I Went to Japan's BIGGEST Retro Game Store

this is hard off Japan's biggest thrift store chain specializing in electronics like camera gear musical instruments and most importantly video games and consoles this summer I rented a car and drove 500 miles across Japan visiting as many hard-offs as I could to search for the best deals in the country now obviously I'm a big Pokemon guy so the main things that I'm looking for on this trip are mostly older Pokemon games and a Game Boy Advance a few years ago in Japan I bought this Game Boy Color so I can play gen 1 and Gen 2 games but I'm looking for a Game Boy Advance so I can play gen 3 games of course I'm also half Filipino so I'm not opposed to a good deal so if anything else interesting comes up we'll see what happens I started off the adventure by heading west from Tokyo to what would ultimately be the biggest hard-off of the entire trip this shop is located in hachioji and it set the bar very high I went straight to the consoles to see what the prices were like since this was the first hard off I visited I kind of used it to set the Baseline for what to expect I assumed since we were still fairly close to Tokyo prices on game boys would probably get cheaper as we went further into the countryside that assumption may have been a mistake there was a stack of gbasps priced at 8 800 Yen or about 60 U.S below that a whole shelf of Game Boy colors ranging from 33 dollars up to 375 dollars for this Pokemon Center gold and silver special edition there was a huge selection of famicom games which honestly I had no intention of buying but I love that the cartridges are all different colors they had Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire for nine dollars each Gold version for 2.50 yellow for four dollars and Crystal for nine bucks Soul Silver in box for thirty dollars Platinum for 16 and and one of my all-time favorites Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for 13 they had complete Nintendo 64s for fifty dollars and a whole wall of old computers that I know nothing about they even had this Frankenstein of a bootleg console and copyright infringement nightmare now the real fun happens in the junk section you'll find one in every heart off and it features broken or untested items sometimes the problem is as simple as the device not being charged when it was brought in and you can find some really incredible deals if you're willing to dig through the bins the junk section here had a bunch of game boys with gbas as cheap as 33 dollars the tags on each item tells you what's wrong with them some of them won't load games some have damaged screens but a lot of the issues are pretty easy repairs if you know what you're doing the music section here was just as wild as the game section I'm still wondering how five used sitars and a dozen mandolins all ended up in the same second-hand shop they even had toilets up here as you'd expect the used camera section was just as well stocked with film and digital gear spanning across decades from hard off I ventured into the sister store hobby off which specializes in toys trading cards and collectibles I'm no plushie connoisseur but I'm sure you could find some rare exclusives hiding among the fluff there were walls and walls of Pokemon cards and even some representation for my favorite TCG Magic the Gathering among all the toys I managed to find some pretty strange Pokemon products which I'll be showcasing in another video soon after spending the night at the world's oldest hotel I headed to the second hard off of the trip this time in a city called Kai in the yamanashi prefecture the very first case I looked in had a couple DSis for just eight dollars which gave me hope for finding a cheap Game Boy Advance the Game Boy junk bin was filled with Tamagotchi and Yu-Gi-Oh games that I would soon discover to be a plague on Japan's hard-offs in the DS junk bin I found a copy of a kanji training game that I was looking for I almost bought this game for fifty dollars in the US before coming on this trip good thing I waited because I just found it for 80 cents the N64 junk bin had a bunch of copies of Pokemon Stadium for the same price and functional or not a box full of PlayStations for two dollars each is just insane they had n64s and GameCubes for 45 dollars but the bargain stopped there game boys of all generations were priced at nearly a hundred dollars each I found a boxed original Pokemon pinball for 11. I already have a copy from my last trip to Japan but I'm still on the hunt for the Game Boy Advance version there were also boxed gen 1 Pokemon games for thirty dollars each and this one which was just missing the manual was priced at 15 I ended up buying two kanji training games and taking a chance on one of the Eight dollar DSis from the junk section deeper into the mountains and the next stop was here in the city of Matsumoto in Nagano prefecture unfortunately this shop had no handheld consoles they even had a sign asking people to please sell theirs the game section was pretty sparse too just a couple copies of Pokemon Emerald for 26 dollars each I had a quick look through the junk bins and found a charger for my new DSi for two dollars and in case you needed more evidence that the Wii U was a failure here are two boxes full of them for eight dollars each the off house section of the shop had a bunch of camping gear and in the hobby off I found this incredible treasure a Pokemon gachapon machine that I may or may not have brought home with me I plugged in my junk DSi at the hotel and turned it on and it was a hundred percent functional the tag at the shop said the buttons didn't work but here's what I think happened during the initial setup you have to use the touch screen once you get past that you can use the buttons whoever tested it probably turned it on couldn't use the buttons right away and then labeled it junk they go through so much stuff that some of it just probably doesn't get tested thoroughly and ends up way underpriced the kanji game I bought however ended up being a little too difficult for me it just required a much higher base level of knowledge than I have so I have to keep looking for a more basic level game another day another hard off this time in kanazawa the junk case was filled with Nintendo handhelds but unfortunately the one that was missing was the one that I was looking for the Game Boy Advance [Music] the place was absolutely stacked with consoles there was even an entire junk bin full of original DS's foreign [Music] Hefty game section to go along with the consoles Dragon Quest 5 and Super Mario Kart at junk prices Mario Party 2 for two dollars Animal Crossing new Leaf four dollars Pokemon Black nine dollars Alpha Sapphire 13 gold and silver for two dollars each and then perhaps the most interesting find of the entire trip at first I couldn't understand why an old CRT TV would cost five hundred dollars but then I realized this is a TV with a super famicom built in it's literally a Super Nintendo TV put the game straight in put the controller straight in I didn't buy it because how the heck would I get that home but it turns out these things sell for upwards of a thousand dollars on eBay so if anyone's in kanazawa and wants to make a few hundred bucks go check if it's still there next up we're in the city of Sabai unfortunately I didn't spend much time here because their handheld section was slim and expensive they did have a few cool uncommon finds like the watermelon N64 and this Pikachu controller But ultimately the best thing about this hard off was the sunset [Music] this shop in nagahama was pretty small but that should never deter you from checking out a hard-off besides doesn't matter it's what's on the inside that counts I don't know pick a joke they had a huge stock of gen 3 Pokemon games and a couple Game Boy Players these were only 45 dollars including the startup disk they normally go for over 150 on eBay of course the disc is region locked so you'd need a Japanese GameCube but we've already seen them as cheap as 30 on this trip overall a great deal and I regret not picking one up but there's always next time I ended up buying both Ruby and Sapphire here for just six dollars each a short drive along lake biwa and a quick stop at hikone Castle and we're at the next hard off in the city of Rito as always I headed straight for the handheld case there was an animal crossing special edition new 2DS LL for 260 dollars among other recent and expensive Nintendo consoles the case had some other cool finds like a boxed pocket Pikachu and this SNES shaped Game Boy Player controller priced at a hundred and ten dollars which is surprisingly 30 dollars cheaper than it sells on eBay it had been days since I'd seen a Game Boy Advance but forty five dollars was still a bit steep compared to that first hard off back in hachioji the atomic purple Game Boy Pocket for thirty dollars was pretty cool and there was even an atomic purple Game Boy camera to match apparently this game was released in Japan Europe and Australia but as an American this was my first time ever seeing it is this a Pokemon typing game with a DS keyboard Pokemon typing DS Pokemon typing DS at this point in my trip I met up with a bunch of friends in Osaka for Pokemon go Fest and I wasted no time introducing them to the magic of hard off the first hard off we visited together was in Naga okakyo but it turns out all the games were at the hobby off next door they had some cool limited edition handhelds and boxed Pokemon games from gen 1 through 4. a scratched copy of Super Smash Bros melee for just six dollars some seasonal exclusive plushies like this Halloween Celebi for 30 bucks and one of the strangest things I found on the entire trip a Nintendo DS cartridge TV antenna for watching TV on your Nintendo DS I didn't end up getting anything here but Gilly went a little crazy the next group trip was to shinkanooka just south of Osaka as always there was a distinct lack of Game Boy Advance and an overabundance of DS variations when kids who grew up with the DS turned 30 and have disposable income I bet these things will start disappearing too these Pokemon themed GBA cartridge cases were super cool but too expensive for a non-collector like myself as for other consoles there were tons just stacked on top of each other in the junk section [Music] there were a few GameCubes with Game Boy Players and startup discs for 90 bucks and I still regret not buying one the boxed console selection was enormous and we started kicking around the idea of just buying a super famicom to play back at the Airbnb an idea that we never acted on but hey maybe next time we're all in Japan together after eating at my favorite ramen restaurant on the planet we figured why not check out the hard off that's just a few train stops away this one's just north of Osaka and it had a whole bunch of modern handhelds and a decent selection of retro games for the first time since hachioji I found a Game Boy Advance for 37 but the tag said there was a problem with the screen so I left it in the case there were some SPS for 37 as well that I regret not taking a closer look at I'm not sure what the issues were with those I contemplated this DS Lite for six dollars just to have something to play Game Boy Advance games on but unfortunately it had some hinge damage it would make a nice candidate for a Game Boy macro mod though we ended our night by taking the train South to this hard off in kadoma the console inventory was solid as always but the handhelds were lacking a bit after visiting 11 hard-offs I've realized I'm obsessed with 90s Japanese video game cover art I finally found the new kanji practice game I've been looking for one that's meant for kids who are just learning kanji for the first time and it was complete inbox for four dollars I also decided to buy a game called Monster tactics for four dollars because I've never heard of it and I just kind of felt like checking it out at this point in our trip we were headed back to Tokyo for the Pokemon world championships but of course we decided to dedicate at least one day to checking out some hard-offs the first one we went to was in the ueno area this was my first heart off of the entire trip in Tokyo proper so I was curious to see what the stock and prices would be like the game selection was pretty limited compared to some of the other stores I've been to with the oldest retro games being especially lacking there's a small relatively expensive console selection and on the top floor a hobby off with nothing that really grabbed my attention overall this was about what I expected for a hard-off location in the center of Tokyo next up we headed to Akihabara to what Google Maps lists as hard off first store it makes sense that this is where the chain would have originated as Akihabara is famous for its secondhand games and collectible shops we started off in the junk section down in the basement they had a few displays that I'm assuming were for different handheld consoles which is something that I hadn't seen in other hard-offs it's pretty cool if you're looking for parts to do repairs the game selection was pretty small down here and overall there wasn't that much that I was interested in so we headed upstairs to check out the non-junk floors again the game section was pretty limited with just a handful of more recent Pokemon games same for the hardware DMG Game Boy for a hundred dollars as a non-musician I don't know if these guitars were any good but it seemed like there were a lot of them now since we were in Akihabara we figured why not pop into some of the used game shops these are stores specializing in games in the most famous gaming District of Japan's biggest city so you're gonna find a lot of good games here and you're gonna pay a premium for them to start these N64 consoles were priced at a hundred thirty dollars and we've seen them as cheap as 50 bucks at some of the hard-offs these boxed gen 1 games cost as much as ninety dollars and we found them as cheap as thirty dollars early on in the trip even without a box Green version cost twenty dollars and we've seen it at hard off for two Ruby and Sapphire were twenty dollars each more than three times what I paid back in Sabai there was a good selection of rarer Game Boy Advance colors albeit very overpriced compared to what you can find on eBay in some cases this Pokemon Center Celebi Game Boy Advance cost 400 when it sold for as little as a hundred fifty dollars recently now surprisingly Tom did actually find one good deal here this boxed Donkey Kong 64 cost about 35 dollars and included the expansion pack which sells for fifty dollars by itself on eBay we checked out one other shop where I bought a few games on past trips to Japan and I was shocked by how much they've raised their prices to be fair this is the first summer Japan has been back open there are more tourists than ever and the yen is currently weak but I bought Gold version here for 750 Yen and now they're asking 2 780. the SPs were 170 dollars and the gbas were 130. now I know they're pretty hard to find right now but that's just way too expensive so after being shocked by the prices in Akihabara and disappointed by the selection in Tokyo as a whole I decided to take my friends to the best hard off I'd found on the trip back to where it all started in hachioji the trip was ending soon and I still hadn't bought a gba but I knew this hard off had the biggest selection and the best prices it was an hour on the train plus a 15 minute bus ride to get there but I knew it would all be worth it when I walked out with that Game Boy Advance but then while they're occupied with that I'm going to look at consoles which are right here dude so many of them sold my way these 260 gpas had IPS display mods which was exactly what I was planning to do to mine but the screens only cost about 60 and I'm willing to do the work myself rather than pay a hundred fifty dollar premium to have someone else install it and to make matters even worse every single Game Boy Advance in the junk section was gone I was so shocked that I forgot to even point the camera at the case still I managed to find some cool stuff I didn't see when I was here a couple weeks prior I found a boxed version of Pokemon typing adventure for a couple bucks less than I paid for it priced at 127 they had the Pokemon Coliseum bonus disc that can be used to distribute and shiny hunt Celebi in gen 3 Pokemon games they had another copy of kakutorikun the kids kanji game for geo I finally found Pokemon pinball Ruby and Sapphire for nine dollars and although I failed to find a cheap GBA I did get a console to play it on in the junk section I grabbed a fully functional Nintendo DS Lite for just four dollars the next day I headed back to Akihabara to check out some Junk game boys that I had seen right next to the original hard off there's a surigaya specialty store that had the biggest stock of gbas I had seen since that first hard off the shop clerk told me they were all untested junk but was kind enough to put batteries in and check them for me finally after visiting 13 different hard-offs across Japan I ended up getting a functional Game Boy Advance for just 37 I did it finally I got a Game Boy it's not the cleanest but it functions the guy at least was kind enough to put batteries in all of them and test them for me this one works I don't know if it's going to read a cartridge but it powers on if you want to see what I ended up doing with that game boy check out this video right here and if you want to see even more of the weird stuff that I bought at hard off this video has all the goods thanks for watching

Channel: Nicholas Oyzon

Views: 598,217

Keywords: hard off, japan, japan tech, retro game, retro games, retro hunting, hard off hunting, trainer tips, trnrtips, trnr tips nick, trnrtipsnick, trainertipsnick, retro pokemon, retro gaming, hard off japan, japan thrift store, thrifting, pokemon, pokemon go, vintage pokemon, vintage pokemon games, gameboy, gameboy color, gameboy advance, nintendo

Id: rTUDcxIRYi8

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 26 2023