My buddy Davis “NIX” Robertson and I devised a plan a week in advance to go video game hunting over the weekend.
We didn’t have a lot of money on our person, but we had enough to make sure we could grab anything that caught our eyes.
Our plan was to wake up early on Sunday morning and head to the local flea market, which in reality is more of a 30–45 minute drive for us respectively.
Jockey Lots, or outdoor Flea Markets, are very popular here in the south. I am not sure if other places do them, but they are a place for merchants to gather, rent stands, and sell countless pieces of antiques and other valuables they’ve collected.
Places like this are an excellent option for finding rare video game titles. Think of it like a big yard/garage sale. If the people who post up a video game table don’t necessarily know what they’re selling, then you’ve hit gold.
Today I’ll go over everything that went down last Sunday as we embarked on our journey to hunt for good video game deals.
I began my Sunday unlike any other. Typically, I wake up at noon and stay awake until 4AM playing video games pretty much all day.
But since the flea market opens early, and we couldn’t risk anyone else getting to those sweet rare gems before us, my fiancée and I woke up early at 8:30AM and began our morning showers.
To save some time, we got ready in the bathroom together. I brushed my teeth in the shower while she used the sink.
This all proved pointless shortly after, because we ended up dueting the hit SpongeBob single, “Ripped My Pants” together and it was a great way to start the day. If you’re going to be fashionably late, make it with an absolute banger.
It’s been pretty cold here lately. South Carolina rarely gets freezing enough to snow, but we still have some on the ground from our first snow day in what seems like forever.
It had to be around 30–40° with brisk wind, something we aren’t too used to.
So starting the car and making that long 45 minute drive, stopping by the ATM to grab money for a game, and then finally meeting Davis at the jockey lot was all too chilly!
We finally got there at 10AM and met him at the front of the flea market entrance.
Our next task was locating “the video game dude” as my fiancée likes to call him.
Good thing for us, she remembered exactly where to go, and lead us straight there.
I knew that “video game dude” had a used copy of Asura’s Wrath for PlayStation 3, a game that I certainly was interested in playing for the first time, but he had it hidden away in a box behind the counter the previous weekend.
I figured since I didn’t have a ton of money to drop on one game, I’d wait another week to come back for it.
Today was the day.
Unfortunately for me, and good for “video game dude,” he had moved his $50 copy of Asura’s Wrath to a display case for all passerby to see.
I felt like my luck had run out, and I wanted it so badly. But I decided to keep my money to myself and look around for a bit.
After a few minutes of looking at games, Davis and I decided to go find my fiancée, who had wandered off to go look for the “lady who sells honey” and try our luck with the other merchant who sells video games.
You could tell this guy was a lot smarter about what he was selling. Instead of cheap PS3 games, everything was marked up in price. His display stand was “official” and he had marketing advertisement for “RETRO ELITE” on display.
This guy’s aura was different and we figured we wouldn’t have much luck against his stand.
We decided to go through all of his games anyway. His prices on Kingdom Hearts 2, several Switch games, and several PS4 games were pretty high. He even had a copy of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
But we immediately noticed something was weird about his $100 copy of Majora’s Mask. It was non-holographic.
We chalked it up to being a rarer version, and even Googled it to confirm. The other “video game dude” was selling his normal holographic copy for $65.
I, for one, think that the holographic gold cart of Majora’s Mask that my grandma bought me in October 2000 is better than any marked up $100 copy you could find. Thanks, Grandma.
One thing that really had Davis beat was a thrashed, dingy copy of Sonic Mega Collection for Nintendo GameCube. You could tell he wanted it, but the box was just absolutely fucked and it was being sold for a higher price than eBay…
A common theme for both of us that we wouldn’t know until later…
We gave up.
The only two places in the jockey lot that sold games, had marked up prices and beat up cases.
I decided to look up Asura’s Wrath on eBay and saw they were selling it in mint condition for $30-$40, making me glad I didn’t buy it for $50 there.
Since our plans had failed, we decided to allot the remaining time we had to looking around and grabbing a bag of my favorite staple flea market southern comfort food, boiled peanuts.
We wandered aimlessly around the jockey lot for about an hour. We visited a store that sold vinyl records, DVDs, and my fiancée’s personal interest — old books. She found an ancient book that was only being kept together by a plastic wrapping. She hid it away in hopes that the next time we go, she can buy it!
Afterwards, we immediately got side tracked by the dogs they sell outside. We bought one of our dogs here a long time ago, and my fiancée gets pretty sentimental about it.
One of the dogs was very interested in my boiled peanuts.
With our heads hanging, we decided to give one last look at each video game section, and I chose to walk away from the $50 copy of Asura’s Wrath.
Before giving up on the day, we decided on one last stop to get some lunch at the local mall.
The Anderson Express in the mall offers delicious Chinese food for about $8 a person. I decided on getting sesame chicken and lo mein noodles, since I didn’t want my friends to wait on me while they cooked shrimp fried rice to order.
Suffice it to say, the mall Chinese food delivers every time. It was refreshing.
Our next destination was my local retro game store, a place inside the mall that I frequent regularly.
The owner of the store has always had excellent customer service and has cut me a deal or two here and there.
It’s the easiest place for me to find cheap PS3 and PS4 games. I was hoping they’d have some rarities there.
I noticed, in the display case with the Nintendo 3DS games, was a copy of Bravely Default.
It being a game that I’m definitely on the look out for, I had to work up the nerve to ask the older guy working there to come get it out for me so that I could check the price.
He silently got the game out for me, and checked the price.
I thought, sure, why not, and decided to buy the game for a total of around $45.
The old man didn’t say a single word to me, and when I asked for a bag, he dropped it on the counter and had me put it in myself…
I’m so used to how the owner runs the store, chatting it up with me about games, cutting me deals, putting games in bags for me and making sure my time there is great.
This other guy, unfortunately, sends shivers down my spine and wrecks my anxiety, because it seems like he hates being there.
I took the game and left the shop with Davis to return to Abby who was talking to her friend at Hot Topic.
I explained how the buying process was a bit harsh but I got the game I wanted.
I took Bravely Default out of the bag and opened it.
There was dirt and hair on the edges of the box, and when I closed it and looked closer at the art, you could see dirt and small tears in the display.
Just like the jockey lot, this used game was also beat up and marked up in price.
I looked the game up on eBay and realized I had paid $10-$15 more for a worse condition of the game.
Which only meant one thing…
I had to return it…
Trust me, the last thing I wanted was to go back in there, interrupt the old guy from whatever he was doing, and ask for a full refund.
My heart was beating and I was talking to Davis rapidly as we walked back in there.
The guy was crouched down in the back sorting games and testing controllers. I walked up to him and asked to return the game, stating that it wasn’t actually what I had hoped for.
I refused to make eye contact with him, and only looked at Davis the entire time, who’s face could only be explained by this emoji: 😬
I shit you not, this guy says nothing, stands up, walks to the counter, takes the money out, hands it to me, and says nothing else.
I told him thank you, and I got nothing in reply.
It was awful.
I packed my $45 away and walked back to Abby.
I was sighing and laughing. Davis and I talked about how ‘ice cold’ and ‘awful’ that experience was.
If only the owner of the store was running it. I could’ve explained that I was just trying to return the game. No big deal, you know?
Instead I dealt with gut-wrenching, poor customer service while my friend watched — ready to drop the biggest Roblox “oof” of 2022.
By this time, it was 3PM.
We had no games, no luck, took massive L’s, and had a day full of memes. We decided to swallow our loss, go get some iced coffee and look at manga at the book store.
Books-A-Million is probably Abby’s favorite store, so while Davis and I drank our iced coffee, she looked around.
We were spent — despite not spending anything.
We thought we’d find great deals on games, score some hidden gems, and even saved a few bucks for the event.
Yet, we found nothing.
We decided to end the day there, and finally parted ways.
My day ended with me meeting my brother at the gas station, giving him gas since he forgot his wallet, and then heading to his house for pizza and board games. We played Scrabble, Uno, and Connect Four. It was a fun time!
When I got home, Abby and I crawled into bed, and I got a notification from Danteku on Discord, who had snapped a photo of his copy of Asura’s Wrath…
After a few DM exchanges, and the love and kindness from a great friend, I now have a PlayStation 3 copy of Capcom’s Asura’s Wrath on its way to me.
Thanks, Dan!
Abby and I finished our day by watching Law Abiding Citizen, and finally passed the fuck out.
In the end, I had a fantastic day out with my friend and fiancée.
We didn’t find what we were looking for but still had a fun day regardless.
By the end of the night, I was gifted a copy of the game I wanted anyway.
Thank you for reading!
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