Monday 18 November 2013

Where the good stuff`s at! Yahoo auctions, Book Off and Hard off


When I started re-buying my old gaming faves of yesteryear I began to realise that going out and wasting train fare wasnt always the best idea, especially as the year draws to a close and starts getting chilly.

I thought I would bite the bullet and give Yahoo Auctions Japan a try.

Registering wasn't too hard, but without a Japanese credit card, my second credit card rejection letter arriving a few days ago, I'm stuck with a 5000 yen limit, which in a way I suppose is a good way of curbing any impulsive bidding wars.

So, first thing on the list was a Twin Famicom in any condition as long as it was working. If you go to Akihabara you would get a famicom and disk drive for a total of about 15000 yen.

I got one from Y! Auction unboxed, in great condition for 3000 yen..

Needing some cartridges to test it, I decided to head over to my local BOOK OFF, a chain of nation wide bookstores with the occasional small selection of FC carts.

On walking in I spied a Superfamicom with no power supply and one controller in beautiful condition for 950 yen, which I grabbed for a friend in the US, along with a couple of carts,

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While digging through the carts I noted something interesting..I found 2 copies of Ogre Battle, one priced at the same price as the SFC, and another at only 105 yen..

This is one of the interesting points of Book Off, the staff price the stuff as they see fit, more often than not, in terms of rarities, very cheaply.. Ironically the more popular and easily obtained games are tagged higher...

For example, Mario 3 can be priced between 105 and 500Y (1-5 dollars), yet I can
walk in and pick up gems like this..

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100 bucks worth of rare Dreamcast shooter BANGAIO for a dollar!!

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..or a mint condition CIB white saturn for 1500Y!

I usually scan behind the counter on the shelves of yet to be tagged stock to see what else they have coming- I spied 2 famicom carts one orange, one bright pink..

I knew that super mario 3 was bright orange, and the only pink cart i had ever seen was a kirby game, so made a note to return the next day..

I began to think "If book off has such random pricing, would their hardware speciality stores, amusingly named HARD OFF have a similar policy?"

I decided to map a few out for a little weekend trip..

Returning to Book Off the next day, Lo and behold, Super Mario3 plus "Hoshi no kirby" was there for 550 yen each, about 75% cheaper than the shops in akihabara.

The lure of Y! Auction pulled me back in and I set up some bids for a few cheap carts, Rockman 4 and Castlevania 3, plus a collection of 8 Famicom disks being sold as as "JUNK" with no guarantee of working.. all the carts ended at 500 yen a pop and the disk set went for 1100, quite a risk but the set included Zelda, Metroid and Castlevania which, should they work, in itself have a much Higher value...
 

"JUNK" basically means "We can't check it, up to you to risk it"

With the exeption of one Twinbee disk that had the B side of the disk overwritten with a Mah Jong game.. everything whirred into life in seconds once I slipped em into my newly arrived Twin Fami.

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The weekend rolled by and I started the trip out to the second closest Hard Off I could find, The closest being in Akihabara, which bizarrely contains no gaming hardware or software at all.

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Arriving at Mitaka station, The station where you get the bus to the Ghibli museum, I took the 20 minute bus ride out to a main highway, I could see the store from the bus stop.

On entering, I walked over to the junk section.. and my eyes lit up.

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So much cheap hardware and controllers to dig through it was ridiculous!

There on a shelf I spied a Famicom Disk System, marked at 1500 yen, My friend who wanted the SFC was looking for one, so a quick confirmation email later It was in my basket.

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You can see from the pics what else was there, SFC's for 300 yen, A Neo Geo CD, a 3D0, and various other consoles without cables or any other way of knowing if they worked..

They had a bin full of "junk" cables too, all priced at 300 yen, so I grabbed some AV cables too.

On the shelves opposite was a large collection of "Junk" SFC and FC carts for 100-800 yen, I grabbed a Start force cart for 500.

Wandering around the shop was a great experience, so much stuff to dig through, and not just games, the music section had stacks of old samplers, mixers, turntables, guitars, effects units and more.

There was a great aisle of amps and speakers too, which I may require a nother visit to update my music studio at some point..

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Wandering around the store some more, I stumbled across the "real" games section..

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A "Hello Kitty" DC, a Gundam Gamecube, another black branded DC I had no idea about, boxed Segata Sanshiro DC's  and a PC Engine with AV booster for 4000Y.

The aisle behind had more fami carts priced 500 to 1000 yen and the usual collection of SFC carts, and a slightly sad PC Engine and Megadrive shelf.

My phone battery ran out at this point but I think You get the idea.

Prices run higher than Book Off, but still cheaper than Akihabara`s rip off joints.

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At the checkout I asked the guy if I could look at the contents of the FDS drive box, all manuals were intact in excellent condition and the unit itself was virtually scuffless..

I checked the battery compartment to find a set of ancient batteries still inside that had just started to leak, but hadnt damaged the unit.. It was obvious no-one had checked it at all, I guess they couldnt unless they had an FC to try it on..



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On the way home I decided to take another bus to kichijoji station as on the way to Mitaka I saw another Book Off store on the main street, Scored a "Downtown Nekketsu monogatari" (japanese River City ransom) for 500 yen..

I guess anyone visiting the Ghibli museum with an inclination to dig could make Mitaka a full day out, Ghibli in the morning, Digging in the afternoon..

Hopefully you can now see why I gave Akihabara such a harsh review!

If you`re in Japan, you can find Book Off branches everywhere, some have retro game sections, some don`t but all carry games of sorts and are always worth a quick peep!

Hard Off branches are always out in the sticks, and do require an effort to visit, but considering the rewards can be worth it!! Happy digging!!

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