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When you buy a fukubukuro (lucky bag) from a store in Japan, you can usually be sure that the value of their contents will surpass the amount you paid for the bag; it’s a guarantee, or else no one would ever buy them! But when you decide to buy a fukubukuro from a secondhand store, you certainly can’t feel 100% sure that you will get your money’s worth.

Are your secondhand items going to be in good condition? Are you going to be getting some good value? Or are you getting the games that even the secondhand store just wants to get rid of? Let Tokyo’s most famous used video game store Super Potato help you decide after the break.

A couple of mornings ago, RocketNews24’s very own retro-game fanatic took a trip to Akihabara to check out Super Potato’s New Year fukubukuro. Sticking with the old school, he decided to purchase a Famicom (NES) bag for 2,000 yen (about US$16.60) and a Game Boy bag for 1,480 yen (about $12.30).

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As you can see, the Famicom bag promises 5,000 yen ($41.50) worth of retro gaming goodness, but there are no such indicators on the Game Boy bag. But fear not: Super Potato wouldn’t let their customers down!

Inside each bag were 10 games. They weren’t all standouts by any means, but they did include a few true classics.

In the Famicom Bag:

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Super Xevious: GAMP no Nazo
Takahashi Meijin no Bug-tte Honey (Available only in Japan)
Dragon Quest 2
Nuts & Milk
Great Detective Sanma
Jinsei Gekijo 3
Flipull (AKA Plotting outside of Japan)
Rampart
Ice Climber
Legend of the Galactic Heroes

And in the Game Boy Bag:

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Pokémon Yellow
Mini 4WD GB
Jankenman
Legendary Gambler Tetsuya
Quarth
Kawaii Hamster (Cute Hamster)
Shogi King
Trade & Battle: Card Hero
Mahjong
SD Warring States Legend: Group of the Seven Warriors Chapter

With a couple of masterpieces like Super Xevious and Dragon Quest 2, and the rare Pokémon Yellow, Super Potato has definitely shown that even with secondhand stores, fukubukuro are definitely worth a shot.

These cheap lucky bags are a great way to start or add to your classic gaming collection. We’ll see you next year in line outside Super Potato to get another fukubukuro in 2016!

Photos: RocketNews24

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[ Read in Japanese ]