I love retro game stores!

I love retro game stores!

I worked at a mom and pop retro video game store a couple years ago and it was terrible.
even when you have games that are reasonably priced (i.e super mario bros selling for $10 instead of $60+ just because its a "retro classic" game) people dont really buy anything. they just treat your store as a museum and just look around.
i guess the only good thing is being able to play the games all day when the store is slow.

sounds like a pretty cool place to work, dont understand why you hated it

This does not sound profitable.

>go to Gamestop
>cashier is guaranteed to be pretentious obese dudebro witha very forced personality who doesn't know shit about games, says corny things like "right on" and "all day, bro"

>go to mom and pop retro vidya store
>cashiers are always chill, say hi and don't ever bother you while browsing, always knowledgeable and usually have solid taste
>amazing store credit deals

i honestly think it's just NEETs who shitpost about retro stores, I've never had a bad experience with these places.

>tfw have local video game store with everything from NES to PS4

I've gradually been growing to hate to retro commuity over time. It seems like its more about jerking off your memories and denying reality than any appreciation of game design or efforts to preserve obscure hardware.

I don't. They usually have completely ridiculous prices.

It isn't
We had one in our city as well. My friend's wife worked there. They eventually closed down because not a lot of people would actually buy anything.

One of the few things I miss about some of the stores we had around here. Even some of the corporate stores that were lesser known were pretty chill. Now if I go to any store with electronics department to look at games I have a horde of 16 year olds wanting to sell me a warranty on some shit.

I've always wondered how any of these stores actually make money. Their prices for the most part are pretty terrible

Because there's nothing to do?

>i get to hang out with cool people and play retro vidya and eat candy at my job, woe is me :(
You were probably too autistic to make any friends there lel

They mostly don't
In my country, places that sell retro games are mixed with other business, they're never the main attraction of a store.

I'm not the guy that posted the story, you insecure autist.

Low operations cost. Most of the owners will be the ones manning the store. Eliminates the labor cost. If they do hire then it is somebody for like 12 hours a week at min wage. They usually don't require much space. So you can rent/lease a very small area. Doesn't even have to be a completely brand new or good looking space. So you save on that as well. Only other cost is keeping some lights on.

But you would have to be willing to make next to nothing as the owner and do a lot of the work yourself.
It is the reason why with emulation and online shopping they all closed down. Barely any money and the last of it was taken away.

I don't think having nothing to do is a big downside when you're getting paid to do nothing.

The thing about retro game stores is that you need competition. Without competition you'll get shitty prices and mediocre availability.

>Woooooow this store wants 50 bucks for [wildly popular classic SNES title] thats bullshit bro
>now if youll excuse me im gonna go home and emulate it on my pc that my mommy bought me

the problem with retro game stores is that most people that play video games treat them as disposable. Look at how many people didn't give a shit about PS4 and Xbox One not having backwards compatibility at launch. Their entire libraries became completely obsolete but few people cared.

the real question is why don't they have gen 1 and gen 2 console stuff at these stores? I would love to buy from them if they had Atari games

Some ones I've been in just have terrible prices. I went in one recently and they wanted 30 for Mario 3 cart only. After I left I got on ebay on my phone and bought cart plus original manual for 10+3 shipping. Just because something is old doesn't mean it's not abundant. Take Pokemon games for example; every GS wants 50-60 for most of the DS games and each store has dozens in stock. Shits whack yo. This is why I built a raspberry pi.

you don't think about getting paid if you have that kind of job. you stare at walls, look at your watch every thirty seconds and contemplate suicide. i am a former security guard so i know what i'm talking about.

Not that user but as a retail cuck for 11 years I have some experience in doing nothing.
Worked in a small shop, a slow department in a grocery store, and than a graveyard shift at a gas station. Being paid to do nothing is fine if you have something to do like a video game or reading. But most places won't allow it. You just have to stand there for hours on end with nothing to fucking do. Alone with your thoughts. It is very unfulfilling and starts to make you feel depressed.

The 2 by my house are awesome. One has an Asian dude that collects PS1/PS2 games and is super knowledgeable on games. The other has this old white dude that started his store just to talk to people about games and play coop with people who want to hang out.

>tfw your retro game store also sells anime on VHS and DVD.
>tfw its been open for over 20 years now.
>tfw an arcade recently opened up where you live.
>tfw its been open for over 5 years now.
>tfw you pop into both to get some retro game, anime, and play arcade games.
Truly the best.

I like being able to walk in to a retro store and find a fair priced system, game, or accessory - but seeing 20 copies of Madden 94 or something just makes the place feel like shit

some people actually have a sense of self worth
how does it feel being literally at the lowest level of life

Honestly it is because so many places that do buybacks lack a proper inventory system. So they continue to buyback games that don't have any demand and will never sell.

There's a difference between working a soul-sucking job where the boredom is so unbearable it's not worth your sanity. i stopped into a retro vidya store last weekend and the workers were all sitting around playing NBA jam and talking about movies. Idk about you but that sounds like a pretty sweet job compared to other minimum wage jobs.

Because those are the shovelware games that nobody cared about but everyone has. I talked to a clerk once who told me that he was had a guy trade in a small SNES collection and the guy behind him in line bought his copy of Super Metroid instantly.