What's new in your collection/Pick-up Thread !!!

[Teh_Lurv | 254]

17 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

However, with the Samson...what's up with the weird, bumpy looking texture all over the surface that looks like some sort of damage?  Did that thing come out of a house fire or something? 

It's heat damage. The previous owner kept all their NES games in a plastic bin in the attic for 20+ years before selling them to the game store owner. All the games came out looking like that.

I'm not really that sensitive to imperfections like that and it's not the worst case of cart warts I've seen. The owner knocked a couple hundred bucks off the asking price because it wasn't in mint shape.

 

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

20 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Nice pickups, especially on Wayne's World, as I've found that one to be legitimately rare to encounter in the wild.  However, with the Samson...what's up with the weird, bumpy looking texture all over the surface that looks like some sort of damage?  Did that thing come out of a house fire or something?  It really looks like the surface got heated up just to the point where the casing started to bubble, then pulled away at the last moment before it could go wild.  

I am curious if anyone knows what causes this.  I have 1 or 2 NES games in similar condition

[Tanooki | 4,939]

Maybe it was here, atariage NA...?  It's environmental over a great many years.  It requires both sustained heat and humidity from what I saw people figure out.  As the cart plastic isn't like super smooth and tight, porous and textured in nature, and as it ages plastics break down allows cracks in the armor.  So if you get a heated area like an attic where it can get like 100-120F+ during the summer, and up there has no climate control, it'll get sticky.  As the hot/cold barrier shifts day after day, month, years a tiny bit of moisture can get under the upper layers of the plastic, and in a case I guess something like hot-cold expansion of water/ice say on rock, you get water in the pinhole, the temp changes, it festers and causes a reaction in the plastic to accommodate it, and you get, cart herpes/warts.

[MegaMan52 | 2,450]

The Salvation Army Pickups:

Ratatouille is one of the few Disney/Pixar movies I hadn't watched. I beat the GameCube version of the Ratatouille video game in the Summer (it is one of the games on my list in the backlog challenge topic). I found the movie on DVD for $2. My local thrift stores rarely have Game Gear games (and finding Sonic games is even less likely), but The Salvation Army had Sonic 2 so I went ahead and bought it.

Walmart Pickups:

Bought TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection on Switch and a Sonic 2 Movie poster.

Chuck E. Cheese: 

I haven't celebrated my Birthday since 2008 (at least). I visited Chuck E. Cheese last month and enjoyed it. I won't be mentioning the exact date or my age, but my Birthday is in October. Since Chuck E. Cheese doesn't have an age limit for Birthday parties, I contacted my family and let them know I wanted to have my Birthday there. A table was decorated before I arrived, and there was a sign with my (real) name on it. They were pretty generous with the goodies. The manager even let me use the Ticket Blaster machine only ten minutes before closing. This was also during their "Boo-tacular" Halloween event, so the place was decorated and there were Halloween music videos playing on the TVs in the "Studio C" area (where my table was). I was hoping I could buy some Halloween items at the gift shop. The website mentioned a Chuck E. Vampire Plush, a light-up cup, and some Halloween bags, but they were sold out (there Halloween event started last month, so I wasn't surprised). I got some different items at the gift shop and took most of my Birthday items home with me.

In case you're wondering, I did not wear a costume. But I did wear a Mega Man shirt.

I'll post a blog later with more pictures of my visit.

This is supposed to be a pumpkin pepperoni pizza.

Birthday Present:

Edited October 25, 2022 by MegaMan52

[360collector | 289]

Very happy to find a complete n64 rental, mostly see nes and snes. Got some more acrylic cases, including some for gameboy, yeah I think I need more, they just look sooo good

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

PART 1

I just got back to the island from Portland and PRGE 2022 (travel day started @ 3am PST, ended @ 11:30pm AST @_@), and it was a decent time. Really, hanging out with some of my Neo Geo buddies and making some new friends was the real highlight (and that Sega Saturn lounge was AWESOME!).

I'd been saving some pennies for the show over the past few months, and here's what I came back with:

It was surprisingly difficult to find a clean copy of Shining Force, but I found a beautiful copy tucked away at a table on the Sunday, while my wife snagged a fully complete Alisia Dragoon and talked the seller down. I found Steel Empire in a bin not intended by the vendor, so the price was practically a steal .

I found Hellfire S in the last half-hour of the show and haggled to a good price, bit the bullet on Cotton, and finally tracked down an Avenue Pad 6!

>_> ... I thought I was done with NGPC...BUT I COULDN'T RESIST! I'm not a full set guy at all, but I'm so close to having all the North American releases and love the NGPC so much...I had to do it. I was able to negotiate a good price on Gals Fighters at least.

The hunt continues for Game Boy games, but all I was able to track down was Little Mermaid and a sealed R-Type DX (couldn't find an open one, and it was cheap; looking forward to playing that one). Iridion II was the last thing I bought within the last 5 minutes of the show, and the vendor gave me a sweetheart deal!

Not much of an N64 fan, but there are a couple dozen games I'm into and these were 3 of the 5 remaining games I'd like to have before I consider myself done. I saw the other 2 (Mario Party 2 and Pokémon Snap, but none were fully complete so I passed).

I made it my mission to find Decathlete, so I was really excited to finally score a beautiful copy at a great price; that game screams mid-90's Sega to me and really takes me back to sleep overs at my friend's house staying up all night with the Saturn. I got Guardian Heroes from the same vendor as the Cotton, so we worked out a pretty smoking deal, and my wife snagged this Panzer Dragoon Saga (first game we bought at the show). It is pristine and it was the cheapest copy at the show by far (2019 pricing), although we saw less of them than in 2019; my wife has been very happy with herself on this find

It was surprisingly difficult to find MvC at the show; I only ever saw this and one other copy that was sun-faded beyond belief. Before I found this one, Josh (SideQuest) ran a Whatnot stream on Sunday afternoon and the price shot to $180 which was crazy and irritating. Luckily, about 15 minutes later, I stumbled across this one and talked the guy down to a pretty cheap price.

Mickey Mania was the last Sega CD game I'd been looking for, and this was another of the games I got with Cotton and Guardian Heroes. It was missing the poster, but I found one online for $12, so it still worked out to less than the going rate.

As for JoJo, my son really likes the series and was hoping I'd find this as it would be much easier to get going than the Dreamcast version given my Dreamcast setup over VGA. I had to pay the going rate, but it was only one of two copies I saw at the show and the other was more expensive and missing the back artwork.

My wife was feeling disappointed as the game she was looking for most was the Monster Hunter Stories 2 CE, but I saw it randomly near the end of the day on Saturday and was even able to negotiate down to retail; she was over the moon! I picked up Elden Ring, Tales, and Mario Party at the Gamestop in the local mall to take advantage of Oregon not having sales tax (15% for my province in Canada) and a sale they were having.

I'd picked up DioField a few weeks ago on launch day and it is fantastic in my opinion! Isamu Kamikokuryo is one of my favourite artists which sold me on the game initially beyond just the concept. This game has been a great appetizer while waiting for Tactics Ogre next month

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

PART 2

Here's the other half of the things we were able to track down at PRGE 2022:

An AES was my primary focus for this show. I'd brought a bunch of trade bait with me to the show and put it all towards this and the memory card; the games were included, but I plan to get a NEO SD or a converter and use my MVS kits (probably just going to go the Neo SD route though). I wanted it CIB, but someone beat me to the only US Gold Bundle that was at the show. One day...

My wife tracked down the Shadow Hearts games to go with the Koudelka I bought 15 years ago for $10. She did a great job at getting these for cheap

Game & Wario was the one Wii U game I still wanted but was missing, and Super Robot Taisen OG Saga was a game I thought I'd had all this time but found out recently was the one DS Atlus game I seemed to have missed. I really like the SRT games, and this one has Kos-Mos in it (and I'm a huge Xeno fan...).

Commando: Steel Disaster was the one game I didn't expect to see at all, so when I saw that Ian was selling it and for sweetheart price, it was was equal parts joy and shock. I got another copy of the Yokoi Kids fanzine (for my brother) as well, and we talked about this month's game, Bubble Ghost. Seriously, to any GB fans out there: check out Yokoi Kids (GB game-of-the-month club), play a game and submit something related to the game for publication; it's a ton of fun!

I was disappointed to see a lack of import Saturn this year, but I was able to start my import collection off with Castlevania (despite the lack of love for this version - and I understand why - I'm really looking forward to playing it) and X-Men vs. SF (with the 4mb RAM cart), a fighting game I adore; I'm looking forward to the improvements over the PS version!

I recently fleshed out my NES list...something I'd been putting off for ages, so I went looking for some specific things and found a number of titles. It was tough to find Genghis Khan with all the inserts, so it was nice to get that (I'm one of those that love these Koei strategy games/simulation series) and Kickle Cubicle looks like it may as well be new!

I was really happy to find a beautiful complete copy of Scheherazade, love puzzle games like Puzznic, and Silkworm was another that my wife was really happy to have scored fully complete on the cheap. Snow Brothers was a last-half-hour haggle...

...along w/Toki . I tried Project Blue at the creator's booth and fell in love with the game, so I bought the Famicom version 'cause I thought it looked cooler than the NES one. That WonderSwan battery pack/charger is awesome and was field tested by someone I know, so I got one too! 

...and that's pretty much it! I had to mail back an item I won at auction which should be here next Wednesday, so I'm really excited for it to show up!

The show was a mixed bag this year and I'm not sure I'll head back next year; we're thinking of doing MGC instead in April as all our American friends are also running booths/going to that event and asked us to come. Everyone's had nothing but glowing things to say about the last couple of MGC events, and we have a standing invite to be shown around Chicago before/after the show. Honestly, the people are what saved PRGE for me this time as much of the magic had been otherwise lost and the commercialism has massively taken hold, especially with Whatnot being so heavily tied to the show this year, and many of the major grading/auction services being ominously present.

Until next time!     

[nrslam | 476]

Renmauzo,  looks  like you got  lots of good stuff at PRGC. Too bad about  the commercialization. Haven't gone for a while (for much the same reason) but I used to go every year thru several venue changes (the 1st, I think, was actually at a church somewhere near Seattle-it moved to Portland in year 3 or 4, iirc).  Might have to give MGC a shot.

Edited October 20, 2022 by nrslam

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

Earthbound Handbook is here! I'm so happy!

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

These aren't.. Recent, but more so just the time they are gonna be put away,  very slow progress lately.

I've been on a Capcom kick, I don't plan to go for every Capcom PC release, but I believe I now own every Capcom made or published game on consoles and portables aside one.. Someday!

[Tanooki | 4,939]

9 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Earthbound Handbook is here! I'm so happy!

That book looks fantastic, fangamer I think, that did the Mother 3 guide.  I've been looking to get that in the last few days alone, grabbed the insanely high qualilty repop that prime on here was selling/trading for with the uncle tusk box/manual it appears it came with.  Game most definitely could use the guide, and the old EB did too given how Nintendo packaged it.

[Makar | 1,946]

This bad boy came it today. Looking forward to trying it out. 

[Makar | 1,946]

On 10/19/2022 at 8:00 PM, Renmauzo said:

Super Robot Taisen OG Saga was a game I thought I'd had all this time but found out recently was the one DS Atlus game I seemed to have missed. I really like the SRT games, and this one has Kos-Mos in it (and I'm a huge Xeno fan...).

Commando: Steel Disaster was the one game I didn't expect to see at all, so when I saw that Ian was selling it and for sweetheart price, it was was equal parts joy and shock.

Man those are some nice DS pickups!!!! Commando steel is pretty darn hard to find CIB! In the wild no less!

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

50 minutes ago, Makar said:

Man those are some nice DS pickups!!!! Commando steel is pretty darn hard to find CIB! In the wild no less!

Agreed, it was the one game I thought there'd be no chance of seeing...not even on ebay most of the time, so to get it complete and decently under what I've seen it go for (the odd time I would see a copy too late) was a show making moment for me

[Makar | 1,946]

1 hour ago, Renmauzo said:

Agreed, it was the one game I thought there'd be no chance of seeing...not even on ebay most of the time, so to get it complete and decently under what I've seen it go for (the odd time I would see a copy too late) was a show making moment for me

Very cool!! Post like these always make me smile knowing there’s still hope of finding rare stuff and good deals out there. I was lucky enough to get my CIB commando steel on eBay ages ago before people knew about it. I think the only rare DS I managed to find CIB at any game store was Black Sigil and it was for a good price, also way before people really knew about it. I’ve never found a rare CIB DS game at a flea market or goodwill or anything like that and I don’t even see rare CIB DS games at game stores for any price. I pretty much only see them on eBay. 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Makar

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

On 10/20/2022 at 1:57 PM, Kguillemette said:

Earthbound Handbook is here! I'm so happy!

Ha I got mine from Fangamer on the same day! I got the Stardew Valley guide too, they are really nicely done

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

@Kguillemette @a3quit4s is it like a walkthrough, or like a retrospective?

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

@MrWunderful It's a walkthrough/strategy guide that's done in the style of a Triple A brochure. It's incredibly unique and fun to read. 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Well im sold. 

[DorkOverlord | 686]

Recent pickups

 

[T-Pac | 7,560]

19 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

Whoa - what's the story on how you got this? Aren't there only a handful of Music Machine copies out there?

-CasualCart

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

15 minutes ago, CasualCart said:

Whoa - what's the story on how you got this? Aren't there only a handful of Music Machine copies out there?

-CasualCart

There are about 2 sales per year on eBay so there are a couple of copies around.

Funny story on how I got it. Someone locally sent me a screenshot of one for sale in a Canadian buy / sell group on Facebook because I'm a fairly well known collector here. I contacted the seller, set up the deal for $1100 for the cartridge but he refused to accept PayPal, he would only take email transfer. I honestly believe he was legitimate and I don't think it was a scam but I don't take those chances so I backed out of the deal and we parted ways. While I was scrolling through my Facebook messages after that discussion with him, I scrolled past another image of another Music Machine cartridge. When I opened the chat, it was a discussion I had with someone else a few months ago for a different cartridge and I have absolutely no recollection of ever having this conversation, it was weird. So I messaged that guy to ask if he still had it, he did and we settled on a price. Later the price changed to a straight trade for some Nintendo 64 items I have which I was selling.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Code Monkey

[MegaMan52 | 2,450]

I wanted to buy this when I bought TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection, but the Walmart I usually go to was sold out of the Switch version (at least right now). I checked the Walmart website, and it said that the only other nearby location was "almost sold out." So I went to the other location, and they had like two copies left. I almost didn't even see it, because it was in between two other games and I could only see the title on the side of the case.

[NesQuest | 93]

I've wanted these 2 Genesis games for a long time and got them in trade.  The Nintendo sign is for Switch kiosk, and I bought it off ebay. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by NesQuest