I wouldn’t say a recent development on US Saturn games getting expensive, unless recent means within‘5-10 years’. I’ve been buying Saturn games from all over the world on eBay for (oh god) 18 years now and prices went up around 8-10 years ago, around the same time as SNES and N64 went out of control too. All have actually settled somewhat in more recent years.
Shipping from Asia and many European countries to Canada is usually relatively cheap, moreso than buying from the US nowadays. American sellers on ebay usually use the Global Shipping Program which is basically a scam by ebay.
Yeah my experience too. GSP culled my US purchases a lot because it’s ridiculously priced and also crap service for the price.
I’m a big PC Engine and Saturn fan and I can honestly say without going in to a big long post as to why that a Japanese Saturn is the way to go…
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The shipping isn’t terrible, provided they are okay with bundling items, and aren’t looking to tack on arbitrary “handling” charges for each additional item.
The issue is that it often isn’t worth it (in many’s eyes) to just order a single game, when shipping to Canada is $9-12 (in $U.S.) then the exchange rate (right now it hovers around $.75 for every $1.00) and then the potential for Duty depending on how it was shipped/luck.
A $40 (U.S.) quickly creeps up to $70 in real-life scenarios to many. While this may still be competitively priced in relation to the domestic Saturn market, there are additional unknowns, and returns add an additional layer of headaches to the mix.
All this being said, I’m in the biggest city in Canada, and the selection for both domestic and import Saturn stuff is terrible. (It may better on the West Coast, though.) Importing is the only option once your collection outgrows the usual suspects. It just is what it is!
It’s worth noting that we are the 4th largest city in North America and we have a massive Asian population as well.
It’s also worth noting that prices for retro games are inflated to hell here 
I don’t even bother hitting up any stores anymore.
5th. Guatemala City took the 4th spot. There is no Central America continent so people forget. I don’t know what Toronto is like but 4 million seems a lot smaller than it should be for LA. I guess most people consider the surrounding cities part of LA. The greater LA area is 18.7 million people and believe me, it feels like it. Just about half of the state lives within the Greater LA Area.
That’s Central America though. What am I missing here?
Central America is North America. 
“Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent”
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I recall reading somewhere that there are more Canadians living in LA than in Manitoba, ha.
California has a larger population than the entirety of Canada though.
And yet I keep making more friends from Canada than people here in California. I might need to get an honorary friend of Canada hat. Quite Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d move all you guys here and all Californians up there. This place needs more polite folks. But I imagine the weather might be a tad too hot for your enjoyment in the Summer and you will miss good syrup.
Unlike the rest of my post, this is somewhat related to the topic. Random: The SNES, Famicom And Mega Drive Are Reborn In These Custom Painted Gundam Figures | Nintendo Life
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Eh, our summers are plenty hot and way too humid. It’s like Asia up here in August. I’m very jealous that you’re currently enjoying beautiful weather and I’m shoveling and freezing.
Half of my family lives in Cali but I havnt seen them in years and they always came up here. I’ve never been to Cali but I think I’ve listened to enough Dr Dre to know what it’s about.
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You say this in jest but growing up in the 90s where I did, it was a lot like what you heard. At least in my peer group.
I heard that Crenshaw Blvd was packed and full of cars
Yes it was. Also I met just about every West Coast rapper from that era too save Tupac. Usually at clubs but sometimes randomly. I also sat next to Chuck D from Public enemy and ate fish. We got to talking about how hip hop has changed and how the violence around it has seemed to be not as bad. But yeah dude, I think I have been on the receiving end of at least 12 drive by shootings back then. Thankfully, automatic rifles are shit for aiming and most of the time recoil causes people to shoot above the crowds. It kind of sucked growing up then but at the same time I don’t know if I would choose another time either. The crazyshit i have seen and done would never have gone down if everyone had a pocket video camera.
Love that KOF99 level, for me the greatest ever level in a 2D fighters… amazing, shame the game (I have the MVS version) has that daft scoring system…
Ha, this thread is perfect for me. I’ve currently fixing up a Coregrafx+PC engine CD-rom2 interface unit I snagged off ebutts, and when I’m not doing that I’m playing saturn. Both great shmup systems.
I am all about the PC-Engine, It is just the most sweetest and smallest thing ever, and the games are so nice to look at, HuCards are great, manuals are splendid…
For me its PC-Engine…
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