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[ranmafan]

Man LDs seemed so cool at the time but thinking back compared to now makes you wonder who thought these were a good idea. Remember it was HUGE when popular but that kinda dropped off fast lol.

Nowdays if any the only place where Ive seen LD stuff is like at old Karaoke pubs with the huge setup.

I remember being told the amazing was of LDs at the anime club at my college way back in the 90s, and I always loved flipping through anime magazines seeing all these titles I wanted in LD. Seemed so awesome for sure. Then when you lift up a box set the first time and have to figure out how do you ship this, is when you learn it's not the best format at all!

 

[DCharlie]

Darn not even enough for a Dr Pepper! I bet these days they would probably make you pay them to take the LDs if they even would.

yeah, even then - the most crazy offer I got was for a fully boxed complete in mint condition FM Towns Marty.

10 yen. From Traders.
hahaha, no. No I don't think so.

(we hired a van - I had so much stuff to dump... and then bought it all back like a dumbass....

and then sold it all again....

and then bought it again....

and then sold it all again)

 

[Regulus Tera]

The games are there to be bought?

How is this a problem?

The problem here is that the industry does a poor job of preserving titles for future generations and an entire market is becoming unable to access a huge title of games from the past.

 

[andymcc]

Yeah this is very true, the akihabara of seven years ago was a much better time. Stores were much better stocked and things were easier to get. Not just there too but pretty much every game store you went in Japan. Then it all started getting smaller and smaller. Lots of great stores closed up, and others just consolidated their selections. It's good we still have stores selling what they got but man the past was better. I still wish for a return of the days of 2001 when I first started going to Akihabara. Now that was an amazing time. The deals and games you could get then we're so incredible. The 2001 - 2002 Akiba is still one of my favorite places I ever went to.

yeah, the first time I went was in Feb. of 2002. I bought a Core-Grafx w/ Interface unit and CD w/ a System 3.0 card, Dracula X complete and mint, Spriggan and Winds of Thunder for just about 20,000 yen at MediaLand.

The times hurt now.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

What makes you think that it's not also Japanese buying these games to resell overseas (via eBay, etc.)?

That is exactly what is happening. The number of huge lots of cheap Japanese games on eBay from Japanese sellers is staggering. You can buy a bulk lot of Famicom or Super Famicom games, say 100 games or so, for 150 bucks. And these type of lots occur daily. It's usually common titles like Mario games, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Super Donkey Kong, etc., but still. I see the number of games being sent overseas and I wonder just how much of the total supply is finding it's way out of Japan completely.

 

[andymcc]

That is exactly what is happening. The number of huge lots of cheap Japanese games on eBay from Japanese sellers is staggering. You can buy a bulk lot of Famicom or Super Famicom games, say 100 games or so, for 150 bucks. And these type of lots occur daily. It's usually common titles like Mario games, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Super Donkey Kong, etc., but still. I see the number of games being sent overseas and I wonder just how much of the total supply is finding it's way out of Japan completely.

the used stores simply can't pay the owners of these games. see DCharlie's post. once these dudes wise up to the fact that they can make more money on their collections online, they start selling on eBay...

and then they start fleecing the conservatively priced retro shops. make huge markups.

shit's ugly dude.

 

[Mihos]

The problem here is that the industry does a poor job of preserving titles for future generations and an entire market is becoming unable to access a huge title of games from the past.

Collectors like me are the ones preserving it. I don't understand exactly what you expect a publisher or hardware maker that has been out of business for 20 years to do about preserving things for some undefined future generation. The market you mention for old obscure games is tiny, and half of that tiny market is fine with emulation. If preservation is really the interest, then be glad the values and prices are going up... the higher the value, the more susceptible any remaining properties are to curation.

 

[ranmafan]

yeah, the first time I went was in Feb. of 2002. I bought a Core-Grafx w/ Interface unit and CD w/ a System 3.0 card, Dracula X complete and mint, Spriggan and Winds of Thunder for just about 20,000 yen at MediaLand.

The times hurt now.

My favorite pickup that year, going to trader and all of a sudden finding 10 used but perfect condition copies of 70s robot anime geppy x on the shelf, all for about 3000 yen each. I picked up a copy immediately. I have never ever seen a copy of the game since. This week when I looked on Amazon just for laughs to see the price of the game today, made me wish I had picked up more than one.

Only other game I was lucky like that for since was finding the PlayStation ranma fighting game at book off for a 1000 yen a few years back. At the time most places were selling it for ten times as much although I've heard that games price has plummeted in recent years.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

the used stores simply can't pay the owners of these games. see DCharlie's post. once these dudes wise up to the fact that they can make more money on their collections online, they start selling on eBay...

and then they start fleecing the conservatively priced retro shops. make huge markups.

shit's ugly dude.

Yeah, I mean it makes sense. Exposing your goods to a worldwide marketplace filled with hungry collectors versus relying on impulse sales in a retail shop.

The worst thing is, some of these Japanese sellers even drive up the price of their auctions with shill bids. I can think of one in particular that I won't name here, but people probably know which major one I'm thinking of.

 

[andymcc]

Only other game I was lucky like that for since was finding the PlayStation ranma fighting game at book off for a 1000 yen a few years back. At the time most places were selling it for ten times as much although I've heard that games price has plummeted in recent years.

on a similar note to the Ranma 1/2 game, I bought the DBZ Super CD game because it used to be a very valuable collector's item on eBay. I think I paid about 1000 for it. It probably goes for about that now since most people have wised up to the quality of most of the DBZ games.

 

[DCharlie]

One other thing i'd like to add :

in the <granddad mode> Good old days (tm) </granddad mode> as a gamer you had a few options based on your cash flow. This was largely enabled by the utter glut of stock over a huge number of stores - with a ton of these stores now wiped out in Aki.

So - you could :

1) hunt down CIB A class or sealed (relatively rare in Japan) versions of the games you wanted - these would still be relatively expensive back in the day but obviously scarcity and demand have driven up these prices

2) Go for CIB / Item missing but Boxed versions of the game that are B class or C Class - meaning you still get the boxed version but something is wrong. Little Ryo might have written his name across the back of the cart in magic marker, the instructions might be missing or torn, the corners of the box might be tattered. This has a huge impact on the price - still does today too of course, but not to the same extent.

3) buy the game unboxed - you still get the game and it's going to run fine, but you'd pay vastly less.

Here's the thing - back when I got here until around, oooh, say 2010 maybe ? The gap between 1 and 2, and then from 2 to 3 was pretty damned large. Hell, anyone familiar with Galaxy in Nakameguro will know their large "loose cart" set up along the back row of the store. The prices in there were always incredibly low for the loose carts and even some of the rarer games would pop in there at reasonable prices. We're talking 108 yen upwards.

One of the big changes that rarity is bringing is forcing even loose game prices up to silly prices. Whilst I get it for super rare games that 55k is "understandable" for a loose cart, it's meaning that even low tier collecting is becoming an expensive endeavor.

The very first gaming item I bought in Japan when I got here was a PC-Engine Core Grafx (still the sexiest piece of hardware ever!) and .... 94 loose games and 3 boxed. I spent around 25,000 total and got pretty much all the games I was initially interested in. That said stock was so absolutely abundant that I was head down in a box swimming through loose HuCards.

Through time I would end up buying loose carts to play whilst the boxed versions sat untouched. Looking back - I do find this -massively- sad and part of my decision to sell everything was that "if i'm not playing it, and i'm never likely now going to get time to play it (family, career, etc) then I should sell it on to someone who can".

The economics of collecting now are way beyond what i'd be prepared to pay and, alas, i'm going to have to settle with other means of playing the games. I'm sure as hell not paying the going rate for rares anymore and I actually wonder who does?

 

[ranmafan]

Sorry to bump up a thread but I thought it would be interesting to see if there was any difference from when the article was written last month to now. So the past weekend I went to Tokyo for a visit and went to Akihabara. As I like to do on every visit I decided to check two stores, Super Potato, and the main Trader store for their retro section. What I found was interesting. Trader was far more packed with games, especially surprisingly PC engine games and such. Every section was filled up with quite a selection. I even found a nice copy of Fire Emblem for Gamecube at a nice low price and not behind a glass case section like most rarer games. Even for its smaller size than Super Potato, it was well stocked with retro games and at much better prices. Very happy with my time there as always.

Super Potato on the other hand was, as always with me, a mixed bag. In one case the amount of games and software that was available was no where as bad as the picture from the article makes it seem. There had obviously been a restock of games since that article as there were lots more pc engine titles and such. However there were indeed many empty areas of many sections. Areas such as Dreamcast, PC Engine, and Saturn had many missing games. Was quite surprised at the Saturn section as the last time I had been there in July it had a far larger stock than before. Systems also while available seemed to be in smaller supply than before. And as usual the prices were on the high side. For example the Fire Emblem game I had found for a great price in the open at trader, was only found behind a glass case at Super Potato for over 3000 yen more.

Super Potato of course was also filed with almost exclusively foreign customers. Trader had more Japanese ones. But that was just from my time there, I'm sure both have a normal mix of both. Either way I think from what Ive seen from this trip and the last few, that while yes there are less the doom and gloom that was said in the article is far from being true. Again there were restocks of games and plenty of great deals. Sadly I forgot to check everything, didn't see what the situation with the "Mother" titles were but still it was much better than I had expected.

So while the good old days of easily being able to find tons of retro games at great prices in Japan may have past, its no where as bad as some have made it out to be. But still its also obvious that online has had an effect at the market as a whole. It will be very interesting to see what its like again the next time I go many months from now. Still glad I got a great deal on Fire Emblem, never expected that on this trip!