Car Boot Sale - UK Collecting

Now that we are set back up again (thank you Retron!), I decided to check out two local car boot sales this week. 

Now, as I live in the North East of England, there are two Car Boot Sales/Markets that are considered the biggest in the area. The first one is Sedgefield Race Course and the other is in Hexham.

You can imagine my wide-eyed naivety and my barely containable excitement when I was going to not one but two venues to see what treasures could be unearthed, then it hit me like an Acme(tm) anvil, the UK retro scene is shocking for purchasing retro items unless you are very, very lucky.

The first market, Sedgefield, had nothing but PS3 FIFA games and the odd WWE game (I might add, someone was still wanting £8 for FIFA '13, yes some people don't know the value of games do to not having the slightest bit of interest but it has the year covering the front of the game, common sense would dictate that newer versions are out and the table next to you have about 9 copies of the same game!). I was disappointed but left with a bit of hope, I still had Hexham and Hexham has a guy with a table that has retro games on it. I remember this as a fact, I trudge on.

So we get to Hexham market and I find the guy with the retro table and his prices are more than fair (any 5 Mega Drive games for £5, really can't complain with that aspect). But the selection is slim pickings, cricket, soccer, tennis and racing pretty much sums it up. I ended up buying 5 games just because they were the only non-sport ones there (and I needed to upgrade a couple of carts). I waled out with the cliche collection of Sonic 1, Mega Games 1, Urban Strike, Side Pocket (didn't own this one already) and Altered Beast.

It's a bit of a shame, the seller can't help what games he has I suppose and his prices were great but I still left disappointed, not with him but in general. It is getting increasingly more difficult here in the UK to be a retro gamer. More often than not, games are becoming more and more hard to find or have a very high markup, which is to be expected but it makes me think the U.S. has it as bad? 

I don't claim to be an expert to any stretch of the imagination, I have said it countless times, I like to play old games, that is pretty much it. You learn bits and pieces along the way but I don't commit my life to it but it is clear that on this side of the pond if you want to enjoy the nostalgia, you need to pay a premium at the minute.

Retro gaming is as popular as ever over here which is certainly good news as it helps the longevity of games and consoles and they go much loved for much longer but it is is a double-edged sword as with that comes greater cost to the humble gamer.

In closing, if you are in the UK, I would no longer waste my time in car boots etc. It appears specialist outlets like the excellently stocked Electric Town in North Yorkshire (*and many other retailers*), eBay or Facebook groups is the only way to go now. Nine times out of ten it will cost you a little more than a car boot but chances are you will at least walk away with something you are looking for.


We would love to hear about your experiences from whatever part of the world you are from, how is the retro scene where you are? Send us an e-mail at recollectgamereview@outlook.com or leave us a comment. 

Update - June 2015

A Crisis of Cables and Consoles
A nightmare of events with cables and consoles occurred over the last few weeks and it made things grind to a halt. Inability to set things up and find appropriate time to get back to gaming made things somewhat tricky and alas as things looked up from a technical stand point, the old personal factors come into play... still on-wards and upwards!


NERG 2015
We went to the North East Retro Gaming event over the weekend and had an absolute blast, it was here I had my crossroad... do I continue trying to get my consoles sorted out or just bite the bullet and buy a Retron 5? You may have read my piece on the Retron and now that I have one, I stand by my decision to get it. Especially now that a patch has been released to allow translation files for some foreign games, really looking forward to seeing what it can do up close and personal, pleasantly surprised so far.

The NERG event in itself made for a very enjoyable day. Myself, fellow RGR reviewer Mark and his pal, Stuart (some of you may know from the Ashens Youtube series, if not I highly recommend his channel here) spent a good few hours lurking around and made some great purchases, played some excellent arcade classics and fulfilled that nostalgia void.

When all was said and done we had a little competition of our own, a challenge of Micro Machines 2 and California games, washed with a couple of beers and pizza and those ingredients made for a cracking weekend.

I hope to give more details about the NERG 2015 goings on in a later post with a couple of pictures. Alas, Mark took some good photos but is off to Glastonbury festival for the week, selfish.


Looking Forward
Now that I am set back up with the Retron 5, I will be looking to get back to reviewing as soon as I can. As always, I like to fully complete a game before making a review about it and will be looking at the next project imminently. It's great to be back!

Thanks to everyone for your support and I am delighted to get the ball rolling again!


Cheers,
Richard