From: Edward Lipsett <translation@i...>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 11:41:05 +0900
Subject: Trip to a gaming store
I dropped by one of the only 2 game stores in Fukuoka over the weekend to see what they have on the shelves. Thought you might be interested in a slightly different world. Over 90% of the floor space and shelf space is occupied by plastic models, ranging from cars and other RW stuff to WW2 military and SF - including about 10 meters of running shelving for Gundam models alone! Plus the usual paints, painting guides, etc, etc, etc. In the back corner of the store was the RPG/gaming section, occupying about 2 running meters of shelving, maybe 2.5 meters high. On the very top were about 2 dozen Avalon-Hill boxed games, in shrink wrap. Then shelves and shelves of paperback books - about 2/3 is in Japanese, mostly magazines, Japanese-developed RPG (a lot of Gundam stuff, again...) and a bunch of Japanese-developed GURPS books based on best-selling manga, books or anime. They had maybe a dozen TW2k titles, 3 or 4 of each, mint condition. A bunch of TNE stuff, likewise. One copy of EC/S and 2 2300AD boxed sets, also mint. Several Chaosium items, including maybe half a dozen Elric books and a few CoC books (Terror Australis, I was surprised to see). No miniatures at all (the firm selling localized version of 40k went bankrupt earlier this year), although a bunch of small-scale plastic models from Yamato and a few other shows could conceivably be used instead. Prices: not at all good. The guy at the store said most of the stuff had been bought back when the exchange rate was higher, and before Magic and Pokemon and PlayStation had eaten the heart out of the gaming hobby. One of the AH boxes goes for maybe JY6000-JY8000, and the TW2k books are JY2500 or so apiece. You can buy most of the stuff on eBay for under those prices. Anyway, FWIW.