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Buying Games Online
I am proud to say my collection of over 1400 hundred games including the duplicates have all been purchased at local Gaming stores, Thrift stores, Good wills, etc. I enjoy the hunt of finding games and holding them in person and feeling that rush of I just scored.
A lot of people do a lot of Online shopping for games, and if you are into Pal exclusives and stuff of that nature then online might be the only means you have to turn to.
I have always been against Online shopping I have felt that it was cheating but do to being out of Country I am considering turning to online shopping.
What are your feelings on Online shopping in terms of hunting down games. Do you feel like it is right or wrong or just whatever?
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A majority of my games are from the wild. I am pretty random when it comes to collecting and love to find any hidden gems in the wild. For any impulse buy or specific games I go to my local gamestore first and then see if its online and compare prices on my phone while I'm at my local gamestore. Usually its cheaper to find it in the wild than online (At least in my area) plus there is no shipping fee involved. But for specific items sometimes online may be the only route unless you wait for the very slim chance that you find it in the wild.
I have nothing against buying online but 98% of my collection was from the wild and it's my preferred way. I am looking to complete a certain collection of a game series from different regions such as PAL and Japan. Obviously games from those regions very rarely show up here in the states so I know I will have to use the power of the internet to get them.
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Stay tuned to the next couple podcasts. We are going to be discussing online and local pickups at length!
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I like buying almost exclusively online. For me it's finding games that have slipped through the cracks, like a copy of Earthbound that I found listed on eBay only as "super nintendo game" and won for considerably less than it's current going rate. I generally determine the average final price of a game and then aim for 50% of that number. I still hunt thrift stores and garage sales though, they are hit or miss in selection but price-wise cannot be beat. I picked up River City Ransom for $1 at a garage sale yesterday, you could never do that online.
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You can luck out sometimes with online auctions but I just absolutely love the thrill of knowing that when I am digging through a box of games at a garage sale or a flea market thinking that I could find Earthbound or Stadium Events. I would go nuts. Just a few months ago I found a sealed copy of Halo 2 with the original do not seel before 11/09/04 date and I found clay fighters 63 1/2 sculpers edition and I walked out the door paying 8 bucks total for both of them.
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Absolutely nothing in my collection had been purchased online. The closest I get is using online sources to find trading partners, but even then that's mostly with RFG members, so its more like trading with friends. Still, very little relatively speaking has come from trading. Well, until I found Douglie to trade with anyway.
For me, its all about the hunt. I've come to the conclusion that the only time I play any of these games is when my niece wants to try it out, and that's for maybe 5 minutes per Disney or cartoon character themed game. So the only real enjoyment I get from them other than just owning them is the thrill of finding them. From digging through boxes at garage sales to scouring countless tables at the flea market, to haggling with a complete stranger to save a buck. Its all awesome to me.
So to just go on ebay, search for something and click "buy it now" just takes all the fun out of it.
My advice is to you, if you've accumulated 1400 games from the wild only, keep at it that way. Once you buy a game online, you can never go back and say "I've never bought a game online".
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As Crabby mentioned, we're going to be digging into the subject on the upcoming podcasts. All I have to add for now is... PAL exclusives *drool*
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If buying games online is your thing, then by all means go with it.
Then again, I sell stuff online from time to time, so i might be biased...
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There are some places where it is nearly impossible to build a collection at a reasonable price without resorting to the internet.
Where i was living in TX that was definitely the case. There was one local shop that i later found out was owned by a DP member whose name i can't remember. Which explains why the prices were how they were. And i have heard from people in other places in TX (Galveston comes to mind) that outside of Gamestop there is no used game market.
I use to be able to get really great prices and selection from a game shop here but most of the selection has been plucked and the prices have all risen thanks to the internet.
If you happen to be in a sweet spot with huge selection and relatively fair prices like NES_Rules and Zag seem to be you should consider yourself lucky.
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While I will never knock online buying (I fully agree with Izret on this topic), there is nothing like finding games while on The Hunt. Where I live garage sales tend to be more trouble than they are worth (thanks to gas prices) but thrift stores are in abundance. The thought that there could be a Fairchild Channel F mixed in with the 8 tracks or a PC, PSX, or Dreamcast game hidden with the music CDs just gets my adrenaline pumping.
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When I was in Omaha Nebraska I defiantly loved it for collecting wise. My collection went up like 600 games in a year just from thrift stores and flea markets and stuff. Izret I defiantly understand where you are coming from. Also Nes that is the thing I don't want to buy online because I love having the satisfaction of never buying from online. But if I stick to that rule my collection American Wise is going to suffer but Pal will shoot through the roof. Thank god I can still get newer games on base here. 
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I know exactly where your coming from. Everyone has different outlooks on collections. But I never cared if I got something in person or online. What I paid for is what i paid for. Lately I been doing EBAY, so far everything has come to be in way better condition than what I would find game hunting in person. I am shocked at the prices online. You can find stuff in perfect condition very cheat as well. So it helps alot.
It's so much more of a rush game hunting at thrift stores and pawn shops also alot funner. But once you can no longer find anything your looking for around your town, you have no choice but to turn to online shopping.
There's nothing wrong with it, but yeah it kills the fun. In the end we all grow up and things change after time. I think I will always stay true to classic video games I know and loved since I was kid. Same with music I listen to. It's just my thing. Let it live forever!
-Charlie
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Unfortunately, living in this area means very few places to "hunt". I do visit the thrift stores weekly and monitor Craigslist daily, but that will never fulfill the wants. Our local Play n Trade has had some great sales, and I've bought a lot of items from them, but there are few prizes since they know what things are worth. And the Game Stop prices are outrageous here.
I always use eBay, Amazon, and other sites to find those items that I would never find locally, and I'm okay with that. I would never have found a Tapwave Zodiac, N-Gage, WonderSwan, or Neo Geo Pocket Color, and their games around these parts. You have to turn somewhere to build when the bricks are not easily found, and I certainly don't consider it cheating. I want to play/own a game or system, so why dig in a dry creek bed when better means are right in front of you?
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People on Craigslist are greedy. I have very rarely found good deals on Craiglist. Gamestop however I might be bias because I worked there for almost 4 years. I found a ton of good deals at Gamestop. With there sales and stuff. I even bought a ps1 brand new with the lcd screen for 30 bucks from there. But that is a good way to put it with the dry creek theory.
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There's no better feeling than finding something out great or just needed out in the wild. However, if you have specific goals and limited places to find games, you often have to turn online. I don't criticize anyone for going online, but I hope that they are also searching locally and having as good of a time as I am.
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I love searching locally, but items such as Famicom games are rarely found in the Midwest. I look at online collecting as a tool not as cheating.
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The guys at the local Play and Trade are really on my "Sweet!" list, and my best source for local finds. Since I really am the only true retro collector around here that they see as a regular (imagine how difficult it is to find something in this town now), they tend to save a lot of great stuff for my visit or will call me to let me know when they get something in that I might be interested in. I've spent a fortune there, but the prices are almost always fair or even awesome. When they get too many retro games piling up that they need thinned out, I find myself being able to buy any game priced at
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less than $5 for $0.50 each or sometimes a buy 2 get 1 free sale is tossed at me. Well, the latest visit harbored an extra 3DO FZ1 console and some duplicate games from my collection for a really nice price, which I only snagged to offer to my fellow RFG folks, if anyone would like. I will post it elsewhere, or you can PM me from this post. So yes, I reiterate that I only have a couple of good sources locally, but I do want to clarify that one is a very strong one.
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This caught me off guard looking at one of my old post to see that it is still getting some comments. Addicted I love your answer. I love that you look at it as a tool. I have still yet to purchase a game online but when I do get to that point this will help me out.
Tchie413 cherish that place and be greatful it is there. I miss local video game shopping 
I completly agree with online shopping if you have a certain collection you are going with and they do not sell it in your country for the most part.
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