See that hole in my PS2 collection? The gap between .hack//Outbreak and s.l.a.i.? This coming week I have finaly decided that the time has come to fill that hole.
The Exchange, a used/new electronics store in the Pennsylvania and Ohio regions, recently introduced a rewards card. It is literally worthless right now, except you get a 20% off discount on one single purchase at any point during your birthday month.
On Thursday I spent a good 30 minutes checking the PS2 section, finding games on my want list and justifying a bulk purchase, planning ahead of time and whathaveyou. At one point a salesman came by, their staff always walks by all "You still doin okay?" and "You need anything?" but I guess I was there so long the assistant manager or whoever tried to get me to spend money or something. Instead of walking by she hung around trying to give recommendations and suggestions. (This was after stating that she isn't really a PS2 person and me stating that I was, very much, a PS2 person) She went to look up a game they didn't have, and when she came back I got to thinking.
.hack//Quarantine is one of the rarest and most sought after games on the console and the cornerstone of my want list. I always thought about going for it when I finished off my list, when my shelf was all full save for 1 empty spot. But then I remembered:
It's my birthday.
With the discount it'll be about $105, but here's the deal. The Exchange is the kind of place where you can trade in games and DVDs and music for store credit. I don't really do that anymore BUT they also have recently been pushing their newest addition to the inventory: toys and collectibles. You know what I have at home? Like five boxes of comics and figures and all kinds of random crap, not counting the stuff I through in a bag that is sitting in my office as we speak. After work I will go and trade in what I can and see what I can get out of it. It's mostly stuff I got for free, found, or got for cheap thrifty prices. I do not want to get rid of anything I have paid real money for, or could get more money elsewhere. The Exchange isn't GameStop bad, but it's still not the best place to sell games. If I had something worth eBaying, I would eBay it. But I take cheap crap I don't have time to list to The Exchange and usually just spend the credit right away on smaller, more common games I want.
My birthday is on June 5th, I hope to have this amazingly rare and expensive game in my hands by then!
