Using Ebay Only As a Final Resort

[accousticguitar]

Oh gee...was I born last Tuesday???!! "Hmmm...my Gremlins end label is missing...might as well just whip one up on the online label makers." Oh, it's only for my personal collection so it's not bad. IT'S NOT BAD???!!! How can you people sleep at night knowing your Gremlins cart is a lie? Does it make you feel all rosy inside knowing you have a nice "clean" collection with all the end labels so neat and perfect. WELL GUESS WHAT BUDDY...there's a little skunk in there and that skunk is your Gremlins label. I can smell out fake end labels. And after you're dead and what little descendants you have ignore your final wishes to be buried with your collection those games are going to get out into circulation. May your spirit forever walk the earth restlessly, following all of your fake end labels, and thirsting for God's loving forgiveness which will never enter your soul...and on the day of final judgement Jesus will stretch out his hand only to pull it away at the last instant...and that moment will last forever and ever, the final laugh will forever ring in your mind. Jesus' hand forever fading, forever fading away from you, like an optical illusion it moves away from you but never leaves your sight, and this repeats itself over and over and over and over, and laughing and laughing and laughing....

Hey, that's a good idea! Now I can fix up all those carts I have with missing end labels. Thanks for the suggestion!

[AtariTexas]

Patience is a virtue and good deals are still to be found in the wild. 2 years ago I picked up 8 Atari 2600 carts for 2 dollars at this flea market, and one of the carts was Music Machine. I do agree things have dried up compared to years past. I do use Ebay some also to fill holes in my collection. A combination of both (out in the wild and ebay) suits me fine

[horseboy]

Patience is a virtue and good deals are still to be found in the wild. 2 years ago I picked up 8 Atari 2600 carts for 2 dollars at this flea market, and one of the carts was Music Machine. I do agree things have dried up compared to years past. I do use Ebay some also to fill holes in my collection. A combination of both (out in the wild and ebay) suits me fine

 

I totally agree. If you are gonna get a great score like that, it will be in the wild. It is sad that for the vast majority of collectors getting stuff in the wild is a fruitless effort.

[HatefulGravey]

The problem I have in the wild has nothing to do with finding games and items. The problem is people in this area are thinking anything with the name Atari on it must be worth a ton of money.

 

I think it is a direct side effect of the internet making things as available to you as you put time into it. I still get people that come to me talking about a NES that sold for 15k, this is the story Yahoo posted about an eBay sale and if you read the article you would know it was not the system, but a game. People just read the head lines. So, they thing everything Atari is worth a ton because they aren't looking into what is making things cost what they do.

 

The other day I found a craigslist sale on a 2600 light sixer with 8 games all R1 and R2. The person selling the system wanted $400 (a price she listed after we started talking about it, else I would never have responded to the ad). The solution, "if it is worth that kind of money you will most likely find it on eBay, and it would surely be worth your time".

[accousticguitar]

Yep, if they think a 2600 is worth $400 referring them to ebay to check out the completed listings is a good way to show them the error of their ways. They might not appreciate having their bubble burst though.

[gamme]

Patience is a virtue and good deals are still to be found in the wild.

 

Patience is an inevitable consequence of being cheap and stubborn.

[littleman jack]

If you are looking for Bump n Jump, I think the Atari Age store actually has that one new in box. And it will be opening back up in a few weeks.

 

Also, 4Jays has quite a good selection both new and used. Plus there's Video 61 and Best Electronics. And there's B & C (although I'm not sure if they sell 2600 games, or just the computer games).

 

Oh, and there's Atari2600.com and AtariGuide as well.

Edited August 2, 2010 by littleman jack

[jetset]

I'd love to be virtuous and patient, but I'd rather get to play the games. If I depended on what I found in the wild, I'd have maybe 50 games, and not a one of them more rare than a "5".

[Philflound]

Very, very rarely does Ebay not work out for me. My recommendation is buy from someone with a good feedback rating. You have to pay with paypal, so pretty much all the time you can contest something if it's not correct and get part if not all your money back. Ebay caters to the buyer nowadays and sometimes a buyer can take advantage of the situation. We've had a few problems with that. Plus as a seller, you can't leave negative fb, but as a buyer you can.

 

I do find some deals on Ebay with carts. Though I only buy lots since buying individual games gets too expensive. I just won 12 boxed games that cost me about $27. Even though there were commons like Combat, Air Sea Battle, and Pac-man, I feel comfortable paying $2-3 for boxed complete games.

 

Not sure how the end label topic got thrown in here. I don't think it's right at all and I do agree if you are going to create a reproduction of anything, it should be noted. I'm not just referring to video games. I know that Star Wars weapons were reproduced and unless you knew about it and how it was done, you could get fooled into thinking they were originals. The damn things are so tiny, you couldn't put "repro" on them.

 

Phil

[Cap5750]

Type in the title of an R5 game on eBay and the cheapest price for a loose one is about $20.

 

This is just incorrect. There are plenty of deals to be had on Ebay. You just have to patient.

 

R7 under $20 shipped

 

This same seller is selling a loose Pele for $20.

[Awesomepants]

eBay isn't all that bad! I bought a 2600 and 50 games, (most were common and two of them didn't have labels)for $30! Sure the thing didn't work but I got 50 games to start my collection! and there are tons of bundles on there that are pretty cheap, though very few of them have rare games. And say there is a bundle with a rare cart in there you can just sell the others on half.com and make a profit! You can literally sell the game for a penny and still make a dollar or two off of the shipping, which is $3 for games. You can get away with spending much less than that.

[Zwackery]

So I've reached the 271 mark on Atari games recently. I'm running out of game stores and posts on Craigslist are few and far between. I did manage to find Pooyan, Burgertime, and Codebreaker for $5 total through Craigslist this past week, but before that it's been months. Sigh..I may have to resort to Ebay soon to fulfill my needs. All I need is Bump N' Jump to complete Mattel...it would feel so good to complete those. I imagine soon that I will stop finding new games completely in the wild. I'm thinking maybe 320 or so before that starts to show itself??? Anyone else been trying to do it without Ebay, or perhaps already had 300 odd games before the internet??

I started actively collecting in 1993, but by '94 I was using the internet and newsgroups for trading/buying/selling. Back in those days the thrift stores still had lots of Atari carts, so it was easy to add a dozen new titles per trip. My collecting experience says that things really slow down once you hit 250, and you'll pretty much have to go to other methods to find carts. Remember, your area back in the day only had a limited number of retailers who stocked only a limited selection of carts, and even with a population moving around, that's not enough to diversify the cart supply in private hands. Even as you expand your search area, you'll need to go nationwide to get greater access, then to North America, then the world. Start throwing in other parameters, like going for CIB titles or label variations, and eBay becomes a rather useful tool. I've been using eBay since 1997 and have had only a few bad experiences in over 900 transactions.

[Awesomepants]

Even as you expand your search area, you'll need to go nationwide to get greater access, then to North America, then the world.

 

Yes pinky, that what we try to do EVERY night.

[Philflound]

I also bought a lot from newsgroups. There was one guy who auctioned stuff by the name of Neil Gordon. I must've spent a fortune with that guy. And it was all money orders back then, no paypal.

 

On a side note, the 12 boxed games I just got that I mentioned a couple of days ago showed up yesterday. First thing I noticed when opening up the package was the cigarette smell. Bah! There was no mention of this in the auction. So I stand corrected. I'm going to try and wipe them down with Febreeze or something similar. There was an Earthworld in there where he said the comic and poster were included. Fact was that it had a Fireworld comic and poster. No Fireworld though. Worked for me because I needed the Fireworld comic and poster for an extra boxed Fireworld I had and I have the Earthworld comic that I can put in this box. No EW poster though, so it's almost complete.

 

Phil

[gamme]

I also bought a lot from newsgroups. There was one guy who auctioned stuff by the name of Neil Gordon. I must've spent a fortune with that guy. And it was all money orders back then, no paypal.

 

On a side note, the 12 boxed games I just got that I mentioned a couple of days ago showed up yesterday. First thing I noticed when opening up the package was the cigarette smell. Bah! There was no mention of this in the auction. So I stand corrected. I'm going to try and wipe them down with Febreeze or something similar. There was an Earthworld in there where he said the comic and poster were included. Fact was that it had a Fireworld comic and poster. No Fireworld though. Worked for me because I needed the Fireworld comic and poster for an extra boxed Fireworld I had and I have the Earthworld comic that I can put in this box. No EW poster though, so it's almost complete.

 

Phil

 

Great find! Don't worry about the cigarettes - after 2 years the games will have your smell. Every home has a unique smell. May the Lord Jesus bless you and keep you.

[Zwackery]

First thing I noticed when opening up the package was the cigarette smell. Bah!

When I get smokey games, I spread everything out on a table for a couple of days. Some sunlight filtered through sheer curtains can help, although make sure the sunlight isn't too strong. Next, and I've found this works rather well, I take each item and put it in a sealed plastic bag (ziploc) along with an unused dryer sheet. Leave it in there for a few weeks to 1 month.

[Rex Dart]

I have to wipe those stinkers down. Cigarette smell is one thing, but that nasty sticky finger-yellowing grime? I don't want to have to wash my hands every time I use a controller or handle a cartridge. Sunlight won't clean it off. If they're from eBay, and the seller's description didn't mention the carts' having spent the past 30 years floating in a spittoon, it's negative feedback time.

[Zwackery]

I have to wipe those stinkers down. Cigarette smell is one thing, but that nasty sticky finger-yellowing grime? I don't want to have to wash my hands every time I use a controller or handle a cartridge. Sunlight won't clean it off. If they're from eBay, and the seller's description didn't mention the carts' having spent the past 30 years floating in a spittoon, it's negative feedback time.

Notice that the OP was talking about boxed games. Cleaning boxes and instruction manuals might take some different tricks than carts and controllers.

[Rex Dart]

Yes, that's why my method of cleaning plastic differs from his method of sunning cardboard. It's the idea of buying smelly games on eBay that our posts had in common.

[Philflound]

Actually the boxes, instructions and the carts all smell of smoke. There is no yellow grime though. That would have been worse. I actually asked him if he had other carts and he said no. I'm wondering where Berzerk and Fireworld went, since he had those comics.

 

Phil

[+LS650]

I once bought a Dreamcast off eBay that looked great in the photo, but was yellowed with nicotine and reeked of cigarette smoke. Yee-uck! Thankfully it cleaned up okay with some elbow grease.

How can smokers willingly put that crap in their lungs, I'll never understand.

[jktrading]

I once bought a Dreamcast off eBay that looked great in the photo, but was yellowed with nicotine and reeked of cigarette smoke. Yee-uck! Thankfully it cleaned up okay with some elbow grease.

How can smokers willingly put that crap in their lungs, I'll never understand.

N-I-C-O-T-I-N-E addiction. Took me like 5 times to quit.

[Philflound]

Well I'm bidding on more items on Ebay and hopefully they won't turn out like the last batch.

 

Phil

[Zwackery]

I appreciate that it may be hard for smokers to realize how smokey something has become, but I wish they'd note it more often, especially for a person like me who is somewhat allergic to cigarette smoke and does not like having to gulp down meds to deal with an unforeseen reaction.

[Philflound]

That's the way I am with cats and dogs. I have to be careful when buying any used plush dolls that may have been around pets. Even in a pet house. My parents own a husky and she sheds like crazy. I'm always having to scrub myself after going to their house, even if I don't get near the dog.

 

Phil