TOKYO — What would your old Sega Genesis fetch on the Tokyo second-hand market?
Japan loves its retrogames, but the abundance of supply can often mean that anything in less than perfect condition will not sell for very much. And if a game console is missing its controller or power supply, well! Just look at this, from the floor of classic game emporium Super Potato. It’s a giant pile of accessory-free Mega Drive units for the low, low price of 300 yen (about $3.50) each. Do they work? Who cares? At that price, what you want to do is buy all of them, then make some kind of art project out of them. Giant robot? Cover an entire wall in your house with them? Do it properly and you might get featured in a gallery and make millions. Remember me when you’re famous and people are calling you the new Warhol.
But I digress. I asked what you think* your *Genesis is worth, and your Genesis is probably not a busted Mega Drive.
If your Genesis is a normal old second-edition American model, it’s worth a whopping 17840 yen — about $185 — in the same store. Holy cats, forget about your dream of being a recycled-goods pop artist: You can strike it rich ferrying game consoles back and forth!
Actually, I’m pretty sure somebody already had this idea, judging by the fact that American games and hardware are now much more common in Akihabara than they used to be back in the old days. By “old days” I mean 2001 or so, when I first went to Tokyo. Then, seeing even one piece of American game ephemera there was a rare thing. Now, many stores have a few boxed NES games, some Atari-era classic consoles, etc.
The craziest thing, though, is the Atari Jaguar. Atari’s not-really-a-64-bit-console was never released in Japan, and yet you can find a stack of mint condition Jaguar games at most of the usual Akiba spots. I’d love to know how this actually happened. I can just picture someone with a massive suitcase full of Jaguar overstock bought for pennies, which he then wheeled around Akihabara, selling them for way more than they are worth, such that today you can walk into Mandarake and buy a copy of Kasumi Ninja for $45.
Photos: Chris Kohler/Wired.com