Video Game Heaven — Local services in Norfolk

Plenty of retro and modern games if that's what you're looking for but the people running the store and the employees are dishonest and will undersell you on your trade ins.

Went in 5/27/25 to trade in some collectible figures for a PS2 I was looking at, after ab 30 minutes of waiting for an appraisal the staff comes back and says my figure is worth 192 on a trade for IN STORE CREDIT (w/ 20% added for trade in Tuesday's) not knowing the true value of what I had at the time, I accepted the trade and ended up buying a PS2, memory card, warranty, and 2 PS2 games as well which ended up costing me ~300 in total; despite having a figure worth 4-500 I was given a fraction of what it was actually worth and ended up OWING them money. They then claimed that I need to remember that "they are a small business so ‍🤷🏽‍♂️"

What VGH failed to realize is that I had NO issue trading the item in to them since WITH the money I got from the trade I was going to immediately spend it back at the store meaning they would only stand to have made money on our transaction. The issue I have is VGH pulling an underhanded move like this then turning around allowing me to then spend more of my money in store (when my trade-in value was never met in the first place).

TLDR: VGH lost a potential returning customer who would have given significantly more money to this company in time than what they got by cheating me out a SINGLE collectible figure.

EDIT: I was also given a 3rd party PS2 controller when I bought my PS2 which is a laughable...

This is the best store of all of the Video Game Heavens/Cool Stuff. The selection is the best by a wide margin and the manager is very friendly and helpful.

I do have some issues with VGH as a whole with the level and quality of service, as well as the selection at other stores. I wish the rest of the stores could follow what this store does.

Be mindful of the trade-in prices. Despite their website advertising their great trade-in values and whatnot, their actual values on financially viable retro games are quite bad. I'm not a GameStop fan, but I have received an exponentially higher amount of trade credit there than I have with VGH for some of my retro games.

I understand the need for better margins with a smaller local business, however, I've experienced the same exponentially higher values with other small business game stores elsewhere in Virginia.

A $2 trade in value for a $20-$25 game at VGH, while GameStop and other places offered me $5-$8 is a prime example of what I experienced with VGH. I'm not saying don't trade with them, but do your research before trading with them so you're not getting raked over the coals on something.

All in all, the Norfolk VGH is the best option for local purchases in my opinion. You'll get a reasonably priced selection that is the best around in terms of retro products, like what I purchase.

If you're shopping with VGH, go...

My friend took me out to this store because they apparently sold some anime figurines because he knows I like them. Going here, the store was really nice, they had a lot of video games, plushies, and figurines. I saw one that I liked in the display case and asked one of the staff up front if they had another box lying around on the shelves and he checked and there were none so I said okay, I’ll take the one in the display case. Now keep in mind, I couldn’t tell by just looking at the display case to inspect if there was anything wrong with it. He took it out of the display case, took it apart, and put it in its original box. I paid and left. Here’s where I got a little bit upset. When I got home, I took it out of its box and started assembling it but noticed that the piece that would normally go into the base plate of the figurine had something in it. Right there I noticed that it was a piece of the figurines little peg from the foot area broken off and stuck into the base. I only paid about $35 so not that big of a deal but honestly, i don’t know if he broke it upon dissembling it or just sold me a slightly broken figurine without notifying me. But all I know is that I’m most likely not going to return back here. It was a nice store but I would definitely check the items you’re about to...