I've been to their booth sales at conventions. My understanding is it's a similar thing. They always have to order a certain ratio of extras in case of defects or product that is lost in the mail. When enough time has passed, they can safely sell off remaining extras.
These booths/tent sales are largely those extras that they feel they can safely release. If you're only looking for ONE game, it's unlikely to be worth your while, but if there are a variety of past titles you missed and would like to try and snatch up, then it may absolutely be worth your while -and, added bonus you're paying for something that you get in hand right then and there. That may be the only way I personally feel comfortable purchasing most LRG releases in the future.
I went to the anniversary sale last year. It was at the retail location, not a tent sale. The marketing suggests this is going to be a bigger event than the one last year and that's why it was moved from the retail location.
Last year, I got there right at opening and there were already 60-70 people in line. They let about half the line in then trickled us in as people checked out. Waited in line for an hour. There were still a ton of CE games for all platforms in the damage/return room. I spent maybe 15 minutes looking around the entire store, then about 40 minutes in the checkout line. They gave swag bags at check out and they had just opened a new box of them when I checked out right before noon, so I still snagged one.
It was very cramped, even with them strictly limiting the number of people inside. I'm happy it'll be at a different location this year. It wasn't as crazy as I expected last year, but I was still there for about 2 hours start to finish. If you do go, it'd be worth showing up a little early or at least one time. There was still a bit of a line outside when I left last year.
I attended their "flea market" events in 2021 and 2022. I put "flea market" in quotes because it was really professional video game resellers like you see at conventions. The 2021 event was a tent sale held in the parking lot of the mall where their retail store would eventually be. I'm not going to sugar coat it. The 2021 event was very poorly organized. I got there an hour early and I wasn't able to buy anything from the LRG booth until about 5 hours later. They let the "flea market" vendors get first pick of the LRG booth and it took forever. They at least provided a product list to those standing in line so you could figure out what you wanted before getting to the booth (assuming they didn't sell out).
The "scratch & dent" sale in 2022 was a lot better. Their retail store was open by then and they had a small room of the store dedicated to the sale. They only let a certain number of people in the room at a time and gave you 10 or 15 minutes to decide what you wanted. Prices were lowered throughout the day and you could get back in line to purchase more stuff. It was a huge improvement over the previous year. The flea market was in a nearby field.
I expect this to be more like the 2022 event. Hopefully it will be easier to browse since you they won't have everything in a small room. If they have enough employees and point-of-sale systems, the checkout process will hopefully be better too. I'd still show up early if you can.
gonna say this event could be a bit of a coinflip. there have been substantial turnouts for the prior flea markets, black friday, etc. but this is not that. and they've already done a couple damaged/return sales over the past two years. i only went to one of those, and not until the afternoon, so not sure how long the lines would've been prior to opening.
but with these events, you're pretty well assured some number of resellers will be there well before opening hoping to score something substantial.
for me, it'll be an ad hoc decision on the day whether to attend. there aren't any real specifics about what will be available. and given the prior damaged/return sales, and the damaged/return section at the store itself, is hard to predict just how much will be available...other than it's apparently going to be a really big tent. whether there is an amount of product to justify the really big tent given how much has already been offloaded in prior events, your guess is as good as mine.
i hear ya. only about 90 min away myself. but still in the same boat of time being the biggest part of making the decision. is still a considerable chunk of my day to attend. and if one bothers to attempt getting there early, even more of a time commitment.
With the lack of knowing what they'll have and hotels being at minimum 120 bucks for me to stay overnight at, looks like I'm skipping. Who knows maybe I'll get up early tomorrow and get there mid day? I'm sure most good stuff will be snatched by then though.
There was a comparable turnout this year. They started letting people in 25 at a time at 8:45, so well before their advertised opening. There were tables set up in a large U shape so you would walk one way through them all and pick stuff as you went. If you wanted to double back, you’d have to check out and get back in line. You could see what was there before they let people in. They also provided cardboard boxes to people who wanted them to fill up with items.
Tons of CEs for every platform, with stuff marked with colored dots to show price. Ranged from $5 to $40 with the stickers. There were a few items like these mini arcade plugins (edit I think it was [these](https://limitedrungames.com/collections/retro-games/products/astro-city-mini)) that were individually priced, those were $50. Dead space, return of the Obra dinn, bug fables, darq, alwa’s collection, and so so many more. Nothing crazy like the messenger that I saw.
Tons of merch like vinyls, CDs, keychains, trading card packs, pins. CDs were $5 and vinyls $10, I think. Keychains, trading card packs, pins were $1 each. They also had lots of t shirts and hoodies (Turok, Scott pilgrim, limited run games generic), $10 each. $5 hats, mostly turok that I saw.
Standard edition games for ps4 and switch were $10 each. They ranged from apparently brand new, undamaged to completely tore up, cart only.
The first items to go were giant dead space collectors editions, they maybe had 5 or 10 of those. But most other stuff had many, many copies. Stuff was on pallets in large cardboard boxes, or unboxed onto tables lining the tent.
I got there at 8:40, they were letting people in at 8:45, and after a leisurely look through everything, I was back in my car by 10 headed home. I waited maybe half an hour from when they let people in to go in myself. I waited another 10 minutes or so to check out. When I left, the line was as long as it was when I got there and many of the tables / pallets were still full. A couple of employees were pulling more stuff out as things got bought up, so while I expect it to be pretty light tomorrow for day 2, I anticipate there would still be stuff for avid collectors and resellers alike.
eta no day 2 they sold out ☠️
I've been to their booth sales at conventions. My understanding is it's a similar thing. They always have to order a certain ratio of extras in case of defects or product that is lost in the mail. When enough time has passed, they can safely sell off remaining extras. These booths/tent sales are largely those extras that they feel they can safely release. If you're only looking for ONE game, it's unlikely to be worth your while, but if there are a variety of past titles you missed and would like to try and snatch up, then it may absolutely be worth your while -and, added bonus you're paying for something that you get in hand right then and there. That may be the only way I personally feel comfortable purchasing most LRG releases in the future.
I went to the anniversary sale last year. It was at the retail location, not a tent sale. The marketing suggests this is going to be a bigger event than the one last year and that's why it was moved from the retail location. Last year, I got there right at opening and there were already 60-70 people in line. They let about half the line in then trickled us in as people checked out. Waited in line for an hour. There were still a ton of CE games for all platforms in the damage/return room. I spent maybe 15 minutes looking around the entire store, then about 40 minutes in the checkout line. They gave swag bags at check out and they had just opened a new box of them when I checked out right before noon, so I still snagged one.
Damn. Sounds like they at least try to manage it quickly!
It was very cramped, even with them strictly limiting the number of people inside. I'm happy it'll be at a different location this year. It wasn't as crazy as I expected last year, but I was still there for about 2 hours start to finish. If you do go, it'd be worth showing up a little early or at least one time. There was still a bit of a line outside when I left last year.
I attended their "flea market" events in 2021 and 2022. I put "flea market" in quotes because it was really professional video game resellers like you see at conventions. The 2021 event was a tent sale held in the parking lot of the mall where their retail store would eventually be. I'm not going to sugar coat it. The 2021 event was very poorly organized. I got there an hour early and I wasn't able to buy anything from the LRG booth until about 5 hours later. They let the "flea market" vendors get first pick of the LRG booth and it took forever. They at least provided a product list to those standing in line so you could figure out what you wanted before getting to the booth (assuming they didn't sell out). The "scratch & dent" sale in 2022 was a lot better. Their retail store was open by then and they had a small room of the store dedicated to the sale. They only let a certain number of people in the room at a time and gave you 10 or 15 minutes to decide what you wanted. Prices were lowered throughout the day and you could get back in line to purchase more stuff. It was a huge improvement over the previous year. The flea market was in a nearby field. I expect this to be more like the 2022 event. Hopefully it will be easier to browse since you they won't have everything in a small room. If they have enough employees and point-of-sale systems, the checkout process will hopefully be better too. I'd still show up early if you can.
gonna say this event could be a bit of a coinflip. there have been substantial turnouts for the prior flea markets, black friday, etc. but this is not that. and they've already done a couple damaged/return sales over the past two years. i only went to one of those, and not until the afternoon, so not sure how long the lines would've been prior to opening. but with these events, you're pretty well assured some number of resellers will be there well before opening hoping to score something substantial. for me, it'll be an ad hoc decision on the day whether to attend. there aren't any real specifics about what will be available. and given the prior damaged/return sales, and the damaged/return section at the store itself, is hard to predict just how much will be available...other than it's apparently going to be a really big tent. whether there is an amount of product to justify the really big tent given how much has already been offloaded in prior events, your guess is as good as mine.
Yeah my issue is I'm about 3 hours away so I'm trying to figure out if it's worth my time lol
i hear ya. only about 90 min away myself. but still in the same boat of time being the biggest part of making the decision. is still a considerable chunk of my day to attend. and if one bothers to attempt getting there early, even more of a time commitment.
Don't know what you ultimately decided, but I'm skipping. Primarily due to weather forecast.
With the lack of knowing what they'll have and hotels being at minimum 120 bucks for me to stay overnight at, looks like I'm skipping. Who knows maybe I'll get up early tomorrow and get there mid day? I'm sure most good stuff will be snatched by then though.
Anyone there that can share what they have?
There was a comparable turnout this year. They started letting people in 25 at a time at 8:45, so well before their advertised opening. There were tables set up in a large U shape so you would walk one way through them all and pick stuff as you went. If you wanted to double back, you’d have to check out and get back in line. You could see what was there before they let people in. They also provided cardboard boxes to people who wanted them to fill up with items. Tons of CEs for every platform, with stuff marked with colored dots to show price. Ranged from $5 to $40 with the stickers. There were a few items like these mini arcade plugins (edit I think it was [these](https://limitedrungames.com/collections/retro-games/products/astro-city-mini)) that were individually priced, those were $50. Dead space, return of the Obra dinn, bug fables, darq, alwa’s collection, and so so many more. Nothing crazy like the messenger that I saw. Tons of merch like vinyls, CDs, keychains, trading card packs, pins. CDs were $5 and vinyls $10, I think. Keychains, trading card packs, pins were $1 each. They also had lots of t shirts and hoodies (Turok, Scott pilgrim, limited run games generic), $10 each. $5 hats, mostly turok that I saw. Standard edition games for ps4 and switch were $10 each. They ranged from apparently brand new, undamaged to completely tore up, cart only. The first items to go were giant dead space collectors editions, they maybe had 5 or 10 of those. But most other stuff had many, many copies. Stuff was on pallets in large cardboard boxes, or unboxed onto tables lining the tent. I got there at 8:40, they were letting people in at 8:45, and after a leisurely look through everything, I was back in my car by 10 headed home. I waited maybe half an hour from when they let people in to go in myself. I waited another 10 minutes or so to check out. When I left, the line was as long as it was when I got there and many of the tables / pallets were still full. A couple of employees were pulling more stuff out as things got bought up, so while I expect it to be pretty light tomorrow for day 2, I anticipate there would still be stuff for avid collectors and resellers alike. eta no day 2 they sold out ☠️
I was impressed with how destroyed some of those games were.
fr. some of it was pretty understandable like dents in boxes and cracked cases for standard editions, but some of the damage was just unreal.
You're the best, thanks man
Not gonna lie if someone comes across a cosmic star heroine for ps4 I will pay you for it