Eating Near the Ocean

Not too much going on, yea I got more games but I'll leave that out of this update as I am going to hard off tomorrow and expect I'll pick some more up there.

The other day my wife and I went to lunch with her sister at the restaurant near the ocean that I showed on this blog in the past. The menu was a little different this time but it was the same story with the whole course set up. The soup this time was a carrot potato soup which didn't sound that good but it was actually really good. Then of course there was a salad, meh ... the fruit was good though. With the meals you can get rice or bread as the side, last time I got the bread it came with the whole oil set up (that I love) but this time I didn't get any oil. What the heck I was all ready for the oil, come on man. Anyway this time my main course was steak which was cut up and in small pieces on the plate but the side was salad. Wait what? Didn't I just eat salad, and now theres more? What happened to the mashed potatoes? My wife and sister in law got pork and that came with mashed potatoes so what gives? First no oil now no mashed potatoes what gives? That said what was on the plate was really good. Then I was super full and had totally forgot about the desert, which is small but heavy.

View from the car on the way home

It was a good time and I really like that place, they view is awesome. Fun fact we sat at the same table we had last time.

Then the next day while I was at a store I saw this advertisement on the wall.

In the top left is says "since 1983" and I think my dad has been buying this watch since then. That watch was (and likely) will always be a part of my dads life. I think at one point he had one in his car one at his house one at my sisters house and one on his arm. Why so many? "Gotta have one in inventory" good call.

Not Too Much Going On

There really hasn't been much going on lately. I went to the doctors for a regular check up this week, everything was fine but they said I will need to have surgery likely in 6 months to replace my device. Its not a surprise as I knew that would be coming soon, they are going to check the battery level in 3 months and see what it shows. They will likely make a decision at that time as to when it should be replaced. I was also able to get the paper work that shows I have a medical condition which means I can get a special pass that lets me go to museums and places for free also a reduced bus, train and taxi fare, so thats good.

Still no word on the job front as far as starting dates but I knew going in that it would likely be quite until April anyway. In the mean time eBay has been doing pretty good for me so I'm not too worried.

I know I said games would likely slow down but (theres always a but) I was able to find some of the Xbox 360 games that I had been looking for (they are all space ship shooters) and the best part was that they were at used prices. So I picked up Under Defeat HD ($19.80), DoDonPachi Saidaioujou ($27.80) and Espgaluda II Black Label ($14.80). Then at another store I picked up Muchi Muchi Pork & Pin Sweets Limited at a retail price of $61.80 but it came new and sealed with the original microsoft sticker label that shows it hasn't been used. I really wanted that game but I might sell it as it goes for about $200 for a new copy.

I also picked up some Famicom games, DuckTales 2 ($4), Twin-Bee 3 ($6) and Athena ($10). I was really excited to find Athena because I know the boxed version goes for $100+ but when I checked what a loose cart goes for it turned out that it only goes for about $20. I also got Kunio Kun Soccer for a $1 and that goes for about $15-$20. I hope to get those up on eBay soon.

I then got a few more games for $1 each at my favorite recycle shop. On the N64 I got Super Smash Bros and Yoshis Story, on the Dreamcast I got Sega Rally 2 and another copy of Street Fighter Zero 2 on the PS1. Finally, I found Cotton Original for the PS1 at a shop for $14 but this can go for up to $100 on eBay. Like the others I'll try to get these up soon.

I did finally get some news on my Xbox, the center was unable to fix it so they are going to replace it. The replacement is going to be a Japanese region system but all my US games will work on it. This actually works in my favor as there are some games I wanted to get that were region locked to Japan only so now I will be able to play those as well. They said I would have it in 10 days so we will see how it is when it shows up.

eBay Sales and More Games

The games I have put on eBay have started having success in the selling department. So far I have sold games on the Saturn, Gameboy and the Neo-Geo. The profit margins have been really high which is a nice plus. I have picked up a few more games but will likely scale back the buying of anything new, unless I see a really good deal or a game is only a $1 and I want it.

With that here are the updates for the new pickups. First on the Super Famicom I got Sengoku Densyo ($6.30), another copy of Dion ($2.50), Fire Emblem ($9.50),  Sonic Wings ($3), Sailor Moon R in the box ($9.50), Super Castlevania 4 in the box ($18), Nekketsu Kunio Tachi one in the box ($36.75) and one loose ($15), Donkey Kong Country 2 ($3) and Mother 2 in the box ($12). Interesting enough I had found a loose copy of Mother 2 at Book Off for $15, which I passed on then I saw it at Mandrake in the box for less (usually its the other way around). I found the same roll reversal with the Famicom game Mother (the first one) at Book Off they were asking $20 but I found it at Mandrake for $6, which I picked up.

I also picked up a boxed copy of Pokemon Blue ($7.50) on the Gameboy it was missing the instructions but had the original map. For the N64 I got Zelda Ocarina of Time ($2.50) which was at an okay price, hopefully I will be able to flip it for about $10.

For the Saturn I bought Soukyuu Gurentai Otokuyo ($21) which is a great game and one of my favorites. I also picked up X-Men vs. Street fighter ($15), I know what your saying "didn't you already buy that game for way less?". Well yes, yes I did but this was the box set version which comes with the 4MB ram pack. I will likely sell the stand alone version now and keep this one.

I also picked up Neon Genesis Evangelion ($2.50), Christmas Nights ($2.50) and Can Can Bunny 2 ($1).

The best pick up was Assault Suit Leynos 2, I got it for just $1 and it is worth much more than that and it also came with the spine card.

For the AES I got The Art of Fighting ($4) and Samurai Spirit ($3), another crazy low price for a pair of AES games.

I was also able to pick up Street Fighter Zero 2 ($1) for the PS1 (now I have this game on SFC, SS and PS1).

Finally I got Virtua Cop 2 on the Saturn but when I got home it turned out that all that was inside was a stupid baseball game, ha-boo, at least it was only $1.

Perhaps Somewhat Overboard

For those who don't care about games you can probably skip this entry.

I may have gone crazy yesterday, I went out to my normal game store locations but this time I may have bought a little too much. (Not really, there is no such thing as too many games) The thing is there were some really good finds and I didn't want to leave them to be picked up by someone else when I really do want them anyway.

Lets start at Book Off:

When I walked over to the game section right away I saw they had got some new Sega Saturn games in, which always makes me happy. The first game I picked up set the tone for the day, it was Elevator Action Returns which is a really awesome game and also a rare one. They were asking $9.50 for it which is a little high to what I like to spend but for that game its a steal. I then picked up Virus ($1), Noel 3 ($1), Eve Burst Error & Desire Value Pack ($1) and The House of the Dead ($2.50). I took one last look and found Gals Panic SS another valuable title they wanted $5 for it so I grabbed that too.

That would have been a good haul by itself but there were more new games to look at. They had a few for the Dreamcast of which I bought two, Dead or Alive 2 and Space Channel 5 both came with the spine cards and were only $1 each.

They also had got some new Gameboy games in as well. Looking though those I grabbed Popeye, Metroid II and R-Type at $5 each. A little pricey but I'm trying to complete my set of gameboy games and those are hard to come by.

There wasn't much on the Super Famicom that was new but I picked up Rock n Roll Racing ($2.50), Taekwondo ($2.50) and I was very happy to find Ganbare Daiku no Gensan for $1 which was a game I had been looking for.

Then I took a risk on Gradius for the PC Engine (Turbo Graphics 16 in the US) at $2.50 which worked out as it goes for about 10 times that on eBay.

Just as I was leaving I saw that they had a complete copy of Rez for the PS2, if you don't know about this game look it up. It came with a vibrating device that hooked up to the PS2 and responded to what you did in the game. People joked that it was how they got there girlfriends to play games ;-) anyway I picked that up for $5.

So that was Book Off I then made my way to Mandrake to see if they had an Xbox game I wanted. Xbox games in Japan are expensive if you get them at a store, about $70-$80 for something new and $60 for something old (not used just old). On top of being expensive the selection is really small, if your going to get Xbox games your best bet is used but obviously they don't always have what you are looking for and (like the big stores) the selection can be limited to only a few titles.

Once I got to Mandrake I took a look at the 360 games and was able to (with the second to last game they had) find one of the games I was looking for. That game is Bullet Soul which is a space ship shooter game, they were asking $38 which wasn't bad (I had seen it at a different Book Off for $42 but didn't have the money at the time). It turned out that it was a first print too as it came with the soundtrack disc as well. :-)

After that I checked out the Super Famicom games and found a few good ones. I picked up Return of Double Dragon ($6), Dion ($4) and ThunderBirds ($8).

Looking at the boxed games I picked up Tekkaman Blade ($6), Street Fighter II Turbo (only $1) and Super Aleste ($21) it was expensive but an awesome game that I had been looking for and what the hell it came with the box.

Finally I picked up some Neo Geo AES games, games for this system usually range from $70-$300 and up. I was surprised to see they had 2 games for $3, they were complete and everything but they were earlier games. Still even if they are cheap ones they have to be worth more than $3 right? AES games are very interesting in that they are huge carts the cases for them are the size of very big books or about the size of a US Super Nintendo. The first game was Fatal Fury 2 and the second was Fatal Fury Special I bought both of them and after looking them up online they go for anywhere between $20 and $30 not a bad turn around if you ask me.

So with that, the buying spree had come to an end and let me tell you luging all that stuff around was no picnic and I still had to go to school before I could go home.