Where To Buy Retro Video Games In Northern Illinois

Disc Replay 

So over my travels and adventures in search of retro video games I have come across a bunch of different places that sell them in the northern Illinois area. If you are new to collecting or confused on where to start my hope is that this page may help you find your starting point. Please keep in mind that this page only contains places I have been to and with that being said some places are more reasonably priced than others. I'll leave it to you to decide whats a good deal or not. Most of the time you have to wheel and deal anyway.

Tip:  Ask your friends and family if they have any retro stuff laying around. You might surprised with something cool. A personal example of mine is at my mother-in-law's there was a Turbografx 16 laying in a dresser in the basement. She didn't even know it was there until I asked if she had any old video game stuff. I'm not saying to shake down your Grandma for the goods. Just put the thought out there that you are interested in old games and see what comes your way.

Northern Illinois Flea Markets:
It's no secret that a great place to hunt down retro video games is at your local Flea Market. In the Northern Illinois area there are a couple of Flea Markets that I have had luck at finding deals. A couple of them are indoors and go all year long, but I have always found better deals at the outdoor markets. The outdoor ones seem to have more sellers with random boxes of stuff. These are the guys you want to hit up, because if they do happen to have something really good it's most likely they don't know it.

Wolff's Flea Market  (Indoors - Year round. A few game stands, but I haven't found much here.)

1775 N Rand Rd.

Palatine, IL 60074

http://www.wolffs.com/

Wolff's Flea Market  (Outdoors - Summer. Big Flea Market. I have found a ton of stuff here.)
Allstate Arena
6920 N. Mannheim Road
Rosemont, IL 60018
http://www.wolffs.com/

Wilmot Flea Market (Outdoors - Summer. Smaller than Wolff's. I got some nice deals here.)
11931 Fox River Road
Wilmot, WI 53192
http://www.wilmotmountainfleamarket.net/

Seven Mile Fair (Indoor - Year round / Outdoors - Summer. Hit or miss here)
2720 W. 7 Mile Rd.
Caledonia, WI 53108
http://www.7milefair.com/

Fox River Flea Market (Indoors - Year round)
3017 W Route 120
McHenry, IL 60050
http://www.foxriverfleamarket.com/

Eckels Flea Market (Indoors - Year round)
3705 West Elm Street
McHenry, IL 60050
http://mchenryfleamarket.net/


Retail Stores:
Finding a retro game you have been on the look out for and haggling with the seller for a great price is such a rewarding feeling to me. However, maybe digging through boxes of junk and haggling at the Flea Market or a Garage sale isn't your thing. Maybe you like walking into a nice shoppe and having a ton of retro video games at your fingertips. Well if the latter statement is more your style you might want to checkout one of these stores on my list. While GameStops are a dime a dozen in Northern Illinois stores that sell retro video games can be a little more scarce. It wasn't until recently that I found some places that I actually like. Prices on games can vary but for the most part I would say that most games being sold at these stores are consistent with whats on ebay. I guess the really nice part about these stores is that the merchandise is always changing so whenever I go in to browse I can always find something new or interesting.

Colosseum Games ( My favorite place. Nice selection and a great staff.)
5719 75th Street
Kenosha, WI 53142
http://www.colosseumgamesofwi.com/

CD DVD GAME Warehouse ( Small selection but they usually have something cool.)
3717 80th St
Kenosha, WI 53142
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CD-DVD-GAME-Warehouse/199055851065

Half Priced Books
151 Skokie Valley Rd.
Highland Park, IL 60035
http://www.hpb.com/101.html

Disc Replay (not so Northern but has a ton of really cool stuff.)
5 Countryside Plaza
Countryside, IL 60525
http://www.discreplay.org/

Goodwill (Hit or miss)
2051 N. Route 83
Round Lake Beach, IL 60046
http://www.amazinggoodwill.com/

Inner Child Collectibles & Comics
5921 6th Avenue
Kenosha, WI 53140
http://innerchildcomics.com/







Thanks Hugues for the following new additions.

People's Choice Video Express
2411 Grand Ave.
Waukegan, IL 60085
http://www.funwithrocky.com/
(They have a lot of NES and Genesis games, smaller selection of SNES and Dreamcast.)

Volo Antique Mall
27640 Volo Village Road
Volo, IL 60063
 http://www.voloshopping.com/
(There's one store there that just sells classic video games. They have a great selection but the prices aren't so great.)

And then there's the "thrift store alley" on the east side of Grand Ave in Gurnee, there are four stores there:

Salvation Army
3557 Grand Ave.
Gurnee, IL 60031
http://www.salvationarmy.org/
(It's usually not great but I found a copy of Mutant League Hockey there so I keep checking.)

Discount City
3567 Grand Ave. Suite #C2

Gurnee, IL 60031

http://www.dcgurnee.com/

(A used CD, DVD, and video game store. The oldest systems they have are PlayStation and Dreamcast though.)

Community Thrift Store
3440 Grand Ave.
Gurnee, IL 60031
https://plus.google.com/116681255514094047980/about?gl=us&hl=en
(I've found a lot of games there in the past but lately it's been dry.)

B*Thrify
3608 Grand Ave. Suite C
Gurnee, IL 60031
http://www.facebook.com/pages/B-Thrifty/201288509881962
(Just opened a few months ago, I've seen some Genesis games there but not much else.)





Thanks "gamer" for the following new additions.

TNT Games
http://www.tntmegastore.com/
3 Locations:

TNT Mega Store, Inc.
845 S. Perryville Rd.
Rockford, IL 61108


TNT Games (Harvard)
5420 S. US Hwy. 14
Harvard, IL 60033

TNT Games (Woodstock)
325 Irving Ave
Woodstock, IL 60098





So that is the low down on where to find retro video games in Northern Illinois. I'm sure that I may have forgot some places, but that is the beauty of this list I put together it has the ability to grow into a resource for others. If you have a spot that you like to go to find games let me know so I can get it on the list. Happy hunting.