Midwest Gaming Classic April 7th-9th,2017

[ubersaurus]

I came away with some cool stuff I didn't have: Atari 2600 Boing and Wall Ball (boxed) courtesy of Sean Kelly, a Pac-Man dedicated handheld (the circle shaped one), Intellivision Congo Bongo, Colecovision Congo Bongo and Tapper, 5200 Dreadnaught Factor and Zone Ranger, C64 Qbert, SMS Wonder Boy III and Paperboy, a pair of Vectrex homebrews, DS Dawn of Sorrow and Game Center CX 2, Famicom Little Samson, Neo Geo Pocket Gals Fighters, NES Tengen Ms. Pac-Man, and from a friend of mine a bunch of Famicom carts and a TG16 extension cable. Definitely nothing quite on the scale of Videobrain controllers for $10 though, that's amazing!

Edited April 12, 2017 by ubersaurus

[BassGuitari]

I came away with some cool stuff I didn't have: Atari 2600 Boing and Wall Ball (boxed) courtesy of Sean Kelly, a Pac-Man dedicated handheld (the circle shaped one), Intellivision Congo Bongo, Colecovision Congo Bongo and Tapper, 5200 Dreadnaught Factor and Zone Ranger, C64 Qbert, SMS Wonder Boy III and Paperboy, a pair of Vectrex homebrews, DS Dawn of Sorrow and Game Center CX 2, Famicom Little Samson, Neo Geo Pocket Gals Fighters, NES Tengen Ms. Pac-Man, and from a friend of mine a bunch of Famicom carts and a TG16 extension cable. Definitely nothing quite on the scale of Videobrain controllers for $10 though, that's amazing!

So that's why I didn't see much good stuff. You got it all!

 

Props on Congo Bongo for Intellivision and Boing, although I shudder to guess what you must have paid for them. I sorta gave up on Intellivision collecting since most of what I'm still missing is stuff like Congo Bongo!

[Tempest]

There was a cool E.T. clock that I wanted, but it didn't work and the guy wanted to see if he could fix it first. I think he said it would go for $150 if it worked. Not only was it vintage, but E.T. had a robe on and looked kind of stoned so we thought he looked like The Dude from the Big Lebowski.

[+Cafeman]

Pictures?

[Tempest]

I think this was it:

 

[ubersaurus]

So that's why I didn't see much good stuff. You got it all!

 

Props on Congo Bongo for Intellivision and Boing, although I shudder to guess what you must have paid for them. I sorta gave up on Intellivision collecting since most of what I'm still missing is stuff like Congo Bongo!

Boing I got for a pretty good price, like $30 (Wall Ball was $50). Congo Bongo was closer to 70, though! I'm not quite at that point with my Intellivision collecting that everything is super expensive, but I sure am getting there.

 

Little Samson was the big hit to my MGC budget when I came across it Saturday afternoon, so I didn't clean up quite as much as I'd have otherwise done on Sunday. No regrets though!

[S1500]

 

 

Little Samson was the big hit to my MGC budget when I came across it Saturday afternoon, so I didn't clean up quite as much as I'd have otherwise done on Sunday. No regrets though!

 

Was this the Little Samson that was 6500 or so?

[ubersaurus]

 

Was this the Little Samson that was 6500 or so?

$280 for the Famicom version + manual. Which is about what it sells for online loose, so I rolled with it.

[+thanatos]

 

Was this the Little Samson that was 6500 or so?

 

As in dollars?

I got a brand new pinball machine for that!

[Gamemoose]

 

Was this the Little Samson that was 6500 or so?

Was that the one that was complete in box (at at least with the box-I couldn't see it too well) that was high up on a plastic shelf rack and full letter-sized sign? If that was it, I think they were asking $3,500. But still....daaaannngggg.....

[+frankodragon]

Saw a boxed Vectrex at a table and the vendor wanted $500 with Scramble game. There was also an Amstrad GX4000 for $150 but someone bought it.

[+thanatos]

Saw a boxed Vectrex at a table and the vendor wanted $500 with Scramble game. There was also an Amstrad GX4000 for $150 but someone bought it.

 

I mentioned the Vectrex earlier, he had 4 boxed games with it for $500. Still too high in my opinion, as it was still there on Sunday.

 

Yeah, I'm gonna keep ranting about the Vectrex because that was the item that offended me the most over the weekend.

[S1500]

That 2-player networked Vectrex game was nuts. Real cool to play.

[Dauber]

Saw a boxed Vectrex at a table and the vendor wanted $500 with Scramble game. There was also an Amstrad GX4000 for $150 but someone bought it.

 

I learned that if you ever want to become instantly depressed at a video game convention, just ask: "How much for that Vectrex?"

 

I told that to Sean Kelly, and he laughed and said, "I guess the one I'm asking $460 for won't make you feel much better!"

[S1500]

 

I learned that if you ever want to become instantly depressed at a video game convention, just ask: "How much for that Vectrex?"

 

I told that to Sean Kelly, and he laughed and said, "I guess the one I'm asking $460 for won't make you feel much better!"

 

I remember buying one for $150 in '96(loose console). Later sold it to Crazy Climber.

 

That's still cheaper than the 2 Japanese Vectrex units I saw in Japan. CIB: $1700 a piece.

[BassGuitari]

 

I learned that if you ever want to become instantly depressed at a video game convention, just ask: "How much for that Vectrex?"

 

I told that to Sean Kelly, and he laughed and said, "I guess the one I'm asking $460 for won't make you feel much better!"

 

Yeah, that's Sean Kelly for you. I still remember the time several years back he had a Commando cart for Intellivision in a white Tutorvision-style shell*, priced at several hundred dollars. I asked him where he got it and he said, in what I would come to learn is typical Sean Kelly fashion: "If I tell you, I'll have to kill you."

 

(*I was talking with Stupus about this since there was no Tutorvision Commando cart, and I guess there was some stock of empty Tutorvision cart shells found some time back; Sean must have made populated "repro" carts out of them. Even just the shells would be highly valuable, I suppose. But if I knew the actual story, Sean would have assassinated me by now. )

 

It's like I was saying to the guys Sunday night, though: if you've got a boxed Vectrex still sitting out by the end of the show, well...let's just say the market isn't what you thought it was. That thing shouldn't have made it past noon on Saturday.

[+frankodragon]

 

I learned that if you ever want to become instantly depressed at a video game convention, just ask: "How much for that Vectrex?"

 

I told that to Sean Kelly, and he laughed and said, "I guess the one I'm asking $460 for won't make you feel much better!"

That or be like this kid from that annoying commercial:

 

[Tempest]

A show like MGC is not the place to look for great deals. Most (but not all) of the vendors there are professionals with stores so they know what something is worth. Sure you might get an ok deal on something and saving on shipping is always good, but odds are you're most likely not going to find an amazing deal unless it's from a smaller vendor. That just seems to be the way of bigger shows, at least from my experience. Then again, sometimes miracles do happen.

[BassGuitari]

A show like MGC is not the place to look for great deals. Most (but not all) of the vendors there are professionals with stores so they know what something is worth. Sure you might get an ok deal on something and saving on shipping is always good, but odds are you're most likely not going to find an amazing deal unless it's from a smaller vendor. That just seems to be the way of bigger shows, at least from my experience. Then again, sometimes miracles do happen.

This is getting truer and truer. Man, I miss the old days, when the biggest vendors were, like, Packrat Video Games and The GOAT Store. Or when Goodwill Hunter and Ianoid had vendor booths. I got so many good deals from all those folks over the years, and such eclectic stuff, too (like my Compaq Portable, my boxed Astrocade #3-4 controllers, and my Intellivision System changer, all for what today are giveaway prices). Stuff was cheaper in general then anyway, but still. [/oldman]

[Captain_Combat]

I came away with some cool stuff I didn't have: Atari 2600 Boing and Wall Ball (boxed) courtesy of Sean Kelly, a Pac-Man dedicated handheld (the circle shaped one), Intellivision Congo Bongo, Colecovision Congo Bongo and Tapper, 5200 Dreadnaught Factor and Zone Ranger, C64 Qbert, SMS Wonder Boy III and Paperboy, a pair of Vectrex homebrews, DS Dawn of Sorrow and Game Center CX 2, Famicom Little Samson, Neo Geo Pocket Gals Fighters, NES Tengen Ms. Pac-Man, and from a friend of mine a bunch of Famicom carts and a TG16 extension cable. Definitely nothing quite on the scale of Videobrain controllers for $10 though, that's amazing!

Congrats on the boing if it was boxed for $30 you stole that one and the seller didn't even come close to pricing it correctly.

[davidbrit2]

This is getting truer and truer. Man, I miss the old days, when the biggest vendors were, like, Packrat Video Games and The GOAT Store. Or when Goodwill Hunter and Ianoid had vendor booths. I got so many good deals from all those folks over the years, and such eclectic stuff, too (like my Compaq Portable, my boxed Astrocade #3-4 controllers, and my Intellivision System changer, all for what today are giveaway prices). Stuff was cheaper in general then anyway, but still. [/oldman]

Yeah, it's tough to find decent deals, unless you're into really obscure shit that nobody else really cares about (but then the odds of somebody actually bringing them to the show drop considerably - I didn't see squat for Vic-20 this year). And it's not like I want to drive 5 hours one way and pay for a hotel just to be able to pay ebay prices for things. These days, I mostly go looking for weird stuff (got Mushi King Super Collection for DS, and some SFC imports this year), hanging out with people I know, and spending way too much time with whatever music games Star Worlds brings to the show. I've got my Everdrives and Harmony cart to deal with the problem of stupid cart prices.

[BassGuitari]

I agree--I'd say unless you live close or are really into, say, Famicom stuff, the vendor hall itself probably shouldn't be a main factor in deciding to come out. Fortunately there's practically an overabundance of other things going on at the show.

[davidbrit2]

I agree--I'd say unless you live close or are really into, say, Famicom stuff, the vendor hall itself probably shouldn't be a main factor in deciding to come out. Fortunately there's practically an overabundance of other things going on at the show.

No doubt. I could barely walk by the time we got back to our hotel room well after midnight on Saturday.

 

Paradoxically, prices for import Nintendo stuff usually aren't too bad - I snagged Dragon Quest V and VI for SFC for around $6 each, and Itadaki Street 2 was like $3. PS2 also tends to be fairly reasonable, aside from a few of the rarities and high-demand stuff (mostly RPGs).

[PFG 9000]

It's always a great time at the MGC. This was my 10th year there, and it was good to meet a few of you. Thanks, Inky, for making the pins!

 

I was pretty disappointed in the vendor hall this year. I was looking for Lynx and Jaguar games. The only Jag game I found that I don't already have was Supercross 3D, and the seller was asking $22 for a loose copy. I went back later on Saturday to make an offer closer to reality, and it was gone. I hope some poor soul didn't pay $22 for it.

 

I saw almost no Lynx games, and nothing I don't already have.

 

I was also looking for a few Repros, after seeing such a healthy assortment last year. Turns out vendors were told not to bring any this year, which is why there were almost none to be found.

 

The last thing I was looking for was a few imports for PS1 and Xbox 360. The usual vendor who has a ton of imports wasn't there this year as far as I could tell. There were still a decent number of import titles, but not most of the ones I was looking for.

 

I did pick up Castlevania IV and Final Fantasy VI CIB, both on the Super Famicom, for $15 each. Also found a sealed Metroid NES Classic on the GBA, and a complete Double Dragon Advance on GBA.

 

I was really hoping to find the GoatStore vendor table. Years ago they were the go-to place for Lynx and Jag games. I don't know if they don't operate a vendor table anymore, or if it's just poorly marked, but I haven't been able to find it ever since the vendor hall moved into the outdoor tent a few years ago. I even emailed their website a few months ago, asking how I could find their booth, but I never heard back. I understand they were swamped and they are key players in organizing the show, and I understand my email was probably not a priority. But I would have liked to give them my money for some good games.

Edited April 14, 2017 by PFG 9000

[Inky]

I really didn't see a whole lot I was interested in at the vendor tent. Granted, I didn't get too much time to browse (Dauber, next year, we need to bring more people to cover our table.)

Still had a lot of fun, however, and I say that it's still worth every penny of the admission fee.