You Go To A Gaming Expo, Buy A Bunch of Stuff, Get Home and It Don't Work

[VectorGamer]

I've had this happen to me at every single gaming expo I've attended. I buy a bunch of carts, come home, clean them, test and find at least one of them that's dead.

 

What do you do aside from bringing consoles along and testing them in your car before you make the two hour drive home?

[flammingcowz]

Make the seller sign a contract for money back?

[keilbaca]

Depends on what system. You can always ask people who have setups to try out games on the console, or you can get Ben Heckendorn to make you a portable.

 

EDIT: Or you can do what you said, try them out in your car. Power inverter, 13" tv, a 3 in 1 console for the nes/snes/genesis, and an atari 2600.

Edited May 24, 2011 by keilbaca

[chrisbid]

you buy a table at next years show and sell all of your broken stuff

[DeusExMachina]

I use a Ben Heck custom Atari 2600 handheld for testing carts on the go.

 

 

[Chuck D. Head]

Happens to me each time also. I just take the cost of the broken cart(s) and roll it into the cost of the everything else I bought, shrug my shoulders and then get distracted by something shiny. Hakuna Matata.

[VectorGamer]

 

EDIT: Or you can do what you said, try them out in your car. Power inverter, 13" tv, a 3 in 1 console for the nes/snes/genesis, and an atari 2600.

 

Which power inverter would you recommend? I think that's really the only way: bring any console I plan on buying for, a 13" TV, alcohol & Q-tips and setup shop in the back of the van.

[keilbaca]

EDIT: Or you can do what you said, try them out in your car. Power inverter, 13" tv, a 3 in 1 console for the nes/snes/genesis, and an atari 2600.

 

Which power inverter would you recommend? I think that's really the only way: bring any console I plan on buying for, a 13" TV, alcohol & Q-tips and setup shop in the back of the van.

 

I have one in my car that I use on a rare occasion to play Super Smash Bros Melee in my friends van during road trips. I'll find out the wattage and let you know.

[raskar42]

no one at the show had a running atari available?

[toptenmaterial]

Perhaps a little off-topic but are there any conventions in the New England area?

[VectorGamer]

no one at the show had a running atari available?

 

It varies from show to show.

 

I dunno - maybe I stop going to these shows altogether. I didn't find too many bargains at this show anyway and I'm tired of getting ripped off so maybe it's just not worth the hassle.

 

Do you think these vendors are aware that their selling bad carts?

[Koopa64]

I'd try and fix the broken items personally. Worth a try at least. There are ways to repair Genesis cartridges (and NES carts from what I've seen). Unless of course the mask ROM(s) is/are dead, then there's nothing you can do about the cart... Except maybe use it for a repro donor, or swap the chips with a board that's all rusted but has good chips.

[the-topdog]

I just have this portable power unit http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-Portable-Power-Unit/13005734?sourceid=1500000000000003260530&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=13005734 that has a built in power inverter and two outlets... and a little vintage 5" color portable TV that has external antennae input AND composite A/V inputs to test any video source from vintage consoles to modern video devices. You can see my setup at work hooked up to an Aquarius computer for testing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0x7SjrPfPY

Edited May 25, 2011 by the-topdog

[Rik]

you buy a table at next years show and sell all of your broken stuff

Makes sense, some buy games and forget to test them or never bother, i've done that a couple of times in the past.I bought a couple of games a while back, threw them on the shelf and only come back to play them like a year later, luckily though, all have worked.That's a bad habit on my part, i know.

Edited May 25, 2011 by Rik

[StanJr]

If I have any question, I always ask if I can test it out, either on a system at that booth, or somewhere at a booth nearby. There is almost always somewhere to test and any reputable dealer will oblige.

 

I love the guy who is always at the Philadelphia shows that always tells people that there is no such thing as a game that doesn't work, just that some games need to be cleaned, but every game works.

I don't usually buy much from him, plus his prices are 10-20% higher than I am willing to pay.

 

I've never bought a game at a con that didn't work, and I always ask to test if I am uncertain.

[VectorGamer]

 

I love the guy who is always at the Philadelphia shows that always tells people that there is no such thing as a game that doesn't work, just that some games need to be cleaned, but every game works.

I don't usually buy much from him, plus his prices are 10-20% higher than I am willing to pay.

 

 

I believe I know who you are talking about and he's the one I keep getting ripped off from. Last fall at TMG, I bought a Mario GameBoy game for my kid. We tested it on his GameBoy in the car and it didn't work. We took it back inside this time with the GameBoy and he said "it just needs to be cleaned." I said that I wanted to try the other cart he had in the display and that one worked.

 

These are the ones I remember buying from this guy - I'm sure I'm forgetting a few:

 

SubRoc CV cart = dead

Nexar 2600 cart = dead

2600 Star Wars = dead

2600 Gyruss = dead

 

I bought a CV Quest cart at this spring's TMG and had to scrub the hell out of it to get it work.

 

As far as pricing, everything is "rare."

 

Hell, let me do everyone a favor and define "him" so everyone else on here can proceed with caution:

 

Collectors Cards and Games

http://www.collectorscardsandgames.com/games.htm

 

You can't miss him - he's the guy with the most floor space at the shows

 

Those are the facts and not my "inability to properly clean carts."

[Rik]

In all the years collecting since 1981, 2600,Intv, CV, 400/800, 7800 game cartridges, i have only come across 1 dead game cartridge, i've been lucky.But there ARE dead games, it happens.It seems strange guys at gaming expos would knowingly pass off dead games, that's pretty foolish of them to do so, just to be confronted next time by angry customers.You'd figure they test and clean them BEFORE selling, geez! That kind of crap ruins gaming expos reputation, if there ever was a good one to begin with, i dunno, i've never been to one.But then again, there's shysters everywhere.

Edited May 26, 2011 by Rik

[fiddlepaddle]

In 30 years of collecting in the wild, I NEVER ran into a cartridge that didn't work (sometimes after extensive cleaning), unless it was visibly damaged (for example, badly rusted). Once I started buying from other collectors (mostly at game shows), I end up with one or two every time.

 

I'm sure many collectors throw the marginally functional carts into the "sell 'em" pile once they find a duplicate in better condition, probably without a second thought, assuming it can be cleaned better later if needed. Then, eventually, they decide to sell their extras. Some probably know there are some bad carts in that box, but others might not even have ever tried the game.

[accousticguitar]

I've gone through many hundreds of Atari 2600 carts, and it's been my experience that about 1% of them are bad. That's a decent failure rate for a 30 year old system. I'm sure there are people here that have gone through a lot more carts than I have. I wonder what their experience has been on the failure rate of 2600 carts.

[Koopa64]

In 30 years of collecting in the wild, I NEVER ran into a cartridge that didn't work (sometimes after extensive cleaning), unless it was visibly damaged (for example, badly rusted). Once I started buying from other collectors (mostly at game shows), I end up with one or two every time.

 

I'm sure many collectors throw the marginally functional carts into the "sell 'em" pile once they find a duplicate in better condition, probably without a second thought, assuming it can be cleaned better later if needed. Then, eventually, they decide to sell their extras. Some probably know there are some bad carts in that box, but others might not even have ever tried the game.

 

Off the top of my head, I've had 3 fully dead carts. a Genesis Game Genie, Ecco 2: The Tides of Time and recently Killer Instinct Gold. Their PCBs are in reasonably decent shape. No rust from what I see. They just don't work, at all. No matter how many consoles I plug them into.

 

Interestingly though, I got a rusted up Ice Hockey (NES) cart to work again. Just scraped off that rust and things were better.

[Armonigann]

In 30 years of collecting in the wild, I NEVER ran into a cartridge that didn't work (sometimes after extensive cleaning), unless it was visibly damaged (for example, badly rusted). Once I started buying from other collectors (mostly at game shows), I end up with one or two every time.

 

I'm sure many collectors throw the marginally functional carts into the "sell 'em" pile once they find a duplicate in better condition, probably without a second thought, assuming it can be cleaned better later if needed. Then, eventually, they decide to sell their extras. Some probably know there are some bad carts in that box, but others might not even have ever tried the game.

 

Off the top of my head, I've had 3 fully dead carts. a Genesis Game Genie, Ecco 2: The Tides of Time and recently Killer Instinct Gold. Their PCBs are in reasonably decent shape. No rust from what I see. They just don't work, at all. No matter how many consoles I plug them into.

 

Interestingly though, I got a rusted up Ice Hockey (NES) cart to work again. Just scraped off that rust and things were better.

 

I've only had 3 as well in the many years I've been collecting- 1)Burgertime (colecovision) and 2) Tecmo Super Bowl (nes) 3)Mechanized Attack (nes) out of thousands.