Author Topic: What types of games are hard to find or easy to find in your region?  (Read 1780 times)

Warmsignal

Been doing this a number of years, and this is what it looks like from my perspective.

It's pretty easy to find NES, N64, GB/C, PS2, Xbox, and Atari 2600 - it varies, but you can find the quality stuff almost as often as the junk. It's somewhat more difficult to find PS1, Genesis, GG, SNES or GameCube - the thing is with those is when you find something it's always junk games or just the console. It's near impossible to find SMS, Saturn, Dreamcast, or other Atari - you can't find these at all, even the crappy stuff never turns up.

Some people seem surprised that I have a hard time finding PS1. I think N64 must have did much better here than PS1 (and that is how I always remembered it). I built my N64 collection in two short years of flea markets, while I had to go online, or to video game stores to buy many PS1 games becasue I never could find anything that wasn't Madden or Rugrats just floating around at a flea market, pawn shop, or thrift store.

theflea

This is based on garage sales from this year and last year.

I think I only found dreamcast games maybe one or twice.
Saturn is rare, last year i bought one lot of games and that's it.
Sega CD or 32X is rare to find too.
GG I have found on a few occasions but the systems always had issues and games where blah.
Found T16 games about 3 times. and this year already found a T16 boxed.
Only found SMS once, it was a large lot with rare games and a SMS2.
I find PS1 all the time, most I pass up just because I own it and it's sports or kid titles.
NES and SNES are getting tougher to find but I found 4 SNES systems this year with some decent games.
N64 i seem to come across all the time.
Genesis is pretty uncommon but do find them here and there.
Atari 2600 I find here and there. And 5200 I found a couple times last year. But never found Jaguar.
I think I only found Colecovision once and Intellivision a couple times.
Gamecube, XB, PS2, DS and Wii are the most common games I find at garage sales.
GB & GBC is kinda uncommon, GBA is common.
I found 3DO a couple times and CDi once.
Shoot I even found a Fairchild Channel F once last year.
Saw a Vectrex once last year, but the guy didn't want to sell it unless I offered a ridiculous amount.
Picked up a Virtual Boy system twice last year.
Even found a few Odyssey games last year.
I have yet to find anything Neo Geo (If I found anything Neo Geo AES I think I'd faint) lol

"Happy game hunting!!!"

burningdoom

PRO Supporter

Easy to Find:
-Atari 2600
-GameCube
-Genesis
-N64
-NES
-PS1/PS2/PS3/PS4
-SNES
-XBox/XBox 360/XBox One
-Wii/Wii U
-GB/GBC/GBA
-DS/3DS
-PSP/Vita

Hard to Find:
-Commodore 64
-Neo Geo Pocket Color
-Sega CD (and Sega 32X, but I don't collect those)
-Sega Master System
-Saturn
-TurboGrafx-16

Sega Game Gear is hit or miss. Some places I've found treasure troves of them (and they always have LOTS of Sonic games and Columns), other places I don't see them at all.

Sega Dreamcast used to be very plentiful, but lately it's been drying up.

Been doing this a number of years, and this is what it looks like from my perspective.

It's pretty easy to find NES, N64, GB/C, PS2, Xbox, and Atari 2600 - it varies, but you can find the quality stuff almost as often as the junk. It's somewhat more difficult to find PS1, Genesis, GG, SNES or GameCube - the thing is with those is when you find something it's always junk games or just the console. It's near impossible to find SMS, Saturn, Dreamcast, or other Atari - you can't find these at all, even the crappy stuff never turns up.

Some people seem surprised that I have a hard time finding PS1. I think N64 must have did much better here than PS1 (and that is how I always remembered it). I built my N64 collection in two short years of flea markets, while I had to go online, or to video game stores to buy many PS1 games becasue I never could find anything that wasn't Madden or Rugrats just floating around at a flea market, pawn shop, or thrift store.

Uh, if it's Search for Reptar I would grab that for potential riches down the line alone.

karyann

Some people seem surprised that I have a hard time finding PS1. I think N64 must have did much better here than PS1 (and that is how I always remembered it). I built my N64 collection in two short years of flea markets, while I had to go online, or to video game stores to buy many PS1 games becasue I never could find anything that wasn't Madden or Rugrats just floating around at a flea market, pawn shop, or thrift store.

Exactly the same here! Hell, I have a hard time finding sports PS1 games that are not burned CDs...  :o

Games I  don't see very often or have seen less and less of over the years:

3DO
CD-i
Dreamcast
Saturn
Sega CD
32X
Neo Geo (all platforms)
Virtual Boy
Jaguar
Atari 5200
Vectrex

I never ever see Saturn or Sega CD games but do often find dreamcast games but they are usually just average sports games.
Neo Geo stuff though I do find at some used games stores and decent stuff too. Last year I bought my Metal Slug 5 new from a gameforce in the somewhat nicer area of town. That place is great, thinking of picking up their KOF 2002 AES when I can. I also see a lot of Neo Geo big red cabs on craigslist down here too. Honestly, I don't find a lot of Nintendo stuff, I don't know if I'm just missing out at stores or if people are keeping them more. Playstation stuff I find all the time, but not so much Xbox. Some CD-I and 3Do games I find as well, never a console though


ffxik

In our immediate area nothing.  Everyone that sells games usually turns to CL or Ebay.  About 20 miles out you can find 6th and 7th gen games in pawn shops.  Mostly sports and extremely common crap titles.  Another 50 miles on top of that there is only one shop that handles most games from the NES era and up.  Usually they have some of the rarer titles but at just under Ebay prices.  I've got lucky there a few times, with Metal Storm cart for .99 and and CIB Shining the Holy Ark and Dragon Force for 16.00 for the pair.  That's fairly rare though.


koemo1

PRO Supporter

In holland you can find cd-i commodore 64 and master system stuff pretty easy. But I hardly find any NES games.
Currently playing:
Rogue Trooper [xbox]
Days Gone [ps4]


bobster

In holland you can find cd-i commodore 64 and master system stuff pretty easy. But I hardly find any NES games.
At least you've got master system stuff!
Currently Playing: The Witcher

blipcs76

  • Guest
Re: What types of games are hard to find or easy to find in your region?
« Reply #10 on: May 27, 2014, 10:56:53 am »
Around here, stuff like Master System, TG16, Saturn, Colecovision are pretty much impossible to find other than in specialty game stores.

NES/SNES/Genesis/N64/PS1 are getting harder to find.  Five years ago they were much easier to find.

Most of what I find in the wild today are PS2, Wii and 360 games.  And usually stuff like sports games, minigame collections and other commons that I see everywhere.  There seem to be far more collectors and resellers in my area now, so getting anything good that does pop up is really difficult.  Thrift stores are scoured by these guys, so I'm finding myself having to turn to eBay to work on my collection more than I used to, which slows down my collecting considerably.

Have been hitting garage sales for about a month so far in 2014 and the only notable items I found were some Intellivision items at an estate sale.  Hit probably 30+ garage sales in the last two weeks and all I've managed to bring home was a boxed copy of Wipeout64 and some really common 2600 carts.