Joe's Classic Video Games — Attraction in Rock Hill

Great video game store for finding classics, but the owner is a real piece of work. I called in to price a video game to see where his ballpark was, FF12 for the PS2. Over the phone, he said 7 dollars. I go into the store and bring in 34 video games belonging to Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, & Xbox 360, that including the FF12. He would give me 40 dollars total, I tried to haggle for 50 but he would not budge. Even for 45. Understandable, that's part of his business. So I asked him to break down the value of the games, and he explicitly stated that he would pay 7 for final fantasy, and a dollar or two a piece for the other 33. That adds up to 40. I knew the value of some of my games were worth more, so I started to pick out 10 that I wanted to keep because 30 would be a fair deal for the other shoddy games and final fantasy. I started to remove Mario Golf, Toadstool Tour for the gamecube, SSX Tricky for the PS2, Metroid prime for the gamecube, as well as some other titles that I knew were worth more than just a single dollar. Once I had removed those, he claimed he did not want to buy any of them at that point, because I was "removing all the good games" despite him wanting to pay a dollar for it. I told him that he would need to budge on the price then, and he said he still did not want any of them if I was not going to sell him the entire lot. I asked him if he would buy FF12 for the seven dollars like he claimed over the phone since it was the only game worth anything more than a dollar, and he said he wouldn't even buy that. He then taunted me and said "good luck getting anything for those then" as I was collecting my games back.

As a business owner, it is totally understandable that he is allowed to buy and sell at his entire discretion. But that was a clear sign that Joe was a real piece of work, and that he was trying to get me to undervalue my games so that he could flip them. That's part of the game, no pun intended. But the fact that he refused to buy the one game that he had valued for more than a dollar at that point, really made a statement about his ethic. I don't have to sell my games there, and I didn't. Because I got 40 dollars for the same games I was pulling out from the lot at another vendor. Joe is trying to make a living like everyone else, which is understandable, but his customer relations is god awful. I now know that he not only under prices games severely, but he enjoys scalping people and guilt tripping them when they are attempting to sell games to him.

If I hadn't gotten 40 dollars for the few games I pulled out of the lot, I would not be writing this review. I would have simply not have gone back. Joe thought it was a good idea to be snobbish to a customer. Joe didn't really think it through, and that explains why he is in debt. As an avid gamer, like said, I will not go back there and I am more than aware that even G2K Games would pay more than what Joe wanted to give me. Luckily, I did not go to G2K games either but found another vendor that was more than happy to give me a good value for the games I had. He would have even bought Final Fantasy 12 for a dollar if I had not priced it on the phone earlier, and if he did not identify me as that person when I made a physical appearance...

I visited this shop from out of town today and the store owner did something that I never expected. He REFUSED to sell me items from his store. Why you ask? Because I asked him to check a price on a game.

The conversation went like this, "excuse me sir, would you mind checking the price on this item?" He then took the stack of items that I was planning on purchasing from the store and refused to sell them to me. Asked him why and he told me that I should ask for discounts on items.

The items that I was planning on purchasing were all 3 to 4 times the cost listed on pricing websites. I'm okay paying more when I visit a local shop. I simply asked and the store owner practically through me out of the store. Refused to sell.

Not a complainer by any means and I'm deeply offended by the way the store owner treated a new customer.

The store owner will probably leave a snarky reply to this at some point and, eh, I’m okay with that. The great thing about American capitalism and business ownership is that we can all run businesses however we choose fit. This review isn’t a one star review because I was disrespected and want to get the last word. It’s not because I have an axe to grind or because I am a “Karen.”

This is a one star review because I was excited about visiting this store. Excited to purchase something new for my game collection. Excited to support local business. And I was DENIED the ability to purchase items from a store because the owner did not like me. Did not like being asked to check on a price.

Look and read the other poor reviews here and the owners responses.

Edited after owner response - for everyone that is taking the time to read these reviews, notice the owner’s consistent need to respond to every bad review and try to justify his actions and blame the customer. Anyone that would like to fact check please know that his claim in the response is a complete lie. Each item that I wanted to purchase was 4x the cost it should be. And I didn’t complain one time. I asked to check one price because the marking was unclear. I checked everything again and also found these same items at other stores for reasonable prices. This owner is unkind, gouges prices, and lies to support his...

My first retro gaming stop while visiting Charlotte was actually just over the South Carolina state line at Joe's Classic Video Games in Rock Hill. Joe's CVG is perhaps the most unique retro shop I've ever been in. Why is that do you ask? Because Joe's doesn't just sell retro console games. Joe's also sells old coin operated arcade games!

Joe's CVG is located on Caldwell St. in the old town area of Rock Hill. Parking is limited on the street however there's a big log behind the stores and it's just a short walk around the building to get around front. The shop is deep and you'll pass some old arcade and pinball machines when you enter, from there you'll see a large variety of different console games. There's even a shelf of PC games and I spotted some old Commodore stuff too. After that, the back half of the store is nothing but coin-op arcade cabinets.

I want to say that they really had a little bit of everything. I found a variety of games for portable gaming (PSP, Gameboy, 3DS, etc.) as well as really old consoles such the various Atari consoles (2600, 7800), Intellivision, Nintendo NES and Super NES, N64, Sega Genesis and Dreamcast's and so on. More modern consoles were also represented. I saw plenty of PS2 and Xbox software and hardware as well. Prices were a mixed bag. There were some really great prices and some other items that I felt were overpriced. You definitely need to do some digging to find your deals here, and there are some. I didn't purchase anything on this trip but my friend who brought me here did pick up a few items.

Last but not least I want to mention the arcade cabinets. Everything I saw was in fair to great shape. There were definitely some scuffs and bumps on some of the machines. Stickers peeling form the artwork and such, however the screen's looked great on the old CRT's and there was no image bleed or blurring.

Next time I'm in the area I'll make a point to spend more time here and see what kinds of bargains I can find. I'm sure...