Hunting for retro games at Collect Fest Melbourne 2025

Australia’s first and largest ever collector convention was held this weekend in the hallowed gaming halls of PAX AUS fame, the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Most attendees seemed to be there for Pokemon cards which had a dominating presence on the floor. The celebrity Gary the “Pokemon King”, famous for having the most expensive collection of cards was also in attendance to shake hands and sign stuff.

The wheeling and dealing of the Pokemon stock market was just noise to our gamer brains, we tuned it out and went hunting for retro and table-top games that people actually want to play.

It wasn’t long before we found a number of genuinely friendly local sellers tucked away in the corner offering up those sweet retro nostaliga vibes.

We asked game sellers what they thought of the Pokemon card madness and turns out they have little desire to stock them now that organised crime has taken an interest. Sadly two months ago The Game Experts shop in Melbourne’s north was targeted by scummy Team Rocket thieves who made off with $25,000 worth of cards, much harder to do with a sack of Nintendo 64 machines.

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One of the busiest retro sellers was Icarus Tech Games & Collectibles who had hauled their wares all the way from their brick and mortar store in the outer burbs of Broadmeadow.

Customers crammed into their vertically stacked booth as we spoke with Jason on what items were hot right now. There was the typical demand for nostalgia items but also surprisingly, a lot of young kids are buying retro handhelds and getting into wireless local multiplayer.

Compared with the Nintendo Switch, the DS varieties are much more affordable for kids and the peer to peer wireless function has no dependency on company servers that are prone to shutting down. This gives the multiplayer component of these handhelds a life beyond what Nintendo planned and something the fans seem to be taking custodianship of.

Icarus Tech was also rocking a PS One and Boxed Sega Master System II both of which the SIFTER team had to grab. The compact version of the original PlayStation is a modding delight with many people replacing the lid with an LCD screen for better portability.

The SMS2 came complete with a games catalogue insert and ancient receipt from 1994 when it was sold at Tandy Electronics. Did Shen the salesperson that day know they were christening a machine that would stand so proud in 2025?

Dimitri from Hard Copy in St. Kilda also had a stall selling an eclectic mix of games alongside some rarer hardware that would test the knowledge of most enthusiasts.

On offer was a TRS-80 PC complete with cassette deck from 1977. This museum worthy artefact was one of the first mass produced, mass market computers released during a time when the concept of a home computer was very much a novel concept.

We spoke with Dimitri about why people are buying retro in 2025. The main reasons seem to be nostalgia for a piece of their childhood and a desire to hold on to something tangible.

A lot of Xbox 360 product has been selling lately and Dimitri noted that the reason is probably the 360 generation kids are entering the workforce with full time salaries.

Even EB Games has taken notice with their recent decision to start accepting retro trade-ins. I asked if this was a concern to Hard Copy’s business model but Dimitri brushed it off saying most customers are savvy enough to come to Hard Copy for better trade-in values.

We also spoke to Matthew, a potential customer enquiring about Hard Copy’s Atari 7800 and Virtual Boy. Seeing as both those systems are much older than he looked I just had to ask him what the appeal was.

Matthew owns a CRT television and has been collecting Super Famicom games for awhile now. He doesn’t find much appeal in unfinished modern games that publishers continue to demand full price or endless subscription dollars for. Older games are more often rounded works of art, crafted into the physical medium with the intention of permanence.

Some of the strangest rare retro gear was spotted at Nexus Toys & Collectibles. The owner Ivan makes regular trips to the land of the rising sun, hunting for specific items that his customers request.

Most people know of the famous Super Potato store in Akihabara which has become over shopped in recent years, but Ivan is often heading off the beaten track to lesser known places where hidden gems can still be uncovered.

Ivan had the infamous and legendary Power Glove available for anyone bad enough to wield it, not to mention some of the most obscure Nintendo paraphernalia, a Nintendo arcade machine VS System marquee package.

Uncommon knowledge to most, but Nintendo actually had a thriving arcade scene back in the 80s with VS System mainboards acting as something of a precursor to the Famicom. A fascinating piece of history for the ultimate Nintendo collector.

Retro Realm was also at Collect Fest with a huge stack of Xbox 360 and Playstation 2 games as well as some curious oddities like the Interton Electronic VC 4000, a rare German game console sold exclusively in the European and Australian market in 1978.

Guy, the owner of Retro Realm chatted with us about the insane demand pushing up the price of certain Xbox 360 games lately. Spider-man Web of Shadows on Xbox 360 has shot up to $200 in recent times, far above it’s release price.

The main reason seems to be the decision by Microsoft to de-list the game (and others) from all of their digital store fronts, now no one can legally buy a digital copy. A common sentiment we heard from retro fans at Collect Fest was “buying digital isn’t ownership”.

Another retro seller at collect fest that was just getting started in the business is 56-Bits who despite having one of the smaller ranges had an absolutely divine offering of screen modded Gameboys on display at fair prices.

56-Bits told us that retro Nintendo handhelds were some of the hottest hardware items being sold lately. The upgraded colour IPS screens, faster refresh rates, vivid colour palettes and anti glare coatings make the handhelds a dream to play.

We also had a chat with a young kid named Hudson, turning 17 this year who was grilling 56-Bits with technical questions about consoles way beyond his years.

His love for retro hardware began with his father’s hand-me-downs and a distaste for modern games that he sees as soulless cash grabs. Owning the physical copy and becoming part of the legacy of his favourite games mattered most to Hudson.

One of the biggest stalls for retro gaming at Collect Fest was the family run Gamers Closet. They got started around the covid lockdown era and now have an absolutely huge inventory of games and hardware across all platforms.

Every inch of their allocated floor space was filled with racks of consoles, disc and cartridge games. The whole family was working hard as a team to run the registers and field enquiries for hidden gems.

We spoke about the type of customers they were attracting and the nostalgia factor. Most buyers seemed to want to reclaim memories from their childhood by reacquiring their old console. Gamer’s Closet had quite a few older consoles still in their original packaging so you can literally relive the Christmas morning unboxing experience.

Finally, we searched far and wide for tabletop gaming collectibles at Collect Fest. Hoping to find a seller with some antique role-playing books or board games. Aside from the lone sighting of the original Hero Quest board game there wasn’t much to be found.

We did however come across the ladies at Whimsy Bizarre who were offering up a banquet of wares for your next table top game. Everything from resin cast dice to laser cut goodies were on display as well as some fantastic Oldhammer (Old edition Warhammer) painted Eldar miniatures for sale.

Whimsy Bizarre along with most other small craft businesses have been grappling with the recent negative changes to the Etsy platform. Fees have increased to unsustainable levels causing a mass exodus of craftspeople from the platform. They mentioned how important events like Collect Fest are for reaching their customers.

If you missed Collect Fest don't fret, all the sellers have a physical or online store where you can go check out their wares. We've linked them above.

If you happen to live in Brisbane or Sydney Collect Fest will be coming to your city soon, 26-27 July and 23-24 August respectively.