Grumpy Bob's Emporium

"Lots of cool games available. That's the best part. Everything else is a fairly subpar experience. You can't trust the prices on the products. You literally have to check every price online, because the prices change so frequently. Listen, "Bob", I know you paid less than what you're charging on the sticker price. The price increases are nothing but you trying to squeeze every last penny out of your customers that you can. It robs the customer of the joy of finding deals and making impulse purchases, because I have to think before I checkout, "is this actually what I'm going to be charged, or will it go up?" I get that you're upfront about it, but it doesn't excuse the behavior. Just accept that sometimes you'll sell a game for below market price. At least then you're still making a profit, and the customer has the excitement of finding a deal, bringing them back to your store again and again. Speaking of deals, you won't find any here. They're consistently 20+% over PriceCharting. It's just not worth it. The selection makes it seem like a cool place, but every other aspect of shopping here just sucks. Can't recommend. Edit for owner response: The only thing I can find that you may object to is increasing the prices on games. Everything else is either factual or subjective. Since there's to many for you to respond to, I'll go over them. The prices are indeed generally about 20+% over price on PriceCharting. Not much to deny here. Other customer reviews mention this as well and it's easy to see. You have to constantly compare the sticker price to the online store price because they change. It's one of the first things you're told when you walk in the door. Another factual statement. Everything else besides my point about profits is subjective. Maybe other people live to have the site up on their phone checking prices for every single item they're looking at. Who am I to say? So the only real contentious point must be the profits thing, and I don't know what you could argue with it. The fact is: you buy games at a price, you then put the sticker on the game at a price that you will make an acceptable profit on, then you increase the price as the market value on it goes up. This only serves to increase your profit at your customers' expense. Please explain how it is anything but that?"

"There's a lot of love here, just a few sticking points that, if corrected, would make this a destination location. When you walk in, you're greeted with a layout that's very similar to an actual Japanese retro game shop. An old house turned into a wall to wall store filled with games, movies, collectibles and some artifacts of interest. The demo kiosks are awesome. The layout is both efficient and accessible. The game organization maximizes their space and I appreciate sticking the billion copies of sports games and other common titles to the periphery to browse without skimming past three shelves of Madden 2004. I don't think there wasn't a system that wasn't represented. The slimmest collection was some of the obscure retro systems and a few modern ones like the PS Vita, but they certainly have something for everyone. The staff was busy helping customers, doing admin work, and generally agreeable. One individual even doubled checked to make sure I know the 3 for 1 deal was goings-on. Thanks for that! There's two significant negatives, however, that hold back from this being a five star location, one that I'd recommended to out of state folks to visit. First, is the disingenuous pricing. Yes, they post EVERYWHERE that prices are subject to change. No, that doesn't make it okay. A customer shouldn't have to have their phone out checking the shop's website for pricing. That's without the commentary on generally higher than average pricing on most titles. I believe a store like this is sustained due to being the only major retro store in the general East St. Louis region, and likely owns their location, greatly reducing overhead. Otherwise, I wouldn't understand how they stay in business using either practice. Why is this a problem? It creates confusion and frustration for a customer. If they accept a used item in trade and offered 50% market value (percentage is made up), then as long as they sell at current market value, they'll make their margin and profit. By constantly raising prices as the market it does, it's just excessive profit seeking, attempting to make double or triple margin on the same product. Additionally, it means games on the shelf will likely have different prices on them. Same titles, all different pricing. That's not great. More so when they don't honor sticker pricing. Another negative is they do not price their products based on condition. A game missing it's artwork, case, and/or manual will be priced exactly the same a complete product. Most retro stores do not do this. Lesser products should be a less price. Lastly, the owner is extremely litigious in the comments. They're not open to critical feedback and doesn't seem to want to grow. Their business model works today in a captive audience, but in time, the collectors market who buys bigger and more will know to stay away. Why listen to me? I've lived around the world and been to game stores in several countries, let alone a majority of states in the USA. This location has a great layout and inventory but fails on the product pricing policy standpoint. I've shopped at other remote stores with amazing inventory and most owners are friggin rad and will work with you or honor pricing on the product (unless it's an egregious mistake). This is the first store I've ever seen not do that in decades of collecting. I hope the pricing policy changes so I can recommend this to my collecting friends, but for now, it's best to skip this store. Lastly, this is not an indictment of the store's employees who don't set policy or pricing. They were all nice and helpful. Good job, folks! Edit: As you can see the owner is calling me a liar below and wants the review removed simply because I said they likely own their location (it has extensive modifications from previously being a residence, as well). It was an education guess based on location and age. Otherwise, they ignored my actual problems with their response, meaning they will not update their policies. Suggested to take your business elsewhere. Another star removed."

"My husband and I are both fans of retro gaming. It was fun looking at the wall to wall video games and consoles. I’ve seen reviews complaining about pricing being high, but have to understand market value. There wasn’t much prices marked on items which I’m sure isn’t the best choice for certain customers. You are directed to a site to check pricing though."

"Review Date: March 5th, 2016 Grumpy Bob’s, they are just so friendly there! Wait.. what? My friends and I were heading over to Dizzy Dugout in Collinsville, IL and we happened to drive by this place and we all kind of turned our heads at the same time to look at it as we drove by. We all just knew we had to visit it on the way back. So we did. I wasn’t expecting much. Just a typical thrift/antique store, but when we walked in, I knew I found home. Rows and rows and racks and walls of video games. Running from the front of the store to the back wall in another room… and then some. They have a HUGE video game section. The walls of games, the locked cases, the wall of accessories. It’s almost a museum in it’s own right due to the sheer size of it. As mentioned in the opening, the staff is fantastic. We came in during a bit of a hectic rush as their video game seller had to leave due to having a bit of a cold, so the owners were scrambling to help everyone. We waiting awhile to check out and they apologized profusely for the long wait and even offered us a free soda/energy drink for waiting so long. But it gets even better. They happened to put the wrong game in my case and I didn’t notice until later that night after they closed. So I shot them a message on Facebook and they invited me to come in on a Sunday, a day they are closed, to swap it out or get a refund. We decided to take them up on the offer and popped back in the next day (as we were leaving the area that afternoon). I explained the mix up and they offered me a store credit refund. So I picked up something else that was a bit more and offered to pay the difference. They refused to take the difference and even offered me a free pick from their candy selection. Such a friendly place. Highly recommended!! I just wish my phone hadn’t died before reaching here or else I would have taken a few photos of their impressive video game wall."

"My dad sent me the address to this place and I had a great time here! They have a massive selection of games for various consoles and systems, including ones I didn't even expect to see!! (Atari 2600, SNES, etc.) They even had a Super Famicon for sale! I bought a good handful of DS games for my library, Atari 2600 and NES games for my dad and some plushies and stickers for me and my best friend. Will definitely come back here again!!"