FA: 1974 Atari Coin-Op "Touch Me"

[quickclaw]

Check it out.. not many of these around..

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=190228348424

[mos6507]

Check it out.. not many of these around..

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=190228348424

 

Wow. That is definitely a once in a blue moon auction.

[Bountybob]

Check it out.. not many of these around..

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=190228348424

 

Yes I got the handheld Touch Me for Christmas 1979 It was cool electronic game the envy of all my friends

I managed to pick up a new one boxed on eBay recently very nice looking toy.

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...l%3Den%26sa%3DN

[Cassidy Nolen]

Wow. I was looking for one of these for years. Would love to get that one. I am going to see if he will ship. I have only seen two in person, never one with the original stand. Why has this thing not met opening bid?

 

C

 

BTW, you know Baer took this idea and developed it into Simon. Funny how Bushnell took Pong and Baer took this. There is a Simon for sale today at Target. I don't know there has been a year without it. Can't really say the same of Pong

[Crazy Climber]

Hmmmm

Milwaukee is driving distance from me well sort of, it's probably 7 hours or so. Little too retro for me though, I would probably never use it.

[quickclaw]

Hi guys, OP here..

 

I have had multiple inquiries about shipping, and I think we can do it. Like I put in our auction listing, I have no experience shipping things this large, so if you guys want to give me some tips to save the eventual winner some bucks, I'm all for it!

 

Someone sent a helpful e-mail (I don't know if it was you, Cassidy) saying to ship the two halves separate. I don't have any arcade-game-sized heavy-duty boxes handy, so I did some calling and found that the contractor for UPS' custom boxes happens to be close by! They said that they are happy to make nice heavy-duty 2-ply boxes for both halves at about $25 apiece. They say this is less than the local UPS center would charge, because they are the ones contracted to make the boxes for UPS.

 

That's $50 there.

 

The dimensions for the top half box (with some room for padding) will be 28 x 25 x 16". My husband says the top half of this game maxed out his 50-pound scale at 56 pounds, plus some. He thinks it will be closer to 65 pounds, plus about 5 pounds for the heavy-duty box & padding = 70 pounds. Just looking at the FedEx rate scale, this is about $35 to ship to NYC, for example.

 

So now we're up to $85.

 

The dimensions for the base (with some room for padding) will be 26 x 28 x 31. Again, this maxed out the scale, but we think it will be 60 pounds or so. Add 5 pounds = 65 pounds. Hit the Fedex page and WHOA!!! $119!

 

That brings us to over $200 for shipping. Is this reasonable? :!:

 

BUT WAIT, my husband says that he can (carefully) disassemble the base so that it ships flat, and so (YAY!) according to FedEx that brings us back down to the to the $35 level for NYC, meaning the total package and shipping cost for about 1000 miles from Milwaukee, WI (should someone want to do that) is somewhere around $120.

 

Is this better? Reasonable? Sound right? Can I get cheaper boxes??? Should I?

 

Help me out, Atari guys! :cool:

Edited June 14, 2008 by quickclaw

[Crazy Climber]

People generally expect to pay around $200+ for shipping these things so I think that would be fine.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Thats a deal-maker with the base being disassembled and shipped flat. I will definately be watching this auction now

 

I just shipped a 100 pound oversized package (two GIANT boxes) to LA from DC and it was like 128 so I think you are right on for shippinig. FedEx does a good job with it too. I am USPS fan most of the time but not for the big stuff.

 

The funny thing is my wife will be in Appleton this week. I just don't think the airline would like a Touch Me on the plane (carryon restrictions?).

 

Thanks for the effort. What a great piece of Atari history.

 

Cassidy