Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2016

A friend and I plan on attending. Our first "retro expo". We're flying in from TX and OH. Should be fun, hopefully find some cool deals.

 
Oddly enough, I will be in town visiting my brother and his family that weekend. I'm not sure that I'll attend, as the focus is going to be on more of the family visit. Still, I might check to see if anyone else was interested. Could be that I'll make an appearance on Sunday.

 
Richard Kain said:
Oddly enough, I will be in town visiting my brother and his family that weekend. I'm not sure that I'll attend, as the focus is going to be on more of the family visit. Still, I might check to see if anyone else was interested. Could be that I'll make an appearance on Sunday.
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hey dude, i heard u have experience with the gba backlight mod. my screen go dark so i tried to fiddle with the trimmer potentiameter. i broke the head of the screw off by mistake. i tried adjusting it with a safety pin and now its super bright and the colors are all messed up. i live in portland and am going. ill buy u a ticket if u can fix it for me somehow.

 
Lol you're not going to find any deals at a convention. You'll socialize with other gamers and be buying from resellers.

It's why I don't do many conventions. If I didn't it would be more focused on socializing and gaming parties over getting deals. Other wise to me it's a lot in travel expenses.
 
needler420 said:
Lol you're not going to find any deals at a convention. You'll socialize with other gamers and be buying from resellers.

It's why I don't do many conventions. If I didn't it would be more focused on socializing and gaming parties over getting deals. Other wise to me it's a lot in travel expenses.
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That's not true. Sunday afternoon everyone is dumping items that they don't want to take I got some decent deals in the pass. I think you still pay a premium for rare games.
 
I'm not expecting to find cheap copies of Earthbound. But sorry socializing with other gamers is a pain point for you : (

I'm still looking forward to the weekend trip.

 
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How do you think most vendors at conventions stock their inventory? Either they hunt them in the wild or have some kind of trade in program.

You're never going to meet a seller at a convention who is oblivious to what they have. In fact online market prices are what they use to reference prices.

I've had better luck going to flea markets and garage sales.


You're talking about a convention where famous YouTube celebrities will attend. Angry video game nerd, happy console gamer, Pete Dorr, Alpha omega sin, metal Jesus rocks and all the other hunters and resellers.

Like I said you'll socialize and spend a lot in travel expenses more then anything.

Depending where your coming from and how much you plan on spending in travel expenses you might do worse then deals you could have got on eBay. Which is why I look at it more of a experience and socializing then actually hunting for games.
 
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The problem with shopping at a convetion is that everyone there is already going to be an enthusiast. As such, a decent number of people walking around are already going to be familiar with the going rates for most of the items in question. The sellers will likely also be clued in. This is not an ideal environment for a cheap ass gamer. There will be very few bargains in such an environment, especially on games that are in high demand. For the last day of the convention, you could probably find some decent prices on games that do not currently have much in the way of demand. That's going to be your best bet for bargains. (though you would have to wait a while for any of those types of titles to appreciate) I've acquired several titles like that in the past, that were cheap when I got them, and became highly sought after later. But obviously that type of strategy is a bit of a gamble.

On the other hand, conventions are a great place to go for bartering and trading, and are especially good for locating exceptionally rare, hard-to-find titles. The more social envrionment makes trading and swapping of titles much more viable. Bring along some hot deals you've taken advantage of recently, and you might be able to trade them up. And for crazy collectors like me, a convention can be a place where some of the rarest titles converge, even if the prices for them might be high.

 
Back at work... had a great time! My first "expo" and it was almost overwhelming. I learned a lot for the next time I attend one of these events.

Spent around $400 (as much as I brought, didn't dip into the debit/credit cards.... rofl) - got a lot of stuff, and even a couple high price items. 

 
nnthomas said:
Back at work... had a great time! My first "expo" and it was almost overwhelming. I learned a lot for the next time I attend one of these events.

Spent around $400 (as much as I brought, didn't dip into the debit/credit cards.... rofl) - got a lot of stuff, and even a couple high price items.
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What did you buy?

 
Picked these up:

SNES:

The 7th Saga
Drakkhen
Wizardry V
Young Merlin
Arcana
Lagoon
Robotrek
Twisted Tales of Spike McFang

Virtual Boy:

Teleroboxer

Xbox:

Otogi 2
Nightcaster
Nightcaster 2
Galleon

Gamecube:

Summoner 2
007 Nightfire
Amazing Island
True Crime Streets of LA

PS2:

Dawn of Mana

PS1:

Shadow Madness
The Granstream Saga

 
I was able to attend briefly on Sunday with my brother. We played Killer Queen, walked the floor, spoke to the artist who produced classic video game covers like Mega Man 2, got my picture taken with the Nintendo Playstation, and even got to sit in on the Retronauts panel. It was a good time. I didn't do a lot of shopping, but I did pick up a cartridge-only copy of Phantasy Star for the Master System. (something I had been wanting for my collection) Since it was the last day, I also took advantage of the sales and got three repro-carts for the Game Boy Advance. Patched copies of Mother 1+2, Mother 3, and a Fire Emblem game that had never been released in the US.

 
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