Retro import store: what would you want?

[Colin]

If a new retro import specialist was to start up in the UK, what would you most like to see from it?

Which formats would you like to see stocked?
Services you'd like provided?
Focus on the rare and hard to find, or cheap and cheerful?
Is quality hardware a priority?
What do you find hardest to find that you'd like to be able to buy?
Is software/hardware condition one of your top priorities?

[Lorfarius]

Famicom for me! Costs stupid amounts to buy individual carts on the bay mainly due to shipping.

[Soundwave]

Ooooh are you planning something lol

Ideally I'd like to see pretty much everything stocked but realise that would be hideously expensive for outlay.
Perhaps stock just the obvious like PC-E / MD / SNES / NEO / Saturn / PS1 & then make other formats special order only so your guaranteed the sale when the item arrives.

Services wise...repairs & mods would be good
Again special order/finders service for harder to get items.

Bit of everything cheap & cheerful for general stock & then finders service for rare/expensive items

Quality Hardware would be good as well (I'm determined to get on the NEO & PC-E bandwagons before the end of the year & quality hardware would be nice...especially at reasonable prices)

I don't think there's anything massively hard to find that I'd like at the moment but that's not saying that won't change someday.

Condition is always important...I'm a gamer at heart & I never buy to collect but I do want clean unmarked discs & manuals that don't look like they've been read a gazillion times & is really tatty, oh & smokey pongy games are a deffinite no no as well.

Think that covers everything.

I think the most important thing to me would be a finders service that would be great.

Neil

[mmmonkey]

Oooh, there was a similar thread to this that had bunch of ideas in :-)

I fancy somewhere that's inviting to go to, doesn't honk of the great unwashed and has a few machines setup to play on.

Good clean stuff for sale, some if the bits I've seen recently look like they've kept it at the bottom of the garden, takes an age to clean up. And I cancertainly see the attraction of being able to drop kit off to get it upgraded/repaired. A chap in Oz who has done some guides for my site has a chain of stores send him consoles to have work done on them.

A physical place to browse retro imports would be heaven!

Pete

[dvdx2]

i'd love to see a local retro shop, stocked to the gills with everything from 8bit to the ps2 (jpn of course), but its unlikey to happen - ebay and the ease to pirate has destroyed any economically viable opportunities to set up a store. (Unless anyone fancies running it at a loss). Please prove me wrong though!!!

I think a lot of research would need to be done, to judge the best location to set it up - sad to say, but i dont think it would last a month here in Belfast :-(

I would want - a massive catalogue of ps1/ps2
- Jpn Saturn games
- Nice clean/good condition hardware
- a few curiosities to lure me in eg a N64DD running/PCFX etc etc
- some nice modded stuff - eg DC's with internal VGA mods/switched saturns etc

then it would be pretty dangerous for me walk past on pay day ;-)

[speedlolita]

Which formats would you like to see stocked?

PS1, Mega Drive, PS2

Services you'd like provided?



Focus on the rare and hard to find, or cheap and cheerful?

Bit of both

Is quality hardware a priority?

Definitely

What do you find hardest to find that you'd like to be able to buy?

Good condition, reasonably priced boxed older consoles such as PC Engine Duo RX / Neo Geo

Is software/hardware condition one of your top priorities?

The utmost of priorities

[Colin]

Sorry, should probably make clear that I'm talking about online retail, and not a walk in shop.

[Solar]

Sorry, should probably make clear that I'm talking about online retail, and not a walk in shop.

Pity, a shop would be great. Especially if you can walk in and pay 20p to play on a SMS like we used to be able to 20 some thing years ago.

[JSR]

In addition to the items on sale, I would like guides and information similar to what Racketboy.com provides. Guides detailing how to get the best picture for any given console, guides about the most essential games for any given console etc. Could maybe also provide some mod/import services to help players getting access to games from any region.

[Wil]

If you had enough money to give it a good go and could get somewhere either cheap enough or popular enough I reckon you give a bricks and mortar, retail place, like this a go, especially if you could get a coffee, play a few machines and do other stuff to supplement selling the games. There are quite a few UK-based online retro retailers around so it's got to be harder to make yourself stand out.

Obviously a good site is a must. Easy to navigate and nice to look at with really good scans/pics of the merchandise. Be knowledgeable about the games; maybe get a group of you together and do mini reviews that can link off the listings. Send out a monthly newsletter that's more than just a list of stock. Basically make it a site you'd want to go to other than just to look at what's for sale and really give it, its own identity.

Oh and make sure you don't mind taking loads of pics, writing loads of descriptions and packing and posting stuff every day. I speak from experience and it gets boring real quick.

Good luck.

[JSR]

Maybe you could be available for instant messaging most of the day. People can then ask you about the condition of different items, 50/60hz differences on specific games etc. Would let you enthuse the potential buyers a bit too: "Yeah "Crono Trigger" is one of those super awesome games that you simply must own, and with the Passport adapter it will work flawlessly on your SNES. The total for those items will be 104?, will that be Paypal or debit card?"

[nakamura]

Just general games and consoles from the 8-128bit eras. Plenty of choice at fair prices.
A full online catalogue to look through rather than to specify what you want all the time.
Sometimes is it nice to browse a site and you might find something new or something you forgot about.

[Colin]

Cheers for the comments so far. I should point out that it's two friends who are looking to start up, one of which is soon to be living in Japan. I'll be having a little bit of involvement in it if it goes ahead, but just a lending hand really.

[zipper]

Tying an online shop with a good proxy buying service. A service that helped people locate the games they want.
Stuff like providing text translations for all titles would be a great help. There are already lists out there, but nothing collected together (at least none that I've found). Text that people would be able to paste (or directly link) to Amazon.jp , Yahoo Auctions etc.
Maybe there's not enough margin in providing a proxy service, but I really can't understand why no-one is doing it properly.

[mmmonkey]

I'd forgotten about Racketboy's articles. But I don't really browse retro shops online, no-idea why really. I think the prices put me off, knowing that if there was a bargain in an online shop, it would most likely have been snapped up by someone within minutes of appearing.

So unless it was something I just had to have no matter what, otherwise I would wait until spotting a bargain on ebay or a gaming forum.

Trade in's maybe? send in a photo or accurate description of what you have to get a rough idea of value?

Having someone in Japan sounds ace. I do look at Yakumos page and recently bought a couple of items as it was cheaper than ebay. And looking at his photo's of stock of retro goodies in games shops out there, it would be handy to just hand over a shopping list of things that are normally over priced or rarely available on ebay, but seem to be on yahoo auctions all the time

Pete