So a Book Off just opened up here in San Diego.  I guess it's a popular used CD/book store in Japan.  So I went in after the opening and looked around for game music, and they had a crap load of stuff.  I had about a dozen things in my hands, but had to put a lot of it back.  Ten Plants 1 and 2 for $10 each, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Falcom, Breath of Fire, I was going crazy.  Ended up grabbing Genso Suikoden V and Shining the Holy Ark (from 1996!).

Anyone have one of these near them?  Is it always so awesome, and once the Japanese albums are gone, do they replenish supplies from Japan?

Oh that is awesome... I would love for one of those to open in Chicago.  All the cool Japanese stuff only shows up in Cali though. 

Yeah, I have a friend who went on his Mormon mission to Japan, and he was even surprised to see how much game music was at this location.  Import games as well, so I may pick up some cool DS stuff that didn't come out here.  I wish I had more money to spend!

You were over there, so I know you know the store. 

There is one in NYC that I go to every 6mo's or whenever I'm in the city for something, whichever comes first.  Occassionally you can find some rare gems, but not very often.  It's a very popular used book/cd/dvd store in the city, so the chances of someone not picking up something rare in the VGM/Anime section is slim if you don't go there often.  It's mostly stocked with a bunch of TokiMemo-type old Konami drama albums. I've picked up some nice stuff there, Wizardy 2 Orchestra most recently (though I have the box set, I'll probably resell it at some point).  Kurt has gotten some steals there if i can recall, as well, but I don't remember what they were.

It's good to know that they get inventory from Japan.  I wonder how it's determined what gets shipped here!  You'd figure that they'd end up buying a bunch of used US stuff and selling that, but maybe they sell that in the Japanese stores?  ;D

I'm not sure how they do it, but I don't think they have a complete understanding of the  value of some of the items they send over, or they might just have a gigantic surplus.  My friend scored that 8CD Tenchi Muyo box set for 10$ and it averages over 300$ on eBay.  Most cds are in the 7~15$ range, highest ones are 30$ (Those are for very popular and well known stuff, like an old Nausicaa 2CD OST+Symphony or FF Tactics Advance Radio Drama cds).  I picked up s-CRY-ed OST's 1 & 2 from there last time I went for 20$ total and that's a pretty good deal.

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Almost everything I had in my hands was $23 or $27.  I paid $27 each for Shining the Holy Ark and GS5.  Most of the other stuff was $23.  Ys III Super Arrange may have been $20... but yeah, other than Ten Plants, everything else was expensive.  I suppose I should look in the anime section, as there is likely cool stuff there too.  Pretty amazing.

Anyway, McCall, you're welcome to visit any time. 

If there's a heaven, it looks like Book Off. Walls and walls of books, CDs and DVDs! I mostly go for the CDs, as the DVDs can be a tad overpriced and I'm not too interested in manga.

It's been a while since I've been to the NYC store so I'm not sure if they still offer it, but Book Off has a great membership program. You pay $1 for a member's card, and you get it stamped once for each $5 you spend. Once you get 10 stamps (i.e., spend $50), you get a $2.50 discount. Once you fill up the card they just give you a brand new one, so you essentially pay one buck for lifetime membership. I don't want to say how many cards I've gone through over the last few years ^_^;

Like jb said, the NYC store doesn't really have too much VGM anymore. The selection used to be much bigger, but they expanded their DVD section a few years back and CDs suffered as a result. Speaking of expansion, I think I mentioned this before, but I thought it was hilarious when they switched to taller bookcases, considering the average height of their customers (myself included!).

Recent releases generally get a huge markup. I've seen CDs that should be sold for ~$20 jacked up to $30. If it's unsold after a few months they'll usually mark it down considerably.

What's really perplexing is that sometimes I'll find two copies of the same CD, yet they're priced differently.

I live and die by that card.  And I think it's 5$ off every 50$ you spend, no?

Tell you what, next time I go you meet me there, I'll take the high shelves, you take the low shelves.  Sitting on my knees or kneeling or sitting on that TINY stepstool they have kills my legs (being 6'5" and all).

It IS just like the Japanese version of the store, then! 

That IS nice. Not only does it sound like a place where I could stuff up, but unload, as well!

The NYC store has only 1.5 bookshelves' worth of anime/VGM.  Their DVD and other CDs have grown considerably.  Unless there are VGMs being severely misshelved, there is not much VGM left here. You're better off visiting the stores in California for VGM.

I'll second Stephen's comment, although I don't live in NYC. I've been to Book Off twice; once in 2005 and once in 2006. Both times it was like I was swimming in a sea of Tokimeki Memorial drama CDs and Hanjuku Hero VS 3D OSTs. Not good.

I just looked on the back of my card and it says $2.50. I've had my latest card for a while now, however, so maybe they updated it? If so, I better get me a new card!

You tall bastard   Amusingly, I once saw one of the normally friendly salespeople scold a customer for sitting on the stools since "most of our customers need them to reach the top shelves."

Keep an eye out for the special sales they have. Once they had $5 off any CD that was $15 or more. You better believe I made use of that promotion!

Went back today.  Nothing new, but I saw a lot of stuff I forgot about:

Dragon Quest IV on Electone $20
Final Fantasy Tactics White
Shining Force III
Tons of Zuntata stuff (live, Rayforce, Raycrisis, Raystorm)

Lots of stuff I don't remember now... I was looking at the dates on a lot of the stuff, and there is a bunch of early 90s stuff there.

I did see Dino Crisis, and I want to get it because I love Akari Kaida.  Has anyone heard that album and would they recommend it?  It's $15.

Wow, been some months since I really visited the forums and had time to actually read threads. My main points: main site looks good, forums look pretty good, although I do wish that lefthand menu of "Recent Posts" and "Newest Topics" could be eliminated, or at least let each user choose whether or not to have it there. Also, I don't see any quick links to each forum on inside pages -- would be great to have those back. Nice to see the community's still active, though. ^_~

Anyway...yeah, we have a Book-Off here, although it's part of another Japanese store, so it's not as big as the ones I've seen on the mainland. Still got a decent inventory of CDs, though, and I've found a few older things that caught my eye. Virtual-On soundtrack, anyone? ^_~

I hate you all.

Why can't Calgary have an awesome store like this one? x a billion

Went back yet again.  Nothing new in terms of inventory.  I talked to one of the cashiers who wasn't too helpful.  I asked him if they received inventory from Japan after opening, and he said it wasn't the point of the store.  So I had to spell it out that, "If everyone buys all the Japanese stuff and returns only American stuff, will the store have all American items?"  And he said, "That's the goal."

That's lame.  Anyway, was eyeballing Sugiyama's Divertimento from 1991.  I think I'll get that next time if it's still there.

When I asked about the membership card, he said they weren't doing it anymore.  This is a new store, so either he doesn't know what he's talking about, or he was referring to the company in general.  Anyone know?

He probably didn't know what he was talking about.

Hopefully regarding both issues? 

Come to think of it, the end of the game stuff had shifted right quite a bit.  But then I didn't notice if the beginning was shifted as well.  I noticed a lot of Ys stuff has sold, as they had tons of Ys III stuff that is now gone.  Should have picked it up while I had the chance.

My love for Book Off knows no ends. Today at the NYC branch they had a glorious Memorial Day sale, with $2 off any CD or DVD made in Japan. Combine that with their already great $3 rack for massive savings. Plus, if you spent over $10 you automatically got 10% off your order.

Sadly, their game music section is now down to about 7 Final Fantasy CDs and 6 Tokimeki albums

I always theorized that they sent the American stuff to Japan and the Japanese stuff to America or other locations. Although, I have noticed that they rarely get new Japanese CDs in now. A few years ago they used to have new stuff every week, but maybe it's no longer cost effective to ship goods overseas.

They definitely still have the card at the NYC store (I got two stamps today, yay!). It probably just varies from location to location. Maybe you should keep pestering them about it to show that there's interest.