Not So Common Podcast #14 - "The Immortal" John Hancock

Game collector John Hancock talks to Pat about video game collecting, game preservation, grading video games, and more!
►Help support this content: / patcontri
►Follow Pat on twitter / patthenespunk
►Listen on Podbean: bit.ly/2p0KENE
►Listen on Google Play: bit.ly/2oSlUdr
►Listen on iTunes: apple.co/2oSzs8C

[@PatTheNESpunk]

Thanks to John for the conversation! Check out his channel @bit.ly/2eLqnLe ►Help support this content: Patreon.com/PatContri ►Follow Pat on twitter twitter.com/patthenespunk ►Listen on Podbean: bit.ly/2p0KENE ►Listen on Google Play: bit.ly/2oSlUdr ►Listen on iTunes: apple.co/2oSzs8C

[@_arkel7374]

Pat, have you tried reaching out to Joe Rogan to get on his podcast? I think that would be interesting. I remember Joe saying he was into video games at one point. Not sure if Joe would think the podcast could go 3 hours (like they usually do) as far as content is concerned, but you never know. It's worth a shot. I know I would watch it, but the question is whether Joe thinks his audience would stay engaged.

[@PatTheNESpunk]

Not sure how I'd be able to contact Joe Rogan - maybe I can ask Colin. :p

[@_arkel7374]

Pat the NES Punk Colin Moriarty? Sure. I would if I were you. Plant the seed and see if it grows. I think I speak for everyone here (sans the haters) when I say you have the talent to make it a successful Joe Rogan podcast.

[@demonsty]

holy shit if pat was on joe rogan podcast i'd shit myself. that'd be epic!

[@oakleyshiloh9755]

I guess it's kinda randomly asking but does anyone know a good place to watch new tv shows online ?

[@RGT85]

Love John. Super good dude and very friendly.

[@yldarbdaeh]

Im glad to hear John Hancock on here. He seems like the nicest guy in the world and genuinely straight forward which is great. Great interview Pat.

[@DarrenMcCowan280470]

Fascinating and honest insights from two of the most knowledgeable commentators within the retro gaming community. Made my commute to work an absolute pleasure - thanks guys

[@gustavolopez2599]

The Immortal John Hancock. Now that is one awesome dude.

[@thefilmdirector1]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rV6uhaWjfMmVgZY

[@devastator200]

Deletes genuine comments in his comment section about the museum.

[@JebberGamingJaws]

Such a great way to spend the afternoon. Playing WiiU Mario Kart online and listening to you guys for nearly two hours, amazing!

[@2prize]

get a job

[@Boscoand]

2prize Dude, this video was on a fricken Saturday. Who usually works on Saturday?

[@dn7923]

Great conversation, you need John as a guest more often.

[@johnhancockretro]

Would love it!

[@Darkglobe1977]

I always like that John has a smile and positive attitude. Picks me up when I watch him.

[@conradmacintyre10]

Pat and John, thank you guys so much. This is the best edition of NSC Podcast so far. Would love a mini-series with the both of you, maybe discussing specific consoles/markets, ebay/craigslist/garage sales... anyway. Thanks again. Already listened twice. May come back for a third time.

[@markbecker424]

Been collecting for only a year glad to find this video. Keep making them and Ill keep watching

[@dswrigley]

This is a fantastic and educational podcast. I really enjoyed this episode @pat the nes punk. You do an amazing job all around. I miss the flee market shows. Please never go away, keep up the awesome content.

[@gamesonvhs5927]

Hey Pat you seem like a cool and genuinely good person, thanks for all the content.

[@PatTheNESpunk]

Thank you!

[@inlovewithi]

39:06 I said something similar back when the PS1 came out. Going from Nintendo to Super Nintendo, it was exciting that we were now entering the 32 Bit era, and I imagined the games that we've all been used on the SNES on steroids. And instead what we got was pixelated polygons. Polygon graphic became the new thing, but it was in its infancy, and I always used to say that it's like going back to 8 Bits. In the sense that we're taking a step back. Oh, and then loading times. To me it was a dark era.

[@Pandahboymtg]

It's great to hear how much people actually just love the games that they are collecting and not dead set on the value and what they are going to be able to sell it for later on. Growing up I never really had a lot of games but I did love the ones I had and now I am starting to look for other games I want to play and games from my childhood. Every game I had as a kid was passed down to me through my older brothers and I don't remember ever going to a retail store and getting a brand new game because we never had the money. I'm happy I can get those games now that mean something to me.

[@jasonscrimager6729]

thats the only reason I collect. I just enjoy playing my games:)

[@vlad48329reborn]

What a great podcast episode. I never heard of John, but his work and personality seem really great.

[@jeff97ish]

Very interesting conversation! Great job Pat and John!

[@riggel8804]

I'm one of those "random people that just wants to play Rescue Rangers and Contra."-- I'm a gamer not a collector. I love following collectors though because of their wealth of knowledge. Game chasers, cinamasacre, gameing historian, some of my favorite youtubes

[@hektorlinko]

Awesome Podcast! Love this! I agree with all the stuff you guys talk about. I'm a NES collector as well but I don't give a shit about pricing. I have gotten all my shit cheap and through deals and through bulk purchases. The stuff I have now I don't care how much it is worth. All I care about is that I have what I want, I enjoy it, I want to play it, and I have no interest in selling or profiting my stuff. I have own my games because I am happy to own them and play them in a very nostalgic way. Stuff I always wanted as a kid and never had, or wanted and hell...I had friends and neighbors that had these game and were well off and wouldn't share them with me as we were a little poor and couldn't afford games threw it in my face saying I was too poor to afford and get these games. Now as an adult...it's fun to just own them and play these great games. I don't take this hobby for granted. I'm a grown adult that appreciates this fun stuff and just hold it deep in my heart for fun gameplay. Simple as that. Great Podcast. I got into this hobby for the right reason. For fun. : )))

[@Warrax22]

One of the best episode yet.

[@Vectrex720]

I got into collecting because of how fun some of these games were. Got out of collecting and now I'm back into it. Some of these prices make my jaw drop.

[@jobojoe1]

John Hancock is the real deal

[@GS-fd2pf]

No, The Last Gamer is the Real Deal.

[@prophismusic]

John is awesome.

[@jeff97ish]

John Hancock is the best.

[@michaelray2119]

Please check out John you tube channel He is one of the nicest guys you will ever see always has a smile on his face and his passion for gaming always shows !!

[@michaelray2119]

ULTIMATENINJA1984 It's one of my favorites.

[@busterhymen5648]

That's his way of conning gullible people into sending him free games

[@thefilmdirector1]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rV6uhaWjfMmVgZY

[@mtshark7]

Awesome podcast Pat! My one friend has an insane video game collection with multiple copies of high end items such as: Magical Chase, Little Sampson, Stadium Events, Phanzer Dragoon Saga, along with NIB NES games. He doesn't care about the value either since he told me he bought all that stuff for really cheap or has had them all given to him.

[@RetroRescuers]

Pat and John in the same video... YES PLEASE!

[@pbailed8007]

April 1987 I got my first NES. Been hooked on Zelda ever since

[@Chris-lt8up]

Omg I just found eletronic table soccer and finished my first US collection and it was the magnavox odyssey 2 as well. Idk how it took me 22 years to find them all considering in the same time frame Ive almost finished three larger librarys the genesis library being the closest. So now I just need 31 sega genesis games, 4 sega saturn games and 28 Sega dreamcast to finish those US library.

[@EZDoes1t]

I'm subscribed to Johns channel. While i respect him as one of the best collectors and the years he's put into a passion that I share with him, I don't find a lot of his videos all that compelling, they are very matter of fact. However, this podcast is the most interesting that I've found him. I wish he did more of these discussions and expressed more his opinions on gaming/collecting past, present and future.

[@xWindreaderx]

I haven't watched this yet but I'm hyped!

[@NJindypro]

John is a great guy. You will NEVER find a more humble or cooler guy in the retro game community. He's the gaming version of John C. Reilly

[@WegnerTheDeftones]

I was thinking today about when you were going to chat with Immortal John. Then I open YT and bam!!!

[@bwillythekid8249]

Wagstastic how about 6 random numbers between 1 and 49

[@anthony_arcade6269]

There's a computer history museum in mountain view that has a room dedicated to consoles and games that's really nice.

[@The90sGamingGuy]

Flea Mart? I am guessing John is talking about a store that you can sell your stuff in. I have only been to one of these a few months ago while in Arizona on vacation. The place had dirt cheap scissors,garden hose accessories, art prints, moon rocks, bug key chains, stuff to make necklaces and etc. The store had obviously been a grocery store in the past. The place didn't offer refunds or discounts for damaged items and they watched their guests a little too much and i felt a little uncomfortable because of that. I started collecting and playing video games in about 1991. Sold off my game systems when new ones came out and that was my dads decision at the time. I now own all my childhood games and so much more. Glad to see other people here that share a passion for gaming.

[@hazeldavis3176]

Great interview. Could've been an hour longer, felt like it flew by.

[@TheDeadman14]

Loved the podcast you guys!

[@JPravato]

What the heck is going on with that banging noise in the background!?

[@beepath1]

Excellent video

[@Nintegageo]

The part where you guys talked about PS1 vs. older console collecting is something that I have been thinking about recently. I actually sold my PS1/Saturn/Dreamcast collections to purchase cartridge games that I want to play/add to my collections - NES/SMS/Genesis/SNES (and Gamecube, shh). John's speech about games that work was right on the money. I think CD-based games are simply waiting to die on you whereas cartridges are near invincible. Also, I am content to buy cartridge-only as each one I mentioned except the SMS has dust covers and look nice on their own, whereas the CD-based games aren't really collectible in my opinion without being complete. Oh and no load times or mini-ones (Gamecube) are amazing as you just get to play.

[@kingkold]

Teluin problem is there is alot of people collecting cartridges already. I Tried, because i thought it would be fun. Well that lasted about a week because i seen how...vile people are in the scene. Especially Nintendo collectors sad to say. Not all, but chunk of them.

[@Nintegageo]

I don't really know about the community, as I mainly do my own thing. Admittedly, I have a collection but do not consider myself a collector as I only get games that interest me. I'm not sure what sort of budget or goals you have, but the Genesis has many good exclusive games that are relatively cheap cartidge-only and the community is more anti-Nintendo as opposed to anti-each other haha. Yes, they also have a couple of expensive games (100$+), but they aren't necessary - Crusader of Centy being the only one I own because it's awesome. Sonic 1&2, Vectorman 1&2, X-Men 1 & 2 (they aren't LJN games), Alex Kidd, Aladdin and Strider (considered the versions to own), Ecco, Kid Chameleon.. each cart costs under 10$ to get you started. Then there's the Beyond Oasis, Gunstar Heroes, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Landstalker, Phantasy Star 2-4, Rocket Knight Adventure.. I mean, I won't bore you and name every game, just know that there are a number of Genesis exclusives. Sorry about the novel, just hope to inspire you not to quit on a hobby because you show passion :) cheers

[@djrun4kover]

This dudes a legend

[@retronemesis7064]

I was going for a complete PS1 Greatest Hits and the one to look for is Vagrant Story. I've only ever seen one.

[@King_K_Rool_]

You were talking about a one of a kind NES item in this video that needed repairing. May I ask what that might be?

[@AxeManAnthony]

Great podcast.

[@popartfiction9130]

An interesting conversation. I enjoyed listening to the discourse

[@FooPanda]

My first system was the NES in 1998. Now that I'm older and that I can buy older games, it's a bit crushing that I can't obtain the few NES games I've always wanted to play due to the price. I'll definitely be buying them long after the craze has passed it looks like, and hey that's alright.

[@UncleSilverGaming]

Pat and John (if either of you read this), I'd love to know your thoughts on "disc rot" and its current and future effects on disc game collecting. Do you think this (seemingly likely) disaster should discourage people from collecting?

[@donfrenchiano]

When you guys say you don't care about the value of your collections do you not have them insured?

[@hauntedspaceship4175]

Great video! I feel like I got to know the real John Hancock behind the scenes. Big fan of all you guys! “Game on man!”

[@erniesdeck7550]

Great interview Pat!!

[@jasonhowe1697]

i think the biggest issues oddities collecting is the aninme based such as golgo 13, gundam and a few others especially the 1's you have commented on John

[@GeoNeilUK]

I wonder if you'd ever consider having Steve Benway, MsMadLemon, RetroGamerVX or Kim Justice on here? Or Guru Larry, Top Hat Gaming Man or Ashens? Or the guys from Game Sack?

[@legion7765]

Yup I’m glad I picked up all the main games I wanted back in late 90s and early 2000, new and sega wise. Ps2 have been going up a bit now unfortunately.

[@ChrisSmith-yw6tn]

Hancock seems like a really nice dude.

[@KusanagiMotoko100]

It's like a hearing a conversation between Seth McFarlane and John C. Reilly.

[@7EEVEE]

yaass, was waiting for a new ep

[@charlesmetternich5902]

Im a small collector, who just does carts cause i dont have the space for CIB's. what annoys me is the pre-loaded classics. Point n click is fine n all but the experience of dropping a cart in a system n playing is way better than point n click.

[@classicreviews2346]

I think the Nerd should visit John's place and do an episode. He walks in and just starts shitting everywhere from amazement. Could be epic!

[@Boscoand]

Classic Reviews That would bomb. You watch the nerd for entertainment, not facts. Sure, he rarely reviews good games, but its mostly his character that makes the horrible game he's playing very funny to watch. You watch John for facts on the consoles and games. And even get game collecting knowledge. 2 different styles that wouldn't mix well. Unless you mean actual james rolfe and have John be a guest for James and Mike Mondays, that will work. But avgn and the immortal john hancock wouldn't work well, even from an entertainment perspective.

[@demonsty]

hey pat this was a great episode man!

[@dem6n6l6gy]

What was the pounding in the background?

[@itchyisvegeta]

32:00 - don't care what people think, this is why I think N64 sticking with cartridge was better.

[@kingkold]

itchyisvegeta that's faulty logic

[@itchyisvegeta]

No, actually an N64 cartridge's logic circuits and storage, is just as logical as the pits on CD media back then. Both based on 1s and 0s. In fact, with the circuits in there, I would say they are more logical.

[@kingkold]

itchyisvegeta to where the future of gaming needed to go at that time, no it was not logical. Beside N64 was a crap system(my opinion) The future of gaming is probably gotta be all digital, and physical will be SD Cards or some sort of hue card.

[@itchyisvegeta]

As far as the future of where gaming needed to go, I agree with that, and Sony was the perfect company to do that since they were a media based company, but I don't think Nintendo would have pulled that off then. Nintendo simply needed to make it easier to develop for the N64 (ie lack of a sound chip, oversimplified architecture, better development tools, etc). Even though a CD based console would have added more memory for games, there is also the matter of the CD Drive's cost in the mid 90s. With Sony having rights to the technology, there was a reason why the Playstation was 299 at launch, with the Saturn at 399 (besides the extra CPUs). CD Drives were spendy at the time, and with a CD drive in the N64, that 199 launch price would not have been there to complete with the Playstation's 279 price drop. (it's what sold my friends and I on the system at launch) Especially with how Nintendo prefers to have reliable hardware. CD Drives weren't known for their reliability either. Now perhaps that extra CD memory would have helped developers take better advantage of the 64 bit instructions, but there is no way to know that now.

[@pxpin89]

I saw a kid on youtube a while back that buys two of each game and keeps one sealed and sticks it in a comic style sleeve because "rare" and it never made sense to me. LITERALLY 100s of games like that dude spends 120 on each new game he buys.

[@tazmaniandamian7607]

would be nice to see them talking

[@odaddy47]

I've been waiting!!!

[@giorgiomx]

6:44 Lol!, yeah I also rented Castlevania NES back in the day, I remember being kind of freaked out

[@marshmallowdoeslife]

Two of my favourite gaming youtubers together last!

[@kiljorno]

Whoa. Heard Eppersons and realized this was referring to my town.

[@popfuntoplay]

I bet the Nintendo Classic also had a downward price on Contra as well as the other games on the system and in fact probably had a downward push on all the games a little. According to price charting about 1500 copies of Contra sell a year which means if 1 person out of 1000 decided to buy the NES classic instead of an original NES then that would could have been the entire market for Contra for that year. In other words the NES classic may have reduced the number of new retro NES collectors by 1000s of people if not 10,000s. So in the short turn prices dropped but if you get millions of new fans of the games I am sure in the long run a few of them will want the original game complete in box to treasure the artifact more then actually play the game. I bet the Atari clone systems like the Flashback had a similar effect on prices of Atari Games 10-15 years ago when they were coming out.

[@mar1242]

there is a vg museum in Berlin.

[@skins4thewin]

This "correction" is already happening. Common and semi-common games have already dropped in price by a considerable amount over the past year or two.

[@snyperlite]

I'm from the NW and never heard anyone say flea mart. John is trying to spark that term I think.

[@GoldPhoenix99]

"You will not have enough product to [survive in 20 years] as a retro game store [off of PS3]." Honestly, I wouldn't be so sure. There's going to be a lot of people who grew up on GBA/DS/3DS/PSP/Vita and N64/PS1/Sega Saturn, Dreamcast/GCN/PS2/Xbox, Wii/360/PS3, and also XBO, PS4, Wii U (very expensive retro gaming there), and Switch games. I think that there will be physical media for the 9th generation of consoles, too, so I honestly can't say that the "retro" video game market will disappear. The biggest change is what's going to be considered retro. Twenty years from now, people will absolutely want to purchase their old PS3/Xbox/Wii games they played as kids. That's a thing that's absolutely, imo, going to happen. If anything, more games were printed during this time with more users, meaning probably a larger stock. I do think that NES, SNES, and Genesis will be niche and nearly non-existent (or will be like the Atari 2600 where the rare games are gone and the rest you almost couldn't give away).

[@strumdogg1]

Universes are colliding!!! :p

[@JBird401]

The Immortal......

[@Mark_Bayer]

John is the fucking man!

[@vasantonio]

what is this banging sound jesus!

[@opusa]

If play Asia or limited run have a game I like I probably will get it. But not for collecting. Just to get a physical version of the game.

[@christopherwilliams9418]

In regards to reproduction policies, honestly I hope the market gets flooded with reproduction carts and boxes that are 100% indistinguishable from the real thing both visually and functionally. Why blow the equivalent of a mid-lower tier gaming PC on a boxed Earthbound when you can get something identical for $20-$40? Yeah, it wasn't manufactured in the mid 1990s, but what does it matter if it's a perfect 1:1 re-creation? Then maybe the profiteers and opportunists will fuck off and go ruin someone else's hobby.

[@christopherwilliams9418]

The problem is, as it stands most reproductions are of an inferior quality, at least with what I have the most experience with, namely GBA Pokemon games. I've spent $40 on an Emerald before, only to receive it and discover that it was a fake, with no RTC battery and that weird black glob stuff on the motherboard. Another problem with reproductions is that if someone HAD found out how to do this, they wouldn't be likely to flood the market like I wish they would out of fear of being caught and reprimanded somehow. Most of the highly skilled fakers I've heard of tend to sell off one absurdly valuable game at a time.

[@ElRealPetChicken]

John Hancock, how is that museum coming along?

[@megaman1899]

Hello Patrick.... I have come across a seller of nes games that states that they are prototypes... they r on Ebay... if you would like sellers name please notify me.... might be Scum bag seller ... how can u tell prototype..? It has chip set marked Nintendo however tape and paper are labels inside and the outside cover label is generic white sticker with normal font typing and no picture looks like real shady operation not 💯 percent sure but I would like your input

[@ReadingWithShep]

thats great hes a teacher

[@prophismusic]

I don't collect, but I have a collection.

[@norvillerogersnorville8]

1980 I started my Collection. Not with the first game. When I sat down and looked at my 106 Atari 2600 games and said what a collection of games. Over 200 Atari 2600 games Okay it is not a lot they are games I play from time to time. The NES is way over 600 but it just stopped backup in 2004. Like John said. Way out of me price range. So, I started looking a PS1 700+ I have more fun picking up games at FleeMarkets and Garage sales. Game Stop does not like that I will not sell them my used games. And I am always looking in the used games for Odd games. Some of the bad rated games I have fun playing. Old odd games I love. Bundles of games just more to trade for ones I want. I have every game I wanted and the 90s was my biggest NES find days. SNES and N64 Rental stores dumping the NES games. I even got my 3DO back then. So, I am still on the hunt but not finding much anymore. Cost or I have it being the problem. The hunt is still fun!

[@davistalhone9482]

What the hell's going on in the background? Someone building a house?

[@chrisr.2410]

I like how they think investing in video games is any more or less risky than investing in the stock market.

[@kingkold]

In terms of ps2, I am collecting the many horror games for the system.

[@sharporigami5216]

Who would of thought there was going to be a pandemic and prices would go up.I wonder if or when the correction will come.

[@00huntr00]

a graded and sealed video game might as well be a rock...

[@xXHashassinXx]

usually your long videos bore me, the KZbin format you use works for me. John's videos are great, but also often bore me. listening to you two interact as I played a game was worth more than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed this more than the last ten videos from either of you. Don't abuse it, don't form a team, don't exploit the formula, I'm not asking for more of the same. I am however more inclined than ever to look into this, "pod cast" thing, that I only vaguely understand and have never directly consumed. The, "podcast," to me, is still an apple product, and I do not use Apple products, though I think perhaps I'm falling behind here? as a consumer of video in audio format at any rate.

[@MemeCastGuy69]

The Imortal Iron first!!

[@pairodeez1573]

lol. John kinda looks like Ryan Reynolds in that pic.

[@UltimateNinja-fe6yh]

Shelf collector... Rolls eyes

[@RozzWilliamsScholarsSociety]

667th like! We broke the curse!

[@alomonwo]

Where is the Metal Jesus?

[@Deep_wolf]

He is Rocks.

[@JetScreamer_YT]

The fuck is that banging?!

[@FinalBaton]

Would love to find a complete Dark Wizard for $5, lol. that's a good game.

[@jasonscrimager6729]

I just collect systems and games I enjoy,everything else is irrelevent to me.

[@riggel8804]

According to my crystal ball. The new retro stores are going to fail. They will dump their stock. the price will drop. Other retro stores and collectors will dump their stock. The price will be so low and the market so flooded that a portion of these games will go to landfill. It will be a crash and the prices won't recover.

[@OfficialUknow]

see guys thts why u collect for the last gen cuz it will never be this cheap again

[@DJGodaryD86]

About collecting what mostly pisses me off is that there are these idiots who call them selves gamers collectors whatever but they don't even play those games which defeats it's purpose. Instead of making access to people who actually care for those games it just rots away inside someone's asshole. For the platinum/greatest hits editions I rather have them and be called a "weirdo" for it and play the god damn thing because games should be played. So I'll be that than an lost idiot who collects black labels or what ever and calls him self a elitist level or whatever other mentally challenged insecurity it suffers from and not playing what games it collects. For the nintendo games in general if there would be no murica there would be none of that Nintendo collecting craziness and Nintendo wouldn't even exist today. Nintendo and shitbox is only relevant in usa while others know what quality gaming is. It's funny and sad at the same time how usa, europe and Japan are totally different about game collecting. While americans trow away money mostly on garbage games and systems, europe sources and buys the best things only while Japan gets all the ultimate greatest things. Sega and Nintendo died out in europe in the 90s, it had some short decent life especially Sega but soon as PS hit the shelves it dominated everything which is self explanatory especially with PS2.

[@achroous2]

False Collecting Item. Couldn't agree more, lol