Will I ever own a Retro Game Shop? 

Pawn shop owner said to me one time, "never get into the thing you are selling" they were wise words.

I helped run a business from C&VG in 1995. Back then we had CC scammers, very little stock (It was mainly import PS1's). It takes over your life, you need someone to replenish your stock that isn't you. You will find that new games you will be paying £42 for a £50 MRSP game so your profits will come from used titles. You'll also go into competition with folk you have made relations with over the past few years. You will need expertise at hand for repairs, modding, maybe imports. I'd concentrate your prices on volume to sell, which means as cheap as possible but making a profit so you can turnover cash from volume of sales rather than trying to make as much from one sale. No point holding onto something for 2 years when you could have sold it and bought more stock. Your location would need to be local so make sure you don't have any competition. Personally, I'd rather do a retro party house/arcade thingy. Running a store would be like living a completely isolated life.

you have to pay rent, you can still do it privately home without opening a shop

Best way to ruin a hobby is to make it a career. That being said, good luck to anyone who goes for it! 🙂👍

Thanks for the podcast shoutout Gem. good to see you finally copped a copy of Auto Modelistia as well lol

Oh I completely understand this same thing. Definitely hard to fit it in with a full time career. But a little here and there won’t hurt. Eventually you will see what works best for you. If only we didn’t have to sleep and there were more hours in the day! I’m hoping one day to meet a business partner myself for some big plans.

Just out of curiosity what do you do for your full time job?

There's level 2 of Super Game Shack in Leicester that's coming this May on the 2nd floor of the Silver Arcade, and there's going to be a cafe there.

Auctions (some with reserve prices) that all end on a day you've set aside. Worked for me. Love the channel btw 🙂

I sell on ebay ...i tend to sell nintendo mainly with the odds other bits of retro stuff mainly due to nintendo holding its value very well. I also have a full time job , Things can get a little busy at times you just need to know when to take a little break from time to time ... But i do also collect my console of choice retro wise is the game cube currently collecting all the players choice games

Just be a happy collector I am starting to collect retro games because your video, keep going !

The amount of space that a cardboard box inventory takes up caught me out when selling doubles. I'd always keep any incoming boxes to save on having to buy packaging but the space it took up - eeesh. Depending on your area, having Royal Mail pickup outgoing small packages (when ordering labels online) can save you a lot of jaunts to the post office

How you both describe your daily routine and also why you love collecting, I think something like selling on Facebook marketplace or eBay would be more for you. People that run or sell retro games usually got the games somewhat cheap and just slap an higher price as well as buy it bulk somewhere. Do you feel comfortable doing that if you do want to run an business? If not, then I wouldn't do it if I were you and sell any spare copies you don't want on eBay/Facebook

I think a better idea, would be some sort of retro arcade/cafe club type thing, where you pay for a membership and you can come and play whatever game on whatever console, with other likeminded people, retro games have the best couch coop games, I think that could be quite a cool thing. No idea how profitable it would be though tbh lol

Brev you got plenty on as it is you don’t need the stress and hassle of owning and running a business..TRUST ME I should know 😅❤❤

Why not start off dropshipping gaming products, Gemma, and see how that goes? It reduces the risk a little and you don't need to worry so much about the physical stock. You could add a new section to your current website. If it works, then you can take the full leap and make a proper site and sell the stuff properly that you know will sell through the results of dropshipping. Good luck, keep up the great work!

Not thought about just doing a stand at cons and events. It would be a way meeting people and dipping your toe in selling. Always love chatting to passionate sellers and people who just love what they do.Where I prefer to buy.

You should consider having a look at other PAL regions for game sales. I found some rare Ps3 games in South Africa that were priced lower than they are in the UK. More often than not they're printed in English and seem to easier to get hold of. Other than postage and the potential issues around returns, not that painful - especially for the more elusive games.

Running stores are expensive as hell. I know people who have tried opening up retro game/toy shops. These were true collectors too. More often than not you end up bankrupting yourself. These were physical stores though, so rent was the big killer. There was no money in it. I know two people who it goes well for, they found a cheap basement place they opened up their store in. They only have open a few evenings a week + saturdays as they work fulltime. They make just enough money to stay afloat, and rely a lot on trade-ins in order to get in new stock. As for online trading. Here in sweden we got Tradera which is essentially Swedish Ebay and there are a lot of people from the retrogame hobby active there.

I understand were you are coming from Gem. I have been i've been re-collecting games for about two years now. I grew up with Snes, N64, playstation1, gameboy, all those consoles all the way to PS5. We even had a commadore 64 Wrestlemania, some of the games highlighted in recent video you found. And a friend down my street had the saturn, then dreamcast. So I got to play all the consoles growing up. I was going start my own website, but I've decided next year I want to open a store instead. But the most important is buy certain things you want, but 90% of what I buy will be for my store. In business, my store will be more important than anything I want. You've got to have that willing to let go no matter what. I bought Spawn for the Snes recently now that will be for me to keep. Today, I bought Incredible Hulk on the Mega drive that will be for the store. I've got quite a few games so far plus other console bits and 20 amiibo's and lots various toy/collectables for the store. When I buy things, now, mostly I'm thinking about what the store will need, not what I want. I've been buying from charity shops and other sources friends/etc.I've 30 ps2 games and 30 PS3 games on the way. But I don't just think about the cheaper titles, the more expensive as it would be just great for the shop.

Hi we met in Birmingham a few weeks back inside & outside if your thinking of doing it please remember it's hard work & why change what you do now with your content which is fantastic 😊

Or a retro game museum? 😊😊😊

Thank you for the podcast shout out Gem! 😁 great vid

If you sale video games there's one thing I know that is it won't be broken or if there's a problem you would say what that problem is

Nice Vloggy Vloggy Kind of Video and Neat Stuff You Picked Up.. Hope to See You At The Doncaster Gaming Market In May Even Got Early Birds This Time Haha.. Let Alone I've Just Been to The Dome in Doncaster Afew Months Ago to Meet Nostalgia Nerd At The "Game On" Expedition

So I know across the pond (USA) there are guys that do mobile gaming. What I mean by they is they start their own business drive around in a truck 🛻 and go to events schools parties etc and offer the community the ability to play games for a small fee (or what ever price). It’s essentially a moveable game room. PC’s with internet 🛜 can store old consoles or new consoles to play on multiple monitors etc. the is easier and probably safer then have if a brick and mortar store.

Running a shop that yiur hobbie in these times is big risk as most people buy on line .risky times but if do maje sure you have someone behind you who has level head .and not emotionel to keep you on right path

I run my own building surveying business and it's an extremely time intensive commitment. I'm lucky to play a few hours a week. So I don't think you would have the time to do it properly. Perhaps a partnership would be more ideal for you doing content for said shop and taking a percentage.

if they open a shop they have a passion to selling it and playing the games

There is no way you'd be able to part with your stock!! NO WAY!!

Will u be taking a visit at retro Rick's store when you go over? X

Gemma, don't open a video-games shop. You won't have enough good days to make it financially viable unless you're siting-on a ton of desirable games that you bought years ago for next to nothing that you're willing to sell. Once that's sold where do you go next? Every CEX in the country has been raided already, Retro-game shops are sell stuff at close to Ebay prices as do car-boot sellers. All these places will be your competition. Every time you make a Retro-game hunt video how often is the shop packed with people? When a hobby becomes a job the fun disappears FAST.

I’d come work for you 😉 Great vid though!!!

❤❤❤❤❤u should I hope it's also shipping as well

Owning your own game store sounds cool, and could really open up something in your personality. But...costs are just so ridiculous these days.

It sounds like you have enough with your personal commitments like job and life in general IMO. Taking on a business on top is a lot of work, whether it's selling from home or starting up a game shop. You are not getting any younger, most of us start to feel our limitations in our forties. It's important to be able to differentiate between hobbies and work, so use gaming as a way to relaxe and not make it into more work. I have a lot of experience when it comes to running a business, it's time consuming i can tell you that!

U should open your own video game store.

So you're thinking about selling online, but you're "not a reseller"? 😂

You are where you are meant to be

Don’t do a shop as such… the pressure for that kinda thing is immense. Especially with the decline on the high street. You don’t want the thing you love to become a source of any stress or anxiety which can come from being a business owner. It sounds like it could be fun to do but could soon turn into a time consuming burden.

What about a discord channel for your RU-vid members where we can talk all thing nostalgia and you can give hints and tips to good hunting.

Do it online it's a lot cheaper to run

You wouldn’t sell anything. You’d keep it all 😂

There’s uk people on whatnot selling games.

Hi Gemma love video reminds my of 2 girls 1 topic i did see a while back would you pay 135 pound for a n64 i saw one in my local cex and way love video hi to molly and jess bye

Do you ever think about getting out of the gaming??

Do 👍👍👍🎮