It Never Hurts to Ask

When I see an ad for a lot of video games go up on a classifieds site, nine times out of ten I already have at least one game in the bunch and for that reason am hesitant to buy it or even make an offer.  As much as I don’t mind accumulating doubles of games, I only like to do so when they are dirt cheap so that I can use them as trade bait at a swap or give them away to family.  Retro ad posts have died down considerably with the snow settling in as I mentioned previously, and most ads posted are for *~*Hot Christmas PS4 Bundles*~* and the like.

When two ads for some SNES and N64 stuff popped up last night, after having a look and seeing that I owned probably 60% of both lots, I was disheartened.  In those game lots were two games I’ve wanted to pick up for a long time, and those were Kirby Super Star for SNES with its manual, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day for N64.  I hummed and hawed for at least two hours trying to decide if the price was right for the lots.  At the end of it, I decided that they were too expensive.  One of the lots included the Donkey Kong Special Edition N64 with controller and the game which was pushing up the price considerably.  I’m not really interested in special edition consoles unless they have something to do with a franchise I really like, and even then, I’m not often willing to pay extra money for a different “skin” with no addition to functionality.  I decided to be brave and message the seller to ask if he’d be willing to separate out the stuff I wanted from his game lots.  Much to my surprise, he was!  We managed to settle in at a price of $150 for both games, which is pretty good considering that Conker’s Bad Fur Day often sells for close to $120 on its own, and the Kirby game with its manual is normally close to $70 Canadian. Here are some photos of the games.

As you can see, the games/manual are in absolutely immaculate shape.  I found out from the seller that this was his personal childhood collection that he had rediscovered recently and was looking to part with.  He was one of the nicest people I’ve dealt with to date, going so far as to invite us in to show us the games working and giving us a bit of a backstory about his small collection.  I’m pleased to have found copies of these excellent games in such good condition that were well-loved by their previous owner.  Nothing is better to me as a lover of games.

The only thing I regret was that this seller also had a copy of Super Smash Bros. for N64 that I should’ve picked up last night as well, but didn’t.  I always go back and forth on that game since I played it to death many years ago on my friend’s copy that had everything unlocked.  I was doing solo play back then, so when I see the game come up, I often first wonder what more I could possibly get out of it when I’ve already played through it multiple times.  Then I remember that I have never played it through from scratch and haven’t experienced unlocking each of the characters.  I’ve messaged the seller this morning about buying the game, but he apparently has someone coming by to pick up that game and the rest of his lot sometime today.  I am patiently waiting to see if that falls through, and if so, I’ll be at his door!  Regrets, regrets.  If it doesn’t work out, another will come.

Either way, the games I did find come highly recommended, and this was the best price I’ve seen for them in a long, long while.  When I’ve seen them both at swaps, the price has been so inflated that I’ve never bothered, and this is especially true for Conker’s Bad Fur Day.  Generally, people are non-negotiable with that game because they know that there is a high demand for it as it is a rarer game for the N64.  It was also one of the few games to somehow sneak right by Nintendo’s strict policies on lewd/inappropriate content and is filled with the crassest of jokes.  The game is also difficult to emulate – we tried and failed several times!  Buying the cartridge for a decent price was the only way to go as far as I’m concerned.

With respect to Kirby Super Star, it is the better Kirby game on the SNES.  Kirby’s Dreamland 3 though charming in its own right has been reviewed as sluggish and slow-paced compared to other games in the series.  Kirby Super Star has several different adventures to play through, and boy do I love variety!  That said, I have yet to complete a Kirby game since the completionist in me gets irked when I have no idea if I’ve found all the secrets or not.  I’ve racked up quite a few games in this series even since starting this blog, so my Kirby backlog is starting to rear its ugly (or cute?) head.  I am pretty sure I have games to play for life at this point.

Anyway, I hope all you American-folk had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  Thanks to all of you for reading!

-GG