Super Potato, Japan's Legendary Game Store, Opens Its Very Own International eBay Shop

Visiting Super Potato in Japan has been on my bucket list for years. I’ll definitely check out their eBay page, hopefully I can stop by their store once this pandemic ends.

I love the name "Super Potato".

Super Potato, the hero we don’t deserve.

... oh no, my bank account... Y_Y

That's exciting news!

I was lucky enough to visit this place a few years ago, and it was everything I hoped it would be! The entire building is just a shrine for retro games.

I have been there and it's amazing! So cool they're selling international now! They literally have everything and everyone there is super nice and knowledgeable!!!

Visited this shop in 2019 and it was a little tardis of history, quite something. The fact I can’t read Japanese means my wallet is safe. I did buy a pair of mario socks. People should definitely visit if they get the chance to go to Japan.

Makes sense. It's a tourist trap, as they put the pricetags based on what they see on eBay. So now they don't even try to hide that.

When in Japan, search literally anywhere else.

Super Potato in person is super overpriced, can't imagine online ebay orders.

If anyone visits Akihabara looking for used games, I suggest shopping around, and the further you get away from the train station the cheaper stuff gets and quality goes up. At least for games themselves.

Went to a couple of Super Potato shops in 2019 - Picked up Picross 2 for Game Boy, Mario and Wario for Super Famicom, and Tingle's Balloon Fight DS for DS. Also Snowboard Kids 2 for N64 since it's much, much less expensive than the US version.

Finding games there feels like a miracle when you have little to no familiarity with the Japanese language. It's difficult to hunt for specific games/manga/etc since the Japanese language has a syllabary rather than an alphabet, and while there is an order of course, its not quite as simple as looking for the "M" section, especially when many games have different titles than they do in the west anyway.

Save up your money for when covid is manageable and go visit Japan!

Oh no. There goes my self control!

The Super Potato in Ikebukuro has cheaper prices than the Akihabara location, but it's a lot smaller. The store is amazing. It's heaven for any gamer. 😃

I thought Japan was still unable to send mail to the USA? Did that finally change?

Had a Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka trip planned for 6/2020... Then pushed to 6/2021 due to covid... And looks like we are heading for 6/2022 with the current state in Japan and elsewhere.....

@NTDO89 depends on the carrier used. All my purchases since the pandemic have shipped FedEx.

When I eventually go there someday I will indeed visit the store, there's a handful of Japanese only games I would like to have.

This is my idea of Heaven, would love to go to Japan to visit this shop. Probably need another mortgage and plenty of empty cases 😆 🤣

Super potato
Super potato prices

The store is a massive ripoff, so I expect their eBay prices to follow suit

Been there a couple of times, found the prices on games a bit high, but if you were looking for something in particular, they had it.

Mostly bought the video game merchandise, key rings, coasters, puzzles, they're good for that stuff.

Fruit and vegetables keep us alive

Last time I was in Tokyo in 2018 I picked up a famicom mini from Super Potato. I think my wife got bored of me dragging her to every super potato and other lretro shop in every city we visited

As someone one who has lived in Japan for the last 14 years, I would NEVER shop Super Potato for retro games unless I was super hard-up for something. Their prices are insane. You can get the same games at most other stores for much, much, much, much less. For instance, a game they sell for 2000 yen ($20) you can often find for around 100 ~ 300 yen ($1 - $3) elsewhere. They have made a business on exploiting foreign gamers who are visiting. You'll rarely see Japanese gamers buying much there.

Their prices are way too high, you're much better off buying from other Japanese ebay sellers

Try and search super potato on Google. Go on, I dare you.

Visiting Super Potato was like going to heaven for me. Picked some things up in Akihabara and then again at an Osaka store. To top things off I also got to play a Virtual Boy there.

Been to the store in Akiba a few times. Its glorious!

Dollar dollar bill, yo....

Somewhere I still have my Super Potato members card from my days in Osaka in the late 90s/early 00’s...
I would stop by their shops around Nipponbashi Den-Den Town all the time. I hardly ever saw other gaijin shoppers back then. They were a little more expensive than other game shops, but the selection was always top-class. Game geek heaven!

@Susurrus I would actually recommend going to Osaka and visiting Retro TV Game Revival and Surugaya in Nipponbashi. Even the Osaka branch of Super Potato is cheaper than Tokyo, but still expensive compared to the other places I mentioned.

@flibblesan Sure but generally people aren't just going to swing by osaka on a whim for a store for a bit cheaper prices. I guess if you were going there anyway....

Japanese Demon Crest complete with all would be my dream. An expensive dream, but nontheless.

Now watch the prices increase with the bigger market available!

I've been to Japan 6 times since 2008 and probably visited Super Potato each time. I bought a Super Famicom and some boxed Jap versions of some favourite games like Wave Race, F-Zero and Star Fox on N64, and F-Zero and Mario Kart on SNES. I also bought a portable SNES player. In 2017, I was tempted to get a cartridge of Demon's Crest for 60,000 yen before deciding against it. I'm more into the boxes anyway, and now having played Demon's Crest on Switch Online, it was definitely money worth saved.

I've actually found Bookoff better for games, especially more popular ones, and Surugaya as good as Super Potato for rarer games. Bookoff used to be much cheaper, too, until they got a bit wise. It's still well priced and there's always a large selection and with stores everywhere. I bought the two Jap Elite Beat Agents games on my first visit at a Bookoff across from my hostel in Iidabashi, and a GBA Winning Eleven at a different store.

Mandarake is a popular option, if not expensive, for games and game music CDs. Also in Akihabara, Trader 2 is also good for games and CDs. There's about five Trader stores in the area, with Trader 2 specifically the game one. For new stuff, especially accessories and Amiibo, don't ignore big chain stores like Bic Camera. I bought my Famicom Mini there in 2019.

My holy grail was finding Fighting Eleven (ISS Deluxe) boxed at a retro store in Osaka's Den Den Town, I think on my second visit in 2011. I'd previously found a cartridge only and Winning Eleven boxed in 2008. Another one was F-Zero Climax. No one had it and then a friend at home saw it available online and ordered a copy each.

An important tip: If you're after a particular game, show a photo of it to the shop keeper. They'll check on computer or go to the right shelf area to quickly search. Games are typically stored with only the spines visible, so there's very few identifiers if you can't read Japanese. On my last trip in 2019, I found Contra DS this way. Mandarake had it on the shelf, I took a photo of the spine, so was able to easily search in smaller shops. Curiously, a western guy thought I knew Japanese and ask me to find a game. I told him I didn't know and then resumed my scan. He looked puzzled, then I twigged and explained. Alas, I ended up buying it at Mandarake on the way home and then promptly forgot to claim my sales tax back at the dedicated counter on the ground level. Stores like Bic Camera exclude it at the counter if you show your passport.

I don’t think those trending prices are accurate. Pretty sure a cib copy of Final Fight Guy (with CD) doesn’t routinely sell for $27....

Went to Super Potato in Akiba once. Left empty handed. All this plastic tat but very little else.

Stopped by a nearby Lawson afterwards, but they didn’t have what I was looking for either. Then I traipsed all the way across town, avoiding legions of maids dressed up as cats, zombies, trains, and radioactive hydrogen isotopes, until I finally arrived at Fukushimaya supermarket. There they have a really impressive selection of spuds including May Queen, Northern Ruby, and Red Moon varieties.

If you’re in the area looking for tatties, skip Super Potato and go straight to Fukushimaya mart. Much better selection, and much more competitive prices.

Five hundred thousand potatoes.

With those shipping prices, you better save up for an airplane ticket

@Handy_Man It's worth a visit, especially as entering that store isn't as straight forward as you'd think but it is a rather typical Japanese store. If you're like me, you'll be more concern with trying not to knock anything over

I used to live in Osaka, and man do I miss it! In my opinion that Super Potato there was much better than the Akihabara one, not as crowded, more stuff and usually better prices.

Went to the Akihabara Super Potato in 19, the day before the super typhoon hit! It was amazing and overwhelming at the same time. I mostly went around in awe of the things they had, like the Earthbound figures at the till. Ended up buying a T-shirt and a Pokéball (which I though had a surprise ‘mon inside but didn’t, so now I keep my cartidges in it). Really want to go back with a proper game plan of what to look for and give the arcade upstairs a go. The eBay store is about 1% of what they had available so far.

Hopefully next time I can visit the other stores too!

These prices seem really high in comparison to the rest of the market.

I was in Akihabara all the time when I was in high school. This placed must’ve opened up later, as I don’t remember the name. Then again I don’t remember any shop names other than Sofmap. I’ll never get their theme song out of my head, LOL.

Super Potato is a cool store.

I got my Japanese carts of Golden Sun 1 & 2 there, as well as my Japanese cart of For Frog the Bell Tolls.

They already had eBay prices on the shop... and now that they have a eBay page it's even worse. That shop is a massive tourist trap, and insanely overpriced.