Yeah but then you miss out on the funny offers
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- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
Yeah but then you miss out on the funny offers
The problem with the best offers is that the seller can't really keep them to a later date, he has to reply instantly. Too many times I see items being priced outrageously, if I were to make a reasonable offer the seller would just dismiss it for not being his hidden asking price. If they could stock my offer and get back to it a couple months later when they realise that it really won't sell for the asking price, and think again about my offer.
I've been in the position of your buyer, though not for a game boy player (which I don't know the value of). Sellers asking for near hundred, with a best offer option, when the sold price is more around 40 in the same condition. Usually it's for uncommon items that show up once every few months, but people tend to confuse rarity and value, and as such tend to price high uncommon crap. I tend not to make an offer at all any more when my offer would be below half of the asked price, because regardless of the actual value of the item, I know the seller will scoff at it.
I've been in the position of your buyer, though not for a game boy player (which I don't know the value of). Sellers asking for near hundred, with a best offer option, when the sold price is more around 40 in the same condition. Usually it's for uncommon items that show up once every few months, but people tend to confuse rarity and value, and as such tend to price high uncommon crap. I tend not to make an offer at all any more when my offer would be below half of the asked price, because regardless of the actual value of the item, I know the seller will scoff at it.
NormalFish
Banned
Yeah, I've made comparable offers and had them accepted. Also had them declined, of course. Ebay is so inflated that it's hard not to send such offers at times.
IrishNinja
Member
okay so, i opened up my 2600, and lo & behold, the power source was indeed loose! like, entirely...it was just barely attached to the controller ports in the back by an old, failing piece of tape. it has 3 pins on it (1 bent, i tried to fix that) so i slotted it back into the indenture on the board itself where it'd go, retaped it & was hopeful...but the system doesn't have an LED light on it (as i recall) and i'm not getting anything on channels 3 or 4 on my CRT with it over coaxial, so im thinking ill try on my roommate's plasma (just gotta find the ANT or whatever channel) and if no signal there, i'm gonna assume it's a loss
unless anyone here has any ideas?
haha ive had the opposite! item is $35, i offer $26 - declined
$30 - declined
$33 - declined
im left thinking okay, this guy really only wanted $35 or just doesnt want my $
unless anyone here has any ideas?
haha ive had the opposite! item is $35, i offer $26 - declined
$30 - declined
$33 - declined
im left thinking okay, this guy really only wanted $35 or just doesnt want my $
NormalFish
Banned
I remember my copy of super metroid was particularly funny. It's up for a bit south of 60$. I bid 45 initially, autodeclined, bid 48, autodeclined, bid 50 last offer, autodeclined.
About a week later he puts it on sale for 50.80 or something. I buy it.
Guess he needed that 80c or whatever it was.
About a week later he puts it on sale for 50.80 or something. I buy it.
Guess he needed that 80c or whatever it was.
Which 2600 is it? Looking at pictures of boards online I don't get what you are describing. The socket is directly soldered to the board?
I'd get a modern power supply, even if you just buy another 2600. They are much smaller, and won't heat as much as the original one. Plus you'd be sure it would work.
The 2600rgb mod comes with a new power regulator, as old 7805 are super inefficient. If yours blew up and you were considering going for RGB, maybe buy the kit and start by replacing the power regulator to see if it solves your problem?
Same here. Game was $37 and he kept declining reasonable offers. I asked what his deal was and to negotiate back if he didn't like my numbers. He came back with $35. And that wasn't the only time, like recently someone had a $9.50 BIN for a Wii game manual and he would only go down a whopping 50 cents to $9... Regular people giving crummier deals than the worst retail store sales.
I've gotten some amazing deals with Best Offer, but too often it's stuff like the above, and stupidly drawn out for days so that everyone's time is wasted and you get stuff much later than anticipated. Because of that I now prefer to be patient and find a straight Buy it Now that's lower anyway. If I see an item for $40 with BO and another for $37, I just go with the $37 listing.
Oh and most auctions are a waste of time that end up with similar or higher final bids than a dozen BINs of the same game. Too much bidding frenzy for retro stuff these days.
NormalFish
Banned
The best use for best offer is when there's a rather unheard of game that no one knows how to price. I got Sagaia for the GB for about 50% of the best list price because it had been listed for a long time without any interest, and no one knew the price (only like 4 CIB listings at the time).
IrishNinja
Member
yeah, cold comfort to know i'm not alone in the best offer dept, haha
yeah, i totally get that it was likely soldered before...hence why im figuring my mere taping it back & having contact with the pins might not be enough.
i'm using a modern power supply, not interested in RGB for this thing at the moment...ill take pics later, it's the woodgrain model with the black & white switch on it, amongst others. thinking ill have to find another system eventually, at least they're not too pricey!
yeah, i totally get that it was likely soldered before...hence why im figuring my mere taping it back & having contact with the pins might not be enough.
i'm using a modern power supply, not interested in RGB for this thing at the moment...ill take pics later, it's the woodgrain model with the black & white switch on it, amongst others. thinking ill have to find another system eventually, at least they're not too pricey!
That's so goddamn true. In general, people ought to learn to fix stuff. Timu broke my heart the other day when he admitted to throwing away "broken" things that had easy fixes.
IrishNinja
Member
Millennials, is swear. Can't even change a damn tire.
I know you're not a milennial, and are actually an old man. 
Edit: Also I am fully aware that the maintenance of a motor vehicles is a deminished skill not because millennials are somehow dumber or incapable, but because socioeconomic conditions have left the millennial generation screwed in finding the financial means to own properties that require large investments. I was merely joking and hope to not offend people of the millennial generation.
Edit: Also I am fully aware that the maintenance of a motor vehicles is a deminished skill not because millennials are somehow dumber or incapable, but because socioeconomic conditions have left the millennial generation screwed in finding the financial means to own properties that require large investments. I was merely joking and hope to not offend people of the millennial generation.
IrishNinja
Member
yeah, id prolly be poop at this from any generation, haha
like i took apart my sega genesis arcade power stick to clean it once, and ruined the rapid fire adjustment meter, plus one button no longer feels right
i got the atari opened just fine...i mean, i guess if i had a heat gun i could mess with this, it's prolly not getting any deader
like i took apart my sega genesis arcade power stick to clean it once, and ruined the rapid fire adjustment meter, plus one button no longer feels right
i got the atari opened just fine...i mean, i guess if i had a heat gun i could mess with this, it's prolly not getting any deader
I don't think one of them would be easy as one of the dvd drives have to be manually open and closed, as in you have to push or pull the drive itself and can't use the button at all. It's not normal as you should never have to push or pull the dvd drive at all, you should have to just push the button, but the button doesn't do anything, and the dvd drive doesn't detect games anymore anyways.
Sounds like a connector just came lose. Maybe the power connector.
socksfelloff
Member
No its true. I'm 29 and most of my generation is completely useless. I know far too many people from my generation living at home with no real skills. Not to mention no one knows how to communicate anymore with todays god dang cellular phones ruining everything.
I wish I was born in the 60s/70s
I wish I was born in the 60s/70s
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Wouldn't say I'd prefer to be born in the 60s/70s, but yes, our generation is pretty much garbage, in part for the reasons you stated.
That said, I will fix some fucking electronics.
socksfelloff
Member
I started working at full time when I was 13 building display driver boards and microprocessor boards for elevators. There were no summer holidays for me. Those skills have lasted me a lifetime however. I made alot of money in high school installing modchips too.
Once you learn how to solder and build basic circuits you can start collecting boxes full of shit you'll never use ! I can't even throw anything out because one day I may need that power supply or I can de solder that usb port and use it for something else etc.
That's what she said.
I have permanent nerve damage in the tips of my left fingers from an electrical explosion. It really comes in handy for soldering LOL. I can hold onto resistors etc while i solder them in place!
sixteen-bit
Member
y'all are too young to act like curmudgeons lmao
NormalFish
Banned
socksfelloff
Member
Get off my lawn.
davidwhangchoi
Member
LOL
socksfelloff
Member
NormalFish
Banned
lmao. hands of steel.
sixteen-bit
Member
yeah there's a wealth of stock photography of people holding soldiering irons like that
Shin Johnpv
Member
Oh I finally found this.
Their hands must be pure asbestos to do that.
Also yeah learning some soldering is damn important, I'm glad I finally went ahead and learned how to.
This video is helpful too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7qzlGvcSCU
Wow, can't say I'd rather be born in the 60's. I'd have like zero civil rights back then. lol
I was born in 84. That was a good year, if I say so myself.
The best year brother!
Welp, another text adventure game got! This time it's Colossal Adventure, the first ever text adventure game. Because I don't have space at home to host the original mainframe computer to run the original code, I settled for a port on a Z80 8bit computer (my old Amstrad CPC), which is actually an expanded version of the original game, Adventure. It came as part of a trilogy containing also Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure, the two sequels of the original game.
As usual it comes in a fancy box, with lengthy instructions, including a 46 pages long novella that sets up the world and story. My copy being sold in Germany, it has also a small leaflet with gameplay instructions translated in German. The game itself being a textual game entirely in English requiring proficiency in the language, having translated instructions for the non-English speaking local is somewhat amusing.
And as an added bonus, the game comes with the most surprising copy-protection device ever: the Lenslok. Around the middle of the game, and every time you want to load a previous game, the Lenslok copy-protection screen appears. You then need to take the prism-like transparent plastic thingy, hold it on your screen and try to decipher the characters you are supposed to see:
Needless to say, this is quite annoying to do. You need to hold the device in place for calibration, and then, without moving, press a key on the keyboard to get the actual code, then enter it. Of course, it wouldn't be fun enough as it is, so there is an additional time limit for entering the code. I only managed to get it right on my third attempt, and I suspect another funny behaviour: the code can be either caps or lowercase characters, but the game locks the keyboard in uppercase mode! It's common to have uppercase only in these sort of games, but the Lenslok thing didn't seem to have been adjusted for it. Or maybe I just got it wrong, who knows.
I'll probably just ditch a pirated copy in the box so I don't have to deal with this stuff. Yet another example of a copy-protection that only annoys legitimate users, while pirates laugh and play the game unhindered.
As usual it comes in a fancy box, with lengthy instructions, including a 46 pages long novella that sets up the world and story. My copy being sold in Germany, it has also a small leaflet with gameplay instructions translated in German. The game itself being a textual game entirely in English requiring proficiency in the language, having translated instructions for the non-English speaking local is somewhat amusing.
And as an added bonus, the game comes with the most surprising copy-protection device ever: the Lenslok. Around the middle of the game, and every time you want to load a previous game, the Lenslok copy-protection screen appears. You then need to take the prism-like transparent plastic thingy, hold it on your screen and try to decipher the characters you are supposed to see:
Needless to say, this is quite annoying to do. You need to hold the device in place for calibration, and then, without moving, press a key on the keyboard to get the actual code, then enter it. Of course, it wouldn't be fun enough as it is, so there is an additional time limit for entering the code. I only managed to get it right on my third attempt, and I suspect another funny behaviour: the code can be either caps or lowercase characters, but the game locks the keyboard in uppercase mode! It's common to have uppercase only in these sort of games, but the Lenslok thing didn't seem to have been adjusted for it. Or maybe I just got it wrong, who knows.
I'll probably just ditch a pirated copy in the box so I don't have to deal with this stuff. Yet another example of a copy-protection that only annoys legitimate users, while pirates laugh and play the game unhindered.
Ha, great stock pic of soldering. However, I am now more interested in if that is a man or woman. I first thought man, but now looking at the ring maybe woman, but then those man hands! Woman with man hands, is this Seinfeld? People in Retro-Gaf might actually get Seinfeld references, lol.
I have been looking for a new soldering station knowing I will be doing some later on. I only have the shitty pen by itself type iron now (which is a small step above worthless). It worked on my RC cars back in the day but it won't cut it for gaming stuff.
That Lenslok DRM looks...quite annoying.
I have been looking for a new soldering station knowing I will be doing some later on. I only have the shitty pen by itself type iron now (which is a small step above worthless). It worked on my RC cars back in the day but it won't cut it for gaming stuff.
That Lenslok DRM looks...quite annoying.
That's what I was thinking for a brief moment! lol
I have a simple Weller station. It's adjustable temp and the iron plugs into it. It was cheap, iirc.
I think I have a Weller station in my "save for later" cart at Amazon. I haven't needed one yet so I am waiting to buy it.
FWIW, I remember watching this enthusiastic guy talk soldering tools/techniques a while back, very informative. (I found it via retrorgb.com)
sixteen-bit
Member
Soldering truly is an invaluable skill with this hobby.
I'm a TOTAL amateur, but I have soldered in a new AC adapter input in my SNES when the old one broke off, I did the back light mod on my GBA, and I've repaired and modified arcade sticks to work on multiple systems.
As long as you take your time and follow instructions/tutorials, you can do it!
I'm a TOTAL amateur, but I have soldered in a new AC adapter input in my SNES when the old one broke off, I did the back light mod on my GBA, and I've repaired and modified arcade sticks to work on multiple systems.
As long as you take your time and follow instructions/tutorials, you can do it!
My first job was fixing an OG Xbox monster component cable. I was nervous and was getting a bit frustrated because I had the temp too high and I kept evaporating all the solder I tried to apply. lol It worked out in the end though, and I brought the component cable back to life.
I've leaned a bit more by doing some mods and replacing dried up batteries in carts since then, and just last week I fixed my 360 wireless receiver. It had a blown fuse. All I did was desolder it and bridged the contacts with a solder ball. Works fine now. Thank you soldering skills!
Yup, any retro enthusiast definitely needs to learn how to solder eventually. It's really rewarding when you finish a project too. I'm prepping for recapping my Game Gear next month, and I'm quite excited for the project.
This is awesome, Khaz! Adventure Games were what got me into gaming, and I always loved all the "goodies" that came in those lovely giant PC boxes. Shame the copy protection is so aggravating.
This is awesome, Khaz! Adventure Games were what got me into gaming, and I always loved all the "goodies" that came in those lovely giant PC boxes. Shame the copy protection is so aggravating.
PumpkinSpice
Banned
I've been soldering since I was 9 years old. It's so easy a 9 year old can do it! At that point mostly just wires and hooking stuff up, but it became useful even when I was young when I was cleaning my PS1 controllers and the rumble motor fell out, or to fix the controller connectors on my Sega Genesis, or fixing a busted fuse on my PS2.
I had to do this like 6 years ago. Also replaced the wire to be much shorter since it was absurdly long. Still works 10 years after I bought it thanks to those fixes.
I had to do this like 6 years ago. Also replaced the wire to be much shorter since it was absurdly long. Still works 10 years after I bought it thanks to those fixes.
Soldering is easy once you know how. I got my batch of eeprom chips today, and this cart only took me a matter of mere minutes to complete:
(process: remove old maskrom, add new rom chip, hook up voltage reg to 5v+ground). I also replaced the battery of course.
Is it required that the wiring has to look like Mario's moustache? this is too high level!
This is actually all good stuff, thanks for the video links people.
I have a bunch of chips that need soldering and I have zero skills, I think I'll be starting with making my psone region free before moving on to my beloved dreamcast which has a much more complex looking region free chip.
socksfelloff
Member
The mario mustache is a must for nintendo carts only.
You can easily use a boot disc for dreamcast region free.
Yeah I use one but I'd prefer to just put the disc straight in and have it boot. Plus most of my collection is PAL and my preferred DC is that delicious NTSC Sega sports console.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Boot discs are for losers. Having to swap discs made playing imports so unenjoyable back in the day. Let's move past that horse shit.
socksfelloff
Member
IrishNinja
Member
modchip & region free mid-tier scrub class reporting for duty
PS how did this dude change out my battery but it's still asking for the date every time i boot it up though, haha
PS how did this dude change out my battery but it's still asking for the date every time i boot it up though, haha
IrishNinja
Member
nah, the internal one! when i had my system & VGA box modded a couple years back, dude switched it for me & just said to play it to keep it charged, but now even that dont work...poor thing always thinks its '98, god bless it