Japanese Game Stores Struggling For Stock?

[phillv85]

Now this is purely anecdotal as I’ve still not yet visited Japan, but I watch quite a lot of YouTube videos of people shopping over there and a lot of them that have visited a few times or live there are all saying the same thing, that game stores no longer have the stock that they used to.

Is this a cyclical thing? The reason I say that is that a few years back there were reports that Japan is “running out of retro games” that ended up being completely unfounded and the following year the shops were nicely stocked again.

Kidshoryuken suggested in one of his videos that with the opening up of Japan to tourists again that it may be that the shops are just selling so much because of the influx of visitors. Whether this means with the increase of prices that the Japanese will be digging into their closets to pull out their old games to cash in I have no idea.

Anybody closer to the market able to give their experience on this? Have so many games now been exported that there just aren’t the games floating around anymore? Are the Japanese gaining an interest in retro games themselves and collecting more?

I’m not really struggling to find stuff using the usual places, but the rare games perhaps have less copies floating around these days, and prices are certainly on the up everywhere compared to just a few years ago (although it feels like they are past their peak and have cooled slightly).

Sorry for the brain dump, just wondering if the console and handheld markets are heading the way the arcade market did 5-ish years ago. I know the quantities involved between arcade games and consoles are a world apart but then so are the number of people interested.

[Yakumo]

Nah, same old crap that we often read on the net.
My local Hard Off always has new retro games coming in.
Looking on Yahoo Auctions too will show there's a lot of good stuff.
Sure, prices have gone up and there is less than previously but it's not like it's a major issue or anything.

[Colin]

When I foolishly decided to dive back in to the PC-Engine, a few people here recommended looking at Japanese auctions to save money. From what I’ve seen, prices over there are every bit as stupid as prices over here now. Fair play to them, they should’ve got wise to us buying all their stuff years ago. The landscape for, in my opinion, the greatest era in console gaming has massively shifted in price. I was looking at my old feedback for stuff I’d sold on eBay years ago and there was crazy stuff like a Japanese Duo and 40 games sold for like £40. All the mint games I’m chasing now sold by me for a tenner or less, or even rare stuff like Coryoon and Magical Chase sold for £50-80.

I should maybe feel bitter about it, but I never lost money when I sold anything. Getting back in to it now I’ve managed to get it in to my head that I’m buying again a decade after I sold up, of course prices have changed. I’m just pleased to be getting it all back.

Sorry, brain dump on my part too!

[Yakumo]

At least the UK and Japan aren't like the states where they'll happily pay three figures for a ****ty common beaten up NES game.
Never could understand the mentality of the US used games market.

[Hirst]

The worst part is that the UK seems to have inherited the US game market in recent years. There was definitely a time when games in the US were going nuts (especially NES ones) but over here it was pretty much business as usual. Then people started getting ideas here that pretty common games in awful condition were worth a fortune and here we are. It's worst on Nintendo systems, Cex are currently knocking out Super Mario World on the SNES for £58 if it's boxed, they had it recently and the box was really tatty (they don't mind). It makes zero sense to me - it's one of the most common games on the entire system and was a pack-in for quite a while. How are they that rare to be worth 60 quid? Sonic on the MD only goes for £6 boxed so some of it is purely Nintendo based.

I suspect there's probably a mild shortage of games in touristy areas as the USD/YEN exchange rate is very favourable at the moment, but I get most of my games off Yahoo Auctions or Mercari and I can't say I've noticed any difference. Actually the main thing is I keep finding bargains, I've had to promise myself not to look any more for a bit as I've got my holidays coming up.

[phillv85]

That’s good to know. I’m planning a trip over in 2025 so hopefully there’s still some stuff left by then As much as I know Akihabara is an expensive place to buy games, I want the experience as much as much as the games there. When I was big into arcade gaming years ago I always wanted to go to places like G-Front and MAK Japan before the market for arcade games turned on its head and I fell out of love with it.

I’ve found YAJ to be probably the most expensive way of buying games from Japan outside of ebay these days. It seems it’s a much more global audience competing now, with people bidding from countries where the games made it there when they were current in little to no volume. At least in the UK we were pretty prolific importers back in the day so there are plenty of NTSC games floating around from the 90’s.

The US market is a whole different beast. I’m glad a lot of Americans mostly keep out of foreign markets and just buy their own battered old crap for exorbitant prices. Glad I hardly dabble in US games, just a few Genesis games here and there and newly released stuff that doesn’t come to Japan or Europe (so basically hardly anything).

[Hirst]

Try Mercari, I prefer it over YAJ as the prices are fixed and the domestic shipping is included in the price about 95% of the time. There's less stuff on there but if it's on YAJ I usually find some on Mercari too.

I suppose it happens here too but I think more Americans are weird about import stuff, you can find people quite easily who have collected more-or-less the entire NES library but haven't even considered getting a Famicom game. Or a giant retro game shop that has basically every home market thing you could imagine, but doesn't have a single import title on sale.

Always seems weird to me as it seems like the natural progression to somebody who is into their games. I think even if you were just moderately into games over here you'd encounter imports at some point. Back in the early days of the Mega Drive there was a ton of importing going on just because the prices were better, it was really common to see Japanese versions of ordinary MD games on the market and those weird little cart adaptors.

[Yakumo]

I watched a video by Macho Nacho today (Normally watch him for hardware mods), anyway, he went to Japan in July and like an idiot, went straight to the tourist traps in Osaka. Super Potato and so on. Some of the prices he showed were crazy! like x3 or x4 times what they are where I live.
There's a reason why stores like Super Potato have all this rare stuff, its because their prices are so bloody stupid, nobody except clueless foreigners will buy anything.

[Colin]

You should be finding games for us Yak!

[Baseley09]

I'm buying stuff constantly on YAJ, you will see UK level prices and beyond but biding time, being smart with searches and the games flow. I'm an absolute cheapskate, my supergrafx was essentially free bought in a bundle etc.

What ai do find rubbish on there tho is the availability of megadrive games. I've got some peices but slim pickings.

[Hirst]

There's a reason why stores like Super Potato have all this rare stuff, its because their prices are so bloody stupid, nobody except clueless foreigners will buy anything.

There’s a similar place in Bangkok in a shopping centre right in the middle of the tourist area, nice owner and friendly but the prices are way above what you’d pay not just online but at any other physical place. He had some loose MD carts that were being charged well beyond what you could get boxed not just online but in a normal shop. I ran some of the Saturn prices and they were coming up as 2-3 times going rate. It seems popular enough with tourists, one well-known British retro games YouTuber even filmed it years ago (I won’t name him as I think him, his butcher hat and his angry wife are a complete pox on the hobby).

I suppose I can understand somebody buying the odd overpriced trinket being on holiday, but if they were serious about retro game buying on a trip I don’t understand why they don’t just hop on a train to some random suburb and look at a random Hard-Off instead. It’s not like Japan doesn’t have good public transport. Or at least have some kind of mobile Internet solution so you can look up prices on the phone and make sure they’re not lifting your leg.

[Asura]

Also worth remembering that the supposed state of Japanese game stores, as perceived by the west, is heavily influenced by how YouTubers (a group focused more on entertainment value than news veracity) view the state of about 6 shops in Akihabara (a place that's smaller than a lot of people realise).

There's a whole country of branches of HardOff, BookOff, Tsutaya... But YouTubers don't usually go bargain hunting in Maebashi.

[wakka]

I can only imagine it is too dangerous to go bargain hunting in Maebashi on account of all the illegal drift racing and Eurobeat.

[Asura]

I can only imagine it is too dangerous to go bargain hunting in Maebashi on account of all the illegal drift racing and Eurobeat.

That's more of a Takasaki thing.

Maebashi is a financial centre. Great pubs though.

[wakka]

Aha! I googled where Maebashi was, saw the word 'Gunma' roughly nearby. And I was like. I know that name.

*Eurobeat intensifies*



EDIT:

By the way - @Hirst, any tips for videogame-related places worth visiting in Bangkok? I will be visiting there next month