A Fateful Encounter at Trade-N-Games -

Last weekend, Aaron and I found ourselves at our absolute favorite retro video game store, Trade n Games in Fenton, MO. The owner, Jason, has one of the most amazing video game collections in the country. (Seriously, you should check out this video featuring John Riggs and Radical Reggie going on a tour of Jason’s personal collection.) In addition to being super knowledgeable on all things video games, Jason always goes the extra mile to make ensure his customers have the absolute best experience possible at Trade n Games. Just the other day, I went to the store and picked up Animal Crossing on the GameCube. Even though the disc looked flawless, Jason took it back and polished it for me to ensure the disc played perfectly. Extra acts of awesomeness are just what Jason does. He always goes the extra mile!

This takes us to our story, two weeks ago Aaron and I game-chased our way up to Jason’s store to buy some collection essentials (plastic boxes, magazine sleeves, etc.) While checking out, we saw that Jason was listing some items on his website (www.tradengames.com) and I noticed that he had a Super Mario Bros. 3 box on his counter. I knew Aaron has been after that box for a while, so I encouraged him (Aaron) to purchase it for his collection. The purchasing of the box led us to a discussion with Jason on our most wanted game boxes. My biggest box “want” at the time was a box for Kirby’s Adventure on the NES. (I had the game complete except for the box). I told this to Jason and all of a sudden he bolted up, and went to his back room. I thought "does he actually have one in the back?" Jason came back, opened up his trash bin and said “how about one from our trash?”. He then pulled out a slightly water-stained Kirby box and gave it to me for the low price of free. I couldn’t believe my luck!! (The water damage really doesn't bother me. I am just so excited to add a Kirby box to my collection!)