DKOldies.com Home Office & Distribution Center — Local services in Caernarvon Township

Update: This situation was so bad that I made a video on YT under Android Digest

It's sad because I am someone who wanted to give DK Oldies a chance. They can be a tremendous value. I've bought consoles from ebay or used xbox 360s and if your console is 20 years old, you will have a massive amount of dust inside even if you have a clean home. Thermal paste is almost guaranteed to be dried up on an old console.

It costs $50 at minimum to pay a place to clean your console, it may even cost $80. But instead you can pay DK Oldies a more and get a clean and refurbished console that has been tested. That's the dream! So those "high prices" aren't too bad when you consider that.

Yes, some prices may be too much. But again, If they are in very short supply of the game, let's say they only have one copy left. And they are selling out like hotcakes at a really good price, obviously they should raise the price. In my personal experience, I have found that some games are a great value, and comparable to other retailers, or even eBay. And some items, are not, so you just have to do your research.

So long story short, my problem is not their pricing, my problem is not their business model. And I don't have a problem with their customer service NORMALLY (outside of a holiday rush).

I have two problems.

1: It's pretty clear that they are still not refurbishing their consoles. Despite changing their website to say that they will clean out every console on the inside, and they will even replace thermal paste, there's no way they are doing that. I bought an Xbox 360 and it showed up with dust inside the disc tray. Like a lot of dust. I already pulled some out before I took pictures, but there were even crumbs on the bottom of the console, which gives me an indication. They did a pretty bad job cleaning it. I get why. I paid $50 for an Xbox 360. Obviously it would take them 20 or 30 minutes to get it apart and clean it good. Is it really even worth them selling it at that point? If I was dkoldies, I would probably list some consoles as "tested and cleaned with compressed air" But I wouldn't list every single console as refurbished. But hey, if they are going to list them as refurbished, and if they are going to tell us that they clean every console good, and every every console will get thermal paste, I love that. In fact, that will earn my loyalty so much. But they have to back it up by actually doing it. And they didn't for me. And when they weren't doing it months and months ago, and when YouTubers, including people like Austin Evans, reputable people, when they made videos about it, they were either ignored, or they were called "haters" in comments. Instead of taking accountability, they made videos to try to paint themselves in a better light. All they had to do was admit what was going on. But sadly they still aren't refurbishing consoles. Either that, or they're just doing them so fast, that they aren't properly cleaning them all the way.

2: The one other issue I had, was just how they did things. I remember seeing a lot of videos from DK oldies where they would see their mistake, and they would tell us how they correct all their mistakes. They did that to make themselves look good obviously. And to give customers reassurance that if something happens, they will take care of them. They would normally throw 20% off their order, throw in an extra game, do something like that. But in my order, I didn't get 20% off. I didn't get told that they would do something extra for me. All I was told is that they would just do what they promised. So at the end of the day, yeah, they may eventually get me a refurbished console. But I'm going to have to go back and forth to the post office and do everything for the same amount of money. And I'm going to get nothing extra in a return. So yeah, I had a bad experience. But it wasn't made up by some good experience. Doing what you promised me isn't going to help a ton. But going above and beyond, They say they do that in their videos, and they show themselves giving discounts?...

I buy from the website (since I can't visit in person) all of the time when I have the money for it. Slowly, I've been purchasing the remaining physical copies of Pokemon games I couldn't get before to build up my collection, as I've gotten hold of some copies over the years. I aim on buying the remaining three left I need to make the collection whole, those being Pokemon Red, Blue, and Crystal. And then I'll have physical copies of the main games all together! But yes, this business is definitely my favorite for games. I haven't bought too many consoles yet, but I plan to buy the ones I want later on down the line. The couple or few I did manage to get worked just fine. This was a GameCube console and one of the DS models, both of which worked perfectly fine and still do. The GameCube was especially surprising, since I bought one in Acceptable condition and I didn't really notice any imperfections when I initially opened the box to check it!

So far, the only game I ever bought from them that couldn't start correctly was Pokemon Gold, which was a recent purchase. It took a lot of turning off and on with the GameBoy Color handheld I had, but I finally managed to get it to start correctly and start a save file. But then again, it is a retro game with one of those watch batteries inside, plus it is still old, so it's to be expected I think. I've always adored the Pokemon games and wish to have a complete collection of the current series of main games in the whole brand. I also have this copy of Pokemon Yellow that I sent in for repairs and they managed to fix it up perfectly, even cleaning up the cartridge's outside due to a bit of grime I couldn't remove before. To clarify, I tried to pry the battery inside out and broke one of the tongs that keep it in place from moving around inside the cartridge, so when I finally got the chance to send it in for repairs, it was very affordable and they sent it back as if it was brand new.

I've even sent in items in exchange for online credit and chatting with the people in both the repair and exchange sections was of no issue to me. They were all very polite and understanding in the email chats. I honestly don't know why this shop is so degraded on social media by people on tiktok or whatever, it baffles me. It's true, some retro items seem crazy with prices, but it's to be expected depending on the rarity and age of the item. Plus, not all retro games or consoles are going to be spotless every time. And they always have options for "Acceptable" looking consoles and "Cosmetically Flawed Cartridges", plus the imperfections are usually very minor and don't affect the game itself, so I don't mind. And if you don't agree with a price, then there's always other options online.

Overall (sorry for the long review), this is my main go-to for online retro game shopping and I would highly recommend it to others wanting similar purchases. Hopefully one day, I'll get an order filmed finally, haha. But seriously, these are lovely people and I can't wait till I can order...

First off, no, DK Oldies is NOT a scam. Believe it or not, people just voluntarily pay 2 to 3 times more to DK Oldies than they have to. This is a phenomena that I haven't been able to fully understand. When you DK Oldies why they price there stuff so egregiously, they tell you that it's because they give you a good warranty on everything. Well, my three local retro video game stores price their stuff at right around market value, and they give you a 90 day warranty on it, which is really all you need. Anything else is just a marketing gimmick, and that's what this company is all about, marketing gimmicks. It's part of how they get people in to pay 2 to 3 times more for everything that they sell.

When you visit DK Oldies' website, you can see a lot of nonsensical and egregious business practices. For example, you know that they take in consoles with original accessories like controllers, but then when you try to buy a console from them, you're being asked to pay extra for original hardware, and that's where the nickel and diming comes in. I've been to a couple of dozen different retro game stores, and I've never seen them do anything like this. Another thing that they do is claim that they refurbish all of their consoles, but then they have an option on their website for "acceptable" or "good condition." If they are refurbishing every console, wouldn't all of the consoles be in good condition? We're not talking about the difference between good and immaculate. We're talking about acceptable vs good. If you're refurbishing anything, it should, at the very least, be in good condition... "Good" as defined by reputable companies like eBay, Mercari, and other sites selling the same stuff as DK Oldies. "Good" isn't subjective. Any company that sells refurbished items will refer to them as "good" on any other platform.

If you give any kind of constructive criticism to DK Oldies on social media, they will block you, as they did me, for simply answering a question politely that they posted on Twitter/X. I find this to be very unprofessional. Companies like this don't want constructive criticism. They don't care what you have to say. They're not looking to change for the better, but they sure do posture like they do.

My free advice to you is if you want to buy retro consoles or anything else that DK Oldies sells, I recommend that you buy it anywhere else. Save yourself time and money and get yourself a good...