One Man's Trash: My Game Find

After watching The Game Chasers, I was inspired to look around my local thrift shop for some old games to no avail.  In fact the only product I came up with was the Sega Sports Pad, amazingly complete in box.  This was a trackball controller with two buttons for the Sega Master System.  The nice thing about early Sega controllers was that they usually could be used for Atari & Commodore consoles and computers.  I would have picked this up if it wasn't for the $15.99 price tag.  I had to double check just to make sure it wasn't an old label from another store but it was their price.

Moving on, I decided to take a look on Craigslist and sure enough I had a lead in my own town.  Someone was advertising a few random carts for $1.00 or less each.  At that price, i'll pick up just about any game cart.  He had listed; Yoshi's Cookie for NES, 4-in-1 Funpack Volume II, Daedalian Opus and Paperboy for Game Boy and last he had a Genesis game called High Seas Havoc.  Nothing jaw dropping but Yoshi's Cookie and Paperboy peaked my interest.

After a few e-mails and text messages we arrange a time and decide to meet at the Taco Bell near my house.  About two hours before were supposed to meet, I get a text and he said he found a few more games and would bring them along.

We meet up and he had a few more Game Boy titles but amongst them was a slightly larger cartridge.  Turns out he had a copy of Wario Land for the Virtual Boy.  Instantly I asked him if he had the system but he said it broke years ago.  Other notable games were Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakining and Grand Theft Auto both for Game Boy.  In the end, I walked away paying $7.00 bucks for the lot feeling completely satisfied.

When I got home I checked my games against current used retail prices on RarityGuide.com and found I really made out on the deal (See below).  As I come across more sweet deals, i'll keep you informed but you do the same.  Let me know what great deals you've come up with in the comments.  Happy hunting!

NES:
Yoshi's Cookie - Nintendo - 1993 - $5.00 Loose (Paid - $0.50)


SNES:
WWF Super Wrestlemania - LJN - 1992 - $4.00 Loose (Paid - $0.50)

Game Boy:
4-in-1 Funpack Volume II - Interplay - 1993 - $5.00 Loose (Paid - $0.75)
Daedalian Opus - Vic Tokai - 1990 - $3.00 Loose (Paid - $0.75)
Legend of Zelda: Links Awakining - Nintendo - 1993 - $24.00 Loose (Paid - $1.00)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - Virgin - 1992 - $8.00 Loose (Paid - FREEBIE!)

Game Boy Color:
Chase HQ: Secret Police - Metro3D - 1999 - $10.00 Loose (Paid - $1.00)
Grand Theft Auto - Rockstar - 1999 - $8.00 Loose (Paid - $0.75)
Paperboy - Midway - 1999 - $8.00 Loose (Paid - $0.75)

Sega Genesis:
High Seas Havoc - Data East - 1993 - $7.00 Loose (Paid - $0.50)

Virtual Boy:
Wario Land - Nintendo - 1995 - $32.00 Loose (Paid - $0.50)

Web TV: The Game Chasers

Every collector is driven to seek out rare and hard-to-find items of interest and us gamers are no different. While more mainstream media outlets give us programs like American Pickers or Pawn Stars, web-channel RetrowareTV and Captain8Bit present The Game Chasers.

The Game Chasers stars Billy (Captain8BIT of Youtube) and Jay as they travel to flea markets, retail stores, thrift shops, peoples houses off Cragslist and more in search of vintage games.  In addition to the previously introduced duo, the show also features guests from other Youtube channels and their hilarious cameramen. Despite a shoestring budget the show has very high production value and is really freaking entertaining.

I blew through 16 episodes in about two days. Whether a collector, someone who used to play as a child or someone who wants to learn about an era of gaming before their own, you should give this show a serious try.  Below is an extended cut of the debut episode, I highly recommend you give it a watch.



The Game Chasers is currently in it's second season and you can find them on Youtube and on RetrowareTV.