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[Ban Puncher]

So I was at a con today and saw somebody doing something weird as heck.

They gutted Super Game Boys and Game Boy Games, and stuck them inside SNES cartridges. Then they printed out custom labels and put them on. They essentially made repro-like versions of Game Boy games that played on the SNES.

Let's wreck three things to have one thing that does exactly the same thing but now in a more limited capacity.

https://youtu.be/tcGQpjCztgA?t=6s

 

[CrashPrime]

Other than Price Charting and checking eBay, what do you guys use to gauge pricing for stuff? I am getting into this at exactly the worst time (dat Hagane!), but I am liquidating my Genesis and Dreamcast collections to feed the SNES hunger, and I need to make sure I'm not getting ripped off.

 

[RadarScope1]

Other than Price Charting and checking eBay, what do you guys use to gauge pricing for stuff? I am getting into this at exactly the worst time (dat Hagane!), but I am liquidating my Genesis and Dreamcast collections to feed the SNES hunger, and I need to make sure I'm not getting ripped off.

Those are the two sources I've been using for guaging the broader market. A third tier is using BST forums on dedicated boards like Nintendo Age, Sega-16 or Neo Geo forums to see at what prices collectors sell to other collectors. Those are usually more reasonable in some ways but the biggies are going for the same high prices everywhere, it seems.

 

[Mzo]

The only prices that matter are auctions. Don't forget that eBay and PayPal take their 15% cut when compared to a live cash transaction.

Price Charting is horribly inaccurate. It factors in the high original price instead of any best offers accepted and makes many other mistakes while using data from eBay and horrible Amazon prices.

 

[NormalFish]

The only prices that matter are auctions. Don't forget that eBay and PayPal take their 15% cut when compared to a live cash transaction.

Price Charting is horribly inaccurate. It factors in the high original price instead of any best offers accepted and makes many other mistakes while using data from eBay and horrible Amazon prices.

yup. Ebay auctions is my go-to for gauging price. I also occasionally check amazon and used game stores, since some games are cheaper/more expensive on one venue while being the alternate on another (based on supply, popularity, etc.).

 

[JaseMath]

Where can I get a mailer card for an otherwise complete Chrono Trigger? No one on eBay wants to sell theirs... *sigh*

 

[sixteen-bit]

Where can I get a mailer card for an otherwise complete Chrono Trigger? No one on eBay wants to sell theirs... *sigh*

Buy a complete one then resell it w/o the card

 

[Kobiekun]

Where can I get a mailer card for an otherwise complete Chrono Trigger? No one on eBay wants to sell theirs... *sigh*

I've only gotten lucky on a mailer card (i.e., someone selling only the mailer card) once (for Sega CD Snatcher).

In all other cases:

• Buy another complete copy that includes what you're looking for.
• Combine the best bits from both copies to make the one you'll keep.
• Sell the remaining bits as a near complete copy.

In all likelihood you'll lose some money on the deal, but at least you'll get your card. You can always make more money, but no one is making those cards anymore. Recently did this with Kid Dracula for Game Boy and it was totally worth it.

 

[SeventhSon]

To reinforce the above price advice, auctions are the best gauge. BIN asking prices are sometimes an ok ballpark level to compare to, but you have to use your own judgment on what something is worth.

I use a combination of completed auctions, community forum asking prices (forums that have marketplaces), and some BIN asking prices for "going" market price, all through a lens of my own valuation as a game and availability (not to be confused with "rarity").

My real advice: don't collect SNES games, get an SD2SNES and only get the carts for games with chips the SD2SNES can't handle, like Kirby Super Star, or Yoshi's Island.

 

[Teknoman]

If you do SD2SNES route, you've really gotta have restraint imo, unless you'll just have an instant backlog

 

[Rongolian]

Has anyone here done the Digital Audio mod for the SNES?

I've seen first hand how much of a difference using RGB vs composite/S-video makes in picture quality, but was curious if this modification is worth the hassle.

For what it's worth, I get a lot of audio buzz through my RGB connection (especially on white screens) and from what I've read this mod will eliminate that buzzing. The RGB cables I have are high quality, but maybe that's just the price of entry for using a SCART connection.

More info on the digital audio mod here : http://www.retrorgb.com/snesdigitalaudio.html

 

[NormalFish]

Has anyone here done the Digital Audio mod for the SNES?



I've seen first hand how much of a difference using RGB vs composite/S-video makes in picture quality, but was curious if this modification is worth the hassle.

For what it's worth, I get a lot of audio buzz through my RGB connection (especially on white screens) and from what I've read this mod will eliminate that buzzing. The RGB cables I have are high quality, but maybe that's just the price of entry for using a SCART connection.

More info on the digital audio mod here : http://www.retrorgb.com/snesdigitalaudio.html

I was looking into TOSLink audio for games last night. Seems that this mod is the audio solution for snes, though I don't have first hand experience.

 

[Peltz]

Has anyone here done the Digital Audio mod for the SNES?



I've seen first hand how much of a difference using RGB vs composite/S-video makes in picture quality, but was curious if this modification is worth the hassle.

For what it's worth, I get a lot of audio buzz through my RGB connection (especially on white screens) and from what I've read this mod will eliminate that buzzing. The RGB cables I have are high quality, but maybe that's just the price of entry for using a SCART connection.

More info on the digital audio mod here : http://www.retrorgb.com/snesdigitalaudio.html

It may be more worth it to invest in a shielded + grounded RGB cable from retro_console_accessories on ebay to get rid of the buzzing. For some reason, I don't trust sound mods.

But I'm also a known weirdo/purist when it comes to certain types of mods. So maybe don't listen to me
;-)

 

[Mercutio]

It may be more worth it to invest in a shielded + grounded RGB cable from retro_console_accessories on ebay to get rid of the buzzing. For some reason, I don't trust sound mods.

But I'm also a known weirdo/purist when it comes to certain types of mods. So maybe don't listen to me
;-)

I bought the same cable, and the buzzing on my snes went away immediately. It sounds fantastic now! +1 on that.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

.

 

[Like the hat?]

Kickstarter for a new SNES game, with a physical cart option

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...y-hunter-and-the-caverns-of-dea?ref=discovery

 

[Shadow Hog]

A little bothered that there isn't a single screenshot in the entire page.

Maybe the video has actual footage, but if you can't even take a screenshot, I have my doubts.

 

[Mzo]

The video has footage that contains the slowest jump I have ever seen.

I was a little curious until I saw Gamester81's giant meathooks. Not a fan.

 

[blast processed]

I've heard about this game on the All Gen Gamers Podcast. I really don't care for gamester81 which is why I stopped listening. Overall this game looks very meh and the jumping seems very floaty.

 

[D.Lo]

Whoa the labels and carts on the page are embarrassingly poorly done.

Game looks like an NES game too.

 

[Jhriad]

The only prices that matter are auctions. Don't forget that eBay and PayPal take their 15% cut when compared to a live cash transaction.

Price Charting is horribly inaccurate. It factors in the high original price instead of any best offers accepted and makes many other mistakes while using data from eBay and horrible Amazon prices.

Yep. Tons of old data on there that's just flat out wrong and it skews the prices in such a way as to add unnecessary upward pressure on prices in the market.

 

[Mercutio]

Whoa the labels and carts on the page are embarrassingly poorly done.

Game looks like an NES game too.

Ooof. Wow. That looks like a game you'd gut for the cart shell, and not feel even a little bad about it.

 

[ZealousD]

Yep. Tons of old data on there that's just flat out wrong and it skews the prices in such a way as to add unnecessary upward pressure on prices in the market.

The only thing putting upward pressure on the market is demand exceeding supply. If there were more sellers than buyers than prices would go down, Price Charting be damned.

 

[theSlacker]

The only thing putting upward pressure on the market is demand exceeding supply. If there were more sellers than buyers than prices would go down, Price Charting be damned.

You would be surprised. There are a number of games now that just have and continue to have the same listings and prices pushed over and over even though the game itself isn't really that "rare". Resellers just control so much of the stock that there is nothing to bring it down and eventually someone will buy it. And because of that situation if there is a good deal or someone lowers a price the first to normally get it is another reseller, who will then need to make a profit on it.

This is just where we are. Guess nothing I'm saying has anything to do with price charting, just the overall situation of certain retro games.

 

[sixteen-bit]

You would be surprised. There are a number of games now that just have and continue to have the same listings and prices pushed over and over even though the game itself isn't really that "rare". Resellers just control so much of the stock that there is nothing to bring it down and eventually someone will buy it. And because of that situation if there is a good deal or someone lowers a price the first to normally get it is another reseller, who will then need to make a profit on it.

This is just where we are. Guess nothing I'm saying has anything to do with price charting, just the overall situation of certain retro games.

I remember someone earlier in the thread mentioning how copies of Earthbound were being listed ate a rate faster than they were being sold, yeah the prices weren't budging.

 

[NormalFish]

I remember someone earlier in the thread mentioning how copies of Earthbound were being listed ate a rate faster than they were being sold, yeah the prices weren't budging.

Almost positive I've run into this proverbial reseller brick wall with Suikoden II. Every one that gets listed for a lower (probably more "accurate" price) gets snatched by a reseller and listed a month later at some 25-50% mark up.

 

[Mercutio]

I remember someone earlier in the thread mentioning how copies of Earthbound were being listed ate a rate faster than they were being sold, yeah the prices weren't budging.

For a while, Rondo of Blood on PCE was doing the same thing. The prices were going up, but they were still being listed faster than they were selling. Only just now has the well started to run a little dry, and the price is hovering between $150 and $190. I've been fascinated for the past year to see if there was actually an end to the stock of the game: my copy was something like $90 a year ago and I actually got the spine cards.

 

[Version 3.0]

Almost positive I've run into this proverbial reseller brick wall with Suikoden II. Every one that gets listed for a lower (probably more "accurate" price) gets snatched by a reseller and listed a month later at some 25-50% mark up.

My friend was bitching to me years ago that a single guy was buying up all the TurboGrafx CD units (among other TG stuff) and cornering the market on eBay, so he could charge whatever he wanted. And it worked - after a few weeks, my friend paid through the nose for a CD unit.

I saw the same thing with Fortress Maximus, the largest Transformers toy, and all his parts.

I'm not sure whether I should feel extreme anger or grudging admiration.

 

[Peagles]

Almost positive I've run into this proverbial reseller brick wall with Suikoden II. Every one that gets listed for a lower (probably more "accurate" price) gets snatched by a reseller and listed a month later at some 25-50% mark up.

This happens all the time on my local auction website, and they relist at a premium for years sometimes because they want top dollar so badly. I get email notifications about listings and honestly I see the same overpriced crap month after month after month. On the rare occasion I sell something, I lower the price when I relist, but these guys never do.

At least I can tolerate eBay, it's so big I hardly notice items moving from seller to seller.

 

[NormalFish]

This happens all the time on my local auction website, and they relist at a premium for years sometimes because they want top dollar so badly. I get email notifications about listings and honestly I see the same overpriced crap month after month after month. On the rare occasion I sell something, I lower the price when I relist, but these guys never do.

At least I can tolerate eBay, it's so big I hardly notice items moving from seller to seller.

yup. When you get serious about finding a particularly rare game on ebay though, you start to notice certain people. It's pretty frustrating. I think the SNES market is bigger than the PSX market on eBay though, so it might not be as noticeable as what I'm used to.

 

[Peagles]

yup. When you get serious about finding a particularly rare game on ebay though, you start to notice certain people. It's pretty frustrating. I think the SNES market is bigger than the PSX market on eBay though, so it might not be as noticeable as what I'm used to.

Yeh I can imagine. The difference for me though is first of all a much smaller marketplace, and secondly on eBay the name of who is bidding or has won isn't revealed (it's almost kinda censored, but this might just be because I'm in NZ or something) whereas on my local site you can see the full username, so its completely transparent with who exactly is buying and selling and bidding and asking questions or whatever. All I'm able to see on eBay is who the seller is.

 

[Mzo]

Yeh I can imagine. The difference for me though is first of all a much smaller marketplace, and secondly on eBay the name of who is bidding or has won isn't revealed (it's almost kinda censored, but this might just be because I'm in NZ or something) whereas on my local site you can see the full username, so its completely transparent with who exactly is buying and selling and bidding and asking questions or whatever. All I'm able to see on eBay is who the seller is.

It's totally censored. The first and last letter that they do show don't even correspond to the user name.

It's better for me not to know who some people are, though. I would end up in jail.

 

[NormalFish]

It's totally censored. The first and last letter that they do show don't even correspond to the user name.

It's better for me not to know who some people are, though. I would end up in jail.

yeah no kidding. And even with the censor you can see if it's the same person through the combination of # of feedback, and the first and last characters. It's so obnoxious when you're looking to get something cheap and then someone with 10k feedback comes in and snipes it for like 50% higher than it was. obnoxious.

 

[theSlacker]

Yeh I can imagine. The difference for me though is first of all a much smaller marketplace, and secondly on eBay the name of who is bidding or has won isn't revealed (it's almost kinda censored, but this might just be because I'm in NZ or something) whereas on my local site you can see the full username, so its completely transparent with who exactly is buying and selling and bidding and asking questions or whatever. All I'm able to see on eBay is who the seller is.

It's totally censored. The first and last letter that they do show don't even correspond to the user name.

You can still tell who they are if it is the same person doing it constantly because they feedback isn't hidden. You can find and match that to the guy selling the same exact things a little later with no pictures for more money. On small enough markets that is. Like, say, the good/rare sega cd and Saturn games.

 

[SeventhSon]

yeah no kidding. And even with the censor you can see if it's the same person through the combination of # of feedback, and the first and last characters. It's so obnoxious when you're looking to get something cheap and then someone with 10k feedback comes in and snipes it for like 50% higher than it was. obnoxious.

aka Lukie Games

 

[Mzo]

aka Lukie Games

Fucking lol.

Screw them, their prices and their no picture having ass for real.

 

[D.Lo]

I can't believe anybody would ever buy a game without a real photograph of it. Just inconceivable.

I've been on eBay 15 years and have never once considered a listing without a real pic. What kind of idiot would?

 

[NormalFish]

I can't believe anybody would ever buy a game without a real photograph of it. Just inconceivable.

I've been on eBay 15 years and have never once considered a listing without a real pic. What kind of idiot would?

I've bought 1 thing without a picture I believe, and it was because the game was about a quarter of the price and the description was pretty all-inclusive. Generally I agree with you, though.

 

[Cheerilee]

I can't believe anybody would ever buy a game without a real photograph of it. Just inconceivable.

I've been on eBay 15 years and have never once considered a listing without a real pic. What kind of idiot would?

I remember when I first started on eBay, I tried selling some things with no pics or just crappy pics I lifted off the internet, and I got terribly low bids. Then I realized/someone told me that I needed to put more effort into my descriptions, including real pics (with handwritten notes, to prove I was the one taking the picture). I didn't have a digital camera, so I used a film camera, and put the developed pictures in a scanner. The jump in my profits was significantly more than the cost of getting pictures developed.

Nowadays, pictures are essentially free. I can't imagine anyone being so lazy as to skip that part.

 

[Timu]

I can't believe anybody would ever buy a game without a real photograph of it. Just inconceivable.

I've been on eBay 15 years and have never once considered a listing without a real pic. What kind of idiot would?

Been shopping on Amazon since like 2009 and don't have much trouble at all with retro games I got that had no pics.

 

[Peagles]

You can still tell who they are if it is the same person doing it constantly because they feedback isn't hidden. You can find and match that to the guy selling the same exact things a little later with no pictures for more money. On small enough markets that is. Like, say, the good/rare sega cd and Saturn games.

Yeh, I'd have to go looking for that though. On my local site it's all in plain view without me having to look through feedback (which isn't something I do anyway).

 

[D.Lo]

Been shopping on Amazon since like 2009 and don't have much trouble at all with retro games I got that had no pics.

That's crazy. It's like buying a used car without pics or seeing it first. It would need to be an insane bargain to be worth the risk.

Boxes manuals and labels can be damaged in so many different ways. No amount of text can cover what a photograph can.

Even WITH photographs people mislead on condition.

 

[Brock_Landers]

Yeah, I don't buy games that have label damage. Pics are mandatory

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Yeah, I don't buy games that have label damage. Pics are mandatory

If the price was really good I probably would. The only way I'd buy without a picture is probably if the price is way better than normal.

I'm trying to buy a PS1 game that isn't that rare and it's stupidly expensive due to A) nearly everything I can find being in the US and B) shipping from the US to Canada being insane due to GSP / pitney bowes and C) foreign exchange rate going stupid in the last few months. If I saw this game going so that I could get it for <$50 CDN I would totally jump on it without a pic.

 

[Palom]

I can't believe anybody would ever buy a game without a real photograph of it. Just inconceivable.

I've been on eBay 15 years and have never once considered a listing without a real pic. What kind of idiot would?

I've run into auctions with pictures of a nice item, then get one covered in stickers with bent manual and shit. "But it still matched the generic-ass eBay text description...kind of!" I've been able to get refunds when that's happened, but I still end up having to eat the return shipping. I really wish I didn't have to use eBay, but I live in a shit area where I'd need to drive about 6 hours to reach the nearest retro gaming store, and even Craigslist is a barren wasteland for older video games around here.

 

[NormalFish]

I've run into auctions with pictures of a nice item, then get one covered in stickers with bent manual and shit. "But it still matched the generic-ass eBay text description...kind of!" I've been able to get refunds when that's happened, but I still end up having to eat the return shipping. I really wish I didn't have to use eBay, but I live in a shit area where I'd need to drive about 6 hours to reach the nearest retro gaming store, and even Craigslist is a barren wasteland for older video games around here.

I live in a college town with a few retro game stores, but still use ebay. Most stuff is so horribly overpriced (and one of the stores has such obnoxious people) that I just don't want to bother with them.

 

[blast processed]

I have 2 retro stores about 20 min from me. They are pretty good with their selection but sometimes their prices are out of wack. For instance they had Turtles in Time, loose for $99 behind glass, but Mega Turrican complete on the shelf for $50. Overall I just use Ebays Buy it Now and communicate with the seller for more info an pictures usually get the price lowered and so far no issues. I feel auctions can be very deceiving.
Edit and I use BST on here on GAF

 

[RadarScope1]

I have 2 retro stores about 20 min from me. They are pretty good with their selection but sometimes their prices are out of wack. For instance they had Turtles in Time, loose for $99 behind glass, but Mega Turrican complete on the shelf for $50. Overall I just use Ebays Buy it Now and communicate with the seller for more info an pictures usually get the price lowered and so far no issues. I feel auctions can be very deceiving.
Edit and I use BST on here on GAF

I'll have to try this more. I've messaged a few sellers after an auctions or BINs have ended but they never respond.

 

[Bancho]

Im absolutely raging with myself at the moment. Blew the internal fuse up in the snes mini due to the stupid crap adapted converter i use. Wanted to play it over the weekend too!

Just had to order some small fuses off ebay but wont arrive till next week now damn it!

 

[IrishNinja]

^sorry to hear it man

and yeah selling to Lukie is one thing, buying from? never that