.GAMER FOR LIFE.

Zombie wolfs, Minotaur’s and Floating Medusa heads -

I've been collecting video games from the Atari 2600 days to the modern Wii U (haven't got Xbox One and PS4 yet) for over 2 years and it's not all steak and chips when it comes to finding what you’re looking for or discovering something that may interest me.

Things may be different in the USA but the UK is much smaller island which means I’m are less likely to just go anywhere and find retro games easily, most people use the internet as the obvious solution to this problem but that's what I think where sellers can lure you to their trap.

I admit it I've used to the internet to start my collecting business but that's because where I live there wasn't one place I knew of that sell old video games and consoles at reasonable prices so my only source was eBay which is easy to find anything you looking for but for a great cost not to mention including postage fees, at rare occasions I do find sellers that post interesting stuff at a good price even with free postage which is great but most of the time there typical sellers who want to sell their stuff on a guided settled prices which is headache but I have to get used to it. I have sold a couple of stuff before so I do know why people do go pricey on these items but still they need to be very reasonable and not to knock the buyers off.

Amazon is another online service I use as well; mostly I pre-order new games from there as their deals are very good and I do trust their postal services but I do find people sell retro games as well but again some sellers to overprice them and they get ignored most of the time.

At this case I would only use eBay and Amazon as a very last resort and find alternative resources to find classic video games on a budget; I hear that Gumtree (which is like Craigslist) is a good source to sell anything by advertising items people don't want including video games. It's just like posting notes in shops or various places which was very common in the 80’s and 90's but again some people will take advantage of this media to sell stuff in either guided or ridiculous prices is annoying but there are others who will sell anything in reasonable deals.

Still I feel like using the internet is rather too easy and a bit soulless which is why I like to go outside and go anywhere to do some game hunting which can very rewarding, but where can I go to find any retro games is the big question.

Here are 3 places I go to which I know that does some old games:

Pawn Shops – any pawn shop is an easy target to locate as they’re everywhere in this country and occasionally they do hold some modern and retro gaming stuff. Most of the time they sell them in a reasonable or a very cheap deal but a couple times they can be too ambitious and sell them at eBay prices which is odd since I thought they supposed to sell them cheaper than the internet deals.

Charity Shops – I’ve been to countless charity shops and sometimes they do sell games mostly boring and typical common games but somewhere they’re holding some valuable stuff and they never go pricey on them which is great. Also it’s good to get stuff from charity shops for both ways; I find something I want in a great deal and they donate my money for a great cause.

Individual special shops - There are a few special shops in various locations (mostly major cities) they do sell a range of retro games pretty like eBay but sometimes they do sell them in somewhat higher prices which I think that’s annoying but at the same time I understand that they’re own a small business and it’s a challenge for them to sell stuff like this to an curtain buyers.

And that is my over 2 year game hunting experience from both on-line and off-line, overall it’s an interesting journey to locate and relive the classic days of gaming which I like very much and hopefully I would go into further lengths in the future to find some more interesting stuff.