No, this isn’t about porn.
There are a few things in the world of gaming that are pretty hard to come by. Okay, more than a few – but not many worth taking the trouble to track down. There’s a big difference between “rare” and “rare and worth having.”
Limited edition game releases. Short production run consoles. Special promotional items for new games. All of those can enter the realm of the “highly sought after.”
And then there’s regular stuff that’s damned hard to find.
Stuff where the manufacturers didn’t see a wide market appeal so they just made a few units and left it at that. I’ve got a couple games that fall into that category, Cubivore for the Gamecube probably the most prominent one. I’ve been tempted by some limited run hardware, but since I own every console that I might feel the urge to play, I’ve yet to find a duplicate system that I’ve “just got to pick up.”
Accessories, on the other hand…
I’m an absolute sucker for hard to find controllers and add-ons, especially if there’s a deal to be had. I’ve got my Donkey Kong bongos, Samba de Amigo maracas and have been waffling back and forth for a long time as to whether or not to break down and buy Steel Battalion for the Xbox. (I’m just not sure if I’ve got room to store that controller.)
It was in the hopes of finding something cool that I went to the Amusing Collections Flea Market today. I’d gone to this market the last two times it was at Tokyo Big Sight during Golden Week (I always forget about the fall one for some reason) and have always had pretty good luck in the past.
This year was a bit of a bummer, though.
Frickin’ Gundams as far as the eye could see, but very little gaming-related stuff. Worse, there was only one guy selling posters this time around, and fully half the ones he had were for hentai games. Amusing to flip through at the market, but nothing I’d want to hang on my living room wall.
There was one dude selling a used Panasonic Q for ¥10,000, which was tempting at first sight. Then I found that he didn’t have the remote and that it wasn’t in that great of shape. Not that I need another Gamecube (or DVD player). My Cube already does all I could want, and I’ve got 4 different things that can play DVDs already hooked up in my living room (plus 2 computers that can play them, too).
I’d just about given up on finding anything good, but decided to make one more sweep by the few tables that had gaming-related stuff.
That turned out to be a good call.
At one table I saw a small box that had the Dreamcast logo on it. I’m a sucker for most anything DC related, so I gave it a look.
And I could not believe what I saw:
A Dreamcast Broadband Adapter!
I realize this means nothing to most everybody out there, but this is a damned hard thing to find. There are usually a few on Ebay at any given time, and they tend to fetch anywhere from $120-150 (or even more!) there. I figured the guy would be out to score with this thing, but I asked him how much, more for curiosity’s sake than anything else. His price? ¥1,000.
One. Thousand. Yen.
That’s less than $9! I didn’t hesitate and snatched it right up. The box was rather shopworn, but who cares about the box? (Yes, some collector-type dudes might, but that’s not me.) I opened it up and got my second shock of the day.
It had never been used.
The CD was still in the original shrinkwrap and the BBA looked quite factory fresh. The manual was also in perfect condition. (Yes, I know I just took a shot at guys who care about the boxes stuff comes in, and here I am gushing over the contents being in such great shape. Deal with it. ^.^)
After buying it, my initial thought was to turn it for a mad profit on Ebay. If I’d paid ¥5,000 or so, it’d probably be listed on there right now. But for the amount I paid, it’s not like I’ve got much tied up in it. It doesn’t matter if I use it or just hang on to it.
So I think I’ll just hang on to it.
Comments are closed.