MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 The hunt for obscure bonus pack-ins / retailer exclusives continues, this was $14, sealed: And this was about $50, not a steal but basically a little cheaper than current COVID-mania prices and it’s fully complete: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 Tracked down another obscure DS bundle: This was $24.99, maybe a bit expensive, but I don't know how uncommon this is and didn't want to miss it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 I kid you not this was $9 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 (edited) I was very surprised to see this bundle on Mercari for $77. With tax and shipping I paid $91. And it didn’t get bought up in seconds. Makes no sense! Plus I got worried the seller was going to back out because after a few days it still showed as awaiting shipment / no tracking but then it turned out she was just having difficulty getting it to UPS. Her other listings were all “fair market value” so I was surprised to get a deal on this. The only games here I already had were Zoids and NFL Blitz. The rest are all new for me and Viewtiful Joe RHR is one I’ve been seeking for a long time and I never saw it outside of eBay. Funny that after looking for this one and Double Trouble for so long I ended up finding them both in a short timespan! Edited February 10, 2021 by MiamiSlice 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 (edited) No photo for this one but on Monday Target had a promotion of buy 2 get 1 free on all media and while at first I figured I wouldn't find anything I wanted, I was surprised to see they had Monkey Barrels which is a game I was planning to order directly from Nicalis. So I went about seeing if I could find two other games I also wanted and ended up finding Descenders and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 to go with it. Was in the process of adding all 3 to the cart and then my heart sank when I saw that Monkey Barrels was sold out. I missed it! I was so certain that I had missed it. But I decided to register for a notification if it came back in stock anyway. Well surprise surprise, at 1:30 in the morning I'm looking at my phone and I actually get the notification that it was back in stock. I ended up being able to add all 3 games to the cart and check out. Ended up getting Kart Racers 2 for free, paid about $78 in total. I'm excited! Edited February 10, 2021 by MiamiSlice 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorEncore | 3,690 Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 3 hours ago, MiamiSlice said: No photo for this one but on Monday Target had a promotion of buy 2 get 1 free on all media and while at first I figured I wouldn't find anything I wanted, I was surprised to see they had Monkey Barrels which is a game I was planning to order directly from Nicalis. So I went about seeing if I could find two other games I also wanted and ended up finding Descenders and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 to go with it. Was in the process of adding all 3 to the cart and then my heart sank when I saw that Monkey Barrels was sold out. I missed it! I was so certain that I had missed it. But I decided to register for a notification if it came back in stock anyway. Well surprise surprise, at 1:30 in the morning I'm looking at my phone and I actually get the notification that it was back in stock. I ended up being able to add all 3 games to the cart and check out. Ended up getting Kart Racers 2 for free, paid about $78 in total. I'm excited! This may be the first instance in history of an in-stock alert helping someone. I was pretty sure they were all there to satisfy our monkey brains, like those buttons on the elevator that don't actually close the doors. Congratulations. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowser | 598 Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 On 2/8/2021 at 11:14 PM, MiamiSlice said: Tracked down another obscure DS bundle: This was $24.99, maybe a bit expensive, but I don't know how uncommon this is and didn't want to miss it. This wouldn't count as an official bundle right? It looks like some store randomly threw 2 items together from unsold stock to try and move them. IMO it's worth the same as the two items separately and bundling doesn't add any value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noiseredux | 232 Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 On 2/9/2021 at 7:45 PM, MiamiSlice said: I was very surprised to see this bundle on Mercari for $77. With tax and shipping I paid $91. And it didn’t get bought up in seconds. Makes no sense! Plus I got worried the seller was going to back out because after a few days it still showed as awaiting shipment / no tracking but then it turned out she was just having difficulty getting it to UPS. Her other listings were all “fair market value” so I was surprised to get a deal on this. The only games here I already had were Zoids and NFL Blitz. The rest are all new for me and Viewtiful Joe RHR is one I’ve been seeking for a long time and I never saw it outside of eBay. Funny that after looking for this one and Double Trouble for so long I ended up finding them both in a short timespan! Beach Spikers is so good. Love that game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 9 minutes ago, bowser said: This wouldn't count as an official bundle right? It looks like some store randomly threw 2 items together from unsold stock to try and move them. IMO it's worth the same as the two items separately and bundling doesn't add any value. There's a few fallacies here so allow me to unpack. 1. I don't know if this is an "official" bundle. Official is kind of a loaded term. Nintendo is the official manufacturer of the cart and you have to get a license from them to publish games "officially." THQ is an official, licensed publisher. The stylus is an official, licensed accessory. I have seen a few other bundles like this one, just from a bit of research: The styluses are not labeled for individual sale, they have no barcode, and it looks like they were packaged in order to be included as bonus items, so they were designed to be sold this way. It's not like some individual retailer took two items off their shelves and shrinkwrapped them to make a custom bundle. There was planning involved here. And after it was bundled, they put a new barcode sticker over the old one. So it had a real sku. 2. Even if it is just a "retailer" bundle, my position on this, and I know I'm not the only one, is that retailer bundles are official bundles. I could get into a long explanation of this if you really want, but the short version is that retailers like Walmart, K-mart, etc. are official retailers with official relationships with Nintendo and the various official publishers, and the idea that they are somehow not on the level of the manufacturers and publishers in this whole trifecta is just not logical or fair. Lots of "official" bundles are retailer exclusive. Some involve special packaging that comes from the publisher, others involve taking items from the publishers and repackaging them. Either way, when it has a sku on it, it's an official product. To be honest I don't know the origin of these bundles, where they came from, how they were marketed or sold. DS collecting is still niche and people are still discovering the various uncommon items, very little has been documented, etc. But my point is if it's "just a retailer bundle" then to me it's still official and I reject the framing that it's "just" as if that makes it lesser in some way. On the other hand, if this were some aftermarket seller like DealTavern repackaging these just to sell online, and these were never sold in stores, then that would not be "official" in any way and I would not want that. 3. Regardless of the above, you brought up value and I think we can talk about value on its own whether or not we agree on the rest. A sealed copy of Up goes for $5, maybe 10. The last three recorded sales of this bundle, with shipping, were $11, then $20, then $25 (last one being me). The Mario stylus, which can be found separately on eBay, along with the Luigi and Yoshi styles, can be purchased for $8. They do not come sealed and I don't know if these were separated from the bundles or if they were acquired via liquidated / unused stock from some retailer or publisher. If we define value as in "what someone is willing to pay," I think it is safe to say that someone will always be willing to pay more for this bundle than the items individually. But I also reject the framing that this is only interesting if it has "value" or if the value is greater in this bundle. I did not buy this as an investment, I don't care what the value is, unless I could have gotten this for cheaper. Sure, I do wonder if I could have waited and maybe found this for $20 or less. But I bought it because I think it's a cool / interesting / uncommon bundle and it looks nice. And I will continue digging for info on these bundles to try and figure out the story behind them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowser | 598 Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 Thanks for taking the time to give me a detailed explanation. I was initially under the impression it was something like a DealTavern repackaged bundle. I wasn't aware the stylus doesn't have it's own barcode. If it was meant to be packaged together with the game then that makes it more interesting. That's what I meant by value by the way, value more in terms of desirability rather than investment value. Is the game sealed with the usual Y-fold under the shrinkwrap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 34 minutes ago, bowser said: Thanks for taking the time to give me a detailed explanation. I was initially under the impression it was something like a DealTavern repackaged bundle. I wasn't aware the stylus doesn't have it's own barcode. If it was meant to be packaged together with the game then that makes it more interesting. That's what I meant by value by the way, value more in terms of desirability rather than investment value. Is the game sealed with the usual Y-fold under the shrinkwrap? It is. Again, I don’t know the origin. I’ll let you know if I learn anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 Mercari strat guide haul! Was $94 all in. The Spirit Tracks guide being sealed is icing on the cake. Some of these I already have so will be letting go of dupes... but I’m pretty sure I didn’t have the NP Wind Waker guide already which is shocking. Unless my brother has it??? Unsolved mystery. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 Been too busy hunting to actually post my hunts! Here's a bunch of hauls, all from online deals. 1. I've been having great results with independent game stores lately, prices have been more reasonable than eBay / Mercari / even most Facebook groups. I recently found DQ VI for DS, CIB, for $129 + shipping from one shop, and I bought some other stuff with it, but the real gem from that haul was this: Apparently this Toys R Us variant is not easy to find! I had only recently learned about it and was excited to spot it for cheap. 2. I recently learned about a bunch of DVD bundles for Wii and then I saw this on eBay at a great price, just $11. I've always been a fan of the Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog series so this DVD bundle is right up my alley: 3. I was planning to pick up the strategy guide for LoZ Tri Force Heroes and I almost bought one off Mercari for about $12 but I decided to check eBay and ended up finding this one brand new for ~$6. Unfortunately it looks like the bottom left corner was damaged in shipment but I plan to keep it anyway. 4. This one is the real crowd-pleaser, I found this lot of Nintendo Power magazines on Mercari listed for $80, with no info, just a couple poor pictures. I was interested because I needed one issue out of the lot but I was worried that for $80 + shipping and tax I might end up paying too much. I messaged the seller asking what was included but I usually assume if nothing is mentioned then nothing is there and he didn't get back to me right away. So I put in an offer for $60 and waited. Well, after a while he ended up getting back to me and here's what he said: I had to bite my tongue, and wait patiently for everything to arrive. Here's what I got: Spoiler I kid you not, it's all there. This is my first set of magazines with the Pokemon cards intact. Other than some shelf wear on the outside, these were all well maintained! I still can't believe it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 22, 2021 Author Share Posted February 22, 2021 Just got this stunner in for less than $120 all in, CIB with most of the shrink still on, will replace another one I have in worse shape 3 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,929 Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 4 hours ago, MiamiSlice said: Just got this stunner in for less than $120 all in, CIB with most of the shrink still on, will replace another one I have in worse shape Well now that's a pretty sight. How much worse is the other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 23, 2021 Author Share Posted February 23, 2021 5 hours ago, Tanooki said: Well now that's a pretty sight. How much worse is the other? It's actually on Page 4 of this thread, from this haul: It's not so obvious but if you look closely you can see plenty of creases and wear. It's not the worst one though... sadly FF IV is the worst of this bunch and it's the one box where the wear really shows. But I will patiently upgrade them over time if I can find good deals 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,929 Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 2 minutes ago, MiamiSlice said: It's actually on Page 4 of this thread, from this haul: It's not so obvious but if you look closely you can see plenty of creases and wear. It's not the worst one though... sadly FF IV is the worst of this bunch and it's the one box where the wear really shows. But I will patiently upgrade them over time if I can find good deals Doh, yeah I see it....on all of them to varying degrees. I've got an amazing FF4 that's complete, keep the box out of sight so it doesn't get wrecked. Kind of wish I had never got rid of the set in the day. I do have 1+2 still but it's loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 I already have Sword of Mana CIB, which I have yet to play (someday... I swear I will), but I saw this listing on eBay for the original Japanese release, also CIB, with two Japan-exclusive manga books for $20 and free shipping. That seemed like a no brainer price to pull in something you don't see everyday so I pulled the trigger. More pics in the spoiler! Spoiler 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 Still hunting for strategy guides! Here’s two hauls: 1. Paid $45 for these 3 guides all from one eBay seller, in excellent shape! 2. Found this OoT guide + NP poster for $30 via Facebook, the guide is a huge upgrade compared to the one I already have. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 25, 2021 Author Share Posted February 25, 2021 A different kind of hunt: I won a collector’s edition of Fox n Forests for PS4 from SLG! 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,929 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Wow I would have been all over those 3 guides if I saw that. Not sure I'd have cared as much about Fire Emblem or DK as I have the SNES original guide, but PS Zero is awesome and that guide would be useful for the little quirks in there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 1 hour ago, Tanooki said: Wow I would have been all over those 3 guides if I saw that. Not sure I'd have cared as much about Fire Emblem or DK as I have the SNES original guide, but PS Zero is awesome and that guide would be useful for the little quirks in there. And I love the $0.01 sticker on the PS Zero guide, shows just how undesirable it was back then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,929 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 3 hours ago, MiamiSlice said: And I love the $0.01 sticker on the PS Zero guide, shows just how undesirable it was back then! Yeah good point I remember it being a clear out guide. I don't think it sold well despite how good it is. It's very much honorably done in making you feel like you're at home there as you would have been on Dreamcast or Gamecube versions of the game. It is not lacking, that's for certain which surprised me. I bought it hoping it was ok, ended up being fun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiSlice | 3,089 Posted March 2, 2021 Author Share Posted March 2, 2021 (edited) If you have been following the "Online Good BIN's" thread then you've probably already seen this. I posted last week that I found an eBay seller with a bunch of Nintendo employee only / promo only stuff that had good prices on most of it. The way I found him was that one of his listings popped up in a saved search I have for Nintendo Power magazines, and it looked interesting enough that I decided to check out his other listings. That's when I was shocked at all the employee stuff I was seeing, including some items I had never seen before. I ended up chatting with the seller and he said he used to work at Nintendo and he was letting go of a bunch of stuff in the process of moving. I ended up getting discounts on some of the stuff I bought, that being said, I don't think the prices I paid were "steals," it was more of, I wasn't losing my shirt at the prices I was paying and I was just happy to be getting this stuff. So check out my haul in the spoiler! Nintendo GameCube / GBA employee shirt, size L: Spoiler Nintendo GBA SP employee shirt, size L, new with tags: Spoiler Mario Pinball Land employee shirt, size XL, new with tags: Spoiler Nintendo employee track jacket, size L: Spoiler Nintendo golf tool employee gift maybe? Spoiler I've been very tempted to go back and buy more of the seller's stuff but I'm working on a pretty expensive deal right now so I'm tapped out of buying anything else. Anyway, from doing a little research I heard from another collector that had spoken to a Nintendo service employee (someone who was responsible for setting up kiosks and displays at retail stores) who said that she had a couple of these shirts and they were only given to employees. So that confirms it! I'm very happy to finally own some employee gear! And I plan to wear the blue shirt and track jacket, while keeping the other two shirts hidden away Although when I say wear, I mean, very carefully, constantly afraid that a speck of tomato sauce might be hurled my way... you get the idea. And if you must know, I spent about $290 for these 5 items. it was honestly more than I was planning to spend! One other haul came in today: managed to score something that I hadn't seen on eBay for at least a year now, and at a great price: Plants vs Zombies Limited "Ugly Peashooter" Edition for Nintendo DS! Seller was open to offers and ended up accepting my offer of $80, so about $95 all in with tax and shipping, which is better than some of the prices I saw when I was keeping an eye out for these pre-COVID. Really happy to land this and I'm one away from a complete PopCap set on DS: Spoiler Until next time! Edited March 2, 2021 by MiamiSlice 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drxandy | 3,225 Posted March 2, 2021 Share Posted March 2, 2021 Congrats on winning something!! Super cool clothing haul too!! holy crap! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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