Author Topic: Traveling from Kentucky to Arkansas and Looking for Antique / Thrift Stores  (Read 541 times)

shawnji

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I'll likely be going through Nashville and Memphis on my way.  I'm looking for out of the way places to rummage for TG-16 games if anyone knows of some places worth stopping at.  Flea markets, game stores where people are willing to barter, anything like that would be super-helpful to know about.

Waterclocker

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I don't know of any places, but just wanted to wish you luck!  I found my TurboGrafx at the thrift store with a Beeshu joystick and China Warrior for $3.50, that was back in 2000 though.  I would suggest stopping at as many places as possible to increase your chances.
My Channel - Pickups, repairs, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/user/CollectingRetro

Needs more OBEY, but I'm working on it.

RyuHayabusa

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Good luck. I live in Louisville and I've been to damn near every Peddler's Mall and Flea Market in the state and it's very slim pickings. I know one place here in Louisville with 4 TG16 games and they're asking above Ebay prices. Tried to negotiate a few bucks under Ebay prices and it was a no go.

Enchurito

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According to the youtube show Game Chasers, Game Room Trading Post is awesome. Never been there personally but it looks amazing.

sirhcman

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According to the youtube show Game Chasers, Game Room Trading Post is awesome. Never been there personally but it looks amazing.

Unless you have thousands of youtube subscribers and are going to give them free plugs I highly doubt you will get the deals they got.

esteban

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According to the youtube show Game Chasers, Game Room Trading Post is awesome. Never been there personally but it looks amazing.

Unless you have thousands of youtube subscribers and are going to give them free plugs I highly doubt you will get the deals they got.

Absolute truth.
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TurboGrafx

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According to the youtube show Game Chasers, Game Room Trading Post is awesome. Never been there personally but it looks amazing.

It would be a cool store to check out. However, Billy and Jay definitely get special treatment there. The owner lets them in when the store is closed.

ProfessorProfessorson

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There used to be the Game Room in Hot Springs, Ar. I think Mike let his daughter take it over though and they moved the store. I am assuming the Game Room Trading post is what the business became. Couldn't begin to say if they would still deal in Turbo games these days. Best to call in advance if that is all you care for. Outside of that all you can really look forward to is GameXchange in the NLR, LR area, and no Turbo stuff will be found in those usually. If it was it would be priced higher then ebay.

TurboGrafx

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Are you only looking for TG16 games? or do you collect for other systems?

shawnji

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Yeah, I saw that particular episode of Game Chasers and immediately recognized Mike because I grew up in Hot Springs.  I used to buy from him and his brother when I was a kid.  They kind of had a sort of weird video game store feud going on.  I'm still annoyed at myself for selling my copy of Illusion of Gaia there a long time ago so I could get Wild Arms 2... not a great trade.  I even remember the first game I bought from him; I was 12 and I got Secret of Evermore.  I'm honestly amazed that he's even managed to stay in business all these years in the middle of Arkansas.

Turbografx:  I'm more focused on TG-16 stuff right now, and I honestly don't see any dedicated game stores having anything at all in my price range.  I'm more interested in hole in the wall thrift stores and flea markets where someone's less likely to charge out the wazoo for something like Bonk.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2015, 06:26:25 PM by shawnji »

TurboGrafx

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Yeah, I saw that particular episode of Game Chasers and immediately recognized Mike because I grew up in Hot Springs.  I used to buy from him and his brother when I was a kid.  They kind of had a sort of weird video game store feud going on.  I'm still annoyed at myself for selling my copy of Illusion of Gaia there a long time ago so I could get Wild Arms 2... not a great trade.  I even remember the first game I bought from him; I was 12 and I got Secret of Evermore.  I'm honestly amazed that he's even managed to stay in business all these years in the middle of Arkansas.

Turbografx:  I'm more focused on TG-16 stuff right now, and I honestly don't see any dedicated game stores having anything at all in my price range.  I'm more interested in hole in the wall thrift stores and flea markets where someone's less likely to charge out the wazoo for something like Bonk.

I understand completely! However, I just have hardly ever have luck finding any TG-16 games in the wild.

ProfessorProfessorson

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Yeah, I saw that particular episode of Game Chasers and immediately recognized Mike because I grew up in Hot Springs.  I used to buy from him and his brother when I was a kid.  They kind of had a sort of weird video game store feud going on.  I'm still annoyed at myself for selling my copy of Illusion of Gaia there a long time ago so I could get Wild Arms 2... not a great trade.  I even remember the first game I bought from him; I was 12 and I got Secret of Evermore.  I'm honestly amazed that he's even managed to stay in business all these years in the middle of Arkansas.

Turbografx:  I'm more focused on TG-16 stuff right now, and I honestly don't see any dedicated game stores having anything at all in my price range.  I'm more interested in hole in the wall thrift stores and flea markets where someone's less likely to charge out the wazoo for something like Bonk.

Yeah him and his brother, I think his brothers name was Jeff, did have a feud going on. I think his brothers store was Game Biz. Honestly I liked Jeff and all, but Mike had a better grasp for things business wise. I used to deal with both for quite a few years there. Mike would offer you better trade in deals and would be wiling to haggle some if he liked you. Regardless though I just stopped going there. The drive took a tad too long, Mike wanted to stop dealing in imports, and his buy and sell prices started to get beat by ebay at a certain point.

shawnji

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Yeah, I saw that particular episode of Game Chasers and immediately recognized Mike because I grew up in Hot Springs.  I used to buy from him and his brother when I was a kid.  They kind of had a sort of weird video game store feud going on.  I'm still annoyed at myself for selling my copy of Illusion of Gaia there a long time ago so I could get Wild Arms 2... not a great trade.  I even remember the first game I bought from him; I was 12 and I got Secret of Evermore.  I'm honestly amazed that he's even managed to stay in business all these years in the middle of Arkansas.

Turbografx:  I'm more focused on TG-16 stuff right now, and I honestly don't see any dedicated game stores having anything at all in my price range.  I'm more interested in hole in the wall thrift stores and flea markets where someone's less likely to charge out the wazoo for something like Bonk.

Yeah him and his brother, I think his brothers name was Jeff, did have a feud going on. I think his brothers store was Game Biz. Honestly I liked Jeff and all, but Mike had a better grasp for things business wise. I used to deal with both for quite a few years there. Mike would offer you better trade in deals and would be wiling to haggle some if he liked you. Regardless though I just stopped going there. The drive took a tad too long, Mike wanted to stop dealing in imports, and his buy and sell prices started to get beat by ebay at a certain point.

Man, it's kind of crazy to think that I'd run into someone else who knew them both on here.

I completely agree on his prices.  I still remember him having some pretty insane mark-ups on imports when I was younger.  Of course, at that time a lot of those games were fairly new, so maybe it was justified.  I have this distinct memory of seeing a copy of Wonder Project J there once that was priced at, like, $80, and I was just absolutely floored at the time.

ProfessorProfessorson

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Yeah I had been dealing with both of them since early 1998. That was back when Mike was located in the large flea market off the main strip, shortly before his spot got robbed when someone smashed a window in at the front of the flea market and he had to move the spot. My first three NeoGeo AES systems were obtained from him oddly enough. The first one when he was still located in the flea market.

Around late 2k when I was managing a LR GXC I was doing store stock trades with Jeff. He would bring me Saturn stuff that he couldn't sell, stuff that I knew I could, and I'd swap him out evenly with stuff he could sell that I was having a harder time moving, like strategy guides or certain PS1 titles.

After leaving GXC I basically started dealing with Mike only though for the most part, especially after I heard they got into a fist fight in some parking lot. Supposedly Jeff started it. It sounded like something Jeff would do. Whenever I'd chat with Jeff he would talk shit about his brother and I would have to make attempts to change the subject. It was pretty obvious he was jealous of him. Being around Mike, he wouldn't mention Jeff at all hardly ever.

I think he just knew it wasn't good for business to constantly complain about his brother in front of customers, and to be honest Jeff was obviously small time. Doing ok, sure, but small time none the less. Mike knew it, and he knew we knew it so there wasn't much that needed to be said on the matter. Mike has more respect for gaming as a whole, so his business thrived more.

Jeff was just this guy in a small store space with no business plan outside of putting a large screen tv in his store to attract customers. He was the guy that saw gaming as a way to make a buck. I dont think he really liked video games much himself He couldn't carry on very compelling conversations about them at any rate.

Another guy here, Quoth09, him and me used to make the trip together here from the NLR area to deal with Mike. We would go like twice a year or something. It just kind of depended on what was going on. Back then I was a heavy smoker, and Mike smoked in the store, so we would sit and chat and chain smoke and ensure that others will prob have cancer from 2nd hand smoke.

I think last time I was there Mike had quit smoking though,  at least in the store, thus ending his satanic pact with Big Tobacco. Some fun times while they lasted. I think the last time I dealt with Mike I picked up some Genesis/Sega CD stuff, and a Turbografx 16 and a few TG games. I cant recall going back there after that.

esteban

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Yeah I had been dealing with both of them since early 1998. That was back when Mike was located in the large flea market off the main strip, shortly before his spot got robbed when someone smashed a window in at the front of the flea market and he had to move the spot. My first three NeoGeo AES systems were obtained from him oddly enough. The first one when he was still located in the flea market.

Around late 2k when I was managing a LR GXC I was doing store stock trades with Jeff. He would bring me Saturn stuff that he couldn't sell, stuff that I knew I could, and I'd swap him out evenly with stuff he could sell that I was having a harder time moving, like strategy guides or certain PS1 titles.

After leaving GXC I basically started dealing with Mike only though for the most part, especially after I heard they got into a fist fight in some parking lot. Supposedly Jeff started it. It sounded like something Jeff would do. Whenever I'd chat with Jeff he would talk shit about his brother and I would have to make attempts to change the subject. It was pretty obvious he was jealous of him. Being around Mike, he wouldn't mention Jeff at all hardly ever.

I think he just knew it wasn't good for business to constantly complain about his brother in front of customers, and to be honest Jeff was obviously small time. Doing ok, sure, but small time none the less. Mike knew it, and he knew we knew it so there wasn't much that needed to be said on the matter. Mike has more respect for gaming as a whole, so his business thrived more.

Jeff was just this guy in a small store space with no business plan outside of putting a large screen tv in his store to attract customers. He was the guy that saw gaming as a way to make a buck. I dont think he really liked video games much himself He couldn't carry on very compelling conversations about them at any rate.

Another guy here, Quoth09, him and me used to make the trip together here from the NLR area to deal with Mike. We would go like twice a year or something. It just kind of depended on what was going on. Back then I was a heavy smoker, and Mike smoked in the store, so we would sit and chat and chain smoke and ensure that others will prob have cancer from 2nd hand smoke.

I think last time I was there Mike had quit smoking though,  at least in the store, thus ending his satanic pact with Big Tobacco. Some fun times while they lasted. I think the last time I dealt with Mike I picked up some Genesis/Sega CD stuff, and a Turbografx 16 and a few TG games. I cant recall going back there after that.

I traded Mike a cosmetically damaged Saturn for game.com...it reeked of cigarette smoke! Now I know why!

Sadly, I haven't had much use for the game.com (it still reeks).

Ok, I'll stop.

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