Shantai

I almost got my friend to set up his CV/Adam collection there about 50-100 games and just about every add on. Including 10+ Prototype carts from the Barry Hausman collection. Sadly all his stuff is in storage atm tho

Review from a Vendor. (I AM NOT SIDING FOR NOR AGAINST The promoters. This is a non biased TRUE report of the Expo) I only recently learned of the debacle with Chris and the fanbase/Homebrewers on THURSDAY!. But alas I had already paid for 2 booths. ($120 per booth) Anyway here goes my report: I was one of the Vendors that did Coleco Expo. Overall the sales weren't as bad as some would think especially for the LOW attendance. (I would say 1 in 3 people bought from me, maybe even 2 outta 3 at points.) A LOT of NES games sold, but this seems to be the usual. But some stuff sold that SHOCKED me and my friend. Boxed games, COMMON kids games that collected dust for months sold en masse. Even sold some uncommon Atari games! (Perhaps it was the 5-15% below PC/eBay pricing?) Friday night: Set up was a BREEZE as the place was mostly empty/already set up. After setting up, My friend and I "browsed" the few vendors still there setting up. There was some truly RARE 8/16 bit titles for sale from PC/eBay pricing to nearly 50% MORE than PC/eBay. I decided I better get one of those homebrews from Chris in cast the show is a success and I kick myself for not getting one and Sat they sell out. Heck, I even scored a semi-scarce NES game from Chris for a great price. Chris was VERY nice to my friend and I, as well as the woman (Wife?) They answered every question I had, including the print run of the Expo Exclusive Homebrew (150). Off to Harold's Deli for dinner (WOW) and then the hotel. Saturday: I arrived at the Expo at around 8:25am? And my friend was already waiting for me. And what can I say? MANY VENDOR BOOTHS were still EMPTY. (up to 20%!) Now mind you this show was 1.5 hours from opening. Most cons/shows I do, 2 HOURS before and the place is fully set up and the vendors are buzzing around looking for mispriced product, variants and personal wants. NOTHING. I walked around and saw some crazy stuff. but only TWO vendors had Pre-Crash ColecoVision games Some Atari here and there. I saw MANY MANY vendors from previous NJGamerCons set up. So that was a joy to see some friends. Then there were the bigger STORE setups with some pretty AMAZING games/Comic Books/Pop!s for sale. Some games even close to $1,000 ea. Pricing of stuff was from great/decent to wtf WAY over eBay pricing. (But hey, when did you last see a HUGE selection of super rare games at a con besides the massive ones like TMG/PRGE/AVGC?) By 9:30ish the vendors were mostly ready. The Artists seemed to still be awol till 10. 10 am comes and goes like nothing happened. FEW people streamed in and browsed. The sound system began to "wake up" throughout the day. By Lunch there was a crowd, but not anything spectacular. People browsed and bought. This is where I was truly shocked. Most would pick up a game or two and chat among st each other about it and actually BUY the game(s). Tirekickers were few and far between. The food area was quiet, but man was the soda EXPENSIVE! $3 for a coke... What is this, Great Adventure??? The Fries were good tho for the $4.50. Many times the other vendors would walk around and shoot the shit as the crowd died out. Some points got so bad you could walk away from your booth and go peek at the Arcade and panels (Which ranged from a somewhat packed arcade to a ghosttown. It seemed that as the day progressed, the crowd got bigger. I can't say that is was packed (I never had more than 10+ people at my booth at one time), but at times it seemed like the attendence was set to explode. Alas that did NOT happen. Then IT happened. Around 3-4pm, the sound system got LOUD. So loud, I saw poor little KIDS running out of the vendor room to avoid the loud noise. Another vendor even left for the day early due to the sound. The CosPlay was not bad for the small attendance. And yes that pic you saw was probably about 70% of the total cosplayers that showed up. Around 4-5ish the place got quiet again (Attendance) so around 6 My friend pointed out to me a TEST NES box! I went back and forth and worked out a deal that made me VERY happy. Then my friend and I covered the stuff and off to the hotel. I saw many of my friends attend from previous shows on Saturday. As for the people there, most of them were VERY friendly, not a bad word was spoken or ill feelings. Sunday: I got to the Expo at around 8:30 and actually had the chance to sort ALL my inventory with no interruptions. Kinda sad. BUT on the bright side, I was able to get some bagels and make a good trade with a fellow vendor, helping him on his TG-16 collection. What really saddened me was outside at 930ish. NOONE was waiting to be let in. As 10 rolled around you were LUCKY to see a FEW and I mean A FEW people walking around. But this is usually normal with church and what not. After finally sorting all my extra stuff for AVGC (God I needed that!) I decided to browse again. Not like anyone was gonna steal. The security was actually good there. Found some goodies, browsed the vacant arcade and saw a few people in the panel room awaiting a speaker. So back to my booth to enjoy my bagel and $3 root beer... My friend showed up with stuff for us to put in the inventory. He walked around hunting Sega saturn and deals. Around 1ish (I wasn't really paying attention) the "crowd" started to trickle in. Few times it DID feel like it was a good crowd. Stuff sold ok with NES again being the main focus. Saw a BUNCH of NEW attendees as well throughout the day. (Early on the lights went half out lol) Even had a customer from when I FIRST did retro game sales show up! By 5ish it was nearly DEAD though. So we packed up around 530ish and off tho home with another convention done. While I don't believe this was a TERRIBLE show (I've had worse MUCH worse in the past.) It was no home run or even a double. But for the small (Possibly 400-700 people??) attendance, it was not bad sales wise. Just at points VERY VERY VERY BORING especially when you've already hit every vendor booth like 5X and hit the arcades a few times. The attendees IMHO were VERY VERY polite and friendly. Some vendors seemed dissapointed (I do not blame them) and borderline pissed off. I actually enjoyed the Staff, who were very friendly. It's a REAL shame that this whole thing happened between the promoters/Owners and the fanbase/Homebrew community. This show could have been a SMASHING success and had the fanbase and homebrewers not been alienated and shunned been invited to attend and display all things Coleco old and new, and not let bad business get involved, we may be talking amazing things about the 1st Coleco Expo. Instead things happened that were bad whether for business reasons/greed/god knows what. So now this Expo will go down as a poorly attended/handled event. I seriously doubt there will be a CRGE 2018 after all that transpired.

Garage Sales have for the most been really GREAT to me. Though far and few between the finds were good to MEGA. The last mega find was 360 NES/SNES carts. Rarities included were Final Fight Guy, Mighty Final Fight, Demon's Crest, Ducktales 2, Mega Man 1-7 (I kept those =) ), and a year before that was the I offered $400 for the "I woulda sold them for 50 cents each" find. I got EarthBound boxed, Zelda LTTP boxed, Super Mario RPG boxed and another 37 boxed games for the SNES/N64 in that lot. $10 a game boxed avg was not bad =) I've hit maybe 500 yard sales in 3 years and had a good 10 finds. and another 150 minor finds. But most sales were CLOSE. Lately this year the strict non gamer resellers are dying off thank god. more goodies for us gamers and gamer/trader/sellers.

This is the one my brother got Xmas of 1987 the same day I got my NES: 72R4BR A178 5976271

I've just listed my Adam Diagnostic cart =) If this one goes well the Binder will be next!! eBay Auction -- Item Number: 330706381162 I corrected the Rarity to R9. (I mistakenly had R10 on the forum. that was for the DEMO cart)

If the FB cart does well, Ill be listing the Adam cart as well as the binder soon after that!

I doubt any of the carts from Barry's collection are Telegames/eColeco, as he was a high ranking employee paid very well by Coleco, and would not risk getting fired or sued. They can be in house "toss togethers" for shows and demos however -) All the carts I opened had coleco branded and or eeprom chips. I've seen his other Coleco stuff (Cpk, Rambo standees, Star com stuff sealed, etc..) All were in storage from the day he left Coleco after they changed hands.

identical! down to the "swirly" blue variations in Diagnostic

There are THOUSANDS, if not HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS, floating around in people's collections! Seriously though, I have not seen one of these since 1998, when I unfortunately sold off my CV & ADAM collection. I also had the ADAM Demonstration cart which came with a similar label but with the words "ADAM Demonstration" in light blue. I would venture a guess that upwards of 1,000 were produced by Coleco to satisfy their needs as well as all the service centers that they contracted with in the U.S., Canada and Foreign markets to provide service/repairs for the ADAM Computer. I would also think that maybe 25 made it into the hands of ADAM Users Groups / ADAM Mail-Order companies... this is how I came into possessing one back in the day. Coleco did have plans to release it under a series of utility programs named the "SmartPACK Software Series" and funny thing is, even though the cartridge label reads ADAM Diagnostic Cartridge, the initial title screen displays "ADAM Checkout Cartridge". There are also two versions of ADAM Diagnostic, one is copyrighted 1983 and the other 1984. As well all know, Coleco's Jan' '85 announcement of their dropping the ADAM (this decision was made in the summer of '84 in my opinion) put an end to any hopes of a finished commercial release. As far as Digital Press' rating of an R10, I would have to say that is right on the money... lord knows how many have survived the past 29 years. ed: BTW, it will only work on an ADAM Computer. Yeah, It only worked on my Adam. I recently gave the Adam and all the tapes to my friend. But I did test the Diagnostic cart and it worked good. Only stops at the printer test. If I skip it, it goes to the rest and listed the Adam's working/non working list.

I'm curious tho on the Adam Diagnostic cart. How many are known? I've seen only the copy I have and according to DP, it's a R10.

ahh! ty! That explains the light blue non solid colors -) Yes I should be auctioning them as well as these in house label protos too: 2010, B.C.'s Quest for tires II. Both have copyright info, but are "airbrushed" sections of the label prior to printing. Nifty carts.

OH NO... I just gave away I think like 3 of those tapes... from the Barry Hausman collection..

took a while, but I figured out my boo boo lol ty tho!

Just wanted to let everyone know, I've decided it's time to auction another prized Proto from the Barry Hausman collection. Fortune Builders Prototype/wip cart with different game play! It's one of the three items in the collection I believe are the holy grails of that collection. Ill be moving this year and unfortunately I have to widdle my hobbies down to a few boxes -) Good Luck all bidders -) (The other 2 items are the 1984 CES CV Binder, and the Adam Diagnostic cart PROTO. I looked over the Adam cart and it is NOT a commercial release!) eBay Auction -- Item Number: 330701149462

SWEET! another Coleco Employee score! Grats man!!