KAZ

Awesome, you argue great points Pitfall Harry! I like the phrase "Retained Value Theory"...like there should be an "index" where each game would have a number beside it. It would be its "RV". Look in the newspaper, and it would say: "Magicard's RV dropped precipitously from a 3 month quarterly earnings to 1 tenth of a percent above the average RV for the region. Investor confidence is on the rise." (I'm just trying to talk investor- speak). The other good point that was mentioned in this thread was the fact that the collectors now might not be collectors in the future, because they simply aren't "into" video games as much as in the past. So we may have a unique "window" of maybe 15 years or something, when former owners of Atari stuff try to reclaim their "lost" childhoods, and find games they wish they had, or wonder what other games they missed. LET IT BE KNOWN: I hereby retract my claim for The Retained Value theory! j/k. That was from a Star Trek Voyager episode (different words used)

Well I left the perpendicular tape thing on it, I just taped the joystick part to the button part, with that spring. If you don't tape it, the button won't stay put when you try to put it back together. Maybe if I ran it over with my car....hmmmm

Wow, nice repair tips.... yeah I was talking about that white thing that IS the actual joystick, and of course that black overlay thing goes over top of it. I can already tell the joystick has been to hell and back, I see all these really white areas on the plastic part (meaning it has been played with many many many times making creases in the plastic, and at times actually breaking the plastic. The super glue thing didn't work at all, and I had it all over my fingers. But i'm like, no sweat, I got some GOO GONE to get it off my fingers. So I greased them up, and it kinda sorta worked...and my hands were greasy the rest of the night, even after washing them rofl The tape thing isn't the best way to keep the plastic thing together, some sort of really small sticker might do a better job. Maybe a tiny bandaid or something. The whole thing looks fine except for the "plastic thingie" TM

Minnesota is the only place I've ever known...so it is hard to compare to other places, but... The weather here is pretty goofy, as you might know. Could be 40 degrees with a blizzard one day, and the next day could be 80! I guess I never realized Minnesota had a matchbox car, I'd love to see it. If postage isn't too much send it on over, maybe it would even fit in an envelope. email me and I can give ya my address

I would argue that classic games, such as Atari 2600 cartridges RETAIN their value. Unlike some other things you could purchase, these items can be resold at or above the price you paid for them. I've heard people say many many many times "the value of a video game is based on what people are willing to pay for it at a given moment". (therefore, there is no set value that an Atari 2600 cartridge could have). I'm not willing to accept this as being true, except in ONE situation: The generation ahead of me (my parents generation) don't give a dam about video games. Therefore, if I bought a cartridge on Ebay for $100, I wouldn't get a penny for it if I tried to sell it to that generation. But other than that one instance, the cartridge WILL retain its value. And to those who would argue against this....I would ask you this: Will there come a time when Quadrun is NOT being sold for AT OR ABOVE $300? Or can you conceive of a time when Swordquest Water world will DROP IN VALUE below $100? A boxed Pitfall or Pitfall 2 selling for LOWER than $10? I don't think so. It will always remain at least higher than that, and as time goes on probably will rise in value. Alternatively, a Pac-Man cartridge probably will always be SO common that its value will fluctuate madly, and will be unpredictable. The ONLY instance of an item dropping in value is the Magicard, and this is a very special situation because supposedly the original maker of it is going to produce more. Magicard's value will be destroyed. My point is that it is SAFE to collect rare, even expensive games, as they will retain their value, and you basically can sell them back sometime and get your money back for them. Cars, for example, won't do this for you, and you will actually LOSE a crapload of money. I hope you don't mind, I'm debating a point to anyone who will listen to me [ 06-03-2002: Message edited by: KAZ ]

I want a heavy sixer (Atari model, not Sears) just to have one of the 100,000 made...and because it is Wood Grain. The fact that carts don't fit in it actually SUX, but I have my black vader, and it works just as well. Tho the buttons are put on the heavy sixer differently, which might make playing on it interesting. I didn't know there was an issue with carts not fitting into heavy sixers until now.

I opened up one of my standard Atari 2600 controllers, that I got in an auction. I normally use a genesis 3 button controller, BUT I like to mess with electronics, and thought I'd try my luck in fixing on of my two partly working 2600 controllers. The one I started on was not letting me move DOWN...all the other directions and the button worked. So I open it up, look around a little bit, and notice that the crappy tape thing going on (pretty high tech stuff, rofl). So I removed the tape...after looking for a bit I notice that the plastic thing is actually broken in two different places. I first tried super glue, and then I just said, the hell with it, and I used tiny pieces of scotch tape. I sprayed some electrical contact cleaner in there too for the hell of it. I closed it back up, took it over to my system, fired up Pitfall! and tried to play. It actually WORKED. My scotch tape was holding! It no longer "clicked" when I moved the joystick around (it was before because it was obviously broken inside). So now I have a jury-rigged controller, and one that I have yet to "fix". My paddles work better too after went to work on them. I wonder if there are replacements for that plastic thingie inside the controller. Or "refurbished" Atari 2600 controllers, like 5200 ones, with NEW boards that function better or something. I intend on picking up another sega controller, but I do kinda want to have two working original controllers, just for collection sake.

I pulled out a simple old game to play with my friend. Outlaw. I remembered this game from a LONG time ago, it is a simple shoot the other guy. We had fun switching to all the different modes it had. My friend just got a Playstation 2 for his birthday, but we had a hell of a time playing "Surround" about a week ago on the Atari 2600. He's not very into the 2600, he's probably a little like that guy who won't give Atari a chance. But he actually DID like real sports football on the 5200. Course I just got done playing Race Racer with another friend of mine. I jump around to different systems alot. I'm a classic gaming anthropologist type, that's why I collect it. Pretty fun to play, fun to own, fun to collect for. My parents generation could care less about video games, so I don't think any of them appreciate Atari either.

And how much is a single 3DO game approximately? $10-20?

I was thinking, what if you had another section of rarity guide....and it would be called: "Ebay rarity". Like for example....Quadrun would be considered a 10 for rarity on your scale... But you see it several times a month.... Whereas a game like Montezuma's Revenge for the 5200 I see less than Quadrun. So it would have an Ebay rarity higher than Quadrun. None of this indicates value of course, but it would give people some impression on how hard it is to see a game on Ebay. Maybe even pick several games, and track them throughout a month, and the rarity scale would be dated such and such. "This Ebay rarity list is based on observations made between month 6 and 7 of the year 2002". Something like that...

Like if you had $500 that you had to spend on home video game stuff (not including arcade cabinets), what would you spend it on? It could be anything classic or modern, from Pong to the XBOX, it could be all games, and no systems, or all systems and no games, or a combination. Maybe one really rare game, or a bunch of common ones, etc. Or it could be video game posters, or magazines, or even I suppose video game chairs... I kinda want to assess people's priorities hypothetically if they had $500 they had to spend on the stuff. I cannot accept video game cereal or canned goods

He's not talking about NOT being able to get swordquest waterworld or miner....he's talking about how NOONE was able to even bid on this auction because someone made a shady deal on the side. Makes it pointless to even have an ebay when stuff like this goes on. I now realize the error of my ways, I was being selfish for trying to buy certain games in a large lot of games, not realizing the impact it has on Ebay as a whole. This auction illustrates this point, and it can get WAY out of control. Therefore, I think ebay should somehow lock people into selling their products. If they list their product, they MUST sell it, or receive really bad feedback saying they ended it early. Imagine a real live auction. And imagine if someone in the front row whispers over to the auctioneer, and makes a deal. Noone else in the entire place can hear the deal, but the next thing that happens, is the auctioneer yells "THIS ISN'T BEING AUCTIONED ANYMORE!" I've been part of the problem, and I'm 100% certain it is now wrong, and is certain to make Ebay worthless in the long run. The term "Auction" will no longer mean anything. Or maybe they should have it clearly stated: "This is an Auction site, but shady deals are encouraged on the side. If you make a really nice shady deal, please let us know, and we will congratulate you." [ 06-02-2002: Message edited by: KAZ ]

Count me in, I'd love to have a personal cartridge. Problem is I'm short on money right now, but it won't be like that in maybe around a month. Tell me more about it, and the pricing and whatever, so I can decide what kind of "personal" thing I'd want on a cart like that. Thanks!

Yeah, I know that part. Each course starts out the same, with the waterfall, and then they all three enter that tunnel that splits off into three parts. When you race the Lakeside Gate, for example, the mythical course, and the overpass city courses ARE blocked off-and I realize that... But what I was talking about was later on in the Lakeside Gate course. It is almost exactly past the giant exclamation point (!). I just wanted to make clear what I was talking about. I also know that the extreme oval course is blocked off too, on the main straightaway, when you are racing the other courses. I was thinking there was a hidden secret passage near the middle portion of the Lakeside Gate. I think it might be the route from the reverse course (in which case it actually uses a separate route). Thanks for responding!

What a nice thing to do for new collectors Snider-Man. Magic Marker can come off with Goo-Gone I bet... I don't even have Pitfall 2 YET. I'm so ashamed! I have 60 carts and no Pitfall 2, rofl! I'll get it soon, there's no rush. [ 06-02-2002: Message edited by: KAZ ]

Omigod, Jim, what a hell of a collection!! Mind emailing me some pictures of your arcade machines sitting in your living room? Not interested in buying, just seeing this amazing collection. Like when did you start all this collecting? Did you just pick up arcade machines here and there. And what about the prices of these items, how do you pay for that?

Has anyone played the game Race Racer for the Playstation? Ok, I know there are 6 classes in the regular grand prix, and 6 classes in the reverse (extra) grand prix. The extra one goes backwards. I know about the three special cars that are available later on in the game. Ok, here's the question: On the "Lakeside Gate" course (that veers to the left in the main middle tunnel)... about maybe 20 seconds away from it I see a VERY strange path that is blocked off, as if it could somehow be a hidden path. At first I was thinking that this path is used on the reverse course of "Lakeside Gate", but I don't think it is. So the ultimate question is does anyone know if this is a path that can be accessed, or any other secret paths in the game that I might not know about? I'm a huge fan of this game, and like the play dynamics, and the whole upgrading cars is really fun! Thanks for any help you can offer!

Excellent, an admin has stopped by my topic, and found it worthy to respond to Maybe there should be a neat new feature on the message board that is specifically for this purpose. Something like the topic itself gets changed to that cool flashing silver star color (like the stars below your name that indicate post count). It would indicate the topics that the administrators/moderators have decided to respond to. How many admins total are there? I think I read that there are like three moderators for the 2600 board and one for each of the other ones? Maybe each admin could have a different signature star to put on topics they decide to reply to. Anyway, I like the comment about putting the stuff in THE SINK, or finding room for the stuff no matter what. A storage shed, that is funny and cool, that is known as being hardcore! I'm impressed! [ 06-02-2002: Message edited by: KAZ ]

That was a great distinction. You see, I love the arcade game, and I used to see my friend play it on Sega Genesis CD...it was plenty neat on that. I see what you are saying, that you are only talking about games that ORIGINATE on the Jaguar, I guess I just didn't think about that. I've been doing Atari collecting, and thought I would only go as high as Atari 7800 (which I haven't gotton to yet), and then I realized that Dragon's Lair was a game on the Jaguar. As it is a CD based system it: 1. not only supports this game 2. but it is Atari Even if Dragon's Lair is on the 3DO and Sega Genesis CD I don't want those (even if hypothetically they were better versions), because they are not in the Atari line. So it is "lucky" that the Jaguar had any games that I could immediately relate to, or I'd never even consider collecting it. Microsoft just got started in the realm of home console systems (the XBOX), and as such I'm the least interested in collecting anything for them. Nintendo is a very collectable company. Sony isn't. I think Sega is pretty good for collecting several systems too The master system the regular the CD the dreamcast

Yeah, I can't wait, it sounds like it is gonna be a really fun time. I'm driving from Minneapolis, so I'm very interested in this. Yeah, I have no doubt you guys are really busy. I've only been to one convention of anything in my life, and that was a Star Trek Convention.

I'm asking because it doesn't seem like anyone responds when I bring it up. Maybe it just isn't a likable game.

Sell it for the same amount as other 10's go for: $300-500 Quadrun, for example, is a 10 on the rarity list. I'm sure someone would bid on it, if you stuck an auction up for 6 days, and have a buy it now of like $500, with bidding starting at $300

On the back of my money order receipt: An inquiry Form 6401 may be filed at any time for a fee. A replacement will not be issued until 60 days after the money order purchase date, provided the money order has not been paid. Oh super! Paying MORE money to get my money order back, that's funny. It hasn't come to that yet I have 2 years in which to wait to see this resolved, per the instructions on the back. If only this seller had accepted Paypal, we'd not have this issue at all

I'm sorry to bring this up, but I've heard of your trouble with trying to impress this guy with anything Atari. I like the Atari 2600, I just got one like two weeks ago. You might try Artillery Duel. I don't know of any game for Nintendo that has this type of gameplay. Let's get serious tho...try impressing him with Atari 5200, you can't go wrong with this: Show him the ULTRA smooth movement of the game Pac-Man. Ever try playing that on Nintendo? It sux, because it is SUPER ULTRA jerky. Then have him try Centipede with a Trak Ball. I'm sorry, but nothing on Nintendo can match playing this game exactly like it was in the arcade! Then move in for the kill, showing him either Real Sports Football, with the unique playbooks that work in concert with the keypad, or just a plain old game of Space Invaders, with the gorgeous large graphics and humorous creatures to kill. Space Invaders competes with ANY game on the 8-bit Nintendo for sheer fun. And not to mention that I can identify several games for the 7800 that have smoother graphics than how Nintendo is choppy. [ 06-01-2002: Message edited by: KAZ ]

I have the receipt in my hand right now. It has the serial number on it, date, and everything. It was dated on 5-21, so how long is "reasonable" to wait till I go back to the post office and ask if anyone had cashed it? If it were for $100 I'd be pretty worried, but this is only $16, but I still don't want to just throw this money away for nothing. Thanks for your help, I didn't realize that you could retract a money order (assuming that the guy never cashed it). I'm sending from Minnesota to New Jersey, if it means anything.