Category: Rare Game Finds

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Game Hunting: Game Boy Pop Up & a Cheap Bayonetta

I was a bit late in hitting up a local swap meet today, but I was quite happy to walk away with some solid finds.  A cheap copy of Lego Star Wars for the Wii, Flying Dragon for the N64 (now in my collection), a loose NES system, and Bayonetta (sealed for $25).  I’m especially happy about the Bayonetta since used copies still seem to be in the $40+ range or more…and it’s going to be a solid game to play.

One of the more unique but probably not really rare games I picked up is for the original Nintendo Game Boy and is called “Pop Up.”  It’s a puzzle game in which you used trampolines or bumpers to navigate a ball through puzzles.  Game play is decent actually, and the background music is fantastic!  I can’t found out much about it online, and I’m wondering what’s it’s worth.  There are a couple on eBay for cheap by European sellers, but none seem to be up for eBay USA.  Just for reference, this one says “DMG-OP-NOE” on one side of the label and “HERAUSRAGENDE SEITE” on the other, so I’m assuming this is a German release.  Interesting find for a San Diego flea market…

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The (2nd) Beginning of My Video Game Collection

I’ve always loved thrift shopping and collecting.  As a kid, I collected dinosaurs, coins, Micro Machines, and other random stuff.  Once I was old enough to drive, my buddies and I would hit up area thrift stores for vintage clothing.  I loved the fact that I could take the money my mom gave me to clothes shopping at the beginning of the school year, spend $30 of it at the thrift store to buy what clothing I wanted and had another $70 in surplus cash!  Of course, I looked like a bum and either always had pants that didn’t fit or that had broken zippers.

While in college there were a couple thrift and music stores that carried vintage video games.  My girlfriend and I loved hitting them up to see what we could find.  Heck, at that time Funcoland carried NES games…alas, the golden age.  I built up a semi-respectable collection of about 100 games, but in graduate school I had to tighten the belt as finances scraped super low, and I ended up selling all but the essentials on eBay.

In 2007, having finished school and now having a real job, I was at an area swap meet (flea market) and came across this box of games.  At the time, I couldn’t believe that the guy would sell the entire box of 100+ games for $100.  I snatched it up thinking I could keep some to restart my collection and resell the rest.  Well as you can see, the games were in pretty rough shape and were mostly common titles.  I was pretty new to pricing, so all I was thinking was “Holy crap that’s a lot of games for under $1 each!”  I lost money selling them on eBay, but I learned a good lesson.  I got a couple price guides, tried to exercise a little more restrain, and did some math the next time I saw a great deal.

The rest is history.  Several years have passed, and I now have  a solid collection and am enjoying selling on eBay what I don’t keep for my collection.  I still love the thrill of finding unique video game stuff and am still learning as I go.  Good luck in your own collecting and happy retro gaming!

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My Rare Video Game Finds: Atari Super Pong, Fatal Fury Special, Tropical Trouble

I love hunting for retro video games.  I’d say I enjoy it more than playing them…and possibly even more than collecting them.  I’m not sure why, but the joy of finding a needle in the haystack of flea market crap and getting the games for a great price is hugely satisfying to me.  Anyway, here are my finds from the last two weekends of hunting at the local flea market.

A few highlights…

  • Atari Super Pong System:  Sure enough this thing started right up…not bad since it was made in 1976!  I was about to list this on eBay when my girlfriend insisted it stay in the collection…great girlfriend!
  • Internation Superstar Soccer Deluxe (SNES):  Picked up this rare game (well…tarnished gem with some label wear) for my personal collection for $15.
  • “Super 8” Movie Collection:  Ok, I don’t know anything about 8 mm film, but I couldn’t pass these up.  Tarzan in the She-Devil, Zorro’s Suicide Express, Little Rascals Spooky Hooky, etc. Even if none of them worked, the covers alone would make awesome art pieces.
  • Fatal Fury Special (Game Gear):  My buddy had a Game Gear growing up.  I didn’t like it then, and I’m not interested in collecting it now.  However, since most of the games have very little value, I know it’s an easy system for other people to collect.  It turns out that Fatal Fury Special is one of the few games of value for the system, so that made a great find for me to pass along to someone’s collection.  
  • Tropical Trouble & A LOT of Other Intellivision Games:  Tropical Trouble simply has some of the best label art of any video game I’ve ever seen!
  • Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance II:  It’s always great to be looking through a folder of loose games and to find a gem.  Sure enough one seller had both of the Baldur’s Gate Playstation 2 games.
  • VMIGO System:  Every now and then curiosity gets the best of me.  When I saw this at the Flea Market, I had no idea what it was other than that it looks like a decently made weird little video game system. For $3, I couldn’t pass up.  It turns out that you use it to raise a virtual pet.  Best part is that the VMIGO portable pet “Game Boy” unit also functions as a pedometer.  It gives kids points for exercising!  lol  Expect to see this in my eBay store starting at a penny bid soon. ha ha

I had fun hunting for vintage gaming stuff.  Sure enough, I found a few rares for a good price.  That puts a few things into my collection and hopefully means that fellow collectors can find something for their own collections once I get it all listed on the GamesOgre eBay Store!  In the meantime, check out the rest of my photos below.  Happy collecting & retro gaming!

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My Rare Video Game Finds: 3 New Sealed Games Including Samurai Shodown

While out thrift shopping at a local flea market this past weekend, I was lucky enough to find a number of vintage video games.  Among them were 3 new sealed games!  It was a good day for retro video game hunting…

  • Super Star Wars Return of the Jedi Super Nintendo SEALED
  • 007 World is Not Enough N64 Nintendo 64 Game SEALED NEW
  • Samurai Shodown Warrior’s Rage Playstation Game SEALED — This game is super rare.  Although sealed, it’s a shame that it has a hole drilled in the spine.

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Rare Video Game Hunting: SNES Triax Turbo 360 Controller, Game Boy Colorizer, etc

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Here’s the loot I pulled in from video game hunting at a local flea market the weekend of October 24.  The lot of boxed Atari games was a good find.  Plus, it was great to find a couple copies of Star Wars Battlefront II, some N64 GameSharks, and some great NES games (2x Ice Climbers!).

However, what I’m really excited about here is my new Triax Turbo Touch 360 controller for the SNES Super Nintendo!  This thing is simply hilarious.  Rather than a traditional d-pad, it used a pressure sensitive touch system that was supposed to be able to detect movement anywhere.  Naturally for such an early version of this technology, it was a huge failure.  What’s super ironic here is that Apple not only seems to have borrowed this technology for their iPod click-wheel, but they also seem to have cloned Turbo Touch 360 commercials for their I’m-an-Apple…PC-is-a-lame-o commercials.  Check out this video to see what I mean:

By the way, this Turbo Touch 360 is going into my collection.  They’re pretty cheap to pick up on eBay…or here are some Triax Turbo Touch 360 Super Nintendo SNES Controllers on Amazon starting at $9.00 USD.  Nothing like owning a little piece of retro Super Nintendo history. 🙂

Brainboy-Colorizer-Game-BoyAlso of interest is a “Brainboy Colorizer” by Pelican.  Apparently this rad little piece of plastic is supposed to add color to black & white games as well has having the ability to back up the saves of your favorite Game Boy games!  I love finding weird little accessories like this…plus I’m always amazed that after 15 years of sitting in someone’s garage or attic that I can bring them home and get them to work first try.

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As always, if you see something you’re interested in from my retro video game treasure hunting, feel free to check out my eBay store as most of it has been listed there.  Happy retro gaming, collecting, and eBaying!

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Rare Video Game Hunting: Sega Channel, Solar Panel for Game Boy, etc.

Rare-Video-Game-Hunting-Flea-Market-Finds-20091018 You never know what you’re going to find when you’re out thrift shopping.  During the weekend of Oct. 18th, I came across some facinating finds at an areas flea market.  Although I’m proud to have found a set of Pikmin 1 & 2, a sealed PS2 Gameshark, and an assortment semi-rare games, what really stood out to me were two things:  a Sega Channel adapter & a Solar Pak for the original Game Boy.

When I first saw the Sega Channel, I just figured it was a GameShark or 32x Adapter or something.  The vendor didn’t know what it was either, so we worked out a price of $10 for the Sega Channel and some cords, and I went on my merry way.  With a little help from Google when I got home I discovered that I was holding a piece of gaming history.

Sega-Channel-Adapter-&-Power-CordNaturally Wikipedia has a great article on the Sega Channel. Little did I know as a kid growing up in small-town Michigan that Sega pioneered a games-on-demand service way back in 1994. What’s really interesting is that this wasn’t an internet-based service.  Subscribers, for about $14.95/month, could hook this device up to their cable connection and download from a monthly selection of about 50 games.  These included popular games, demos, and even games that weren’t released in the US.  These games would sit in the system’s memory until it was powered off.  Thus the user would have to redownload a new (or the same game) each time they powered on the unit.  From a collector’s perspective, what makes this item so rare is that at the end of the renter’s subscription, they were required to return them.  Add that to the fact that once the service ended there was no practical use for the device…thus, not many users held onto them even they hadn’t returned them.  That makes these rare, but I’m really unsure about it’s value.  Anyone know what these go for on eBay?

Solar-Powered-Game-Boy-Battery-Pack-Charger (1)My second favorite find was a Solar Pak  by Naki for the original Nintendo Game Boy.  I found a couple of these new and complete in box.  Below are a bunch of photos of my unpacking this item.  I can’t find much information on it, but I love the innovation…and let me emphasize that this was made in 1993 for the original fat  Game Boy…15+ years before our current “Green” revolution.  This thing would charge it’s internal battery pack.  Then the Game Boy would snap & plug into the unit for extra juice.  I’d never seen one of these until recently, so I’d put it into the category of mildly rare.  I’m not sure what it’s worth, but I think it’s so cool that it’s going into my personal collection, so I don’t have to worry about selling this one. 🙂

GamesOgre-eBay-StoreHalf the fun of hunting for rare video games at thrift stores and flea markets is the surprise of finding unique items and learning about them.  A few of these things went into my collection, but the rest of these rare retro video games are up in my eBay store.

PS…I’d love to have your feedback on my finds in the comments section.  Anyone know what that “Sega Channel” adapter is worth?

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Rare Video Game Hunting: Mini Arcade, FF9, Boxed SNES, etc

Rare Video Game Hunting 10102009I’ve had some great fun video game hunting a weeks ago (October . I got the following lot of games at a local flea market (swap meet) in one morning of hunting. Although none of these are super rare, the Taiko Drum Master PS2 game fits into the moderately rare category.

My favorite part of the hunt happened when I came across a vendor with a pile of N64 stuff. There was a N64 storage drawer with a system on top and 3 controllers. The drawer was partially opened revealing about 8 games and seemed to have already been rummaged through by other shoppers. The seller named a fair price if I bought everything as a lot, so I bought it. As I was packing it up, I find that the storage box’s drawer wouldn’t close. Sure enough, there were about 8 more games wedged in the back preventing the drawer from closing! Talk about a nice bonus for buying everything as a lot!

The other unique item here is the mini-Pac-Man Arcade. I don’t know much about it other than that it looks awesome and seems to have been made in 1981. If you’re familiar with this item, I’d love some info on it.

All those SNES boxes are empty, but they’ll help me fill out my own SNES collection.

In case you’ve ever wondered where eBay sellers get all the stuff they sell, I’m one example. Obviously, I’m enjoying the treasure hunting aspect of this, so I’ve built a small business model around my hobby: a) I like hunting for and collecting retro video games b) I find too many, so I resell them on eBay. c) Hopefully, “a” & “b” reimburse me and even make a few bucks so I can continue more of “a”. Pretty simple… It’s all smaller scale, which is perfect because it keeps it enjoyable. Feel free to check it out in auction / listing form if you’re curious about examples of parting out and pricing items.

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Rare Video Game Hunting: Mini Arcade, FF9, Boxed SNES, etc

Retro Video Game Hunting 10032009 (2)GamesOgre-eBay-StoreA couple weeks ago, I pulled in this loot while out video game hunting. It’s sort of funny that after trick-or-treating as a kid my brothers and I would spread out all our loot on the floor to compare and trade. Here I am 20 years later, and I’m doing the same thing with video games. The child within… 🙂

Of note here are several Pokemon games for the Game Boy Advance. Pokemon Sapphire, Fire Red, and Emerald GBA games always land a pretty penny. Plus, I was super excited to open up a crappy PS1 game and to find out that Digimon World was inside. The seller at the flea market was charging a flat price of $2, so I’d say I lucked out on that one.

I can’t say they’re rare, but if you’re an N64 collector or just get a kick out of your old system, take note of the Nintendo 64 controller I picked up here: InterAct SharkPad Pro (SV-362). Given that this thing has a super durable metal joystick and feels just like a normal N64 controller, I’d say it’s a must have. This thing’s joystick was pretty dirty, which to me is a good indication of plenty of wear and tear from grimy little hands; however, it still feels as springy as an original N64 controller in top condition.

Oh yeah, and if you ever come across an Atari 7800 like below, it’s generally worth the gamble of picking it up if the power cord and RF AV adapter are included. This system turned out to be junk, but I immediately was able to sell the RF AV adapter for about $20 on eBay. The power supply is generally worth about that much too.

And of course, at $2 the great trophy here is the Big Lebowski DVD…no explanation needed.