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(http://www.yelp.com/biz/hiawatha-video-syracuse)

“Ah, the overpowering smell of cheap perfume being wafted about by fan to fight the stench of the sewage treatment plant next door hits my gag reflex every time I walk into this place. This is where you come to find that Atari game you loved so much as a kid, or your guitar that was stolen from you 8 years ago. If you are lucky, you will hear the guard dogs barking at you in the back room while you look through their impressive collection of CD’s that were discarded from fellow Syracusans of years past.”

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(http://blandco.blogspot.com/2007/03/dreamcast-road-trip.html)

Yeah so yesterday I decided to take the 2 hour round trip down to Syracuse to scope out some Dreamcast stuff. It was interesting.

First off I went to Hiawatha video near the Carousel Mall. I wasn’t expecting much since I tried to call ahead to see what they had about 20 times the day before I went. I was dissapointed. Not because of a lack of video games though.

First off from the outside the place looked like a crack house. When you go inside you realise that it might actually BE a crack house. I half expected there to be a sign that said “please do not go into the back room because we are selling drugs and illegal handguns there” or maybe “windows are for pussies” (There were no windows in the place)

Dusty rooms filled hapzardly with shelves of movies and video games. Which would be totally awesome but they are all OUTRAGEOUSLY PRICED. And while there was ALOT of stuff almost none of it was rare or in any kind of good condition.

And the dreamcast stuff was lacking and high priced.
A $1.99 (amazon Price) 3rd party controller in box for 14.99???? A shitty looking dreamcast for $100.00?

So I did buy one dreamcast game (The others were all common games being sold for like $20) Industry Spy. It looked cool and I had never seen it before. Please do not ask what I paid for it. Too much. Thats all I am saying.

I tried to use my skills to talk down the price but the (manager?) old biker looking dude would have none of it. Normally I can easily talk down the price for ANYTHING but that was one grizzled old leather clad shitheel who did not want to haggle. He obvousely wanted to get back to buying stolen electronics from crackheads and didn’t have the time for the likes of me. (He also managed to limit his side of the conversion to like five words)

All in all I got the feeling that the store was probably just a front. The extraordinary high priced and the multiple computers running in a side room led me to believe that that this store is nothing but a front to sell stolen stuff online (or other shit in the back room). Plus the other “customers” looked like a lineup off the sexual offender registry.

Needless to say I will not be going back there. If you are ever in Syracuse, save yourself some trouble and do not go there. (Unless you want to unload some hot Merch)

…snip…