VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

[Warmsignal]

Jesus F$%#ING christ! Really!?


Another long time indpendent video game store in Colorado is going under! Buy Back Games, which has been around since the early 90s (I didn't discover them until the late 2000s) is completely going out of business. They used to have around 10 stores across the state, then about 6 for a long time, then as of last year 2, and now they're saying they'll be gone for good likely in the next week :/


As somewhat of a silver lining to all this, another local independent chain, Level 7, is supposedly buying out their remaining inventory and assets, possibly even their main location. So in a way they will sort of live on through Level 7, but in terms of how the businesses are each ran and prices, they are pretty different.


Is this happening anywhere else or is the retro video game retail scene just collapsing in CO?

I would say that those closures are actually a bit late. Many similar "regional" chains in my neck of the woods have bit the dust several years back, as well as most of the one-off shops. The sad reality is, brick and mortar retail is dying a slow and painful death. It's taking quite a tumble as of late and it's not going to recover. Within 10 years, brick and mortar retail will be done, and that goes for some of the biggest names you can think of too.

There's just so much changing culturally and economically that this old style of commerce just isn't cutting it anymore. People now want things delivered to them from online, and the old retail store model can't compete with that. We've had drug store closures, department store closures, specialty stores closures. We're absolutely hemorrhaging brick and mortal stores in my area. Hell, even restaurants are feeling the hurt, because folks don't want to leave their home for anything nowdays. I was disappointed to find out even a few of my favorite sub shops, Firehouse and Penn Station have been closing down for lack of business.

I say people will miss all of this stuff when there are no local options for anything left, but they won't go out and support the businesses in their area with their patronage, so what are you gonna do? I guess just accept it's all going to go by the wayside.

[sworddude]

Jesus F$%#ING christ! Really!?


Another long time indpendent video game store in Colorado is going under! Buy Back Games, which has been around since the early 90s (I didn't discover them until the late 2000s) is completely going out of business. They used to have around 10 stores across the state, then about 6 for a long time, then as of last year 2, and now they're saying they'll be gone for good likely in the next week :/


As somewhat of a silver lining to all this, another local independent chain, Level 7, is supposedly buying out their remaining inventory and assets, possibly even their main location. So in a way they will sort of live on through Level 7, but in terms of how the businesses are each ran and prices, they are pretty different.


Is this happening anywhere else or is the retro video game retail scene just collapsing in CO?

I would say that those closures are actually a bit late. Many similar "regional" chains in my neck of the woods have bit the dust several years back, as well as most of the one-off shops. The sad reality is, brick and mortar retail is dying a slow and painful death. It's taking quite a tumble as of late and it's not going to recover. Within 10 years, brick and mortar retail will be done, and that goes for some of the biggest names you can think of too.

There's just so much changing culturally and economically that this old style of commerce just isn't cutting it anymore. People now want things delivered to them from online, and the old retail store model can't compete with that. We've had drug store closures, department store closures, specialty stores closures. We're absolutely hemorrhaging brick and mortal stores in my area. Hell, even restaurants are feeling the hurt, because folks don't want to leave their home for anything nowdays. I was disappointed to find out even a few of my favorite sub shops, Firehouse and Penn Station have been closing down for lack of business.

I say people will miss all of this stuff when there are no local options for anything left, but they won't go out and support the businesses in their area with their patronage, so what are you gonna do? I guess just accept it's all going to go by the wayside.

It's only logical many people just go window shopping in physical stores and buy their stuff online since in pretty much all cases it's 10 to 50% cheaper brand new not to mention usually free shipping. If physical stores would have the exact same prices as the online stores the dead would be a bit delayed. The reasons why super markets aren't dying is because there is not an alternative cheaper online option or if there is the prices are exactly the same as their physical store counter part. but than again profit margins on super market products is already only a few % and than to think that this is excluded rent employees and items that do net get sold and thrown away. It's thanks to the massive quantity that the prices can be kept low.

Prices are the main thing for the downfall of physical stores. I obviously do realise that physical stores charge higher prices since they have rent employees etc but people want the best deal and since the online shops are very accesible it's kinda tough life for them retail stores.

Also as far as restaurants go the normal not fast food kind considering that a restaurant needs at least 4 to 5 times profit or more for each meal to stay in business I'm pretty sure you can imagine why people rather not go to a restaurant. a 20$ meal has probably a value of 4$ or less not to mention 10 times profit on drinks wich adds up when multiple are bought. It's not that people like to stay at home but eating out is very pricy for the stuff that you get not to mention that most normal not higher end restaurant usually have worse quality meals than what you would made at home for a fraction of the price and the high end ones are obviously a bit over the top price wise for most people.

The only exception to this is the all you can eat concept with maybe less than a 50% profit margin on average or sometimes even a profit for the big or smart eater but with the strategy to serve way more customers than a regular restaurant to make a profit and hoping that some family members eat healthy thus having nice profits to compensate for the fat uncle that comes with them.

[Flashback2012]

Jesus F$%#ING christ! Really!?


Another long time indpendent video game store in Colorado is going under! Buy Back Games, which has been around since the early 90s (I didn't discover them until the late 2000s) is completely going out of business. They used to have around 10 stores across the state, then about 6 for a long time, then as of last year 2, and now they're saying they'll be gone for good likely in the next week :/


As somewhat of a silver lining to all this, another local independent chain, Level 7, is supposedly buying out their remaining inventory and assets, possibly even their main location. So in a way they will sort of live on through Level 7, but in terms of how the businesses are each ran and prices, they are pretty different.


Is this happening anywhere else or is the retro video game retail scene just collapsing in CO?

We had a chain here called BuyBacks. I don't know if they're part of the same company or not but they've been closing stores the last few years now. There used to be at least a half dozen or so in the metro area but I can only think of one open location still. They had some goofball pricing scheme that relied on what items were going for on Amazon or something. I would see uncommon DS games commanding $60 or more when in reality they weren't worth a $5 at best. They also took over old Blockbuster/Hollywood locations but did NOTHING to protect their product as all of the locations were like 75% windows so just about every case was sun-faded. 

[bikingjahuty]

Jesus F$%#ING christ! Really!?


Another long time indpendent video game store in Colorado is going under! Buy Back Games, which has been around since the early 90s (I didn't discover them until the late 2000s) is completely going out of business. They used to have around 10 stores across the state, then about 6 for a long time, then as of last year 2, and now they're saying they'll be gone for good likely in the next week :/


As somewhat of a silver lining to all this, another local independent chain, Level 7, is supposedly buying out their remaining inventory and assets, possibly even their main location. So in a way they will sort of live on through Level 7, but in terms of how the businesses are each ran and prices, they are pretty different.


Is this happening anywhere else or is the retro video game retail scene just collapsing in CO?

I would say that those closures are actually a bit late. Many similar "regional" chains in my neck of the woods have bit the dust several years back, as well as most of the one-off shops. The sad reality is, brick and mortar retail is dying a slow and painful death. It's taking quite a tumble as of late and it's not going to recover. Within 10 years, brick and mortar retail will be done, and that goes for some of the biggest names you can think of too.

There's just so much changing culturally and economically that this old style of commerce just isn't cutting it anymore. People now want things delivered to them from online, and the old retail store model can't compete with that. We've had drug store closures, department store closures, specialty stores closures. We're absolutely hemorrhaging brick and mortal stores in my area. Hell, even restaurants are feeling the hurt, because folks don't want to leave their home for anything nowdays. I was disappointed to find out even a few of my favorite sub shops, Firehouse and Penn Station have been closing down for lack of business.

I say people will miss all of this stuff when there are no local options for anything left, but they won't go out and support the businesses in their area with their patronage, so what are you gonna do? I guess just accept it's all going to go by the wayside.

Beyond independent video game stores a lot of other retail stores and restaurants have been going under as well, including my two favorite restaurants. We have a ton of shopping centers all over town that easily have 50% vacancy and that number seems to be growing each month. I definitely don't live in an economically depressed area either; I live half a mile away from a huge subdivision of million+ dollar homes and about 3-miles from the wealthiest county in the whole state. It definitely is a cultural and societal thing, but sadly it clashes with what appeals to me. Sure, I buy online quite a bit, but I love the experience of going out and going to an actual store and buying something, or eating out somewhere. I know that I am becoming the minority in this regard more and more, but it's a sad reality that I struggle with. It just blows my mind that we have wealthy people moving here from out of state who are literally getting it expensive bidding wars over houses that went up for sales hours prior, yet a nice sit down restaurant less than a mile a way can barely make it given all the money these people have at their disposal. From everything I've read, most of these people are severely debt burdened and have prioritized home ownership at the expense of their quality of life and at being house poor. But now I'm getting off topic completely.


Bottom line is it breaks my heart to see these long running, small businesses go under, especially since many of them have been very good to me for years in more ways than one.

[NickAwesome]

In Portland, we have had several new retro stores open recently. On a good day I can hit between 8-10 stores in a 25 mile radius.  I run out of daylight before I can hit all the locations.  Most stores try to price near or at market but I frequently catch stores slipping, listing $25 games for $5, listing $70 for $40 and more.   The stores with good pricing and friendly staff stick around.  The ones that don't die quickly.  It'll all eventually die because it's brick/mortar retail but the scene in Oregon is booming right now. 

[bikingjahuty]

In Portland, we have had several new retro stores open recently. On a good day I can hit between 8-10 stores in a 25 mile radius.  I run out of daylight before I can hit all the locations.  Most stores try to price near or at market but I frequently catch stores slipping, listing $25 games for $5, listing $70 for $40 and more.   The stores with good pricing and friendly staff stick around.  The ones that don't die quickly.  It'll all eventually die because it's brick/mortar retail but the scene in Oregon is booming right now.

Most of the remaining stores in the area range from terrible to average when it comes to pricing and/or selection. Unfortunately the stores that I used to catch slipping a lot are all gone for the most part. The remaining ones are very careful about their prices, either charging ebay prices or well above them. Sadly, the store with the best prices (consistently 10-25% under ebay on everything) went out of business earlier this month.


One thing I'm trying to understand is why Level 7, the store that is buying out Buy Back Games, is seemingly thriving. They're not a bad store by any means, in fact their selection of games is pretty stellar, but their pricing is almost invariably ebay or higher, which makes me wonder why people would even bother shopping there when they can get a similar deal on ebay pretty easily. They recently opened a new location a few months ago, and now with their recent acquisition are seemingly going to open a 4th. I can't imagine a retro video game store pulls that kind of money so I have to assume the owner has some outside source of income fueling the company. There's another chain in town called Doc's that is owned by a dentist whose dentist salary is what has kept his stores afloat all these years.

[Warmsignal]

For some reason, the seller refunded me after I complained the game was not in condition described. Just a full refund, no return. No instructions. No messages. WTF? I don't want to keep your game. I wanted to send it back.

[NickAwesome]

In Portland, we have had several new retro stores open recently. On a good day I can hit between 8-10 stores in a 25 mile radius.  I run out of daylight before I can hit all the locations.  Most stores try to price near or at market but I frequently catch stores slipping, listing $25 games for $5, listing $70 for $40 and more.   The stores with good pricing and friendly staff stick around.  The ones that don't die quickly.  It'll all eventually die because it's brick/mortar retail but the scene in Oregon is booming right now.

Most of the remaining stores in the area range from terrible to average when it comes to pricing and/or selection. Unfortunately the stores that I used to catch slipping a lot are all gone for the most part. The remaining ones are very careful about their prices, either charging ebay prices or well above them. Sadly, the store with the best prices (consistently 10-25% under ebay on everything) went out of business earlier this month.


One thing I'm trying to understand is why Level 7, the store that is buying out Buy Back Games, is seemingly thriving. They're not a bad store by any means, in fact their selection of games is pretty stellar, but their pricing is almost invariably ebay or higher, which makes me wonder why people would even bother shopping there when they can get a similar deal on ebay pretty easily. They recently opened a new location a few months ago, and now with their recent acquisition are seemingly going to open a 4th. I can't imagine a retro video game store pulls that kind of money so I have to assume the owner has some outside source of income fueling the company. There's another chain in town called Doc's that is owned by a dentist whose dentist salary is what has kept his stores afloat all these years.

At least in our area I think the stores that survive are the ones who price the Gamecube/N64/GameBoy stuff at market or above to help them cover their costs but are laxer on other less popular stuff because they know it won't sell to the collectors out there who are looking for a deal and know better regarding prices.  I am curious how some of these stores do stay in business though.  Especially the ones with bad pricing, there is one store that prices everything including stuff that would be $2-$3 at $9 to $10 but will often price stuff $30-$40 at $20-$25, it's baffling and I don't why they don't price the cheap games cheaper, some have sat there for years! 

[kashell]

Another year. Another Louisville Arcade Expo. As always, it was a blast to hang with Turf and his bro. We even ran into the lovely FlashBack2012!

Arcade games, pinball machines, consoles, and everything in between. What a great weekend!

[turf]

Another year. Another Louisville Arcade Expo. As always, it was a blast to hang with Turf and his bro. We even ran into the lovely FlashBack2012!

Arcade games, pinball machines, consoles, and everything in between. What a great weekend!

Such a great weekend as always!  I love hanging with my boy, Kashell. Pinball is a blast!  Great times at Crazy Taxi. We had a great time. It’s one of those weekends that won’t be forgotten.

[bfbeam]

Another year. Another Louisville Arcade Expo. As always, it was a blast to hang with Turf and his bro. We even ran into the lovely FlashBack2012!

Arcade games, pinball machines, consoles, and everything in between. What a great weekend!

I thought about going to that! I'm in the area but have never been... maybe next year.

Do you know of any other Louisville gaming events happening soon?

[kashell]

Another year. Another Louisville Arcade Expo. As always, it was a blast to hang with Turf and his bro. We even ran into the lovely FlashBack2012!

Arcade games, pinball machines, consoles, and everything in between. What a great weekend!

I thought about going to that! I'm in the area but have never been... maybe next year.

Do you know of any other Louisville gaming events happening soon?

I'm not from the area so I'm not sure. It was actually Turf that found out about it years ago.

[Warmsignal]

I recently played Horizon Chase Zero and wow, what a fun game! I can't believe the physical edition is coming out so late. This game is a total sleeper hit. I have a feeling the major publishers have no idea that they've essentially passed on the next Mario Kart level racing game. I could see them scrambling for rights to the sequels. Easy to pick up and play for anyone, and I could see it having a wide appeal. I'm definitely pre-ordering my physical copy. This is an example of a day one pick up for me.

[kashell]

I'm trying to figure out which game I should go with for my 80th platinum.

[desocietas]

I'm trying to figure out which game I should go with for my 80th platinum.

I heard about the achievements for RE2 Remake... probably not that one, I'd say