| Barm's buying guide |
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| This bit is really aimed at people who want to get into buying classic shooters but don't know where to go. It is aimed largely at UK shooting fans, although obviously, the websites are available to all. Veterans of the 'scene' will undoubtedly already know about all the places listed here, but if there are places I have missed, mail me and let me know about them :) There are basically 3 ways to get your hands on small packages of shooting lovliness: 1) ebay 2) internet dealers 3) highstreet shops (yes they do exist in the UK if you know where to look) Generally, speaking, ebay is the cheapest but carries the most risk, internet dealers sit somewhere in the middle and highstreet shops usually equals 'paying through the nose'. So, to deal with them in order: ebay If you've never used ebay before then a) Have you been living under a rock for the last 2 years!!??? and b) prepare yourself for a world of opportunities and addiction. There are many horror stories circulating the interweb about dodgy sellers, but 90% of my games collection is from ebay and I have never had any problems. If you are prepared to be patient and stick to a maximum amount you are prepared to pay then you can get some real bargains. The main things to ensure are: a) you use trustworthy and reliable sellers (make sure they have at least 85 - 90% positive ratings and over 100 sales) b) you read the description carefully (pay particular attention to what condition the item is in as this can affect its value greatly) c) you read the conditions of payment and postage (some sellers insist on adding a certain percentage for using paypal for example) Sticking to www.ebay.co.uk should mean that you get items with the minimum of fuss and there is usually a lot of rare and cool stuff there, however, if you really want to get to the hard to find stuff, you will need to look across the pond at www.ebay.com. You can get some really good stuff from Japanese sellers and most of the stuff that they sell is in exceptionally good condition - unlike the British, Japanese gamers look after their games really well. Often, you will find that games are cheaper from Japan, although you will have to pay in dollars rather than gbp. As long as you've got a paypal account you'll be fine as this does all the conversion for you at no extra cost. When you're bidding make sure you have a currency converter to hand to make sure you're not paying silly money. As for postage, you are usually given a number of options, however I would reccomend using EMS (express mail service), as it is exceptionally fast (most items turn up from Japan within 5-6 working days) and includes insurance which many other international delivery services don't. Plus for one CD the price is only $15. So who are the good dealers on ebay? Here are the ones I use on a regular basis - they are all very reliable and I have never had any problems with them: Yamatoku - Japanese seller, very polite, exceptional service (he even takes a digital photo of your package and e-mails it to you before he sends it to make sure he has the address right). Absolutely tons of cool Japanese import games for Snes, Saturn, Dreamcast, Megadrive, Neo Geo, Playstation etc. Steve666b - UK based seller. Sells a lot of Saturn, Dreamcast and PC Engine stuff. inter-connection - UK based seller. Sells a whole range of retro stuff. marshall100 - UK based seller, sells all kinds of Japanese import stuff including PS2 and Gamecube imports. Also has a web shop. radiantsilvergun - UK based seller, sometimes has nothing, other times has loads of great stuff. |