Went down to Osaka yesterday to do some nerdy shopping for my birthday (more on that later) and popped in to the local Super Potato in Den Den Town. Super Potato's prices have long treaded on their notoriety among foreign tourists who don't know better, but had mellowed out somewhat when I arrived last year since the borders were still closed. In case you couldn't tell the tourists are back in full force before, though, you sure can now because I was practically dry heaving at these original Game Boys and Game Boy Colors being sold for four to five times what they were going for all of six months ago (ie: their actual market prices), which comes out to over $200 at current exchange rates. It's bonkers, even before Everything happened, prices at that store weren't that gross and they're still not if you go shopping, like, virtually anywhere else.
All of which is to say, my advice on Super Potato remains as firm as ever: do the pilgrimage for fun, it's neat to admire the stock, but do not buy anything that they can trust your average foreign customer to know about, whether it's regular fare like these consoles that sold millions and millions and especially more collectible stuff that's predicated on foreigner FOMO and not knowing how to use Yahoo Auctions. Stick to Japanese-only stuff that even the locals are hardly bound to care about and even then, expect it to be a crapshoot. Just never, never make Super Potato your first port of call when shopping for anything in particular. They are absolutely not your friend. 😩
