Bargain bin bounty

[Wrestlevania]

This morning I sidled into HMV, whilst out shopping with 'er indoors, for my highly irregular trawl of their customarily dilapidated games section. As I was ambling past the GBA titles, heading deeper into the heaped mass of digital bric-a-brac, something jammed into the bottom row of multicoloured carboard stripes caught my eye. An instant flash of recognition; no, it couldn't be... Could it?

I bent down to get a better look, wondering if it really was a copy of the game I was hoping for. It was the bottom edge of the packaging, so I had to pull - actually it was more like wrench - it free from its cramped confines to see if I was right or not. And to my great suprise and delight it was in fact a copy of a game I've been trying to get hold of for (literally) years; Astro Boy: Omega Factor!

Once my wife had convinced me to stop running in tight circles, said title thrust above my head as I screamed with excitement and shear disbelief, it was all she could do to stop me leapfrogging the assembled masses on my way back up the cramped isles to the checkouts at the front of the shop.

And the icing on this particularly sweet and most unexpected little cake? The sticker on the front read '£9.99'--there's mud in your eye, shitty Hong Kong black market counterfeiters of eBay notoriety!

I'm absolutely ecstatic about finding an original, genuine copy of this rare little diamond. And yes, believe the hype.

[elmuerte]

I hate actual bargain-bins

it's absolute impossible to go through them

[sobersiddhi]

I managed to buy a boxed copy* on ebay... and the damned battery save carked it about 2 days after it arrived from China (as was the story with 5-6 other Hong Kong specials). I've learnt my lesson .

*The box was obviously counterfeit too - the contents of the 'instruction manual' was a review from GamePro...

[n0wak]

Wait wait wait... HMV sells games?

Oh yeah, and the game is really good too. The backtracking bits later in the game are annoying (as well as finding some of the obscure things during that part), but the game itself is really quite wicked awesome.

[miffy495]

HMV sells games in the UK and maybe the rest of Europe. (not sure) I was confused the first time I saw it mentioned here as well. I wish I could get something other than generic music and DVDs at the HMVs in Canada too, but there it is.

[Oath]

It's a rarity? I picked it up when I bought my DS to have something to fill the GBA slot, but that was only because of all the fancy studio names on the box (Treasure and Hitmaker mainly). Nice to know it's not worthless, since it's a solid title and probably deserves better than it - and I'm guessing here - did on the market.

I also managed to find a mint copy of Zone of the Enders: 2nd Runner a few weeks back, for $10 or so. Couldn't believe my eyes, as it has proven to be very elusive and expensive when I've tried to get my hands on it before. I had given up hope, but I still felt relieved when I picked it up, though my feeling obviously didn't quite reach the same levels as yours. Great game though.

[Aussie Ben]

I also am surprised at Astro Boy's lack of availability - I picked it up last year when it was discounted to AUD$20 (this is cheap for Australia, remember that an Australian dollar couldn't buy the ink from a US dollar note). I played it allll the way on the plane trip to last year's E3.

Needless to say, it was better than most of the games on display.

[miffy495]

Hell yeah, Astro Boy rocks. It took me way to long to find it, so I preordered Gunstar Super Heroes when I had the chance. Both are great, but Astro Boy wins for depth. Although I did get stuck on the backtracking for a bit, totally worth the hunt.

[Moosferatu]

That good is it? hmm... I wonder if my ebgames still has it.

[loonyboi]

I love bargain bin hunting. You can find tons of great games for $10 or less.

Once I bought Suikoden for $1.99. (This was pre-PS2, even).

PC games are the best for bargain bin shopping, since the major chains don't know what to do with excess inventory. And on eBay PC games are never worth anything if they're more than six months old. I picked up The Longest Journey not too long ago at my local gamestop for $4.99.

[Wrestlevania]

PC games are the best for bargain bin shopping, since the major chains don't know what to do with excess inventory.

Can't speak for anywhere else in the world, but UK branches of Toys R Us are particularly good at this; I scooped Operation Flashpoint Gold and Heavy Gear 2 for £1.99 each just a couple of months back.

[SpiderMonkey]

Talking of bargain bins, has anyone found anything good courtesy of this £1 PC game thing, which MCV threw such a tantrum over?

[Wrestlevania]

Talking of bargain bins, has anyone found anything good courtesy of this £1 PC game thing, which MCV threw such a tantrum over?

Full story.

Hadn't seen this before now, but, judging by the titles on offer for £1 at Woolworths, there's very little to get excited about--either as a consumer or as a journalist. Proof enough it's the slow season methinks, and that's about it.

"Nothing to see here, move along please..."

[n0wak]

HMV sells games in the UK and maybe the rest of Europe. (not sure) I was confused the first time I saw it mentioned here as well. I wish I could get something other than generic music and DVDs at the HMVs in Canada too, but there it is.

I just went into HMV today and they had a brand new games section. Go figure. It was fairly barren though.

[miffy495]

Hmmm... You're in Toronto, right? Maybe if it does well over there, they'll move it westward. Doesn't affect me that much, as my local HMV is three doors away from my local EB, but it would be nice to be able to go to one if the other doesn't have something.

[Roderick]

I believe HMV is a purely English-country store... haven't seen it anywhere else in Europe, at least not in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain or Germany. But maybe it has a different name here? In the southern country, the Fnac is probably closest to the idea. Here in the Netherlands the Mediamarkt is growing as a mass-media chain, where once the area was dominated by a multitude of smaller stores called Free Record Shop.

[loonyboi]

I believe HMV is a purely English-country store... haven't seen it anywhere else in Europe, at least not in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain or Germany. But maybe it has a different name here? In the southern country, the Fnac is probably closest to the idea. Here in the Netherlands the Mediamarkt is growing as a mass-media chain, where once the area was dominated by a multitude of smaller stores called Free Record Shop.

We have HMVs in the US. I've seen them in NY and San Francisco.

I'm pretty sure they sell games there, but I've never bothered to actually go in one.

[n0wak]

I believe HMV is a purely English-country store... haven't seen it anywhere else in Europe, at least not in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain or Germany. But maybe it has a different name here? In the southern country, the Fnac is probably closest to the idea. Here in the Netherlands the Mediamarkt is growing as a mass-media chain, where once the area was dominated by a multitude of smaller stores called Free Record Shop.

It's primarily British, but it has a very big Canadian presence.

http://www.hmvgroup.com/aboutus/fastfacts.jsp

According to Wikipedia

HMV had a handful of stores in the Eastern United States, which was overseen by HMV's Canadian operations. However, the dominance of the internet plus other retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy made HMV leave the U.S. market in the early 2000s.

Anyway.

[lobotomy42]

Last week, I bought Children of the Nile for $2 at a yard sale.

Probably the best value I ever got for $2, though the $8 microwave was a pretty good deal as well.

[Spaff]

games devaluation? they fear games devaluation?

oh fuck off!! If only!

Games are so over priced it's insane, especially in the UK.

I always hear Americans comaplain that xbox 360 games are $60, well guess what? Here they are £50.. thats over $100 per game, would you pay that?

,

£4.99 for The Sims, a 4 or 5 year old title, is not exactly breaking the industry into pieces, in fact it's the opposite, it's the £40 for a new Game Cube, or any console title, that's destroying it. I want those games, but paying $80 for them when I can get them for $25 online from USA or Japan before they are out here isn't exactly a hard choice to make for me, especially when the import tax of 25% doesnt even bring it close to a full price game from the UK.

I NEVER buy full price games from the UK... ever. When I visited America recently I bought 6 DS games for the price of 2 or 3 had I bought them here.

so goo Woolworths go, even though you suck and cater for useless chavs etc, gooooooooooooooo.

p.s as far as bargain bins go, i picked up Rez (ps2) and Vib Ribbon from bargain bins for less that £10 each.

[SpiderMonkey]

games devaluation? they fear games devaluation?

oh fuck off!! If only!

Exactly. Every summer for 3 years now, MCV have decided to send me a few free issues (presumably because I'm signed up for Develop). Every time, half the articles have been specialist retailers bitching and moaning about general retailers undercutting them with promotions, be it in anticipation of Christmas deals, in remembrance of Easter deals or in the present of Summer deals. The same tripe about "oh no, we won't be able to push our over-inflated prices down our customers' throats anymore!"

I was out and about yesterday, and while I didn't see anything worth having in Woolworths, WHSmith did have HL2 for £7.50 and Battlefield:Vietnam for £5, which both seemed like fairly good deals worth passing on. Then I found HL2:Ep1 on sale for £20 and, remembering how I paid £12 for it through Steam, felt desperately sorry for those stuck buying from retail stores.

[miffy495]

Damn, and I thought Canada got ripped off paying for things. Here we pay $80 CAN for a $60 US game. (exchange rates would have it around $65 CAN) I will never complain about this again.

Oh yeah, Vib Ribbon? Isn't that Japan-only? Your system is modded then, I can assume? I've been wondering about that one, as it sounds really cool. How is?

[SiN]

Damn, and I thought Canada got ripped off paying for things. Here we pay $80 CAN for a $60 US game. (exchange rates would have it around $65 CAN) I will never complain about this again.

Tell me about it!

I was just on vacation in the States. First off, the Gamestop store in the states was double the size of any EBGames I've seen here in Canada. Second, the prices were much cheaper ... I managed to pick up GTA: Liberty City Stories, Exit, Brain Age and Trauma Center for just US$110, which is about C$120. That money would have got me 2, *maybe* 3 games if I was lucky in Canada.

SiN

[Spaff]

Oh yeah, Vib Ribbon? Isn't that Japan-only? Your system is modded then, I can assume? I've been wondering about that one, as it sounds really cool. How is?

it is in fact a PAL copy and it is the best game ever made for PS1...

possibly with the exception of bishy bashy special.

both are really hard to get hold of these days it seems.

[Aussie Ben]

Yeah, I've got Vib-Ribbon too. Rock on, Vibri. Using the DKC Map Theme made a bloody good level! Mojib Ribbon is fun too if you can get past the insane language barrier, but Vib Ripple is a bit crap.