atari_envy

Can you post a screenshot or pic? I get a "This item is not for purchase within the United States" when linking into eBay.

I have both a light and heavy sixer, and I don't see any picture difference. Yes, the heavy has more shielding, but unless you have a lot of RFI around your Atari, it won't matter. The real difference is with six switch systems and the four switch. The color saturation is very different between those. But then again you have careful because people have posted on AA complaining that they went from a four to a six switch and the color is "bleeding" or "too strong" and want to fix it. Keep in mind, this is a nostalgia item, sometimes the slightly blurry, CRT image will give you the best result to elicit that Atari 2600 warm fuzzy. I guess what I am saying is that personal taste has a lot to do with what looks best. You can see from these posts, that AA members who like a super crisp picture from the AV mode have chimed in. Some people use emulation to get essentially perfect picture quality. But if you say the image looks "really fine" on your TV, you might already be good. I use a heavy sixer with an RF adapter on a 32" CRT TV, and I love it! It is perfect for me. Sure, the AV mode can produce a "better" picture, but my current setup gives me a picture that looks exactly like when I was a kid playing this stuff and that is part of the magic for me.

Oh heck no. Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back is the best game based on a movie.

The closest thing I could find is a possible movie based on Atari's Missle Command: http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2010/02/defend_your_cities_missile_com.php SWOOOSH SWOOOSH! BOOM! BOOM! That should be interesting.

WOW. That is some crazy money. Makes my biggest purchase seem like pocket lint, and suddenly I don't feel bad for spending half that amount on my ENTIRE collection of Atari 2600, 5200, and Intellivision games, systems and accessories. You know what would be totally awesome (in an evil Catbert kind of way), is if she ships it in an envelope. Hey "Free Shipping" whattaya expect? If damaged, it's the Post Office's fault! OK, that was mean-spirited. How about this -- someone down in Mexico finds a whole warehouse full of these. Now that would be awesome.

Very well done. However, anyone who hasn't played the Swordquest series will be disappointed after seeing what appears to be a great game and playing the actual cart. The cool thing is, we at AA have the some of the answers AVGN asks at the end, since the chalice owner is an AA member: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/146539-swordquest/

I would have to disagree with you there akator. I have built many custom websites that generate millions of dollars for my clients and the development cost was way below the $13,000 even though I do make above minimum wage. The entire concept that you have to spend millions on a webstite to generate millions is ridiculous. Those millions of dollars would be better spent promoting the website than building it. The success of any website depends primarily on traffic, whether it is obtained through advertising, search engines, social networking or old fashioned word of mouth... getting eyballs on your site is the key to success. It is a total falsehood that ANY website starting out requires millions of dollars to run. Over time as a website grows and approaches the size of eBay then the costs would be there. In my professional opinion $13k is quite doable. But my opinion is that, instead of creating something new, why not just support eBay competitors like Game Gavel if you are disillusioned with eBay? I agree that it could be "programmed" for less than $13K. I am developer (among other responsibilites), too, and have created some huge $$$ sites for my company. But that is still a pretty low-ball figure; consequently, it wouldn't be a terribly robust auction site, unless the developer had a stake in the profits and was doing a lot of work for free or for a percentage. I agree. The real cost would be in hosting, marketing and supporting it, especially as traffic ramped up. As for eBay. I have mixed feelings. I view it like a necessary evil -- like lawyers. Without eBay, my Atari collection would be much smaller. Yes, I have taken a bath on about 25% of my transactions, but this has to do with the seller, not eBay itself. If I have one fault for eBay, it is PayPal. Their business practices are shady at best. At worst, it is downright theft.

Damn!!! Never seen that site.... and all my purchases are there - on the top end of the price scale :!: oops Yeah, it is a love-hate with the Atari2600 price guide. I generally find out that either a) I paid too much for my game or b) Missed an auction where a game I wanted went for dirt cheap. However, it is a great resource when trying to decide how to much to pay for or price an item.

Atari2600.com Price Guide to see recent eBay prices and trends.

So there are PAL Asterix carts that are not marked "P" on the end label? YES! Hmmm, I wonder why. (Conjecture from what I have heard/read about cart). This was a late release cart only slated for Europe. Since it was based on a popular European cartoon and essentially just a hack of Taz, there is no plan to release to the U.S. Therefore, there is no need to distinguish the release as PAL. However, it is determined later that there are people in Canada who follow the cartoon and play Atari, so a limited release is done there, too. Hence the very rare NTSC release.

I used the "Ask a Question" for the item. I asked if it was PAL or NTSC, stating "if you are not sure, plug it into an Atari 2600. If the picture rolls, it is PAL, otherwise it is NTSC." His response: "Dear burgesscd, This one is PAL. -cell1064" It is noteworthy that unlike a couple of his other auctions where someone asked if a cart was PAL or NTSC, in this case where it was not NTSC he did *not* post the answer.

So there are PAL Asterix carts that are not marked "P" on the end label? Yes, that is why you have to be careful with this cart.

Did you see the Custers Revenge cart.? If so, can you tell me if it is PAL or NTSC or can you tell me what to look for? I have not bid on it yet, but I was thinking about trying to get it. Thanks. Don't know about that one, but very good chance it is NTSC unlike Asterix where the big majority are PAL. Just submit a question, he is pretty good at responding.

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 140381343687 Those of you interested in an Asterix cart (like I am), unless you want a PAL version, skip this auction. I noticed the scratch in the upper right corner of the label which I remembered from a previous auction. I decided not to bid unless the seller confirmed it is NTSC. He just confirmed it is PAL. Also keep in mind this is the same seller that lead Al to start the recent thread eBay Still Sucks Monkey Balls. Poor saps that are bidding probably don't know this is PAL.

That's okay, we're talking about monkey balls here. Are you a monkey? ..Al Well, looking at the avatar, this member just might be.... <sarcasm>And remember, based on the last around-and-around thread about feedback, you cannot leave a "self righteous" negative feedback till you have contacted the member, opened a dispute and wasted many hours of your time emailing back and forth with the seller, while he likely tells you to go suck monkey balls.</sarcasm>

It is a fair price, but not a steal. Atari2600.com, which tracks eBay auctions, places the current price at $45. Once you factor in shipping (which you have done), you are right on the mark. However, you also need to factor in the condition of the cart. There will likely be posts here shortly with stories of how they bought their copy for .25 cents at the thrift store, or that the game is worth $5-10 tops. It is a question of whether you want to pay the current fair market value per eBay bidding, wait for a better deal, or do the leg work to try to see what else you can turn up.

I don't know if anyone reported it, but eBay doesn't care. A week a ago,a couple other AA members and I reported Mr. BillyBathtub's fake Quadrun, Diagnosis Cart, Crazy Climber and eBay did not pull or respond.

Yes, I agree that the spirit of the law with feedback is to communicate with the seller when there is an issue. From my examples I show that a) I do that in my transactions but b) sellers who are jerks and/or not honest will continue to be that way when you contact them. Therefore, in this case you can't separate the initial conversation and the seller not contacting about the condition before neg'ing. If the seller had not asked for more money in the first place, or at the very least, she had not starting riding her broom about his (correct) response, he most likely would have contacted her. But it is obvious from her responses that nothing productive would have come from him contacting her again, just another insult-fest. Why should he be obligated to be subjected to that? Keep in mind, this seller already felt like the buyer should pay more, so there wouldn't be any kind of refund. The item costs $14 to ship, so the buyer would be in the hole if he shipped it back for a refund. Again, I agree, a buyer should not neg' a seller without some kind of communication. But communication had already occurred and the tone was set. What he did was not unreasonable nor breaking the intent of the feedback mechanism.

Wow, I need to rethink my frequent ordering from this seller. Agreed. Merrim-Webster: "peculiar to a particular individual : personal <subjective judgments> (2) : modified or affected by personal views, experience, or background <a subjective account of the incident>"

Yes. I disagree. The buyer is not obligated. I would agree that if a buyer leaves negative without any type of contact with the seller, then s/he is not following the intent/reason of why eBay has feedback. But in this case there was already interaction between buyer and seller, enough to warrant negative feedback. Looking at the two exchanges, it is also very reasonable to assume that any further interaction would not be productive. This is a sore point with me because I have over $1,000 worth of damaged eBay goods where the seller was not honest or forthcoming. Example 1) I email the seller before bidding asking if they will ship the Atari boxed games in a box and not an envelope. Seller responds, "I always pack my items securely so they won't get damaged." I win, and the 2 games arrive smashed in an envelope. Why should I have to now contact and negotiate with the seller? In my mind, this is a negative. I contact the seller: "I never said I would ship in a box. If it is damaged it is the post office's fault. You should have bought insurance." So do I need "thicker skin" in this case, or can I leave a negative? Example 2) Item is Atari "2600 Joystick, never been used." There is a picture of a beautiful Atari joystick in an original box. I win, and when it arrives, the joystick is very, very used, dirty, scratched and leaning to one side. Again, why should I have to contact the seller? But I do anyway. The response, "I meant 'I' never used it, not that it was never used at all." And the picture? "I never stated that was the picture of the item you would receive." Example 3) Item is "Mint Atari 2600 Quickstep CIB" with a nice picture of the item. I bid and win for nearly $50. Item arrives and the side NOT SHOWN in the picture is smashed. Is this "mint"? Seller says I can return at my own expense. Example 4) "Excellent condition Atari 5200 Pitfall2, works! CIB". Won for $34. Box has water damage and MOLD in the bottom, cart does not work, and obviously hasn't in a long time because it is rusted/corroded. Seller is willing to negotiate a lower price, but this is worthless so what is the point? Gawd, I could go on and on. Frankly, I feel when a seller does these types of things, it should be a negative and move on. All I can say, Sly, is that we agree to disagree.

Or he has 100% feedback because negative feedback expired, being over 12 months old. gweedo33 shoved a CIB game into a free USPS box, did not seal it, shoved the unsealed box in a cheap manila envelope, and then had the gall to blame it all on his wife ("she packaged it, not me") when the package was delivered and I opened it to find the game smashed. He was a real prick about the return over email, too. Maybe he learned his lesson, but I will never give this seller a f---ing dime. Wow, I am really surprised. I have bought a LOT from gweedo33 (we are talking more than 30 items over the past 3 years). He once sent me the wrong game and was very nice about it ("keep the game, sending correct item" and gave a free shipping on the next item). But you are right, he messed up, even if it was his wife who packed it -- doesn't matter. I guess it shows that everyone can screw up. That is why I have mixed feelings about the 12-month rule change. People can learn. Some sellers are new and don't understand the nuances of doing business. On the other hand, as a buyer I would like to see if someone has a long history of problems.

How did the buyer not meet his obligation? He bid in good faith based on the description and the price he was willing to pay. He paid promptly with legal tender. That is the end of his obligation. The buyer is not obligated to leave feedback, but it is in the community interest to do so. In this case, based on the item's description verses what he got plus correspondence with the seller where the seller made a request against the rules of selling (not subjective) and acted rudely (subjective), the buyer leaves negative feedback.

OK. Let's reverse it. What if a buyer emailed you asking to pay a few bucks less for the item? No big deal right? You would just refund the few bucks. For example, several times I have bid on an item only to see the EXACT SAME item close for a little less. Once I bid a bit more than I intended and won the item. Honest mistake. So in either case, it is appropriate to email the seller asking for a discount, right? And, if refused, I can tell the seller s/he is the " the rudest Ebayer ever" in 10 years of buying and selling.

I am honestly floored by those defending this seller. That, unfortunately, shows why eBay can be a bad buying experience when sellers feel they are they one who deserve good customer service, not the other way around. It is not appropriate to ask for more money once an auction has ended. End of story. To rationalize it goes back to my first comment. The responses of the buyer were always professional. The same cannot be said for the seller. This whole, "condition of item is subjective" is crap. If an item is dirty, broken or damaged say so. Sellers are quick to point out when their item is clean or in great condition. Otherwise, sellers like this post generic or vague descriptions, fuzzy pictures or those hiding the damage, and then give defensive responses like "item is 25 years old" and "condition is subjective" when the buyer receives. There are lots of sellers out there with 100% feedback and there is a reason why: They are honest and descriptive with their listings and give good customer service, for example eBay Seller: gweedo33 and our own eBay Seller: the.golden.ax and eBay Seller: AtariAge. As ax and the others will tell you, it can be a pain in the blubber to be a 100% seller. But it doesn't include behavior that this seller exhibited. This is not the first negative for this seller, nor will it be the last.