I was able to go to my first Game Convention in what feels like ages. My pickups and thoughts on Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2023. Thanks for watching! Twitch - / stevosupremo
Love your video.Portland is nasty now. I don't blame you. I've gone to PRGE since 2012. I'm still working on my PRGE 2023 Day 2 video. What I saw is that vendors were charging prices from 6 to 9 months prior, maybe even a year. Prices on a few games were way too high. There is the "convention tax," but some of the market was ridiculous.
I have noticed the prices are ridiculous at conventions now too. DMG gameboys 75 dollars. Gameboy color 90 dollars. Many games were 20-40% over what they should be going for. I have also heard that you can get some deals on the last day as well. I plan on going to the one in Milwaukee next year as that one is huge and came highly recommended to me, but I will only go on Sunday which is the last day. They want 60 dollars for a Saturday- Sunday Pass or just 25 dollars for only Sunday. I'm sure the venue is expensive, etc but it's just not affordable to bring a family there anymore. If anything I might just bring my son as that's all we can afford. It would cost us 100 dollars for all 4 of us to go just Sunday alone. That doesn't include the food, hotel, parking etc. The reason I am going is locally there isn't much at all that I can find for my collection. I have watched other videos of this convention and there is tons of variety. But I will be using your tip of bringing some trades with to get the prices down some more.
I have been to 3 PRGE before Covid and when they started back up after Covid I have had several things come up preventing me from going but this year I just stopped and thought about it and balanced out the ticket,gas,parking and food it’s just not worth it. I can save my money and support my local game stores. I use to live in Portland for many years and I have seen the changes to the point that the things and places I would like my family to enjoy are no longer safe or clean to bring them to also sad ! Maybe someday it will be clean and fun again.
It's wild Portland was that bad for you. I went with my wife for her work conference and was expecting what you went through but found it was the opposite. Everything was super nice and clean. There was a lady who yelled into the sky once, but otherwise, it was really relaxing downtown. We were in a business district, though, so maybe that made a difference. It was a few blocks from a bunch of cherry blossom trees in bloom, and that was packed, but fortunately no one stunk. I wouldn't want to drive around it, which is about the same for any city, but coming from a place with almost no public transportation, it was cool to walk to the tram a block from the hotel and be dropped off at the airport about twenty minutes later. We don't have any game conferences here, so I've never been to one. We have a really, really small sci fi one that Devil May Pie actually went to, and I was shocked to see him mention my hometown in a video. I live about five minutes from the civic center. Given how much I hear about the prices at them, I don't think I would go to one if some happened to pop up around here. eBay is expensive enough as it is.
I actually should have clarified in the video that this shouldn't have been a judgment on Portland as a whole. I literally only took in a very small piece, so just the area I was in wasn't the best thing to be around. The spot you were in sounds nice!
Its not just conventions or games where prices are high. Ive noticed the same thing especially at thrift stores. Also, estate and garage sales. Its not uncommon anymore at these to see a sign with the price and a note showing the ebay price! All of these places are now doing more research on their pricing!
I've had my reservations about attending large scale cons due to many of the reasons you have mentioned here. It just doesn't seem worth it anymore, especially when the price to get in for the whole family is a panic restaurant. If I did want to get a top 20 though, it would seem like a safer bet to get one at a big con. I guess it's all about preference. However, I'm like you in the sense of frugality. Glad to hear a fresh perspective on the matter as mostly events like this are superceded by the hype. BTW, sweet beard!
Thanks! I was in law enforcement for 15 years and we were never allowed to have facial hair, so when we moved across the country and I hung up the belt, shaving was at the top of my list of things I didn't want to do anymore haha. And wouldn't you know, after I leave the profession, many depts started to change their policy to allow facial hair lol.
Definitely sounds like some of the hotels near the convention center are "you get what you pay for". I stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott Portland Downtown for PRGE 2023 and did not experience the hotel issues you did. Sorry you had such a bad experience!
I was at PRGE this year for the first time sine Covid shut it down. I wasn't' able to make it last year, but I was kind of torn attending this PRGE. I didn't find near as much stuff this go around, like you said, prices were just way higher. I usually like to attend the panels, and while they had some interesting panel speakers this year, a lot of them just didin't interest me very much. I really used to like PRGE, as it used to be the ultimate convention, but I do believe I'll be skipping next year. I was at the Marriott and at about 2am one morning, there was a homeless guy yelling obscenities at the top of his lungs, making it a less than stellar sleeping experience. LOL.
I live in Portland and just got a nes, snes, and genesis from offerup. I was planning on going to this convention this year for the 1st time just to get some cheap common games. It sounds like I should just shop on ebay or physically go into brick and morter retro game stores instead. If I just wanted like the basic mario, castlevania, and tmnt regular nes games would I be paying double at the convention?
Since you already live there it could be worth checking out if you have never been to one to see if you would enjoy it, but after paying for a ticket to get in and the games you want you would be better off going to a local shop. Since you live in a bigger city I would keep an eye out on Facebook and offer up still. Someone is bound to have the common nes stuff for cheaper on there. If you do go in the show, I recommend going to the booths that aren't store owners. The year I went people had single table set ups near the back that were just fellow collector's selling their stuff and they tend to have lower prices then the store booths.
@StevoSupremo Just reporting back. I was able to pickup about 50 nes/genesis games for approximately 20% under ebay prices. It seemed like the key was waiting until after noon on Sunday. You were right about the collector booths they had better prices, better selection on commons, and willing to negotiate more so than the game stores that bought booths. Thank you for preparing me to tackle this convention with your video and advice.
@@CosmicCosmo1 That's awesome! I'm glad you were able to get a good deal! If it was just a tad closer of a drive for me, I would have given Sunday a chance myself this year. If I am still on the west coast next year, I may give it another go.
