Return to Farmer's Market

The good ones'll cost ya

While most of these games are priced at a descent $3-5, some of them seem to strike the owners as a bit more desirable, and so they feel that to be a good reason to up the price a tad. If you look at the Contra game, it's priced at $10. While I would like to obtain a copy of Contra on NES, just last year I found a gem of a bargain in Best Buy's "PC games $10 and under section". Usually just filled with poor edutainment titles, (wow, spell check accepts edutainment?) there was a copy of Konami classics on a CD-ROM. For $10, I get the following NES games: Contra, Super Contra, Castlevania I, II, and III! All with new save features in them, which a great feature for the Castlevania games. So while I'd love to get the actual Contra cartridge, I just don't feel I'm getting my money's worth for $10, considering I own a legally emulated version already.

$10? Well blow me down.

This one was hard to pass up, and indeed I may break and go back there to pick it up anyway as it's not easy to find. But for $10, I wasn't about to snatch it up so quickly. A cursory glance to Digital Press' online rarity guide lists Popeye as a 3, "You'll find these items through the proper channels (other collectors!), not as common 'on the street', but fairly common on the internet." I still feel that $10 is a steep asking price for it, but seeing as I really want that game, I may bend on that one and go crawling back to them in the next few days. But not all things are over-priced at our local thrift shop...

Oi such a deal!

A Sega Genesis, with a 30 day warrantee, with all the wires and a game, for $25. That's not too shabby. Until recently they also had many boxed NESes as well for the same price, but they all disappeared at once oddly enough. If you're looking for a used system that's too old for places like Gamestop to stock, this looks like the place to go, as the same deal for an NES on Ebay can cost upwards of $40, and while the prices can vary wildly at the farmer's market I attend, I'd be awfully wary about the condition of what you're buying there.

If they're a little blury, it's because sucky games don't focus on my camera

Off in a dark little corner of the thrift shop is their stack of PC games, a corner that is darkened, I believe, to allow us all to grieve as we view what kind of crap can make it through the development cycle to store shelves, while small development teams with real talent have such a hard time finding any channels to sell their original and amazing products. Seen here is a boxed copy of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and no less than two copies of Survivor.

With nothing having been purchased yet, I proposed that this would be a great time to see if the Mystery Game was still hanging around the Farmer's Market. Ever since laying my eyes on the non-labeled cartridge of wonder, I've had many restless nights. Just what in the world could it be? I had to resolve this one way or another! So off we set towards the local farmer's market. Strolling through the aisles I saw a box that held much computerized wonderment.

Must...get...Commodore 64!

Boxed copies of Winter Games and Summer Games II by Epyx? Awesome! Unfortunately, I confess that I myself have never owned a Commodore 64. My best friend owned one though, and we used to play on that thing every day for years. Epyx made some truly wonderful titles, such as the Summer and Winter Games titles, but my all-time favorite of theirs was probably Jumpman. What a great game. What a box full of memories we have here. But as I said, I myself do not own a C64 however much I'd like to, so we moved on.

Having traversed the outer edges of the market, where people buy small spaces for a day to get rid of whatever junk they had, we never did come across the wonderful Mystery Game again. I guess I will have to learn to live without. Just for fun, we wandered the market a bit more, once again stopping by the guy who price gouges the bejeesus out of my pixilated childhood. Once game I was hoping for this time was TMNT 2: The Arcade Game, which I'd seen here previously. Once again, I was met with disappointment today as it was gone. BUT! There was something there that I was equally happy to find!

The fun never stops at Monster Party!

Ah, Monster Party! I haven't played this game in such a long time! And I have a feeling that if I couldn't beat it when I was a kid, I'll have an even tougher time now, but I just couldn't let this gem slip through my hands, not for $4! I almost partook in Double Dragon II as well, but at $10 I was sure I could find a better price elsewhere. Now, I've stated twice before how much this guy overprices his games. You might figure that for such a steep price, you'd at least get some good condition stuff. Well here's a nice view of what the contacts looked like on the Monster Party pak. Those with weak and dorky stomachs, look away now.

oh god NOOOO!

That's not just some dust, man. That's a small colony of dust bunnies hiding out in this cart. I can only imagine that if anyone did pay the unreal prices he's asking for games like Final Fantasy III, they'd get it home and it would be in such poor condition that it probably wouldn't play anyway! But don't fret, a little cleaning up back home and Monster Party was in perfect working condition once again.

And thus ends another thrift trip. With Popeye weighing on my mind even more than the Mystery Game was, I think we can all agree that it will not be long before I run back there only too happy to pay their crazy asking price for a Nintendo classic. Until next time, happy game hunting!