GRcade Retro Gaming Chat

[Corazon de Leon]

Oh yeah, I know the rules of eBay - I was high bidder on £277 for about a second with 5 seconds to go and then someone went just that bit higher. Not too upset by it, there'll be another decent auction eventually.

You're right though - SNES games are going for a lot just now. I saw Super Metroid up for £899.99 on my weekly eBay trawl earlier.

[Herdanos]

These are the times I wish I could hop in the old time machine and go back to advise child me not to cut up all his SNES game boxes and use the pictures from said cuttings to create his own games magazine.

[Green Gecko]

Oh yeah, I know the rules of eBay - I was high bidder on £277 for about a second with 5 seconds to go and then someone went just that bit higher. Not too upset by it, there'll be another decent auction eventually.

You're right though - SNES games are going for a lot just now. I saw Super Metroid up for £899.99 on my weekly eBay trawl earlier.

eBay just does that automatically to get the price up as high as possible and make more on the fees.

It's much easier to just enter what you're willing to pay and forget about it than try to get "bargains".

[Drumstick]

I just wait until 5 seconds before the end of the auction and submit my max bid (which is variable depending on a few factors). If I don't win I shrug my shoulders and move onto the next one. The number of people that get caught up in bidding wars like it's some kind of competition is staggering. Seen a good condition Mario Party 7 auction finish at £55 yesterday - there's often a buy it now equivalent for less than or equal that.

[Corazon de Leon]

I just wait until 5 seconds before the end of the auction and submit my max bid (which is variable depending on a few factors). If I don't win I shrug my shoulders and move onto the next one. The number of people that get caught up in bidding wars like it's some kind of competition is staggering. Seen a good condition Mario Party 7 auction finish at £55 yesterday - there's often a buy it now equivalent for less than or equal that.

It's ludicrous, isn't it? People who don't know what games are worth and get caught up in the thrill of the chase.

[AndyXL]

Yeah, I always find it funny how some auctions go for more than "buy-it-nows" which are in better condition...I guess that the psychology of auctions though - some people get fixated on one item and will bid whatever it takes.

I also just submit the max. I will pay in the last 5 seconds. If I get it, great, if I don't, great as I would have over-paid for it had I bid more.

I know the value of games quite well, and I also know when things go for more than they're worth. A recent SNES Super Metroid going for £450+ was not worth that (and since then, everyone's put it on £400+ buy-it-nows). The game was fairly common at the time, and only released in the big box, which people think is some kind of collectors edition...

[Cumberdanes]

I hate when people add the word "rare" to an eBay listing in an attempt to increase it's perceived value. Sticking with Super Metroid a quick search on Google suggests it sold nearly 1.5 million copies worldwide so it's hardly rare. The box might be uncommon but the cartridge should be fairly common.

[jawafour]

I haven't bought a game off eBay for about five years now... but, man, I used to be addicted to it! I probably spent at least an hour every day searching through what was available and checking prices.

I stopped doing it mainly because prices were getting a bit too high. A couple of times I got burned on the condition and that was frustrating, too. One guy sent me an empty N64 1080 Snowboarding box, claiming that he hadn't known the cartridge wasn't inside .

Picking up on Andy's point, it is interesting how the "value" of different editions is perceived. Lylat Wars on the N64 was released in a box box format complete with rumble pack and game guide; it sold well and is fairly easy to find now. In later years it was sold in the standard cart-only box as part of the Players Choice (silver box) range and that is pretty common, too. However, the real collectible variant is a standard cart-only black box version that was released in far lower volume alongside the original big-box edition. It is a lot tougher to track this version down!

[Corazon de Leon]

Today's wins - Mission: Impossible, F1 World a Grand Prix 2 and, err, RTFWC 98, boxed, for £2.90, £2.90 and £2.50 respectively plus postage. Under £15.

[jawafour]

...Mission: Impossible...

It garnered wildly varying review opinions at the time, but I like this! It's clunky but atmospheric. Staying on the "secret agent" theme, 007 The World Is Not Enough is good fun, too.

[Corazon de Leon]

...Mission: Impossible...

It garnered wildly varying review opinions at the time, but I like this! It's clunky but atmospheric. Staying on the "secret agent" theme, 007 The World Is Not Enough is good fun, too.

I loved it! My brother got it one Christmas when I got Ocarina of Time - it was left aside a little off the back of Zelda's incredible scenes, but it's a great regret that we eventually got rid of it, so I'm glad I've got it back.

[Miguel007]

Mission Impossible is brilliant on the N64, loved the variety in the game and I remember it was quite challenging at the time. Loved the N64 Magazine Guide to get the most out of it with hilarious glitches etc, my favourite levels were the one were you escaped as a Fireman and the Sniper Level. Never did try the sequel Operation Surma on PS2, Gamecube or Xbox.

[jawafour]

Mission Impossible is brilliant on the N64... Never did try the sequel Operation Surma on PS2, Gamecube or Xbox.

Oh! That's a great call, Miguel. I'm sure I have a copy of Surma on Xbox and I've never played it - will have to give it a go sometime.

[Drumstick]

Had to pass on a like new copy of Mario Party 4 this morning. I thought I'd be able to get it pretty cheap given that it was scheduled to finish around 10:30 but a couple of others evidently had the same idea and it ended up going for slightly more than the going rate.

[Lotus]

Great to see so much activity in here

And thanks for the signature jawa, looks good.

Looking to pick up a Wii classic controller pro so that I can play Monster Hunter and Xenoblade with them (shame you can't use the GC controller). Not cheap though, and difficult to find an official one.

[Preezy]

I'm definitely beginning to understand the addictive nature of retro game collecting. I've got 5 or 6 SNES games on my ebay watchlist and to be honest I shouldn't really be even looking now until I get paid again, and yet here I am ready to buy

My copy of Super Mario Kart is on its way now as well, looks to be in fantastic condition

I really need to get my tv adapter sorted so I can actually play all this stuff

[Corazon de Leon]

It can be hard to know when to stop at times

[Preezy]

Ok so I took another look at the back of my TV (Panasonic TX-P50GT50B, in case you're interested) and there isn't any connectivity for scart or RGB directly into the unit. However, there is an RGB "interface" port which is a little green socket that has an image above it showing the regular AV/RGB cables, so I'm assuming this is where I would connect the SNES cables in (via an adapter). Had a look on eBay and found this:



Listing states it's for Panasonic plasmas, the connection looks the same as what my TV would accept, I assume that I'd plug the red/yellow/white SNES cables into this and that then goes into my TV?

I'm so gooseberry fool at this kinda stuff

[Corazon de Leon]

Quick question - anyone know how I'd replace the fuse in my SNES plug? Apparently that may be where the problem lies with mine not working.

[Preezy]

Quick question - anyone know how I'd replace the fuse in my SNES plug? Apparently that may be where the problem lies with mine not working.

You can open up the plug with a screwdriver and take the fuse to a hardware store (or somewhere like Homebase or B&Q) and buy a pack of replacement fuses. They're normally cheap, no more than a couple of quid for a whole pack.