Top 30 Pick Ups of 2020!

[emporerdragon]

I will say this. Looking at your Zelda Wii mote has made wanting to look for one. It looks very nice and Im not sure why I never made attempts at getting one especially given my fandom for the franchise.

Certainly is my favorite Wii remote. I got the Skyward Sword bundle and the Goldeneye bundle years back almost solely for the controllers.

As for the main topic, I'm actually struggling to make a toplist. I added games to my collection, yes, but nothing this year was a day one purchase, and I didn't really acquire anything retro. If I managed to get my hands on a Series X, it might be a different story, but I'm fine with waiting there. I'd say my most exciting purchases have been in my other collecting hobbies: I managed to get some massive Lego (or Lego off-brand) sets this year, with the Tantive IV, the UCS A-Wing, and the Battleship Yamato sets being the big ones. I also really expanded my manga and comics collections, getting fully caught up with the releases of Dr. Stone, Beastars, the hardcover Fullmetal Alchemist editions, and Homestuck as well as finishing the Yu Yu Hakusho collection, almost filling bookshelf #2 dedicated to this category. And in board games, it was getting a hold of Catan: Starfarers, an excellent game that just saw a reprinting (and they just put out a 5-6 player expansion, which I also had to grab).

2021 doesn't look like it'll be too much different right now, as the only upcoming title I find myself excited for is the Mass Effect release, but I'll just have to wait and see what comes across my path.

[Flashback2012]

That's nice in all but not everyone is equally impressed especially people with small collections, I am not talking about me personally, but for people that only have games in the single or double or triple Digits? I am a gamer and a collector, but if you are for real then that would explain how and why some maybe a few collectors can't get those nice things in their collection.

In my own opinion you should consider the little guy, Not me but the people just starting out.

Again I am only trying to stick up for the majority of this of people on this site.

but this opinion is also coming from a guy with a lot of video games and accessories as well

Don't take this as jealousy I'm blessed but not everyone is as lucky as the both of us

Quoted for posterity so you can't ninja edit and delete like you have in the past after you've been called out.

Maybe ask the opinions of other people on the site before jamming yours on us.

This exactly. The site doesn't need a "champion for the little guy" and even if it did, you'd be the absolute dead last consideration. It's not like he's some newcomer showing off/bragging. Video games, and more specifically big hauls & rare item acquisitions, are kind of his thing. He posts in the monthly finds threads and usually at the end of the year/beginning of the new year he does a recap (which is what this thread is). He didn't say others had to post their top 30 things, that's just the number he set for himself. If you don't have anywhere near that, or don't have any at all, THAT'S PERFECTLY OKAY. It's astounding the projection on your part is only dwarfed by the audacity that you feel you speak for anyone but yourself on here. 

I realize that came out wrong

I was upset because I'm was stupid, I need to take that back. I just pictured @theflea with having 2 or 3  or more of every console sitting around getting dusty and it just makes me uneasy that other people could be buying up all the retro consoles, and games and since I don't think anyone builds this stuff anymore I think it is in limited supply.

Imagine if millions of people had a retro collection like @theflea, if so there would be nothing left

I just don't want to see the day where if one of my consoles fails I can't get a replacement unless I fork over top dollar for one.  it's not that @theflea has more it just that I am upset the games could be dwindling in numbers.

another big concern if there was ever a fire in my home I would not be able to replace anything someday
this goes for everyone sake not just myself.

Whatever theflea owns or however dusty it gets in his place as well as whatever anyone else besides yourself owns is NONE of your concern. Look, I'm sorry you're not as well off as you'd like to be so that you can buy up whatever you want but that's no fault of theflea. If you paid attention to his finds posts you'd see he's paying very little for a lot of his haul items and only splurges once in a while for the rare stuff. 

Again, the projection on your part because of some odd jealousy/envy thing you got going on is weirdly secondary to how you continue to think you speak for us all as in "this goes for everyone sake not just myself". This is one of the biggest reasons I avoid your posts/threads. 

[Flashback2012]

I feel I have to address this commit, my goal is the have one of every game & console. Once a system is in my collection I have no need to buy more, the only time I buy extras is from garage sales. Then I sell or trade then off to others so I can afford the crazy prices of game collecting today.
I NEVER have bought a game at a retro video game store or buy every PS5/Series X to sell, I only sell/trade stuff I pick up from garage sales.
Also I've always been collector first, when I do sell my extras I try my best to sell at under the going values and try my best give deals to fellow collector's.
I'm not hording games and consoles to make the market go up, I hate those people myself. I'm a gamer and collector at heart, always have been.

There are a lot of big collectors out there, some bigger then me. (shocking I know) I've been collecting video games before it was even a thing. This didn't happen over night it was over close to 30 years now. I agree prices are crazy today, but its due to the market and sellers taking advantage of it.
Hell when I'm asked "what will you do if the market crashes" I always say "yay, maybe I can afford more of those pricy games now".
Ya I agree it sucks that so many people are into collecting video games now its tough to find games when I go to retro game stores. It's a double edged sword, more people share your passion, but due to that sellers can see there's a market so they jack up prices and people pay it.

When I do expos (not this year of course) people love my table because I do my best to give them a good fair price, then I spend all the money on games I need in my personal collection at the show of other areas. I rather see the extras I pick up go to a collector or a gamer then a seller anytime.

Sorry for the rant, when I show you guys my finds I'm not being smug and bragging I got this and you don't. I just get excited about my finds, what I added to my collection. I love to share my passion with others who love video games. Also I like reading others finds, I'm a collector who got an early start is all.
If I show you good deals I get from garage sales or clearance tables, I do it to show you guys there's deals out there just go game hunting.

Happy game hunting in 2021.

So this came across as I was typing my response. This is EXACTLY what I expected you'd respond with and anyone with a lick of common sense would know that as well. 

I've said it before but I actually look forward to when you (and others like Swordude) post in the monthly finds thread. It fascinates me to see what you manage to find and how much (or really how little) you paid for things.  I could kind of understand if you were constantly making posts that it could come across as flexing/bragging to some extent but you generally post maybe once or twice a month at most in those threads? 

Again, it's unfortunate that oldgamerz isn't in a financial position to do things like theflea can but he does own something I wish I had, that TG16 mini. I'm happy for him that he was able to get one as they seemed to have dried up and I had other things that I needed to direct funding towards. There's plenty of titles included on it that didn't get a fair shake back in the day (that luckily I was able to pick up back in the day). If anything, those mini consoles are giving people a taste of what they missed out on and some are actually going and snapping up the originals as a result which is contributing to prices going up. 

[pzeke]

That's nice in all but not everyone is equally impressed especially people with small collections, I am not talking about me personally, but for people that only have games in the single or double or triple Digits? I am a gamer and a collector, but if you are for real then that would explain how and why some maybe a few collectors can't get those nice things in their collection.

In my own opinion you should consider the little guy, Not me but the people just starting out.

Again I am only trying to stick up for the majority of this of people on this site.

but this opinion is also coming from a guy with a lot of video games and accessories as well

Don't take this as jealousy I'm blessed but not everyone is as lucky as the both of us

Dude, you're such a simple Jack it almost hurts. And speaking of "jealousy", for someone who often makes himself look as devout as you do, you can be quite the green-eyed monster from time to time around here—last I checked, jealousy and envy are a sin.

Just think of theflea as a video game archivist/curator. I mean, I don't know how often he plays the games he gets, but by and large he's essentially preserving video games at this point.

Anyway, in regards to the main topic, I mostly spent last year getting PS4 games, which for the most part are your usual suspects since I don't care for limited releases. What stands out the most is the fact I got killer deals for the majority of them, which is always nice. I would like to say I got a TurboGrafx-16 Mini, but I'd be lying if I did; I never bothered to pay attention to the news surrounding it, so I wasn't aware it was an Amazon exclusive until just recently. C'est la vie.

Like emporerdragon said, I also don't think 2021 will be any different for me, but we'll see. For the longest time I was hung-up on the "rare" games I missed out on, especially given many of them I actually had the opportunity to get for cheap at some point in time, but, thankfully, last year I finally had an epiphany of sorts that allowed me to conclude that hunting for those "white whales" I missed is just a waste of time and effort, so on that front I don't visualize myself adding anything highly sought after to my collection...that is unless it somehow ends up falling on my lap, so to speak.

[ignition365]

I'm gonna take a look back at pictures and stuff I've taken.  I'm thinking I don't have more than 1 or 2 pickups to share as I barely left the house after March, so only mail calls, and even before March, I don't think I left but a couple of times.

I'll go chronological

1. Blaze twin shock home arcade stick.  Limited Black edition.
- In one of the few instances of me checking Facebook/Craigslist I saw this listing for like $20 and knew that I wanted it.  Contacted the guy and went to pick it up.  Coincidentally, I've bought from this guy before.  I think like 5 years ago I bought Yoshi's Island SNES and Zoids GCN for like $20.



2. JJgames closing down sale
- JJgames was shutting down and had a huge clearance sale, so I got a bunch of games for next to nothing.






3. Pre-lockdown game sale at a local shop
- Shop was doing B2G1 I think and I bought a ton of stuff





4. Watermelon red N64
- A seller I buy stuff from online frequently.  I think all of my N64s except the ones from my childhood are from this guy.  Randomly he'll get in N64s and sell them for like $50.  He listed a watermelon red one, came with a plain red controller though, that was disappointing, but can't complain.


5 + 6. Tons of Japanese + European imports
- I went kinda crazy on imports during lockdown, bought stuff from Japan and Europe.  There will be some other non import stuff in the picture coincidentally and some other stuff not pictured because I didn't want to share a pic of 5 games and only one being an import.










7 + 8 + 9 + 10.  AC7 HOTAS controller, Tales of Vesperia SE, Holiday demo disc that formats memory cards, and Shantae Repro display box + more import.
- I got a really good deal on the Hotas controller, like half price.  Tales of Vesperia SE was like half market rate too.  After years of thinking I had the demo disc that formats memory cards, I went to test it and noticed my disc didn't have Viewtiful Joe 2 on it.  Then I realized that Holiday 2004 PSM demo disc had 2 different releases, the OG disc with the bug and the replacement disk.  Had to go out and re-buy the game, and it turned out that the format feature successfully formats otherwise unformattable corrupted memory cards, bringing them back to life.  The Shantae Repro box is cool in that I paid like $25 total for two of them, second one not pictured.


11 + 12. Ringfit + Metal Gear Rex model kit
- I wouldn't have listed the Rex, but it's in the same picture and it was a great price.  Ringfit was hard to come by at the time and since then I've lost 30 lbs.


13 + 14. My Detolf display cases
- Bought some display cases from IKEA, just a happy purchase.  First case was murder to put together, second one not so bad.


15. My disgusting Dual Analog Joystick that I got on ebay for cheap


16. The arrival of my 1Print games order with Kero Blaster, Ittle Dew, and Death Squared.


17. More confetti than anyone rightfully should have
- Not pictured

18. Secret Santa gifts
- because if I'm going to mention the confetti, I should mention the gifts as well.


19. Sakura Wars PS2
- Not that I got a fantastic price on this, but I've been wanting it for so long [my love] and it was always selling for so much more than what VGPC suggested it should, managed to finally get it below VGPC's suggested price though.


20. Soul Nomad PS2
- Another game I've been wanting for so long, but just could never find.  I finally caved and threw an ebay saved search together and just kept an eye on it until a listing popped below market rate and snatched it up.


21. Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero display repro box
- Not pictured.  I've tried to buy this multiple times.  1st time seller cancelled immediately because he didn't mean to list it so low.  2nd time seller cancelled because "he oversold" when in reality he didn't like that the auction ended at $10, so he cancelled and relisted as a BIN for $50.  3rd time it finally arrived, after sitting in USPS xmas/covid limbo for nearly a month... only cost me like $17.

22. Gamestop's dumb B5G11 Free deal
- I don't remember exactly how crazy the deal was, but it was nuts like that where the B3G2 deal turned into like B5g11 free, but I got a lot of stuff from GS from that deal.  Most not pictured because it was loose disc.


23. Tomba 2
- Almost complete, just missing the cover of the manual.  Got it for $37.


24. 2 years of PS+ for $20 total
- Obviously not pictured, but a heck of a deal considering how much plus costs.

25. Xbox Series X
- Target let me preorder, use my 5% red card discount, a birthday discount, and a site wide 10% discount knocking the preorder down to mid $400 range.

26. PS5
- Nothing special other than the fact that I managed to get one preordered with no hassle.

27. The random internet orders
- So many random internet orders sprinkled into previous pictures!

Uh... I guess that's it.

[bunnybear]

17.Sweet Fuse: At your side (this was the last game released for the psp in North America)

Are you sure about that? I believe this honour goes to Summon Night 5, which released in 2015.

[wartoy]

17.Sweet Fuse: At your side (this was the last game released for the psp in North America)

Are you sure about that? I believe this honour goes to Summon Night 5, which released in 2015.

Yep your right I was wrong oops.

[sworddude]

Sorry for the rant, when I show you guys my finds I'm not being smug and bragging I got this and you don't. I just get excited about my finds, what I added to my collection. I love to share my passion with others who love video games. Also I like reading others finds, I'm a collector who got an early start is all.
If I show you good deals I get from garage sales or clearance tables, I do it to show you guys there's deals out there just go game hunting.

Happy game hunting in 2021.

I always love to see someone else pickups especially if it's retro it's never a bad thing imo it's fun to see what other ppl find and in some cases with an interesting story



I didnt think I would have 30 items this year since I had less focus on collecting but i added a bit a bit more to the collection than I tought. crossed some pretty cool games from my wanted list

30 zanac nes
29 final fantasy legend II
28 final fantasy legend III
27 fatal fury special snes
26 king of fighters heat of battle
25 rocket on wheels n64
24 ardy light foot snes
23 whip rush sega genesis
22 megaman zero 4 gba
21 megaman zero 3 gba
20 boktai gba
19 Dragon quest VII ps1

18 tempo jr sega game gear

I thought tempo was only for the 32x personally. was kinda interesting to see a cib copy in a game gear lot

17 Wardner sega genesis
16 Gungage ps1
15 tactics ogre ps1
14 Castlevania 1 nes
13 mr bones sega Saturn
12 Castlevania legacy of darkness n64
11 Mario party 3 n64
10 super double dragon snes
9 rising zan samurai gunman ps1
8 Rave master gamecube
7 Star soldier gamecube
6 contra III alien wars usa snes
5 thunder force III sega genesis
4  consurs bad fur day n64
3 ketsui death lable
2 Hori gamecube controller
1 sunset riders snes