mumbai

My suspicion is that you're putting more thought into the phrasing than the original author. If one were to comb through all past listings from this seller for "collectibles", my gut tells me this is recycled wording that may at one time have been attached to something that did display well, but now has just become word salad attached to all such listings. Just a hunch. (See, now I'm overthinking it, too.)

You are correct that I am not defending the practice of overpromising and underdelivering.

I think you may be reading too much into the too-brief descriptions of the seller. I read "displays well" to mean it looks good when showcased, as on a shelf or a display case. My take on it all is that this is that the sales pitch far exceeds the knowledge possessed by the seller about the actual goods.

Maybe it won't be an issue, and it'll be a lucky find, but...

Oh, I get that. And it's an easy out to take, because eBay is anal about enforcing the condition categories when push comes to shove, given how clear their policy is on the point.

Probably lost in eBay's system momentarily. "Assume", "maybe a prototype", "I really know little", and "you be the judge" all pretty much put the ball squarely in the court of the buyer to determine what's what. Caveat emptor and all that. It's a crap listing style to say one thing in the title and go the other way completely in the full description. Best of luck, as the seller bent over backwards to disavow understanding of any sort about the cartridge beyond what's pictured, though I'd guess it's genuine lack of knowledge?

While perhaps technically the case (and it's a pet peeve of mine that many sellers cannot be bothered to apply eBay's condition categories properly), this doesn't seem like a good faith case to bring to eBay, as it's evident from the listing what's included and what isn't. If it were, say, a boxed game described as complete that turned out to be missing the manuals or overlays, sure, but IMHO arguing on these grounds when you're unhappy about an item is sour grapes rules lawyerism. ETA: "lawyer-ism", which is not a word and autocorrected, not "lawyers".

Devil's advocacy: I don't have this actual listing in front of me, and cannot seem to find it in the completed auctions over the past 15 days, but I would hazard to guess that it depends on the entirety of the listing as worded. One could argue (right or wrong) that "(super game)" might mean nothing more than the person who penned the label thought it was a great/fun video game. Again, I don't have the verbal description in front of me, but if it doesn't explain how the label corresponds to the enclosed game and makes mention that the seller really doesn't know what it is, there's a lot of gray area and room for supplied interpretation from either side that makes this a potential mess if anyone is dissatisfied with the transaction.

Isn't the seller putting a question mark after the word 'proto' and disavowing much, if any, knowledge in the worded listings about the items being sold to leave wiggle room on just this point?

That the seller lists it as a "novelty/repro cart" with label artwork so at odds with other Telegames releases suggests this is not original to Telegames. He/she took the effort to reproduce the manuals for the co-listed Bit/Telegames fakes (Tank Wars, Boulder Dash, Strike It, Cosmic Crisis) but not for this one, which is also cautionary. And strange, though I would imagine attaching a dummied Atarisoft manual to this listing would give the lie to the nature of this cartridge. I'd strongly wager this is nothing more than a homemade fake. $70 + shipping is simply too ridiculous a price to pay to prove that incontrovertibly. ETA: At least one person knows for certain what this is, but isn't saying: the seller. The outright CYA-ism of the one-line cartridge description reads that way to me. Perhaps I'm being unduly skeptical, but the offer strikes me as deliberately coy. The seller clearly knows which hard-to-find games to selectively market, while keeping mum about their origins in the hope potential buyers will supply their own wishful thinking. Maybe that's being too harsh about it.

The seller offering this particular cartridge has a long track record of dumping reproductions on eBay. I wouldn't read much into the reverse of the casing.

Despite the common naming, two completely different styles of play involved.

Unless my memory of Temple of Apshai on the C64 from many years ago is unreliable, it's not what I'd term thrilling. Not that I didn't (try to) play the heck out of it back then (before succumbing to frustration). I think I got more out of leafing through the dungeon description handbook than engaging the actual game. On the other hand, it kinda does its own thing, and I guess I can respect it for that. I know it was a strong seller back in the day, but do others, in hindsight, think this first ToA title measures up as even average in terms of gameplay?

No, it is more than a little off in terms of information presentation. It's downright sloppy.

If you'd like to, go ahead, but pin that on commenters who decry the listings, not me. Thanks.

The label is a match. I have never seen (or have had) a "legit" Dondzilla release shelled in an Activision casing, but apparently you do. So, I stand corrected. You are reading too much into what I wrote. I didn't connect A to B as you do. ETA: oh so sloppy punctuation

I'm not entirely certain that particular Star Fortress is authentic. Certainly doesn't match any of the multiple, ad hoc copies Dondzilla himself issued over the years that I've seen or possess. The seller in question has stated (publicly and privately) that what's being offered comes from a collection that he's not utterly familiar with, which suggests it isn't his, should you take him at his word.

If you have the blue box RH/SL, it will be worth quite a bit, as that's the most difficult XonoX double-ender to obtain complete. IMO, when in boxed state, it is the least frequently seen 80s-era regular release. Pricing would depend on overall material condition, naturally, and the presence or absence of all four manuals. The MR/TB cartridge, depending on condition, should fall into the $100-$150 range generally speaking, with adequate buyer interest, though it might not be an insta-sell if that's your intention here.

Wow.

In defense of media mail: there's nothing wrong with it if the method and actual delivery window is stated up-front; the item(s) shipped matches USPS restrictions, and the package can reasonably survive rough treatment. I'm not bothered by its existence as such. That being said, I've run up against all of the issues others have shared up-thread, at one time or another over the years. The problem always lies with the shippers -- not the means itself -- who are either uninformed, careless, cheap, or all three. In my experience, they are always unapologetic when confronted with discrepancies between advertised shipment method and the MM swap-in (re: Tanooki's comments).

The manual is missing and the box is rather noticeably worn. I am not shocked at where the total price ended here on a holiday weekend.

I'm not, nor ever was, questioning your private sales records. There's a reason my response to the floated count of 25, which you quoted earlier, began with "If so..."

I guess I am the one labeled as wrong here, but the number discussed above was 25, not twice that figure (50-60).

If so, that would have been an absurdly low estimate of potential demand to meet, even for that time period.

Given the asking price w/ shipping, I don't think you're alone in that.