Retro Game hunting in Japan is a SCAM
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
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We went to some major Japanese cities to hunt for the best retro gaming deals. Here's some places to check out and some to avoid on your next trip.
0:00 Where the rip off's are
4:17 Akihabara
11:03 Nakano
13:51 How Japan can be so cheap
14:43 Misc Tokyo
15:06 Kyoto
16:08 Osaka
19:27 Back to Tokyo (Shinbashi)
21:51 Modding the cheap GBA
23:48 TL;DR
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As an Aussie who has lived in Japan for over 23 years, its the foreigners coming here to film youtube videos that pushed up the price especially in Akihabara. One reason, I don't go there anymore is because I can get things cheaper (and find better things) online on yahoo auctions, mercari etc BUT even those are getting affected due to repackaging companies :(
You're exposing us man 😅
Even in Akihabara, you can find some decent prices if you look around just a bit.
@@LowRezWorld I know, I actually live in Japan. Thats not the problem - TH-camrs have pushed up the prices there. Id rather just stick to my local shops....
@@chrisinjapan5736 Exactly. I love going to my local mom and pop game shop (it was one of the few ways I could get a new console when online stores sold out in seconds).
One of my fav thrift stores is お宝あっとマーケット in Machida.
EXACTLY THIS! I was there this week, I didn’t expect to find much, but damn what I did see was through the roof in price! Super Mario land, cart only - equivalent of $22! You can literally pick it up for $5 - and yes this was (not very) super potato
Japan resident of 10 years here. The retro market about 8 years ago was pretty good. You could pick up a GameBoy Micro for roughly 5,000円 whereas today, they go for 20,000円 or more.
Pokémon games used to be roughly 700-800円 but yesterday I saw them going for 3,000円 or more.
The best place for retro games now is the online auction websites, but they’re not available to tourists.
You could make some trustworthy friends in Japan and have them buy them for you.
The reason the prices have jumped is because the main chain stores KNOW people do what you do. Come over, drop some big coin and head home. So many of them jacked up the prices.
If you go further out from the city, you’ll find mom&pop stores where you might find a few gems. But places like Super Potato can get in the bin. I see people recommend them all the time, and they’re a tourist trap.
A bookoff I went to in Asakadai had great prices, 90mins or so outside of Shinjuku.
Supply and demand 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
So TH-camrs ruined it
@@hypebrain4150 youtubers, resellers, and tourists.
Here's a tip for all of you from a local, when in Tokyo, don't shop at Akihabara! Go outside of Tokyo and look for Bookoff/Hardoff if you want good prices. Even better, go to Nakano Broadway (as mentioned in the vid) for retro stuff. The shops have weird hours as most tend to open around noon and on certain days. Chinese tourist have caused a serious inflation for any shop in Akihabara so do not pay the markup prices unless you have money to burn. I prefer to do my shopping in Osaka Den Den town or Kobe (Sannomiya station).
You can still get good figure prices in Akiba, but yeah for games and shit merchandise especially, I went to Nakano Broadway. Spent about 7 hours or so there haha.
Believe it or not, I did find a boxed Dreamcast in Akiba for 20,000JPY. I only didnt get it due to lack of luggage space.
Prices were great here pre-covid but then scalping really went nuts over the last 10 years or so and stores (finally) clued onto it. Didn't help that a lot of the second hand chains (Hard Off) switched to a centralised pricing catalogue instead of whatever the person pricing things was feeling at the time. Back in 2016 I got a GBA and a stacked selection of games for 2000 Yen with some banging games being 100 yen each. Everything has gotten crazy expensive here
This right here, before covid everything was fine. The hyper focus on what to do staying home during lockdowns skyrocketed all hobby prices exponentially. Now even more so with everybody and their mom wanting to go to Japan and vloging about their finds.
Things really went downhill even before that. I used to live over there and prices were great when I left in 2008. Same when I came back for a visit in 2010. Then in 2015 it was like stores were gutted, prices were much higher, and it was hard to find a lot of stuff unless you went online and paid scalper prices. I just returned from another trip last week and it didn't seem much better. @@EsThirt33n
@@EsThirt33n Personally, I feel the skyrocketing prices for the popular stores has more to do with the borders re-opening than it ever did with the pandemic itself. Tourists really do bring in demand for lots of this stuff. Unless you're out in the sticks or looking for common but unpopular items, you won't find reasonable prices right now.
@@holopengin well boarders reopening due to the pandemic happening. Tourism was always a thing but these businesses had lower prices before with their video games. I personally feel if there was no pandemic prices wouldn't have gotten so crazy and and at such a fast rate. Pre pandemic I was able to buy old consoles and games and handhelds cheap, locally and from abroad via online. I'm so glad I was collecting and repairing/restoring games back then.
High demand, that's all. Everyone is buying retro games now.
TH-camrs always acting like they're not the reason why prices have skyrocketed.
Supply and demand 🤷♂️… do something about it
There is one store that is super tucked away inside of a building called Tokyo Radio Department Store that I think you'd be interested in even if you don't buy anything. Just to provide some context for the building Tokyo Radio Department store was built in era of the 80s so it houses a lot of small shops that specialize in hardware tinkering. The shop in particular I think you might be interested in is called 家電のケンちゃん and it specializes in game and console modding, game development and also sells from retro hardware, and games. The store is tiny but the owner is very passionate about retro consoles and it shows in his small shop. Also, there is actually a few Surugaya in Akihabara but I'm not sure what the prices are like at the ones there versus Osaka's Denden town.
I spent 14 days in Japan exploring Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto in June. Long story short I didn't want to leave. Ever.
I'm here now.
I feel the same!
You haven't lived and worked in Japan. Trust me, you'd want to leave under those conditions lol
@@skippyzk mommy/daddy money millenials always go to japan. How about donate instead, or visit a poor country to help economics.
@@JizzSock_ I love it
@@yourmomsbf878 What if they already donated and visited a poor country?
The crazy prices in this video made me realise how happy I am to have bought all those consoles already years ago. Spending so much time hunting for good deals sounds very stressful to a busy dad like myself 😅
Man, as an Australian it’s kinda wack to see someone refer to those prices as EXPENSIVE. Most PAL region things from the SNES/GBA/N64 era START at those sorts of prices 😭
Usually Japanese products are way cheaper
Those Gameboy prices are like $300+ in AUD
Did you convert AUD to USD to see how much you really play
Yep, limited production for PAL region makes retro game hunting an absolute pain 🥲
Tell me about i nearly fell out of my chair when they found a 3ds XL for $50 aussie ebay is minimum $200 i just want to mod one for the big screen :/
Lived for a few months in a smaller town between Kyoto and Osaka and my local Book Off was an absolute treasure trove. The condition of things wasn’t always the greatest, I imagine a lot of the pristine stuff filters back up to the cities for higher resell, but the point remains that you really need to get out of Tokyo to find the good stuff haha. Too picked over already I’m sure.
@@mr.oe. Word!!
I've gone to Japan 7 times over 10 years. I went looking for retro games the first couple times, but then realized spending $800 on plane tickets to go shopping on vacation was dumb. The prices have also jumped up in the last ~5 years.
same for Dubai for me, everytime I go there, there is nothing to do except shopping there, I spend a lot of money and go back home, but at least it makes me happy, and I have a real good time
@@GuardKZyo that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day
@@comfybaguettefuckin A dude
Yea Surugaya sells all of there stuff online for the same prices and you can use a proxy service to ship it all to the states
Surugaya will ship directly, you don't need a proxy
for me, places like super potato are just like a cool museum of stuff. I never even go to the gift shop in museums and actually BUY anything.
I really appreciate you advertisements. So many people just phone them in but we get these wonderfully produced skits that let us see a side of you that isnt often featured in the video itself.
Man I remember getting GBA Micro's working at Gamestop back in the day and seeing them eventually get marked down. I wish I snagged them up.
Love that SP you built and appreciate the advice! excited to finally make it to Japan next spring. Def going to be hard not to go totally nuts and prioritize what to do while there.
Went in May. One thing I learned is that stock changes daily! I was so pissed on day one in Akihabara but next day there was piles of PC Engine when I couldn't find a single one the day before!
your on screen chemistry with yourself is perfect as usual
Cool video I have been waiting to see that footage it's on my bucket list to get there.
Also just wanted to say you make the commercials worth watching haha hope your sponsors know that. Usually I just skip through sponsors but you really put the effort in to make them entertaining
Smart thing to do, pending on your schedule, is make notes of prices/conditions/locations and when you have looked around at varying places you can revisit them, assuming you don't know values. I'm not into collecting gaming stuff, but I do collect some trading card stuff. I got really excited for an ultimate rare chaos emp dragon for like $80, only to find it plenty of places around tokyo and osaka for like $40 afterwards.
You have to leave the tourist areas and go out of the cities and then youll find everything dirt cheap
I love this! I love these and I appreciate your input regarding retro game hunting in Japan! There is a Book-Off in Midtown Manhattan, I know because I’ve been in there myself, but that was nearly 20 years ago. Maybe give that a try. I don’t know if they have games, but you never know!
Great Stuff, as always!
Search for a random Hard-Off in some rural town, take a train there and enjoy.
The first one of these types of videos I've watched from beginning to end. Very nice.
Bob’s out here keeping us safe on future trips to Japan! 👏
Thanks for the insightful video, Bob. I had no idea Akihabara wasn't cheap anymore. Glad to know that I should be focusing my attention on other cities when it comes to retro game hunting.
Thanks for sharing, as I really enjoyed seeing your trip. That modded clear shell GBA with the custom bracket looks amazing!
Nakano Broadway is best hit at the busy times so that more shops are open. A number of times I have visited 1/3 of the stores are closed, but coming back mid day on a Saturday or Sunday was usually pretty good.
They also have a store with a bunch of fallout collectibles, which is hard to find in japan
Local living in Tokyo here, I went to Akihabara literally a week before and a week after the tourist ban was lifted, all stores literally double or tripled the prices of everything, because they know very well tourists will pay any price, it's a shame, only good spots now are bookoff/hardoff outside of Tokyo, or Mercari/Yahoo Auction online
Can you bargain with the Japanese? Or do they take it as insult?
Japanese don't bargain. Most of these stores are chains and the prices are fixed. Independent stores will say no negotiation in the best case, give you the stink eye in the worst case.
@@lookitskazzyThat's what I thought. Thanks for sharing!
The custom made Gameboy is awesome! I wish I would be able to do something like that one day. Having your own custom gameboy is the way to go.
Amazing video, and amazing mod you did on the gba sp❤️ Love you Bob
you make the only ads i wont skip 💯
I agree with you Bob. When I was there, I enjoyed Osaka a lot more since it was so much cheaper there.
Search for Denden Town next time. I got so many Pokémon Plushies from that area.
I’m gonna be going to Japan in a year, so I was really hyped to watch this video to see where the good deals are!
Look for Hard Offs outside the major cities
I love how you guys are like a little family
Even with the retro gaming scams, I still hope to visit Japan one day.
Same but I'm just going to hit up some stores in smaller towns
this video discouraged me, now I don't want to go there
Honestly I just want to visit Japan because Japan is cool! I just so happen to be an anime/video game nerd but I really do enjoy their culture and Japanese food sounds really good rn.
@GuardKZ just ask someone local where to go, if there's a lot of tourists you're in the wrong area entirely
You should, every place has scams. Japan is an amazing experience and I highly recommend it. Good to do research a head of time though, it can get crazy there lol
Thank you Bob. Living the dream buddy, living the dream… fun to watch you doin cool stuff! 😊
I've been to JP many times and the last time I found good deals in Akiba was 2016. Afterwards I basically never even tried Akiba anymore as there is no deal to be found, too famous, too many tourists. I made a video about it in 2018 on a friend channel and covered the same content you covered in this video. I think the situation got even worse post COVID, but the bottom line didn't change. Good deals are at Book Offs or in obscure stores far away from the major tourist hubs.
Love you put your new machine up front and centre for the ad lol
Going this weekend! Hopefully I find some good deals on retro games
I've been shopping in Akihabara since 2009, and although prices have increased: gameboys and game and watch systems have always been expensive there for whatever reason. There are shops and deals to be found there but you really have to search. Unfortunately, and this isn't me being critical of you, but it is videos like this that kind of intensify the problem for other places.
Great video, but y’all MISSED by not going into book-offs and hard-offs… those thrift stores are GOLD MINES if you’re willing to dig a bit deeper
at the end he said they went to a few book offs and hard offs
Bob that spacer for the GBA-SP is fire!
That Advance you modded is beautiful! Love it.
That gran turismo 5 lounge music is 🔥. Brought back many memories
This mirrored my trip to Tokyo + Kyoto in May. I know there's better deals outside the city centers, but it was still fun stocking up on used PC Engine and Super Famicom games while sightseeing. But it would've been the same price on ebay :D
Pretty sure local retro collectors hated foreign collectors for making their hobby expensive..
It was cheap to get before all these "videogame tourism" things going on..
Surugaya is a chain second hand store and you can find a BUNCH of them in Tokyo too. I'm not 100% sure if the prices would differ from the Osaka store, but from what I know they should be around the same.
Your Gameboy SP is sick! I love it and your logo looks amazing!
Thanks for sharing your trip, I hope I get to go there one day.
I came to the same conclusion in 2016. I could find things for less on eBay with shipping. It’s fun to see things in the Wild. But it’s important to not get caught up in the moment.
Good to see nothing's changed. Book Off and Hard Off outside the city still are king. Honestly even the Hard Off in Ueno was decent (still kinda kicking myself for not picking up a "broken" 1st gen PS3, but that was before the whole capacitor deal came to light so I really couldn't have known, bet they're gone now though haha) and the ones at less touristy areas are fine too, remember seeing a pretty neat deal on a 3DS "near" Tabata station.
I recently got back from Japan and i was completely baffled and shocked at how expensive the retro game market was. The last time I visited was pre-covid and the prices are completely different. I wanted to pick up some gameboy handhelds and chains like Super Potato and other shops especially in Akihabara were selling loose colors for well over ¥23,000. I was completely disappointed because I knew I could get the same thing in my home country for over half that price.
I did find luck at Suragaya stores in Osaka, got a CIB gameboy pocket and CIB color for under ¥14,000 each tax free.
Almost everywhere in Akihabara is a scam now. The Book Off by the station is decent but its still priced higher than Book Offs outside of central Tokyo.
The only other decent place in Akiba was Sofmap.
that blue and white DS parts are gonna look nice together.
I 've lived in Japan for 14 years. Now and then I hit Tokyo and see Akihabara. The place always had the most expensive prices but recently it has really gone into scam mode. Well, the yen is weak but I think they took it too far.
I did the same and this wasn’t my experience at all. Yes, some things are expensive (notably GBA being about 10000¥ everywhere I looked) but nothing else was that price. I got OOT, SM64, a Super game boy, and a phat PS3 for a total of 60$.
I mostly stuck to Book Offs which worked really decently well, especially in the smaller towns
That is the coolest GBA SP I’ve ever seen. Well done
"Wait why am I excited for this, I have this" I felt that a little too much 😂😂
From my experience, the BookOffs/HardOffs and Surugayas outside the major cities are pretty good. I went to a Surugaya in Niigata and they had loose N64 games for 100 yen. (There's also a Surugaya in Shinjuku that I think is slept on).
Also, that store you showed off in Nakano was a very good find! They had game guides and artbooks I've never seen before!
I live in Niigata and have never heard of Surugaya. Is it similar to Book Off?
WAIT, there is a new one from a few months ago that opened near Niigata Station I think. I know where I'm going... even though I already have too many games
Mandarake as well. Nagoya is a gold mine, some Book-Offs/Surugaya's/Mandarake's have no idea what they have.
Just got back from Japan as well, looked most around Akihabra as well but ending up travelling to some hard offs like an hour train ride out from tokyo, managed to find some great deals at some hard offs on a few PSP's and a GBA SP which was great. Walking an hour to get to the store and back in the rain not so much.
The quick "That's the one.", got me
I've reconstructed a fully functional PSP from spare parts. Biggest problem now is finding a battery that hasn't transmogrified into a spicy pillow. Very surprised my extended life battery in my 2001 model is still intact, unlike all my other spare batteries
Bob acknowledging Trainer Tips made my day 🎉
I was literally in lashinbang yesterday and got some great deals. They're very upfront about the console conditions too
That Gameboy advanced sp looks SICK! Awesome video
That clear GBA SP is a thing of beauty 😍
Just FYI, in the chapters, "rip off's" shouldn't have an apostrophe.
It's just a plurality of "rip off", no possession (nothing belongs to "rip off") or contraction (not "rip off is").
Got it bro
The finished SP was sick!
I went 6 years ago. Wasnt too expensive then. Even so, it such a blast seeing so many retro games all around you.
Nice trip bro....planning for a japan trip too next year...wulf can you tell roughly how much you spent or how much roughly to bring for a 1 week atleast
Ahh as a 2004 baby, I got to get one of those tribal gamboy advanced sp editions and I will never forget it. 🥺
You don't need a car to go to rural Japan. You can just take the train. Japanese cities and towns are pretty walkable or have rental bicycles available at the local tourist association.
I looted across the entire country (Literally from as south as Okinnawa, all the way to the far north in Abashiri) back in november 2022, was incredible (Literally STILL unboxing all my stuff) back then as the country had just opened up and the shops were full of goods traded in during the pandemic... but still you avoid the tourist spots or you'll get your wallet dissolved.
Oh and if you want coffee, go travel to Indonesia!
Glad you had a great time!!
Awesome! What places would you recommend!?
@@Eight-Bit-Hustler I know a lot of people say it but honestly BOOKOFF, HARDOFF, BOOKOFF SUPER etc are all very good places, just make sure the journey isn't easy to get to from a city center as that'll often have been picked apart by vultures (much like myself I suppose).
I did a video on my ideas on where to go and tips etc, but the short of it is that if you want cheap treasure you have to be willing to do either a lot of walking (like I did) or a lot of driving!
I would have taken a car but I was over a year into my world travels and my international driving license expired. but that's ok, out of all the world, Japan is the most walking friendly.
Bro is the gaming Mongol lmao
This is amazing information 🤩🤩🤩
I'm reminding myself when we clearanced our GBA retro micros for $10 at Walmart back in the day and I never bought them. I'm kicking myself to this day
As someone who is hardly familiar with upkeeping/modding old consoles, I'm wondering why it's necessary to have high quality consoles such as that SP for modding? What's point in inspecting the quality of the shell if you're going to replace it anyways? As long as it's functional, wouldn't it be wiser to recycle old beat-up consoles?
I'm sure you've been asked this before and I can kind of figure out the answers myself, but I'd like to hear what you have to say about it.
Awesome video, by the way. I'll definitely keep these places in mind if I ever get to go one day.
Surugaya and Hard off are my two favorite chains. I was able to piece together a PC engine for cheap by going to two different stores. Both stores are also located in Akihabara and if I remember right its like down the street from super potato
Literally just read someone’s comment saying Hard Off was garbage because they switched to a centralized price model instead of whatever the shopkeeper was feeling when he wrote the tag. Which means much harder to get good deals
@@wolfiemusedude I watched a British retro TH-camr that just went and Hard Off is definitely cheap outside the cities
@@wolfiemuse Ah ok, I went earlier in the year and was able to find some cool stuff. Prob still better than Super Potato, I went to both Osaka and Tokyo locations and wasn't really impressed with either.
@@TheMysteryDriver Dunno! The comment talking shit about it was right above this one at the time so I had to say something 🤣 I don’t live there just saying what someone else said
yes!! surugaya is so good!!! glad you found one of their stores!
The transparent gameboy advance sp looks incredible!
Thanks for the Video, very interesting 🙏🏼
I bought a near mint DSi XL something like three years ago, at Gamestop of all places. It costed me just 25 euros. They just wanted to get rid of it and I felt like I won the lottery, one of the best deals I've ever got.
This just makes me want to go on sendico and obsess over systems I'll never use. Thanks Bob.
That Sp mode you did is beautiful !!!!! Im hoping one day to make it to Japan myself. Cant wait to see the coffee Video on the other channel
The clear GBA looks awesome. You’ve made me want to buy a GBA and delete the core on my AP.
The trip looked awesome apart from some of those prices, glad you had a good time 👍🏼
How is it a scam if they have the price on the item and know what you are paying money for they have to pay for rent and staff in Tokyo of course these costs are going to be passed onto the customer for the convenience of walking into a store and buying a game. The game & watch was clearly labelled as broken and you just didn’t bother to check you were in Japan and it was written clearly in Japanese.
Would of been cool to see Will in Japan and seeing him nerd out on stuff.
Best sponsored segments on yt
I just won a bid on eBay for that exact same color AGS-001 with factory charger box even came with an aftermarket headphone jack adapter for $60 thing has 1 light scratch on the top cover no other damage at all I was so shocked
I went to do retro game shopping in 2018 and the prices for everything has essentially doubled in Tokyo
That's because you went to "Major Japanese Cities". Check out Retro Future's video series about hunting for video games in japan to know where to go.
I went to Japan in August, it was 37℃ in Akihabara when I went, when I was outside I had to keep walking so I could breath at times. I had fun.
There are several Surugaya in Akihabara, they are a bit cheaper.
Nakano also has many good second-hand camera shops.
The new case looks cool, but that Blue SP is literally my favorite color SP, and my favorite color ;0;
thanks for the memories of the gba sp. I played mine so much the shoulders and hinge plastic broke off.
For retro games you need to go to HARD off (yes that's legit the name) BOOK OFF is mostly more modern games along with manga, figures, etc
Not gonna lie of everything you bought that Rockman double pack is the one I'm most jelly of. I so desperately want the legends series to come back. 😂
Just recently got back from Japan, and the first thing I did was visit Akihabara, it was amazing, I found some great deals, however, I do agree the retro consoles were a bit expensive if that's your thing, I was more into retro games which Super Potato had some great deals on. Also, there were a number of other retro stores in Aki that were cheaper than Super Potato and Bic Camera, but yeah Osaka and Kyoto were really great for deals as well. Overall I highly recommend Akihabara if you're visiting Japan, especially if it's for the first time.
Side note: for me, the coffee was not that great IMO, just your typical espresso drinks nothing out of the ordinary. The matcha drinks in Kyoto though were amazing.
Where can I get that orange Dpad that you have on your steam deck, is there a purchase link?
As an American living in Osaka, I can heartily agree that Super Potato is a huge rip off. The prices you mentioned in Osaka are pretty good, but if you go to Book Off (sometimes Hard Off) you can find things even cheaper. Gameboy colors for $12, DS Lite's for $15, and perhaps the best deal I ever got here, an original Playstation with one controller, video cables and the power adapter for 500 yen, or about $3. Not all Book Offs will have what you're looking for, and sometimes they do hike their prices up, but it's easily the best place to go if you're looking for mor common things like consoles or popular games. You can also almost always get a Famicom for 500 yen there as well, they're just trying to get rid of them over here
Can't wait to visit Japan some day.
Really hope it's not super hard to get a passport, haha.
That SP!
I have wanted to mod one for so long. this one is gorgeous!