New Retro Gameshop in Dublin

Dr Bob

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Urgh, that Talbot St shop is awful. ...!

afaik the owner at least reads boards (dont think he's a poster ) and here as well so be nice;).He's a big sega saturn fan apparantly!
To be fair I'd say the main source of income there is books/schoolbooks and the games are an added extra.Also he does decent enough prices on unboxed games (usually kept behind the counter).

Dr Bob

tifosi 1 wrote: »

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

I'd love to see a bricks and mortar retro gaming shop in dublin staffed by people who actually were enthusiastic (as opposed to the grumpy feckers who run the half retro/half clothes shop near guineys in talbot st! , its like they dont want customers!).
TBH though the only way I see it being viable was if you located it somewhere outside the city centre where the rent was cheaper (and near a major location/transport hub , like tallaght or blanchardstown)and where you had online sales within ireland (i.e. an ebay "shop" or a mailorder website to supplement the shops income.Possibly you buy the stock on ebay uk , get it shipped to a uk address and collect a load every 2 weeks ot so and bring it back to ireland , Then resell it without the massive shipping fees that uk sellers slap on to stuff for Ireland, you'd still make a profit.

Jack burton

There is a guy in the market in kilkenny who does that i think, goes to england and gets stuff over there he buys form ebay id say.

I've never been to that market but thats what a friend told me

Butch Cassidy

Oh, you serious?

Well, if he's reading: lower yr prices and I might consider buying a game

Skerries

ghostchant wrote: »

Yeah bought a US gamecube at CEX in Boston

I bought some second hand PC games in CEX in Scotland, i thought you couldn't sell second hand pc games due to being able to install to your hard drive or backing up?
wish they had some of them here though

Butch Cassidy

Yeah what's up with that ? PC games can be bought and sold secondhand in Britain no bother but here it's not done at all.....

Gadge

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Yeah what's up with that ? PC games can be bought and sold secondhand in Britain no bother but here it's not done at all.....

I worked in GAME a few years back and they wouldn't take PC games back, period. Even if the customer couldn't get it installed on their pc! I remember I was at odds with their policies which ultimately caused me to seek employment elsewhere, but in my time there I did my best to help regular customers out.

Syferus

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

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.

I've no love for GameStop, but it is just economies of scale - for one, the percentage of games they'd get traded in for older systems that were actually saleble would be impossibably small, and likewise you can't just dedicate a quarter of a shelf to something in a games store like GameStop, it would need to take up a noticable amount of place for it to make sense to them. It just makes far more monetary sense to traffick in FIFA 10 than it does gambling on getting a constant stream of worthwhile stock for old consoles whose mindshare (at the very least) is tiny by comparison.

Augmerson

Syferus wrote: »

I've no love for GameStop, but it is just economies of scale - for one, the percentage of games they'd get traded in for older systems that were actually saleble would be impossibably small, and likewise you can't just dedicate a quarter of a shelf to something in a games store like GameStop, it would need to take up a noticable amount of place for it to make sense to them. It just makes far more monetary sense to traffick in FIFA 10 than it does gambling on getting a constant stream of worthwhile stock for old consoles whose mindshare (at the very least) is tiny by comparison.

Well, it is logical, what your talking about, but at this stage now Gamestop trade mobile phones and CD's now. If they're taking up that kind of gamble, surely the odds of making a profit retro games is worth a pop. I dunno, maybe that makes no sense. They will be trading in gold next.

marcuspheonix

i for one would imagine that if a retro gameshop were to work you have to think past just selling the games. merchandise and memrobelia would be the main reason i would want to go to a retro gameshop. ie. t shirts, old magazines, posters etc. there is a real lack of these kind of items and i think it would be cool to be able to buy mario t shirts, tomb raider posters or resident evil figurines etc...

MvsC3

I agree that a retro gamestore would have to stock all kinds of memrobilia as well as just the games, a kind of forbidden planet of retro videogame goodness, although, i think in the end, after the initial buzz and excitement of such a shop the novelty would wear off and we'd go back to ebay...wasn't there/is a shop in Dublin that catered to wrestling fans in a similar way called WrestleMania.

Butch Cassidy

Syferus wrote: »

I've no love for GameStop, but it is just economies of scale - for one, the percentage of games they'd get traded in for older systems that were actually saleble would be impossibably small, and likewise you can't just dedicate a quarter of a shelf to something in a games store like GameStop, it would need to take up a noticable amount of place for it to make sense to them. It just makes far more monetary sense to traffick in FIFA 10 than it does gambling on getting a constant stream of worthwhile stock for old consoles whose mindshare (at the very least) is tiny by comparison.

But I'm not talking about them taking a big risk on buying in dozens of copies of Fifa '94. I'm talking about saleable and playable previous generation games. They couldn't wait to put up their sign saying they weren't trading in Xbox or Gamecube games a few years ago! Gamestop pay pennies for trade ins and they maximise to the fulest degree their profit margin on trade in games. If they wanted to they could do it. As mentioned above they're now trading in phones and CDs! It's a glorified pawn shop now

Butch Cassidy

MvsC3 wrote: »

I agree that a retro gamestore would have to stock all kinds of memrobilia as well as just the games, a kind of forbidden planet of retro videogame goodness, although, i think in the end, after the initial buzz and excitement of such a shop the novelty would wear off and we'd go back to ebay...wasn't there/is a shop in Dublin that catered to wrestling fans in a similar way called WrestleMania.

There's a wrestling shop in Stephen's Green yeah. It's more of a UFC t-shirt shop though. They had some old 2nd hand WWF video tapes for sale one time and they of course sold but haven't seen anything since and ain't been back there as their prices are a bit immaginative.


There's retro shops popping up all over the place be it clothes or sweets! There's a retro sweet shop for crying out loud, surely there's a market for retro games.

atat23

luas_dublin wrote: »

afaik the owner at least reads boards (dont think he's a poster ) and here as well so be nice;).He's a big sega saturn fan apparantly!

He should try getting some more saturn games in then and stop charging so much for the limited stock he does have. I don't think a fan would really let them get into that kind of state either, covered in dust on a grimy little shelf. :P

MvsC3 wrote: »

I agree that a retro gamestore would have to stock all kinds of memrobilia as well as just the games, a kind of forbidden planet of retro videogame goodness, although, i think in the end, after the initial buzz and excitement of such a shop the novelty would wear off and we'd go back to ebay

The dublin branch of forbidden planet seems to do alright though so maybe a mixture of what they sell as well as retro games might be the best kind of shop. All things nerdy basically.

justbrian

Yeah I paid a visit to the new(ish) shop near tesco in Talbot street. Most of his MD games are a tenner or 15 euro. Many are there fore overpriced. Sonic 1 for 15 euro? Get out of it. 4 euro more like.

That said I did pick up 2 good deals. Streets of rage 2 boxed and with booklet for 15 quid. Sells for that, and up to 25 on ebay when boxed. So saved delivery cost. Now if only he had SOR3 for that price. If only I was that lucky.

I also got Ghostbusters the videogame for md for 10 euro. Boxed and also with booklet I probably don't need to tell anybody here that was a good find. I guess he didn't realise the worth of this game.

o1s1n

Ghostbusters for the MD has been sitting in a shop 5 minutes walk from my house for a tenner?

...

:mad:

Nice find man, nice find.

justbrian

o1s1n wrote: »

Ghostbusters for the MD has been sitting in a shop 5 minutes walk from my house for a tenner?

...

:mad:

Nice find man, nice find.

Yeah I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it.

guerilla86

It sounds like a good idea,

The answer to your first question is, YES there is definitely a market for a Retro Videogame store in Dublin, the city has a population of 1 million and Leinster has a population of about 2 million. The age of people interested in this kind of store would be in the 20-30 age bracket (just guessing here the census results are probably out of date). Once you set-up a facebook page, web-site and put up a few posters in areas where people of this age group congregate then you should be able to gain customers. This will take allot of work.

For me a retro games store would sell home based consoles such as Atari 2600's, Commodores, NES, SNES, SEGA Mega Drives, PlayStation 1's and N64s. Also hand-held consoles such as GameBoys (Original, Pocket, Colour, Advance and Micro [these are easily found]), Sega Game-Gear, Atari Lynx would also bring in decent revenue. Each Console would need to have it's own section of shelving with it's own games displayed within the same section, this will make it easier for customers.

But to answer your second question they could theoretically trade in PS2's and Xbox 1's. But the down side of that is that there are SO MANY of those consoles and Games still floating around out there because of the era (Celtic tiger) that those consoles were sold in, thus they would be cheap and your friend would be snowed under with them. However if you offer less than GameStop and Game for trade ins of these systems it will act as a modest disincentive for people to trade the consoles (X-box, PS2) and their games so you won't have too many of them on your hands. Also people who would pick up these games for their X-boxes and PS2's may also take an interest in those older classic consoles!!

Another person on this thread said that a retro game store should subsidise their income by selling memorabilia such as t-shirts, I couldn't agree more! T-shirts with icons such as Atari (logo, space invaders, Pac-Man) , Nintendo (Logo, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Bowser), SEGA (Logo, Sonic, Tails) ect. would sell! Merchandise such as Game character dolls, Posters ect. would do well too.

It's important to get the purchasing end of the business right! You have said that there are "2 modern gamers" involved and that their experience of retro gaming is limited. If I were them I would try to hire a third member of staff who knows about old consoles, who knows how to spot a good deal and will make it his/her priority to test every single console and game that is brought into the store to see if it is viable or not. If not, there will be a serious financial strain on the store as purchasing too many broken consoles at high prices would be a serious waste! You’ll need an ex-employee of a GameStop, Game ect. who is well used to dealing with trade-ins.

Ye’ll also need to advertise, not just to sell but to buy these retro consoles and importantly the games to go with them, be sure to target young adults and middle aged parents who would be delighted to get paid for an old unwanted games console! Also ensure to reward those who bring in a console or game with an original box and instructions, these are very valuable and you should consider holding them over until you find a buyer who will pay well for them! Ye should also try to show the customer WHY you are BETTER than Amazon and Ebay, i.e.NO POSTAL FEE, NO WAITING, NO WORRIES ABOUT WHETHER THE PRODUCT WORKS OR NOT and YOUR BUYING FROM AN IRISH COMPANY!

You could purchase broken consoles under a type of scrappage scheme (bare with me), those broken consoles, bought for a few Euro, in the right hands, could provide allot of spare parts! That's where another ideal member of staff comes in, an electronics specialist who is interested in games consoles. This would be someone who can disassemble consoles and either return them to working order or chop-shop them into spare parts, thus allowing consoles to be sold for a reasonable price at a modest profit. Whilst providing a repair service to existing customers... maybe a bit of a long shot on this idea but it is some food for thought!


I'm well late commenting on this thread, the shop may already be open for all I know..

If it is I hope it is going well for your friends!!

p.s. sorry for the long essay...

Guerilla86

nickydistance

What's up?

I currently have a record shop in Georges St. Arcade called Trout Records. I am expanding in October and one of the things I will be offering are games. Some of you might remember me as I posted here a few months ago after shopping at Talbot St. and realized that the dude wanted €17 for Sabrina the Teenage Witch for PS1. Anyway, I've been stockpiling boxed consoles and games for most mainstream post-Atari systems.

The location is the shop at 16b Fade St. (formerly Road Records). In addition to the games I will be selling turntables & separates, records, Cd's and music from local bands, art, tshirts and possibly books.

The basement floor is quite large and will provide people with the opportunity to try out any console or game that they may be interested in. I'm really in to the idea of having mini instore tournaments as well. Anyway, it's all going ahead and aimed for October 14th. If you're in Dublin 2 you'll probably see advertisements going up in the next couple weeks.

If you guys have any input or ideas that you'd like to see in a retro shop let me know and I'll see what I can do.

One thing I can guarantee is that it'll be a nice place to come in to and the prices are going to be very reasonable.

ghostchant

Sounds great! Personally would love to see somewhere selling chiptune equipment (modded gameboys/NES consoles, flash cartridges and the like), would suit a music/video-game based shop anyway! Doubt there's much of a market for that in Dublin though!

Anyway best of luck, would be great to see somewhere selling reasonably-priced retro stuff, I'll be over to have a look when it's up and running for sure

o1s1n

Sounds great! Cant wait to see how it turns out

One interesting suggestion if you have the room might be a couple of arcade and pinball machines? I'd happily throw my money into them. I live in Dublin 2 and can't bring my arcade cab to my apartment, so it would make a worthy substitute

Dr Bob

nice one , definitely pop in once your opened up
(and if you happen to have a spare SMS Power supply for sale I'll buy that on opening day;))

CiDeRmAn

Please remember no advertising here, thanks.
And that includes retro shops.
Rules is rules

nickydistance

Sorry there, I just wanted to share my excitement and give people a heads up.

justbrian

I will check it out, let us hope Dublin finally gets the (retro) shop it needs.

readyletsgo

So is the shop on Fade st open? Is there any gamecube games?

Thanks!

Andrew76

readyletsgo wrote: »

So is the shop on Fade st open? Is there any gamecube games?

Thanks!

Yep open a little while now. Most folk that have been were praising it, me included. Check out this post. I didn't spot any GC games when I was there but PM the man himself and he'll tell you.

readyletsgo

Cool!! Cheers man! I cant access FB on work pc so will look later on.
I think I will head over tomorrow and have a look around, i'll go in with €30 in my pocket and if I see something I like I shall buy lol.
Lookin forward to seeing the place now, just hope he opens tomorrow even if the snow is really bad, I'll slide all the way over haha.

o1s1n

I'm going to try and drop in today after work. Will let you know if there's anything good left after I go through it all

Retr0gamer

No! I wanted to get there before o1s1n!