Oh how I wish I bought that game...

Was there ever a time in your life that makes you think that?

Obviously now we know which games are rare and which are not, so do you ever remember seeing a rare game for really cheap? (which at the time wasnt rare)

My story takes place back in 1999. I remember walking into a Warehouse Music (remember them lol) store when I was little and seeing all the video games that were being sold. They were all horribly overpriced and at the time I only had a Genesis and PSX so there wasnt much I could buy anyway. (My parents HATED me playing video games so I was not allowed to buy whatever I wanted whenever even with my own money).

I remember though in the corner of the store there was a GIANT clearance bin with a bunch of Sega Saturn games. I remember picking up a bunch of these games and thinking "Man these games look super cool". Some I remember include Sonic Jam and Pandemonium. But there was one game in particular that I remember that had a $5 price tag on it that I especially wanted. There was no way I could have it seeing as how I didnt own a Saturn nor was I allowed to purchase one, but I just really wanted that game. My mom called out that we were leaving and I left the clearance bin without buying anything. Man how I wish I bought that game for $5...

that game btw...was Panzer Dragoon Saga.

I know how ya feel a couple of weeks ago I passed on a number of psx Gamesharks because I didnt know what you could do with them. Im sure the guy would've taken a dollar or two each aswell.

I think there was a time when I could have picked up a brand-new copy of Earthbound for $30. But at the time I didn't like paying more than about $20. In hindsight, I should have gotten two copies. Even though the game isn't THAT rare, the prices it commands in the used market are ridiculous.

An example of the opposite situation are many of the PSX RPGs I own. The used value of many of them has been going up recently, but I was able to pick most of them up on clearance for very little. I also snagged used copies of Mega Man Legends and Mega Man Legends 2 recently for a very reasonable price.

I regret not buying a 3do when it was basically being clearanced out just after the PS1 launched and around the time N64 had come out. That is one that sticks out in my mind the most at this point in time even though I have other regrets. I do regret the games I've sold much more than those I did not buy.

The ones that stick out the most are...

A Circuit City near my house in San Diego had a bunch of copies of Suikoden II marked at 27.99 into about 2001. I already had a DC and PS2 at the time so I really didn't think paying almost thirty bucks for a PS1 RPG was a great idea.

A used cd/record store near my parents house in VA had a copy of Valkyrie Profile at $35 for several months. It was missing the instruction book (but had the original case and both discs) and I passed on it in either 2003 or 2004 because I wanted the instructions or a cheaper price.

Oops.

The list of rare/great games that I owned and stupidly sold off is pretty staggering. It's depressing to even think about.

PS1 Ogre Battle
PS1 Tactics Ogre
Sega Saturn Shining Force III
Sega Saturn Panzer Dragoon Saga
Sega Saturn Guardian Heroes

...sigh...

I don't know about rare games but back in 2000-2001 you could find Final Fantasy PS1 titles (7, 8, and 9) for $10 at pretty much any used game store like Game Crazy. They are worth more now; I've seen some people pay as much as $60 for one.

Funny thing is most games people consider 'rare' aren't rare but just high in demand. Earthbound is a good example of this; the game isn't rare (hundreds of thousands of copies were produced) it just has a really obsessive fanbase who want to snatch up every copy in existence.

What is also ironic is that truly rare games are usually crappy, which is why so few copies were produced in the first place. So I've never actually seen a rare game and said, "I have to have that".

[quote name='therpgfanatic']What is also ironic is that truly rare games are usually crappy, which is why so few copies were produced in the first place. So I've never actually seen a rare game and said, "I have to have that".[/QUOTE]

Yes and no. There are certainly plenty of "rare" games that have gained notoriety for their difficulty to acquire, while not having any actual quality in the games themselves. At the same time, there are quite a few critically acclaimed games that just never got their due in their own time.

Suikoden II would be an example of this. Neither of the first two Suikoden games did particularly well at retail in the US, so they didn't produce a lot of copies. It wasn't until word of mouth got around that the games were actually good that the demand for them went up. By that point an additional production run didn't really make sense, so the titles have become both hard to find, and critically acclaimed.

Snatcher would be another example. This particular game was far more limited by the install base of its hardware platform than by a lack of popularity or marketing, though. The Sega CD never got the install base necessary to support what was essentially a visual novel in the US. This game is very well remembered, and still stands out as an excellent example of voice acting, and yet it is incredibly difficult to find.

What is really sad is that examples like these are usually the result of financial failures. Another thing worth pointing out is that both these games performed considerably better in their native country (Japan). That initial success in Japan was what allowed for them to be localized for the US.

Earthbound. As many copies as I could grab. I worked for a new and used retailer for years in the 90's and early 00's and we almost always had one or two copies of it on hand. It never sold either. I could've had multiple CIB examples for less than 5 bucks a pop. Damn inability to see into the future...

Panzer Dragoon Saga is the correct answer. That game is basically the holy grail of gaming.

[quote name='FaintDeftone']Panzer Dragoon Saga is the correct answer. That game is basically the holy grail of gaming.[/QUOTE]

Given the rumor that the original code of the game was lost and how notoriously difficult it is to emulate anyway there's little to no chance that it'll ever be re-released in any kind of XBLA or PSN version because they'd essentially have to build the game from scratch.

Mine isn't quite as bad, but I remember a stack of about 3-4 Pikmin 2's at Sears for 9.98 each. I bought 1, opened it but never played it. Flipped it on ebay for about $58 at the high point of the game's value. Wish I would have picked them all up though.

The other one is about maybe 10 copies of Conker's Bad Fur day at media play, I think for 75% off, I swear it was the only N64 game they had on the shelf.

Also Xenosaga II at Target for $5, but that game isn't worth that much these days, so that isn't a huge loss.

Who cares about emulation? Just play a "backup", it works just fine played that way.

Going to a local thrift store and seeing ninja gaiden trilogy and thinking $7 is too much . I go home and rethink it and go back and the clerk tells me it just sold a few minutes ago.


I see an ad In craigslist of a person selling arcade machines back in 2002 and he tells want I'm looking for and I tell him a sega astro city and he laughs and I was what's so funny and he tells me he has 14 of them in his garage and he wants them out. He wants $2000 for all of them and I was give me a day to think about it. I was still paying for a engagement ring and I said no. This is one that doesn't bug me that much only when my wife gets me mad.

In the best interests of avoiding such a situation, I went ahead and bought a copy of Shadow Hearts for the PS2 on a recent GameStop visit. I had to lay down $30 for the game, but it is one of the harder to find PS2 RPGs.

Sega Saturn stuff was on clearance everywhere in the late 90's even up till the early 2000's. I will always regret not scooping up more of them especially Panzer Dragoon Saga and Magic Knight Rayearth.

Probably my biggest regret was not necessarily buying something, but letting someone borrow something. While in high school I worked at a mom n' pops video game store. The owner would hook me up if I wanted to buy something. Guy traded in a bunch of Saturn games, all the rare stuff even some imports. Scooped up most of them including PD Saga. I paid $30 for it. Unfortunately a few years later I let some guy borrow it and he brings it in all busted with 2 of the discs cracked in half and case broken everywhere. He blamed it on a "bike accident" but his story seemed fishy. To this day I still don't know what really happened, but I made him pony up $60. Guy was a dope.

I was at a Toys r' Us and they had a clearance on some PS1 games. Valkyrie Profile, Tales of Destiny 2, FFVII, maybe a few others. They were brand new for $5 - $10 each. I got a single copy of each game. They had a bunch of them so I came back a week later and they were all gone. Didn't think it was a big deal at the time, but years later when I sold my copy of VP for $150 I realize I should've stocked up on a few more.

Wish I would've sought out some copies of Earthbound after it flopped.

For me, it happened back in 2001. I had gone to the mall wanting to buy a hat, found one I wanted, but decided to think it over and check out some other stores. While my parents walked around, I went inside the KB Toys to burn some time and started going through the clearance bin. After a few minutes of flipping through the PSX section, I stumbled across a copy of The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. I had just finished Mega Man Legends 2, so I definitely wanted it... However, I also wanted that hat. Tron Bonne was listed at $15 and I only had $20. I went with the hat, and regretted it ever since, as I never saw another copy in a store and it's a bit out of my price range on ebay for a PSX game.

My smack on the head.... When en games carried Sega Saturn imports... I walked in and there was radiant silvergun... $50... I walked out with.... I don't remember, but I wish I bought both

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

I was at KB Toys around 1997 or 1998 and they had a brand new Virtual Boy system for $20 or $30. I didn't have enough money with me and when I went back a few days later it was of course gone.

Then in 1999 I was at Toys R Us and they had new Saturn consoles for $29.99. I had always wanted a Saturn but couldn't afford it when it was first released so even though the system was dead in the US, I bought it with a couple games, went to Blockbuster and found NiGHTs for $0.99 used and then went to EB and bought some games new for $0.99 - $8 and they were giving free new 3D controllers with the purchase of a game. My regret? Not buying the 2nd console TRU had and leaving it sealed.

That just reminded me of another one.

Back in 1999, a local TRU was selling Sega CD addons bundled with Tomcat Alley for $20. I bought one for myself but left at least ten of them there. If I had gone through the trouble of storing them and transporting them around through all my later moves, they'd be worth a fortune nowadays.

[quote name='FaintDeftone']Panzer Dragoon Saga is the correct answer. That game is basically the holy grail of gaming.[/QUOTE]

i got a copy of it at TRU and the worker goes you must like the game and smiled (i thought something was up and opened it just to see if all the disk were in there...

never played the game and it took the vaule to like 80% less what i could got for it....

need to check cause i might still have it dont remember selling it


edit nope its gone must of sold it

I had Panzer Dragon and lost that in my Sega Saturn back in 98 when someone broke into my parents house.

I was at the Half Price books this week, and found copies of Kings Quest II, III, and IV in their original boxes, in near-mint condition.(seriously, really good condition, especially for such old games) Picked them up for just $5 each. Very pleased.

[quote name='YoshiFan1']I was at KB Toys around 1997 or 1998 and they had a brand new Virtual Boy system for $20 or $30. I didn't have enough money with me and when I went back a few days later it was of course gone.
.[/QUOTE]

There have been many and I have benefited by buying many before they became rare as well, but one of my big ones was at KB Toys as well in the same time period - maybe a year or two earlier.
In their little clearance bins in the middle of the store were tons of brand new NES games for $5. Of them I bought the original Final Fantasy since I hadn't played it but had played all the SNES ones at the time. What I wish I did was purchase all the Final Fantasy copies. There were probably 12-15 there. Having that many sealed would have been pretty amazing.

Also - at my local mom and pop electronics store that is now out of business they had a sealed copy of Secret of Mana sitting on the shelf until they finally closed in the early 2000s. It always had a big sticker on it for $49. I wish I had ponied up the cash then, but I already had a copy. Oh the foresight to buy it and leave it sealed.

I remember when the Virtual Boy was on clearance at my local Toys 'r Us. Not buying a system maybe $30-$60 or the games that were like $10.

My biggest regret was also courtesy of KB Toys. They had two huge bins of Jaguar and Jaguar CD games for $0.99 each. We are talking basically the whole catalog of Jaguar games. The real kicker is that next to the two bins were two pallets of Jaguar consoles and Jaguar CD add-ons for $10 and $15 EACH.

My other regret is selling my entire video game collection around the early 2000's for a new Dell XPS 17 inch laptop. It was a bad ass computer for sure, but it is long gone now. So is my collection of all boxed, complete, and in pristine condition. This included the a boxed 3DO and games, a boxed Jag/Jag CD and games, and complete perfect condition SNES, Saturn, and N64 games like Earthbound, FFII &III, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Secret of Mana, a sealed Zelda: OoT Collectors Edition, and on and on. Ouch.

[quote name='Gators300']My biggest regret was also courtesy of KB Toys. They had two huge bins of Jaguar and Jaguar CD games for $0.99 each. We are talking basically the whole catalog of Jaguar games. The real kicker is that next to the two bins were two pallets of Jaguar consoles and Jaguar CD add-ons for $10 and $15 EACH.

My other regret is selling my entire video game collection around the early 2000's for a new Dell XPS 17 inch laptop. It was a bad ass computer for sure, but it is long gone now. So is my collection of all boxed, complete, and in pristine condition. This included the a boxed 3DO and games, a boxed Jag/Jag CD and games, and complete perfect condition SNES, Saturn, and N64 games like Earthbound, FFII &III, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Secret of Mana, a sealed Zelda: OoT Collectors Edition, and on and on. Ouch.[/QUOTE]

Dude.... Ouch.

I got Panzer Dragoon Saga from a local rental place. I seen how much it was going for on ebay at the time and called the place I rented it from and said I might have lost it how much is it if I did. They said 40 dollars so I went and paid my penalty and kept the game.
That is also how I got Dragonball GT from blockbuster for ps1 when it was going for like 120+ on ebay.


Anyways the one thing I really regret not getting was at a yard sale next to my girlfriend in high schools house. They had a sega genesis with cd 32x, SNES, and a saturn and a butt load of games and they were asking ridiculous prices for them like 5 dollars for the systems and 25 for the saturn a dollar a piece for games. While I was glancing at them I heard the guy selling tell a woman 75 for the lot which was way more than 50 games between them all.
I was like 15 and didn't have any money on me at the time but could have called one of my parents to bring me the money. Instead I was interested in seeming too cool to call my parents to bring me money or that I played video games in front of the snobby girl I was seeing. All I got was some boob action from that girl in the long run and all those games would have been much more worth it. This happened the summer right around when FFVII came out because I remember I was still seeing that girl and I didn't buy it until after we broke up. So I am pretty sure at that time the Saturn was not yet discontinued so that would have been a great deal.

Another one is not buying a Pikachu edition N64 at Toys 'R Us for $20-$30. It would be a long time from that to when I actually owned a different colored N64 besides the launch gray console.

Bonesinski reminded me of another one...

Back in... late 1993 I think, my local TRU was clearing out NES games. Among the titles that they had for $10 a pop were Final Fantasy (bought a copy for myself to open and play) and...

Dragon Warrior IV. They had at least six copies of DW4 and I bought one, opened it, and enjoyed the hell out of it.

They had some others that probably aren't as valuable nowadays but would still be cool to have. Punch Out (the updated, non-Tyson version), Metroid (again, the Player's Choice version), Legend of Zelda (PC version), and Adventure of Link (PC version). *sigh*

I had several really good scores during the decline of the Saturn in the US. I remember Wal-Mart clearing out their Saturn library for $5 a pop and coming away with stuff like Nightwarriors and Daytona USA CCE.

I've had a lot of regrets about not buying games. I'm 24 and I've been playing and buying my own games with my own money since I was a kid. The N64 era was when I really got into gaming, and I've seen copies of Earthbound and Secret of Mana in stores without picking them up numerous times. I've seen my share of Intellivisions at lawn sales and game cabinets being thrown out of family centers, too; this restaurant/bowling alley in my town used to have a top-down Donkey Kong cabinet that they just got rid of one day in the 90's. There are a few specific instances I can remember when I should have bought games and didn't: I was a member when GameStop had their PS1 75% off clearance, which gave me 85% off the entire inventory of games. I picked up 20-25 games, but I failed to get Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Thousand Arms, Tales of Destiny II, and Persona 2. And I missed out on the GB/GBC 75% off sales in 2007-08 completely. In 2011, someone decided to trade in a bunch of rare PS1 games to a local store chain called Bull Moose Music. I only know about this because another CAG made a post saying he bought them all for $8.97 each. He scored games like Lunar Silver Star Story, Legend of Mana, Brigandine, the Final Fantasy games, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, and others totaling to around $170 worth. I wanted to go to the exact store, but I was on a date with my then girlfriend...GAH! Another one I missed out on was a collection of every PS1 Lifespan game being sold for about $9 shipped on ebay.

But missing out has wisened me to future deals; with all the regrets I have about not buying a great game when I should have, I've gotten pretty lucky too. When Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video closed down, I ended up getting a ton of sealed games for $5 each: Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Wild Arms Alter Code F, Tales of the Abyss, Suikoden V, Shadow Hearts Covenant, and Dot Hack GU Vol. 3 among others (Chrono Trigger DS, Prof Layton, etc.). I've also ended up buying some great games at another local store for about $10, like Haunting Ground, Gitaroo Man, and Futurama. And I bought a like new copy of Arc the Lad Collection from Amazon Warehouse Deals sometime last year for $27, and all of the collector's edition contents had never been touched. It really looks brand spankin' new, minus the missing shrink wrap.

And I have one selling regret: When I was younger, my parents sold their entire collection of Atari stuff for $60. Atari 2600 and 5200, with four joypads and about 30 games, some with boxes and manuals but most were cart only. Still a shame to see all of that history go for $60.

I had the mistake of being a young gamer. I am 24 and I got the NES at the age of 8. I had 150 games for quite a few unlicensed games, bubble bobble part 2 with the box and manual, all 6 megaman games, dusty diamonds all star softball and many others. Anyway, when the N64 came out, all of my friends had one and I was envious. So then one day, i took all of my games into Funcoland and got a $240 credit, bought the N64 and some games and that was it. A few years later when the ps2 game out i had 50+ games for my N64 and I traded all of those in for the PS2. Then, I traded in all my games for Gamecube, then back to PS2.

I know this is about games you should have bought, only thing i have for that is Earthbound from a grocery store when i was a kid. They decided they didn't want to be in the game rental business (where i got most of my NES boxed collection from). The store sold them for $5 each and had 3 copies of Earthbound and I was interested in the big box but didn't grab it.

Needless to say after the mistakes of my past I have not gotten rid of any of my games since I've started collecting.

Depressing thread.

Makes me think back to all the systems and games I had, and sold, throughout the years. Probably wasted the money on dumb shit too.

I had a 2600 & 7800 with 100 games, a nes and a ton of games, genesis with sega cd, gamegear, turbographx, a dreamcast, it doesnt end...

When I think of all the PSx games I had, and I loved RPGs more than anything back then, it makes me sad that I sold so many.

Luckly for me I kept the Neo Geo (never could part with it) and the few games I had.

Sigh...

I remember another time when I went to the local Salvation Army I saw a Dreamcast for $50. The kicker was it had an Ethernet adapter. (Said "LAN" instead of "Line" where the phone jack was located.)

I knew what I was looking at, but passed because I didn't have that kind of money at the time. This was about 5 years ago, I was unemployed and had decided to pay bills instead.

Still kicking myself every time to this day whenever I see a Dreamcast at a thrift store and seeing the standard phone jack on them.

Something more recently was maybe a year or two ago, seeing an incomplete ROB for the NES for $30 at another thrift store. Didn't have the money at the time for it, when I did go again a few days later it was gone.

Remember seeing brand new copies of Phantasy Star IV for like $8 at a KB Outlet.

Also remember a CD store called "Music for a Song" in an outlet mall near where I grew up. They had a small video game section. I remember seeing a bunch of Sega stuff on clearance from CDX's to 32X's. Don't recall the prices (maybe $60 on the CDX and $15 for the 32X)

I could have gotten a NES Toploader for $20-$30 brand new from KB Toys, but passed because I already had an NES Toaster.

Part of the problem is that a lot of us remember these stories from back when we were too young or too poor to afford most of these bargains. You can't really kick yourself over choosing to pay rent over picking up cheap games. Rent is more important, and making a decision like that just makes you a responsible adult.

Now that I have a decent amount of disposable income, I don't have to skate by deals like this anymore. I picked up a copy of Eye of Judgement from WalMart when they were only $20. Now used game stores are selling them for more than $60. For the most part, I no longer have to worry about passing up on great deals.

I definitely wasn't too poor to pick up most everything that I passed up when I was younger. I had a job at starting at age 13, so I always had a little scratch for games. The problem was that I couldn't see into the future, which I assume is the same problem that many of you face