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As many of you might know, I put my heart and soul into indie games for multiple years here and on YouTube. They are my foundation as a content creator and serious gamer. They are why I started this blog, mostly due to the budgetary ease of finding games to dissect and write about, like the game scientist that I am. I even helped write a book about it a couple of years ago.

But now? It makes me wish I had known what I know now. Not because indie games are bad, but because retro games are just so much better for the gaming lifestyle I’ve truly been aiming for this whole time. And yes, the two genres can be combined, which is super fun, but these days I’m all about the 15+ year old games as my gaming ticket to ride. Whether I’m playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES or an old Xbox 360 game, this is where my passion is.

So, in this post, I’d like to share some of my retro gaming journey, what it is doing for me, and what it can do for you.

Why I Switched to Retro Games

I really do owe indie games the credit for my retro game renaissance, to be totally honest. I know, I kind of already said that, but let me explain. About two years ago, I started getting more into travel documentaries on YouTube. It kind of took the weird taste of constantly playing video games out of my mouth. It made me want to do something else. So, in 2024, I set out to go on a trip somewhere but try and stay within my wheelhouse of games—something to tie it all together.

I ended up finding out about an annual convention in Milwaukee called Midwest Gaming Classic. I decided to buy tickets, checked it out for two straight days, and made a YouTube video about it. This ended up being the gateway to retro games for me.

I’ve always been mildly interested in retro games to be fair. Whether playing an old Nintendo at my mom’s house, or *gasp* playing old games on ZSNES as a teenager. I’d even been to at least one retro gaming arcade in Portland. But I’d never sincerely invested any actual money into the hobby before. It was more of a thing I appreciated from a distance.

But just seeing all those arcades, all those games for sale, all the passion and fervor for the retro game culture at Midwest Gaming Classic really stirred something in me—something that indie games kind of did at one point but which had been for the most part been lost in recent times. I sealed the deal with my first purchase of a Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge for SNES at the convention. That’s it, I was a collector now. Well, sort of.

Shortly after that, I started getting a lot of new attention on social media for my random retro game content, as I posted things on Threads and occasionally tried out new retro indie games on my YouTube channel. This is where things really started to change. I even started a series of NES game shorts on my CRT TV that have been doing better than all the rest of my content.

Over the next year, I did several retro gaming activities like visit arcades and learn more about the topic. I really wanted to get into it.

How I Started Hoarding… I Mean “Collecting” Games

So, first of all, I want to be totally transparent about something. I’ve never exactly been a straightforward collector when it comes to retro games. Part of this has to do with my relationship to doing eBay for the past couple of years. Anything that does come into my possession generally moves back out of my possession in the course of a few months or more, sometimes longer. So, in that sense, I wouldn’t call myself a “collector” per se. But I do collect.

So, I did see sales here and there selling games and would grab one or two. I had maybe eight or nine NES games at one point that I’d simply come across or bought here or there. And then, last year, I went to a profoundly influential garage sale in a town near me where a guy was selling all sorts of retro games for bargain prices.

I got all the games you see above me for around $60 or so. This was unbelievable to me. I was definitely hooked. In retrospect, I definitely paid WAY too much for these games. I actually probably should have paid maybe $40 at most, maybe not even that much. Japanese imports are virtually worthless, for one thing. It was educational, though. I took a hodgepodge of games and learned what was collectible and what was not.

After that, I started going out to more garage sales and buying more games. I got quite good at spotting what was valuable and what was just random video games. It does get easier the more you practice. It’s expensive at first buying random games, but if you know just a little bit, you can get very far.

This is how I got into flipping.

How I Go Into Flipping Video Games

Now, I don’t really want to encourage anybody to try and make a quick buck doing this. It’s something I’ve been doing for the past year or so for some extra income, but nothing I’ve been able to sustain myself on. It’s incredibly competitive, and the profit margins are very thin. DO NOT RECOMMEND. Plus, it seems a good part of it is just based on luck. But this is why retro games have become so instrumental in my gaming direction over the past couple of years.

There are a few places you can get video games to flip (flipping being when you buy something low and sell it for a profit). My favorite is garage sales, but I’ve also found stuff at thrift stores, Marketplace, and even eBay itself. Those increase in initial costs sequentially.

Selling games is still experimental to me, and I don’t know if I will really continue with it in the long run, but I have gotten quite far on some extra games lying around and so far have sold a few hundred games.

If you’re curious what my next step is, I have started an eBay storefront where I’m now recommending other sellers for a commission as of this month. I don’t know what’s going to come of that, but retro games have got me thinking like a Tycoon series CEO.

What’s Next? And “Dude, do you even play the games?”

Yes, I have been playing the games. Every time I sell a game, I test it first and usually end up playing a bit. Though not quite a retro game yet, I did end up playing quite a bit of RDR2 after a test one day and am like 20 hours in, so yes, I play. Plus, my Super Mario Bros. skills are unparalleled.

The next thing I want to do is continue to update this blog. I have already booked a ticket for Midwest Gaming Classic 2026, and I want to make more on-location retro videos. Maybe even do some more writing.

I don’t claim to know everything about retro games, but I do find them interesting, and it’s the direction I’m headed, so I’m experimenting with them—making content, selling them, just trying to get a feel for them. And it’s fun. Really fun.

So anyway, that’s where I’ll wrap it up now. Because I do want to keep you updated on my journey more as time goes on. I hope you found that interesting or helpful in some way if you yourself are considering getting into retro games. I feel like I’m just at the beginning of it, but I’ve come so far already since the beginning. If you want to check out some other posts on my blog, feel free to to do so. And thank you for reading!