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Mirage

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Posts posted by Mirage

  1. Posted

    Therefore, if the new rules say that a seller can't leave negative feedback for a buyer, what they're aiming to eliminate is RETALIATORY feedback, which serves no purpose at all, save for childishness on the part of dishonest sellers. I think this positive aspect is at least worth mentioning.

     

    Well, that's not really the whole story. I'm not going to go into the whole thing here, because it's really not the place. But if you're interested in hearing the whole story, and all the reasons it's a bad thing, a good place to start would be that link I gave a few posts back. There are plenty of deadbeat buyers out there that deserve negative feedback to warn other sellers, and that's only one reason. I'm not even saying that their feedback system didn't need some tweaking, but the way they did it wasn't right. Anyway, there's plenty of info and opinions out there if you're interested. I'm 100% done with ebay in any case though. They're not getting any of my money again. You should also look into the new PayPal (owned by eBay) changes too. That's a big part of the issue as well.

  2. Posted

    For me the homebrewers are more interesting than the collectors, although of course they both support eachother. Homebrewing started a little over a decade ago. The premise of the documentary is, WHY did it start, and WHY has it become a self-sustaining hobby? So the core of the piece should involve a deep look into the minds of homebrewers past and present. The fact that homebrewing is a particularly international phenomenon is compelling, as it shows the degree to which the Atari experience cut a swath through the world. I would like to see people interviewed in their local environments. Like imagine a scene driving down Thomas J.'s home town and he says "over there used to be the xxx store where I got my first 2600". It really has to be the story about people pursuing their passions. This kind of thing is the hardest to do because you have to get the interviewers to expose a much wider chunk of their life in front of the camera. I would think most would refuse to put their life on the canvas in such detail. Although I haven't yet seen King of Kong, I think this was why it was successful. It wasn't so much about Donkey Kong. It was a character study of the two competitors.

     

    ++ Absolutely. If this can be done, it would be the best way.

  3. Posted · Edited by Mirage1972

    The past few years, both in Wisconsin and Virginia, I occasionally see NES carts or DC discs. Tons of PS1 discs.

     

    The last time I saw a 2600 cart in a thrift was about 2 years ago in Wisconsin... Oconomowoc, specifically. They had 5 or 6 semi-commons, unpriced. I didn't need them, but was so excited to see them that I took them to the counter and asked how much they were. The girl (probably around 20 years old), said "Oh, I guess about 25 cents. Those things must be really really old." So, I bought them and was happy to get them to pass on to new collectors (which I did).

     

    Since then, I've only seen 2600 carts at indoor flea markets, overpriced. I'm checking out a new local one this weekend. Though, they're advertising as "vintage games, $5 and up", and sell everything from 2600 through PS2. Maybe they won't look up the 2600 stuff and will have some marked at $5 that are worth more. I'm not holding my breath though.

     

    EDIT: Not saying there aren't games out there in the thrifts, ever... just that I'm not seeing them. Someone is maybe beating me to them!

     

    EDIT 2: A couple hours of quickly hitting a lot of the local thrifts -- nothing. The place in the flea market did have about 20 common 2600 games (20; as in Combat, Combat, Combat, Asteroids, Asteroids, Pac Man, Pac Man...). Poor condition, but at least they were "only" .50 cents each. Lots of NES for $4-$10 (a few at $20, inexplicably one of them was Mario/Duck Hunt for $20.) About 10 boxed Intellivision (commons). That's about it. Bought nothing.

  4. Posted

    I don't know that the new feedback rules are a good thing. (In my opinion, they're not). Check out this list of 100's of angry comments from ebay members (mostly sellers), most all of them saying they're finding venues different than ebay:

     

    http://fsbfeatures.blogs.fsb.cnn.com/2008/...ller-rebellion/

     

    I used to sell and buy a lot on ebay. Since about 1998. It was great. I made enough money selling on there that I took a two week trip to England, totally paid for by ebay sales. Bought some other stuff too. This was around 2000. Never had much of a problem with buyers, or sellers for that matter.

     

    About a month ago, I sold a bunch of stuff (non-game-related) on ebay. What a bunch of deadbeats. 20% of the listings were no-pays (oh, one of them I'm still getting "I'll send payment soooooooooooon" emails from... suuuure ya will. uh-huh. But several others... nothing. Just. Nothing. I've never had that before.

     

    So, it's not just buyers getting the shaft on ebay, it's sellers, too. The whole place has gone downhill, from being once fantastic. Fortunately, there's other up-and-coming sites that show promise. Me, I'll deal with private sites/collectors from now on. I've never had any significant problem with those.

  6. Posted

    Well, I haven't been here as a registered member (with this registration anyway, I can't even remember my old one), but I've been collecting and visiting here forever. And I wouldn't mind contributing something or other, eventually, once there is a framework in place. If nothing else, I could contribute Flash programming or DVD interface programming down the line -- but we're ages away from that at this time.

     

    Maybe the "how to clean" could be done in a creative way... like an archaeological dig, finding an old dirty cart and reviving it or something like that. Then, it would have a more broad appeal, entertainment-wise, with informational use as well. I can see that appealing to a general audience (but I envision it to still be an 'extra feature').

  7. Posted

    For an intended audience...you know that is a tough part. Here's what I was thinking...maybe at first just start it out and have it sold here (best way I know of doing it). Then, if some people wanted...kinda spread the word if you know what I mean. Heck, why not make some trailers? Make some trailers and YouTube them. I'd do it!

     

    Well.... what I meant about intended audience is that I think before you plan what's in it, or make it, you should know what the intended audience is, because the content of the movie will be quite different. What is going to interest people here is going to be very different from what interests people not already interested in Atari. One minor obvious example. Someone mentioned maybe having a "how to clean cartridges" bonus. Okay. There would be no better way to bore or turn off non-Atari enthusiasts. So, if your intended audience is non-Atari-enthusiasts, that should be not part of this. The same type of decisions would be made for most other sections. Also, the way each person attacks their story would be totally different. So, I don't think it makes sense to just make the movie in any given way, then start here, then move outward. You need to decide: Is this for current AtariAgers? If so, make that movie. If it's for non-AtariAgers, then make that movie. Totally different movies. Maybe even make two separate movies? If not, then one or the other, not one movie intended for both.

  8. Posted

    This is a fantastic idea, and I hope it sees the light of day, in whatever form.

     

    I realize this is just at the "seed of an idea" stage, but reading the above comments, the one thing that really stands out to me is that the intended audience really needs to be decided before much else can be done. Every other decision would be made differently depending on if this is just something for the community, or something intended for a general non-Atari audience. The resulting movie would be completely different depending on which audience is chosen.

     

    Either way, please don't let the momentum die out on this!

  9. Posted

    This topic is actually of great interest to me as it is the subject of my doctoral dissertation. I go from the beginning days of video games all the way to 2005, and of course Atari features quite prominently in the first chapter. I should hopefully have the final product done later this year; it's been quite an adventure trying to investigate this particular area of video games.

     

    In what area are you going for a doctorate and how does the history of video games fit in?

  11. Posted

    That is one huge Centipede box in the background... what is that? A promotional display, or something someone made recently? I've never seen anything like that.

     

    Damn you got good eyes! That is a real Atari 2600 Centipede store display box and I know they also had one for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

     

    :-o :) :ponder:

     

    I was hoping you weren't going to say it's an official item, because now I really want one! Very very cool though. Nice stuff.

  12. Posted · Edited by Mirage1972

    Red Eye? :ponder:

     

    BTW, I haven't played it for years, but my friends and I really enjoyed Porky's back in the day. I remember playing that a lot before school after we were worn out by Decathlon. It seemed like one of the most challenging games any of us had at the time.

     

    I think most movie games on the 2600 are pretty good.

  15. Posted

    I have (I think) 60 Atari 2600 Game Systems that I hoard...

     

    Holy cow... I have 5 2600's (plus two empty 2600 shells) and I thought that was bad. I want to hack one up to make a portable, but only have 2 4-switchers, so I'm going to have to get another for that, because I want to still have a functional 4-switch woody and 4-switch Vader. So, I can see where having 60 of them may come in handy!

  18. Posted

    Unlikely any lawyers are going to get involved. I agree with a couple others that this is just getting way ahead... slow down, relax, enjoy for now, decide later. Above all, don't get stressed about this. It's supposed to be fun. Life is stressful enough in other ways without getting stressed about an Atari game.

     

    Enjoy. Be happy that you're so lucky. No problems!

  20. Posted · Edited by Mirage1972

    It really seems to be all-too-common in this hobby. It's even worse in the Commodore group. I can't remember his name, but the guy who made the SCPU's and hard drives and stuff for the C64/128 -- a lot of those guys have been waiting for their stuff for years, even for simple repairs... Ridiculous! I hope you get your stuff soon. I've heard good things about 8bitdomain, and I'd like to order a few things sometime if they're in stock again.

  21. Posted · Edited by Mirage1972

    Hey, Mirage come over to the High score club sometime and check out some of my scores. If I only cared about the financial value of games do you really think I would spend the time to post a score. There is no financial gain to the high score club just bragging rights. People tend to put people in a box too much. If it was purely financial I would not of had such a hard time selling my Pepsi Invaders. I feel honored that I was at least able to own that game for a period of time. I find the Atari 2600 history intriguing. I believe it is the greatest thing on the planet to collect for. So yeah, I am a very long term speculator. I actually believe at some point in the future that a much larger audience will come into the hobby. Instead of fearing these new people, I welcome them with open arms. I could care less if a lot more people means that it is harder for me to get certain games. So what, all that matters is that more people will share a love for this hobby.

     

    I already said this: "I have no doubt that you may like collecting Atari, because otherwise I doubt you'd do it...". It really seems that you read just exactly what you want to read, and no more. But, it's very clear that you care a lot about the monetary value of games. A _lot_. Which is fine, I just don't happen to share that focus, and by all your comments about struggling, I've just been trying to give you a little friendly advice on the fact that classic games are, by far, not a good investment either short- or long-term. Others have tried to give you the same advice in this thread and in others. You don't listen. That's your choice.

     

    EDIT: I'm not trying to be mean, or argue... I just suddenly yesterday realized that your focus here seems to be very strongly monetary. That's not something I can relate to with Atari games. That's all I'm saying. And I think you're wrong about dead, bit-rotted games being very valuable in the future! You're getting very defensive about all this though, so I really have nothing else to say. Take care though.

  22. Posted · Edited by Mirage1972

    Well, after reading the thread I linked to a few posts back, and some other postings by you (homerwannabe), I now see where this is going. It's obvious that you're quite obsessed with the value of the games and using them for investment purposes

     

     

    Either you haven't been around very long (joined Nov 2007 confirmed) or you haven't been paying attention. Homerwannabe is clearly very interested in value. I doubt he ever thought of these as an investment considering what he paid. Well maybe he thought in the long run, but it doesn't matter. HWB posts alot about value, it's one of his interests in collecting.

     

    As one of the dustier older fuddy duddies, I don't worry so much about today's values. It's not a primary concern. And my collection is too large to value as the sum of its parts for insurance purposes. I figure if I ever do sell this stuff (it would be like a bad disability plan), it will be so far in the future that I'll have to make some kind of inflation adjustment to understand the run up in value or it won't matter, I'll be like HWB and just need the money so badly so as not to care.

     

    I was around a long time ago (probably 2001-2004), but dropped out for a long time due to moving around the country/career/etc. I honestly don't even remember my username. So, I'm sort of old around here, but since I've forgotten most of the people, I'm basically new again, yeah.

     

    And sure, it took me awhile to catch on to what was behind this thread, but now I see that it's solely based on obsession with value and investment.

     

    I couldn't agree with you more about values. Not a primary concern. Who cares... I have well over 1000 carts for various systems and I have every single one because I wanted to own it, not because of any sort of monetary value either present or future (and btw, most of them were found in the wild, cheaply... a few were bought from collectors, and an even more very few were ebay'ed). If one day I sell them, fine, I'll get what they're worth at the time, and that's that.

     

    One last thing, then I'm out of this thread ------ Homerwannabee: _You_ don't set the market value for things, as much as you may like to think you can, or as much as you'd like to. _The Market_ sets the value.

  23. Posted · Edited by Mirage1972

    As I said if you had to sell some of your collection because you were broke I think you would be singing a different tune. I would not care as much if I was not in need. But when you become in need, than the reality smacks you in the face.

     

    In what conceivable alternative universe would I be singing a different tune were I in that position? The fact that you had to sell some of your collection because you were broke makes every single one of my points for me!

     

    I guess it's for your own good in the long run that you're realizing this now. It's too bad you didn't realize that Atari was a bad investment a lot sooner, but everyone makes mistakes. I've made mistakes, I just didn't happen to make that particular same mistake. I hope you do okay, and I sure hope you're also investing money in a more sound manner for your future. I think the high-cost of future living, healthcare, and retirement homes is a far more sure thing than the future value of Atari stuff!

     

    EDIT - P.S. - You should learn to edit your quoted text a little better. Hardly anyone wants to see my long-a** ramblings the first time, much less the same exact one quoted 2-3 times in a thread!

  24. Posted

    Well, after reading the thread I linked to a few posts back, and some other postings by you (homerwannabe), I now see where this is going. It's obvious that you're quite obsessed with the value of the games and using them for investment purposes (even if you're coming to the sneaking suspicion that it may not have been the best investment plan). To each their own, I'm not going to personally knock you for that at all, it's none of my business, but I'm one of the collectors who doesn't really care about the value of the carts. I care in the sense that I don't want to overpay, so I want to see what a game is going for in general before I buy, and I care in the sense that I'm not going to seek out a cart where the purchase price is higher than my desire to own the cart (for whatever reason that may be), but after I have a particular cart, I don't care one whit what it's worth (other than for the insurance value, and I'm currently working on that).

     

    I love the games and Atari stuff because I love them and want to have a collection of it, for enjoyment. My previous conjectures stand about why some stuff goes for less than "you" may think it "should", but my actual caring about the value of Atari stuff after I own it is nil. I have no doubt that you may like collecting Atari, because otherwise I doubt you'd do it, but to me, someone who is focused very much on the value of it is really got their priorities out of whack. Again, this isn't a personal judgment against you, I'm just saying, as others have, that this is not a wise investment vehicle, period.

     

    Adding to the bad investment is the fact that you're buying post-tax. Say you spend $1000 one year on Atari. That same $1000, if put into (for example) a 401(k), is pre-tax... that's suddenly maybe $1300 you just spent on Atari that year. Then if your employer contributes, suddenly that's maybe $1600. Then add the compounded interest of a 401(k) properly invested... well, you just dropped way way way way more on Atari than you're _ever_ going to get out of it in all likelihood at all. You should only be buying Atari after you've well-supplied your retirement savings each month, and more investments on top of that can't hurt. _Then_, with your _entertainment_ money, buy Atari stuff. Yup. With your set-aside _entertainment_ money. Not _investment_ money. If you don't have enough money to eat and pay the rent, then investing in Atari sure as heck isn't going to help you climb out of that hole any faster.

     

    Not trying to lecture, just after I've seen a lot more of your postings, I'm just concerned about a fellow Atarian. Oh, and in that other thread, you put yourself on a 5-year moratorium for discussing various things related to Atari values. While you didn't necessarily violate those exact points directly (I'm not going back to check), you've certainly pushed the line! Looks like it took you awhile to figure out a way around it, but you're in a roundabout way discussing the exact same issues in a different way.

     

    Good luck. I'm going to be not stressed out about the values of my games enjoying them, not worrying about tracking them like the stock market. You have fun with them however you'd like to!

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