) and everything was in pristine condition. Gave the nice lady 90 bucks but still felt guilty as hell for weeks...Let's hear about lucky VG finds at flea markets, newspapers adds, Craigslist, ...
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ChurchOfSolipsism
- Posts: 1242
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:12 am
Let's hear about lucky VG finds at flea markets, newspapers adds, Craigslist, ...
Ten or so years ago I was visiting my dad and, for some reason, checked out the local newspaper ads (something I never do). One ad had the words NES + SNES + games in it and also mentioned a price of 80 Euros. I was convinced they meant 80 bucks per game or something, but just to be on the safe side still called, and it turns out it was 80 Euros for everything. Long story short, I got a NES, a SNES, Zelda 1, Track and Field, Metroid, Faxanadu + a couple more NES games plus six or so SNES games, among them Megaman X. The dude had saved every single packaging with manuals (even for his extra SNES pad ) and everything was in pristine condition. Gave the nice lady 90 bucks but still felt guilty as hell for weeks...
) and everything was in pristine condition. Gave the nice lady 90 bucks but still felt guilty as hell for weeks...-
PC Engine Fan X!
- Posts: 9263
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:32 pm
Re: Let's hear about lucky VG finds at flea markets, newspapers adds, Craigslist, ...
One dude scored a bundled Vectrex set with everything in immaculate & pristine condition including the 3D Imager Glasses + all three 3D Imager games included + factory boxed GCE Vectrex standalone console itself (all the GCE Vectrex factory boxes were in pristine condition as well) -- all this for a mere $200.00 usd! The guy whom sold the Vectrex bundled set was a hoarder and wanted to get rid of it, hence the low-ball cheap-ass price for it all. I've never seen such a bundled Vectrex deal such as that sold for mere "pennies on the dollar" -- it sold recently in 2025.
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I bought a Radio Shack "Astro Thunder" VFD (Vacuum Florescent Display) tabletop electronic game that was only played a few times and then put away in a closet -- it was essentially brand new with the battery terminals corrosion-free and super-minty looking. It even came with a brand new "old-school" early-1980s factory boxed Radio Shack 6v A/C adapter (rated for USA region 120v AC) to power it up (which I've, personally, haven't seen since the early 1980s era since then). Upon receiving it, it looked like the tabletop game had "stepped out of a time machine" in super immaculate new condition -- this particular 3D electronic game was from 1983 and it originally had an MSRP of $39.99 usd but got it for $60.00. In Japan, this very same VFD tabletop electronic game was sold by Japanese electronic game manufacturer, Epoch, under the 3D LSI game "Astro 7" back in 1983 as well.
Apparently, Epoch of Japan, produced the American region "Astro Thunder" VFD tabletop electronic games for Tandy Corporation based out of Texas and sold in the USA in it's Radio Shack retail stores for the 1983 timeline. How cool is that?
I was at a local Radio Shack store back in 1983 and they had a demo of "Astro Thunder" set up to try out. I turned it on and proceeded to play it -- the VFD was in incredible 3D which I hadn't seen before, especially with the current VFD-based games from Tomy, Bandai, Gakken, Coleco, Entex, Nintendo, etc. at the time which were 2D based to begin with.
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
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I bought a Radio Shack "Astro Thunder" VFD (Vacuum Florescent Display) tabletop electronic game that was only played a few times and then put away in a closet -- it was essentially brand new with the battery terminals corrosion-free and super-minty looking. It even came with a brand new "old-school" early-1980s factory boxed Radio Shack 6v A/C adapter (rated for USA region 120v AC) to power it up (which I've, personally, haven't seen since the early 1980s era since then). Upon receiving it, it looked like the tabletop game had "stepped out of a time machine" in super immaculate new condition -- this particular 3D electronic game was from 1983 and it originally had an MSRP of $39.99 usd but got it for $60.00. In Japan, this very same VFD tabletop electronic game was sold by Japanese electronic game manufacturer, Epoch, under the 3D LSI game "Astro 7" back in 1983 as well.
Apparently, Epoch of Japan, produced the American region "Astro Thunder" VFD tabletop electronic games for Tandy Corporation based out of Texas and sold in the USA in it's Radio Shack retail stores for the 1983 timeline. How cool is that?
I was at a local Radio Shack store back in 1983 and they had a demo of "Astro Thunder" set up to try out. I turned it on and proceeded to play it -- the VFD was in incredible 3D which I hadn't seen before, especially with the current VFD-based games from Tomy, Bandai, Gakken, Coleco, Entex, Nintendo, etc. at the time which were 2D based to begin with.
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Last edited by PC Engine Fan X! on Thu Sep 11, 2025 9:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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BareKnuckleRoo
- Posts: 6731
- Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:01 am
- Location: Southern Ontario
Re: Let's hear about lucky VG finds at flea markets, newspapers adds, Craigslist, ...
My weird find is the Japan exclusive version of Gunstar Heroes for Game Gear.
I stumbled on this when I was like 8 or 9 at a bargain bin in a local dollar store. Mid to late 1990s? Mom wanted to go shopping there for something and I was with her just browing, but by the entrance was just a huge bin of games. It was the weirdest thing, seeing loose Game Gear carts repackaged in these wide rectangular, cheap-feeling purple boxes with a recessed white cardboard center holding the game with clear plastic over them. I remember for sure it was the kind of store where finding videogames was really unusual. It was a dollar store or some kind of cheap office supplies store. They somehow got a hold of cheap imported games and had a bin full of them I either did not recognize, or didn't care about (like a bunch of copies of Columns? can't remember exactly) but standing out in them was a copy of Gunstar Heroes with "asian" writing on it and I desperately asked my mom to buy it (probably had spent my allowance money or something) because I'd loved the Genesis version and had never heard of a handheld version. I think it woulda been $15 max back then?
As a kid I don't think I knew enough to tell the difference between Chinese or Japanese text do I had no idea if it was a chinese bootleg or whatnot, but realizing later it was legit, played perfectly fine on my Game Gear, and that it was an authentic Japanese version, it made me understand just how strange and fortunate it was to find. Wonder if it was a bunch of overstock or something? This would have been late in the Game Gear's life that I'd seen these, I think Playstation games existed for a few years by then.
Even at that age I knew it was something strange and exciting. I didn't understand why a dollar-store type place in Canada managed to get a hold of a bunch of imported Game Gear games in this very cheapo looking repackaged boxes that were literally just the loose cart. If I'd had more money at the time I woulda likely bought the entire bin out, but being a kid, I had just rummaged through and found the one most interesting game I recognized.
I've tried and I can't find anyone else who remembers finding a bin full of cheaply repackaged Japanese Game Gear games at a dollar store type of place. Feels a bit like a weird fever dream at the time, but I have the cartridge to prove it, and at a time decades ago before eBay or importing sites were a thing. It's really a good port of the game, and made by M2 as it turns out who, as we all know, have made a ton of amazing shmup ports!
I stumbled on this when I was like 8 or 9 at a bargain bin in a local dollar store. Mid to late 1990s? Mom wanted to go shopping there for something and I was with her just browing, but by the entrance was just a huge bin of games. It was the weirdest thing, seeing loose Game Gear carts repackaged in these wide rectangular, cheap-feeling purple boxes with a recessed white cardboard center holding the game with clear plastic over them. I remember for sure it was the kind of store where finding videogames was really unusual. It was a dollar store or some kind of cheap office supplies store. They somehow got a hold of cheap imported games and had a bin full of them I either did not recognize, or didn't care about (like a bunch of copies of Columns? can't remember exactly) but standing out in them was a copy of Gunstar Heroes with "asian" writing on it and I desperately asked my mom to buy it (probably had spent my allowance money or something) because I'd loved the Genesis version and had never heard of a handheld version. I think it woulda been $15 max back then?
As a kid I don't think I knew enough to tell the difference between Chinese or Japanese text do I had no idea if it was a chinese bootleg or whatnot, but realizing later it was legit, played perfectly fine on my Game Gear, and that it was an authentic Japanese version, it made me understand just how strange and fortunate it was to find. Wonder if it was a bunch of overstock or something? This would have been late in the Game Gear's life that I'd seen these, I think Playstation games existed for a few years by then.
Even at that age I knew it was something strange and exciting. I didn't understand why a dollar-store type place in Canada managed to get a hold of a bunch of imported Game Gear games in this very cheapo looking repackaged boxes that were literally just the loose cart. If I'd had more money at the time I woulda likely bought the entire bin out, but being a kid, I had just rummaged through and found the one most interesting game I recognized.
I've tried and I can't find anyone else who remembers finding a bin full of cheaply repackaged Japanese Game Gear games at a dollar store type of place. Feels a bit like a weird fever dream at the time, but I have the cartridge to prove it, and at a time decades ago before eBay or importing sites were a thing. It's really a good port of the game, and made by M2 as it turns out who, as we all know, have made a ton of amazing shmup ports!