3DO ZONE Forums

Ok so I just bought some NES stuff on a site and decided to have a look on evil bay. I type in Twin Famicom and the first two that come up are people looking to score $300!!!!!! WTF happened???? I know that this who retro & retro-gaming fad has driven up prices and people try to get a lot more than the next guy but this is ridiculous! Last time I looked I saw ones that had been cleaned up and had the belt replaced with nice new ones and they only wanted $80 with free shipping. I only didn't buy one because I was buying things for my place.

It's like the TG-16 CD unit, it wasn't hard to get one and not too expensive. Now everyone wants to sell you a big set with that and a DUO and their "RARE!" copy of BONK. I'm ready to split skulls!

How long you figure the hopping on the old school bandwagon thing will last?

Probably until companies get back to making really good games. See Nintendo was smart back in the days of the NES. They made the contract say that the company could only make 5 games a year. This forced them to try to make really good games so that they could make enough money from each. Kids are just going to be playing old games that are better until something good comes along. I do like to see Resident Evil remakes 0 & 1 are being remade for Wii but how many times are they gonna sell us the same game?

Did you ever notice in the days of carts the games gradually got better and more innovative? You could pack new chips into the carts, and back then creative code making was the way do beat competitors not body counts. Look at the sprites for Mario in SMB versus SMB3, major upgrade and you didn't need a new system or even fancy chips in the cart, just good programming.

Until they make many better games or kids get tired of retro/vintage we are stuck with retarded prices on this stuff, and children who can't do research posting on youtube.

The high costs of making games for this gens consoles is killing innovation. Can't afford the risks, so stick with what works. I'm more of a retro collector now than ever before.

It's a sore point with me too. I now own 44 systems - as a collector and an historian. I think the resurgence in retro is twofold - firstly today's games have no soul or WOW factor anymore and secondly people are finally starting to realise that these are not just toys to be chucked or sold cheaply at garage sales.
As a collecter I'm pi##ed off at the increasing prices but as an historian I welcome it to a degree because it means this stuff isn't ending up on a rubbish tip somewhere.
I have already made contact with the Sydney Powerhouse museum - the closest thing we have to the Smithsonian and they now have a list of what I own as being available for loan . An upcoming "life in the 80's" exhibition has opened up this communication and some of my items may see the light of day there.
I am keen that my stuff not lay in box after box in my garage as is currently the case.
Prices will begin to settle soon but the old days of cheap cheap cheap are now well and truly gone.

I don't want cheap cheap cheap, I want real real real. Yes it's nice to see people showing an interest but the junk dealers are making it really hard. They put these high prices that no one pays and just keep reposting the same auction again and again. I don't care if I have to pay top dollar but don't try and rip me off.

Right now I'm buying a portable gaming unit for more than I could get it for if I looked around but it's the international shipping that's hurting but I'd rather pay someone I trust than a stranger. He's not ripping me off because he doesn't get all the money but these a$$wipes on e-bay are gouging, trying to force people to pay 3x what something is worth and then charging way more for shipping than it actually costs. I think I liked it better buying from some no-name on a BBS worrying about if you were never gonna get something when you pay a decent price than knowing you are getting ripped off from the start.

Dont get me wrong - I'm agreeing with you - it's just that I'm trying to see an upside to all this. At the moment postal charges on anything over 2kg is ridiculous , especially from/to Australia. In the interest of fairness I always take a loss on postage when dealing with anyone from this forum.

A perfect example of the cut throat nature at the moment is this - I bid on and won two boxed Atari 2600s - one was from the US and one from the UK . Both times I paid the advertised price and postage immediately only to get a message from both sellers saying that they underestimated and needed more money.Whilst negotiating a compromise with them both sellers suddenly cancelled the transaction saying that the item was now "broken" and unsellable. Both wins were relatively low. Now can anybody say that a collector who was watching/monitoring these sales didn't contact the sellers and offer them a slightly higher price? Two nearly identical items , two different sellers from two different countries but exactly the same story.

I was not happy

See THIS is the kind of BS I was talking about! What is going on with these dealers!?!

ooooooh it's shiny and glossy!

I kinda want a TurboExpress but they all want like $200-$300 for a system that goes for $60 at best. Now if I want it I have to go way outta my way to go to the one store that I know has them... Sure I could be a prick and buy like 3 of them and then re-sell them on evil-bay but then I'd be screwing some wanting fan and turn myself into a bitch-whore at the same time. What I ought to do is buy as many as they have and then sell them for the same price I paid on e-bay at a buy it now and tell off every one of those rat fink sellers on my auction pages!

I'd buy one!

me too!

Tell me about it. I was looking for the Turbo CD myself recently and the prices are about twice what they were last year. They also had that *rare* copy of bonks.

I'm not sure which is worse, the price or when no one buys them they still get reposted for the same price.

Once in a while I'll send sellers a message if the price of an item is beyond obnoxious. Something like this ...

Please contact me when this item does not sell. I would be very happy to purchase this from you at a fair price which, as you likely realize, is well below your current asking. If you have any questions on proper pricing of other video game related items do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,
Ebayer Trev

P.S. For any 3DO inquires, be sure to check out this site ...

http://3do.cdinteractive.co.uk/

Surprisingly, no one has taken me up on my generous offer.

OK I went to the store today that had the TurboExpresses for $60... they all had something wrong with the screen. Dead pixels or just not working, so I guess my little rant about that particular item can be ignored.