20th Century Gamer

O’Shea Limited started in 1975 as a retailer for product closeouts. In 1991, O’Shea purchased 3 million of Atari’s unsold games at auction. Over the years there have been a number of other items in their inventory, but they are best known for their Atari stock. O’Shea’s inventory takes up 22,000 square feet of a limestone mine in Kansas City, Missouri that was converted to warehouse space. Limestone mines are great for storage because their geology makes them naturally climate controlled, so those decades old electronics and packaging remain in better shape than when stored in attics or basements.

Atari interest and collecting has cycled over the years, evident by the extensive magazine coverage O’Shea received in 2000. According to the July 2000 issue of Wired Magazine, back then the cartridges sold for 80¢ each. Examination of the Wired photos shows boxed Atari Jaguar CD consoles, which must have been a later addition to O’Shea’s inventory because the Jaguar CD wasn’t publicly available until 1995.

Over the years the prices have gone up to compensate for storage costs. A few years ago the games were $2 apiece, now they are $5. With more than half the original inventory sold, the selection in 2009 isn’t as robust as it once was. The Jaguar hardware and games are gone, although there are still a few dozen 2600 and 7800 titles to choose from.

We only started collecting Atari games and hardware in the last few years, so we missed that first big wave of Atari interest and O’Shea’s 80¢ prices. Even so, it is exciting to experience brand new, factory sealed games from so many years ago. Ordering from O’Shea was easy, the shipping was reasonable, and the games arrived in a week.

If you’re looking for Atari games, be sure to stop by O’Shea to see if they have anything you want. We found the same titles selling on auction sites for the same price or more, so you might as well get them factory sealed from a reliable source.

Saturday brought some great spring weather, and we took advantage of it by getting out of the house and walking around one of the city’s shopping districts. There the folks at a Play ‘n Trade franchise had the right idea by setting up a display table on the sidewalk in front of their store. I had already spent my game allowance for the month, so I had no intentions of going into the store. The Play ‘n Trade was bound to have something I wanted and I was trying to behave myself. Even so, I couldn’t help but notice the sale items on their table.

There were several things in the sidewalk display that caught my eye, especially a boxed Sega Master System. Unlike others that I’ve seen locally, this Master System box was in surprisingly good shape. We didn’t need another Master System, so while the box was pretty it wasn’t too much of a temptation. Likewise, the NES next to the SMS was something already in our collection.

What stood out was a beautiful black PlayStation travel bag with embroidered color logos. The price was a meager $10, but I was behaving myself. If I was meant to have it, the bag would still be there next month when I had money in my budget again.

But that PlayStation bag wouldn’t leave my mind. Something about the large color logo on the black nylon had emblazoned into my memory. I was still thinking about that bag hours after we had arrived home. I researched the bag online to find one available on eBay, but there wasn’t any other information about this accessory anywhere. Surely the PlayStation Museum would have something about it, but no. The mystery of the bag fed my obsession. Several hours after first seeing it, the thought of possibly owning the bag made me as excited as a kid looking forward to Christmas.

Jennifer saw what was happening and took pity on me. Just buy the bag, she said. It’s only $10. Call them tomorrow when they open and we’ll go get it. So that’s what we did.

I can’t say exactly why I like this bag so much, but I do. I never would have bought this bag in the 90s when it was new, because I never considered traveling with my PlayStation console (and still wouldn’t, that’s what handhelds and laptops are for). There isn’t any nostalgia associated with it. I suspect that I appreciate the straightforward design, proportions, and colors. Regardless of why, it’s now one of my favorite things in our collection.

While leaving the Play ‘n Trade, a boxed PlayStation driving controller caught Jen’s eye. The box was beat up, but the controller and pedals were in great shape. Best of all, just like the bag it was only $10 — so naturally, the racing wheel was also added to our collection. As I suspected, we couldn’t go into the Play ‘n Trade and only get the bag without buying something else.