Underrated Deals

[Darth SS]

The purpose of the thread is two-fold.

1) I want to know what was the best deal you've ever made at any video game store.

2) What games do you think are the most under-rated, and would be well worth bargain bins and such. (Note: Not the big classics. Just...mediocrity)

An example:

My best deal was probably when I bought Minority Report (GCN) for 10$ Canadian. Darn cheap, and a real decent game.

[Inbred Chocobo]

I got I-Ninja (PS2 version) for $8. That is a pretty fun platformer for 8 bucks.

[Solid Shadow]

Some of you may hate my guts after this...

1) Picked up Final Fantasy (NES) for $2.00. The lady behind the counter had set it aside because upon inspection of the part of the game's circuit board which is visible on the bottom of the kart she saw that there were no copper leads in the center. What she didn't know was that many NES games are that way. She assumed it had been damaged but couln't just 'give it away' as the shop had paid money to get it in the first place. I convinced her I was going to hang the 'broken' game on my wall as a display piece. Two bucks. Yowza.

2) Got Final Fantasy II (SNES) for $2.50 plus shipping and handling on E-Bay. When the seller listed it, he wrote the title as FINAL FANTASY TWO. For whatever reason, searches of Final Fantasy 2, II, or ii didn't yield his auction. I found it quite by accident and was the only bidder.

3) Got Final Fantasy III (SNES) for $4.00 plus shipping and handling on... you guessed it, E-Bay. This time, the seller listed the game as Fnial Fantasy III. Again, I found this by accident. Good lesson for you all - searched for misspelled variations of titles you're looking for on E-Bay. You'd be amazed at the deals you can come up with.

4) When the Dreamcast came out, a local video store decided it was going to be the next huge crazy thing in gaming so they liquidated their NES and SNES rentals in order to make room for all the wonderful DC games they'd ordered. I got Chrono Cross for $5.00 and Dragon Warrior 1, 2, 3, and 4 for $5.00 apiece.

5) Got an Atari 2600 with four joysticks, two of which were still in factory box and shrinkwrap, two sets of paddles, and Atari 2600 Junior, the rollerball controller, and approximately 80 games (though seven of them were Pac-Man and three were E.T. The Extra Terrestrial) for $3.00.


Sick, I know.


As far as underrated games, honestly, nothing I've played in the last several years that was in any way underrated didn't deserve to be. The exceptions would have to be any games in the Front Mission series, which are huge in Japan but hardly whispered of here in the States; and Ico for PS2, but that's going back a few years...

[Meister]

I got an old adventure game, Death Gate, for 50 cents on amazon, completely new and unopened and in English to boot. Shipping was another 3 Euros, but it still was practically free. Not the best game ever by any stretch of imagination, but it was fun.

(€ 3.50 = $ 4.34)

[OctoberRaven]

1) Eternal Darkness for $12. Scratched up, but ran well.

2) Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick. Short game, but deliciously fun.

[Lockeownzj00]

Solid Shadow's post makes me cry tears of joy as a gamer.

For underrated games, pretty much all of Adventure Gamers (http://www.adventuregamers.com) underground (http://www.adventuregamers.com/underground/index.php) section is good, especially last years 2004 Underground Awards (http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,507). You also might wanna check out TIG Source (http://www.tigsource.com) for obviously 80 bazallion indipendent, overlooked game news, or Game Tunnel (http://www.gametunnel.com).

I think I got Incredible Crisis! (とんでもクライシス!) (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/256405.asp) for something like 10$ on ebay. Or was it ebgames? Oh well, they both start with eb.

edit: just read this great article (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=60418) on eurogamer about assorted good underrated indie games.

[JinDaYi]

Front Mission is a great "tactics" game. Though I prefer 3 over them all.

Another under-rated game is Armored Core. That game is insane, yet, no "robot lovers" even breathe it's existance.

I would think people who like Gundam or Zoids enjoy Armored Core, but of course not.

The game is a damn classic and is just completely awesome.

As far as "good deals" go...I got my NES, 2 controllers, both zelda titles, all 3 of the mario titles, Xexyz(i forget x_X), duck hunt/mario, the gun thing, and a 2 or so ninja turtle titles I lost when I moved out of town...all for 1$ (usd~).

I bought this from my friend in 2nd grade. The only downfall was...it had a frog sticker on the top of the NES. Easily removed.

And Chrono Trigger cost me 40$...I hate you...>.>...

What I DO want is Star Ocean for the Snes. Now that is a rare find.

[Toastburner B]

I found a new, unopened copy of La Pucelle: Tactics at my work.

For those who don't know La Pucells is done by NiS, the same guys who did Disgaea, and they make their games in somewhat limited quanities.

Now, my work never carries any games that are all that new or all that rare. So, when one day I was walking out, and glanced at the game rack in passing, I literally stepped backwards and did a double take. "La Pucelle? What the crap are we doing with La Pucelle?!"

The game is pretty hard to find. I just did a search on Gamestop, and only one of their stores within a 200 mile radius of me had it in stock. To pick it up, new, and for under $20 (19.99 + 10% employee discount = score!) was practically unheard of.

[EVILNess]

Around the time that the N64 was just coming out, I found an unopened, brand new Earthnound. Giant box, strat guide, and scratch and sniff stckers and all.

I was expecting $30-$40, but when I took it to the cashier, and it didn't ring up I was angry, because I would have to wait for someone with a price.

That's when they tried it again, it rang up "Unknown: $4.00." And that is the day I found out that Wal-mart has to sell you an item for how much it rings up, no matter how little it rings up for.

So in short, I got a brand new, unopened Earthbound for $4.00.

[Sir Juno]

Well I was looking around for a replacement copy of Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal since mine had been played to death. I first went to Best Buy to get the collector's edition with gave both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal but sadly the CDs were very poorly made and didn't install correctly so I returned them. After going to nearly every game store near me I went to Circuit City and found an copy of it in the original box and everything from 2001 and it was $10. After taking it up to the cashier he rung it up and he then told me the total was $3.78. Well lets just say I was very happy the rest of that day.

[Mirai Gen]

Hah.

Xenogears in my area is a rare game. This was before some asshat in Ebay flooded about 20 copies of Xenogears for cheap. Anyone who wanted one got one. But I digress. Before then...

I was talking to a friend of mine, who said he was giving some games to Werner, this german guy down the street who trades games. We referr to him as "the creepy german guy" because he gives chapstick to any woman who goes in, and has a huge collection of blowdarts, BB rifles, and the like. We're joking, though, he's funny as hell.

Anyway, I was talking to him, and he mentioned he was going to get rid of some games. He pulled out a ton of games, and Xenogears.

I nearly shat myself. I told him I would pay more than what werner would pay. He said "Alright," and I got a copy of Xeno for twenty five bucks. Compared to the current price on Ebay - Sixty - I was in heaven.

and I still haven't beaten it, either...

[In Hindsight]

What I DO want is Star Ocean for the Snes. Now that is a rare find.

Well, if you're looking in shops, you'll probably never come across one (Unless you have an import shop that does used games). There's a bunch on eBay as we speak, ranging from $35-50 complete. I really don't know how rare it is in Japan, but if these consistently sell for around that range I'd say it's at least fairly uncommon.

Eventually I plan to get one just for my collection, but since I know all of about three words in Japanese, I'll stick to playing the fan translation.

Also, Xenogears shouldn't sell for over $20 anymore, since they re-released it on Greatest Hits. Perhaps for an original copy, you might be able to get more, I'm really not sure though. I guess it's good that it's widely available to be played by those who missed it the first time around, 'cuz it's a truly fantastic game... But I always get kinda aggravated when they reprint rare stuff. I paid a hell of a lot more than $20 for mine, no doubt about that.

[Mirai Gen]

Also, Xenogears shouldn't sell for over $20 anymore, since they re-released it on Greatest Hits. Perhaps for an original copy, you might be able to get more, I'm really not sure though. I guess it's good that it's widely available to be played by those who missed it the first time around, 'cuz it's a truly fantastic game... But I always get kinda aggravated when they reprint rare stuff. I paid a hell of a lot more than $20 for mine, no doubt about that.
It was, TIS, right before they did that Greatest Shits deal.

Damn I hate that.

I also was pretty psyched about finding a copy of Ninja Gaiden 1, 2, and 3 in a shoebox in the gutter. I looked in it after three days of seeing it.

They still work :)

EDIT: WOOT! POST 1000!

[Solid Shadow]

As of yesterday I have something to add to this thread - I went to a garage sale yesterday and picked up the following:

Shenmue (Dreamcast) $1.00
Xenosaga Episode One (PS2) $5.00, still in factory sealed shrinkwrap
Castlvania 1, 2, and 3 (NES) $1.00 apiece

You can praise me now.






(hey, post #200. Wow. Only took, what, three years?)

[Melfice]

The best deal I ever made was not that impressive (I think), but I got €100,- for 5 games I sold. If my memory serves me well. I keeps my games in good condition. The lady behind the counter praised me on that fact. ^_^

As for games I bought... I don't know... KotOR II (Xbox) for €45,- is the best deal I got, seeing as it still goes full-price here. Is it the same in the US?

[Solid Shadow]

I'm not normally one to resurrect pretty-much-dead threads... but I just had to brag about my latest great deal - Phantasy Star II, III, and IV for the Genesis, complete with clamshell cases (except PSIV which comes with the cardboard case Sega utilized near the end of the Genesis' lifespan) and instruction booklets.... ten American dollars for the whole thing.

[In Hindsight]

Good deal! I found my Genesis PS titles fairly cheap through work (Though nowhere near as good as what you found them for), but of course my dumbass boss threw out the cases and manuals after they were traded in, even though he damn well knew I was looking for them *and* that they were pretty valuable.

For that and many other reasons, I really hated that guy.

Oh well, I do still have a complete Phantasy Star for the SMS, no thanks to that douchebag.

[ZenNPCNextDoor]

I doubt anyone will believe me but...
My best deal ever, Xenogears no case, no manual for free. I worked at a Funcoland game store for a week. Anyone who worked there knows that they let employees borrow games for free. For some reason they some how forgot I worked there after a week so I decided to keep the game. That was 8 years ago and I still have the game to this day.

[Darth SS]

KOTOR II for 35$ Canadian.

W00T.

[Rhyos]

GBA about a year ago with both of the most recent GBC Zelda games for $5. :thief:

[Jagos]

Rhyos, I would love to hear details on that one. Seriously, that IS a good deal...

[In Hindsight]

I doubt anyone will believe me but...
My best deal ever, Xenogears no case, no manual for free. I worked at a Funcoland game store for a week. Anyone who worked there knows that they let employees borrow games for free. For some reason they some how forgot I worked there after a week so I decided to keep the game. That was 8 years ago and I still have the game to this day.

Heheheh, not bad at all. They don't mess around with that stuff at all anymore unfortunately; they'd probably send the regional Loss Prevention agent to your front door asking for it back.

I can still top it though, and I think it's the mother-of-all scores I've ever had... Suikoden II, complete for free :D

(Warning, unnecessarily long and drawn-out tale ahead!)

As the story goes, there was a fellow who basically decided to live at my friends' old apartment a couple of years back. 'The guy on the couch', that type... anyway, this couchman didn't have a job or any stable source of income, and people began suspecting him of stealing people's food and drink while distracted, and naturally were none too happy about it. Indeed, he had fallen out of favor with just about everyone in our extended social circle, which generally was not something one wanted to do. One evening, we were all at a party up the street from the aforementioned apartment where my friends and the couchman lived, and I had procured a healthy stock of Steel Reserve for the evening.

Well, as the night pressed on, I took a moment to use the bathroom while I had left my stock of booze on the counter next to the bathroom door, and I'll be damned if I didn't hear someone step near it, pick it all up and hastily retreat. Sure enough, it was gone and so was the couchman; I did what any desperate drunkard would, and high-tailed it down the street to the apartment where he had taken up residence. Sure enough, he was situated on his couch with all of his uninvited homie friends passing my drinks around, so I immediately pointed that out. He tried to say that it was indeed his and he had purchased it all by himself, when I pointed out that I had written my name all over every goddamned can in the pack (In anticipation of having it stolen... I certainly didn't think it would pay off). Of course, by that time it was far too late and the damage had been done; I would spend the night painfully sober and pissed off about it.

So, the next day, I go to one of the rent-paying folk whom I happened to be quite good friends with at the time, and related my experience to him. Being the excitable and violent type, he immediately leapt forward swearing to commit all manner of violent acts upon the hobo sleeping not fifty feet away. I told him I'd feel much more satisfied if I could simply be repaid with a game of my choice from the couchman's collection, to which he reluctantly agreed (This friend particularly enjoyed violence and the like, so he was hesitant to agree to something that didn't end in him kicking thesomeone's ass).

So, with that, I quickly bolted into the living room where the assortment of games lied strewn about, dug through the pile on the floor and rescued my copy of Suikoden II.

[Rhyos]

About the GBA, it wasn't a retail deal. Bought it off of someone who needed gas money. I offered him more, but he refused! :thief:

[Loneyes]

Wow, some of these deals were great.

The best I've ever gotten was Eternal Darkness for ten bucks. They had Wave Race for the same price, but they were out.

[ZenNPCNextDoor]

I can still top it though, and I think it's the mother-of-all scores I've ever had... Suikoden II, complete for free :D


Okay you win. :)