The £15 Geek Treasure Hunt #2 – Cliché for a reason

We’ve gone down a really deep hole here at Infinite Frontiers. Collecting can get quite expensive, so we’ve started the challenge to see how much stuff we could get for 15 whole British pounds (excluding postage). While Simon’s first post is already live, it was actually a free $15 Amazon gift card I got that started the ball rolling. And this is the story of what I got, and why. Welcome to the Geek Treasure Hunt #2. 

First off, Amazon is not really the best place to get a bargain when it comes to games and geeky stuff in general. Set prices means you can’t grab last minute auction deals. It is what it is. However, I’m not to look a gifted gift card horse in the e-mouth, so I went all in with the following parameters:

1. It had to be a geek or gaming related item.

2. If it’s a game, it has to be for a system I collect: GB, GBC, GBA, DS, 3DS, PSP, Vita or Switch.

3. If it’s not a game, it has to be for a franchise I collect (like “The Blair Witch Project”).

4. The item or items combined cannot exceed $15 (prior to shipping and/or taxes).

Straight off the bat, I realized that a few things were out of the question. Switch games for $15, you’re looking at some really grim stuff like “Troll and I”, which at this point are more of a completionist item rather than something I’d actually like to play. So Switch was out. PSP selection was limited, though it did offer complete games; a nice change from the loose disks you get (mostly) on eBay.

Retro games for GB, GBC and GBA are accessible but no boxes for $15 and I’m a bit of a strickler for complete games, so that was out. Non-gaming stuff was also a bit out as I’m limited in interests and comic books are pretty expensive on Amazon. There were a couple of things related to “The Blair Witch Project” that I didn’t have, including collectible cards and a new book. But in the end, I decided to go with a game.

And it came down to DS, 3DS or Vita.

Vita looked really promising. There’s a lot of good stuff to be had for $15 if you’re willing to play, say, imports. In particular, SEGA’s much Western-ly neglected franchise Phantasy Star’s Nova title caught my eye. About $14, so almost all of my budget, but it’s 4.3 stars out of 5 and a play time (according to one of my bibles, “How Long To Beat”) of around 30 hours, which beats handily my requirement of 1-hour-of-playtime-per-dollar-spent. However, the gameplay looked very similar to both “Mobile Suite Gundam EXTREME VS-FORCE” and the “Freedom Wars” stuff. I already own a lot of content similar to that, and while the pull of another import game was strong, I kept looking.

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I went over to my much-neglected 3DS section and thought “well, I haven’t turned it on since I got my Switch, but surely there’s stuff here that hasn’t made it to the home console that I’d like in my collection”. And sure enough, there it was. It was an obvious answer, but it was obvious for a reason: Pokemon.

You see, one of the games I spent the most time with ever is “Pokemon X”. With over 200 hours on the clock (which for me, is a lot), I even played competitively online. Bred my own teams, IV breeding, EV training, the lot. However, “Alpha Sapphire” didn’t grab me. I didn’t even finish the story. But I thought “maybe it’s because I knew the story and region already”. And I saw this: “Pokemon Sun” for $14. That’s before shipping, of course, but think about it:

1. A mainline Pokemon game.

2. It’s complete with the box and manual (a must for me).

3. Condition was listed as “Very Good” (which was good enough for me).

4. At the very least I’d be able to get into the latest meta and trade with other Gen 7 players.

5. At the very least I’m going to get my $15 worth of playtime (15 hours or more).

6. Resale value for mainline “Pokemon” games is always good, so if I don’t like it, I can probably get rid of it breaking even or better.

So, while a lot thinner than Simon’s entry in terms of quantity of items, I think my haul is very interesting: Amazon only (which limits you severely in terms of choice), a very recent game, a mainline “Pokemon” game, which is nothing to laugh at. I think I did quite well!

I’m already working on my next entry, which will be much more varied, so fret not! In the meantime, I’m going to visit Alola and wondertrade my way into a 6IV shiny Pichu, just for the hell of it.

About Marcos Codas 279 Articles
Lover of portable gaming and horror cinema. Indie filmmaker and game developer. Multimedia producer. Born in Paraguay, raised in Canada. Huge fan of "The Blair Witch Project", and "Sonic 3D Blast". Deputy head at Vita Player and its parent organization, Infinite Frontiers. Like what I do? Donate a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/marcoscodas

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