Pawn Shop Video Game Scores

It has been a while since I have been able to go out Game Hunting. I found myself with a few extra cash dollars, and we (my 2 game hunting buddies, my daughters) decided to hit up one of our favorite spots, Pawn America.

Despite their dwindling inventory (they only had about 25% of what they used to) I did mange to pick up a few things.

Lets see what we got!

First up, I picked up this Sega Genesis game strictly for the case. I mean, for a Quarter, why not?

Will try and sell the cartridge for like a buck.

Then I found a Nintendo DS game I had been after for awhile

$2.00!

I also found a crosswords game I had been wanting too

 USA Today Crossword Challenge

Complete and in Great Shape for $3.00

I enjoy playing crossword games on my 3DS. The first game I had for my 3DS was Crosswords Plus I bought factory sealed at a Goodwill for $4.00 before I even had a 3DS. I played it all the way through, completing everything, so I bought the Regular DS version as well. Looking forward to playing this, but I have been playing the Tetris DS game since getting it.

Then I found a game for my wife

Friends (A trivia type game) for $1.00

She has been binge watching Friends on Netflix, so grabbed this for her.

My oldest daughter picked this up for me. I had passed on this at a different pawn shop a few years back and kicked myself for it. I only collect PlayStation exclusive games for the PS3 and had been wanting to play this.

The Last of Us

I have been playing racing games on my Xbox 360 a lot lately and I had played this game back in 2009 when I house/cat sat for a relative. Since I had a few achievements already and for $6.00, decided to pick myself up a copy.

Complete and in Great Shape!

It even included the map. Sweet!

S'all for now. Hopefully new pickups soon!

More Sega Pickups

Picked up a few more things to add to the Sega Collection

 Picked up some original Genesis car artwork I needed from another user on Segaage.com

Now my copy of Altered Beast is finally complete. Still need a manual for Warlock though.

And another Segaage.com transaction with a guy who is local that I have got some things from before (Blog Here)

A couple manuals I needed, Belle's Quest is now complete, However I still need the original cardboard box for Stormlord.

Onto some Games!

Won a weekly subscriber contest from one of my favorite You Tubers Renebean Check him out

 Missile Defense 3-D for the Master System

Complete and in Great Shape

And a $5.37 eBay pickup

 Sega Rally Championship for the Dreamcast

Also complete and in great shape

That's it for now

Sega Genesis 32X Game Pickups

I recently had a compulsion to add to my Sega Genesis 32X collection, and had a few dollars in my digital wallet (Pay Pal) so, like the sadist I am, Off to eBay.

I would like a complete 32X Collection, My goal is to collect them all complete with box and manual, but wouldn't pass up a good cheap deal for the Cartridge only, as I do plan to print off artwork and put them all in 32X cases anyway. 

First on the list, I picked up Shadow Squadron. The auction was ending the following morning from when I placed my bid. The seller had this and BC Racers. I split what I had to spend between the 2 games, but only won this one for $12.00 shipped. (BC Racers went for $18.xx)

And when this arrived, it was actually in BETTER condition then it appeared in the eBay auction.

How often does that happen?

Next up, I secured a copy of Metalhead. It was listed at $19.99 with $3.80 shipping. The seller had antiquemall in their name, and this was the only video game they had. So I knew they weren't a regular game seller. So, I decided to shoot a lowball offer of $11.20, making the total, $15.00.

The seller accepted the offer, and here is what I got.

When I received the item, it had been shipped in a bubble mailer. The condition looked to be about the same as the auction, and I do plan on moving all my 32X carts to cases eventually so didn't see the need to file a claim and make a big deal about it. So I just left the seller a neutral feedback and for a message, "ok".

About a week later I get a message from the seller asking why I left them a neutral. I replied and explained why. the next day I get a notice from PayPal, the seller had refunded half my costs for the game. So I ended up getting Metalhead for $7.50. A nice gesture from the seller, I did appreciate it. 

Next up, I saw this copy of Mortal Kombat II listed on eBay, the auction started at $4.99. It came in a "custom case" (more on that later) and had the manual. I know it wasn't an original box, but as I stated before, I am going to put all my 32X games in cases anyway, so figured I would pop on this one since it already had a case. So I ended up winning it for $20.xx shipped.

 And here it is, The "custom case" turned out to be just a plain Genesis case for a acclaim sports game, and the tabs are just bent way out to "hold" the game. Sad. I thought maybe the seller actually had it in a 32X game case.

32X Game PSA: There were 4 Acclaim sports games that came in actual plastic hardshell cases like Sega Genesis games. NBA Jam, NFL Quarterback Club, WWF Raw and  WrestleMania.

 I am trying to get these cases to put all my 32X games in, Will probably get expensive, but can hopefully recoup costs by selling the extra games, artwork and manuals.

I actually have 2 extra actual 32X cases from some NFL Quarterback clubs I have gotten. As you can see, I really need to work on my artwork sizing.

Sorry for the blurry picture, not sure what happened, too lazy to take a new one,

An actual 32X case.

Mortal Kombat II at home in a Proper 32X case

I had 2 Loose cartridge 32X games, Virtua Fighter and Cosmic Carnage. So I thought I would go try and find boxes and manuals for them. Or I would even buy a complete copy, and sell off the extra cartridge to recoup some cost.

I came across this auction for Cosmic Carnage that had 2 manuals? So not only could I recoup some cost selling off the cartridge, but an extra manual as well. I ended up winning the auction for $15.00 shipped.

The cartridge label was actually in better condition then the one I had, so I got a label upgrade, a box and manual with a cartridge and manual to sell off.

I sold the extra manual, and after shipping got $7.50, and the cartridge after shipping netted me $8.00. So, added the box and manual to my collection AND made .50 Not too bad.

And here is my 32X cartridge Collection to date:

Every time I look at this, Doom drives my OCD crazy with the backwards logo.

Destruction Derby 64

One of my favorite game series is Destruction Derby from the Original PlayStation, with my favorite being Destruction Derby 2. I have never played the Nintendo 64 edition of the game, it has been on my want list for awhile, and I was finally able to score me a copy.

I found myself with a little virtual cash in my Pay pal account, and was perusing eBay one night  looking for something cheap to buy. Found a seller, which turned out to be a pawn shop selling a copy for 9.99 or best offer, with 2.80 shipping. The only picture was of the front of the cartridge, it was a little dirty and it had a sticker all the way across the front of the cart, and label. The game usually sells for 15-25 bucks, depending, but with the condition, I decided to shoot them an offer of 6.20. The seller accepted my offer the next morning, so total I paid 9.00 even. It arrived in 4 days, and here it is:

Front

Rear, Eww a few more issues to try and clean up.

Bottom

First things first, Need to plug it into the N64 to make sure ot works, before trying to clean it all up. But after looking at the bottom, there was no way I was sticking that into the console without cleaning it first.

Sorry about the flash, didn't realize the picture came out this bad, and I had already tossed out the Q-tips. As you can see, I had to use both sides of 2 Q-tips to clean it. Then I plugged it into the N64,, and nothing. I put in another 64 game to make sure I was on the right input on the TV and that the console was working fine, and it fired right up. Tried Destruction Derby again, and again nothing. I ended up taking the cart apart, and completely cleaning the board thoroughly, put it back together, plugged it the console and:

Boom!

Now it was time to tackle cleaning up the cartridge. And here is the result:

A color loss and tearing, but overall not too bad. Better than the big label,

Better then when I got it, but....

Before and Afters

Front

Rear

Bottom

I did however have an extra N64 game with a good back, took a minute or so to swap them over,

Not too bad, after a little work. I look forward to playing and checking this game out. I may try and record some gameplay for my You Tube channel, if I do I will update this blog with the video.

Video Game Case Hacks

I am always modifying something, especially cars. My video game collection is no different. Sometimes the provided game cases need a little something extra, here are a few of the things I have done here and there.

PlayStation 2 games had two different style cases, the original ones with a memory card holder, which honestly I never really used, but I personally prefer the look of. Later PlayStation 2 games just had the PlayStation PS logo above the disc.

Game Hunting Tip: Don't forget to check those game cases when out hunting, Including the sports games. There have been several times I have found Memory Cards in different cases at the thrift store or a garage sale.

I have a stash of extra cases with the memory card holder, and when I get a PlayStation 2 game without, I swap them out.

I recently have gotten into collecting some import games, one of which was this Macross M3 game for the Sega Dreamcast. The Japanese and U.S. cases were different. I prefer the look of the U.S. cases, and modified mine.

I did a whole Blog on how I did this HERE Feel free to check it out.

The Orange Box for Xbox 360. I did this within days after buying this game way back when. As a side note, this is an awesome collection of games, and was well worth the price back when it came out, and I imagine still is today although I am not sure how populated the Team Fortress games would be 10 years later.

 The orange case just fits this game perfectly

Microsoft/Valve should have done this to begin with

I used the case from a Garfield movie DVD, I only wish it was more transparent orange, like the transparent green of the Xbox 360 cases.

Demolition Racer for the original PlayStation. I remember there was a mail away promotion for the CD Soundtrack in 1999 sometime. I don't remember if something came with the game itself, or if I saw an ad in the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (Which I had every issue from #1 to mid 2007/8?), Anyway it came in a cardboard sleeve.

I wanted to keep them together in the same case, but didn't really want to use the double disc cases from back in that time. However, as time went by, double CD cases changed and were the same size/style as a single CD case, and I finally had an awesome solution.

Opens and looks like any PlayStation game case with the game disc.

Open up the game disc section, and the Soundtrack is on the other side, Awesome!

That's it for today, thought I would share some things that have made my collection, in my opinion, better. Use them or don't, just wanted to show people there are options out there.

Tomb Raider (2013) Collectors Edition

Released March 5th 2013, The Tomb Raider Re-Boot is a very fun and great game. I thoroughly enjoyed both of my two play throughs (once on the Definitive version on the Xbox One), and look forward to playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I have yet to pickup.

I remember when I went to pre-order this game, I was still shopping at Gamestop at the time, and they had a pre-order bonus of an extra Tomb to raid. I go into my local Gamestop and go to the counter and ask to pre-order this game and the cashier asks "did you want the Regular or Collectors Edition?"

I thought to myself, collectors edition, what collectors edition? I didn't even know there was a collector's edition for this game. I looked at the cashier and said "Collectors Edition Please" The cashier stated that because the collectors edition was $100.00, that I had to put $25.00 down instead of the standard $5.00. I said "No Problem", and handed her the cash. Now at the time I was working 50-55 hours a week, making $15.00 and hour, with every minute over 40 being overtime, so could just blow a hundred bucks without much of a second thought. I miss those days............

Anyway, after I get back home, I had to hop online and see what the collectors edition included. So here we are, What's In The Box?

Slip cover off

Open the lid

And after removing the game tray

Came with an action figure with a couple extra hands and different weapons from the game.

Some patches

A poster, with a map of the island on the back side

A cool lithoigraph

And the soundtrack

There were a few store exclusives that I was able to procure, which I keep in my collectors edition.

A Steelbook from Target and a Comic Tomb Raider The Beginning from Best Buy

And all put back together with the steelbook in place of the standard case

And that is the Tomb Raider Collectors Edition