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 :(
@@LowRezWorld I know, I actually live in Japan. Thats not the problem - UA-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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
same goes with photography, a 15yrs old model no one gave a sht about it, a couple of youtuber makes fancy videos on how is the goat camera, prices goes from $25 to $450 overnight, cope my ahh, im starting to think they do this on purpose in order to gatekeep people out of the market
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 😅
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
One thing that i dont get it is, why people has those huge rooms with a ton of old games that they almost never play or played, must take like forever to clean all that stuff. I know, it do look nice and all, but... Won't make more sense to get only the top tier that you played back in the day ? I do like retro gaming and I have a GBA SP AGS001 with Metroid Fusion, Zero Mission, Zelda Minish cap and Four Swords and thats it, I dont need the entiery game boy collection to be happy. I would also be pretty much happy only with a N64, a Starfox64 cartridge and a rumble pack on the controller. but I dont have those because it is quite hard to get it one here on Brazil because of the overpiced value and huge taxes
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 😭
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..
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").
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.
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.
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!
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'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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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!
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
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.
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
@@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
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.
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!!
@@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.
I would frequent Akihabara in 2013-2015 and it was a great place to shop. But I expect with the way social media has exploded that all the good deals have gone away. It's similar to how thrift shopping has died off because of social media and finding the value people are willing to pay.
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!
It's a real shame they put such huge prices on their retro products, they'd likely have better luck doing cheaper prices, as foreigners would go absolutely mad buying in bulk, no? - Great video Bob, it looks like you had a blast, im very jealous!
I went to Japan recently 2 weeks and honestly if you want cheap retro games or trading cards go to Osaka. I made the mistake of passing up purchases thinking Tokyo would have a bigger and cheaper selection and that was not the case.
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.
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.
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
When I was living there I scored a Gameboy Color for $30 and Pokemon Red and Blue for $5 each. I think if you go to tourist towns, you're going to see tourist prices lol.
When I bought stuff, they tried very hard to reiterate things were "dirty" or "broken". They weren't really when I got them home and opened them up, but damn.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'm right now in Osaka and went to that store... the cheapest gameboy they had was 19k. After looking in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Kobe and now Osaka, I couldn't find a gameboy bellow 18k. It's so sad that my tiny country has better prices than the place this thing came to be. Ill try some cities more before going back, but I've lost almost all hope of getting a fair deal. And before anyone says "go to a hard-off out of the cities", how is that a good plan for a first timer in Japan? I don't want to risk going to multiple locations to find a who-knows-the-condition console while spending 1, 2 or 3k yens in those travels and loosing the time I could be exploring the cities I've planned with other people. I found a small store in Kobe that had amazing prices comparatively, but they had nor the games nor the consoles I was looking for. So yeah, retro gaming prices here are kind of disappointing.
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
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.
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
The train lines are so convenient in the greater Tokyo area that there's no excuse to retro game hunt in Akihabara and co. !! I've never seen a good deal there. I lived in Saitama for half a year and went to 3-4 different Off Houses/Lobby Offs/Hard Offs every 2-ish weeks to see what was new, and I got SO many great deals (though my suitcases wouldn't think of it as *great*). You can also try other second-hand stores like Treasure Factory or whatever's more local. Japan's more remote cities are also beautiful and a lot of fun to explore :)
You just need to know where to look. The retro game stores in major cities like Tokyo and Osaka naturally have much higher prices to prey on gullible foreigners, whereas in the more rural areas of Japan retro games are generally incredibly cheap.
8:41 So jealous of that one. I bought a white DSi LL the other day for around the same price but that was a bit beat up with slightly yellowed screens. You can find replacements but those are far more expensive. Mostly just bought it because I had never seen a white one before. I do have a good condition green DSi XL for actually playing I guess. As for PSPs I highly recommend them. I used to be deep into the modding scene and own every model of the system. Get a 3000 if you mainly plan to play physical games, you can still easily mod it. Get a Go for the best screen and if you mainly plan to play the less legal ways. They are all quite easy to work on except the Go. About the same level as 3ds I'd say.
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 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
In Ibaraki at a Wonder Goo and Hard Off I found some 'junk' GBCs for 300 yen each {1 had a slightly unresponsive start button}, Gameboy Camera for 100 yen and a green DS Light for 1000 yen. Junk sections are you friend.
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.
The main reason its so expensive is because the stores know foreigners are flying over to buy them in bulk and ship them back to their country to sell for profit.
You didn't hit any Hard Offs or Book Offs? Heard those are fantastic, especially the junk sections. Also, retro collecting has been kind of garbage for many years now. $40 to $50 is not supposed to be "cheap" for busted up, average condition Game Boy handhelds.
Biggest mistake I made was shopping for retrogames in the giant big stores in the major cities. My brain simply couldn't handle the range, the music, the noises and I gave up after 4 hours of doing circles.
Which Surugaya Specialty Store...I went to 3 at Nipponbashi around Otaroad and only one had games at all and it was a very small selection at that. Somebody please answer if you know I'm in osaka for 3 more days...
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
I just went to Japan and wished I had watched your video before. I didn't make any purchase in Akihabara as indeed the price were not that interesting. But it was nice to see all these shops. I was not looking for anything in particular but I wanted a memorabilia from the land of video games. I went to a small shop in Kamakura called Retro Games Kamakura B Dash, I'm not an expert in retro gaming but I got a SNES Zelda links to the past for $10, I'm happy with that one souvenir. Plus the owner is super nice and did everything he could to help (he was very proud to tell me they about 1000 of the NES games - over the ~1500 existing one). It's a very small shop but if you go to Kamakura for a beach day (it's ~1-1.5 hours away from Tokyo center), it's a nice little stop. The one thing I was looking for was a new set of joy-con as the one I had on the trip started misbehaving and didn't really find anything interesting. I ended up getting a Hori split pad fit Apricot-red for ~$17, which is ~1/3 of the price from where I live. It's really a shame that the Switch has the potential to make the your console unique with special designed Joy-cons.
The best that I’ve ever seen for games in Japan was back in 2001. There were arcades everywhere and the shelves were full of cheap games that you’d only find in the showcases nowadays. I came back from Tokyo last week and it pales in comparison, even Nakano was disappointing. My advice is to not visit just to buy games, the prices and the selection just isn’t there. Go to Japan to experience everything else, the country is an amazing ride.
I’m so glad i didn’t buy any retro consoles in Akihabara while travelling in Tokyo last month. I found handhelds are much cheaper on eBay here in the UK. I bought a pokemon black DSi for £70.
Hey Mr Wolff :) I’m going to Tokyo and Osaka next week! I can’t find the address of the Surugaya Specialty store on google maps, would you happen to have the address?
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
I found a Donkey Kong Game & Watch essentially new in box at my towns local thrift shop for $2 when I was like 7 years old. I was with my daycare lady while she was doing some errands in town and basically just got it bc I was bored, had a couple bucks in my pocket for if the ice cream man came around and I wanted a toy and that was THE ONLY electronic/gamey thing they had at that store. Barely ever played it but man was that thing gorgeous! I had a few other game & watches lying around my house growing up thanks to my older brother, but they were the single screen and multiplayer ones and nothing like the dual screen DK one. Still had it up until recently although idk if I do anymore. I had to move a few times and I fear it might’ve gotten lost in one of them (but it could just as well be in a box I have in storage so idk, just kno I have seen it in years). I kno I’ve def lost a lot of other great stuff like that over the years, like my OG Pokémon holo binder that had a couple hundred holos in it from the original card sets that I think my neighbor stole from my garage back in the day. And not to mention like nearly all my ps1/ps2/xbox/dreamcast/gc games that I foolishly scattered around in multiple cd books back in the day which have gradually disappeared. And while systems, like got my snes games but no clue what happened to my original snes, Genesis or ps2. So idk gonna stop dwelling on that bc it makes me sad lol but man I’ll never forget getting that game & watch when I was a kid! Really hope I still have it somewhere.
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 - UA-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
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.
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.
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 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.
UA-camrs always acting like they're not the reason why prices have skyrocketed.
Supply and demand 🤷♂️… do something about it
Cope
same goes with photography, a 15yrs old model no one gave a sht about it, a couple of youtuber makes fancy videos on how is the goat camera, prices goes from $25 to $450 overnight, cope my ahh, im starting to think they do this on purpose in order to gatekeep people out of the market
@@RayRaySD941people love to complain like Jessie the dumb ass
Seriously, your local store can't even have a sale anymore without people making videos about what to go buy.
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 😅
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
One thing that i dont get it is, why people has those huge rooms with a ton of old games that they almost never play or played, must take like forever to clean all that stuff.
I know, it do look nice and all, but...
Won't make more sense to get only the top tier that you played back in the day ?
I do like retro gaming and I have a GBA SP AGS001 with Metroid Fusion, Zero Mission, Zelda Minish cap and Four Swords and thats it, I dont need the entiery game boy collection to be happy.
I would also be pretty much happy only with a N64, a Starfox64 cartridge and a rumble pack on the controller. but I dont have those because it is quite hard to get it one here on Brazil because of the overpiced value and huge taxes
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 :/
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.
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..
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
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.
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.
You have to leave the tourist areas and go out of the cities and then youll find everything dirt cheap
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.
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!
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'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.
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
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
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!
Bob’s out here keeping us safe on future trips to Japan! 👏
The first one of these types of videos I've watched from beginning to end. Very nice.
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.
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.
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.
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 UA-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
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.
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
I would frequent Akihabara in 2013-2015 and it was a great place to shop. But I expect with the way social media has exploded that all the good deals have gone away. It's similar to how thrift shopping has died off because of social media and finding the value people are willing to pay.
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.
It's a real shame they put such huge prices on their retro products, they'd likely have better luck doing cheaper prices, as foreigners would go absolutely mad buying in bulk, no? - Great video Bob, it looks like you had a blast, im very jealous!
15:40 for those carbon fiber mini sub fans out there 😂
I cannot seem to find the Surugaya Specilaty Store in osaka. The only one that shows up on google maps is the one in Akihabara.
I went to Japan recently 2 weeks and honestly if you want cheap retro games or trading cards go to Osaka. I made the mistake of passing up purchases thinking Tokyo would have a bigger and cheaper selection and that was not the case.
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 always thought that retro gaming was cheap in Japan. I guess it makes sense that some stores would rack up the price
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
But aren’t those handhelds region locked?
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.
Retro game shopping in Akihabara post covid is bad idea especially around other tourists.
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
the main guy yelling so loud it's straining his voice lol
When I was living there I scored a Gameboy Color for $30 and Pokemon Red and Blue for $5 each. I think if you go to tourist towns, you're going to see tourist prices lol.
When I bought stuff, they tried very hard to reiterate things were "dirty" or "broken". They weren't really when I got them home and opened them up, but damn.
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.
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.
When Bob pays for the overpriced Snake figurine "noooo!".
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.
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.
I'm right now in Osaka and went to that store... the cheapest gameboy they had was 19k. After looking in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Kobe and now Osaka, I couldn't find a gameboy bellow 18k. It's so sad that my tiny country has better prices than the place this thing came to be. Ill try some cities more before going back, but I've lost almost all hope of getting a fair deal. And before anyone says "go to a hard-off out of the cities", how is that a good plan for a first timer in Japan? I don't want to risk going to multiple locations to find a who-knows-the-condition console while spending 1, 2 or 3k yens in those travels and loosing the time I could be exploring the cities I've planned with other people. I found a small store in Kobe that had amazing prices comparatively, but they had nor the games nor the consoles I was looking for. So yeah, retro gaming prices here are kind of disappointing.
The quick "That's the one.", got me
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
I love how you guys are like a little family
What about the Surugayas and Lashingban in Akihabara? Are they more expensive there than in Osaka/Kyoto?
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
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.
Retro game collecting was so much easier in the 90s, companies would make games & you could buy them at the store
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
The train lines are so convenient in the greater Tokyo area that there's no excuse to retro game hunt in Akihabara and co. !! I've never seen a good deal there. I lived in Saitama for half a year and went to 3-4 different Off Houses/Lobby Offs/Hard Offs every 2-ish weeks to see what was new, and I got SO many great deals (though my suitcases wouldn't think of it as *great*). You can also try other second-hand stores like Treasure Factory or whatever's more local. Japan's more remote cities are also beautiful and a lot of fun to explore :)
That's my plan when I go. Heading to the smaller towns Hardoffs
your on screen chemistry with yourself is perfect as usual
You just need to know where to look. The retro game stores in major cities like Tokyo and Osaka naturally have much higher prices to prey on gullible foreigners, whereas in the more rural areas of Japan retro games are generally incredibly cheap.
Elliot Coll from Retro Future channel just did a series there showing where to go and save on shipping
I literally just got back from Japan yesterday, I scored a new in box ds lite for $19 and a dsi for $9, you just can’t shop in akihabara.
8:41 So jealous of that one. I bought a white DSi LL the other day for around the same price but that was a bit beat up with slightly yellowed screens. You can find replacements but those are far more expensive.
Mostly just bought it because I had never seen a white one before. I do have a good condition green DSi XL for actually playing I guess.
As for PSPs I highly recommend them. I used to be deep into the modding scene and own every model of the system.
Get a 3000 if you mainly plan to play physical games, you can still easily mod it. Get a Go for the best screen and if you mainly plan to play the less legal ways.
They are all quite easy to work on except the Go. About the same level as 3ds I'd say.
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 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
In Ibaraki at a Wonder Goo and Hard Off I found some 'junk' GBCs for 300 yen each {1 had a slightly unresponsive start button}, Gameboy Camera for 100 yen and a green DS Light for 1000 yen. Junk sections are you friend.
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.
Where can I get that orange Dpad that you have on your steam deck, is there a purchase link?
Your Gameboy SP is sick! I love it and your logo looks amazing!
4:32 what store for those plushies?
There are several Surugaya in Akihabara, they are a bit cheaper.
Nakano also has many good second-hand camera shops.
a tech "influencer" complaining about high retro game prices made me lol
you're literally the cause buddy
hey buddy
Is this the real hampter?!@@hampter_4_real
It's@@hampter_4_real !!! 😮😮
WOAH THE Hampter@@hampter_4_real
@@hampter_4_real now I KNOW there is no chance this is the real hampter 😳
The main reason its so expensive is because the stores know foreigners are flying over to buy them in bulk and ship them back to their country to sell for profit.
Damn it. Now Surugaya gonna raise their prices after this video lol.
You didn't hit any Hard Offs or Book Offs? Heard those are fantastic, especially the junk sections.
Also, retro collecting has been kind of garbage for many years now. $40 to $50 is not supposed to be "cheap" for busted up, average condition Game Boy handhelds.
What's the name of that mall where the Surugaya was located?
That Advance you modded is beautiful! Love it.
Biggest mistake I made was shopping for retrogames in the giant big stores in the major cities. My brain simply couldn't handle the range, the music, the noises and I gave up after 4 hours of doing circles.
Which Surugaya Specialty Store...I went to 3 at Nipponbashi around Otaroad and only one had games at all and it was a very small selection at that. Somebody please answer if you know I'm in osaka for 3 more days...
1:26 jesus…the last time I was in Akihabara (2017) Pokemon Yellow was a 700yen game
Love you put your new machine up front and centre for the ad lol
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
What's the address of the Surugaya store he went to in Osaka?
Planning to visit..
17:42 the gameboy color doing a little dance!!
The new case looks cool, but that Blue SP is literally my favorite color SP, and my favorite color ;0;
I just went to Japan and wished I had watched your video before. I didn't make any purchase in Akihabara as indeed the price were not that interesting. But it was nice to see all these shops. I was not looking for anything in particular but I wanted a memorabilia from the land of video games. I went to a small shop in Kamakura called Retro Games Kamakura B Dash, I'm not an expert in retro gaming but I got a SNES Zelda links to the past for $10, I'm happy with that one souvenir. Plus the owner is super nice and did everything he could to help (he was very proud to tell me they about 1000 of the NES games - over the ~1500 existing one). It's a very small shop but if you go to Kamakura for a beach day (it's ~1-1.5 hours away from Tokyo center), it's a nice little stop.
The one thing I was looking for was a new set of joy-con as the one I had on the trip started misbehaving and didn't really find anything interesting. I ended up getting a Hori split pad fit Apricot-red for ~$17, which is ~1/3 of the price from where I live. It's really a shame that the Switch has the potential to make the your console unique with special designed Joy-cons.
The best that I’ve ever seen for games in Japan was back in 2001. There were arcades everywhere and the shelves were full of cheap games that you’d only find in the showcases nowadays. I came back from Tokyo last week and it pales in comparison, even Nakano was disappointing.
My advice is to not visit just to buy games, the prices and the selection just isn’t there. Go to Japan to experience everything else, the country is an amazing ride.
So you didn't go to the smaller towns for the HardOns?
I’m so glad i didn’t buy any retro consoles in Akihabara while travelling in Tokyo last month. I found handhelds are much cheaper on eBay here in the UK. I bought a pokemon black DSi for £70.
Ahh as a 2004 baby, I got to get one of those tribal gamboy advanced sp editions and I will never forget it. 🥺
When In went to Tokio in 2018, I got 2x Nintendo DS Lite, 2x DSi and a 3DS. I paid less than 5$ each on flea markets.
Hey Mr Wolff :) I’m going to Tokyo and Osaka next week! I can’t find the address of the Surugaya Specialty store on google maps, would you happen to have the address?
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
I found a Donkey Kong Game & Watch essentially new in box at my towns local thrift shop for $2 when I was like 7 years old.
I was with my daycare lady while she was doing some errands in town and basically just got it bc I was bored, had a couple bucks in my pocket for if the ice cream man came around and I wanted a toy and that was THE ONLY electronic/gamey thing they had at that store.
Barely ever played it but man was that thing gorgeous! I had a few other game & watches lying around my house growing up thanks to my older brother, but they were the single screen and multiplayer ones and nothing like the dual screen DK one.
Still had it up until recently although idk if I do anymore. I had to move a few times and I fear it might’ve gotten lost in one of them (but it could just as well be in a box I have in storage so idk, just kno I have seen it in years). I kno I’ve def lost a lot of other great stuff like that over the years, like my OG Pokémon holo binder that had a couple hundred holos in it from the original card sets that I think my neighbor stole from my garage back in the day. And not to mention like nearly all my ps1/ps2/xbox/dreamcast/gc games that I foolishly scattered around in multiple cd books back in the day which have gradually disappeared. And while systems, like got my snes games but no clue what happened to my original snes, Genesis or ps2.
So idk gonna stop dwelling on that bc it makes me sad lol but man I’ll never forget getting that game & watch when I was a kid! Really hope I still have it somewhere.
This just makes me want to go on sendico and obsess over systems I'll never use. Thanks Bob.