New Retro Gameshop in Dublin

tifosi 1

Hi all

Ladies and Gentlemen of of this forum I need your advice. A friend of mine is seriously considering opening up a new retro gameshop in Dublin. He has the funding and the business know how to run the shop but his knowledge of retro gaming isn't quite adequate enough. I know some the guys who use this forum and I know you guys have a vast combined knowledge of all things retro.

if you have the time please leave some feedback or an answer to the questions below. All comments are greatly welcomed.

1. Do you think there is a market for an exclusively retro gameshop in Dublin

2. Do you think there is a limit as to what can be classed as retro i.e Are PS2 and Xbox now retro? Also inversely is something Pre 1980's too retro to be commerically viable?

There are plenty more questions I'd like to ask but I don't want to break any rules of the forum.




To the Mods. If I have broken any forum rules here please delete this tread asap

P.S This operation is being run by 2 gamers(albeit modern gamers) it has no connection with any corporation or business.

Thanks for reading

amacachi

I don't think there'd be a market to be completely honest, and I'd be surprised if he could compete with the Bay for most things.

Myrddin

amacachi wrote: »

I don't think there'd be a market to be completely honest, and I'd be surprised if he could compete with the Bay for most things.

Id be inclined to agree. The beauty of retro gaming is for the most* part, its a relatively cheap hobby. A specialised retro shop in Dublin city center would simply not be able to offer the deals you would find from private sellers on the likes of ebay, they have no rent/overheads/expenditures etc.

Id REALLY hate for retro gaming to turn into some kind of cash cow, so for me its let the retro stay in the domain of the people. Where would a shop get stock of retro gear like? If trade ins, then it will have to be marked up and thats where your friends are gonna suffer. Unlike most "modern" gamers, the retro game shopper usually has a good idea of the difference between a bargain & a shop trying to roast someone.

* Rarities/Protos aside

landsleaving

I'd love it, but financially it makes no sense.

The overheads of renting a premises would push prices too high.

Stock would be hard to come by as people can easily sell on ebay/adverts for more than you could reasonably offer them if you seek a profit. You would have to pay so close to full market value that you would struggle to cover costs.

The condition of items taken in would have to be excellent, as the average collector wants this, and the person who wants to let their collection go is probably less careful, so that could cause a problem.

It would be hard ot establish a definite stock supply.

The location would likely be out of the way in terms of main shopping areas in a city due to rent prices, so extensive marketing would be necessary, especially initially, in order to encourage people to sell to you, at a large cost.

There would be huge competition from collectors for what you want to buy and no chance of cost price, due to the nature of what you're selling, so you'd likely find it hard to pick up a lot of quality stock.

Xbox and PS2 are the majority of the stock in the retro (ish) shop that already exists and they have little else, a few mega drive games but rarely anything great, which discourages going there regularly. There's also a serious lack of space.

Realisitically, a bank manager, especially at the moment, is very unlikely to approve a loan for this, it's far too risky.



Honestly, I'd love this to happen, and I'd love it to do well, but I'd never sell my old games to a shop, too little money, nor would I buy there unless they were very reasonable, which is difficult with their overheads.

Your friend would be best served setting up a website, linking it with an ebay shop, and doing some promotion online. He/she could even consider trying to get a hosted forum on here, or even maintaining a presence for stock updates. I'm sure it would be appreciated by some of the users.


Best of luck either way, I hope if your friend goes through with it that it works out. There is a gap in the market, but I'm not sure it's going to be profitable to fill it.

o1s1n

+1 for an online store. A high street store will crash and burn, as much as it pains me to say so.

He doesn't just have to stick with consoles and games. Could also look into importing things like arcade hardware, arcade buttons and sticks for both machines and SFIV sticks.

But yeah, a walk in store just won't work. Sourcing stuff in bulk would be a nightmare too. Most of us here either get things from ebay, charity shops or car boot sales. Which is grand for a collector but not for someone looking for bulk.

It's been discussed before, but what about a classic arcade/game centre? Theres no arcade worth going to in Dublin.
Again, you'd have to have it in the right place, but if it worked it would be excellent. Old arcade machines, booths with old consoles, maybe some projectors...could even have an area for things like Sega Lock on

Butch Cassidy

I'd love a shop I could walk in and buy stuff with cash because I've no credit card and using 3Vs with Paypal is just impractical so I don't/can't buy on ebay and Adverts is useless because of what people are asking for stuff usually (you also have to compete with Jack Burton!)

There really is a huge problem with sourcing stock. It's been talked about here and IRish people either just leave their old consoles in the attic to rot away or they bin them as once places like Gamestop or wherever stop trading in them then they all dissapear! I doubt there's many Irish people using ebay but like with Adverts there's not really many selling and when they do they seem to think that a PS1 with Fifa 99 and a controller is worth €70! So I'd imagine you'd end up scouring Ebay for bundles. I think therewas a shop in Dublin before that tried this and failed.

97i9y3941

serious question,why is 3v+paypal inconvience?

Problem about online selling here is our postal rates dont work favour for people abroad.

Butch Cassidy

landsleaving wrote: »

Xbox and PS2 are the majority of the stock in the retro (ish) shop that already exists and they have little else, a few mega drive games but rarely anything great, which discourages going there regularly. There's also a serious lack of space.

Where's this retro-ish shop? The one on Talbot St?

tifosi 1 wrote: »

Hi all

2. Do you think there is a limit as to what can be classed as retro i.e Are PS2 and Xbox now retro? Also inversely is something Pre 1980's too retro to be commerically viable?

PS2 and Xbox might as well be retro as good PS2 are becoming increasingly harder and harder to come across and Xbox games have vanished off the face of the planet Ireland!

Someone posted a few lists of "must play" PS2 games there last week and you'd be very lucky to find any of them around. Nearly every shop just has either the Singstars or football/sports games. I'd say it's fair to say the golden age of PS2 second hand games is well and truly over.

Xbox games are weird in a way as I thnk there's only a few of them that command quite high prices on the auction site. I think that's down to the British shops still trading in Xbox original games as I've had no bother finding many of them over there. Though there's a few things like the amazing Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay being included with the new Riddick game.

Butch Cassidy

Fred83 wrote: »

serious question,why is 3v+paypal inconvience?

Problem about online selling here is our postal rates dont work favour for people abroad.

You get stuck with petty amounts on the vouchers that you can't use and you can only "add" a certain number of them to your paypal. So after using about 10 cards then you've to open a new paypal account. I do use Ebay but very very seldom. I can add funds form my bank account but that in itself takes days. It'd be all grand if Paypal could let us use Laser or if Laser could add some proper security and got out and got and promoted Laser to websites like that.

Atavan-Halen

Maybe think something along the lines of the 8bit café in Japan? It's a café that has some old tvs set up with retro consoles where people can go have a coffee/beer and play some games. Would work better than a shop as you'll have people going in for lunch or coffee or whatever. Could also have a small section with games for sale and hold competitions/tourneys and have chiptune nights. No idea how viable it is or anything but would seem better than a shop.

97i9y3941

never had that problem,what i usually do is link and confirm the cards,then enter the pin to confirm them,then when they are used up,i remove the cards from profile in the add/edit card section..

Butch Cassidy

How many cards/vouchers have you used? There's definitely some issue there with adding too many cards even if you delete the others.

97i9y3941

used loads,still have the same account i have from the start,are you linking and confirming them?

Butch Cassidy

I used them laods when I first came across 3Vs so I was litearlly on ebay every day looking for stuff. After about 20 or 30 cards my Paypal account was locked and I couldn't add any more cards. GAve them a ring and the woman said "hang on, are ALL of these cards yours?". After I explained the situation she unlocked my account but was still a bit sketchy. It was only about a year or so ago that 3V started using the Paypal logo and link on their site. Perhaps they've changed the rule but I definitely read it on either 3V's site or Paypal's last year.

Don't get me wrong, I do WANT to buy stuff off of ebay but 3V's just far too much hassle. If I was buying one particular thing I'd use it but not for a few games here and there.

97i9y3941

could always apply for cred card *risky i know*,or pay with another method,alot of sellers accept payment with cheque,postal order,or cash...

Atavan-Halen

Could apply for a credit card with a very low limit so that you can't go over x amount?

97i9y3941

is it even easy to get a cred card these days?.

Atavan-Halen

No idea. Would't say it'd be too hard to get one with say €200 limit, but then they might question why you'd want one with such a low limit.

97i9y3941

tbh,i wouldn't recommend anyone to get one,i know from my own experience,you slowly end up buying more and end up working for the cred card to service the debt,let alone if your income was to suddenly end,your up shít creek,along with the stupid threaten court action and phone calls you would get for owing a tiny amount compare amount took over by nama,and along with the fourty euro stamp duty you have to pay every april,and the APR charged if you have to pay off if you falling behind the debt..

B00MSTICK

Visa Debit.

97i9y3941

do paypal take that?

Butch Cassidy

Fred83 wrote: »

could always apply for cred card *risky i know*,or pay with another method,alot of sellers accept payment with cheque,postal order,or cash...

I'd say the amount of Irish people who have credit cards purely for online purchases must be em.. a very large number! Nah, those things are instant debt. Not for me.

The thing with other payments is, well unless it's in Euro you're limited to bank transfer or Sterling draft. Sterling Draft costs I think £5 or something and sterling payments form a euro bank account also incurs a charge as far as I know.
I know it sounds like I'm just making hassle for myself and being stubborn but I have bought stuff off of ebay plenty of times and I will again but for me it's not really a case of "ooh look, Crash Team Racing complete for €3.50+postage, I'll nab that" cause then I gotta either juggle the 3V thing or wait 5days for my bank transfer to clear.

I reckon I'll put about 50quid into my paypal from my bank a/c now in the next few weeks and have a scope out on ebay for stuff.

B00MSTICK wrote: »

Visa Debit.

They're pretty hard to come by aren't they? I know Halifax were doing them but they were very strict on new accounts. I heard that AIB might be doing them.

97i9y3941

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

I'd say the amount of Irish people who have credit cards purely for online purchases must be em.. a very large number! Nah, those things are instant debt. Not for me.

i provided my own horror story of them just above there

Butch Cassidy

Fred83 wrote: »

i provided my own horror story of them just above there

Yeah so em I can't get a credit card and don't use the auction bay much because of the hassle. If I could use Laser on Paypal then I'd be away in a hack.

Maybe a retro stall would be a better idea than a shop? Ye know there does be stalls around town though they're usualy selling food.

pinksoir

Get a Neteller online credit card. I got one. You can pay onto by Maestro (if you're with AIB) and it tops it up instantly. Then top up your Paypal acc. I used to top up Paypal with bank transfer and it was a pain in the hole. Look into it. It takes a tiny percentage to top it up and that's it. Plus it's debit so you can't run up huge debt.

https://www.neteller.com/home/index.jsf

You have to upgrade your account which requires you sending them a copy of your passport and a household bill, and then take a call from them to confirm.


Also, that 8bit cafe idea would be amazing. A purely retro gaming shop would die a short painful death. But people like cool little cafes, and the retro gaming element would certainly get regulars and a massive amount of one off trade. You could run retro gaming competitions. Like head to head! Sell retro themed cookies/cakes and stuff. You could have a counter selling imported retro memorabilia. Could be the winner.

Jack burton

I use a bank transfer into my paypal, takes a few days but its free and I can only spend what i put in soitworksfor me.

Bakc to topic, I would love to see an walk in store but it just wouldnt work, An online store would be great though but some importing and stuff would be great to see. If he did start a shop, either walk in or online id be a customer id say

97i9y3941

just looked into neteller,their limit is better than 3v anyway,max on neteller is €2500,3v is €350 *im not sure if they stuck to €500,someone correct me on that

Xluna

They have a dedicated retro games shop in Cork and the games prices are ten euro across all platforms. OP, I'd say go for it. If it can work in a city with a metro popultation of 250,000 it certainly can work in a city with five times that population.

readyletsgo

pinksoir wrote: »

Also, that 8bit cafe idea would be amazing. A purely retro gaming shop would die a short painful death. But people like cool little cafes, and the retro gaming element would certainly get regulars and a massive amount of one off trade. You could run retro gaming competitions. Like head to head! Sell retro themed cookies/cakes and stuff. You could have a counter selling imported retro memorabilia. Could be the winner.

Ah man i would love something like that here in Dublin!
It would work so well cause you would have all ages and types of people in through out each day, but make sure to be near a college!!!
You could make a packet on nintendo/sega themed cookies and coffees and hot chocolates and cold drinks during the day, and in the evening time, as has been said before, you could have retro gaming competitions for the more hardcore collectors, and having some games for all platforms for sale too! Just be sure to have a good few back up systems/controllers in the back as some people are messy and and distroy controllers with mocky hands...

Just dont over price as Irish people tend to do, and IT COULD WORK!!!!

RLG

Butch Cassidy

Xluna wrote: »

They have a dedicated retro games shop in Cork and the games prices are ten euro across all platforms. OP, I'd say go for it. If it can work in a city with a metro popultation of 250,000 it certainly can work in a city with five times that population.

€10 a game? Hmm... so same price for Fifa 2004 as for Shenmue?
What's the shop's stock like and where do they get it?

Jack burton

Yeah that shop is not a dedicated retro games shop, for one half of it sell houseware items like frying pans and such and they wouldnt have the greatist variety of stock going, i dont mean to sound like a dickhead but i was there a while ago and i wasnt impressed.

The cafe idea sounds great though, I think it could work as a lot fo people would really find it a very cool place if its done right


Space invader cookies FTW!

CathalDublin

I've been thinking alot about doing something similar
Its hard to know if it will work or not, you would probably have to sell games of today aswell to keep profits up. As for sourcing the games I'd say large collections on ebay, advertisements in buyandsell/gumtree/adverts/etc.

97i9y3941

i woundnt say so,being ireland and a nation of begrudgers we woundnt pay over the odds *let alone we whinge about the prices on ebay sometimes...

Butch Cassidy

Ye know what I think is weird is that there's Ps2 and Xbox original games that still command a respectful price yet the game shops by offering peanuts for them in trade-in and then stopping trading in them - such as the case with Xbox- they've helped make Xbox and PS2 games "retro" in a way. Or at least they will soon in the case of the PS2 games.


Why can't any of the game shops here do like Gamestation in Britain do. Keep doing trades on prev. gen games but maybe only good/valuable/playable ones. So weed out all the football and sports games and only take in the good stuff.

I find it bizarre that in a few months it's possible that someone will walk in to a game shop with a copy of Ico or MGS Subsistence or Rez and they'll be turned away "Nope, we don't do trade-ins on PS2 games anymore ". *points at sign that reads 'We now longer accept trade ins for PS2'*

Butch Cassidy

Oh, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is another one.

I think there were some PS2 games either reprinted last year at some point or Gamestop just got dozens of them in cause I remember they had a few titles at about 15quid each. MGS2 Substance was one of them.

ghostchant

I just wish Gamestop sold preowned GBA games. The DS Lite/Phat still plays them, and most of the Gamestops in the states still stock them too, bought a whole lot there in the last few months

Atavan-Halen

The American Gamestops still stock Gamecube and Xbox games, although I think they're trying to get rid of them atm.

ghostchant

Yeah bought a US gamecube at CEX in Boston and bought a few games in gamestop, pretty good value at the moment, as like you say they're trying to get rid of it all. Still a lot of good titles, boxed copy of Ikaruga was in one of them, but already had the PAL version

Atavan-Halen

ghostchant wrote: »

Yeah bought a US gamecube at CEX in Boston and bought a few games in gamestop, pretty good value at the moment, as like you say they're trying to get rid of it all. Still a lot of good titles, boxed copy of Ikaruga was in one of them, but already had the PAL version

You should have picked it up anyway!

ghostchant

I seriously considered it but was $20 for a game I essentially already have a mint copy of. I'm scared to calculate how much money I've spent on games here in the last 4 months, good thing I'm coming home today! On a related note, packing is a pain in the ass

Atavan-Halen

Ah yes, it can be hard to justify something like that. Safe journey home!

Butch Cassidy

The one on Henry St had a bizarre box full of Gamecube consoles and a few Playstations for sale. They didn't advertise them in the shop though, you had to ask which was weird

readyletsgo

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

The one on Henry St had a bizarre box full of Gamecube consoles and a few Playstations for sale. They didn't advertise them in the shop though, you had to ask which was weird

Where in the shop? up stairs was it?
Never see any gamecube games in shops except for in that 2nd hand place on Talbot St but he has ALL format games from €15 and up for a lot of rubbish games. Wouldnt really think he has a big turn over.
Although he has a great selection of Dreamcast games must be said!

Butch Cassidy

readyletsgo wrote: »

Where in the shop? up stairs was it?
Never see any gamecube games in shops except for in that 2nd hand place on Talbot St but he has ALL format games from €15 and up for a lot of rubbish games. Wouldnt really think he has a big turn over.
Although he has a great selection of Dreamcast games must be said!

Sorry, the Gamestop last year had a few boxed Gamecubes. Pretty sure they were second hand. Anytime I went in there I saw a big storage box on the floor in the upstairs DVD bit and there was a few GAmecubes in it.

I'd say they're long gone now.
That Gamestop also had dozens and dozens of Fifa and LMA manager games for Xbox - I got Tron 2.0 & Ninja Gaiden for three quid:cool:. These two are long gone as well as the Rogue Spear and rayman Rush games they had.

readyletsgo

Ah ok, pity.
I always thought it was weird the way no gamestops or other gaming shops re-stocked up on GCN and Xbox games seeing as they are both backwards compat, with a recession going on out there people would buy them (excluding sports games of course) as they are a lot cheaper than Wii/360 games...

Augmerson

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Sorry, the Gamestop last year had a few boxed Gamecubes. Pretty sure they were second hand. Anytime I went in there I saw a big storage box on the floor in the upstairs DVD bit and there was a few GAmecubes in it.

I'd say they're long gone now.
That Gamestop also had dozens and dozens of Fifa and LMA manager games for Xbox - I got Tron 2.0 & Ninja Gaiden for three quid:cool:. These two are long gone as well as the Rogue Spear and rayman Rush games they had.

Raging now I didn't take a picture of the stall with like 200 copies of Rogue Spear and Raymush Rush. How the **** did they end up with so many copies of the same game?

I think the major videogame retailers here like Game and Gamestop shot themselves in the foot by no longer trading Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox and GBA games.

CiDeRmAn

ghostchant wrote: »

I just wish Gamestop sold preowned GBA games. The DS Lite/Phat still plays them, and most of the Gamestops in the states still stock them too, bought a whole lot there in the last few months

They did, they had a huge box of them behind the counter back at the start of 2009, and they were shifting them for a fiver each, I picked up a ton of great games, Guardian Heroes Advance, Duke Nukem Advance, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero, lots and lots of very cheap great games.

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

They did, they had a huge box of them behind the counter back at the start of 2009, and they were shifting them for a fiver each, I picked up a ton of great games, Guardian Heroes Advance, Duke Nukem Advance, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero, lots and lots of very cheap great games.

Why are they treating old games like porn? Get it out on the shelves!

mondeo

I cannot imagine a proper retro store in Dublin. I came across a similar enterprise in city centre asking ridiculous money for something I can get on ebay for pennies...

Between 10 & 15 euro for a megadrive game not even in a box.... on yer bike chancing their legs :rolleyes:

A master system for 70 odd euro without a promise that it works...I got two of them in a charity shop for a couple of euro each and their perfect. I bet if they had found them they would be looking for a greedy little profit for them.

Butch Cassidy

readyletsgo wrote: »

Where in the shop? up stairs was it?
Never see any gamecube games in shops except for in that 2nd hand place on Talbot St but he has ALL format games from €15 and up for a lot of rubbish games. Wouldnt really think he has a big turn over.
Although he has a great selection of Dreamcast games must be said!

Urgh, that Talbot St shop is awful. Fifa games for 15quid like! Most of what he has is crap and it's so overpriced that you feel like asking the guy does he have a clue what he's doing. Some of the games haev been there so long that there's layers upon layers of dust that have formed over what must be nearly 10 years!

readyletsgo wrote: »

Ah ok, pity.
I always thought it was weird the way no gamestops or other gaming shops re-stocked up on GCN and Xbox games seeing as they are both backwards compat, with a recession going on out there people would buy them (excluding sports games of course) as they are a lot cheaper than Wii/360 games...

Just imagine someone with a copy of Twin Snakes going in to Gamestop ands aying "Hi, can I trade this in, what'll you give me for it?"

The response will be "nope, don't trade in Gamecube games, go away" when in reality they could give the guy 15quid, sell it for 30 and it's happy days! It's just bizarre.

Augmerson wrote: »

Raging now I didn't take a picture of the stall with like 200 copies of Rogue Spear and Raymush Rush. How the **** did they end up with so many copies of the same game?

I don't quite know how they got the games or where they got them from or even why. I'd suspectthey were got from some UK company in the UK that would've gone into liquidation as that's where Gamestop are getting a lot of stock like that - remember all them copies of Predator 2 lying around? Yep, bought from a company going out of business. Same goes with some of the PS2 games they're getting in. I posted the other day about Sly2, they got in a few copies of that on PS2 from some crowd in England that went out of business according to one manager I asked.

I was really excited when I saw them Rayman Rush and Rogue Spear games cause I thought "cool they're still open to selling prev. gen games" and that it might be the start of them getting in similar deals. Obviously not as they got in two fairly poor games that they couldn't sell even at a Euro or two for both games. It's part of the reason I think Irish businesses are a bit crap at business - they don't know what people want and they just go on the basis of "well if it sells then we've won and if it doesn't fúck trying that again". So I doubt we'll see them getting in more PS1 games . I'd like to know were there or are there any other prev. gen games they have had the oppurtunity to buy but didn't because of the Rayman/Rainbow 6 fiasco.

Augmerson wrote: »

I think the major videogame retailers here like Game and Gamestop shot themselves in the foot by no longer trading Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox and GBA games.

They did shoot themselves inthe foot and I don't bloody understand the mentality! Fair enough they don't want to get stuck with a million copies of Fifa 2002 but they could weed all the shíte out that wouldn't sell and only trade in the good stuff that is A) valuable and playable ie. sellable.

o1s1n wrote: »

Why are they treating old games like porn? Get it out on the shelves!

HAha! You're right actually there. Saying in public that you actually play and and enjoy playing games from the previous generations especially the immediate generation actually is like saying you like watching transexuals play with their feet. The looks I get when I ask in shops for PS2 games or when I tell people I still enjoy playing Xbox "original" or PS2 games is baffling!

Atavan-Halen

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

HAha! You're right actually there. Saying in public that you actually play and and enjoy playing games from the previous generations especially the immediate generation actually is like saying you like watching transexuals play with their feet. The looks I get when I ask in shops for PS2 games or when I tell people I still enjoy playing Xbox "original" or PS2 games is baffling!

I remember about a year ago I was ringing different games shops to see if they had any gamecubes or gameboy micros and I practically got laughed off the phone. It's ridiculous. People want it, so sell it! Put up a few posters saying they now accept all games, retro or not, build up some stock and sell it! As long as it's priced fairly I'd be shopping there without a doubt.