When it comes to buying new vidya games and such, for the past few years, I have been visiting my local game store, VIP Games. Mainly because they give me good money for my trades, and back when I was looking to get a  PS5, they went above and beyond to get me one. Ever since then, they have had my business.

They don’t just sell games; they also sell toys, collectibles, old consoles, rare and obscure things, all pop culture related. For the past few visits, every time we got, Marlay, my oldest, goes straight to this Nezuko action figure, being the Demon Slayer fan that she is, and her love for the character, well, not much to say there. The problem was the price tag, 75 USD. It is not just your typical action figure; this one comes with multiple face expressions, body parts, and more.

Today, we visited the store. The plan was this: I already had 31 USD in credit, and was going to trade in a game or two in hopes of having enough to buy Pokémon™ Pokopia. Like on every visit, Marley went to the Nezuko figure, and being the very last, she got anxious. At that moment, my idea was to ask if layaway was still a thing to do, a thing I used to do a lot back in my youth, lol. The lady said, not regularly, but for this situation, they’ll do it. They take my games, they price me out, and I had made, including the credit I already had, 70 USD.

And this is when, rather than ask for the game I wanted, I decided to just use the credit to get Marley’s Nezuko. I know what it is to want something, not being able to get it, and maybe, just maybe, a miracle may happen. I didn’t even ask if they had the game; I just gave them the box with the figure. I was 80 cents short, which I was okay to cover, right, and yet, the guys at the store said, “I’ll just put an extra 80 cents on your account, nobody is gonna get mad about 80 cents.

Because of things like this, this is why I keep coming back to this store. It smells weird, but it is so worth it.