“Let’s to to eStarland!” A Must-See Game Store in Washington, DC

But no one can just roll up to eStarland. Getting there takes preparation, dedication and a general frustration with the crap trade-in rates that Gamestop and Amazon give on video games.

I was really excited to take my sons to the store so I could show them all the games I grew up playing. I was also anxious to finally liquidate the remnants of my once mighty game collection. The new eStarland is much larger than the store I used to frequent closer to the city. It’s essentially a warehouse filled with tons of gaming goodness.

My experience was as excellent as it had been in previous years when I used to visit the store (which was just named Starland). I was able to drop off my collection with one of their employees and then browse the store with my family while they calculated how much loot they were going owe me. The overall customer service was on point and each of their employees were very knowledgeable. I even met an employee able to tell me about a few Japanese games I was interested in playing who then showed me how to modify the RetroDuo to play the Super Famicom cartridges.

Indoctrinating my sons with Chrono Trigger, Ninja Turtles and Super Smash Brothers didn’t hurt the experience either.

The best part of the whole trip was that I made nearly $500 on my trades. I couldn’t have made more than $150 on these trades had I gone to Amazon, and Gamestop wouldn’t even take half the stuff I brought to trade. But now I’m set for whatever moves I decide to make gaming-wise in the coming year.

If you ever get the chance to come to D.C., and you are a gaming nut (which, why wouldn’t you be if you’re reading this?) I definitely recommend you carve out some time for eStarland. And if for some crazy reason, you don’t know what eStarland is, hit up eStarland.com and see what all the hype is about.