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As one of the UK's top tourist destinations, the walled city of York attracts millions of visitors each year, most drawn to its fascinating historic architecture, excellent gears of war 3 console cex exchange, fantastic tea-rooms and - of course - its majestic Gothic cathedral, which is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe.
Among the myriad delights tucked away in its narrow, maze-like medieval streets you'll find an unlikely retro gaming nirvana; located on Gillygatea stone's throw from the aforementioned York Minster, lies Sore Thumb Retro Games. Small yet unmissable thanks to its bright-yellow paint job, this remarkable store could well be the UK's best retailer of old-school and vintage games, hardware and memorabilia.
I don't pass that judgment lightly, either. I like to think I know my retro. From there, my haul grew over the decades and I cast my net further afield, heading down to London on several occasions to visit the legendary Rathbone Place CEX store as well as its dedicated - but sadly short-lived - retro outlet a few streets away this was long before CEX shifted away from imports and into the realm of DVD and mobile phone sales, it should be noted.
The arrival of the web saw me purchasing the vast majority of my burgeoning collection via eBay or other online resellers, and until very recently I've struggling to find any brick-and-mortar stores which can match the glory days of the '90s - until gears of war 3 console cex exchange. Click to enlarge any of the images on this page.
Trust us, you'll want to. I happened across Sore Thumb Retro Games entirely by chance; I'd recently taken the family to York for a short break and - as is my usual custom - I did a quick check on Google to see if there were any decent video game stores in the city.
Sore Thumb popped up instantly, accompanied by some intriguing photos of glass cabinets packed with rare titles, both western and imported. My interest was piqued, and one day I left the rest of the family shopping and ventured underneath the shadow of York Minster, through the weather-worn city gate and BANG - there was Sore Thumb's bright storefront to greet my eye.
The window was packed with retro gaming goodness, including boxed NES consoles, home micros and even a full-size Star Wars Stormtrooper, emblazoned with the sign "I'm not for sale". My heart was beating in a way it hadn't since gears of war 3 console cex exchange days of my London retro gaming shopping trips as I pushed the door open, but the pessimist in me felt the need to curb my enthusiasm, as I'd been in many similar stores lately and come away disappointed.
Disappointment was not something I'd need to worry about here. Stepping into Sore Thumb was like walking into gears of war 3 console cex exchange gaming paradise; every available bit of wall space was covered in games, accessories, consoles and merchandise from the past five decades of gaming history.
Hanging from the ceiling are controllers of every type and description, and as you delve further into the store you're faced with a massive wall of black - hundreds of bit PlayStation games, with their rather boring uniform case spines. Opposite to this is the "import" section; a little bit of Japan in Yorkshire. The aforementioned cabinets draw your attention to the rear of the shop, their contents being the most valuable in the whole store. Gaming collectables such as Sonic toys and fully boxed Tamagotchis I couldn't resist buying one for my son to keep his 20th anniversary one company take pride of place next to some of the rarest PAL, North American and Japanese releases, including some choice Japanese Saturn shooters and a Sega Mega Jet, a portable but screen-less Mega Drive which was installed on Japan Airlines flights in the '90s.
This is a truly stunning store, and is owned by Gears of war 3 console cex exchange Cunningham - with Roy Pearson employed to man the shop and impart his wisdom where needed. I sat down with both men to talk about the history of the store and their love of retro. Can you give us some background on your gaming history? What machines did you start playing on? My dad worked at a scrap yard and he brought it home from a skip in maybe In around '86 when I was 10 I got my own gaming machine. I then jumped to Commodore, seeing a world of colour that I had never seen before, and then to my best machine, an Amiga The first time I tried any type of game was when my sister received one of the old Atari consoles for Christmas - the VCS, the one with a wood finish.
I think the first game I played was probably Space Invaders. Straight away I was really intrigued. It wasn't till I was about 12 that I received my very own gaming machine and that was the mighty Spectrum K. Man, I loved that machine! Games were so cheap too, and there were bloody loads of them. One of my favourite franchises at the time and still a little bit now was the Dizzy series by Codemasters. Sure, the first one was rockhard, but since then I have loved the platforming genre.
The only problem was sitting there for 10 minutes waiting for a game to load and then sometimes it crashed and you had to rewind the cassette and try and load it again. My next gaming machine was when I made the proper move to consoles - it was a Mega Drive. I received one for Christmas with Sonic 2. I did get a SNES a few years later and that's when I realised that out of all the gaming companies out there, Nintendo is my favourite. Sure, they can treat the UK a bit rubbish sometimes although things are much better nowadays but when they create games featuring such memorable characters as Mario and Link I just have to forgive them for any silly decisions they may sometimes make.
I currently own all current machines of this generation and lots of the older machines. I also collect shmups, RPGs and platforming games. I am gears of war 3 console cex exchange of a hoarder! I have just recently purchased an old Amiga at a great price and am loving that too - I have even managed to find a few Dizzy games. Talk about reliving your youth! For 20 years I worked for Royal Mail. Around 8 years ago I started selling on eBay, and this led to me to doing events gears of war 3 console cex exchange as Comic Con, other gaming expos and finally setting up a website.
Around 3 years ago I was offed redundancy from Royal Mail, and I used this to set up a market stall which then led to a temporary shop in York. Due to the popularity of the pop-up shop, I found some permanent roots, which is where we are now. York is one of the UK's top tourist destinations - does the high footfall coming into the city help you in terms of sales?
Definitely, I get customers from all around the world that are visiting York. Also, the amount of UK-based tourism has been increasing, which is great for the city. How do you source items for your store? How tricky is it to find desirable games in the era of online reselling and eBay?
It all comes down to price. I have a network or gears of war 3 console cex exchange carbooters, skip rats, house clearance and so on. As long as I can pay what they want I get the gear. It's tough, though; everybody nowadays thinks they are online business people because they have a eBay account and everybody can look a 'listed prices' for items. With CEX starting to sell retro this has made it harder for indie shop like myself.
You've devoted a large portion of the shop to Japanese imports and items. Is there a big demand for gears of war 3 console cex exchange I wouldn't say big, but its a very cool niche. I think this puts us on the map, as I have a mini Akihabara here in York! For consoles such as Saturn you really need to play the Japanese games to see the full potential of the machine.
Plus, Japanese games always look so much cooler than PAL games. When it comes to pricing, most retailers will admit that you can't compete with online sellers.
How do you approach this aspect of your business? Do you try to match prices with eBay, or do you have another means of gauging how much something is worth?
Any trader that says they don't compare prices to eBay is lying. As a business we look at the 'sold price' and take a top average. I feel the fact that you can look and feel the item gives us the right to go 'top gears of war 3 console cex exchange. You will always get punters that will enjoy being in the shop and walking down memory lane, but then troll you about being more expensive than eBay.
These people need to realise that this is a living museum we run; it isn't funded by the National Lottery and we have to make money at some point. What would you say is the most expensive or outlandish item you've ever sold in the shop?
We recently sold the Nintendo 64DD to one of your readers actually; with only 10 games in the library it's an easy one to complete.
We have had Panasonic GameCubes boxed and Famicom hotel units. I think the most expensive game was Hyperduel on Japanese Saturn. Do you still attend any of the retro events around the UK? Are they handy for spreading awareness of your store? For the past 3 years we have attended every gaming market, Comic Con and expo North of Birmingham.
I know that for every flyers handed out you might only get 10 responses, but it's very important to get out and build your brand and let gamers see what you're all about.
Do you find you get a typical type of customer in your store, or does it attract a mixture of gamers? In our shop we get a wide age range, from 7 years to 60 years, I would say. The fact that we don't sell anything semi-modern keeps our contact with mainstream Call of Duty and FIFA gamers to a bare minimum.
Retro gaming is a massive business now; as gaming moves towards a digital-only future, do you think the market is going to shrink, or grow? I was worried that this new age where people wouldn't want anything physical.
But I have seen a growth in people owning items - be it vinyl, laser discs, retro games, etc. I would say that my business gears of war 3 console cex exchange a sell-by date, as it is built on nostalgia and memories. But I will keep evolving as a business. What does the future hold for Sore Thumb? Do you have plans for any other stores? Will you be taking your business online, or are you keen on preserving the face-to-face approach? I have neglected my website for the last couple of years.
I have always been a one-man band so the web store was placed on the back burner. I now have a good team in place so we are currently modernising the shop, which will lead to the website opening again for trade and a second store elsewhere in Yorkshire. You can't beat dealing with people face to face, but the truth of the matter is people shop online, so we need get on board.
If you're ever in the vicinity of York then you owe it to yourself to drop into Sore Thumb and soak up the atmosphere, even if you don't intend to buy anything. However, leaving without something is a true test of gears of war 3 console cex exchange. Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly.
