#discreaderror

Most recent pickup is for Nintendo. Yay!

I mentioned before that I had a small NES and Game Boy deal in the works with a co-worker. She accepted my offer on part of the lot so I picked up two NES games I did not have, and a Game Boy game I have been looking for a good deal on for several months.

She originally contacted me due to my listing on the work Classifieds we have indicating my interest in Retro Video Games. She stated she had The Legend of Zelda, Roger Rabbit, and Track and Field for the NES, and Tetris for the Game Boy. This picture was attached to the email.

Right in the classified ad I state that I am collecting this stuff only for very low prices. So I offered her $1 each for Roger Rabbit and Track and field, stating that is typically what I get at yard sales. I offered $2 for Tetris since I know its about a $5 game. I could have gone as high as maybe $10 for Zelda if I was adding it to the collection, but, I already have it, so I offered $4, double the typical $2 per game of yard sale lots, but much less than it is worth. I said I could not justify spending as much as $10 on a duplicate since I would probably sell it anyway and there’s no money there if I go much higher. I told her it is fine if she wants to keep Zelda, it is a low offer.

She did keep The Legend of Zelda, as expected, I wouldn’t have sold it for that either. But did take me up on the other three, so for $4 total I picked up Track and Field, and Roger Rabbit for NES, with dust covers. And Tetris for Game Boy. I’m really happy about Tetris. Loved, loved, LOVED this game, easily in my top 5 on Game Boy. So many hours into this.

A good little mini find from work, if I get one of these every other week or so I’d be happy. Probably not going to be quite that often though.

As for the update on Sony Weeks, last week we had a really good find valued at over $125 for the outstanding price of $25. It had two fat PS2s, three controllers including a Dual Shock and two Dual Shock 2s, a HDD and network adapter, memory card, and 9 games including Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, and the exceptionally valuable Steambot Chronicles. If you missed the post, go check it out by backing up one, or simply check out the recap photo from the end of the post below.

As you may know, if you read the post, the high from the find was dampened slightly when I discovered that one of the PS2s did not read discs. It powered on, and you could control menus, manipulate files on memory cards, and fidget with the PS2′s settings, but it would just not read ANY discs. Tried both PS2 discs, and PS1 discs. Neither would boot into the game. After some research on the matter and finding that a possible solution did not seem too difficult, I decided to do some surgery.

I am pleased to report the surgery was a success. I am now able to load both PS2 and PS1 games on the, now no longer broken, PS2. I have two working PS2s out of this find.

In addition to the PS2 that would not read discs, we also had an issue where the video would go wonky or cut out all together if you wiggled either of the composite cables that came with the lot. In hopes the problem was with both cables and not with the PS2s, I purchased a Monoprice component cable that fits the PS2, Wii, and XBOX 360. Unfortunately, Monoprice doesn’t make one that is just PS2. The ones that were just for PS2 were really cheap looking, and had terrible reviews of people getting defective ones. I just didn’t want to deal with that crap. So I paid a little more and got the Monoprice, which was the same brand as the one I bought just for the Wii at the beginning of the Blog. So I knew the quality was good. Like the cable for the Wii I will not take this out of the game hunting money as it is not something I was hunting for.

The good news is, the connection is true and solid with this cable and the issues with wiggling the cable and the video image going wonky are gone. So the problem appeared to be with both cables I got in the deal. Unlikely, but clearly possible. Quite pleased with these results, since now the only down side to the find that remains was that Battlefront II and Dawn of Mana were incomplete missing manuals, and ATV Offroad Fury had a different game in it. Some Rugrats game I can’t even recall the whole title. All in all though, a great outcome for a really good price.

The plan for this find is to sell the Kingdom Hearts games, Innocent Life, and Steambot Chronicles to recoup all $25 and then some for some added game hunting money.

Pricecharting has Kingdom Hearts at $7.77 and Kingdom Hearts 2 at $6.50. Sold as a set I should pocket about $10 after fees and shipping. Innocent Life is valued at $14.71, so about $10 there as well after fees and shipping. Steambot Chronicles is valued at $49. After fees and shipping we are looking at about $40. So $60 total for those four games. This more than doubles my money back for this lot, and I get to keep at least one PS2 for the collection, and any of the remaining games. I will probably keep the Castlevania game, as I am a fan of the franchise at least on the NES and SNES, so I’ll give it a go here as well. The other PS2, I feel like I could bundle the other games in this lot and get about $35 - $40 for it. That totals $95 - $100 for a $25 lot. I would be very happy with this.

On top of that, I have already sold my old XBOX for $40, along with a couple games, Ninja Gaiden Black and Dead or Alive Ultimate. Each of those were $5 each totaling the entire sale at $50. Probably a little less than I would have gotten on eBay, at least for the games, but I sold it in cash to a co-worker, so I didn’t want to rip her off, and knowing I’d lose a ton of money in fees and shipping anyway, I was more than happy to take that price. She was very excited to do some gaming over the 4th of July weekend.

So, official business. Lets add the above to the game hunting money shall we?

$29.36 + $50 = $79.36

Plans for additional funds forthcoming are to sell Parappa the Rapper for the original Playstation. Pricecharting has that valued at $38 for CIB. I wager I will get close to that since it is tested and working. After fees and shipping we should be looking at about $30 for that one.

If all goes according to plan the game hunting money will go well over $100, just adding up what we have here to the current $79.36 puts us at $109.36 after Parappa goes, then if I get all $100 for the PS2 stuff, $209.36. This doesn’t include anything I get for a local sale of the PS2 and games I don’t care to keep.

Because of this find, we will likely go completely over the original $100 we started with, and will have actually made money. So for essentially completely free, I have added an extra Gamecube to the collection, and for the Gamecube, Smash bros Melee, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, a Game Boy Player, a 251 block memory card, and a Wavebird controller. For the PS2, an actual PS2 console with controllers, network/HDD adapter, and memory card, along with a nice little collection of games including Gran Turismo 4, Hot Shots Golf 3 and Castlevania Lament of Innocence.

I’ll keep you guys posted on all of this as the next couple of weeks unfolds. Of course I will continue to hunt, combing LetGo, OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, Garage Sales, and Thrift Stores.

Happy July 4th everyone!