How often do you find TG-16 and TG-CD in the wild?

[TurboGrafx]

I enjoy to go to flea markets, yard sales,and various local retro video game stores. They never seem to have any turbografx 16 or cd games. Do you find these often? The only time I ever found them once at a flea market. I bought the turbografx 16 console (without any controllers or cords), china warrior, and world class baseball.  The one local shop I go to had a few common games that he was charging 20x their value for. Has anyone had any luck? I have to get most of my stuff through message boards or ebay.

[Medic_wheat]

In the past three years since I started going Turbo?


Flea markets and yard sale.  Twice.

[SuperGrafx]

Almost never.
I did see a random loose Hucard (Taking it to the Hoop, I believe) at a Goodwill once.  It was just sat out on a random shelf along with housewares and various other kitchen utensils.

[Dicer]

Hardly ever, it's a miracle if I do.

[SephirothTNH]

Never.  I don't go to flea markets or garage sells but whenever I see a used game store I go check it out.  I have never seen any turbo stuff in the wild.

[madboom0522]

There is a store near me that has turbo stuff fairly regular. High on the price points but there none the less....

[roflmao]

I've seen obey in the wild (flea markets, game shops) but it's rare and has always been priced crazy high.

[Medic_wheat]

I've seen obey in the wild (flea markets, game shops) but it's rare and has always been priced crazy high.

This is true when I see it in game shops. Which is actually more common it seems in my area. But alas majority of the time I do see it in game stores I either have it or could buy it now significantly cheaper off eBay.

[cr8zykuban0]

some of my local game stores have tg stuff from time to time but not much. i guess im lucky that i can even find anything nec related.

[Ray]

Surprisingly, just once. One of the stores nearby has an American Turbografx-16 with Blazing Lazers on attract mode available for a quick run. To my knowledge, it has never been for sale and it has been there for years.

I have never found anything else that's either Turbo for PC Engine related in stores, which is unsurprising since this is the Netherlands. You're lucky to find anything older than Playstation around here, and when it's there the prices are through the roof.

[kiketonto]

there are no flea markets here in Spain.
besides it's difficult to find games in s&T forums, so...

[grache]

there are no flea markets here in Spain.
besides it's difficult to find games in s&T forums, so...

For everyone in North America who think turbobs are hard to find, Spain is orders of magnitude worse. It's nearly impossible to find anything, even online. When you find something, generally the price is absurd, like this boxed NES for 275€.

I just searched loquo, Spain's craigslist, for "turbografx" and "pc engine", no hits for the entire country.

kike, have you ever been to RetroMadrid?

[HailingTheThings]

Its around sometimes in my area, but the shops that have it want dumb prices..well usually, been a few occasions I lucked out. Although those occurrences were a long time ago.

[TurboGrafx]

The shop owners laugh when i come in because they know I am going to ask if they have any turbografx games. One day though, they will have something lol.

I watch game chasers and retroliberty on youtube (check them out if you haven't) and they very rarely find turbografx stuff either at flea markets or swap meets.

[Medic_wheat]

The shop owners laugh when i come in because they know I am going to ask if they have any turbografx games. One day though, they will have something lol.

I watch game chasers and retroliberty on youtube (check them out if you haven't) and they very rarely find turbografx stuff either at flea markets or swap meets.

And yet they seem to find stuff at crazy good prices.

[pdiggitydogg]

Never. Not since the early 90s

[esteban]

In the 90's I looked at garage sales and Salvation Army / etc. And the places I went to rarely had video game stuff, and definitely NEVER a Hint of Turbo.

I hoped to find a game hidden amongst CD's (I spent too much time looking for decent music/games in millions of crappy CD's...to be honest, I think my time was wasted. Ha!)

In LAS Angeles /Southern California, late 90'same sorts of places, never found turbo. Other popular consoles (SNES, NES, Genny) were always around.

I just figured I wasn't looking in the right places. I was more interested in music during most of the 90's, so I gravitated to music nearly all the time.

[Miracle_Warrior]

2 or 3 times in the past. 

Recently I was at a flea market and one of the vendors had a Turbo inside one of those hard rental cases (branded with TurboGrafx 16, which was pretty cool).  When I asked him how much he wanted for it along with about 6 loose hueys (Dragon Spirit, Keith Courage, Final Lap Twin, Bonk's Adventure, J.J and Jeff and one of the TV Sports games) he said $500. 

It's painful watching stuff like that just rot away in a vendor's booth for eternity because they are out of their damn minds.  What kills me is that you know some dude probably traded that stuff for a poop-stained nes with duckhunt and mario.

[DeshDildo]

2 or 3 times in the past. 

Recently I was at a flea market and one of the vendors had a Turbo inside one of those hard rental cases (branded with TurboGrafx 16, which was pretty cool).  When I asked him how much he wanted for it along with about 6 loose hueys (Dragon Spirit, Keith Courage, Final Lap Twin, Bonk's Adventure, J.J and Jeff and one of the TV Sports games) he said $500. 

It's painful watching stuff like that just rot away in a vendor's booth for eternity because they are out of their damn minds.  What kills me is that you know some dude probably traded that stuff for a poop-stained nes with duckhunt and mario.

This!  We talk about ebay gougers but many times when I see stuff in a resale environment it's priced higher than ebay tards with teh rarez.

[NecroPhile]

I don't scour thrift shops, garage sales, etc. but I've seen the odd loose huey at a local game store from time to time. 

[DragonmasterDan]

I've seen HuCards and even the occasional CD game at used media stores (one that sells DVDs, BluRays, CDs and games, another that specializes in books) occasionally but they're almost always common undesirable games. Some stores I've visited to that specialized used games have quite a bit of inventory, but obviously in order to maintain stock their prices are on par with what you find online.

The actual hardware I practically never see outside of stores specializing in used video games.

[SignOfZeta]

I bought my Turbo Duo new from the EB in Midland; Mi, also purchased there; Dungeon Explorer 2, Riot Zone; Sim Earth, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Lords of Thunder, Cockwing Fuck. From the Diehard Game Club in Waterford, Mi; Yuna 2, Startling Odyssey 2, Dragon Ball.

Oh, you mean in the last 10 years? Well, it happens. At the Midwest Gaming Classic there was actually quite a bit of Turbo and PCE. Working CD systems are always a problem, always have been, but basic games are not. Price is the issue. People always say, "I saw Blazing Lazers for $200" or whatever. This is because they wanted to actually have a Turbo thing in their store for a minute. If they charged anything like a reasonable price then it would be gone in seconds. As a store owner those are your choices; charge 8x what it's worth so it will be there, or charge a fair price and see the first customer who walks into your store by it.

There were plenty of Turbo games to go around originally. What happened was that now the power collector is the standard. Everyone who owns a Turbo feels the need, for some fucking reason, to own every game. They will NEVER play this stuff, they just want to own the "complete" collection before they inevitably dump the whole thing on a new generation of complaining noobs. With every system owner now hoarding 20x as much software as NEC manufactured, scarcity has been artificially made real.

[SplatterTrigger]

Occasionally I'll find a loose huey but that's about it. I live in CT so shops are slim in general.

[cjameslv]

some of my local game stores have tg stuff from time to time but not much. i guess im lucky that i can even find anything nec related.

Yeah were kinda lucky we have a few stores that have them. Prices aren't too bad either.

[csgx1]

So you guys consider game store finds as stuff "in the wild"?  That's like seeing an exotic animal at a pet store.  Those animals are definitely not living in the wild.

Now days it's almost shocking to see any Turbo stuff being sold in the wild.

[Medic_wheat]

So you guys consider game store finds as stuff "in the wild"?  That's like seeing an exotic animal at a pet store.  Those animals are definitely not living in the wild.

Now days it's almost shocking to see any Turbo stuff being sold in the wild.

Due to the leg break lack of mass appeal/owner ship of TG-16 when it was new yes. 

As odd as that may seem

[NecroPhile]

So you guys consider game store finds as stuff "in the wild"?  That's like seeing an exotic animal at a pet store.  Those animals are definitely not living in the wild.

As opposed to finding a copy of Soldier Blade sitting on an old stump out in the woods?  Much like buying that exotic animal and taking it home as a pet, finding a game at a garage sale doesn't make it any more "wild".

[CPTRAVE]

In Georgia, just once, I got the Turbografx , along with 4 games. But other than that never

[cjameslv]

So you guys consider game store finds as stuff "in the wild"?  That's like seeing an exotic animal at a pet store.  Those animals are definitely not living in the wild.

As opposed to finding a copy of Soldier Blade sitting on an old stump out in the woods?....

Fuckin right he did!!

[graffias79]

The only thing I've ever found was a boxed TG-16 with a Montgomery Ward sticker on it with a price of $199.99.  It was only missing Keith Courage.  I found it at Goodwill with the puzzles and board games.  It was priced at $6.99.  This had to be about 2012-ish. I scoured that store for the CD attachment if it was there and games but there was nothing else.  I recently bought a complete Keith Courage (luckily the only affordable game) and added it to the system to complete it.

[cjameslv]

... I recently bought a complete Keith Courage (luckily the only affordable game)...

LOL, there is easily at least a 1/4 of the tg-16 hucard library to be had around $20 mark or less. That gives you 20+ games right there. Even a few cd titles are priced there. And don't get me started on all the pce games too!

[grache]

I bought my Turbo Duo new from the EB in Midland; Mi, also purchased there; Dungeon Explorer 2, Riot Zone; Sim Earth, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Lords of Thunder, Cockwing Fuck. From the Diehard Game Club in Waterford, Mi; Yuna 2, Startling Odyssey 2, Dragon Ball.

Oh, you mean in the last 10 years? Well, it happens. At the Midwest Gaming Classic there was actually quite a bit of Turbo and PCE. Working CD systems are always a problem, always have been, but basic games are not. Price is the issue. People always say, "I saw Blazing Lazers for $200" or whatever. This is because they wanted to actually have a Turbo thing in their store for a minute. If they charged anything like a reasonable price then it would be gone in seconds. As a store owner those are your choices; charge 8x what it's worth so it will be there, or charge a fair price and see the first customer who walks into your store by it.

There were plenty of Turbo games to go around originally. What happened was that now the power collector is the standard. Everyone who owns a Turbo feels the need, for some fucking reason, to own every game. They will NEVER play this stuff, they just want to own the "complete" collection before they inevitably dump the whole thing on a new generation of complaining noobs. With every system owner now hoarding 20x as much software as NEC manufactured, scarcity has been artificially made real.

You and my grandpop are cut from the same jib. He was a gas station attendant since way back when, even before Ike put in the interstate system, a real OG.

He did it all, wiped your windshield, checked your fluids, topped up your oil.. but there was one thing he really loved since before it was in vogue: pumping gas.

Back in his glory days he pumped em all hi-tess, lo-tess, midgrade.. he handled that nozzle like Clint Eastwood handles a six shooter in a spaghetti western.

You should see how the vein on his forehead swells up to the size of a prized wriggler when Rick Dale comes on the T.V. with his restored gas pumps.

And you can understand of course, those people are taking the tool of grandpop's trade, tarting it up, rendering it inoperable, and selling to folks who don't even have 1 day of fossil fuel jockeying under their belt. Even worse it's pricing real petroleum injection specialists like grandpop out of the market.

[xasap_retro_gamerx]

I enjoy to go to flea markets, yard sales,and various local retro video game stores. They never seem to have any turbografx 16 or cd games. Do you find these often? The only time I ever found them once at a flea market. I bought the turbografx 16 console (without any controllers or cords), china warrior, and world class baseball.  The one local shop I go to had a few common games that he was charging 20x their value for. Has anyone had any luck? I have to get most of my stuff through message boards or ebay.

Honestly Three Times , First Was a Keith courage at a fleamarket before I collected turbo and I got it , aftet that none at any fleamarket , two game stores by me have turbo stuff but for ebay's prices . But I found a turbo 16 with a booster plus in the wild from a re-seller who didn't know the booster plus was an attachment  I gave him castlevania 4 smash bros and a super scope in box for it , then I found an express last week while in a FB group searching for turbo stuff . Other then that no , and I never plan on finding anything over here unless it's through facebook .

[DragonmasterDan]

So you guys consider game store finds as stuff "in the wild"?  That's like seeing an exotic animal at a pet store.  Those animals are definitely not living in the wild.

Now days it's almost shocking to see any Turbo stuff being sold in the wild.

Let me put it this way. In previous years I've seen Play N Trade franchises sell TurboGrafx systems/accessories and games at well below general internet prices. While they're a specialty store there were deals to be had, which seems to be what people are asking about when they say "In the wild".

 Some examples were 6.99 for Valis III with the case and manual, 6.99 for Addams Family with case and manual. An express with no battery cover and bad caps for 20.00, and a TurboGrafx 16 + broken CD add-on with the case, two controllers, CD power supply for 50.00. But deals like that go quickly.

[captain_n77]

Never have found any in the wild, unless you count stores and craigslist.

There is a game store right down the road that I bought a handful of loose, common games from a year or so back. They had a Turbo + Tale Spin in stock 5+ years ago.

There is an antique store I frequent that has a (mostly) classic/retro game section. He actually has had a Ninja Spirit that he can't seem to sell for quite a few months now. I've bought a few games from him in the past when they pop up and are priced ok enough. He did have a boxed Duo last year that was as mint as it comes. Of course the price reflected that.

Never had luck on craigslist, but talked to some dude with 4 commons that wanted a bit more than ebay prices for them. I passed.

Besides this forum, that is my experience with Turbo. It's almost like it never existed around here. There is one guy I know who keeps telling me he is going to sell off his Turbo, Saturn, and Neo Geo stuff, but I think he is afraid to take the plunge.

[EvilEvoIX]

All the Play N Trades in my area have closed.  It is depressing but shows that Retro Game collecting cannot support brick and mortar businesses any more.  What is really amazing that these is a TON on inventory in the Possession of Game Stop (Formerly EB, Babages, Funcoland, Etc).  That stuff needs to come out and flood the market.  My only fear would be like $10 Mario Duckhunt games.

[technozombie]

All the Play N Trades in my area have closed.  It is depressing but shows that Retro Game collecting cannot support brick and mortar businesses any more.  What is really amazing that these is a TON on inventory in the Possession of Game Stop (Formerly EB, Babages, Funcoland, Etc).  That stuff needs to come out and flood the market.  My only fear would be like $10 Mario Duckhunt games.

I read where GameStop was thinking of getting back in the retro business but I don't think they have a bunch of old stock. I worked for GameStop when they stopped accepting trades on nes/SNES/Genesis and we didn't ship anything back to them we just stopped taking trades and sold down our inventory until it was gone.

[Bloufo]

The only stuff recently I've found in the "wild" (at an estate auction) were a few loose HuCard's (Obocchama Kun, Berabo Bravo-Man, and some game that looks like a type of Samurai type space harrier).
As well as two complete CD based games (Record of Lodoss War 2, and 3x3 Eyes). The latter came included with some sort of VHS promo tape.

Those are probably all common games? But the point is to find anything Turbo/PC Engine related in this part of the world is virtually zero. So I genuinely did a double take when I saw these sitting there on a table.

[graffias79]

LOL, there is easily at least a 1/4 of the tg-16 hucard library to be had around $20 mark or less. That gives you 20+ games right there. Even a few cd titles are priced there. And don't get me started on all the pce games too!

Yes I bought Keith Courage to complete the boxed system.  KC was only $8 complete so who wouldn't buy it to complete the system?  I already have a copy for playing on my Duo.  I have all of the HuCards I want for the time being.

Edited for clarity:  The affordability thing was a (failed, obviously) attempt at a joke to comment on the price of things in this hobby.

[csgx1]

So you guys consider game store finds as stuff "in the wild"?  That's like seeing an exotic animal at a pet store.  Those animals are definitely not living in the wild.

Now days it's almost shocking to see any Turbo stuff being sold in the wild.

Let me put it this way. In previous years I've seen Play N Trade franchises sell TurboGrafx systems/accessories and games at well below general internet prices. While they're a specialty store there were deals to be had, which seems to be what people are asking about when they say "In the wild".

 Some examples were 6.99 for Valis III with the case and manual, 6.99 for Addams Family with case and manual. An express with no battery cover and bad caps for 20.00, and a TurboGrafx 16 + broken CD add-on with the case, two controllers, CD power supply for 50.00. But deals like that go quickly.

That's great that there are (were) game stores that had good priced Turbo stuff.  Give me hope since I've never had any luck at game stores.  Almost every store I've visited in the last few years had priced there Turbo stuff at Ebay or higher. 

Also, I've never considered game stores for deals on broken stuff.  Might be worth while now days to ask if they have any broken Turbo stuff in the back.

[Gredler]

As someone had mentioned in another thread, I've found them at the Luna Video Games here in San Diego at a decent (near/same as ebay) price. I have never found them outside of that gamestore since they were in retailers.

[tg16manaic]

We seriously need to invent this:



A hucard detector!!!

If someone can invent a machine capable of detecting something unique about the hucards, like identifying a unique caracteristic about the hucards that would only beep if it finds one. Its a crazy idea and very far-fetched but we do actually need this at this point. Unable to find them otherwise lol. Just think of how great it would be, we could literally drive by and it would go off and we could follow it into a thrift store or some abandoned storage unit or something.

[DragonmasterDan]

Also, I've never considered game stores for deals on broken stuff.  Might be worth while now days to ask if they have any broken Turbo stuff in the back.

Duo's, expresses and add-on CDs are frequently broken due to caps or general wear and tear over the years. In the case of this Play N Trade, they brought the broken CD unit to their "Xbox and Playstation repair guy" who wasn't able to fix it. Hence the extremely low price.

With that said finding broken hardware in general and then repairing it or having someone else repair it is probably your best bet in terms of finding great deals.

[A Black Falcon]

TurboGrafx HuCard games are something I see a couple of games of maybe once a year, locally.  Systems... I've seen two in the last five years.  Turbo CD anything, never seen a thing around here.  The system clearly did not sell much here.

[kosko99]

Besides the retro stores in Akihabara, never ever seen anything here at Barcelona (Spain)...

[TurboGrafx]

It even seems like finding snes, genesis, and nes games at yard sales and flea markets is getting harder. The Wii and PS2 have become the most common.

[Groover]

I see them at my retro game stores but rare to find something good. I need to find the flea markets in Austin.

[Medic_wheat]

It even seems like finding snes, genesis, and nes games at yard sales and flea markets is getting harder. The Wii and PS2 have become the most common.

I don't think I have ever really found good deals on NES or SNES stuff in the past few years.

I think the best score I got in the past three years was a CIB boxed Megaman 4 for $25. And this was off a video game reseller surprisingly.

[TurboGrafx]

It even seems like finding snes, genesis, and nes games at yard sales and flea markets is getting harder. The Wii and PS2 have become the most common.

I don't think I have ever really found good deals on NES or SNES stuff in the past few years.

I think the best score I got in the past three years was a CIB boxed Megaman 4 for $25. And this was off a video game reseller surprisingly.

That is a good deal! Flea markets have slowly become an outside stores with all of the resellers there. I am not going to a flea market to spend 50 dollars on a game 

[EvilEvoIX]

Craigslist, but you gotta be quick before anyone else gets to them.  I got me some cheap AES games, like $20 a game for US versions, NES stuff, a TG16 for like $20.  Deals are always out there.