Messages

16

General / Re: How far have you traveled to acquire something?

« on: December 07, 2020, 09:17:35 pm »

I went from Mass. To New York with a friend to pick up a T.M.N.T arcade  machine he bought it was a long but fun trip.

I'd have gone as far myself for that. Or a Capcom Vs SNK Machine if ever the chance arose.

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General / Re: GameStop brick and morter is all but dead

« on: December 07, 2020, 09:00:57 pm »

First off..

Consoles will be all digital next gen.

T r i g g e r e d


Secondly, Ex-Employee here. The reality of it is, GameStop is in the process of becoming what MovieStop was before it croaked; a novelty shop. They bit off more than they could chew with their ambitious ThinkGeek merch lineup and the problem isn't so much that they sell it but their inventory issues. They try too hard to capitalize on trends but they just don't understand their local demographics and couldn't be bothered to consider only selling what would move in stores individually.

We were obligated to try and push toys with every game sale, and had to make every game wall tie in with funko pops and blind bags, and mix our displays with expensive figures. Ask anyone who's been there long and you'll hear the same; for every 1 customer interested in these items, you have 10 who just want to in and out with their buys, and 30 looking to sell their stuff. So many of the stores I've been to had basically large cache's of old out of season toys that were being pushed out for fractions of the price in vein attempts to break even. GameStop progressively did and continues to do less to focus on their namesake and they're still trying to find a way to become  a mini Toys R US.

They're going to try their best to become a "nerd culture shop" not unlike stores like Spencers or Hot Topic, where it's just one big "niche" novelty shop... IF they manage to make it that far. But uh.. Big Doubt. GameStop is gonna be history just like CEX is.

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General / Re: How far have you traveled to acquire something?

« on: December 07, 2020, 08:40:13 pm »

I've gone across state lines just checking store inventories before. Hell, I've spent an entire day driving around to every known Family Dollar location within a couple of hours away, just to check their random buyout inventories when I first found out about those.

I've done this as well but with 5 Below. Bought a couple copies of Yokai Watch to give as gifts (and for me) for less than it costs at Gamestop. Also had to go to a couple other counties to grab the only copies of certain new games I wanted bc GameStop has stupid stocking methods. When it comes to the vidya, struggle can be pretty real sometimes.

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General / Re: How far have you traveled to acquire something?

« on: December 07, 2020, 08:36:38 pm »

About two years ago or so I traveled about 4 hours round trip nonstop into a neighboring state some.. 150+ miles or so to get two lose discs for an Armored Core game. I think it was Nexus. The game was going for over $50 and I already had a box but it only had one disc. I paid $10 for the games (which were minty somehow) and like.. $20 for gas and it felt like a huge moron choice but me and the SO's just took it as a chance to drive for a long while and talk and enjoy each others company. Seeing it go for so cheap now, I say it was worth it after gnashing my teeth.

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General / Re: Wrath of the "Hidden Gem"

« on: December 05, 2020, 10:06:29 pm »

If I'm being honest, I personally don't have a problem with people treating video games (or any other hobby) as a business, but don't be two-faced about it when you're in front of the camera. Like I mentioned above, someone with a sizable audience and reach will undoubtedly create a few ripples. If it weren't for how shady and phony MJR is, I honestly wouldn't put much thought or care into this, but the guy is just another confident trickster, and a good one at that.

This I agree with. I feel like the overall appeal of his work is "I'm a collector like you guys! Check out this awesome stuff you might enjoy like I did!" But in reality, it's "Check this out, you guys are gonna flip and buy like $20 copies of this rando game and pretend there's only 1 in your store and throw a photo up on your stores FB page/Instagram whenever things get to slow" I prefer a little honesty. Personally, I feel like everything has room for business. I don't like the facade, as you so perfectly put it. I like the cut of your jib, friend.

How about the fact that if you subscribe to his patreon, he'll let you know what games are in his video the day before it goes up so you can get an early start on buying up copies on ebay?

That's absolutely ridiculous. This guy can afford to fly to Japan and dick around and has the means to thoroughly insure his considerably expensive library (and home) but has a patreon?? That's a whole other layer of riduclous scum.

How about the fact that if you subscribe to his patreon, he'll let you know what games are in his video the day before it goes up so you can get an early start on buying up copies on ebay?

Being completely neutral on the topic, MJR doesn't market his Patreon as such. This Patreon reward gives early access to all of his upcoming videos, which is commonplace among YouTube creators who set up a Patreon plan.

But is his content that really warrants this? Aside from being on the up and up on what to flip, are these videos you wish you had front seats to before the movie's in theatres? Seems a little excessive and as stated by many others, he clearly knows his audience.


Idunno, guys. On one hand, a guy's gotta eat. But I guess it's just the fact that the guy doing this so clearly seems passionless on all these things he talks about. It's not so much that it's cringy, it just sucks as a collector that this is all it takes to gum up the works.

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General / Re: Wrath of the "Hidden Gem"

« on: November 09, 2020, 11:25:48 pm »

You make it sound as if it's his fault they go up in price. He's just a YouTuber who talks about what he likes. He's also a collector and used to work at Sierra games.

Its the rabid collector mindset that watches his videos that make them raise in value. It's not as if it's a scheme to make them rise in value. Nor is he saying he's the be all end all of collecting knowledge. In fact he readily admits when he's not too familiar with something. Blame the collectors and completionists.

I look at it this way. The guy has connections to people who own stores; people who go to conventions to sell their big goodies to traveling collectors who come loaded to break bank. Call it a theory or a conspiracy or what have you, but I've been to two stores who've outright stated that it's "Only gonna get more expensive" BECAUSE he's made videos about these games. If you call something a hidden gem people looking to make a buck are gonna use it as a certification to clown out and sell things at ridiculous prices which hurts the hobby and the availability. Then you have jerks online who ask for ridiculous prices and that domino's like crazy! One guy thinks that his copy of a game is worth hundreds and now EVERYONE follows suit because "If that person can, so can I". As far as I know, he has contributed to this. To suggest that he's a collector and unaware of his effect on the hobby is just not possible imo.

You know, it might seem tinfoil hatty of me but I also notice that he asks people to come over and talk about already rare stuff that he has /no/ idea about. Most times he outright says he doesn't know much or hasn't played the game. Can't tell you much about any of it. Call me crazy, sure, but there's a BIG difference beytween one of us to make a video of out "Top ten weird games" or "Sleeper hits" or whatever, the average joe with nothing to gain and then there's the guy with friends who own game stores and giant collections who could profit from said inflation. Just something that doesn't sit right with me.


And ANYBODY selling Alon D'aar for anything more than $20 is out of their noggin

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General / Wrath of the "Hidden Gem"

« on: November 09, 2020, 04:43:49 am »

First off, Hiya! I'm new here and this is my first post so forgive me if this subject's been done to death already, but I figured I'd ask and see how the rest of you fine folks feel on the subject;

You go into a local mom & pop shop that sells old games and you happen to notice some suspiciously bloated price tags. Maybe last week you were looking at a PS2 or Xbox game that was on a wall and now, it's in a glass case with a ridiculous price. I've had a handful of instances where I look at a game that's not only OOB but commanding the price of almost two new retail's. Now don't get me wrong, I won't argue stuff like Rule of Rose some LRG game (That's a whole other problem) has it's place and reasons, but a lot of times just.. random things. This is how I learned about MetalJesusRocks. Some dude who REALLY can't get over Splashdown rides gone wild and every arcade racer I can think of. I feel like a lot of these people for some reason have legit influence on the prices of games and I find it to be ridiculous and exhausting as a collector to have to worry that some random quirky game I haven't bought yet suddenly doubles in average asking price because some dude who's famous for owning a 64DD makes a video and says it's a hidden gem. I've had store owners tell me this guy's calling what they're selling "Rare and hard to find" and going off that alone in charging loads.

What do you guys feel about this? Have you experienced the wrath of the hidden gem?

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Classic Video Games / Re: Using Hardware Vs. Using (Legit) Emulation For Older Games

« on: November 09, 2020, 04:32:14 am »

In all honesty, I've never been shy about modding a console and pushing it's limits to see what I can emulate and how well, but for some reason I just still prefer to do it on a console. For some things, I won't look anywhere further than my PC (Exclusives, Fightcade, harder emulation). I think it's honestly a great thing to do bc realistically, archiving software is a big must. But as far as quality, I think emulation is a must sometimes. Ever drives are great, but.. them prices tho. And as much as I love collecting, $300 for Cubivore ain't ever gonna happen.

The backwards ps3 can't play all PS2 games and honestly, PS1 can run a lot sharper and faster than it does on the systems that make it available. Same can be said for the PS2. Original hardware optimization for new tv's is a drag and a costly one at that, so I think there shouldn't be any shame to accepting Emulation as a great alternative for experiencing games in a convenient and optimal way.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Will We Still Get HD Remasters in the PS5/Xbox Series Era?

« on: November 09, 2020, 04:20:17 am »

Now, when I read this the first thought that came to my mind was "Of course! Especially with capcom" And while I still think that, I also feel like a lot of games might not get remasters or enhancements but rather be part of a catalogue for streaming services. I'm thinking mostly of PS Now (Not sure if there's something like this for Xbox, forgive my ignorance) but I gotta say, a lot of nice titles are on PS Now already. I don't imagine it's particularly hard for Sony to maintain the service so I don't see them shying away from really showcasing it as an option for the future of the PS5 especially if they decide to make PS3 titles available.

I don't dislike HD remakes, but I hope that the ones we see surfacing in the early days of this new gen are of quality. We don't need another Silent Hill "HD" collection (or anything else like it tbh)

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General / Is exporting app data a thing?

« on: June 01, 2019, 12:25:50 am »

Hey there fellow collectors! New to the site here, but I've been a user of the VG collector pro app for quite some time. I've been lurking the forums for a bit and they're generally enjoyable so I figured I'd join up. I was wondering if there was a means to circumvent the grind of manually imputing all my media into my account? Any other tips to better manage my online db would be most appreciated.