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Vintage Stock: Store Review
Hey guys. We took our son up to Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. What I didn’t remember was there was a Vintage Stock a few units down. I discovered Vintage Stock last year in the Huntsville Mall in Alabama. I popped in and thought it might he fun to do a Store Review.
This os my first store review so the format may be subject to change. I spent a good bit of time in there, but didn’t have this idea in my head when I was touring it. So I may update these rankings next time I go in. But let’s see how Id rank it for now.
Merchandise: 7 out of 10
Merchandise for a store like this can be tricky to rank. Do you put more weight in depth and variety, or judge them on specific things? Because the variety of a store like this is awesome. They offered movies, comic books, trading cards dnd sets, music, video games and consoles and cords and controllers. But the specific offerings in those product lines was… well, again a mix. For example, they have games for just about every console, but very few note worthy games. Their best selection for a retro console was probably OG Xbox. N64 had slim pickings and Gamecube was non existent. Oddly enough, there were plenty of GBA games. Still I found Usagi Yojimbo comics and Arrow’s recent release of Stranger Things the complete set. I think most people could find something that interest them.
Pricing: 3 out of 10.
Yeah… pricing is rough. I always think that’s the cost of having such a cool inventory. I don’t claim to know the prices of every single thing in a store. So to be fair, they could have had some items at MSRP and they could have had some items listed under a going rate. But I wasn’t see much of a bargain anywhere in the store. Most stores in this genre have been getting wackier and wackier with their prices lately which is a shame. I didn’t see any comics under $1.99. I didn’t really see any DVDs under $5.99 with very few exceptions. Most video games were listed over pricecharting. That isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. However, I couldn’t get over the Megaman Battle Network price. Pricecharting has it loose for around $20ish. They had it loose for over $50. Which is closer to the complete price. It makes me think their employees might not know how to price things.
Cleanliness and Presentation: 9 out of 10
The store looks nice. Its big and spacious. I didn’t have any trouble navigating a double wide stroller through the aisles and open areas. Most items and sections were alphabetized in their sections. I didn’t photograph any, but they have nice showcases and display cases. It was really nice that despite being large and carrying a wide variety of items, it was very easy to see if they had any items I was looking for. They had hundreds and hundreds of DVDs and comics and each area constantly had people searching through them, yet everything looked pretty neat and organized.
Deals: 8 out of 10
Again, the prices were a little… hit or miss. But one area they have the potential to make up is deals.
These are some of the deals I’ve seen. I talked to the employee there and he said the comic book buy 10 get $10 off deal is all year round, the same for all the buy 4 deals in the above picture. I frequently get text message coupons, so I know those are pretty common.
Location: 8 out of 10
Vintage Stock is located inside of Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Malls are always fun to visit. They’re big and spacious and easy to find. It’s located kn the bottom floor of the mall, but it is located near the back of one of the sides. Still, nowhere near as inconvenient as other store’s location.
Final Score: 7 out of 10
This store is really cool. In a day in age where physical media and human interaction are dwindling, it’s nice to have a reason to visit a mall. It was super clean and foot track seemed steady. It was feel organized, well stocked, and genuinely fun to dig around each section. If pressing was more in line, or the selections of certain product went deeper, this would be a no brainer. As it stands, I do believe most people could find something in the store. It stands out to me as certainly one of the cooler stores in the mall.
How do you feel about these 5 categories? What other categories should be here? I think employee friendliness or helpfulness could be added. There was a gentleman there who I did strick up a conversation with and he seemed. But he’s the only one I talked to.
Anyway, thanks for reading and have a great day!
5 Hobbit Cards I want to Brew With!
I won’t lie. I’m not particularly excited for this set. My hobbit knowledge is lacking. Still, I’m always down for exciting new cards. I haven’t followed spoiler season too close this set, but some cards have stuck out to me. As always, this isn’t my guess on the most powerful cards or the cards that will shake up standard. These are the cards, regardless of format, that I am most excited to brew around. This is the part where I mention what formats I’m playing. Honestly, I’m mostly just playing Pauper and Tiny Leader. I play Pre-Modern, but unless some old card gets a stellar reprint, you won’t see a premodern on any of these list. Still I do like other formats even if I am not currently playing them. Anyway, here’s my top 5!
#5 Mirkwood Nurturer
Mirkwood Nurturer is my kind of card. Sure as a 3 drop simic I don’t think it could compare to the likes of Uro or Nadu or Oko or Hydroid Krasis, but that’s beside the point. This reminds me more so of Cavern Harpy.
The good news for Nurturer is she is easier to cast and stronger too. Its enters trigger is also a lot more flexible. It allows you to bounce any permanent back to your hand, not a color restricted creature. The bad news is she cannot bounce herself back to protect herself or to keep looping bounces over and over.
I’m mostly interested in her in pauper, but maybe she’s an interesting combo piece in commander/Tiny Leader? Anyway, in pauper she can bounce enchantments like Journey to Nowhere. She can also return artifacts like Grim Bauble and Cyrogen Relic. I’m not sure the best enter the battlefields to abuse with it, but I guess you bounce Thraben Inspector or Spellstutter Sprite? Anyway, I think she is cool!
#4 Desolation Prowler
I get it. This card doesn’t seem like much. I don’t know if it will do anything in any format. In a way, I kinda feel like surely there’s other versions of this effect. Maybe I’m wrong? Anyway, I’m building my brother a Cecil Tiny Leader Reborn deck. You can turn 1 Cecil. T2 this guy. Activate his ability in T3 and get some serious swings going all the while draining your health for Cecil.
I don’t have a finished list for it so I’m always looking for serviceable ways to lower my health while being aggressive. I’ll try this little guy out and see how he does.
#3 Wizard’s Staff
Holy cow is this a cool magic card! My wife’s favorite key word is prowess. This allows her to give any creature prowess. The funny thing is she hates blue. I told her they finally made a card worthy of wanting her to play blue. Now the fun part will be finding a deck for her to play it in. My mind goes to something ghetto like sticking this on Guttersnipe. I know she’s going to want it to be a trigger that burns. Third Path Iconoclast is interesting in some kind of Izzet Tiny Leader deck. Not sure, but it’ll be fun.
#2 Riddles in the Dark
Okay. A micro Fact or Fiction? Yes, please. Where will this see play? I’m not entirely sure. In more recent formats it is competing against Stock Up. While in older formats there’s the likes of Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm or Preordain.
But to me, Riddles in the Dark is just a fun interesting card. My wife and I play shared deck formats. We have a lot of fun interaction like Memory Lapse, scry effects, and instant speed draw spell cards. Another wrinkle in the deck manipulation/battle for the top of the deck is cards like this. We get to play a fun mini game inside the game. Do you leave the best card face up and lay the 3 other day? Forcing your opponent to decide if they want you to get the best single card or 3 mystery cards. Another fun wrinkle for this card is it flips the dynamitc of Fact or Fiction on its head. It reverses the role, allowing you to separate the piles instead of the opponent. Again, I think its competing with a lot of other blue card advantage spells, but it is neat nonetheless.
#1 Thranduil, the Elvenking
Oh, boy. I did not know about this card until I started prepping for this blog. I’ve been a Golgari Elves player since Shaman of the Pact. I’ve never been able to justify going Sultai. Maralan tempted me earlier this year and with Thranduil, Sultai is getting harder and harder to ignore.
Here’s a post I found on reddit for different things he combos with. Now at the same time he is 5 mana and you really want a way to give him haste so you can try to win on the spot. As a result, I don’t think he will take over the world or anything. But as a fan of both elves and Sultai, I’m digging all the elf support Lorwyn and Hobbit has provided.
So there’s my top 5 cards I actually want to brew around with. Pauper Tron got a new little rock… or, uh, a giant boulder as it were this time that looks neat. What other cards are catching your eyes? Let me know. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Pick Ups for Today! PSA FOR BUYING VIDEO GAMES
Hey guys. I swung by my local Game X Change, a fairly decent size used media chain. It has video games, pops, and movies. Maybe more, but those are the things I’ve noticed.
Now I have a handful of games I consider buy on the sight games. Darkwatch on Xbox is one of those games. Guess what game they had.
That’s right. They had the game I’ve been looking for. And at a great price, too.
They had it for almost $10 under pricecharting. When I opened the case and saw the manual, this became a no brainer. What I really didn’t expect to see was a Nintendo Power, in my collecting goal range, no less. Nintendo Power 198 with Ike from Fire Embelm: Path of Radiance as the main cover attraction.
Ike is my favorite character in Super Smash Bros Brawl on Wii. This game, in particular, is a crown jewel for Gamecube collectors. I’m going for every Nintendo Power in the N64 and Gamecube era. All these factors make this another easy purchase. I flipped through it, trying to see if it still had its poster. Truthfully, I didn’t see it, but I was rushed. I’ll double-check for it in the morning. Obviously, the posters are usually not deal breakers for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have it than not have it, but I’m fine either way.
Now for my rookie mistake. Let this be a PSA to everyone buying from a non-big box retailer but anywhere really because this stuff can happen at your Walmarts and Dollar General’s as well.
I got to the register and began talking to the employee. He’s been there the last few times I’ve gone, and we’ve struck up conversations each time. We talked about comics, the store, Ryan Gosling, etc. Well, my total should have been $35 plus tax. It rang up $43 dollars. I thought, “Dang, what is the tax rate again?”
When he handed me the receipt, I noticed Darkwatch rank up $30 instead of $25. I asked him about it. He informed me it’s based on the system price, not the sticker price. He said he could refund me, but really I didn’t want a refund, just my five dollars back.
Now, I’m not here to bad mouth Game X Change or that employee. I should have said something or he could have pointed out the price discrepancy. But we were both distracted by talking. I worked at a video game store for years. So I understand. This sometimes happened there, too, but mostly with games that got traded in often. Maddens, Call of Dutys, etc. One trade in these games are 5.99. The next time they’re traded in, they’re 7.99. So when the employee puts the game in the system, the system is updated to reflect 7.99. A customer can pick up that 5.99 and be shocked when we ring it up. Obviously, the easiest solution is to either just keep pricing the games 5.99 if our inventory already reflects we have 1 on the floor. Or update all versions of that game to the 7.99 via a new sticker. Take your pick, but that eliminates this problem.
So I get it. Some games are going to slip through the crackl. I’m just surprised it was Darkwatch. The one I got was the only one they worked out on the floor. And that copy was priced in April, not yet 4 months ago. So I’m a little surprised for the sticker to system discrepancy for an uncommon game. Of course, an employee could have always messed up the sticker price or the system price.
Either way, my copy was still cheaper than Pricecharting. It was still an easy purchase and I didn’t feel like making a big stink about it when it was still a good deal even with the mishap. But I do think it bares repeating to pay attention when checking out.
Has that happened to you? When you found something at a good price you rung it up just to find the price was different?
This is different but it’s similar enough of a story to tell here. When I was working at Dollar General, we would run sales on certain sizes of certain products [don’t ask me what it was now.] But my boss had warned me about this customer. She would intentionally take an item, move it to the section on sale, then bring it up to us, and act surprised when it didn’t ring up on sale. Then, she would make us leave the cash register to show us where she got it from. Now, mind you, I was a lowly grunt at DG, I could not void transactions, nor could I go in an altar price. So I would have to go get my boss to explain the situation to her. Unfortunately, my boss said we just had to give her the price she wanted because it just wasn’t worth hassling with her. Again, my situation is different, but I’ll never forget that woman, so this seemed like a good time to reminisce about here.
Anyway, not a bad haul. Thank you guys for reading and have a great day!
Summer Classes are Over
Wow. What a week. My daughter had her meet the teachers Tuesday, yesterday. Today, I had finals for my last summer class. I’m a free man for 2 weeks before Fall classes start up later this week. Also, wifi has been unremarkable awful. I wasn’t even sure it was going to load enough for me to make this post. Anyway, tomorrow I drop my daughter off for her first day of Pre-K, and then I head over to my college campus to return a book. Tomorrow will be somewhat busy. But I’m hoping that with school done, I can make some more interesting blog posts for a bit. I’ve been so busy with my summer classes and then getting everything ready for my daughter.
Thank you, guys, for reading! Have a great day!
DVD Haul #2
Hey guys. I found a used DVD store and popped into it. It’s called Relics in Fort Payne, Alabama. It seems to me most DVDs were $2 while most Blu Rays were $3. While for an average DVD and Blu Ray thats slightly more than I would want to pay, I think the movies I found were worth it!
Here’s the haul [Sorry for glare]:
I got to knock out 3 of my most sought after films in one purchase. Pulp Fiction and Joker hover in my top 10 movies while Scott Pilgram was long overdue for a rewatch. Personally $8 bucks for a DVD and 2 Blu Ray’s is a little rich for my blood, but these 3 are all timers so I think it was worth it.
Do you collect movies? How do you feel about these films? Let me know! Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Exploring the Gameboy-Gameboy Advance.
Hey guys. I’ve been watching some JRPGLife lately. They’re doing a cool video series they call the Retro100. In it, they hunt down recommended Gameboy through the GBA titles. The catches are they must be recommended by friends and viewers and they must be $20 or under. They’re going until they hit 100 games combined [not 100 per handheld.].
I’ve thought it pretty neat and wondered how I could tie in a similiar aspect to my collecting life. Truthfully, I’m doing something similar but definitely not the same. I’ve mentioned before I am going for three complete console libraries: Wii U, Gamecube, and the N64. Obviously, these self imposed rules don’t apply to these 3 consoles.
But when I look at other consoles I own, I think I’m fine setting hard caps on them. For example, I shared yesterday my OG Xbox collection. I’m sitting at about 71 or so games. I’m thinking about capping it at 100. That let’s me get the Star Wars games, Psychonauts, Otogi 2, the Destory All Humans, Stubs the Zombie, the Oddworlds, Drake of the 99 Dragons, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and maybe a few cheap or hidden gems titles I don’t know about yet. At that point, I will probably be more than content with my collection. That’s not to say I would never buy an OG Xbox game again, but I would feel I would have the cream of the crop at that point.
And that 100 titles has felt right to me for a handful of other consoles like Xbox 360, PS2/PS3/PS4/PS5 and maybe the SNES and the Switch. These are consoles I enjoy and feel like I could pick up an average game on these consoles and enjoy it. So 100 games let’s me build up a nice library to explore and love.
But there are other consoles I just don’t feel the need to endlessly explore. Take the NES for example. For the longest time my NES collection has been Legend of Zelda 1, Super Mario Bros 3, Crystalis, Willow, Contra and Star Tropics. I don’t have a huge need or want to collect more than this. The SNES is probably a better console for my favorite retro genres: Platformers and Adventure games. However, there’s a few I wouldn’t mind getting. Namely: Monster Party, Zelda 2, Battle for Olympus, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Kirby, Faxanadu, and The Guardian Legend. And that’s probably it. At least off the top of head. As iconic as the side scrollers are, most are just difficult for the sake of it. The games listed above are really the only games that interest me. That would put me at around 14ish titles. And that would give 6 flex slots to hit my goal of 20 games for consoles I’m less interested in exploring.
I look at my Wii and my PS2 libraries but I have almost everything I want for them. I do love both of these libraries. With the Wii I have Pokémon Battle Revolution, Poke Park 1 and 2, Super Mario Galaxy, Skyward Sword, Munchibles, Lost in Shadow, Little King’s Story, the Kirby games, Bomberman Land, one of the Namco Museum games, Boom Blox, Zack and Wiki, Okami, Mad World, Super Mario Bros Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Party 8 and 9, No More Heroes 1 and 2, Rune Factory Frontier, and some other stuff I got cheap like Sonic and the Secret Rings, Dewy’s Adventure, and Disney’s Universe. My library, for my purposes, is basically complete. There’s a few games I’d like to get: like replacing my Opoona that doesn’t work and getting Pandora’s Tower and trying out Red Steel. Red Steel always looked cool and interesting back in the day. But that’s really it. Xenoblade has ported to the Switch and honestly, I don’t care about the Wii Motes. As you can see I have a little over 20 games already [as I’m sure there’s a few games I forgot]. Most of the games are cheap, just not interesting to me. I just don’t a need to really add too much more to this library.
My PS2 library is awesome. Dark Cloud 1 and 2, Onimusha 2, all the Ratchet and Clanks, Jak and Daxters, and Sly Coopers. I have Dragon Quest 8 and Final Fantasy 10 and 12. I have Kingdom Hearts, the GTAs and God of War. I have Ape Escape 2 and 3. I have most of the 3D Platformers, action adventures and RPGs that I want for the console. I wouldn’t mind Half Life, Ape Escape Pumped and Primed and Onimusha 3 and I guess the Metal Gear Solids. But again, not too many titles I want. I’m happy with this library. Most of the multi-plats just simply played or looked better on the Xbox and the Gamecube. I have most of the PS2 exclusives I want.
That brings us to the handhelds: GB-GBA. The Gameboy Advance was my lifeline for what felt like forever. But you guys probably have similiar stories. My GBA was used almost entirely to play Pokémon. Thankful, I have almost all the Pokemon games released during this era. I also had a few others like Castlevania 2, Kirby GB, the Mega Man Battle Network [though, sadly I’ve lost these]. But now that I’ve rebuilt my Pokemon collection to a point I’m happy with, I kind of want to explore these libraries a little deeper.
The original Gameboy doesn’t interest me too much. It was iconic and revolutionary at the time, but its time has sadly passed. So here’s what I’m looking to pick up on the original Gameboy:
Kirby Dreamland 2, Gargoyle’s Quest, Kid Icarus, and maybe the Wario Land and Donkey Kong Land games. That’s about it. I’m not looking to go too deep on the original Gameboy. Heck, even Link’s Awakening got an updated version on the GBC.
Which now brings us to the Gameboy Color.
I don’t own a lot of Gameboy Color’s admittedly. I owned Pokémon Gold but its battery is dead sadly. I wouldn’t mind getting Pokémon Crystal, but like Shantae, its just too expensive. The Zelda games of course lead my want list with both Oracle Games and Link’s Awakening. From there, the prices for the GBC games really sky rocket. I mentioned the two above but even Lufia on GBC is about $100. I love the way GBC games look but its tough to find fun looking games for $30 or less [even Kirby Tilt and Tumble is $65]. I’m down for some recommendations.
The GBA is the handheld I want to turn my attention to. So really, unload your recommendations. I have Fire Red and Leaf Green, Emerald/Sapphire/Ruby, Yoshi’s Island, Golden Sun, and Super Mario Advance 4. I’m eyeing the two Kirby games, the Mega Man Battle Network games [though these are on the Switch now], the Legacy of Goku games, the Metroid games, and of course, Minish Cap. The Castlevania games are expensive but on my radar.
I want to explore these libraries, but as you can see I’m not mentioning a whole lot of games. I definitely want to add the iconic titles I’ve missed over the years first, but I want to hear about great deep cuts, especially if they’re affordable.
Are there any game console libraries that you love or want to explore but don’t feel the need to have an exhaustive collection for? Let me know. Thanks for reading. Have a great day!
My OG Xbox Collection
Hey guys. I want to catalog my game collection. Partly to converse with fellow collectors. But also partly to have this as a reference if I’m ever out hunting. Now, I’m not sure if I should do annual update posts or just frequently update this post with future pick-ups. Also, I’m using Gameye simply because it’s the tracking app I use. It’s that simple. If you think there’s a better app, let me know. Also, I’m doing alphabetically as my sort method because that’s how most people sort their games. This also will make it easy for people to look and see if I have a game.
Cool Stats and Observations
For starters, I own 71 games. I cannot find an agreed on number for how many unique physical releases there are for this consoles library. Most places say just short 1000, but Gameye itself seems to list it in the 600s.
My favorite games for the console so far have been: Otogi, Blinx The Time Sweeper, and Halo 2. That is me mostly trying to play Xbox exclusives.
Fable, Darkwatch and Star Wars Battlefront are next on the to get list.
My most expensive game according to Gameye is Silent Hill 4: The Room at $52.
I am currently playing Onimusha. While Onimusha is not exclusive to the Xbox, Genma Onimusha is exclusive.
As far as what games I want to play next that I own, I would like to play Morrowind for a solo player game, and Gauntlet Dark Legacy with my wife.
So how is your Xbox collection coming? Let me know! Thank you reading and have a great day!
Our Son’s 2nd Birthday Party
Hey guys. Today was son’s second birthday party. Our theme was Toy Story. Two Infinity and Beyond. We did some snacks like Al’s Cheese Puffs and Mr. And Mrs. Potatoe Head Chips. We had fun activities like make your own Forky, Pin the Tail on Bullseye, and kids could take pictures in Buzz’s Box. Here’s some of the photos. I did a bad job of photo documenting it.
To my parents or young readers, what has been your favorite birthday theme? Toy Story is all the rage in our house. I was a 90s baby and grew up on Toy Story 1 and 2. Now that 5 is out my two year old loves Woody and Buzz and my 5 year old love Jessie. So Toy Story is definitely big in our house right now.
Movie Night: Spider-Man Brand New Day
Hey guys. Short blog here. Jessica and I dropped the kids off and went to go see the new Spiderman film. It just ended so I’m processing everything, but my initial thoughts are that it was great.
Did you go it? What did you think? Let me know. Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
What’s a Console You Wish You Had Owned?
Hey guys. Now I’m mostly meaning as you grew up, but maybe you were already an adult or teenager when the NES came out. So with that in mind, maybe you just picked one console for a generation or was gifted a console and stuck with it.
My household usually rocked two consoles. My brother and I loved the N64 and my dad loved the PS1. We never owned a Saturn, but I don’t think any of us ever cared to get one either.
When I think about the 7th generation, the 360 was really all I wanted. Bioshock, Modern Warfare, Borderlands, New Vegas, Madden and NCAA, the 360 had just about everything I needed. Well, almost everything. I did use the Wii for two games specifically Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros Brawl. We owned a PS3 for a hot second before it was met with a terrible fate.
But its the 6th generation I always come back to. We rocked with mostly the PS2. Ratchet and Clank, Onimusha, Dark Cloud, Jak and Daxter. Obviously I’m not breaking any news when I say the PS2’s library had just about everything. We had the Gamecube for the usual suspects. Mario Sunshine, the Zeldas, Melee and oddly enough, Wario World.
But we never really owned an OG Xbox. My sister-in-law at the time did. She brought it over a few times. She had Manhunt, San Andreas and a load of CDs. I got to borrow it one time to play a copy of Halo 2 I randomly owned for some reason. Watching San Andreas, listening to music, and eventually playing Halo 2 made me really want one. Factor in a couple of cool games like Jade Empire, Odd World, the Halos, the awesome green and black color scheme, and the fact its the strongest console of my favorite console generation and its a shame I never owned one as a kid.
I have, of course, rectified this by picking up two OG Xboxs at Goodwill and now I’m up to about 70 games and enjoying it. These days, I only owned a Switch/Switch 2 this generation. I haven’t upgraded to a PS5 or Xbox Series X but I’d like to get them if there’s ever a good sale one day.
Anyway, that’s it for me. Let me know your answer! Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Da_Hubbz 