Whenever I go to Japan, I usually stop by retro game stores. But honestly, the days of finding good items at reasonable prices were about 20 years ago. Since then, there’s been almost nothing worth buying. Prices are way too high, and the condition of many items isn’t even that good. It feels like they’re selling things with a “maybe someone will eventually buy it” mindset. The cheaper games that nobody really wants can still be worth picking up, but the moment something becomes even slightly rare, the prices go absolutely crazy.
The same thing was true at the Super Potato store in Osaka I visited today, as well as the other retro game shops around it. I think Japanese game stores played a big role in driving up retro game prices worldwide, which is honestly pretty disappointing.