Retro Game Trader — Attraction in Beaverton

Review 2025: still awesome!

Review 7/2024: I am editing my last review & changing it back to 5 stars. I have talk to the manager Andrew multiple times over the last 7 months. Andrew & another manager reached out to me after my son and I had several negative experiences with Nick.

That meant a lot to me. A lot of companies will just leave a reply brushing things off or simply not caring when something goes wrong. It says a lot about this place that they figured out how to reach out and reached out to try and make everything right. Andrew was absolutely awesome to deal with, I could tell he was sincerely listening. In the 7 months since, I've enjoyed talking with him whenever I've had a question. Nolan is another employee who's absolutely awesome, definitely management material someday should they need anyone promoted. I've been coming here for a good 6 years, and they've always treated my son with respect and listen to him. In fact, that's always been something we've loved about this place. They treat kids right. I'm truly grateful Andrew reached out to make that wrong right.

I have a huge retro game collection, and my son is now building one as well. It's a great to know we can shop here and that they take any concerns seriously. I admittedly haven't dealt with Nick since the incidents that prompted me to leave a two-star review, but Andrew and Nolan has been so great to deal with that I have absolutely no issues changing this back to a five-star review. I chalk up what happened in December with Nick to everyone being stressed about the holidays.

Review 12/2023 - (original review deleted due to space):

The last few times I've been in its been very hit and miss. Nolan is AWESOME, I give him 5 stars. He should be manager. I would easily keep shopping here because of him. The manager Nick, however, is rude enough to make me want to return everything I've purchased recently and never shop here again. It's not like I'm a new collector, I have a huge collection of retro games (over $18,000 on pricecharting) dating back decades, and I've been shopping here for a long time and spent thousands upon thousands here. The store is clean and well kept, has a good selection and generally friendly employees. But, interacting with Nick is where I draw the line. Nick is condescending and rude, he doesn't like to answer questions, and if you do get anything out of him it's usually a short answer baked with half truths at best. At times he just outright avoids questions.

Recently I arrived about an hour before closing after calling earlier to put something on hold. I confirmed the business hours when I called. When my son and I arrived, there was no signs on the door stating hours where different than they had always been. We picked up the item on hold and then went to look at games and others things so my son could pick something else out. Nick came out 30-45min before closing, told us they were closing and we had to leave. I inquired why, and he said "Evals" (employee evaluations). He pretty much corralled me and my 11 year old son out the door like we were sheep being herded.

Then he asked me to leave a five-star review on Google to help them out. Well, I have left a five-star review on here 2 years earlier but now it's a two-star review. And the only reason it's a two-star review and not one star review after dealing with Nick is because Nolan has been awesome to deal with. In the absence of Nolan it would be one star due to having to deal with Nick on numerous occasions. I don't like the way he treats me or my now 11 year old son. We liked to shop here originally to keep it local. Lance has owned this business for a long while and it's nice to keep things like this local and support a local business instead of some random eBay or internet seller. However, the manager Nick has treated us so poorly the last 3 or so times we've come here we are both rethinking coming here again. We've loved this store for years, so I hope it doesn't come to that.

I will be glad to re-edit this review if this situation is able to...

Edit: Years later now and I can say while things definitely got off to a bad start, I ended up giving them another chance long ago already and things went great from then on many years now. Great place, great staff, very knowledgeable. Prices tend to run a bit high, but they have almost anything you might want and they pay high on trade-in, particularly if you take store credit but they'll pay good cash if it's something they are actively looking for. Active social media and community presence. Worth a visit, but come with the right expectations. This isn't a flea market so don't expect flea market super deals, this is a large multi-location store with a lot of employees and overhead to pay for. Check it out!

Not a fan of this place at all the few times I've gone, for a few reasons. The selection IS huge, and they have a lot of really awesome stuff, seriously if you need it they probably have it. The store is easy to spend a lot of time in just browsing.

That being said, the prices are outrageously high, like offensively so. Take the highest e-bay price you can find, and then increase it by quite a bit, more so the more expensive the game is. This place is priced higher than any other shop around here, even with volume. Trade-in prices for credit sound great, but then you should realize it's negated by the fact everything you spend it on costs too much. If you are a serious collector, this is not the place to buy, as you should know even e-bay prices are too much as is for building a collection. Staff don't seem interested in negotiating either.

Speaking of staff; myself and companions have felt some of the staff have a bit of condescending attitude, and lack some of the finer customer service skills necessary for face-to-face interaction (while displaying ones better for phone interaction, ala call centers). I can deal with those quirks, except for one; tendency of a particular staff member to speak over you, I assume in an attempt to control the conversation, rather than letting you talk. That said, the staff do try to be helpful and welcoming for the most part.

Last complaint; They sold us a counterfeit DS game, the only purchase we've made from them. Upon learning it was a counterfeit (that wouldn't even work on a 3DS), we returned it to the store with receipt in hand. They DID let us exchange it for another copy after taking a very quick look to confirm it as a fake, which was exactly what we wanted, but also told us that because it had been over 48 hours that they wouldn't have given us cash back. We weren't looking for cash back, but that really rubbed me the wrong way, because they'd sold us illegal merchandise they failed to catch when it was brought to them originally.

Honestly though? I could deal with all the other issues if the prices were reasonable and collector friendly. My group of game hunters will stick to flea markets, craigslist, and a couple of the more reasonable stores for...

I used to own and operate both a retail video game store and an online only store. So I know a thing or two about video game stores. I have had many interactions with retro game trader and lance the owner in particular. The store itself is a great museum of retro gaming and they literally have a bit of everything. Unfortunately I know that in order to carry a bit of everything you need to raise prices so that you can have that selection. Stuff like turbo grafx and sega saturn and other niche systems don't exactly walk in off the street too often so you need to buy these online or for near full retail price.

People complain about their pricing and yes I agree their prices can be a bit high especially on bread and butter games that you know come in a lot and they can get for cheap on trade in. However I tend to think of this place as a premium shopping experience where you don't treat it like a walmart but more of like a saks 5th ave for retro games. If you want a particular rare or niche game then this is the only store in the area that has a chance of having it hands down. Other stores just don't want to carry a wide variety of games and take chances on anything that isn't newer or a very limited range of games.

The employees can also be a mixed bag. Some of them could use a little more personality, but for the most part everyone is very knowledgeable and nice enough. The store also has some rules in tact that people may find annoying such as not accepting PS4 or Xbox One games and also having strict trade in limits for games. They will tell you straight up what they will pay based on how many they have in stock which typically is about 10 for most games. If they have 10 they won't offer much, but if they only have 1 or none then they will offer some really nice trade in prices for it.

You just kind of have to learn how the place works and accept it for what it is. While I can always find faults in places I love what they stand for and that they aren't afraid to be different. That's how I operated my business and how I like to see others doing.

If you live in the beaverton area or really anywhere remotely close then please come here if only to take a look at how a real retro game store should look. Places like this might not be around forever depending on how the market changes for retro gaming over the next decade or so.

Thanks for persevering Lance, it's been great dealing with you...