Discuss Time! Issue 140 Retro Bargains

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

This month's topic is what's your best ever retro bargain?

[HisNHer_LP]

Someone needs to get intouch with the Retro Hunter, not sure of his name or if he comes here, but looking at his twitter feed feels me with Rage of jealousy

cant say I have had any Bargains

[Mayhem]

Getting a CIB C64 Ultima 2 for $20. That doesn't seem much of a bargain on the outside, but when I resold it for $250, then it does!

[The Laird]

Hard question actually!

Mine is probably the CIB Japanese version of Klax for the Lynx that I picked up in a big job lot of stuff. It worked out I hadn't paid more than a few pounds for it but because of the condition and its rarity I was soon after offered $500 for it by a collector in the US.

I did also buy GORF for the Jaguar CD on release just before it was withdrawn from sale for legal reasons. I have the limited edition version (with a big poster) and paid just £25 for it due to the exchange rate. It now goes for over £1000 on eBay.

Those have to be my 2 best ones!

[theantmeister]

I once found a boxed, complete copy of Silpheed for DOS in my local charity shop for £2.50. I still tell people about it.

[Antiriad2097]

Mrs Ant. Her tastes aren't expensive and she buys me retro gifts, even a Vectrex one Christmas.

[gman72]

Metroid Zero Mission - GBA mint and boxed - a quid at my local carboot... yes please

[flatapex]

quite a few actually, and I am usually first to say I don't get any.

gameboy advance sp free from my mate.
power strike 2 (master system) £3 (prices for it are insane £100-150+)
psycho fox (master system) american misprint version £6 (goes for a lot more, i thought it was the ordinary one)
golden axe warrior (master system), rainbow islands (master system) and both n64 zelda games (boxed and complete) about £25
deep duck trouble (master system) £10 including postage from germany (a mate in Germany sent it over after finding it in a shop there)

I also found a nice bundle at a car show, I was looking round an autojumble for various odds and ends and saw someone selling a dusty old megadrive 2 in a plastic box, I saw there were some games and he sold it to me for £12. took it back to the car club's stand and had a look what I had. Mint condition Splatterhouse 2, Atomic Runner and loads of other stuff. I got it so cheaply because the guy not only didn't know if it worked but also didn't even know what it was
Cleaned it up, replaced the faulty av lead for one with scart and cleaned it all up.

[ncf1]

During the PC revolution days (around the Doom/Myst/CD-Rom times) computer shops (like mine) were often struggling a bit, and would have bargain bins. I went to this shop one weekend and saw they had a whole bunch of games for $3 - $5 each, all sorts of weird games like The Dark Eye, Bay Day on The Midway, Blue Ice, I remember there was an Infocom Classics collection also, just a whole lot of them, and I only bought the first two titles I mentioned. Then Ebay happened and people went nuts selling things at the time, and I ended up getting around $150 for each game, and then seeing Blue Ice sell for crazy numbers, and the Infocom collection for even more... the early Ebay days were insane! Things quite a bit different now..

And tight-ar*ed me at the time only had bought 2 games whereas I could have, and should have, gone home with an armful of games. Oh well. I guess beer meant a whole lot more then.

[Treguard]

Turrican 2 on the SNES boxed for a tenner from Cash Converters. Well I say it was listed for a tenner, since I was in charge of buying and selling there at the time I may have done myself a very good deal there...

[Antiriad2097]

Independence War on PC. I forget exactly how much I paid, but it was from a bargain bin in Asda and low enough to be an impulse buy.

While I still maintain its a fantastic game, what really made it special for me was the community. I-War was my first experience of how things could be online, where real friendships were formed, and everyone mucked in to help each other out getting the game running, coming up with workrounds and creating fixes, mods and expansions for the core game. I will never forget those people and their quirky websites hosting all manner of stuff surrounding the game.

[necronom]

Probably my Spectrum bargain at the Video Game Market 2 earlier this month. I got:

10 games, 1 utility/educational program, and a Basic manual.



All that for £0.00.

[tapmantwo]

Are there still many bargains to be had? It used to be that you could get to a boot fair where people were clearing out stuff they just didn't want anymore. Nowadays (I still frequent the local boots), you are hard pushed to find much (other than a ton of PS2 games) - it seems there's either some super eager people beating me to them, or the sellers are now looking to get top dollar for everything. Charity Shops seldom have anything older than PS2 in there, and the few retro specialist shops near me and priced quite high.

eBay obviously has something to do with this - some of the BIN prices on there are ridiculous imo, and it makes collecting quite difficult to justify now. I tend to try and get bundles just so I can split the cost out a bit - works reasonably well for my C64 collection, but it's harder for SNES etc.

[Morkin]

Castlevania Symphony of the Night Limited Edition for £9.99 in GAME in early 1998. Didn't have a clue about the game at the time, so bought it purely because it seemed like a bargain.

[felgekarp]

I think the only bargain I've ever picked up is Kirby Air Ride for 2.99 from Game.