S1500 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 If I was running a convention, super-high attendance is one problem I'd be glad to have. That means people are interested, and means there's next year. I heard at at least one pinball convention that their equivalent of MGC's "Sunday" that the machines are already shut down & moved away the night before. Looking at Gamezombie.tv, I would hardly call them "the press" any more than someone who started a wordpress site. It's not a free pass to get in wherever you like, whenever you like. They gave a bad review, complete with grumpy cat picture, and still had the gall to ask for their money back? They are clearly barking up the wrong tree. It's a grassroots convention for the love of vids/pins, and not a "corporate" event like CES or Comdex. Those don't interest me.. I regret not going 2 years ago, instead going to a roller derby bout. What the heck was I thinking? I felt 100 times more welcome here than I did at roller derby nationals in Chicago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I regret not going 2 years ago, instead going to a roller derby bout. What the heck was I thinking? I felt 100 times more welcome here than I did at roller derby nationals in Chicago. ...worth it if you found love... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I DJ'd at my college radio station. I should have been invited to meet and interview Metallica. Instead I just said how their new album sucked on a radio staton no-one had heard of. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Plus, I thought those girls were cute, which apparently makes my transition to dirty old man officially complete. And while I'm sure my wife was drunk, she wasn't even in the same state. The one redhead wearing fetishwear(black pleather garter belt + black pleather stockings) to the event was hella distracting. I'm into that,and it's a free country, but probably not the best thing to wear to this con. She could have been standing near a $300 Barracora pinball table for sale and I wouldn't have noticed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Iacovelli Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 The one redhead wearing fetishwear(black pleather garter belt + black pleather stockings) to the event was hella distracting. I'm into that,and it's a free country, but probably not the best thing to wear to this con. She could have been standing near a $300 Barracora pinball table for sale and I wouldn't have noticed. I didn't see that I did see on girl wearing ripped blue jeans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Pics please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 After reading the comments on the GZ website, I think I figured out their problem. They apparently think they're a legitimate news site and should be considered Press (with all the perks and freebies thereof even though they claim that's not the case) and got ticked when the world did not treat them as such. Why is it that every blogger who can throw together a Wordpress site in 5 minutes now thinks they're the press? If they genuinely believed they were press, then they should have cleared that with the show beforehand. Looks like they're getting a harsh lesson in reality though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapetino Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 The show was pretty good, though except for the increased crowds, things seemed relatively similar to me since my last visit in 2011. While it's not a knock on the MGC, I think my days of attending are over. I am really an Atari guy (mostly 2600) and I go to these things to buy boxed 2600 stuff. But it seems like the "in" stuff is now NES, Genesis, etc and there's very little for me to purchase in my wheelhouse. It's a bummer, but it seems like the scene is moving on. Had a similar experience with my first trip to CGE last summer. Are other 2600 collectors feeling the same way? Are there any places you go to complete your 2600 collection besides the marketplace here and eBay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 The show was pretty good, though except for the increased crowds, things seemed relatively similar to me since my last visit in 2011. While it's not a knock on the MGC, I think my days of attending are over. I am really an Atari guy (mostly 2600) and I go to these things to buy boxed 2600 stuff. But it seems like the "in" stuff is now NES, Genesis, etc and there's very little for me to purchase in my wheelhouse. It's a bummer, but it seems like the scene is moving on. Had a similar experience with my first trip to CGE last summer. Are other 2600 collectors feeling the same way? Are there any places you go to complete your 2600 collection besides the marketplace here and eBay? I have noticed the vendor hall skewing towards the NES/SMS and up era lately, but I suppose that's a sign of the times as that's what's 'hot' in the classic gaming world right now. I was looking for Atari and Apple II computer stuff and there was little to be had. Then again, I got for the arcades, pinballs, game systems that are setup for play and to see all my friends so not finding a lot to buy doesn't bother me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I saw plenty of Atari 2600 games for sale, just like last year. Heck, there was a laundry bin of loose 2600 games. It was $1 each, OR 4/$1.00(so buy three). I had plenty of ColecoVision games available to buy. There were some pretty rare 2600 games at higher prices(as expected) available as well. There were also plenty of boxed 2600 games, some never opened. The rarest thing I saw was an Epoch(?) Cassette Vision, boxed, with boxed games. Wish I could have bought a CV multi cart there. That seemed like the perfect place to sell them in person. As for classic computer games, I saw some for sale, but yes, would have been a good place to hock more there, compared to stuffed Garfields. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapetino Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I saw plenty of Atari 2600 games for sale, just like last year. Heck, there was a laundry bin of loose 2600 games. It was $1 each, OR 4/$1.00(so buy three). I had plenty of ColecoVision games available to buy. There were some pretty rare 2600 games at higher prices(as expected) available as well. There were also plenty of boxed 2600 games, some never opened. Yeah, I was talking about boxed 2600 games -- where were you looking? Only a couple of dealers had boxed ones, and the one at the end of the hall had a few re-shrinkwrapped ones that were in bad condition and overpriced. But there weren't too many at all, and I scoured the floor several times, and asked almost every dealer. Few were selling any that weren't loose. There were a LOT more boxed NES games versus 2011. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Yeah, I was talking about boxed 2600 games -- where were you looking? Only a couple of dealers had boxed ones, and the one at the end of the hall had a few re-shrinkwrapped ones that were in bad condition and overpriced. But there weren't too many at all, and I scoured the floor several times, and asked almost every dealer. Few were selling any that weren't loose. There were a LOT more boxed NES games versus 2011. ...all depends on the year. I've seen it go ploar opposite from year to year. It's quite like hitting a thrift shop on any given day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 (edited) I actually kind of appreciate that there's less "good" 2600 stuff in the vendor hall lately...less money for me to spend! I still got a nice Wall Ball, upgraded my Fathom, and scored a boxed 7800 Xenophobe, among a few other things (Studio II Baseball, Woohoo! ). I've noticed I've saved a lot of money the last few years after Ianoid stopped coming! But, there are still gaps in my 2600 collection I'm able to fill in the vendor hall at MGC every year. Lately I'm more into vintage computers, and I don't expect to find much in the vendor hall in the way of that. I was surprised to find a box full of Avalon Hill tapes for Atari 800/TRS-80/Apple II. I left them at $30 a piece for sealed copies ($20 for opened...but since I can get .wavs of all these tapes in the internet for free, I'm not inclined to fork out that kind of cash for a box), and when I came back to make an offer after they dropped the price, the entire box was gone! The thing with 2600 stuff (and, by extention, things Colecovision, Intellivision, and Odyssey 2) is it just doesn't sell anymore. Anyone who was ever going to buy most of that stuff (except for the really rare items) has already done so a long time ago. These days it's, yes, Nintendo; the same nostalgia boom and buying craze that swept the Atari generation a decade ago has now passed on to the Nintendo generation (I also suspect the "Cola Cola Effect" is at work here, by which I mean people worship a popularly visible company that's been around a long time and collect its vintage products and memorabilia), even that's already starting to pass to the 16-bit generation. Edited March 27, 2013 by BassGuitari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 The thing with 2600 stuff (and, by extention, things Colecovision, Intellivision, and Odyssey 2) is it just doesn't sell anymore. Anyone who was ever going to buy most of that stuff (except for the really rare items) has already done so a long time ago. These days it's, yes, Nintendo; the same nostalgia boom and buying craze that swept the Atari generation a decade ago has now passed on to the Nintendo generation (I also suspect the "Cola Cola Effect" is at work here), even that's already starting to pass to the 16-bit generation. Exactly! Couldn't have said it better myself. The 'Atari Generation' is for the most part done with the common/uncommon parts of their collection and are moving onto boxed and rare stuff, while the NES generation is in the middle of their collecting trek. It's the 16-Bit generation that's now graduating from college, getting their first 'real job' and looking to buy all those games and systems that they couldn't afford in their youth. I suspect that in 5 or 10 years it will be the PS1/N64 generation's turn. It all moves in cycles. Circle of life and all that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I suspect that in 5 or 10 years it will be the PS1/N64 generation's turn. It all moves in cycles. Circle of life and all that. I think that by the time that happens (or maybe PS2/Gamecube), it'll be unusual to see even common pre-crash items. Our beloved Ataris and Odysseys and Astrocades ( ) will be little more than historical curiosities by then. Which isn't to say nobody will care about them, just that their appeal will become more selective [/spinaltap], as with all things that get passed to history. Look at war re-enactors, for instance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I think that by the time that happens (or maybe PS2/Gamecube), it'll be unusual to see even common pre-crash items. Our beloved Ataris and Odysseys and Astrocades ( ) will be little more than historical curiosities by then. Which isn't to say nobody will care about them, just that their appeal will become more selective [/spinaltap], as with all things that get passed to history. Look at war re-enactors, for instance. classic video game reinactments. I can see it now. 100 years in to the future 2113... cool kids dress as geeks and play pong... In the words of Froto: "you have to use your hands? Thats like a baby's toy!" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 LOL! I never caught the fact that is little Elijah Wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 LOL! I never caught the fact that is little Elijah Wood. Wow neither did I. Ha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatdan Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 The thing with 2600 stuff (and, by extention, things Colecovision, Intellivision, and Odyssey 2) is it just doesn't sell anymore. As a vendor, I can tell you this is basically *exactly* correct. Even five years ago, we'd take and sell hundreds of 2600 carts at the show. People would leave with 25 carts in a shot. It was amazing. Around 2010, the market just died for stuff of that era. Unless it was either really rare or was a "title" game (aka Pitfall, Mario Bros, etc), it basically doesn't sell. We took our entire cartridge inventory for the 2600 this year (not boxed stuff, sorry!) and we sold about 10 games. On the flip side, we sold about 200 NES carts, and a similar number of SNES ones. I personally do think that the NES era and up will retain value / interest a *little* better because you have the historical beginnings of many really popular games (Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Street Fighter, etc) that continue to have interest today, and the games are a little more complex. Unfortunately, the fact that a lot of the 2600 titles are so basic gives people the option of playing either a free flash game with the same concept, or paying $XX to pick it up themselves. Right now, the flash games are winning except for those of us that find the original cartridges to be too good to pass up. I also think that the 2600 suffers in large part because the library is so hard to define. The third party stuff is so prevalant, and there is so much different stuff. Then, you have all the variations that people were collecting. The NES and up have a very set type of cartridge, and the third party oddities are truly oddities. Makes it much easier to define what you are collecting and go start looking for it. Regardless, I do think it will continue to evolve, but I don't think there will be much of a decline in NES market for a while. As for N64, it is seriously heating up right now. In February counting online sales only, the N64 outsold the 2600, 5200, Odyssey 2, and Intellivision for the *entire year* of 2012, just as a for instance... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 classic video game reinactments. I can see it now. 100 years in to the future 2113... cool kids dress as geeks and play pong... Those exist right now. They're called "hipsters." My hope is that one day teens and 20-somethings will be able to play things like Pong without drenching the experience in 15 layers of irony. Maybe they'll regard them the same way film buffs regard the '10s-'20s silent era: with appreciation for where the technology stood at the time, the advances it represented, and where things went from there. I have a feeling I'm asking a lot there, though. (Meanwhile, in another thread...) MGC was awesome! Can't wait for next year! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 As a vendor, I can tell you this is basically *exactly* correct. I know it is. I've packed/unloaded/displayed the GOAT Store's exact same 2600 games for about seven years now. I was actually going to pick some 2600 and Coleco stuff up Sunday just before the end of the show, but got held up with E2M...and by the time I got there to help pack up GOAT Store, you guys had already cleared out! (That's gotta be record tear-down time for GOAT, BTW) Regardless, I do think it will continue to evolve, but I don't think there will be much of a decline in NES market for a while. As for N64, it is seriously heating up right now. I agree. I think anything that says "Nintendo" on it will do well for quite a while...at least the A-list titles, anyway. With companies that are current and popular and have consistantly been around for decades, people like to buy older merchandise and memorabilia that defined it early on. It explains why Nintendo games that SHOULD sell for less than $10 routinely sell for over $20. It also explains why you can't even give a Sega Genesis away. It's like antique Coca-Cola stuff. Signs, posters, glasses, vending machines, etc. People eat that up. Moxie, not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapetino Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 As a vendor, I can tell you this is basically *exactly* correct. Even five years ago, we'd take and sell hundreds of 2600 carts at the show. People would leave with 25 carts in a shot. It was amazing. Around 2010, the market just died for stuff of that era. Unless it was either really rare or was a "title" game (aka Pitfall, Mario Bros, etc), it basically doesn't sell. We took our entire cartridge inventory for the 2600 this year (not boxed stuff, sorry!) and we sold about 10 games. On the flip side, we sold about 200 NES carts, and a similar number of SNES ones. I personally do think that the NES era and up will retain value / interest a *little* better because you have the historical beginnings of many really popular games (Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Street Fighter, etc) that continue to have interest today, and the games are a little more complex. Unfortunately, the fact that a lot of the 2600 titles are so basic gives people the option of playing either a free flash game with the same concept, or paying $XX to pick it up themselves. Right now, the flash games are winning except for those of us that find the original cartridges to be too good to pass up. I also think that the 2600 suffers in large part because the library is so hard to define. The third party stuff is so prevalant, and there is so much different stuff. Then, you have all the variations that people were collecting. The NES and up have a very set type of cartridge, and the third party oddities are truly oddities. Makes it much easier to define what you are collecting and go start looking for it. Regardless, I do think it will continue to evolve, but I don't think there will be much of a decline in NES market for a while. As for N64, it is seriously heating up right now. In February counting online sales only, the N64 outsold the 2600, 5200, Odyssey 2, and Intellivision for the *entire year* of 2012, just as a for instance... That's a very helpful insight. Guess that's the price I pay for getting into serious 2600 collecting a little late in the game. Ah well. I'll just have to look a bit harder. And thanks for the related digression. Now, back to your previously-scheduled MGC thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 NES is HOT!! Anything sells right now, I know I pawned off all my rarities the last few months. The bubble will burst eventually... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cebus Capucinis Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Damnit, maybe next year I'll be able to go and match Crazy Climber shot-for-shot and beer-for-beer. CGE 2k10 will vouch for my drinking abilities. LMFAO Seriously though, next year it should happen. My wife and I are both graduating this May, and by next MGC will both have decent regular paying jobs, so we'll be able to afford it! I really wanted to go this year, but missed out due to lack of funds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Damnit, maybe next year I'll be able to go and match Crazy Climber shot-for-shot and beer-for-beer. CGE 2k10 will vouch for my drinking abilities. LMFAO Seriously though, next year it should happen. My wife and I are both graduating this May, and by next MGC will both have decent regular paying jobs, so we'll be able to afford it! I really wanted to go this year, but missed out due to lack of funds. I don't know man, you have to start the night with a shot of Beam for me to even humor you I always offer any fellow AA'ers can stay in my room free of charge if you want to save some money. Bring an air matress, use the couch, whatever works. We are a roudy bunch though, your wife will likely hate us, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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