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Friday, July 5, 2013

Banjo-Kazooie in a Thrift Store for Under $40? Tell 'Em They're Dreaming

The other day they let me loose early from work (which sorta resembled an animal being released back into the wild) so I thought I would take my Retromobile for a bit of a spin, and see if I could catch any game.
My predictor instincts were heightened as I roamed the barren, stormy streets; it was me against every soccer Mum and their Pajero as I hopped from thrift store to thrift store (it was about 3PM, end of the school day).
Actually, I only went to two. But, the second-time around I scrounged up this for $15:



For reasons unknown to me, this is always insanely expensive in thrift stores alike. Maybe it's the demand that drives the price up, either way there is not one N64 game out there worth that much.
The funny thing is, I think this particular store where I bought this copy was guilty of those prices at one point as well. I'm not sure if it was this exact copy that use to be so expensive, but when I bought it the lady emphasised the fact that there was a 48 hour return policy. It wasn't in the best of condition when I bought it so I bet someone else had already tried it, claimed it didn't work, which resulted in it getting resold at a huge discount.

The contacts were filthy; so filthy in fact that I thought some contacts were actually missing, but it turns out it was just filth. I was so disgusted that I nearly took a photo of it, but I wouldn't want my loyal reader base projectile vomiting all over their keyboards (or screens).
The good news though, is that after quite a lot of cleaning with q-tips and alcohol, the game is running at full steam. I didn't even bother trying it beforehand for fear of it dirtying up the contacts in the N64.

I haven't played too much yet, but there is already a 25 hour long game save. It's amazing to think that someone, somewhere put so much time into this game only to sell it off to a thrift store for (probably) a pittance. Quite sad really, but I guess that's where I come in to give the game some new loving. That's just what I do.

4 comments:

  1. Nice find! Need to pick me up a 64 to add to my collection.

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    1. Absolutely recommended if you can find one for a good price. Unfortunately people like to sell N64's at an overinflated price like Banjo-Kazooie as well, most likely to do with with demand as well. Lots of guys and gals in their late teens and early 20's are having latent soft nostalgic spot for games in the late 90's of late, most likely to do with all the subpar latest gen games being released.

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    2. Yeah prices are crazy! I might pick one up from Japan. When I was there a couple of weeks ago saw a few in box for under 5000 yen ($50). But just picked up a famicom instead.

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