How far have you traveled to acquire something?

[Flashback2012]

Not counting being on vacation and finding something while there or visiting relatives/friends who live a good amount away from you (though feel free to include that if you want) but more like you found something you wanted and had to drive/travel a considerable distance to acquire it.

Over the weekend, Nintendo released the Special Edition for the Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon "update" for NES/Switch download. A Best Buy store about 40-45 minutes away showed 3 in stock for all of 30 seconds and it disappeared out of my cart as I was ordering.  For shits & giggles I updated the page on Saturday evening and another store showed 3 in stock...in Lexington, KY. 

It's about 100 or so miles from my place to the store in Lexington so I got up Sunday and made the jaunt down there. Luckily there's some great restaurants down there that we don't have up here and some places like Half Price Books to peruse so we made an impromptu trip of it (masked up and socially distancing of course  ).

This is the first time that I can recall where I made a decent length trek for a particular item. We've made treks to other metro areas like Columbus, Indianapolis, and Louisville but most of those trips involved overnight stays/mini vacations with other things to check out besides shopping. Now shopping occurred on those trips and items were acquired but I can't recall specifically going to any of those places looking for a specific thing.

[moriluka]

Last year in the summer i rode the bus into the middle of nowhere then walked 2 hours in the sun up hilly (but beautiful) terrain to pick up Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon Heartgold and Pokemon Ranger 2. tbh in hindsight idk why i just didnt want to pay the 5 bucks shipping but the dude who sold me the game was really cool and drove me to the train station so i wouldnt have to walk the way back

[Warmsignal]

Not counting Too Many Games, which was like an 8 hour drive. 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 drove across state lines to check GameStop stores. I've drove all across the state, and some of a neighboring state just to check pawn shops, various game stores I don't have near to me, flea markets. I used to routinely drive about 3 hours to an out of state flea market on the weekends. So yeah, I've done stuff like that a lot.

Any time I go out of town there's lots of food and shopping which is not commonplace to me, living in a fairly small town. So the trips are usually worth it, just to stop by a sandwhich shop, and check out stores like Best Buy which I've never had in my home town.

[bizzarnage]

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.

[bizzarnage]

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.

[mooblius]

Sort of related to another recent topic, in 2020 I drove to a location about 300 miles away to pick up a used Sony Trinitron TV (32" CRT), acquired specifically to be able to play some old light gun games again.  Totally worth it.

[wartoy]

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.

[bizzarnage]

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.

[seether]

I travelled the world and the seven seas for my copy of PaRappa The Rapper 2.

[kashell]

I traveled three hours to Memphis, TN to get my metal DDR dance pad courtesy of both soera and turf. It was fun.

[telekill]

Around 1991-2001 I lived in a pretty remote area. The closest game store was an hour drive away. For the Dreamcast launch and about 6 months after the PS2 launch, I had to drive that hour to get those systems and anything to go with them. So a two hour round trip. Kinda sucked.

[turf]

I drove 4 hours 1 way to get my Donkey King/DKJr/Mario Bros arcade.
I’ve done a few trips up around the 3-4 hours to get stuff.

[tripredacus]

2 hour drive to pick up Williams Hall of Fame on PS3. Back when it was new and rare, got a list of remote Gamestop locations that showed it in stock. Of course the first one didn't have it.

[98dgreen]

Last year in the summer i rode the bus into the middle of nowhere then walked 2 hours in the sun up hilly (but beautiful) terrain to pick up Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon Heartgold and Pokemon Ranger 2. tbh in hindsight idk why i just didnt want to pay the 5 bucks shipping but the dude who sold me the game was really cool and drove me to the train station so i wouldnt have to walk the way back

That would have been bad if he was a no show like half those meet ups are.

[ignition365]

I drove... like an hour away to get Conker Live and Reloaded for like $20, in retrospect, it was terrible to do.  Gas probably ate up what savings I was getting back then.

I had my brother drive an hour or so away from where he lived to pick up a Steel Battalion set for me.  Then he drove the 3-4 hours from where he lives to where I lived to get it from him.  But it was a at your convenience thing.  He met up with the guy at a comic shop he frequents, and he brought it to me when he was visiting family months later.