Tales From Funcoland

Decades ago I worked at a Funcoland (a used videogame store before Gamestop bought everything) In this video I try to remember as many stories from that job as possible while fixing a customer's controller. Enjoy!

[@JohnnyMatherson]

I remember Chrono Trigger being 89$ in Christmas 1995. My dad hated that, but it was about typical of a game cost then. Mario 64 was 79.99 at Kmart and my dad said 'these damn things need to come in a gold brick!"

[@BenHeckHacks]

Indeed. Boggles my mind how many whiny KZbin "game journalists" have no concept of inflation when they whine about $70 in 2021's funny money.

[@mikgus]

@@BenHeckHacks I'm also old enough to remember those prices but the problem i have with 70$ games are with the company that started all the PR about "games are to cheap". Last year(maybe it was 2019) they did a profit of 447 million dollars. They payed -51% in taxes. Yes minus, they got a tax rebate of 228 million dollars on 0 dollars payed. And then they fired 800 people since 675M wasn't enough.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@mikgus I think my problem is games used to be actual complete games and when you bought games you would get full games not portions of games with chunks cut out so they can be sold back to you as DLC. The concept of a game as a "live service" is the death of games as I have ever known them. It's a shame too because I was so glad when they made it possible to patch games but at the same time it allowed them to be extremely lazy and extremely cheap/greedy about content. I don't think it's so much about the price it's more about the attitude of game makers/publishers that believe they are entitled now tomorrow and more money. It's all about the shareholders and getting as much profit as possible.

[@goldcd]

Inflation calculator says $153 *winces* I'm sure 90% of the fanboyism, was as once you'd got the system/game you weren't getting another - you were going to defend your purchase!

[@afox4254]

Guess i was lucky growing up in the ds and 3ds era. I sort of stoped beeing interested in gaming for a while so i am not shure anymore ehat exactly i payed but i am farely shure it was never more then 50€. Was this because it was a handheld maybe?

[@otodusobliquus3836]

Guide to becoming like Ben Heck Step 1: Devour as many packing peanuts as your body can handle

[@MrHack4never]

You could EAT those things?

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@MrHack4never Only the biodegradable ones that were basically made from cornstarch. They were essentially Cheetos minus the cheese part. I'm sure they didn't taste great though.

[@waltercomunello121]

Step 2: watch a crapload of movies. Step 3: attend both band & choir to get a pretty singing voice, fun fact.

[@MrHack4never]

@@JohnDoe-wq5eu Huh, i learned something new today them tasting bland doesn't surprise me

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@MrHack4never I'm trying to remember what video here on KZbin I was watching where they talked about eating those as a snack I think it was something on cinemassacre or something like that. I've never tried it myself nor would I ever want to but I guess if I ever get hungry and they're just sitting around I might.

[@mikel6989]

I met one of my best friends at funcoland. He’s dead now. Had a lot of fun their tho. Had a lady come in and wanted to get rid of a sega master system and Atari games and my buddy said we don’t take them but pointed at me and said that I might. Lady said follow me to my house and you can have the whole box, she was just happy to get it out of the closet. Scored a 2600 with games and tons of controllers, a sega master system with 2 controllers and a small handful of game for the cost of driving about 20 mins. Best score I ever had. Still have it all in my collection too

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

Yeah I definitely barely remember Funcoland but it wasn't so much before my time as much as I just didn't go have access to one until right toward the end of their existence. I remember them being very cool a lot like the other small game stores in my town that are long since gone.

[@waltercomunello121]

dude you got awesome luck then.

[@awesomeferret]

Nice pickup, my record is probably my working 15 dollar launch model backwards compatible PS3, combined with my 5 dollar Xbox HD AV pack. If you count non gaming stuff it's probably my free 30 inch 1440p Apple Cinema Display that I got from a customer. Gotten plenty of 15 dollar Xbox and Xbox 360s and PS2s and Wiis but those don't really count I guess.

[@opticburn]

TIL that I can just listen to Ben tell stories in the background and it makes whatever I'm doing so much more enjoyable. Thanks Ben!

[@kalimaa999]

Today I learned Ben was one step away from being on My Strange Addiction - packing peanuts edition

[@Objektiv_J]

Thank you kindly for another most excellent video, Ben. More kitchen and/or thrift store shenanigans absolutely welcome.

[@InMyHead]

Man....thank you for this.....i can just sit and listen to your stories all day....i do most of the time when i am working. lol

[@GetOffMyyLawn]

I worked at Electronics Boutique in the late 80's. Half of the day I had to stand there looking at Neo-Geo and Atari Lynx systems that I could never afford. The other half of the day was spent re-shrink wrapping software that was returned (probably after being copied) so we could re-sell it as new.

[@TSAlpha2933]

Growing up in Utah, Funcoland always seemed like some magical gaming wonderland.

[@treedeblue]

It was magical for all of us what a wonderful era

[@arcadesunday4592]

What an awesome video, incorporating both a technical repair and a fun life experience. Thanks again for recording youself and uploading to KZbin!

[@dinkyflix]

Working at Funcoland through college were some of the best years of my life. It didn't pay much, but the discount was decent and it was legit FUN to work there. And you got to put dibs on anything traded in. That's how I got my top loader way back. So many stories. And then the fun ended when Barnes & Noble bought us out and became Gamestop. The corporate atmosphere just killed everything, and I left shortly after. It was only when Funcoland became Gamestop that we were pressured to sell Game Informer subs.

[@CTKahuna]

lmao when I heard about the game "stonks" I said "Where were you guys when funcoland needed you"

[@jonmayer]

I liked Bubble Bobble a lot when playing 2 player. Not as fun alone, but still a favorite on NES. Seemed like the levels were endless.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

It's still weird to me that they thought it was a good idea to change puzzle bobble to bust a move when it was localized outside of Japan. Everybody loved bubble bobble why would they not make it clear this was in the same universe I just don't get that.

[@bland9876]

@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I thought bus to move was that game where you have arrows on the ground and you have to step on them in the correct order what does the name have to do with popping colorful bubbles?

[@bland9876]

There's a game on the dsiware shop called magical whip I've only ever seen gameplay of bubble wobble but never played it and this game looks like the gameplay of that

[@bergamt]

The last time I was this early FuncoLand was still a store

[@robotstampede]

funcoland employee memories: -Nightly inventories -Foaming cleaner -Changing out games in the demo systems -no security cameras for some reason -calling equifax for any personal check over $50 -dirt cheap nes games -“ it’s a great day at funcoland” every time we answer the phone -getting assimilated by GameStop/Barnes and noble.

[@Bubblun1]

This is a quality list - to which I would add: -GXTV demo TV play -changing out the buy-price list acrylic holders every two weeks -faxing in time sheets and customer/employee request list -building system kits -stamping ONE YEAR WARRANTY on receipts for people that bought cleaners

[@TooLazyToFail]

You worked at Funcoland in the mid-90's, and I worked at GameXchange in the late 90's. GameXchange was a much lower-tech version of Funcoland. We didn't have magazines or upsells. Our receipts were all hand-written with a carbon copy underneath for the store to keep. At the end of the night we'd total up the receipts BY HAND and fill out a form to see if our drawer was correct. It was a really great job most of the time because my coworkers were great. We all knew that the work was easier when the store was well-run, so everything was always clean and organized. Our sales rocked and we barely saw the owner. He must have wondered what he did right to have a stable, profitable store he never had to touch. All the prices were set by a giant book that was refreshed every couple of months. The most expensive tier was $34.95, so when a rare game came in an employee would always buy it to flip on eBay. The owner didn't care and it made it a relatively decent-paying job. The owner ended up being a crook at the end, and I never got my last paycheck. Eventually one of the franchisees bought all the others out and GameXchange still exists as a corporate chain instead of a franchise. They were in the news for the owner being really, REALLY weird about COVID response. Ten years after GameXchange I walked into a failing board game store and decided that adding used video games might do well. I asked the owner if he'd ever thought about selling the place, and 30 days later I was the new owner. The combination of board games, video games, and electronics repair was wildly successful, and the employees loved the job for the same reason I loved working at GameXchange. I sold my store at the end of 2019 and the new owner has done really well even with the pandemic. Thanks for letting me go down Memory Lane!

[@thesilentcitadel]

Thanks Ben. Appreciate you sharing your history with us all. These are the stories that rarely get recorded , but are the stories we all share as part of our collective experience that shaped a defining period in our history.

[@DemonDood]

Funcoland and Pizza Hut with the salad bar and red cups were my childhood, I got my copy of Sonic and Knuckles there, good memories. Funcoland always had the coolest staff there

[@primus711]

There u r ein

[@darrellsmith9727]

Loved hearing your funcoland memories! I have soo many great memories there as a young teen. I'd go in every month sometimes just for the newspaper flyer of all there games to take home and highlight all thing's I wanted. I miss that place so much. ❤️

[@troymeredith521]

I was working for Babbages, which became Babbages Etc. before acquiring Funcoland. That was a great place to work back then. So much fun and gave me an opportunity to go to E3 for many years. I still have some Funcoland NES sleeves. Great times.

[@buggsyspam]

Funcoland... I have a lot of a great memories in that place. There was a little strip mall with a cigar store and a funcoland. Twice a year, my dad and I would make a trip out there where he'd buy some "fancy" cigars and we'd spend hours in Funcoland playing some games. That was the main time that I could trade in and get a bunch of new games. Otherwise, I had no used game store anywhere near me.

[@TBL_stevennelson]

I've alway noticed tall people got jobs in leadership roles

[@mikeworkman3593]

Agreed, especially in thw 80s and 90s

[@NotIT]

Great story! I worked at an Egghead Software (remember them?) back in the mid-90s during college. It was an awesome job! We had that 'evaluation' policy on software too. Of course we didn't have console games but we had access to a broad range of PC and Mac apps and games. Oh man the stories I could tell you about what went on there, but posting that on the internet may not be a smart thing to do ;). I also worked there during a few Windows lunches 95, NT4 and 98 where we'd close the store at 7 (the normal time back then) went out drinking and came back to do a midnight re-opening to sell Windows until 2-3 AM. Good times!

[@DumahBrazorf]

Can't watch the first 7 minutes, Ben repeatedly trying to stab himself...

[@VerticalVertex]

:D Now I can't stop thinking about it watching the vid.

[@Th3Pr0digalS0n]

Bubble bobble is the bomb, it's the first game I got for my NES collection. Could play it for hours.

[@marky3609]

Bro wow Funcoland now that brings me back. I used to absolutely love going to Funcoland when I was a kid. Talk about kid in a candy store lol more like kid In a video game store. Then I remember one day my Funcoland inexplicably became a GameStop.

[@pokey4200]

Girlfriend looked like she was on dr. Phil 😂... Ive heard the term trailor park hot, but thats a new one on me

[@AllanAdamson]

yes back when I was 15 .. born in 81... I had my own cubicle on the top floor of C/M computer service & I worked for a software company I had founded a software company but I had agreed to merge with this new company & we had offices & I started to focus on it full time & then we moved into a new much larger building and I had a big office & dozens of computers and this was 1997 ... great memories... my receptionist used to party with Prince.. I still know one of her sons... who people joke sometimes is Prince's kid lol

[@johnsimon8457]

Can confirm -two cousins of mine loved bubble bobble Funcoland let you try a game on a console before you could buy it in the store. Too good to last. First time playing Star Fox was at a Funcoland - got motion sick standing too close to the screen.

[@pikadroo]

Anyplace with a colorful neon sign like that. Wow. I want that sign. I love colors!

[@brianm6337]

Say- should have grabbed the Elmer's for a damn yummy dip for them packing peanuts!

[@donatj]

The FuncoLand pricesheet was the primary way I found out about new games as a kid.

[@RetroSwim]

Neo Turf Masters is LIFE!!! Especially the hidden Scotland course in the NeoGeoCD version, playing that course took a special kind of madness. :D

[@pokey4200]

I remember getting 100$ in christmas or birthday money. I went to buy doom 64, and the strategy guide, but i still needed 10$. think doom 64 was 89.99

[@VincentFischer]

A man with taste. I wanted this game too more than anything but it was banned from the public in germany and only available behind the counter, if you knew a guy, or in the porn section at blockbuster (that was the legend anyways) which was no go area for me at the time :)

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@VincentFischer That's the funniest thing between the US and Germany apparently Blockbuster actually had porn. Sure you could get R rated movies and those softcore ones but the real deal no way. But there was always at least one local video store that had the wild west swinging doors.

[@VincentFischer]

​@@JohnDoe-wq5eu We had velvet red curtains in ours :)

[@bland9876]

I just bought Doom 64 on steam a while ago and I don't remember it being $90?

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@VincentFischer Now that's classy. That would have been actually a much better solution but I think part of it is they wanted something that made noise so they knew people were going back there. And to keep you know inappropriate people from getting back to that area if you catch my drift.

[@Henchman1977]

Those little bonuses on specific sales are called SPIFFS, or at least they were at Radio Shack.

[@stonent]

They had spiffs at Incredible Universe where I worked as well, but I was in customer service and was not eligible for them.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

In 1995 my mom bought my brother and I a used NES w/2 controllers, light gun, mario/duck hunt, and the cleaning kit for $45 before tax. Funcoland in Fremont, CA I believe.

[@epic_clint]

"Does your Nintendo blink?" They all blinked.

[@SavestateComic]

17:00 Speaking of old prices - I bought a copy of Tail Concerto for $12 at GameStop. It's become one of my favorite games in my collection because it still has that price sticker on it.

[@n0refuge]

Ohhhh man Funcoland!!! Taking me back.

[@retrogamepuppy1445]

I wish funcoland was still open. It’s been 2 decades since I was in one

[@wyldelf2685]

Wow Ben ,for a few years there I thought you were RETIRED ,and that you just do these new videos "Post Element 14" , as a Lark to keep creative juices going ,, , I wish you luck on that next fulltime prototyping job , , , "YOU CAN DO IT"!! Ben 😸👍

[@md.m.8372]

LMAO 'frumpy looking girl friend that you'd probably see on dr phil or something' I don't even give a fuck what you're fixing anymore I'm here for your singing & the stories hahahaha

[@alexsnow8894]

It is nothing about what Ben does. It is all about what Ben talks!

[@cuyax]

I remember the weird progression of Babbage's to Electronics Boutique to EB to Funcoland to GameStop. They actually sell products called Funko's still... Curious. I used to work at Babbage's warehouse. It was torture unboxing NeoGeo games to ship to stores. I bought a system and one controller. Never could afford even one game. Eventually gave up and traded it in for an SNES and a Genesis 32X

[@tigheklory]

I worked at Radio Shack in 95, I made huge paycheck Christmas week in comissions, this was before there was in a huge mall without any electronics store besides Radio Shack. I couldn't sell things fast enough. There was a line spilling out into the mall quite a ways.

[@kristianTV1974]

When I worked computer retail late 80's the biggest margin we made was on repairs of Commodore machines. £25 to replace the 10p fuse on the c64 motherboard and £30 to take their Amiga out the back and drop it 2 inch off the floor to reseat the Gary chip in its socket to get rid of the green screen fault. As they were 'fixes' we could do on the spot they were easy money as parents were always desperate to keep little Sally and Billy occupied.

[@andrewut7ya511]

god damn i loved funco land. I went every week while my mom went grocery shopping, i lived by the newpaper they gave out with all the games and prices listed. I was so disapointed to grow up and learn that real newspapers were just full of news and shit, no game prices at all, fuck the newspaper.

[@theforthdoctor7872]

I still remember the old clunk clunk credit card machine at my local game shop.

[@OverUnity7734]

That was a nice little video, I'm going to give it a thumbs up, but not right now, I'm too busy .

[@Supadupanerd]

The best part of funcoland were all the demo stations

[@illustriouschin]

That place had mythical status to me. Every time me and my family went to Minnesota I forced my Dad to try to find Funcoland, found it twice. Had dreams about it. Ordered stacks of games from there when I had the money saved up and waited weeks and usually only got half the games because of lack of availability. I called them up and wrote to them to bother them about status a lot.

[@anthonytorres7282]

Funcoland was heaven to me as a kid..

[@knight0fdragon]

Was the magazine Game Informer? That was one heavily pushed by Funcoland (As well as Electronics Boutique and gamestop when the mergers all happened)

[@frogz]

Funcoland in Chicago, I remember a thing at toys r us to get credit for turning in used games for $5 off snes, I would buy games for $0.50 at funcoland, trade them in and get a nearly free snes as a kid

[@comedyflu]

Thank you for the Stories

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

My Super Nintendo came from Funcoland. Had to replace the power supply, and I bought more controllers and the multi player extension. I bought Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle at KayBee for $8 before I had the game system. 😀

[@kaukospots]

Politics has nothin to do with it, more like simple economics. Minimum wage bought more back then. The problem is it hasn't moved since then.

[@PurpleCowMan]

I worked at a Game Crazy back in '04 and we had the same check procedure and clientele. Dudebros wanted PS2 and Madden, Middle aged dudes wanted Xbox and Shooting games, and kids and Nintendo diehards wanted Gamecubes. We also had to sell Subscription cards and preorders, so this entire video was like reliving my early years too.

[@retrotony4119]

Funcoland on 3rd Avenue in the Bronx was where I would go. Right around the corner from McDonald’s.

[@GGoAwayy]

I think Funcoland started in my hometown (Eden Prairie). In 6th grade we used to bring the latest price sheets into school if we had them so we could all see. It was a whole thing.

[@LeesChannel]

I loved Funcoland! They were so much better than the monstrosity that is GameStop.

[@hwogrillo]

If I remember right, Virtua Racing on Genesis was $80 retail

[@ninjamaster3453]

Phantasy star 4 was $100

[@michiganjack1337]

Yeah it was solid Franklin along with the previously mentioned PS4

[@hwogrillo]

@@ninjamaster3453 I remember being very glad I wasn't into RPG titles at the time

[@briangoldberg4439]

We also had Funcoland around my area. It was pretty great to get discount used games before you could just buy stuff on the internet.

[@darkgodofdeath]

I had one cool interaction with Funcoland in around 94? That year they ran an ad for the Genesis for 50 bucks right before Thanksgiving. Went there with ad in hand, only to find out it was a misprint. It was that price with a select 2 trade in snes games. I lucked upon talking to the manager, and he asked what systems I had played and at the time I had none. Tells me to wait, comes back and tells me he talked to his dm and that they would honor the flyer. Got the system and Sonic 1 and played the hell out of that game.

[@Warbob11]

I still have a June 2001 Funcoland price sheet laying around on a shelf, basically what they pay and what they sell for. It has NES - 6th Gen (Dreamcast, PS2, Not released yet Xbox, Gamecube, etc.)

[@LodanSD]

Back when Funcoland was around, I was already using other Local Stores like Raven Games or Toyriffic...

[@shamrice]

Funcoland is the only reason I have a decent Saturn collection. I remember buying most of my games after the mainstream moved on but I was still looking for Saturn games in the late 90s/early 2000s as they were super cheap. I also bought a ton of my NES games there was well. I remember it was sort of a bummer back in the day they didn't stock Atari 2600 games (oldest was NES) as these were pretty common still in garage sales and stuff.

[@BenHeckHacks]

I got into Saturn around the same time! Have since sold it off since the price went up.

[@DFX2KX]

oh wow, FuncoLand.... I remember those stores. we had one not far from me when I was a kid. I remember scoping out the $5 game bin. Got a few PS1 games. (Edit: Also, minimum wage didn't have the same stigma it does because it was easier to find a job that wasn't minimum wage back then. Now not so much...)

[@VulpisFoxfire]

I remember Funcoland...I got several Sega CD games from them.

[@LiquidPortalDigital]

If you go shopping at multiple car dealers or banks for loans within a certain time frame it only counts as one hard inquiry even though they may have each pulled your credit. As long as they are for the same thing - ie I go to buy a car but the dealer(s) gave me unfavorable terms but then went to my credit union or bank to get an auto loan for more favorable terms it will only get counted as one hard inquiry. I think the time limit is something like 45 days.

[@bjwoodruff]

I work in an industry that pulls credit reports all the time. If you are checking your credit that is not being a credit based decision (ie insurance, security, ect) it would be a soft hit, should not take points off your credit report. If you do go to multiple car lots you are trying to get credit therefore you get hard hits you will lose points and increase risk. The one I dont know is for checking accounts.

[@videogameobsession]

I worked for minimum wage (at Babbage's) for many years, and didn't mind, because, A. I was surrounded by video games all day, and B. I used the hell out of the 30% off employee discount, and C. It was early days on eBay (1998). I would buy many rare, CIB, used games, for $2 or so (we often had BOGO free deals on them, and then I got my discount too!), and sell them on eBay for much more. I made sure to clear this with my DM, and he didn't give a @#?!*.. yes, that's Q*bert speak. Oh, and I would take all of the crap home, that they told us to "field destroy". This being the extra promo (pre-order incentives), back when they actually gave you some nice things, such as quality tshirts, double sided posters, watches, figures. As well as the boxes and manuals from the used SNES, GEN, NES, games that we took in. It was corporate's policy that we destroy all of them because some of the store employee's were mixing the used games up with the new games. This was the late 90's, and we were still selling a few new games for those systems, believe it or not! Again, I cleared it with my DM "do you mind if I take these home, instead of throwing them in the trash?" DM: "Sure, knock yourself out".. Well, let's just say, the Tomb Raider Dreamcast watches, were selling for $100+ on eBay, and he gave me about 55 of them to take home. The Star Wars pewter figs sold for $50 each ( I had a bucket of them)... The promotional signage (Yoshi 64, Zelda TOOT, Dreamcast, Star Wars, NiGHTS, SM64, Rogue Squadron, etc.. posters sold for $100 each. So, again, I didn't mind too much about getting min. wage. I fact, I would have shown up to work for no pay. ;)

[@akaJughead]

Damn you Ben Heck! I haven't thought about Captain Vegetable in like 35 years. As soon as you sang that song though...

[@BenHeckHacks]

"What are you... some kind of a bad dream?" "Do I look like a bad dream?"

[@MichaelJantzen42]

Bubble Bobble is awesome!

[@nutz4gunz457]

Neo Turf Masters is the best golf game. Mario golf on the game boy color is also fantastic.

[@goddan7222]

Is it really or is it just really rare and expensive dude? Lol

[@besotoxicomusic]

@@goddan7222 neo turf master really is the best golf game.

[@nutz4gunz457]

@@goddan7222 Yes, it really is the best.

[@16bitgium]

I pressed the like button when you said "God help me I'm gonna tasted it :D

[@moosemaimer]

There _was_ a Funcoland in the next town over when I was a kid, but since it was across state lines there was a sales tax, so I pretty much never went there. I traded in a couple of old games to get DKC, but since you had to be 18 to sell stuff at what was effectively a pawn shop I had to wait around for like an hour for my parents to come back and get me so they could show an ID.

[@CheaddakerT.Snodgrass]

Huh. I found your channel with a youtube suggestion that I had no interest in watching but went on to watch everything since then and some older stuff in the last 6 months I'd guess. Just found out you had a big youtube presence in the past.

[@AkaBigWurm77]

It was not likely a credit report, it was checking to see if they had any bad check or if its a known bad account. Many places in the 90's had machines that would scan the numbers on the check to check it it was a bad account. These servers were run by companies like Equifax

[@ottersdangerden]

ive had to replace soooo many of those analog sticks, drifting problems and such. Also left and right bumper tactiles seem to fail

[@pokey4200]

Ben, i once had a first party N64 remote that would make me run faster than any of my other remotes. Goldeneye, i could literally shave seconds off by swapping remotes... Since your messing with analog sticks in this video maybe you know why did that...?

[@pokey4200]

Wierd thing is it was a bonestock controller, was the original that came with the system. When i first noticed it, a friend and i were playing 2 player, and we ran for something across the map, and i literally ran right past him.

[@davidmcgill1000]

...remote? It might have been poorly calibrated.

[@AmstradExin]

"Frumpy looking girlfriend".....d'awwwww

[@feeterican]

That also kind of looks like No-Clean residue. Sometimes Koki S3X58-M650-7 leaves residue behind that looks kind of like that. But I really can't tell since I can't touch it or smell it :)

[@cheesetheoriginalmres7727]

Always like seeing my birthday in videos, too bad the year is off by about 25 years lol

[@icobb]

Game Informer magazine still exists thankfully

[@Sir......]

the Funcoland i recall was by Mishawaka / "grape road" shopping area in NW indiana

[@instahawk8422]

So true you hardly see packing peanuts around anymore 7 years ago i purchased two thinkway star wars interactive money boxes from someone on ebay they were loose in this huge box I thought the seller just sent me a box full of packing peanuts took me five minutes to to dig the money boxes out I’ve still got the box full of the packing peanuts

[@seanc.5310]

Remember the Funcoland price sheets that were like a newspaper? I still remember looking at the trade in values of games and always laughing at the $.01 value for NES Super Mario Bros

[@BenHeckHacks]

When we cleaned out the shop I found one lining the bottom of an old box! Felix and I had a laugh looking at the prices. Stadium Events, Flintstones 2, Little Samson, all like only $5

[@seanc.5310]

@@BenHeckHacks I used to go in every month just to get the updated price list. Good stuff! I was laughing about the packing peanuts because my cousin and I bought a refurbished SNES from Funco and ate some of those peanuts from the box...why? just because we could 🤷‍♂️

[@JaceLovesStrength]

ALWAYS taste things sent to you in the mail. That should be a Heck Hacks requirement.

[@BenHeckHacks]

I find myself trying to taste things in stores (metals glass plastic) and it's whoops I'm wearing a mask nevermind.

[@DoRC]

The only reason I can think that modern analog sticks are not made with hall effect sensors is planned failure.

[@thomasokane]

Yo funcoland was the shit! I just remember bins and bins of cartridges.

[@technomage7282]

loved Funcoland

[@JustinEmlay]

Legit EVERY SINGLE check I called in to sell a computer at Radio Shack was denied. I f'ing hated that job.

[@ChristopherBell]

Chexsystems (owned by Experian) just was there as a system to record people who would write bad checks. Just a lookup against that system would not affect the person's credit. Not sure about the Equifax service.

[@benjamingiguere]

I remember buying the Sega Genesis version of Super Street Fighter 2 for 99$ Canadian in early 1994. This used up my entire pay check from a half day television shoot I did as a an extra.

[@Jkoziol72577]

Yeah we definitely had funcoland across the state line from you where I grew up... We had them all over in the flatlander state. And electronic boutique.and then I spent a few years across the state line in the Racine area we had stuff like that out there too

[@DeadBen.]

Ah m, man...Funcoland was how I got my Genesis..Strider was my first game. Wish I hadn’t traded in so many games of my youth. Used to go to the store in New Hope, MN I think...which if memory serves was their first location.

[@AT-ds9xo]

Lmao Calling equifax. I worked for funcoland for two years I remember that. I miss those days

[@bland9876]

If they all like bubble wobble do you think they would like magical whip on the DSi ware store?

[@MAYERMAKES]

I had aaah real monsters on snes... It frustrated me until I finally realized you need to constantly switch monsters to progress. Then I could not stop playing it. Was a Good.