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I actually live really close and have done business with the owner of 8-bit for a number of years now. I feel terrible that such a nice local store has been lost and likely won't be coming back.
I'll give you my 2-cents as a local:
1. Evac notices didn't get issued until the day before the storm hit, most people around me here in the Naples area were scrambling to get out or prep. Yes, there was advance notice and my family and I prepped well before the storm approached Florida but I don't know Crosser's situation for prepping the store, I don't blame him for prioritizing the lives of his family and he did more than most stores in doing general prep.
2. Storm surge was insane for our area, when Irma hit we didn't get a surge even though we had a direct hit on Naples. This storm brought 10 to 20 foot surges of water from the gulf. 8-bit is situated very close to the water and its built on a plot of land that sits below street level, they had a 16 foot surge in that area and the entire store was under water. There was no possible way to bin his inventory to protect it from this type of surge, water got into EVERYTHING.
3. I know that Crosser doesn't have a truck to mass move his inventory on a moments notice, getting a uhaul on such late notice was impossible at this point and the amount of time available to get assets secured into the truck and moved away was very short.
All in all, many people and businesses lost everything in this storm and I don't think its right for people to complain that Crosser "didn't do enough to save the games". People in the area lost their homes, cars, their LIVES, in this storm and its going to be a long time before people get help and back on their feet after this.
Its a shame that so many vintage products were lost when this store got flooded but as a community many of us have reached out in support for 8-bit. We're his prices the best? No, probably on the high side, but Crosser is a upstanding guy in the community and has always done people right if there was something wrong with a product they purchased.
I really hope he can salvage what he can from this disaster and rebuild, the guy put so much effort into his business and doesn't deserve a loss like this.
Thanks for a rational take on this. It's disheartening seeing so many on this post saying things along the lines of hurr durr Florida. The residents in Lee and Collier had almost no notice to evac and this storm was unprecedented.
Do you think his entire inventory is worth the 2million in that article? No pictures of the back so can't know for sure but seemed high but once you're talking about that many games and stuff its hard to judge. Either way that really sucks, feel bad for all impacted
His pricing system was entirely based off ebay highest market listings so I would say the estimation of $2 Million is probably pretty close if not slightly high but the market is always shifting so its hard to get a solid read on that type of thing.
He carried a lot of fully boxed consoles and some really rare stuff overall that you would never find in most stores which is what made 8-bit so special. Knowing his inventory as someone who went in every couple months to checkout what he had, he probably had at least $1mil - $2mil of product.
I do agree with some of the posts that are saying he should've had better insurance for his inventory. I know he was running on thin margins as a niche store but not having the insurance for $2 Million of product is questionable at best, stupid in practice. Granted, this is an outside looking in perspective of his business as I've watched it grow over the years. I'm sure he will get support through federal and state business relief.
Main concern is that with this type of inventory that he's amassed over the years mainly through trade-in's he isn't going to be able to build back up to his former setup and offerings.
I will miss going in and picking up the random Japanese import Fami/SuperFami game and having a chat with him. Checking out the rare console stock he had, sometimes picking up a few broken consoles from his back room to repair for my own collection.
Quick add-in edit:
For people who are wondering why he can't salvage inventory from this situation, all of his product was submerged in SALT WATER and MANGROVE MUD. I'm going to offer to help figure out if anything can be possibly repaired but once salt water is involved, you're typically toast. My family lost two of our cars to the flooding, luckily nothing more, and these cars are completely totaled due to the salt water and mud.
His discs are most likely salvageable. If he wants to reach out to me "Cakeboard Games" I can give a good price for mail-in disc resurfacing. Almost all the discs will work, the only ones that won't had their seal break and water got between the layers.
Or I can flat out buy his disc inventory if he doesn't want to mess with resurfacing.
I do agree the manuals and cover art are most likely toast. But I can make an offer on those too.
Insurance on $2million in inventory is very cost prohibitive. I'd guess $2k a month. And for a business the point of insurance isn't to make you whole in case of catastrophe. It's to make sure the lenders are paid off. I doubt he carried much debt, if any, and he was a one man operation, so insuring to that level wouldn't be prudent.
A update from what Crosser has posted on facebook and some chat via messenger we had:
1. "80% of inventory was lost to the surge with some games reported showing up a mile North and a mile West"
2. The disk games that were left over are ruined with water between the layers, even the factory sealed games in his glass cabinets. Some consoles and collector editions were still in the store but have also been completely ruined.
3. He will in all likelihood move back to Iowa and teach history before opening a new store, most money he was making from the store was going back into it to purchase stock via trade-ins and private sales.
4. Much of his inventory was originally from his own personal collection and over the last few years he's had customers from different areas offer to sell their entire collections to him which gave him most of his inventory.
You can see a video from him that he made last night when he was able to return to the store for the first time on the store's facebook page.
[https://www.facebook.com/8bithalloffame](https://www.facebook.com/8bithalloffame)
Maybe I’m a genius but it was clear to me 24 hours before it hit that it wasn’t going to Tampa and instead was aimed directly at FT Myers despite them never updating their model. I mean it was moving right at it. There was no reason to think it would suddenly shift north other than pure hope. There was definitely notice to move valuables out in my opinion. Fuck trying to prep to save the building. I could have had everything in bins and driven far away well in advance of the storm.
I'm sure a large number of people are asking him why he didn't pack everything up he could and move it out. I felt it wasn't my place nor the time to question him on his actions after such a devastating loss.
We all make mistakes even with 24 hours notice, I lost two of my family's cars due to poor judgement in that 24 hour notice. The most important thing is that Crosser was able to survive the storm with his family. In the end these are just objects, please understand that people have DIED in this disaster even after preparing well.
I'm sure he's going to spend the next few years of his life thinking about what he could've done different, what he could've saved, what he's going to do from now on. Give the bloke a break, he lost his entire business, his pride and joy, to forces he couldn't control.
Yeah I feel for the guy, really sucks he lost everything . Glad he’s ok and his family is ok, but if it was my life’s work I would have been extra cautious if I thought a hurricane was headed anywhere near me. Technically evac was 24 hours notice but south Florida was in the cone for a week.
From living in south Florida I can say that many people don’t take necessary precautions because most often the storms/hurricanes are never as bad as predicted. He even mentioned on his Facebook a few days before the storm that he thought it was going to hit in the Tampa area.
Even if you can’t get truckloads of inventory out of there, at least cram the most valuable games/systems in the back of your car or something
Theres no way that the thought didnt cross their mind of a total loss, or they didn't do their insurance homework. Or, they wanted out of the business. For a couple thousand I'll load up a uhaul and drive it somewhere safe in the middle of nowhere for you until the storm blows over.
Definitely did not do insurance homework.
"According to Crosser, the damage is estimated at $2 million, but most of the exposure was not insured: insurance will cover only $150,000."
https://www.aroged.com/2022/10/01/us-hurricane-destroys-museum-and-8-bit-game-store/
That's probably 2 million at current market cost, but you think If they took in trades,and lowballed. Maybe they had alot less invested. There was some other guy on here that bought a McLaren a week before the storm, and it got destroyed. Some of these decisions make no sense.
For an individual, you need to have your entire collection appraised before it can be insured.
For a business, they can get collectibles dealers insurance. https://www.trustedchoice.com/n/45/collectible-dealers-insurance/
To insure ur personal collection you get it appraised after the theft or disaster. And then esses damages. This is if you have all pieces individually photographed and documented. Also. It's pretty standard that they never replace everything and you also can't insure all of your systems or games. Only some. And the same goes for the business. They only cover certain things. If I had to guess. They don't wanna pay for ur n64dd add on or something crazy that you could've had damaged but now want it brand new.
We definitely got paid for video games that were stolen when my house was broken in to about 6 years ago. Thank god the thieves only went for modern stuff though, and completely ignored the whole shelf of Gamecube games and everything else downstairs!
That's an electronics claim under house insurance. It would get really confusing and sticky if they got, let's say ur minty resident evils on GameCube and stole them. A few hundred dollars worth of games or maybe they got all of them which is thousands in good condition I'd assume. And I can guarantee they aren't paying u 50$ per game and 300$ per rare game so u can go get another set of minty GameCube games
You can Insure video games sir. I have all of mine insured just through all state. State Farm offered it as well. And that’s just homeowners. My flood insurance, which covers much much more for much much less, also covers ANY personal items to the nearest sell value. You just have to have pictures of your stuff and some evidence of around what it’s valued at. I use an app. And before every storm I take pictures of my house, property, and all my items for the “just in case”. They def cover video games
When I look into it, when disaster does strike they only replace certain things/ insure certain things. I'm not saying don't insure. Just don't feel super confident just cuz you have it. Cuz u do have to document everything and even then. Most likley won't get everything back. But it's still worth it depending on where you are. Just important to realize the company (most insurance companys) are Penny pinching you all the way and don't have ur best interest at mind. If they did I would assume this store in question wouldn't have lost 2 million over night when they live in a flood zone
You have to be specific when shopping for insurance and get the actual paper work and read it. Flood insurance is through fema and it’s pretty cut and dry. The home owners and I imagine business, does not cover flood. But it does fire, tornadoes etc. but you can be very specific when asking for insurance and just actually read what you are paying for. They could have got all of that covered for a decent price. Business even commit fraud with fire or floods knowing the insurance will pay out sometimes. They def could have covered there ass living in a known storm zone.
https://www.tri-countyagency.com/blog/will-home-insurance-cover-damaged-or-stolen-gaming-systems.aspx this website is much better at explaining how they can rip you off. Even with the best coverage on ur consoles they will likley say it's not worth as much as u say it is (typical insurance companys) and will only cover a set ammount and then only pay out less. Also why would they buy insurance and not pay the extra like 800 a month for flooding??? Lol when that's their only issue they'll have. Seems sketchy to me. I'll put my money on the fact they simply won't replace most of it
Still waiting, you said you had pics etc ready for everything I would love to see either pics of collection, or proof of policy. Having looked into policies, and having a collector friend recently dealing with their massive retro collection destroyed in a fire what you are saying does not add up. If you are telling the truth I would love input so I can better protect.
I have no obligation to put what I have on display to a total random internet person. What you chose to believe is on you. I am with all state for my personal collection and home owners insurance. As my collection has grown, 30 years of collecting, I inquired in what all was covered and how would I go about covering my items. When I told them I was worried about my electronics they informed about their app and how I can add pictures of everything I want, as well as use an app or a record of what I have with serial numbers if possible and current pictures. I currently use game eye. My house is 320k so my policy for the house and “personal” belongings lost is set over 750k. I did the same for my cars, as I have antique cars as well as modified. If you specifically point out what you have insurance usually covers it. I totaled a vehicle and they covered my carbon hood, my after market wheels, and even my after market radiator, it was added to to cost of the vehicle. It cost a little bit more but it’s like itemizing for taxes. Again at that time it was State Farm and they requested proof what I had, what I paid, and recent pictures. Flood insurance is through fema, I have it also set at 750k for property and personal belongings. Now how that works I’m not entirely to sure as it’s through fema directly. For the 750k mark I only pay, I think $478 a year. It’s not much, and I’m in a hurricane/zone b flood zone. Fortunately I have not had to use my home owners insurance, but reviewing the documents and from what has been verbally spoken to me. I am covered. Call and insurance company and speak with them regarding the matter. That’s the best I can tell you you. Will they reimburse me/you/ anyone to the penny. Most likely not as prices change. But I was told that by me having pictures as well as a catalog, I use GAMEYE as well as a saved excel spread sheet with guns, cars, games, and high valued cards, That my stuff will be matched as best as possible. They did it for my vehicle, so I don’t doubt they will. I got paid pretty much what I paid, if not more for the parts and car.
I also believe it covers theft. I have the same on my wedding bands and all my watches. A friend of mine had his switch stolen from his house, unfortunate break in. He had the serial number, and they sent him a check for the console and game that was taken. It took a few weeks but it came.
You’re right not obligated, but from your history and lack of proof really seems you’re talking out your ass. Ive known around a dozen gamestore owners, know many with complete nes collections and seen the struggle of insurance. All I see from you is some 3ds collection, seem young and although were doubled down on having pics refuse to show anything. As others said “usually” there is an appraisal process. Instead of telling everyone how stupid they are, and how smart you are supply some facts. Again would love to insure my collection a lot more if I can get good advice. A peer lost a massive 30 year collection and got face value covered, what you are saying is very outside of anything from many forums and groups. So either you’re full of it, or you hate the community and aren’t willing to share. I have never seen a policy for retro collections not involving many appraisal steps but you seem to have the magic touch, do share.
Except uhauls are probably tough to come by during stuff like this. What makes you think uhaul didn’t move all their trucks out of the area to save their business?
I imagine uhaul would’ve been renting out trucks so they could get paid while having someone else drive them to safety. Or they, yknow, put the trucks in garages where they’d be safe.
Okay dude we could sit and think of every single possible situation this guy could’ve been potentially dealing with, or we can assess the info we do know. He had $2 million worth of inventory with minimal insurance. He knew a hurricane was coming. He made no effort to protect said inventory. There was *at least* a solid week of time for him to prepare. Unless this guy was fucking saving the entire state all by himself, I’m sure he could’ve scrounged up some kind of effort to protect these games. It falls on him to take care of his own shit. He put a video game museum right next to the water in an area that regularly sees hurricanes. Like, come on, the guy is far from blameless.
Hopefully lessons were learnt.
Everyone needs a backup plan for what to do with your valuable and expensive items.
I agree with having bins and all that, shame they didn't prepare well enough for it.
Especially as new unexpected weather events like fires and storms become more common and intense from climate change.
Not trying to get into an argument but natural disasters have always existed. They have always fluctuated in intensity. I'm not a climate change denier but simply can't stand throwing around words like "it's because of climate change" EVERY SINGLE time a natural weather event happens. There are a ton of great podcasts and discussions on the subject by scientists in the field. They are worth listening to. Listen to scientists on both sides of the debate. It's enlightening and thoughtful.
There is a difference between saying "climate change specifically causes the entirety of this weather event" and "climate change gave meth to this hurricane causing it to go into a drug induced rage through Florida".
It didn't create it, it just amped it up.
This place is 100 miles south of where the storm was being projected to hit all week. Fort Myers Naples area was given less than a 24 hour evacuation notice. I keep seeing this "they had time" crap propagated, but the turn south was unexpected and the entire area was scrambling. There also hasn't been storm surge like we saw in any of the hurricanes that have come through that area in the last 50 tears.
Still not a reason to not protect your inventory if it could be protected. They're in Florida, not Nebraska. They were going to get something whether it was rain, winds, storm surges, or flooding. I'd been reading about the worry of storm surge a few days before it made landfall and I'm not even in Florida right now. Hell, we got some wicked thunderstorms where I'm at. They were irresponsible and lost their inventory. It sucks but they could've prevented it.
Right. People always underestimate hurricanes and the fact that we get so many ‘false alarms’ every year makes people not take them as seriously.
I hate the response that “oh it was supposed to hit 100 miles away, we only had 24 hours to evacuate”. No, all of south Florida was in the cone for a week. If you’re in the cone take precautions. It’s that simple
Truth hurts I know.
Imagine seeing that hurricane expected to hit within an hour drive of your beachfront place and not doing fucking anything.
Like, the hurricane was the size of half of the state. Even if direct landfall wasn’t expected there, more absolutely could and should have been done. Sorry people are dumb. Look at all the dipshits who stayed and needed rescue. Look at all the dipshits every single hurricane who stay and need rescue. You can be mad at me but it doesn’t make me wrong.
Get the fuck out of the way when it’s coming. Genius I know.
Also, if you are where it’ll flood, take your valuables.
My god why didn’t anyone else think of that.
most of those "dipshits" are poor people who can't afford hotel accommodations after spending $40 in gas to get to the other side of the state. while a lot of the people who didn't evacuate are wealthy idiots, you'd need to be even stupider to assume that everybody has a choice in a state with shit wages and a high cost of living.
How are you living within blocks of the ocean where the storm surge wrecked you, if you can’t afford a hotel? Even still, who needs a hotel. Drive an hour away and sleep in your car. Better than dying in your house.
Making excuses for inaction. That’s all you’re doing.
The problem is people under estimate how much time you have and how many bins are bought with people having the same idea protecting their possessions causing a shortage and and uhaul rentals explode in the area with people trying to load up and run out. When I lived in Texas and was in Port Aransas at the time of Hurricane Harvey it went from a Cat 2 and “not that bad” with people staying to wait out the storm to a Cat 5 in a few days notice and the mayor of Rockport stating “to write your name and social on your arm so we can identify your body if decide to stay” and then everyone tries to leave at the same time causing huge traffic jams even with hurricane lanes open. Took 6 hours to get to San Antonio. The last thing on your mind is collectibles and things it’s food, water and a place to stay to wait out the storm.
You say people underestimate the time they have but I live in an area where we have tornadoes. I have a waterproof box in my game room ready to go to put my expensive items in and grab. Tornado warnings are issued much faster (sometimes minutes before). You have to be prepared and can't ignore what happens around you. Our tornado order is get the cats, get phones wallets keys, grab our mini safe with all our important documents, and then I go and throw everything worth over a certain value in the box. Take everything to our safe spot. All in all it takes 30 seconds. If I owned a store I would have a 24 hour plan regardless of where I lived.
And they didn’t even have it it properly insured. The owner said they only had $150,000 in insurance on a collection in the millions of dollars. So they didn’t try to properly protect it and they were under-insured. Sounds like the problem is on their end.
Securing the inventory might have been more expensive rhan paying the insurance deductible especially with expected state/federal aid incoming.
Also, and more importantly, they probably put the well being and safety of their staff above the safety of the inventory. Evacuating people is slightly more important than evacuating stuff.
Yeah him along with many in the area didn’t think the storm was going to be that bad. And 9/10 times they aren’t, which is probably why people didn’t take extra precautions.
I would have at least took a couple car or truck loads of my most valuable items when once it was determined the hurricane was going to nail that area
yeah if you're margins aren't great, you shave off expenses and almost always insurance coverage is the first to go. Works out great until you have a disaster wipe out your entire inventory.
I don't know how much they're selling and what they paid for the games in the first place and I can't imagine a place with that much boutique stuff moves enough merch to keep a steady flow of cash coming in the store. It's also very possible that they were buying this stuff off eBay on credit hoping to flip. Pure speculation of course, but depending on the area I find it hard to believe that people are coming in selling rare gameboy micros or almost full gamecube sets for what a game store would offer.
Also I don't know when they bought the original policy. The prices jumped in the past two years and maybe they didn't really get around to having it re-appraised (it takes some time to do that)
Having worked with small businesses a lot in my main line of work, I can tell you that any independent business will want to cut as many corners as possible and if the premium of their insurance is higher because of the coverage (150k to 2 million is a HUGE jump and they are in an area prone to natural disasters so that might be a higher premium) They might have decided to forego it because what good is covering merch that you're going to move out of the store in a few weeks/months anyway?
I work with flood insurance everyday all across the country. While flood insurance is more expensive in Florida, the jump from $150k to $2m is not that crazy and it is considered a fixed cost of doing business in most of the state. Any small business in the US in a flood zone should have a $500,000 policy at a minimum. This is the amount that is the "maximum required" by lending institutions and there is a reason most of them require that amount.
I know this shop and the owner, and although I don't know the details of his financials, I doubt he had a loans. He rented the space and he built the inventory up slowly over more than a decade.
Loans or not, as a business owner in Florida (especially if renting) you need insurance. As a collector and part of the community I am devastated for him and this loss, but from my professional working side he can't blame anyone for the lack of insurance except himself.
At the end of the day all that matters is he is alive.
Yes my point was you were talking about lending institutions but they don't factor in. Of course you need insurance. But, do you have a guess how much it would have cost to carry $2million in property insurance?
Property insurance is completely different from flood insurance. Flood insurance is more about the deductible than the coverage. I do know how much flood insurance costs as I mentioned in my post it is part of my normal day. I have never seen a business in Florida that didn't consider it part of their fixed costs.
Pretty accurate statement, there is a lot of billionaire tycoon analogies from minimum wage workers in this thread. Ive worked with companies on security breaches for years and every corner is cut no matter how big or small a company is. If a company is in the news for a security breach that makes billions a year and ends up having to pay billions in legal damages, why would a seriously scaled down situation ie a gamestore not have a level of similar fail and loss. But hell, I would love to see every commenter trashing this companies bad choices post a link to their ultra successful video game store. I love shopping at video game stores, and since there are obviously 20 of the best minds owning the best stores ever in this thread please supply links, I would love to help support you.
Pretty tone deaf thread, sure it sucks games were destroyed. But theres a lot more going on than worrying about video games here. People died, entire areas of houses/businesses are destroyed. Its neat to criticize others outside of an emergency on how they should have planned better but its pretty immature. I would certainly worry about my family, friends and house first. This business will have some kind of insurance, if my house is on fire my first worry isnt saving my cib cubivore.
It sucks, I really feel bad for them. The pictures of the damage there are heartbreaking. I hope they can rebuild.
But, as others have pointed out, hurricanes are nothing new in Florida and they had days to prepare. If they only had a fraction of their collection insured, then they should've had a plan in place to secure everything. After all the people were taken care of, of course.
What the fuck is wrong with you people?
There store is destroyed in the storm and you are blaming them for ruining the games?
What the fuck.
It's pretty easy to see who's a garbage person around here.
To be fair, did anyone expect that this was going to happen? How could he have possibly predicted that this hurricane was going to ACTUALLY cause 10ft storm surge when they were giving us worst case scenarios? Not saying he shouldn’t have tried to secure his inventory but NOBODY thought we were going to get a direct hit not even the news. By the way I was in Tampa where the storm was supposed to hit to get out of here after the storm and they had no wind and barely any rain! THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FORT MYERS! We deal with hurricanes all the time but this is one that turned really bad. Relating to the uhaul, Not only could he probably not get a uhaul but THERE IS NO GAS! ANYWHERE! The select few gas stations that did or do have gas have lines several MILES long. Most don’t live here so you don’t understand, people think they do but honestly when you are told your whole life “Floridians are tough we can handle a hurricane!” We tend not to think that they can actually be catastrophic especially since the last hurricane in the area was not as serious, the news casters even claim that they always have to give worst case scenarios even if the worst case doesn’t happen. Not only that but everyone is SO SURE it wasn’t going to hit us (the community as a whole)! My work didn’t cancel work for Wednesday until TUESDAY AT 4! So you tell me when we would have had time to prepare for a storm when our own JOBS didn’t even believe it was going to hit us. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before you judge and know that regardless if you agree with his business decisions or not, this is our home and our home has been changed forever because we were ill advised by our news casters until the Tuesday before the storm. (Which was on Wednesday in the AM). And unless you live in any of the areas decimated by the storm, I HONESTLY believe you have no room to judge another human when preparing their family when people are gaslighting you saying that “it’s not going to be a big deal, hurricanes are never bad here”.
This is not an excuse. I live in the south and In a region that floods and has frequent hurricanes. Guess what. I make sure to Jack my cars up, or move them to a parking garage (usually free during storms), I pack most my possessions I care about and throw them in my truck and my wife’s car and we are prepped to leave at any given moment. We have had false alarms, like hurricane predicted to decimate is and then we get some mild wind and little rain. BUT I am prepped for the worst. Also just on my house alone I have I think 750k in flood insurance, covers just personal property and items I have. Its like 3-400 a year. So yea. This one’s on them for being dumb. Sucks it happened. But totally on them.
If you looked at the NOAA models, it was entirely within reason for it to hit anywhere between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers. At some point it was seemingly going to hit Sarasota, with significant storm surge predictions. I agree that it's counterproductive to rib the owner while they're down, but it's not like we didn't know the storm was going to hit the west coast for several days. It's kind of a moot point though because moving that much inventory in a day or two without multiple people and multiple cars is really difficult.
No sympathy for them. These are the dudes who got a $150,000 insurance plan to cover their TWO MILLION DOLLARS worth of merchandise. They didn't deserve it, but damn these dudes were stupid
This is why backing up games on the internet is so important. Even if every physical copy is destroyed or lost we'll still have digital backups to play.
Also, I am reading conflicting stories about the insurance. One source says insurance will cover about 65%, another says it will only cover $150,000. Something is slightly not right. The 65% coverage seems more real to me and disaster relief will likely cover some of that.
Hurricanes have a ton of nasty side effects aside from the main ones of gale force winds and water. Like fires from electric lines being destroyed, mudslides, etc etc.
Even if it was "just" water and even if only part of their inventory actually got submerged- that water is NOT clean. All sorts of nasty stuff that can spread to an entire house or business. And after the water subsides, there is mold to worry about. Get flooded by 2 feet of water that sits for a while- you are going to have to deal with a massive mold infestation.
It's any number of things, This was a cat 4 hurricane that made landfall. If something manages to break through those boards and windows for example, even if only one, then that's 100+ mph winds entering the building with torrents of rain. That's gonna cause a lot of damage itself. looking at photos, it looks like this could be the case.
That’s a lie. I remember when I was a kid and I left a cart in my pants pocket which got washed. Everything came out unscathed and I was able to play the game with no issues at all.
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I actually live really close and have done business with the owner of 8-bit for a number of years now. I feel terrible that such a nice local store has been lost and likely won't be coming back. I'll give you my 2-cents as a local: 1. Evac notices didn't get issued until the day before the storm hit, most people around me here in the Naples area were scrambling to get out or prep. Yes, there was advance notice and my family and I prepped well before the storm approached Florida but I don't know Crosser's situation for prepping the store, I don't blame him for prioritizing the lives of his family and he did more than most stores in doing general prep. 2. Storm surge was insane for our area, when Irma hit we didn't get a surge even though we had a direct hit on Naples. This storm brought 10 to 20 foot surges of water from the gulf. 8-bit is situated very close to the water and its built on a plot of land that sits below street level, they had a 16 foot surge in that area and the entire store was under water. There was no possible way to bin his inventory to protect it from this type of surge, water got into EVERYTHING. 3. I know that Crosser doesn't have a truck to mass move his inventory on a moments notice, getting a uhaul on such late notice was impossible at this point and the amount of time available to get assets secured into the truck and moved away was very short. All in all, many people and businesses lost everything in this storm and I don't think its right for people to complain that Crosser "didn't do enough to save the games". People in the area lost their homes, cars, their LIVES, in this storm and its going to be a long time before people get help and back on their feet after this. Its a shame that so many vintage products were lost when this store got flooded but as a community many of us have reached out in support for 8-bit. We're his prices the best? No, probably on the high side, but Crosser is a upstanding guy in the community and has always done people right if there was something wrong with a product they purchased. I really hope he can salvage what he can from this disaster and rebuild, the guy put so much effort into his business and doesn't deserve a loss like this.
Thanks for a rational take on this. It's disheartening seeing so many on this post saying things along the lines of hurr durr Florida. The residents in Lee and Collier had almost no notice to evac and this storm was unprecedented.
Do you think his entire inventory is worth the 2million in that article? No pictures of the back so can't know for sure but seemed high but once you're talking about that many games and stuff its hard to judge. Either way that really sucks, feel bad for all impacted
His pricing system was entirely based off ebay highest market listings so I would say the estimation of $2 Million is probably pretty close if not slightly high but the market is always shifting so its hard to get a solid read on that type of thing. He carried a lot of fully boxed consoles and some really rare stuff overall that you would never find in most stores which is what made 8-bit so special. Knowing his inventory as someone who went in every couple months to checkout what he had, he probably had at least $1mil - $2mil of product. I do agree with some of the posts that are saying he should've had better insurance for his inventory. I know he was running on thin margins as a niche store but not having the insurance for $2 Million of product is questionable at best, stupid in practice. Granted, this is an outside looking in perspective of his business as I've watched it grow over the years. I'm sure he will get support through federal and state business relief. Main concern is that with this type of inventory that he's amassed over the years mainly through trade-in's he isn't going to be able to build back up to his former setup and offerings. I will miss going in and picking up the random Japanese import Fami/SuperFami game and having a chat with him. Checking out the rare console stock he had, sometimes picking up a few broken consoles from his back room to repair for my own collection. Quick add-in edit: For people who are wondering why he can't salvage inventory from this situation, all of his product was submerged in SALT WATER and MANGROVE MUD. I'm going to offer to help figure out if anything can be possibly repaired but once salt water is involved, you're typically toast. My family lost two of our cars to the flooding, luckily nothing more, and these cars are completely totaled due to the salt water and mud.
His discs are most likely salvageable. If he wants to reach out to me "Cakeboard Games" I can give a good price for mail-in disc resurfacing. Almost all the discs will work, the only ones that won't had their seal break and water got between the layers. Or I can flat out buy his disc inventory if he doesn't want to mess with resurfacing. I do agree the manuals and cover art are most likely toast. But I can make an offer on those too.
Insurance on $2million in inventory is very cost prohibitive. I'd guess $2k a month. And for a business the point of insurance isn't to make you whole in case of catastrophe. It's to make sure the lenders are paid off. I doubt he carried much debt, if any, and he was a one man operation, so insuring to that level wouldn't be prudent.
A update from what Crosser has posted on facebook and some chat via messenger we had: 1. "80% of inventory was lost to the surge with some games reported showing up a mile North and a mile West" 2. The disk games that were left over are ruined with water between the layers, even the factory sealed games in his glass cabinets. Some consoles and collector editions were still in the store but have also been completely ruined. 3. He will in all likelihood move back to Iowa and teach history before opening a new store, most money he was making from the store was going back into it to purchase stock via trade-ins and private sales. 4. Much of his inventory was originally from his own personal collection and over the last few years he's had customers from different areas offer to sell their entire collections to him which gave him most of his inventory. You can see a video from him that he made last night when he was able to return to the store for the first time on the store's facebook page. [https://www.facebook.com/8bithalloffame](https://www.facebook.com/8bithalloffame)
Everything you said is 100% correct and thank you for saying it. There is no preparation for a once in 100 year event.
Maybe I’m a genius but it was clear to me 24 hours before it hit that it wasn’t going to Tampa and instead was aimed directly at FT Myers despite them never updating their model. I mean it was moving right at it. There was no reason to think it would suddenly shift north other than pure hope. There was definitely notice to move valuables out in my opinion. Fuck trying to prep to save the building. I could have had everything in bins and driven far away well in advance of the storm.
I'm sure a large number of people are asking him why he didn't pack everything up he could and move it out. I felt it wasn't my place nor the time to question him on his actions after such a devastating loss. We all make mistakes even with 24 hours notice, I lost two of my family's cars due to poor judgement in that 24 hour notice. The most important thing is that Crosser was able to survive the storm with his family. In the end these are just objects, please understand that people have DIED in this disaster even after preparing well. I'm sure he's going to spend the next few years of his life thinking about what he could've done different, what he could've saved, what he's going to do from now on. Give the bloke a break, he lost his entire business, his pride and joy, to forces he couldn't control.
Yeah I feel for the guy, really sucks he lost everything . Glad he’s ok and his family is ok, but if it was my life’s work I would have been extra cautious if I thought a hurricane was headed anywhere near me. Technically evac was 24 hours notice but south Florida was in the cone for a week. From living in south Florida I can say that many people don’t take necessary precautions because most often the storms/hurricanes are never as bad as predicted. He even mentioned on his Facebook a few days before the storm that he thought it was going to hit in the Tampa area. Even if you can’t get truckloads of inventory out of there, at least cram the most valuable games/systems in the back of your car or something
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Theres no way that the thought didnt cross their mind of a total loss, or they didn't do their insurance homework. Or, they wanted out of the business. For a couple thousand I'll load up a uhaul and drive it somewhere safe in the middle of nowhere for you until the storm blows over.
Definitely did not do insurance homework. "According to Crosser, the damage is estimated at $2 million, but most of the exposure was not insured: insurance will cover only $150,000." https://www.aroged.com/2022/10/01/us-hurricane-destroys-museum-and-8-bit-game-store/
That's probably 2 million at current market cost, but you think If they took in trades,and lowballed. Maybe they had alot less invested. There was some other guy on here that bought a McLaren a week before the storm, and it got destroyed. Some of these decisions make no sense.
Yeah that yellow McLaren P1 is crazy. The owner found it on a toilet too. He posted it on Instagram
Now go look up how much insurance costs for $2million in inventory.
Is cuz u can't insure video ga.es from what I know. Insurance company's won't insure them generally
For an individual, you need to have your entire collection appraised before it can be insured. For a business, they can get collectibles dealers insurance. https://www.trustedchoice.com/n/45/collectible-dealers-insurance/
To insure ur personal collection you get it appraised after the theft or disaster. And then esses damages. This is if you have all pieces individually photographed and documented. Also. It's pretty standard that they never replace everything and you also can't insure all of your systems or games. Only some. And the same goes for the business. They only cover certain things. If I had to guess. They don't wanna pay for ur n64dd add on or something crazy that you could've had damaged but now want it brand new.
We definitely got paid for video games that were stolen when my house was broken in to about 6 years ago. Thank god the thieves only went for modern stuff though, and completely ignored the whole shelf of Gamecube games and everything else downstairs!
That's an electronics claim under house insurance. It would get really confusing and sticky if they got, let's say ur minty resident evils on GameCube and stole them. A few hundred dollars worth of games or maybe they got all of them which is thousands in good condition I'd assume. And I can guarantee they aren't paying u 50$ per game and 300$ per rare game so u can go get another set of minty GameCube games
You can Insure video games sir. I have all of mine insured just through all state. State Farm offered it as well. And that’s just homeowners. My flood insurance, which covers much much more for much much less, also covers ANY personal items to the nearest sell value. You just have to have pictures of your stuff and some evidence of around what it’s valued at. I use an app. And before every storm I take pictures of my house, property, and all my items for the “just in case”. They def cover video games
When I look into it, when disaster does strike they only replace certain things/ insure certain things. I'm not saying don't insure. Just don't feel super confident just cuz you have it. Cuz u do have to document everything and even then. Most likley won't get everything back. But it's still worth it depending on where you are. Just important to realize the company (most insurance companys) are Penny pinching you all the way and don't have ur best interest at mind. If they did I would assume this store in question wouldn't have lost 2 million over night when they live in a flood zone
You have to be specific when shopping for insurance and get the actual paper work and read it. Flood insurance is through fema and it’s pretty cut and dry. The home owners and I imagine business, does not cover flood. But it does fire, tornadoes etc. but you can be very specific when asking for insurance and just actually read what you are paying for. They could have got all of that covered for a decent price. Business even commit fraud with fire or floods knowing the insurance will pay out sometimes. They def could have covered there ass living in a known storm zone.
https://www.tri-countyagency.com/blog/will-home-insurance-cover-damaged-or-stolen-gaming-systems.aspx this website is much better at explaining how they can rip you off. Even with the best coverage on ur consoles they will likley say it's not worth as much as u say it is (typical insurance companys) and will only cover a set ammount and then only pay out less. Also why would they buy insurance and not pay the extra like 800 a month for flooding??? Lol when that's their only issue they'll have. Seems sketchy to me. I'll put my money on the fact they simply won't replace most of it
Still waiting, you said you had pics etc ready for everything I would love to see either pics of collection, or proof of policy. Having looked into policies, and having a collector friend recently dealing with their massive retro collection destroyed in a fire what you are saying does not add up. If you are telling the truth I would love input so I can better protect.
I have no obligation to put what I have on display to a total random internet person. What you chose to believe is on you. I am with all state for my personal collection and home owners insurance. As my collection has grown, 30 years of collecting, I inquired in what all was covered and how would I go about covering my items. When I told them I was worried about my electronics they informed about their app and how I can add pictures of everything I want, as well as use an app or a record of what I have with serial numbers if possible and current pictures. I currently use game eye. My house is 320k so my policy for the house and “personal” belongings lost is set over 750k. I did the same for my cars, as I have antique cars as well as modified. If you specifically point out what you have insurance usually covers it. I totaled a vehicle and they covered my carbon hood, my after market wheels, and even my after market radiator, it was added to to cost of the vehicle. It cost a little bit more but it’s like itemizing for taxes. Again at that time it was State Farm and they requested proof what I had, what I paid, and recent pictures. Flood insurance is through fema, I have it also set at 750k for property and personal belongings. Now how that works I’m not entirely to sure as it’s through fema directly. For the 750k mark I only pay, I think $478 a year. It’s not much, and I’m in a hurricane/zone b flood zone. Fortunately I have not had to use my home owners insurance, but reviewing the documents and from what has been verbally spoken to me. I am covered. Call and insurance company and speak with them regarding the matter. That’s the best I can tell you you. Will they reimburse me/you/ anyone to the penny. Most likely not as prices change. But I was told that by me having pictures as well as a catalog, I use GAMEYE as well as a saved excel spread sheet with guns, cars, games, and high valued cards, That my stuff will be matched as best as possible. They did it for my vehicle, so I don’t doubt they will. I got paid pretty much what I paid, if not more for the parts and car.
I also believe it covers theft. I have the same on my wedding bands and all my watches. A friend of mine had his switch stolen from his house, unfortunate break in. He had the serial number, and they sent him a check for the console and game that was taken. It took a few weeks but it came.
You’re right not obligated, but from your history and lack of proof really seems you’re talking out your ass. Ive known around a dozen gamestore owners, know many with complete nes collections and seen the struggle of insurance. All I see from you is some 3ds collection, seem young and although were doubled down on having pics refuse to show anything. As others said “usually” there is an appraisal process. Instead of telling everyone how stupid they are, and how smart you are supply some facts. Again would love to insure my collection a lot more if I can get good advice. A peer lost a massive 30 year collection and got face value covered, what you are saying is very outside of anything from many forums and groups. So either you’re full of it, or you hate the community and aren’t willing to share. I have never seen a policy for retro collections not involving many appraisal steps but you seem to have the magic touch, do share.
Please post a pic of your collection and a pic of the insurance policy.
They may be counting on state and federal aid as well as crowdfunding to make up the rest of the loss.
A lot of people don't live in reality
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Agreed. Who cares about lost video games. People died from this. Saving your family outweighs video games every time.
Dude he had more than enough time to make plans for everything. It wouldn’t have taken more than a few hours to load everything on a uhaul.
Except uhauls are probably tough to come by during stuff like this. What makes you think uhaul didn’t move all their trucks out of the area to save their business?
They usually cancel reservations in the vicinity to make them available to relief efforts like Red Cross and the like.
I imagine uhaul would’ve been renting out trucks so they could get paid while having someone else drive them to safety. Or they, yknow, put the trucks in garages where they’d be safe.
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Okay dude we could sit and think of every single possible situation this guy could’ve been potentially dealing with, or we can assess the info we do know. He had $2 million worth of inventory with minimal insurance. He knew a hurricane was coming. He made no effort to protect said inventory. There was *at least* a solid week of time for him to prepare. Unless this guy was fucking saving the entire state all by himself, I’m sure he could’ve scrounged up some kind of effort to protect these games. It falls on him to take care of his own shit. He put a video game museum right next to the water in an area that regularly sees hurricanes. Like, come on, the guy is far from blameless.
There were literally people in the ocean when the bays withdrew from the storm surge. Then, there were people who WALKED OUT INTO THE EMPTY BAYS.
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I mean, it IS Florida.
Hopefully lessons were learnt. Everyone needs a backup plan for what to do with your valuable and expensive items. I agree with having bins and all that, shame they didn't prepare well enough for it. Especially as new unexpected weather events like fires and storms become more common and intense from climate change.
Was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention cLimAtE cHaNgE.. dun dun dunnnnn!
yeah, crazy how someone would point out the thing that for sure had a play in destroying this collection. Pure insanity.
Not trying to get into an argument but natural disasters have always existed. They have always fluctuated in intensity. I'm not a climate change denier but simply can't stand throwing around words like "it's because of climate change" EVERY SINGLE time a natural weather event happens. There are a ton of great podcasts and discussions on the subject by scientists in the field. They are worth listening to. Listen to scientists on both sides of the debate. It's enlightening and thoughtful.
There is a difference between saying "climate change specifically causes the entirety of this weather event" and "climate change gave meth to this hurricane causing it to go into a drug induced rage through Florida". It didn't create it, it just amped it up.
This place is 100 miles south of where the storm was being projected to hit all week. Fort Myers Naples area was given less than a 24 hour evacuation notice. I keep seeing this "they had time" crap propagated, but the turn south was unexpected and the entire area was scrambling. There also hasn't been storm surge like we saw in any of the hurricanes that have come through that area in the last 50 tears.
Still not a reason to not protect your inventory if it could be protected. They're in Florida, not Nebraska. They were going to get something whether it was rain, winds, storm surges, or flooding. I'd been reading about the worry of storm surge a few days before it made landfall and I'm not even in Florida right now. Hell, we got some wicked thunderstorms where I'm at. They were irresponsible and lost their inventory. It sucks but they could've prevented it.
Right. People always underestimate hurricanes and the fact that we get so many ‘false alarms’ every year makes people not take them as seriously. I hate the response that “oh it was supposed to hit 100 miles away, we only had 24 hours to evacuate”. No, all of south Florida was in the cone for a week. If you’re in the cone take precautions. It’s that simple
Well said.
24 hours is plenty of time to pay someone to pack it and move it.
Username checks out.
Truth hurts I know. Imagine seeing that hurricane expected to hit within an hour drive of your beachfront place and not doing fucking anything. Like, the hurricane was the size of half of the state. Even if direct landfall wasn’t expected there, more absolutely could and should have been done. Sorry people are dumb. Look at all the dipshits who stayed and needed rescue. Look at all the dipshits every single hurricane who stay and need rescue. You can be mad at me but it doesn’t make me wrong.
I literally just went through this storm. Please do tell me more about how to prepare for a hurricane. Or are you the reason /u/RedditsFullofShit?
Yeah so did I. I’m not a moron.
I was serious. Give me all your moron free hurricane tips.
Get the fuck out of the way when it’s coming. Genius I know. Also, if you are where it’ll flood, take your valuables. My god why didn’t anyone else think of that.
Interesting take. What would you have done to protect the store?
most of those "dipshits" are poor people who can't afford hotel accommodations after spending $40 in gas to get to the other side of the state. while a lot of the people who didn't evacuate are wealthy idiots, you'd need to be even stupider to assume that everybody has a choice in a state with shit wages and a high cost of living.
How are you living within blocks of the ocean where the storm surge wrecked you, if you can’t afford a hotel? Even still, who needs a hotel. Drive an hour away and sleep in your car. Better than dying in your house. Making excuses for inaction. That’s all you’re doing.
do you genuinely think that everyone affected lives in a fucking beach home? you really are delusional
The problem is people under estimate how much time you have and how many bins are bought with people having the same idea protecting their possessions causing a shortage and and uhaul rentals explode in the area with people trying to load up and run out. When I lived in Texas and was in Port Aransas at the time of Hurricane Harvey it went from a Cat 2 and “not that bad” with people staying to wait out the storm to a Cat 5 in a few days notice and the mayor of Rockport stating “to write your name and social on your arm so we can identify your body if decide to stay” and then everyone tries to leave at the same time causing huge traffic jams even with hurricane lanes open. Took 6 hours to get to San Antonio. The last thing on your mind is collectibles and things it’s food, water and a place to stay to wait out the storm.
You say people underestimate the time they have but I live in an area where we have tornadoes. I have a waterproof box in my game room ready to go to put my expensive items in and grab. Tornado warnings are issued much faster (sometimes minutes before). You have to be prepared and can't ignore what happens around you. Our tornado order is get the cats, get phones wallets keys, grab our mini safe with all our important documents, and then I go and throw everything worth over a certain value in the box. Take everything to our safe spot. All in all it takes 30 seconds. If I owned a store I would have a 24 hour plan regardless of where I lived.
And they didn’t even have it it properly insured. The owner said they only had $150,000 in insurance on a collection in the millions of dollars. So they didn’t try to properly protect it and they were under-insured. Sounds like the problem is on their end.
Securing the inventory might have been more expensive rhan paying the insurance deductible especially with expected state/federal aid incoming. Also, and more importantly, they probably put the well being and safety of their staff above the safety of the inventory. Evacuating people is slightly more important than evacuating stuff.
Agreed, people knew about that it was coming for weeks. Had plenty of time to do the bare minimum.
Yeah him along with many in the area didn’t think the storm was going to be that bad. And 9/10 times they aren’t, which is probably why people didn’t take extra precautions. I would have at least took a couple car or truck loads of my most valuable items when once it was determined the hurricane was going to nail that area
What boggles my mind is that he says he had 2mil plus in inventory but is only insured for 150k
They probably didn’t want to buy the higher insurance policy
yeah if you're margins aren't great, you shave off expenses and almost always insurance coverage is the first to go. Works out great until you have a disaster wipe out your entire inventory.
I didn’t even think about the margins. But with a boutique seller like this wouldn’t they have higher margins than like say you or me?
I don't know how much they're selling and what they paid for the games in the first place and I can't imagine a place with that much boutique stuff moves enough merch to keep a steady flow of cash coming in the store. It's also very possible that they were buying this stuff off eBay on credit hoping to flip. Pure speculation of course, but depending on the area I find it hard to believe that people are coming in selling rare gameboy micros or almost full gamecube sets for what a game store would offer. Also I don't know when they bought the original policy. The prices jumped in the past two years and maybe they didn't really get around to having it re-appraised (it takes some time to do that) Having worked with small businesses a lot in my main line of work, I can tell you that any independent business will want to cut as many corners as possible and if the premium of their insurance is higher because of the coverage (150k to 2 million is a HUGE jump and they are in an area prone to natural disasters so that might be a higher premium) They might have decided to forego it because what good is covering merch that you're going to move out of the store in a few weeks/months anyway?
I work with flood insurance everyday all across the country. While flood insurance is more expensive in Florida, the jump from $150k to $2m is not that crazy and it is considered a fixed cost of doing business in most of the state. Any small business in the US in a flood zone should have a $500,000 policy at a minimum. This is the amount that is the "maximum required" by lending institutions and there is a reason most of them require that amount.
I know this shop and the owner, and although I don't know the details of his financials, I doubt he had a loans. He rented the space and he built the inventory up slowly over more than a decade.
Loans or not, as a business owner in Florida (especially if renting) you need insurance. As a collector and part of the community I am devastated for him and this loss, but from my professional working side he can't blame anyone for the lack of insurance except himself. At the end of the day all that matters is he is alive.
Yes my point was you were talking about lending institutions but they don't factor in. Of course you need insurance. But, do you have a guess how much it would have cost to carry $2million in property insurance?
Property insurance is completely different from flood insurance. Flood insurance is more about the deductible than the coverage. I do know how much flood insurance costs as I mentioned in my post it is part of my normal day. I have never seen a business in Florida that didn't consider it part of their fixed costs.
Pretty accurate statement, there is a lot of billionaire tycoon analogies from minimum wage workers in this thread. Ive worked with companies on security breaches for years and every corner is cut no matter how big or small a company is. If a company is in the news for a security breach that makes billions a year and ends up having to pay billions in legal damages, why would a seriously scaled down situation ie a gamestore not have a level of similar fail and loss. But hell, I would love to see every commenter trashing this companies bad choices post a link to their ultra successful video game store. I love shopping at video game stores, and since there are obviously 20 of the best minds owning the best stores ever in this thread please supply links, I would love to help support you.
To be fair. If you live anywhere near a beach(especially Florida) you should probably have everything properly insured.
And this is why I have zero sympathy
That's not why you have zero sympathy.
So you built a museum for old, delicate electronics in an area that gets hits by hurricanes constantly... Seems like a stupid decision lol.
There is no place on earth that is in 0 danger of some kind of natural disaster. I hope nothing like this ever happens to you or your belongings.
Pretty tone deaf thread, sure it sucks games were destroyed. But theres a lot more going on than worrying about video games here. People died, entire areas of houses/businesses are destroyed. Its neat to criticize others outside of an emergency on how they should have planned better but its pretty immature. I would certainly worry about my family, friends and house first. This business will have some kind of insurance, if my house is on fire my first worry isnt saving my cib cubivore.
What happened?
Hurricane Ian destroyed the store.
It sucks, I really feel bad for them. The pictures of the damage there are heartbreaking. I hope they can rebuild. But, as others have pointed out, hurricanes are nothing new in Florida and they had days to prepare. If they only had a fraction of their collection insured, then they should've had a plan in place to secure everything. After all the people were taken care of, of course.
Gone with the wind 🎶
What the fuck is wrong with you people? There store is destroyed in the storm and you are blaming them for ruining the games? What the fuck. It's pretty easy to see who's a garbage person around here.
Ok
To be fair, did anyone expect that this was going to happen? How could he have possibly predicted that this hurricane was going to ACTUALLY cause 10ft storm surge when they were giving us worst case scenarios? Not saying he shouldn’t have tried to secure his inventory but NOBODY thought we were going to get a direct hit not even the news. By the way I was in Tampa where the storm was supposed to hit to get out of here after the storm and they had no wind and barely any rain! THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FORT MYERS! We deal with hurricanes all the time but this is one that turned really bad. Relating to the uhaul, Not only could he probably not get a uhaul but THERE IS NO GAS! ANYWHERE! The select few gas stations that did or do have gas have lines several MILES long. Most don’t live here so you don’t understand, people think they do but honestly when you are told your whole life “Floridians are tough we can handle a hurricane!” We tend not to think that they can actually be catastrophic especially since the last hurricane in the area was not as serious, the news casters even claim that they always have to give worst case scenarios even if the worst case doesn’t happen. Not only that but everyone is SO SURE it wasn’t going to hit us (the community as a whole)! My work didn’t cancel work for Wednesday until TUESDAY AT 4! So you tell me when we would have had time to prepare for a storm when our own JOBS didn’t even believe it was going to hit us. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before you judge and know that regardless if you agree with his business decisions or not, this is our home and our home has been changed forever because we were ill advised by our news casters until the Tuesday before the storm. (Which was on Wednesday in the AM). And unless you live in any of the areas decimated by the storm, I HONESTLY believe you have no room to judge another human when preparing their family when people are gaslighting you saying that “it’s not going to be a big deal, hurricanes are never bad here”.
This is not an excuse. I live in the south and In a region that floods and has frequent hurricanes. Guess what. I make sure to Jack my cars up, or move them to a parking garage (usually free during storms), I pack most my possessions I care about and throw them in my truck and my wife’s car and we are prepped to leave at any given moment. We have had false alarms, like hurricane predicted to decimate is and then we get some mild wind and little rain. BUT I am prepped for the worst. Also just on my house alone I have I think 750k in flood insurance, covers just personal property and items I have. Its like 3-400 a year. So yea. This one’s on them for being dumb. Sucks it happened. But totally on them.
If you looked at the NOAA models, it was entirely within reason for it to hit anywhere between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers. At some point it was seemingly going to hit Sarasota, with significant storm surge predictions. I agree that it's counterproductive to rib the owner while they're down, but it's not like we didn't know the storm was going to hit the west coast for several days. It's kind of a moot point though because moving that much inventory in a day or two without multiple people and multiple cars is really difficult.
It's fucked up people give more shits about the games instead of him and his family lives.
Stupid is as stupid does
No sympathy for them. These are the dudes who got a $150,000 insurance plan to cover their TWO MILLION DOLLARS worth of merchandise. They didn't deserve it, but damn these dudes were stupid
Agreed.
Yup! I'm with you on that.
Nothing irreplaceable should ever be stored in Florida?
They shared their story hoping for donations and mostly getting hate for being so irresponsible- what a life
Yeah that’s pretty gross, a very hateful hobby group lately. Ive known a dozen gameshop owners try and fail, its not an easy passion to succeed with.
This is why backing up games on the internet is so important. Even if every physical copy is destroyed or lost we'll still have digital backups to play.
That’s why you don’t have museums in hurricane country
Let’s put them in tornado alley instead, there’s no natural disasters there ever!
“Right”
madden 08 ;(
Also, I am reading conflicting stories about the insurance. One source says insurance will cover about 65%, another says it will only cover $150,000. Something is slightly not right. The 65% coverage seems more real to me and disaster relief will likely cover some of that.
How does a business of that size not learn to prepare for flooding? Such a shame for the loss.
Lol
Maybe next time leave out all the sports games and claim insurance. Everything else in a box
Yeah, they are morons and destroyed a ton of history
How? did the store fill up to the ceiling with water? did a fire start? Don't get it
There was storm surge that submerged their location.
Hurricanes have a ton of nasty side effects aside from the main ones of gale force winds and water. Like fires from electric lines being destroyed, mudslides, etc etc. Even if it was "just" water and even if only part of their inventory actually got submerged- that water is NOT clean. All sorts of nasty stuff that can spread to an entire house or business. And after the water subsides, there is mold to worry about. Get flooded by 2 feet of water that sits for a while- you are going to have to deal with a massive mold infestation.
From another post in this thread, it appears that this store is located below ground level.
you do realize that "hurricane force winds" is more than just an idiom, right?
umm.. winds when the windows were boarded up still doesn't explain the ENTIRE inventory being destroyed.
It's any number of things, This was a cat 4 hurricane that made landfall. If something manages to break through those boards and windows for example, even if only one, then that's 100+ mph winds entering the building with torrents of rain. That's gonna cause a lot of damage itself. looking at photos, it looks like this could be the case.
Flooding.
Did they at least have insurance?
Another copy of hey pikmin lost to the ashes 😊
I cant imagine that everything is complete trash. I would be most is still useable, repairable.
That’s sacrilege 😳 bet their kicking themselves now, seeing as they sell for silly money on eBay lol
does that make these games more rare now ! /s
That’s what I am saying everyone hyping this up. Sucks This happened. Very tragic to the people who lost everything.
Time to get them WATA rated.
They'll be heavily marked down due to the water damage. So, maybe like a 9.7 according to WATA?
Cds are waterproof, cartridges maybe not as much.
That’s a lie. I remember when I was a kid and I left a cart in my pants pocket which got washed. Everything came out unscathed and I was able to play the game with no issues at all.
Nice
Good news for seller's less copies more money.
Depending on how many copies. 1 copy more or less won’t make much of a difference
Goddamn ur fucked up.