the NWC right?" which somewhat surprised the collector since he didn't think his friend had been into video games in a long time. Apparently he wasn't, but his name was known as one of the people that won the NWC contest and received a cartridge. He said that collectors have been contacting him for years wanting to buy it off him, but pretty much told them the same story. I guess his mom sold his NES and about a dozen games including the NWC for like $20 thinking no one would want it anymore and it was essentially worthless. The friend said it haunts him everyday.
That story is pure greed.
It's a cool story but damm that's an interesting reason to visit a friend that you haven't seen for years.
I personally always leave friends and family out of deals. I couldn't do that. number 1 rule for me.
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Basically, everything Dreamcast. I got my second Dreamcast when KB Toys was clearing out everything SEGA. I had little knowledge of what was on the system because my interests had moved on to PS2 by then as my brother had taken over the Dreamcast to feed his Fantasy Star Online addiction. All the games were dirt cheap in the clearance blowout, so did I pick up anything? Spirit of Speed 1937, LJN's craptacular swansong. It sucked. But I didn't care at the time, because I knew I could have all the games I wanted burned to a CDR. So I just thought, screw all these games, I just need the system... :(
For all I know, they probably had like Canon Spike and Gunbird 2 and all of those for $11.99 each. The beauty of hindsight.
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@sworddude
The collector that told me the story said he wanted it for his collection since at the time he found out about NWC's worth he'd decided he wanted to go for a full set (and since has almost completed that goal, minus NWC of course and like two or three other games). He probably figured his friend would maintain his offer of just giving it to him, or at least sell it too him for dirt cheap. If it's any consolation he said he also just wanted his other NES stuff too since he played a lot of those games with his friend as a kid. But yeah, he didn't count on it being public knowledge that his old friend won an NWC cart, but obviously that didn't matter in the end since his mom sold it. I see it as more of a collector wanting something very special and rare rather than someone trying to get rich off it.
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Basically, everything Dreamcast. I got my second Dreamcast when KB Toys was clearing out everything SEGA. I had little knowledge of what was on the system because my interests had moved on to PS2 by then as my brother had taken over the Dreamcast to feed his Fantasy Star Online addiction. All the games were dirt cheap in the clearance blowout, so did I pick up anything? Spirit of Speed 1937, LJN's craptacular swansong. It sucked. But I didn't care at the time, because I knew I could have all the games I wanted burned to a CDR. So I just thought, screw all these games, I just need the system... :(
For all I know, they probably had like Canon Spike and Gunbird 2 and all of those for $11.99 each. The beauty of hindsight.
lol another local collector story related to this.
There's a collector in our area whose been collecting video games, arcade and pinball machines, and all kinds of other crazy stuff since the early 90s. Pretty much he became wealthy at a fairly young age (I don't know the full story, but i believe he founded some record label and sold it to a much bigger record company for a shit ton of money). But this guy pretty much retired in his late 20s and has just been buying, selling, and trading arcade and pinball machines to make money even though I don't think he needs it, but anyhow. He used to go to all Toys R' Us, EB GAMES, Funcoland, Walmart, Best Buy, Ultimate Electronics, and pretty much any place that sold games that were being clearanced out and just stashing them away. This guy posts some INSANE stuff he has in a Facebook collectors group I belong to. He has a ton of sealed Virtual Boy games he got from Toys R' Us. Sealed SNES and N64 games from Toys R' Us, and a bunch of other jaw dropping stuff, most of it still new. But yeah, he has a ton of sealed late release Dreamcast games like Project Justice, Giga Wing 2, Cannon Spike, and other games that easily sell for hundreds in used condition. He has them sealed still. I envy the guys foresight and also him buying these games when they were super cheap and no one wanted them.
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@sworddude
The collector that told me the story said he wanted it for his collection since at the time he found out about NWC's worth he'd decided he wanted to go for a full set (and since has almost completed that goal, minus NWC of course and like two or three other games). He probably figured his friend would maintain his offer of just giving it to him, or at least sell it too him for dirt cheap. If it's any consolation he said he also just wanted his other NES stuff too since he played a lot of those games with his friend as a kid. But yeah, he didn't count on it being public knowledge that his old friend won an NWC cart, but obviously that didn't matter in the end since his mom sold it. I see it as more of a collector wanting something very special and rare rather than someone trying to get rich off it.
Fair enough
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Virtual Boy was being clearanced out at Sears in the mid-to-late 90s for like $30 or something ridiculously cheap. I remember trying the system out at Toys R Us when it first came out and was super intrigued by it. I don't know what the original price was but $30 was an absolute steal. It was less of a regret than it was just a missed opportunity because I was in my teens, not working yet, and my parents just refused to let me have it because "you already have a Nintendo" (SNES) Years later I still wish I had a Virtual Boy but at this point it's whatever because it's not worth forking out hundreds of dollars to play one or two good games and then storing the system in a drawer.