[BuraddoRun]

thats amazing nice

pretty sure I know who gave it to you as well:P

can you do me a favour I was always wondering if a magnet would work on them?:p

I tested it, and nope, it didn't work. I believe it's aluminum, which isn't magnetic. Actually, I just looked it up and found an interesting article about what exactly printing plates are:

https://www.cryptozoic.com/platecard

[LimitedRunDouglas]

Thank you, everyone, that came by from here!

[Mail187man]

Thank you as well. This event exceeded my expectations by a long shot and was well worth the 12.5 hour drive from MA. Would I do it again? You betcha.

[Best1989]

Thank you as well. This event exceeded my expectations by a long shot and was well worth the 12.5 hour drive from MA. Would I do it again? You betcha.

Did you get some good stuff?

[Mail187man]

Yes I did. I got Bloodstained variant, 32x night trap, and bird king. I also picked up a bunch of disc only/damaged titles of games I already have that I'm leaving sealed or missed so I can play them on the cheap without opening mine (great prices on disc only games, I assume the cases were un-salvagable for those ones). I got a doctor dekkar with very minor case damage for only $10 and I booted myself for not getting it before. Was also one of the first 100 in line and got the cool swag bag. I also decided to go back and I dropped about $20 on the card machine and got a bunch of gold cards out of it. It was a great time, but I spent too much money. If I was going to drive the distance, I was going to make it count.

[Best1989]

Nice loot, glad to read that you got the most out of it!

[Tekkaman]

Okay, gang, tuck in for a tale. It's time for my Limited Run Pop-Up Shop-Up Post-Mortem!

DAY ONE - PART ONE
Together with my friend (and forum lurker) VexingEnmity, we made what ended up being an 8-hour drive to NC on Friday night. Due to unexpected delays on the highway, we checked into our hotel at 3:00am on Saturday. I knew that the shop would be opening at 10:00am and that the mall would open its doors at 7:00am, so I planned to try to be there as close to the mall open as possible. After a three-hour nap, we arrived at the mall around 7:30am. We found the shop fairly quickly and saw that there were about 50-60 people already waiting in line. I was surprised to see that many people there so early, the earliest of the bunch had camped out since midnight. Since I knew the swag bags would be available to the first 100 people, I wasn't too miffed at being so far back in line. Peering through the security cage, I could see the veritable treasure trove of games. Many items seemed to be in short supply, so those early birds probably scored some precious loot.

By the time 10:00am rolled around, there were probably close to 300 people lined up outside. The line snaked down one whole wing of the mall and back up the other side. Just before they opened, a member of staff walked the line and informed everyone how this was going to go down. They would let the first 25 people in immediately and would gradually add more people as shoppers left (typical fire code stuff). Tickets were given out to the first 100 people in line that would grant them their swag bag upon checkout. The PAX-exclusive Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon variant and the event-exclusive 32X Night Trap variant would be limited to two each per customer. Certain items in the shop that were deemed "rare" or "high-demand" were marked with a blue circle sticker. Each customer was only allowed two blue sticker items total and they couldn't both be the same thing. Personally, I thought this was a brilliant system that would ensure that the people at the end of the line wouldn't walk into an empty store. LRG wasn't taking steps to prevent someone from making additional purchases to exceed their limitations, but said person would have to get back in line in order to do that, so everyone who showed up within the first couple of hours would still be getting a fair shake before the scalpers could double-dip. Plus, there were no baskets or shopping carts, so you could only buy what you could carry (shopping bags were provided only after checkout), so you couldn't clear them out of CEs even if you wanted to. Pretty ingenious.

Surprisingly, the line moved pretty swiftly and I was able to enter the shop at around 10:45am. I immediately made a beeline for the Employee Garage Sale section to see if I could fill in a couple gaps in the early parts of my PS4 collection. I can't be certain if high-value games such as SMRPG, New & Tasty and the Shantae games were there, but considering just about every other game from the first 50 releases were still there when I got inside, I think it is probably likely. I excitedly grabbed Futuridium off the shelf and discovered it was a blue sticker item. I found Yesterday Origins immediately after, but no blue sticker there. Phew! I scanned the rest of the section, but nothing jumped out at me. I moved over to the Damaged Items section and almost instantly spied a loose Night Trap cassette soundtrack. It didn't look damaged, and it wasn't a blue-sticker item, so I grabbed it. I couldn't afford the PS4 CE, but did eventually get the Switch one. The cassette was the one piece of swag that I wanted from that original CE, so this was a big score for me. As I continued looking, I started to realize that most of the damage on these items was minimal; torn or missing cellophane, small dimples or dented corners. That said, there were a few items that looked like someone had sat on them, so the damage did indeed range in severity, but items were priced in relation to the damage, so you could get a steal of a deal if you didn't care about the outer CE box or if you had a replacement game or CD case at home. I scooped up a Switch Teslagrad CE with a modest tear in the cellophane for $35 as well as a PS4 Shenmue III CE that had a minor, but noticeable, tear in one corner of the slipcase for $75. The latter turned out to have a blue sticker, so I decided to put it back on the shelf in case there was a better (and cheaper) rare item to be found. I uncovered a moderately damaged Thimbleweed Park PC CE for just $10. As I already had the PS4 CE, I didn't really care about the box damage, so the price was a steal in my eyes. Then, finally, I arrived at the few remaining copies of GALF. I was able to find a white version (the rarer one) that was fine aside from the cellophane being completely gone. It was a blue sticker item and was marked at $16, so I decided this was a better use of my two-rare item limit. Sorry, Shenmue III.

From here, I moved on to the Loose CE Items area and grabbed a pair of the SMRPG action figures for $15 total. The ones that came in my CE were damaged, so this was an awesome get. I also picked up the Slime-san plushie for $15. I always thought the plushie was cute, but the game just isn't my cup of tea, so there was no way I was buying that CE just for the plushie. As such, this was a win. Then, I spied a Battle Garegga Saturn-style longbox for $10. Since I am a sucker for the longboxes, and this was the only one I didn't spring for as I don't like shmups, it was a no-brainer purchase. I then moved on to the PS4 Games section where I was able to grab a few games that I had to pass on due to my recent financial situation. I was overjoyed to find so many; there was probably at least one case worth of copies of their last 30-ish releases with a smattering of their older titles as well. The Vita section even had some leftover blind boxes, too. By this point, my arms were pretty full, so I perused the Collector's Editions section before stumbling upon a new, sealed copy of RetroBit's reissue of Holy Diver on NES. At $70, this would put me pretty close to my budget, but since I was getting near the end of my tour, I decided to hold onto it. Lastly, under the Christmas tree (decorated with loose CE items and other game-themed ornaments), I spied a container filled with classic LRG stickers for $0.50 each. With so much in my hands, I couldn't sort through the lot, but a few silver stickers were visible near the top, so I grabbed one. It was finally time to check out. But, wait! What is this pyramid formation of strange boxes in the center of the room? I learned they were Mystery Boxes that were filled with random goodies such as stickers, postcards, trading cards, steelbook cases, soundtracks and other random items. The boxes were $30, so I decided to get one that felt noticeably heavier than most. Okay, seriously, time to check out.

EvilGizmo was in charge of the "cashier" team. She seemed pretty overwhelmed, so I just gave her a friendly wave when she happened to look my way. I had made an ID card with my forum avatar and username on it, so she gave me a knowing smile when she realized who I was. I checked out and was given four booster card packs, a Pop-Up Shop-Up trading card and my swag bag. The swag bag had a Windjammers Frisbee, a Senko no Ronde 2 hardcover artbook, a gold border Pop-Up Shop-Up trading card, a booser pack of cards and a Switch case with a version of the PAX variant Bloodstained cover sheet included. Later, I also realized there was a packet of Limited Run branded tissues. I don't understand why they made these, but I love them. Anyway, unbeknownst to me, my wife had sneakily picked up the damaged Shenmue III CE along with a damaged Switch Yooka-Laylee CE and a copy of Slime-san on PS4 for herself. I am told I am not allowed to touch the Shenmue III CE until Christmas. With an act of generosity like that, how can I argue?

At this point, able to carry my purchases a bit more comfortably, I dug out my original Limited Run postcard that I received with my first purchase all those years ago and was able to get Josh, Doug, Sarah and a few other veteran staffers to sign it. Everyone was shocked to see the postcard, especially Josh. I thanked them all for their efforts, both in game preservation and in running a wicked store. Everyone was just so nice and genuinely seemed to be enjoying themselves. I also brought my PS4 copy of River City Girls and got Wayforward's Adam Tierney to sign it for me. He complimented the Scott Pilgrim shirt I was wearing, so we geeked out over beat-em-ups for a couple minutes. By this time, it was about 12:30pm and I was starving and exhausted. However, before I left, I had two rolls of quarters in my back pocket ready to tear into that Trading Card Vending Machine. After exhausting my quarter supply, we left to get lunch and go back to our hotel for a much-needed nap. I will close this post here as it is late and this is already far too long. I will continue the tale, hopefully, tomorrow evening. To anyone who read all of this, much love. Good night, all!

[mr. Hyde]

great story glad you had a good time there thats more important then my oppinion about it which is still the same but I am happy to see people like you at least had a great time

[Best1989]

Yeah, sounds like it was fun! And you went with your wife and your friend, so it was a nice field trip.

If you ever want to sell your silver card for the event, let me know. I just really like the design! Lol

Waiting for the second part of the history.

[BuraddoRun]

Tekkaman, that sounds truly AWESOME! I'm glad you had such a great time, got to meet the LRG crew, and found a lot of what you were hoping to get. But I gotta say...

[Fries]

I had made an ID card with my forum avatar and username on it, so she gave me a knowing smile when she realized who I was.

Ah nice, very clever. Smart way to go about meeting people from the LRG online social circle.

Yeah, where are the pick-up pics at very least! Give us the goods!

[dunno001]

Does anyone know if there were copies of Bloodstained for Vita there? That's the one thing on my wish list I've been waiting for, and don't want to pay a scalper for... (Of course, since it's been about 9 months now, I should prolly give up on seeing anything from that list...)

[Tekkaman]

Sorry for the delay on getting back to Story Time. I was incredibly sleep depraved after that trip and then Thanksgiving happened, so this is the first free time I have where I'm not unconscious. So, on with the adventure:

DAY ONE - PART TWO
There was an Outback near the mall, so we headed there for lunch. VexingEnmity really wanted to eat at more local fare, so we asked our waiter for some suggestions. He kindly provided us with a good few options which we would consider for dinner and breakfast the next morning. While waiting for our food, I was checking the Square receipts and noticed that I was overcharged for a couple of items. VexingEnmity noticed that he was as well. We decided we would head back to the mall before closing to see if we could get these discrepancies sorted. First, it was back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. While everyone was napping, I foolishly decided to go through the cards I had obtained in the vending machine. It ended up being quite a boon! A staffer at LRG had donated his complete set of gold foil cards to the vending machine, so I obtained an impressive amount of gold cards as well as some of the first-print pink back cards from the early days. I already had one of the Furi cards from back then, but now I have the DariusBurst CS cards, too! I had purchased a trading card binder (forgot to mention that) that had a Yesterday Origins card in it, so I put the cards I got from the vending machine in there. I had almost enough cards to fill it completely! By the time I tucked myself into bed, there was only about 30 minutes before everyone would wake up, so I decided to just catch up on my Twitter feed. It was then that I saw that Josh had hidden a copy of Breach & Clear, a copy of Risky's Revenge and a employee-only foil variant of SMRPG for Switch. I didn't care about the first two, but the last one sounded neat as heck, so I was bummed I missed out on the hunt. Anyway, it was time to wake everyone up and head back to the mall!

We decided to bring our purchases back with us in case we needed to show proof of the price discrepancies. Upon arrival at around 5:00pm, we saw that the store was practically empty. MightyBen greeted us immediately with a big, beaming smile. As soon as we finished explaining our issues, he instantly had the difference in cash in our hands. I was amazed at the speed of this response, but he said they had quite a few people already come back with similar issues (a byproduct of the frantic pace of that morning), so they were ready for us. At this point, we decided to take a scan of the store to see how much stock had been cleared out. A sizable chunk of the damaged goods and the employee copies were gone, a moderate amount of CEs were missing, while everything else seemed to be fairly the same as that morning. I can only assume there was some backstock, because there was far too much business going on that morning for everything else to look untouched. I happened to spy a gold LRG sticker under the Christmas tree. I must have shouted with excitement because one of the staffers smiled and said I could just take it. I thanked them profusely.

At this point, I noticed that Screaming Villains' Tyler Hogle was looking pretty lonesome over in the autograph area. As an original backer of the failed Kickstarter for the revival of Night Trap (and a general fan of Digital Pictures), I had to pick his brain on where he fit into the timeline of events. We had an amazingly engaging conversation where he regaled me about those early days and the tangled web of the rights to the catalog of Digital Pictures' games. At the end, he signed a Switch Night Trap cover sheet for me (he had posters for Corpse Killer and Double Switch, too). By now, it was closing time, so we walked the rest of the mall for a bit before deciding on dinner.

One of the places our waiter had recommended was a place called Gamers. It was a place where you could "rent" a table and play any of their large collection of board games for as long as you wanted. They also had dedicated D&D rooms, too. Their food menu seemed decent enough, so we grabbed a table and a board game called Evolution. The food was decent, essentially mature versions of classic kid foods (PB&J, grilled cheese, pizza, etc.), and the game was pretty fun. We got back to the hotel by 11:30pm and decided we would get up by 7am to pack up, check out, grab breakfast and swing back by the mall before we headed back home.

DAY TWO
The breakfast place was also a recommendation by our Outback waiter, a place called State Farmer's Market Restaurant that was attached to a fairly large farmer's market. It was an epic combination of breakfast staples and good ol' Southern cuisine. After gorging ourselves on biscuits with red-eye gravy, grits, and flapjacks, it was time to head back to the mall one last time.

We arrived at about 12:30pm. The shop had a decent number of patrons inside, but a pale shadow of what we saw the day before. I was hoping to get some pictures with Josh, Doug and Sarah, but I didn't see any of them around. Eventually, I heard that Sarah wasn't coming in (probably dead tired after being the mother hen of the cashier team the day before). Around this time, Josh arrived with his daughter CC in tow and we learned that Doug had gone to get lunch. After waiting for Josh to get settled in, I asked him for a photo which he quickly obliged. Once Doug returned, I pulled him aside for a photo as well (alas, my camera glitched and the photo didn't save...FML). We decided to take another survey of the store and we noticed that some items were having their prices lowered. The most notable was all of the damaged vinyls were marked down to just $5, so I skimmed through and picked up a barely damaged Thimbleweed Park soundtrack. I debated getting a VA-11 HALL-A soundtrack as well, but that vinyl was much more damaged, so I decided against it.

I was wearing a blue LRG shirt that I had picked up the day prior (another item I forgot to mention) and shoppers were talking to me quite a bit. At a certain point, I had three different people talking to me and asking me questions about different games. I eventually realized that they probably thought I was an employee, so I waved a staffer over and had him switch places with me. It was getting near time to leave, so I decided to grab one more Mystery Box (this time, a lighter one) and headed to the checkout. As they were both behind the counter, I said my goodbyes to Josh and Ben and thanked them for an amazing weekend. I left the store to discover that VexingEnmity's wife had decided to check out the Dillard's on the other side of the mall since they are having a Going Out of Business Sale. We walked over to the store and started looking for her. As we did, I decided to check my Twitter feed. I saw that Josh had nominated CC to hide a Switch copy of Thimbleweed Park. I had actually seen it under the Christmas tree, but didn't think anything of it. Surprisingly, right at the moment I was looking, Josh posted another tweet to say that CC had also hid a second copy of the foil variant of SMRPG. I showed the tweet to VexingEnmity and immediately started briskly walking back to the shop. Upon entering, I started searching everywhere that was waist high or lower. I was unable to find anything and VexingEnmity was coming up short as well. On a lark, I decided to more closely examine the bottom shelves where the Switch games were being stored. I saw that there was a case of SMRPGs, so I started flipping through the games inside. Three copies back, in all its glistening glory, there it was! My heart racing, I scooped it up and headed to the cashier stand. The guy who rung me up mentioned that he had worked on every port of the game. We chatted a bit about that as I finished paying. During our chat, Josh and CC came up behind the counter. I held the game up and told Josh that I had to thank CC. He smiled and told her, "Look, CC! He found it!" She smiled up at me and started clapping and said, "YAY!" Ben happened to overhear and looked my way. With a grin he said, "Nice! I am glad that you're the one who found it." I thanked everyone again and said my for-real goodbyes.

I was so excited! Not only had I managed to find both of the games that I was hoping for, and the white GALF cartridge, but this amazing collector's item that I didn't even know existed! I spent WAY too much money, but it was an incredible weekend that left me regretting nothing. On the ride back home, I saw some of Josh's and Doug's tweets where they mentioned they were already planning to make this an annual event. I can only assume they must have done extremely well. I already can't wait to go back. I am so sorry for everyone that was unable to go, but LRG really put on a fantastic event. All of the remaining new inventory will be available in the Backstock Sale here on the site and the damaged items will go back into the warehouse until next year's Pop-Up Shop-Up. Hopefully, we'll have a bit more notice and some of you will be able to justify the trip based on my review. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read this. I will try to get some pictures posted soon. I just need to find a place to host them online first.

THE END

[Tekkaman]

Does anyone know if there were copies of Bloodstained for Vita there? That's the one thing on my wish list I've been waiting for, and don't want to pay a scalper for... (Of course, since it's been about 9 months now, I should prolly give up on seeing anything from that list...)

Don't give up hope yet! I can confirm that there were NO copies of Bloodstained for Vita. I took pictures (uploads pending) of every section of the store, so I can say with confidence they weren't there. As far as I am aware, the only undamaged stock that was there were items that had already been redeemed by the wish lists. I was on the wait list for GALF (which I missed) and the PS4 CE of Dragon's Lair Trilogy (which I had already bought on eBay), so I can at least confirm that the wish list people were able to scoop up their copies of those two games before the event. Once I get my pictures up, I hope you will all be able to confirm that there was nothing on sale there that wasn't already offered to their respective wish lists beforehand.

[BuraddoRun]

Wow Tekkaman! That's AWESOME! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It was an entertaining read and I'm glad a forumer found one of those employee-only SMRPGs. It's also good to hear that LRG did indeed honor the wishlists before putting items in the shop. I can't wait to see the pics. And now I may have to start planning a tip for next year's event.

[Tekkaman]

HERE ARE THE PICS TO PROVE THAT ALL I HAVE SAID IS TRUE.

I tried to post them in a way that gives you a sense of the layout of the store. Finally, at the end, you will see a pic of my haul. I hope you all enjoy!

And now I may have to start planning a tip for next year's event.

It would be beyond awesome to meet you in person, BuraddoRun! You totally need to come if/when they host another one!

[BuraddoRun]

They had a nice little store set up there! Imagine if that was a permanent storefront in the mall? I remember back in the days when malls were frequent weekend destinations, and stopping by EB, and later GameStop, were mandatory with each and every trip. That's back when there was a mystique about retail game stores, when you would discover new things while browsing the shelves. An LRG store would certainly bring that feeling back! I like how they hung up pictures of artwork from their games on the wall. Another touch that makes it feel like a real store. All they're missing are strategy guides. Douglas, are you still around? LRG should start publishing limited edition strategy guides that COMPLETELY cover games, including patches and DLC, with artwork, dev interviews, etc! I'd buy them as a companion piece for almost any LRG game I buy, I think. But, I digress...

[Mail187man]

I'm in one of your photos of the people waiting in line to get in.

[thegrifter]

They had a nice little store set up there! Imagine if that was a permanent storefront in the mall? I remember back in the days when malls were frequent weekend destinations, and stopping by EB, and later GameStop, were mandatory with each and every trip. That's back when there was a mystique about retail game stores, when you would discover new things while browsing the shelves. An LRG store would certainly bring that feeling back! I like how they hung up pictures of artwork from their games on the wall. Another touch that makes it feel like a real store. All they're missing are strategy guides. Douglas, are you still around? LRG should start publishing limited edition strategy guides that COMPLETELY cover games, including patches and DLC, with artwork, dev interviews, etc! I'd buy them as a companion piece for almost any LRG game I buy, I think. But, I digress...

Now this is something I can get down with!! Would be a good amount of work for them haha, but may be worth it!