ABOUT NOSTOS

My name is Will.

Auburn, 2011. We had a rear projection TV the size of a small car in our fraternity house and a copy of Mario Tennis for N64, and we used to pack that living room. Someone came up with a name for whenever a shot threaded the needle between doubles partners: "splits mcgrits." It stuck, and I still think about it every time I see a pickleball court. That's what I'm trying to build access to.

I spent years in data and customer experience, most recently at a company that got acquired by a private equity firm. The work I'd cared about stopped mattering inside the new structure, the team I'd helped build was being let go one by one, and I wanted out. I wanted to build something where my decisions connected to people I could actually see and talk to, in the community I live in.

Gwinnett County is one of the most diverse places in the country. Old families who remember when these roads were dirt. First-generation immigrants who grew up with hardware that most stores around here have never thought to stock. Kids who are just getting into it now. Nobody was building a store for all of them, and that bothered me, so I decided to do something about it.

I went to a show in Huntsville recently and spent real time with Retro Rick of Retro Rick's GamePoint, the owner of Rad Junk, RNG Gamer, and others. Everyone was warm and supportive. This hobby has a real community behind it, and I want NOSTOS to be a good part of that.

I'm not trying to get famous, and I'm not running this as a showcase for my own collection. I want to be the place where a parent finds a Wii and a few games and gives their family a game night they'll still be talking about years later. The place where someone recreates the Halo LAN party. The place that fixes your drifting controller so you don't have to buy a new one.

Come Home. Buy, sell, or reach out: will@nostos.market

Who Runs It

NOSTOS is owned and operated by Will, a lifelong collector with hands-on expertise in the areas NOSTOS specializes in.

Will has expertise in retro game authentication, domestic and Japanese imports, including cartridge board inspection, label dating, and reproduction detection. He has performed capacitor restoration on PC Engine, Famicom, and Super Famicom hardware. He maintains a reference library of verified authentic hardware and software for comparison grading, one of the few tools that consistently separates authentication from guesswork.

On the apparel side, Will grades vintage clothing using tag forensics, screen print aging, and construction analysis - including single-stitch dating methodology, Champion tag evolution, and deadstock identification.

All buy/sell/trade pricing is run against live PriceCharting data and eBay completed sales - not intuition, not guesswork, not lowball offers dressed up as market rates.

The Inventory Philosophy

NOSTOS carries items that are worth carrying. That means verified authentic hardware and software, condition-graded and priced honestly. Japanese imports - Famicom, Super Famicom, PC Engine, Neo Geo AES and MVS, WonderSwan - alongside domestic classics. Vintage apparel selected for era accuracy, construction quality, and cultural relevance.

What NOSTOS does not carry: Funko Pops. Pokemon slabs as financial instruments. Modern remakes misrepresented as originals. Fast fashion pretending to be vintage. Mass-market collector bait.

Why Gwinnett

Gwinnett County - and Duluth specifically - has one of the most diverse, culturally rich populations in Georgia. A large part of this community grew up with Japanese and Korean gaming hardware, the consoles and software that most American stores have never bothered to stock. The demand for authentic import hardware, Japanese-market software, and culturally specific vintage apparel is real and under-served by the current local retail landscape.

NOSTOS is built for the Northside. Not imported from elsewhere, not optimized for a national audience. Built here, for here.

Technical Expertise

• 01 Retro game authentication: domestic and Japanese imports (NES, SNES, Famicom, Super Famicom, PC Engine, Neo Geo)
• 02 Japanese hardware capacitor restoration: PC Engine, Famicom, Super Famicom
• 03 CRT display setup: RGB modding, SCART/OSSC/RetroTINK signal chains
• 04 Vintage apparel authentication: single-stitch dating, tag forensics, screen print aging
• 05 Market valuation: PriceCharting methodology, loose vs. CIB grading, regional pricing variance
• 06 Japanese gaming culture and market context: regional pricing, regional exclusives, hardware revisions

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