10/1/15 - Thursday evening, 5:30 PM. I've had a hellacious week at work and barely enough time to breath, much less find the time to pack for RWX. Luckily, I was worried about all of the loot I was bringing up there fitting in my carry on, so I started packing the week before. I loaded up my car that morning and at 5:30 on the dot, I peeled out of the the work parking lot and made the 2 hour drive down to Charlotte, where I would catch my plane the next morning. My wife had reached out to her childhood friend and college roommate who lived down there and worked it out for me to stay the night with her and her family, since I was going to have to get up super early. Not wanting to interrupt her family's evening..... I stopped in at two game stores in Charlotte.
My first stop was at one of my favorite stores, The Grid. It's owned by Goodwill and is the place where they send all of their video games, consoles, computers, and accessories. I try to hit this place every time I go down and I've had great luck in the past. Their prices are very fair and typically under eBay. I think more people have found out about the place and it was a little more filled with commons than it usually is. Still, I managed to pick up a few good games: Crimson Skies - $2, MechAssault 2 (w/ employee sticker) - $3, and a DS game I have been searching for, Little Red Riding Hood Zombie BBQ - $15, all games CIB. This was one hell of a way to start off my trip.
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I checked out another store about 3 miles away called Save Point. It was a nice little retro store and it even had a few pinball machines! They also had some good prices, but there was nothing at the top of my wishlist, so I decided to save my money for the expo. I got in my truck and headed to my friends' house to watch some football and turn in for the night.
Friday morning, 2:55 AM - I could barely sleep wondering if the alarm on my phone would go off or not. I randomly woke up 5 minutes before my 3:00 AM alarm and went ahead and got out of bed. My flight was at 5:40, but I needed to fill up on gas and Charlotte can be chaotic in the morning. I arrived at the airport, hit long term parking, and took a bus to the terminal. The line was long at security, but I managed to get through in plenty of time. I flew from Charlotte to Atlanta and ran through the airport to make my connection to Westchester. My flights were good and I grabbed a little breakfast while waiting on my ride. When it pulled up, I was immediately greeted by a friendly and familiar face, one Russ Lyman.
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Russ is as nice of a guy as you would imagine from his videos and we talked a great deal about games and other nonsense as we drove around. Unfortuneatly, Russ' car stopped working ironically in front of one of his game stores, Retro Games Plus, so we thought we might go in and check it out. Again, I didn't really find any specific titles that I was looking for on my short list (short is relative), but I noticed that they had a few Colecovision, 2600, and 5200 games at good prices, so I had to pick up a few. Luckily, it was buy 2 games and get a 3rd one FREE! Lucky me.
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When we went back out to check on Russ' car, it was a MIRACLE. It started right up! We went by Russ' place to grab his bag and stuff to sell for tomorrow's expo, and of course pet the kitties. We grabbed a quick bite at the BK, and headed over to Bil's place.
When we arrived, we were immediately greeted by a cool cast of characters, Bil, Duke, Crabby, Floyd, and Eric. It was nice to put names with faces, and it felt like seeing old friends. We chatted for a bit, dispersed some items we brought for each other, and settled in for some gaming before dinner and the rest of the crew arrived.
Jackbox on XBox One was the perfect entertainment for the evening. The assortment of games were fun, and we soon learned that all of us had a great sense of humor. We then settled into a few hours of
Rock Band and
Guitar Hero (argued about which series was better, of course), ate some burgers and dogs (thanks Bil!), and hooked up the Retron 5 for a group switch-off
Mega Man 2 run. During the run, Adam and Anthony showed up, and hugs and hand shakes ensued. The new arrivals fit right in, and Adam even finished off Dr. Wiley. We stayed up giggling and playing copious amounts of
Jack Box until around 1 AM, and then crashed.
A few of the trades and spoils I received from other house guests. Boxed Atari, Captain Commando and Mega Man X from Crabby, the Marinefleiger from Eric of course, and Darius Gaiden and Sears Haunted House from Duke. Duke brought me another big ticket item, which you'll see later in this post. Not pictured: Duke also brought me a Dreamcast and an early model 1 Genesis w/o lockout, and Adam brought me an Atari Jr.....the consoles had to be shipped. Ha!
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When I woke the next morning, Bil had already left for RWX and Russ had left a very sad, plush bear behind in tears from his passionate wake. I went in the kitchen and found Adam, who I think had as much trouble sleeping as I did due to our excitement and my snoring. I grabbed a shower, waited on the others, and out the door we went to RWX!
When we got there (about 45 minutes early), the line was already formed and quite large. We walked around to the front, saw Bil there, and were immediately rushed in like the rock stars we are. We grabbed our awesome RWX lanyards and walked around to find our table to set up. Of course, most of us ran around before the doors opened to find deals; I was one of those people. On my first run, I specifically looked for the 4 remaining NES games I needed for my licensed set, and also for some titles to bulk up my Genesis collection. I found a few good ones. Heck, I even stopped at one table and a guy mentioned knowing my voice. I introduced myself and indeed, the guy is a listener to the Playcast. How cool is that!
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After my initial shopping spree, I headed back to the table and sat with Adam for a while. We had a lot of fun talking to passersby about the site. Most were unaware that such a site existed, not to mention one that was free. We signed up a few people on the spot and had others take a quick snapshot of our site address with their camera, in hopes that they would check it out later. Many people were really excited to learn about the RFGen app, especially after we saw the spreadsheets they were carrying around at the convention.
Lunch time rolled around and I was super hungry, since we decided to get their early and not stop for breakfast, a wise choice looking back. I decided to hit the food trucks while Adam manned the table and stood in line for quite some time. I tried to steal Crabby and Duke's food from them, since they were in front of me, but they weren't having any of that. Bil was running around like mad, so I grabbed a few more cheese steaks for he and Adam, and headed back to the table.
I decided to go back out to search for games and of course, by this time, the place was packed. Even the arcade was overflowing with people. It was really nice to see all of Bil and the guys at Retroware's hard work coming to fruition and paying off. The rest of the after was more game hunting. Prices at the expo ranged from good to "Wow, that's a crazy price!," but overall, I got some great deals and feel like it was very much worth my time and effort to attend. I'm not going to throw out all of the prices, but if anyone is interested in what I paid for any of this stuff, you can PM me.
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Crabby knew I was looking for the Guardian Heroes and went ahead and bought it upon finding it. What a guy! If I passed, he was just going to take it to sell at his store. Sorry Mike.....
I traded some games and PSX memory cards for the Die Hard, and got a good deal on Apocalypse. Lots of Bruce Willis love this trip.
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I saw a video on the PAL He-Man once, and for the price, it was a no brainer just to have it in my collection. The action figures were also a good deal and I bought them from the table of the store Russ works at.
I grabbed these and some plushies [not pictured] for the kids. I lost the drawings somewhere along the way, but they turned up in Duke's rental car later. Whew!
I sat back down at the table some more and waited for our panel at 4:00. The Collectorcast guys were kind enough to let Floyd and I sit in on the panel and talk about our site and the show. We had a few people in attendance, along with the rest of our members, and I very much enjoyed it.
We had a few auction items at our table to show off that day, a boxed R.O.B., CIB Bucky O'Hare, and a Rescue Rangers 2 box. Those items helped to draw people in to discuss our site and also promote the auction at 7:00 PM. As the auction drew near, Bil asked Duke and I if we wouldn't mind helping out and scribing. Of course, we were happy to help out and had a great time watching all of the bids at the auction. I was interested in bidding on a few things, namely 2 NES games I needed for my complete licensed set, so I signed up and gave Floyd my bid card and max prices I would pay. Unfortunately, I missed out on both items.... The Panic Restaurant with the bad label didn't go for what the seller wanted and the Flintstones 2 went just above my limit. However, I pulled Bil over since he knew the owner of the PR and told him to tell him to see me after the show. We worked out a deal, and now I'm only 3 games away from my NES set!!!!
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The PR came with a repro label, which I have already replaced on a donor cart (no worries, I kept the old, torn label and original front case). Duke also brought up a rough Wild Guns that we worked out some months ago, which I also replaced the label on.
After the auction, all of the RF Gen members spent some more quality time together and hit an Italian restaurant nearby. We continued to joke and tried out the places mashed potato pizza, well.....all of us except the reluctant Duke, and it was actually really good. We headed back to the convention to catch one of the last bands and ended the night storming the arcade and having a lot of fun with each other.
At the end of the night, I said goodbye to Eric and Russ, and rode back with Bil and the others to his house. I said my goodbyes to Crabby, Anthony, and Adam, since I knew I wouldn't see them in the morning. A few of us stayed up a little longer, but we all crashed hard after a pretty epic day.
The next day, Bil, Floyd, and I hit a flea market, while Duke slept in; he had to run Crabby to the airport at 4 AM and needed some sleep. We found only a handful of games at the flea and an overpriced C64, but we didn't buy anything. Still, the flea market was the coolest I had ever been to and they had some amazing stuff....including a stuffed mountain lion! Afterwards, we went to Bil's parents place and I got to meet his wife, kids, and parents. Of course, they were all as nice and welcoming as Bil and I enjoyed chatting with them. We went back to Bil's place to pick up Duke, stuff my bag to the brim with goodies, and hit the road to the airport.
I had a long flight and subsequent drive home (got back at 2:30 AM), but it was really worth it. I had some great pick ups from my trip, but the best thing I brought back was knowing that the people in this community are as genuine and as nice in person as they are on-line. Thanks for the great memories guys! I hope that I can make it out there again next year.
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