Buy low. Sell high. Keep the lights on.

Retroventory puts you behind the counter of a second-hand game shop in the city of Neon Haven. Customers walk in all day long - some want to sell you their old consoles, handhelds and games, others are hunting for a bargain. You set the prices, you close the deals, and the difference is yours... if you can keep up with the bills.

Haggle Over Every Single Deal

Negotiation is the heart of Retroventory. When a customer puts an item on your counter, you inspect it and punch your offer into your shop calculator. They counter. You counter back. Push too hard and you will insult them and lose the sale; give in too early and you leave money on the table. Every customer has a limit and a walk-away point - read the room, time your offers carefully and know when to close.

Know What You Are Buying

Every item that crosses the counter belongs to a category - consoles, handhelds, classic games, accessories and more - and each one has its own condition, from factory sealed all the way down to broken, and its own hidden true value. Appraise carefully before you pay: refurbished units and outright counterfeits are out there, and a fake can burn you twice - once when you buy it, and again if you dare to sell it on.

Read Your Customers

Customers have personalities, budgets and patience. Collectors will pay serious money for the right piece. Casual sellers barely know what their attic finds are worth. Hagglers grind you down, big spenders do not blink at high prices, and scammers will happily plant a fake on you. Learn to read whoever is standing across the counter and give the right price to the right person - that is where the profit is.

Run Everything from Your Shop PC

Your in-game computer is mission control for the whole business: track your inventory, follow market prices as they rise and crash, manage your staff, check your bank account, take on quests, trade crypto, and - if you like risk - poke around the darknet. When cash runs dry, take a loan from the bank and keep the doors open. Just remember that the meter is always running: rent, electricity, internet and wages all come due on their own schedules, and if you stay in the red for too long, the shop is gone for good.

Grow from Corner Stall to Retro Empire

Reinvest your profits. Upgrade the shop to attract more - and richer - customers. Buy better equipment to make deals faster and read customers more clearly. Train your own skills, from appraisal and negotiation to perception and restoration. Hire staff to make the business run smoother: clerks to serve customers, appraisers to spot fakes, technicians to repair broken goods... and maybe a hacker, if you want an edge the legal market cannot give you.

Risky Business

Selling counterfeits and dealing in shady goods brings money fast - and risk with it. Cyber attacks can hit your shop systems at the worst possible moment, and a bad reputation follows you around Neon Haven. How clean you keep your hands is entirely up to you.

• Deep haggling on every purchase and sale
  
• Item categories, condition grades and counterfeits to catch
  
• Customers with distinct personalities, budgets and patience
  
• A full shop-management PC: market, bank, staff, quests and darknet
  
• Loans, rent, utility bills and a very real risk of bankruptcy
  
• Shop upgrades, trainable skills and hireable staff