When I was younger I would see the import advertisements in the back of EGM and wish I could afford that stuff.  Today, I browse Play-Asia and wish I could afford that stuff.  Over the weekend, however, I stumbled into the deal of a lifetime.  Gather 'round children, and listen to my tale.  And let me say, this shit is bananas.

First of all, I'll admit that if some importer on a gaming website posted this story, I probably wouldn't believe him.  This story is that insane.  I won't take offense to anyone who calls bullshit because I might do the same.

Anyway, it all starts out on Saturday afternoon.  Two of my friends and I planned on going to a flea market that is known to have some decent games.  Think along the lines of Breath of Fire for SNES or StarFox 64. After meeting at my house and trying out the best Super Famicom beat 'em up I've played (I'll get the title to you as soon as possible; it was in Japanese so I can't remember it), we headed out.

We hit up one booth, where my friend bought Illusion of Gaia, ActRaiser 2, and Tetris 2 for less than ten bucks.  Other than that, there wasn't much of interest at that booth.  We were walking to the next booth when my friend peeked over the shoulder of the booth owner.  He was holding a list of import Dreamcast games - rare ones.  "Do you have these?!" my friend asked.  In broken English the elderly Asian man said that he did, and he pulled out a giant shipping box full of them.

This is when primal instinct kicked in.  We dove for those games.  There were probably fifty of them.  Name a rare Dreamcast game and it was in there, with the exception of Rez and Bangai-O.  The booth keeper was astounded by our reaction.  "Boys, boys, they're only games.  You come here and have heart attack!" he said.

It was just about closing time when all this happened.  The booth owner pleaded, "Please, I'm tired and want to go home!"  In my mind, all three of us turned to him and in unison yelled "shut up."  In reality, we convinced him to give us five minutes.

I ended up walking away with Under Defeat, Mars Matrix, and Border Down Limited Edition. Mint, mint, and mint, respectively.  One of my friends picked up Radilgy and Cosmic Smash, one of my favorite Dreamcast games (I would have murdered him over it if I didn't already have a copy).  My other friend got Triggerheart Exelica and Ikaruga.  $25 each.  Twenty-five.  Two-five.  For the uninitiated, almost all of these games can go for over $100.  Boarder Down Limited Edition can go for quite a bit more.  I'm under the impression that the owner assumed that the games were worthless, since he wasn't a gamer himself and saw Japanese writing all over them.

Of course, we had to hit up the ATM and go back the next day.  I picked up Project Justice and Zero Gunner 2.  My friends got Marvel vs Capcom 2, Guilty Gear X, Karous, Chaos Field, and Giga Wing.  One of my friends even got a limited edition smoke-black Dreamcast console to complement his "skeleton" Saturn.

If you're an importer or a fan of the Dreamcast, you've got to appreciate this story.  This kind of shit does not happen.  It was pure luck; we were in the right place at the right time.  Had we gone to one of the other game booths, we wouldn't have seen that list.  Had my friend not glanced over the guy's shoulder, we would be clueless that he had the games.  If we went earlier in the day he woudn't have had them.  And to top it all off, he didn't know what he was selling.  This is what gamers dream about, not what happens in reality.  I'm still in disbelief.

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