Ever been to a Blockbuster "fire sale"?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Even though I was never a (literal) card-carrying member of their home media empire, I still vividly remember the day Blockbuster announced they were pulling out of the country.

Pushed out by the wicked combination of a heavily unstable economic situation, the emergence of a million smaller, privately-owned video stores that had set foot in areas where this giant had no presence, and ultimately by the advent of widespread piracy, the likes of which was never seen before (at least on such a scale), this static juggernaut simply had no chance.

I didn't think much of it, but I still thought it rather sad once I realized that we would never again be greeted by their giant sign upon driving to the mall. It was like seeing a building you have never been to suddenly disappearing from the skyline. Everything just felt... Emptier.

But that was as far as I took it as far as feelings were concerned.

Other people, though? Oh... They cared all right. And they showed just how much they did so by descending upon its remaining locations like locusts, taking home whatever inventory was being liquidated as the stores were clearing out around them.

Blockbuster-exclusive games, popular movies that were never available to rent, and everything in between... People fought over. It was like a combination of a gold rush, civil unrest and Black Friday all rolled into one and straight from hell. It was beautiful.

Even years after the fact people were still bragging about their loot from those days, some showing off impressive finds like elusive titles complete in box and the like.

Kinda wish I had tried my hand at it, too, just to see what I'd wound up with... But, again, it felt rather silly going to a store I was never interested in and had rarely been to right as it was closing forever.

What about you? Ever raided your local Blockbuster (or video store) as it was ceasing to exist? Or maybe you just got to keep a rented article as the system forgot you even had it (which accounts for at least part of my own Genesis collection)? Tell us!

 

[Zerpina]

Absolutely.
The video store Jez worked at went out of business not long after the pair of us got out of high school.
Since Jez knew the owner very well, she and I knew about the closing a week before it was announced.
The owner, being the cool guy he was, let us pick and choose what we wanted before anyone else.

We both looted a rather sizable tote each of video games and movies and took them home.
I'd say we each got well over 3,000 dollars worth of media for around 200 bucks.

Not a blockbuster, mind you, but it was a sizable store, had an adult section and all.
And no before anyone asks, I did not raid the girl on girl video section.

 

[bigstinkie]

that is very lucky
i have had no such experiences
i remember in america it was said that the mickey in the chuckletime fun hehe weeeee
to put it more plainly, new unused video game titles like baiten kaitos would be on sale, dozens of copies, row after row, for 1/5th of their original price

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Honestly, it needs a comeback. I've seen the whole gaming price markup retorted showing images of game pricing back then being equally abysmal. The only difference is that wages were a lot, a lot more livable and rental stores existed. It also would be good to revive the hangout scene like with malls, arcades, etc.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

“Ever been to a blockbuster-”
No

 

[bjork]

Not a blockbuster, but a store called Radical Video Games and a couple of department stores. One was a K-Mart that, in 2001 or so, still had Sega CD games and they also sold used Game Gear games but they were Japanese imports? Such a weird thing for them to have.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Not a blockbuster, but a store called Radical Video Games and a couple of department stores. One was a K-Mart that, in 2001 or so, still had Sega CD games and they also sold used Game Gear games but they were Japanese imports? Such a weird thing for them to have.

I seem to recall you are European? I remember some of my friends from there talking about requesting Japanese-only games from their retailers of choice during the SNES era and up. All it really cost was an import fee and a lot of patience.

 

[bjork]

I seem to recall you are European? I remember some of my friends from there talking about requesting Japanese-only games from their retailers of choice during the SNES era and up. All it really cost was an import fee and a lot of patience.

Nope, I'm west coast US. That's what was so weird about it. Even if it wasn't far from an area that was largely asian/pacific islander, K-Mart didn't normally carry stuff like that.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Nope, I'm west coast US. That's what was so weird about it. Even if it wasn't far from an area that was largely asian/pacific islander, K-Mart didn't normally carry stuff like that.

Ah, yeah. That's weird.

We normally didn't even know what was happening on Japanese markets at this side of the pond.

Hope you got something good!

 

[secreto7]

I did not raid the girl on girl video section.

Ara ara...

 

[medisinn]

I believe the last Blockbuster is here in Oregon in a town called Bend, though I've never been there. I did go to the Blockbuster in Sandy(a small town a little east of Portland) ten-ish years ago and bought a copy of Lollipop Chainsaw for ten bucks for PS3. I suppose that's my souvenir.

I did get a good number of games back in the day in my hometown in Michigan from the local game store, Gamer's Heaven. They'd sell games for 10 or 20 bucks when getting rid of old inventory, after a while I stopped renting and saved my allowance to buy games. Brain Lord, Secret of Mana, Star Ocean 2, Grandia and a few others. Got my Sega Saturn from there too, had no clue for years that you needed to buy a separate memory card to save games because the GH Saturn didn't come with a memory card.

 

[secreto7]

I believe the last Blockbuster is here in Oregon in a town called Bend, though I've never been there. I did go to the Blockbuster in Sandy(a small town a little east of Portland) ten-ish years ago and bought a copy of Lollipop Chainsaw for ten bucks for PS3. I suppose that's my souvenir.

I did get a good number of games back in the day in my hometown in Michigan from the local game store, Gamer's Heaven. They'd sell games for 10 or 20 bucks when getting rid of old inventory, after a while I stopped renting and saved my allowance to buy games. Brain Lord, Secret of Mana, Star Ocean 2, Grandia and a few others. Got my Sega Saturn from there too, had no clue for years that you needed to buy a separate memory card to save games because the GH Saturn didn't come with a memory card.

Good findings!

The Saturn has an internal backup memory to save games, and some of them need the External Backup RAM Cartridge since the internal one does not have enough space.
https://segaretro.org/Saturn_Backup_Memory


There's also this: https://segaretro.org/Extended_RAM_Cartridge
Some games require it in order to function, whereas others can simply use it to enhance the game.

 

[medisinn]

Good findings!

The Saturn has an internal backup memory to save games, and some of them need the External Backup RAM Cartridge since the internal one does not have enough space.
https://segaretro.org/Saturn_Backup_Memory


There's also this: https://segaretro.org/Extended_RAM_Cartridge
Some games require it in order to function, whereas others can simply use it to enhance the game.

Ah, I see. It came with Magic Carpet and Virtua Fighter II, and I later picked up Sonic 3D Blast. Of those I think only Magic Carpet could save, either I needed the backup memory or I didn't know what I was doing. A few months ago I got a Saroo and that solved the problem, dunno why I didn't do that sooner heh.

 

[Bonkers225]

Yes I bought tons of VHS on sale for like $1-5. Now I can't even get rid of them, and they're taking up my closet space.

 

[secreto7]

Yes I bought tons of VHS on sale for like $1-5. Now I can't even get rid of them, and they're taking up my closet space.

Perhaps some collectionist could buy them from you?

 

[Bonkers225]

Perhaps some collectionist could buy them from you?

The shipping cost will be a nightmare because nobody is going to pay for a box of bricks across the country.

 

[Comster]

I have never been to a Blockbuster "fire sale".

 

[gekiganwing]

Around September 2020, my local Family Video store was about to close. I visited one last time, and bought a used copy of Stardew Valley for PS4. All the Switch games had already sold. Any halfway decent DS or 3DS game was gone. (If you're curious, the last Family Video stores closed in early 2021.)

 

[Mopeybloke]

I don't think I've ever seen a Blockbuster in Brazil. I have not walked into many places where video games were cheap except those great street vendors with pirated CD/DVD games. Always on sale, and always amazing.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Not Blockbuster, but my mom was friends with the owner of a local rental place.

When they got rid of the 8/16 bit games to make room for newer stock, my mom came home with a bunch of SNES games that the owner just gave her for free. I got my copy's of Mega Man X3, Donkey Kong Country 3, and Super Mario RPG that way.

 

[GuyZero32k4]

A month before they closed near me, went in and found the same VHS tape of Godzilla vs Biolante i saw back in 1993. Bought it for lols and kept it. Have it somewhere in the house with my other VHS I've kept.