Videogames Then & Now — Local services in Norwood Park Township

Went here recently to check out the games for PS2 since I found mine and just wanted to see if they had any games from my childhood and of course they did, how nostalgic. The prices are pretty good, especially for games for older systems. I ended up picking up some xbox games and PS2 games, all for reasonable prices. We walked in at 8:30 pm and they close at 9 pm, totally fine. At first, the employee working was fine. It doesn’t bother me whether or not he acknowledged my partner and I or not, I can’t remember if he did. He didn’t ask if we needed help or hover over us, which may bother some but not me, I’d much rather be left alone. Everything was easily accessible and pretty much on display to be easily found. 8:59 pm comes, literally 8:59, not 9, and in a VERY rude tone he says ‘it’s 9 o clock, I need to start closing up so make your final rounds’. I completely understand closing times and wanting to go home, but not before the listed closing time. Not to mention we WERE making our way up to the counter. So it wasn’t necessarily the fact of what he said and at what time he said it, it was his tone. Extremely rude in my opinion. After we got back in the car, my partner noticed one of the games got left behind by the employee. No problem, people make mistakes but at this point I was already annoyed with said employee. Thank god my partner was allowed to get the game, which we had already paid for, as some businesses refuse to open the doors once the place has closed. I’m giving 3 stars because the selection of games and the prices of the games. I’d love to give 5 stars but because of the entire interaction, I won’t. Judging by the owners responses to other people’s low ratings, I’m not expecting a very nice response, if one at all. I’d rather not have a response judging by the other responses. I’m not looking for anything, I just wanted to voice my frustration. I may give this place one more chance because I did like their prices, but if it’s the same, I’ll just take my...

I came into the store for a nice peruse of their selection, maybe coming out with a game or two. I was expecting a decently stocked shop with the most popular retro games/consoles (like Mario, Zelda, etc), especially after people reviewed this place praising it's stock of games.

But man, was it underwhelming.

I came in, with flashing eyes of excitement (bc we all def. do that whenever coming into a store) looked around through a few shelves, and was thoroughly disappointed realizing how empty certain shelves are, how little quality games/consoles they stocked, and whatever was In stock, was mostly a bunch of trash filler titles that no one cares about.

The only thing that caught my eye was some random Nintendo merch that a Walmart would probably stock.

I didn't even care to look at the prices bc there was nothing worth looking at... Unfortunate.

So don't come if you want the classic games that everyone is interested in, bc they probably won't have it.

If you want a solid Retro games store in the Chicago area, Retro Dimensions is pretty good and The Exchange is also not bad.

As a message to the owner, please, if you can, improve your store by organizing and stocking your shelves with actually good games (like the Mario's, Zelda's, etc) and consoles (like the Nes, GameCube, etc) bc as of now, it really is devoid of anything worth a purchase. I'm saying this constructively, not aggressively. Seriously. I hope you change the store for the better, bc it needs a facelift.

Thank you and have a...

"If you want more cash for your games, maybe list on Facebook Marketplace or eBay and do the work yourself" - Rude employee, Videogames Then & Now

Gosh I should have paid attention to the negative reviews! Walking into the store you're greeted by large plastic bins stacked as high as you are tall, not sorted and seemingly all over the place. Most of the games on the shelves are titles that people don't typically hunt for (think Madden 06 and Bill Lambier's Combat Basketball). The display cases had some decent titles that seemed to be on the higher priced side.

The one guy working behind the counter was not very friendly and was very firm with the trade-in price he offered after spending time pricing out my trade. Any haggling led to him cutting down and pointing out negatives in the products I had to trade. Before coming into the store I had in my head that a trade-in offer would 60-70% of price charting. I never assumed I'd get full price for my trade-in but I was offered about 30% of the value of the bag of games I was looking to trade-in. The employee then said, "If you want more cash for your games, maybe list on Facebook Marketplace or eBay and do the work yourself" and at that point I knew there was no deal to be made.

Maybe a decent spot if you have a purchase in mind, but this store is hard to browse, had a pretty mid selection, and they are not really looking to make any sort of deal that benefits the store...