5:55 AM 1 Feb: With 1 day and 13 hours left my bid on "Raid on Iran", the only hobby game on this little list got outbid. My max bid: 12.50.
(Final Winning Bid: 33.00. No way in hell would I pay this much for a mini game. I like mini games such as this and it would be funny to make late 70s jokes or jokes at Iran in general (protip: Read or watch Perseopolis: The Story of a Childhood. Its a great first hand account of someone who grew up in Iran during all this.) since they seem to be constantly lead by douchebags but no. Not 33 dollars. NOPE.)
4 PM 1 Feb: Broadsides. Outbid by 50 cents about 5 hours before auction end. My max bid: 10 bucks. I love SSI but I know little about the game itself other than its you know, by SSI and is an Age of Sail game. Money is tight and I was just giving it a shot. I wanted it, but not super bad. Oh well.
9 PM 1 Feb: Caverns of Mars. Outbid by 50 cents with 3 minutes left in the auction. My max bid: 10 bucks. Another game I have heard decent things about but was mostly just bidding because it was there. I don't feel bad again. Its pretty common, though a sealed copy which I think is cartridge version would have been swell.
4 PM 1 Feb: Atlantis. Outbid by 50 cents in the last 30 seconds of the auction. My max bid: 8.50. I love Imagic. Next to Activision, they are the best early 80s game publisher. And they had the best boxes and cartridges EVER. Sadly many versions of Atlantis don't run on the XL/XE series of computers (I have the 130XE) so I didn't go big. Plus Atlantis isn't my favorite Imagic game. (Cosmic Ark or Riddle of the Sphinx are my top loves.) I shrug.
430 PM 2 Feb: Lords of Conquest. Outbid by 50 cents 7 hours before auction end. My max bid: 8.50. I have kind of wanted this game since I first saw it on a Commodore 64 in 1989 in my Vo Tech High School Electronics shop on one of the last days of the year. Its sort of like Risk but better I think. Also its an Electronic Arts game and 80s EA owned before they became evil. What Activision and Imagic were to early 80s cartridge systems EA was to computer disk games. I will survive. Next time Gadget.
6 PM 2 Feb: Galaxian. Outbid by 50 cents in the last 2 minutes of the auction. My max bid: 5.50. It was another "Well it's there" bid. Galaga is MUCH better than Galaxian but if I could get the boxed cart cheap why not go for that heat? Also I have a couple retro collections with arcade Galaxian too. I care not.
9 AM 3 Feb: Popeye. Outbid by 50 cents 12 hours before auction end. My max bid: 7.50. If Activision and Imagic are my early 80s cartridge Alpha and Beta, Parker Brothers is whatever the third place is in fancy talk. And I kind of have wanted Popeye for years. But not NEED IT NOOOOWS level of want. Darnit.
9 AM 3 Feb: Q-Bert. Outbid by 50 cents 13 hours before auction end. My max bid: 5.50. Another Parker Brothers game. But really I should more want the Playstation Network version since it is you know, the arcade version. Another one I was just giving a shot. I also loved their version of it on the 2600 back in the day. Like the Germans, Parker Brothers makes good stuff.
9 AM 3 Feb: Qix. Outbid by 50 cents 13 hours before auction end. My max bid: 6.00. It was there. I have the Taito collections with proper arcade version. Also I am not a big Qix guy. I've probably played more of the Gals' Panic nudie version of this game by Kaneko on ACTUAL ARCADE CABINETS IN PUBLIC than I have Qix in any form. We had a lot of arcade games on the Naval Bases I was stationed in during the early 90s.. Next to Galaxian this is the game I care the least about losing on.
650 PM 3 Feb: Moon Patrol. Outbid by 50 cents 3 and a half hours before auction end. My max bid: 7.50. This is a game I quite wanted but.. money be tight and its pretty common so I lowballed as I am wont to do. Bugger. :(
What have we seen with the losses? Other people bidding low who might have wanted them more than me. Not a single item was bid on (besides me anyhow!) more than 48 hours before auction end, most in the last 12 hours. Outside of two of the auctions no more than two people bid on them. Myself and someone else.
The modern Ebay situation is one where people generally avoid bidding wars. Not a ton of bid sniping. A couple items I probably would have gone 1-7.50 more on had I more money but most of these were not my primary bids anyhow. Just things I bid on since they were along with the things the seller had I really wanted.
Now to FRAWRESS VICTOLY:
Outside of Flight Simulator 2 which my bid of 3.50 won, all of these I got for the seller's starting price.
Realm of Impossibility and Racing Destruction Set were the reasons I bid on ANY of this and I got both for 5 and 4 dollars respectively, when sellers normally have them up for 30+ individually, and I have lost auctions for each in the 20 dollar range. And again, they are EA titles from their golden age. A nfity action puzzler I have always wanted to try, and a fun racing/construction set I played a bit on a friend's C64 as a kid.
Ms Pac Man I got for 6 dollars. While I already have multiple arcade versions of the game and the remix Genesis cartridge, I REALLY like the Pac Man port on the A8 bit, moreso than the actual arcade game. So.. why not try for the superior game?
Going back to Flight Simulator 2. Yes there is a super common cartridge version. But this is the disk version with the giant manuals and docs and all. Even if I grab a cart loose later on I can now play it properly. Or keep trying for Solo Flight which is my preferred flight sim where I cannot shoot down whoever it was Americans had to irrationally hate and fear in the 80s.
I got Dig Dug for 8. I would MUCH rather play the "Arranged" remake of it on one of the Namco arcade collections but I do like me some Taizo Hori monster popping fun. Will be nice just to see how they made it work on a 70s tech micro.
Chicken for 6. Its a lovely transparent red cartridge. And the game is named Chicken. I can grab it strongly and say I am choking my Chicken. For a dollar over the price of a Starbucks' latte I can make endless masturbation jokes. Plus its a pretty cartridge. And I just popped over to "Atarimania" to look at the game. Its a joystick OR paddle game. With a good score. I look forward to LPing it and making wank jokes all the while.
Superman for 2. Apparently its GOD AWFUL. Like nearly Superman N64 bad. But 2 bucks? I spend more than that most weeks on candy from vending machines.
Summer Games for 2. Yes I have cart versions. But if EA is to computers what Activision is to early consoles then Epyx is Imagic. And Epyx has bomb ass boxes to their games.
Super Huey for 6. I played this a bit as a kid but not a lot. I owned Gunship which is still the best helicopter combat sim. But I love helicopter sims where I get to blow up helpless commies from the sky.
I did WELL. For 2.50 more than a recently released Nintendo 3DS game I want (the newest Fire Emblem) I got 10 new games to play, all boxed and complete. Not too shabby. And I still have another bid or two with this seller active and might wait to see what wins and doesn't and get more awesome stuff.
See friends, there is a trick to Ebay:
BE CHEAP, BE PATIENT, KNOW OTHER PEOPLE HAVE MORE MONEY AND LESS SENSE THAN YOU DO.
You don't need any of this. Its just stuff for fun. Bills and important stuff comes first. Know the value of your local currency. Be willing to wait. I have gotten things sometimes for HALF their normal going price just by being patient and willing to lose.
My "White Box" edition of 1974 Dungeons & Dragons? Under 50 bucks. Normally it runs 100 or more. You can get deals if you are patient and accept the snipers or gougers who put things up for idiotic prices.
With this knowledge you too can have The Touch, Prism Power Might, Whatever the Hell Those Pastel Ponies Have, The Care Bear Stare, The Wu Tang Secret.
Now let's attack aggressively in.. not spending aggressively and laughing at idiots who pay more than we do for goofy crap we really don't need.
And if you are a seller thank the modern Ebay buyer for ruining your profit margins.
No comments:
Post a Comment