My newest acquisition - The Atari 65XE - DEADSTOCK from Atari Mexico!!! US-COMPATIBLE!!!

[BIGHMW]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-65XE-COMPUTER-64K-RAM-NEW-NTSC-US-COMPATIBLE-from-Atari-MEXICO/141600282861?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Well, it's now just a matter of getting it in and then getting The Ultimate Cart after that!!! This is the same as any other US-market 65XE computer the only difference being a lesser-quality packaging (box is lower-grade cardboard then US/Canada-market one) but other than the Spanish manual and Spanish labeling on the bottom she is the very same thing, what a steal of a deal!!!

[lbaeza]

Congrats on your purchase. Once it arrives, please share some pictures, I am interested in the spanish manuals and the like.

 

Kind regards

Luis

[BIGHMW]

1 hour ago, lbaeza said:

Congrats on your purchase. Once it arrives, please share some pictures, I am interested in the spanish manuals and the like.

 

Kind regards

Luis

Thnaks, .....and I thought I was going to have to settle for used from Best Electronics until I searched on eBay for one as Best no longer takes PayPal, surprised to find one not only deadstock, but also it was the last one, I could not help to not get it, if I didn't someone else probably would've and then would've HAD TO settle for a used one from Best.

 

I'll take plenty of pics of it including the Spanish manual and the underlabel as well, it should be interesting, then I can get the Ultimate Cart and dig into the over 4000+ titles in my Homesoft Collection I downloaded last month!!!

Edited November 6, 2020 by BIGHMW

[Sugarland]

Congrats! Well that seller in my opinion is unethical and dishonest with his auctions. I have posted negative reviews of him that disappear and I've seen other negative reviews of him disappear. If you have any problems with the auction don't just leave a negative review but please go after him through PayPal and the BBB, etc. Good luck! You'll need it.

[BIGHMW]

3 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

Congrats! Well that seller in my opinion is unethical and dishonest with his auctions. I have posted negative reviews of him that disappear and I've seen other negative reviews of him disappear. If you have any problems with the auction don't just leave a negative review but please go after him through PayPal and the BBB, etc. Good luck! You'll need it.

Thanks, hopefully I won't need to, all she has to do is work and run games that's it. No matter what language the manual is I can always pick up a loose used English manual if I have any issues but there shouldn't be any other than the controller, power, and RF ports working but that's it. I already studied the Ultimate Cart tutorial video I posted earlier on up on YouTube so I know how to operate it and boot it up and how to switch in between programs to play multiple games for a night of marathon gaming.

[Mclaneinc]

21 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

Congrats! Well that seller in my opinion is unethical and dishonest with his auctions. I have posted negative reviews of him that disappear and I've seen other negative reviews of him disappear. If you have any problems with the auction don't just leave a negative review but please go after him through PayPal and the BBB, etc. Good luck! You'll need it.

Care to explain what the issues were?

 

Just interested..

 

Oh and Ray, obviously I hope your purchase goes smoothly and all works..

Edited November 6, 2020 by Mclaneinc

[x=usr(1536)]

28 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

Congrats! Well that seller in my opinion is unethical and dishonest with his auctions. I have posted negative reviews of him that disappear and I've seen other negative reviews of him disappear. If you have any problems with the auction don't just leave a negative review but please go after him through PayPal and the BBB, etc. Good luck! You'll need it.

 

Coincidentally, I did receive an item from that seller today that was also purchased through eBay, and have no complaints about either the item or transaction.  That said, it would be useful to know what may have happened previously including how long ago the problems took place.

 

And yes, Ray, I also hope your order goes without incident.

Edited November 6, 2020 by x=usr(1536)

[manterola]

Probably, that 65XE is a 130XE without 3 chips (1x emmu and 2x 4464), with ECI. Tell us if I am right.

 

[NISMOPC]

6 minutes ago, manterola said:

Probably, that 65XE is a 130XE without 3 chips (1x emmu and 2x 4464), with ECI. Tell us if I am right.

 

That was only the 65XE from overseas. I'm not aware of any NTSC 65XE's that were 130XE boards, but we learn new things every day.

Edited November 6, 2020 by NISMOPC

[NISMOPC]

5 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

 This is the same as any other US-market 65XE computer the only difference being a lesser-quality packaging (box is lower-grade cardboard then US/Canada-market one) but other than the Spanish manual and Spanish labeling on the bottom she is the very same thing, what a steal of a deal!!!

Both of my US NTSC 65XE and 130XE boxes are total crap as well. Not sure if boxes from Mexico are any different.

[manterola]

My original and only 65XE was a 130XE without 3 chips... I got it in Chile (it was an NTSC country, now a ISDB-T Japanese standard), and it was the more common 65XE whicj included ECI. I guess here in USA, by the time Atari moved to the new unique motherboard for the XE line, the market moved to ST line, so the unified motherboard was used in Latin American and European 65XEs and 800XEs (same thing).

Here I found one picture of someone selling one right now, online (in Chile).

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by manterola

[BillC]

9 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

Thnaks, .....and I thought I was going to have to settle for used from Best Electronics until I searched on eBay for one as Best no longer takes PayPal, surprised to find one not only deadstock, but also it was the last one, I could not help to not get it, if I didn't someone else probably would've and then would've HAD TO settle for a used one from Best.

 

I'll take plenty of pics of it including the Spanish manual and the underlabel as well, it should be interesting, then I can get the Ultimate Cart and dig into the over 4000+ titles in my Homesoft Collection I downloaded last month!!!

The eBay seller was myatari. This is Bruce Carson who with his ex-wife used to own B&C Computervision, a well known Atari retailer BITD, when the store closed they relocated the inventory to their ranch in El Dorado, Ca. 

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by BillC

[+rockdoc2010]

I don't know what DEADSTOCK is but I bought a 65XE Mexican built from Best Electronics and it is still the same machine. Brand new in box.

Fired that mutter up no problem...

 

Douglas

[DavidD]

2 hours ago, BillC said:

The eBay seller was myatari. This is Bruce Carson who with his ex-wife used to own B&C Computervision, a well known Atari retailer BITD, when the store closed they relocated the inventory to their ranch in El Dorado, Ca. 

 

Wait -- was B&C Computervision in the greater Sacramento area then?

 

I'm only about 30 minutes from El Dorado.... or less...

 

[BIGHMW]

2 hours ago, rockdoc2010 said:

I don't know what DEADSTOCK is but I bought a 65XE Mexican built from Best Electronics and it is still the same machine. Brand new in box.

Fired that mutter up no problem...

 

Douglas

"Deadstock" means the same as "New Old Stock", it's a term usually used to define brand new but discontinued stock, especially vintage sneakers.

[+mytek]

7 hours ago, DavidD said:

Wait -- was B&C Computervision in the greater Sacramento area then?

 

I'm only about 30 minutes from El Dorado.... or less...

 

I seem to recall the original store being in the bay area.

 

The town of El Dorodo is only about 20 minutes from where I have a 2nd home in Pollock Pines. What town are you in?

 

[+mytek]

18 hours ago, Sugarland said:

Congrats! Well that seller in my opinion is unethical and dishonest with his auctions. I have posted negative reviews of him that disappear and I've seen other negative reviews of him disappear. If you have any problems with the auction don't just leave a negative review but please go after him through PayPal and the BBB, etc. Good luck! You'll need it.

Sorry to hear you feel that way. I've never had anything but positive results buying from Bruce. He even dropped off a 65XE at my house one day to save me shipping costs, and threw in a video cable for free. Are you sure you are referring to the same person?

 

[jaybird3rd]

5 minutes ago, mytek said:

Sorry to hear you feel that way. I've never had anything but positive results buying from Bruce. He even dropped off a 65XE at my house one day to save me shipping costs, and threw in a video cable for free. Are you sure you are referring to the same person?

Same here.  I've been a happy customer for 20+ years.  I bought five or six of those same 65XE machines from Mexico, and they all arrived in great shape.

[bfollowell]

Same here. No issues whatsoever from Bruce & B&C. That being said, I seem to have heard that things are a little different now and that neither he nor his ex-wife are really involved anymore and the day-to-day operations being taken care of by their kids, who are basically ignorant of all things Atari. Again, this is just rumor that I remember reading from a couple of AtariAge posts months and months ago. There could be no truth to that at all, but it may explain some of the order issues if they're recent.

 

I have to admit, it seems like they're trying to make some extra cash on shipping charges. $15-$20 to ship an 8-bit keyboard and $17 to ship a boxed copy of Red Storm Rising seems pretty excessive. Shipping prices are all over the board for the same items listed multiple times too. It looks really strange when you look at all the items they have for sale and start comparing shipping prices for like items. You'll see a bunch of reasonable $5 shipping charges, then run across an unboxed copy of Jaguar Wolfenstein with manual and overlay with a $20 shipping fee.

 

[ZuluGula]

Are those computers destined for Mexico and south America were made in the same place like the ones for the rest of the world?

How big Atari was in Mexico back then and how is the community today? I can see from Facebook that chilean community is quite active , but I haven't been able to find any user groups in Mexico (especially Michoacan).

[BIGHMW]

1 hour ago, ZuluGula said:

Are those computers destined for Mexico and south America were made in the same place like the ones for the rest of the world?

How big Atari was in Mexico back then and how is the community today? I can see from Facebook that chilean community is quite active , but I haven't been able to find any user groups in Mexico (especially Michoacan).

We'll find out when I get my unit next week, and yes I'll have plenty of pics for all of you as well

[+slx]

I last bought from myatari in 2019. I mailed them asking for specific stuff on top of what they offer on EBay and got prompt replies (signed "Bruce") and had no problems at all. 

[BillC]

13 hours ago, DavidD said:

Wait -- was B&C Computervision in the greater Sacramento area then?

 

I'm only about 30 minutes from El Dorado.... or less...

 

B&C was in San Jose until they closed the store in 1998, they advertised in ANALOG and ANTIC, I visited the store once in the early 90's.

[Sugarland]

On 11/7/2020 at 10:03 AM, mytek said:

Sorry to hear you feel that way. I've never had anything but positive results buying from Bruce. He even dropped off a 65XE at my house one day to save me shipping costs, and threw in a video cable for free. Are you sure you are referring to the same person?

 

 

Thank you. It's good to hear that experiences similar to mine have not been shared by others here.

 

 

[+mytek]

On 11/6/2020 at 9:08 PM, BillC said:

I thought I was going to have to settle for used from Best Electronics until I searched on eBay for one as Best no longer takes PayPal

BEST and B&C deal in NOS Atari equipment sourced from the same Atari warehouses back in the day. Unless I'm mistaken, they rented trucks together to go pick up pallet loads of stuff for pennies on the dollar, and some of that was also dropped off at Bob Woolley's house as well. BEST later went on to buy stock from other places and countries where Atari had distribution centers. So nothing you buy is 'used' from either company - it's all NOS, or in some cases custom manufactured for BEST (keyboard mylars, joystick rebuild kits, cables, and new custom joysticks).

 

I just ordered a bunch of chips from BEST via PayPal 2 weeks ago, so unless PayPal payments were very recently cancelled, that is still an option for buying from BEST. I think Google Pay has also been added as another way to buy stuff.