Woolstock

One of my best memories from my university days in UK is Woolworths which i found out from bloodbubb1e has recently announced that they will be closing all their retail outlets because of the recent economic crisis. During then i will always make a beeline to their bargain bins in search of PSOne games as they were just opposite from the Electronic Boutique in town. I suppose because of the nature of the store (they sell just about everything from candies to video to music) and their customer base, i always tend to find better bargains in Woolies as opposed to EB and Game.

I remember picking up the first Fear Effect for a mere 7quid which was quite a steal considering obscure hits like Fear Effect don't end up in the bargain bins too often. I know more than one person enjoyed that game as my house mate during that time, who happened to be a british born chinese also warmed up to it and we spent countless hours trying to figure out the puzzles and beat that game, while in the process helping my housemate to learn a bit of chinese. Aah the good ole days of university life.

But my greatest catch at Woolies happened to be Vagrant Story which during that time was only a few months old and was retailing everywhere else for at least 30 quid, the standard price for a new PSOne game. To top it off, it was still in its shrink-wrap for just 10 quid! I know it's hard to understand what's the big deal about that but bear in mind, most new games in UK don't even come in shrink-wraps for some reason. Anyway, i quickly nabbed that copy of Vagrant Story and made my way to the cashier where i thought i was in a stroke of good luck because a young lady was manning the cashier at that time, probably clueless about games as i hoped. That turned out to be the furthest from the truth as this lady was reluctant to sell a new game to me at that price, asking around her colleagues for assistance and getting me all worried as she was holding up the line. I suppose the shrink-warp gave it away that the game was spanking new as i doubt she was aware of how hot this game was, lapping up perfect scores from all the game reviews during then. Ultimately after consulting with her seniors, she finally let me have the game but not before tearing off the shrink-warp and scribbling over the barcode on the back which i should add, she had to dismantle the jewel case to get to. I couldn't possibly describe to you how much my heart ache during the whole ordeal which felt like time had slowed down and was talking forever. But the biggest shame of all is that i have not play the game even till this day, it's lying there in my game collection probably with that lovely lady prints still intact. I suppose sometimes, the biggest bargains of all are really not meant to be.