I went to Japan for the first time back in January and was indeed a little disappointed with the selection of retro games in the big cities, it's not like there weren't some good deals, but they were definitely fewer and farther between than I would've expected. Before flying home though I was genuinely shocked to see how much better the selection and prices were at the Book Off in Narita where I must've bought almost half my games on my last day in the country. Next time I go I'll explore more of the suburbs and smaller towns for sure though, just hope the supply out in the sticks stays around in the meantime though 😅
Great video my dude. Yeah this unfortunately isn't surprising. The Japanese video game market just can't keep up with the demand with people abroad being able to come into the country and buy and also having resellers on ebay and online store fronts like surugaya selling simultaneously as well. Between inflation and supply limitations, the days of buying cheap Japanese video games are over. It was good run but if you want something now, it's the time to get it. Especially for the golden age of consoles. Things like PS1 PS2 DS will still have good supply for a while but everything else before the 2010s should be considered an endangered species.
Where are the games then ? On foreign shelves, majority in the US ? If Tokyo closets are dry they won’t came back I recently bought japanese games cheaper in Europe than what it would cost me to import which makes no sense to me
A lot of people watched these videos from various channels over the last few years and tried to bank on the trend by buying up a lot of games and other stuff, importing them and trying to flip them. As with everything else though, this market is now overly saturated and all of the EU/US re-sellers, who didn't do their due diligence, didn't stop and think that not many people can actually read/speak Japanese so the customer pool is actually much narrower than some of these channels made it look because of the views that they get. Now they can't get rid of their stock anymore because everybody is doing it and nobody is buying them.
@@ChaosZero. I mean I had the intel about it personally since the early 2010s, while I didn’t had the money I have now, which is a frustrating experience. I can indeed see prices getting similar to Japan in EU (with Japan getting expensive), Id rather pay a common game 20€ here than 10€ in Japan if you think about the massive import taxes we get nowadays in EU (a day light robbery to be honest).
I would argue that the Kansai with Super Potato, Retro Game Revival, Book Off, Surugaya etc not to mention my favorite chain Ojamakan and many Hard Offs around are better for retro video game collecting. Having said that i haven't been back to Den Den Town since 2019 but Ojamakan is not a tourist location, nor are many of the Surugayas as they are in tiny towns like Takatsuki where you hardly find tourists
Hey Henry, happy to say this is still the case in 2023. I went to Ojamakan stores in Noe, and Nagai in Osaka and also the one in Kyoto a few days ago - all of which were well stocked. Full shelves in the Osaka Super Potato which is good go see. I know they closed their 2nd store in Den Den town so maybe the inventory had been consolidated to the one store? All of that being said, the prices were crazy 😅
If you go to Fukuoka not really Was there last week got games but seems to be emptied out. And nothing was a real bargain book offs and hard offs were really disappointing.
During corona it was so good. I went to Super Potato had about 30 copies of Dreamcast Biohazard games. I just went back today and there wasn't a single copy left.
I have a feeling this will also increase a weird idiosyncratic view for the Japanese too, they must get annoyed just like how they are with foreigners using mercari now.
My range of wants go from famicom, Gba all the way up to ps3. The game world is vast and there are always cheap games, if famicom goes to 200 a game buy ps3 at 5 a game.
I'm noticing less games in Nagoya as well. Especially around the city area. Lets see how it looks like outside the city. Going in the coming days.
When there's a good game, the owner of the store takes you to a special room like if he was selling you Gizmo.
I went to Japan for the first time back in January and was indeed a little disappointed with the selection of retro games in the big cities, it's not like there weren't some good deals, but they were definitely fewer and farther between than I would've expected. Before flying home though I was genuinely shocked to see how much better the selection and prices were at the Book Off in Narita where I must've bought almost half my games on my last day in the country. Next time I go I'll explore more of the suburbs and smaller towns for sure though, just hope the supply out in the sticks stays around in the meantime though 😅
Nah, with the ticket prices I'd say it never was but is it a fun thing to do when already here for a bigger vacation? Absolutely.
I was in Japan in May of 2019. Crazy how different it looks even compared to then.
Great video my dude. Yeah this unfortunately isn't surprising. The Japanese video game market just can't keep up with the demand with people abroad being able to come into the country and buy and also having resellers on ebay and online store fronts like surugaya selling simultaneously as well.
Between inflation and supply limitations, the days of buying cheap Japanese video games are over. It was good run but if you want something now, it's the time to get it. Especially for the golden age of consoles.
Things like PS1 PS2 DS will still have good supply for a while but everything else before the 2010s should be considered an endangered species.
Welp, that works for me. I never really cared about any consoles before the PS1.
I cancelled my trip last month because of this .
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that most of the supply has already been purchased.
Where are the games then ? On foreign shelves, majority in the US ? If Tokyo closets are dry they won’t came back
I recently bought japanese games cheaper in Europe than what it would cost me to import which makes no sense to me
A lot of people watched these videos from various channels over the last few years and tried to bank on the trend by buying up a lot of games and other stuff, importing them and trying to flip them.
As with everything else though, this market is now overly saturated and all of the EU/US re-sellers, who didn't do their due diligence, didn't stop and think that not many people can actually read/speak Japanese so the customer pool is actually much narrower than some of these channels made it look because of the views that they get.
Now they can't get rid of their stock anymore because everybody is doing it and nobody is buying them.
@@ChaosZero. I mean I had the intel about it personally since the early 2010s, while I didn’t had the money I have now, which is a frustrating experience. I can indeed see prices getting similar to Japan in EU (with Japan getting expensive), Id rather pay a common game 20€ here than 10€ in Japan if you think about the massive import taxes we get nowadays in EU (a day light robbery to be honest).
I would argue that the Kansai with Super Potato, Retro Game Revival, Book Off, Surugaya etc not to mention my favorite chain Ojamakan and many Hard Offs around are better for retro video game collecting. Having said that i haven't been back to Den Den Town since 2019 but Ojamakan is not a tourist location, nor are many of the Surugayas as they are in tiny towns like Takatsuki where you hardly find tourists
Hey Henry, happy to say this is still the case in 2023. I went to Ojamakan stores in Noe, and Nagai in Osaka and also the one in Kyoto a few days ago - all of which were well stocked. Full shelves in the Osaka Super Potato which is good go see. I know they closed their 2nd store in Den Den town so maybe the inventory had been consolidated to the one store? All of that being said, the prices were crazy 😅
If you go to Fukuoka not really Was there last week got games but seems to be emptied out. And nothing was a real bargain book offs and hard offs were really disappointing.
During corona it was so good. I went to Super Potato had about 30 copies of Dreamcast Biohazard games. I just went back today and there wasn't a single copy left.
I have a feeling this will also increase a weird idiosyncratic view for the Japanese too, they must get annoyed just like how they are with foreigners using mercari now.
How can i buy via tsurugaia?
You’re back in Japan?
My range of wants go from famicom, Gba all the way up to ps3. The game world is vast and there are always cheap games, if famicom goes to 200 a game buy ps3 at 5 a game.