A Possible Future

One thing I might want to do when I grow up is open a retro video game store. It's not going to be a lame little mall kiosk. There will be cartridges upon cartridges, all organized into beautiful alphabetic rows. I will know what I have, and if I don't have what you're looking for, I'll know where to find it. Behind the counter, I'll keep the super-valuable games behind bulletproof glass under lockdown so people can ogle them while also knowing there is no way they'd ever be able to afford my unopened copies of Dragon Warrior 4, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VII.

I'm not sure how to go about starting a store like this. Historically, game stores always felt like they were charging way too much for many of my favorite games, while in my head, I knew they were actually worth the sale price. Every so often, I scour eBay for a huge game collection that I can scoop up for pennies on the dollar. Most of the time though, even large collections are too expensive, and I would never be able to make back while re-selling what I spent to buy them. Like this one. $32,000, over 1,600 games... but that's almost $20 a game. Too much! I want to pay like $2 a game and then sell them for $5 to $10. I should start hunting through pawn shops for deals now. Fortunately for many game collectors, most pawn shops are oblivious to game values, opting instead for the "All Genesis games - $4" type of business model. Works for me. Should I just go to pawn shops and buy out their old game inventory, filling my car and apartment in hopes of a future that may not even occur? Maybe. There are worse ways to spend money... If nothing else, I'll have shelves and shelves of games on my walls, ensuring that my nerdy friends are jealous and my female friends won't talk to me again once they see my shrine to geekery. Yay!