Slashdot Mirror
Huge Console Auction Debuts
neura writes "In quite possibly the largest console auction ever, someone is selling just about every development kit and production game console ever made in Japan. They also have listed tons (almost literally) of software to go along with the systems. Anybody ever seen the original Super Famicom development system? The pictures alone are worth taking a gander. :)"
The images are coming from his own web site, which is now slashdotted.
That truly is a mighty console collection, although it's clear that this auction probably has better retro value, and is more affordable. Tis pity it's bigger than my house... :-(.
I'm sure the seller has quite a bit of experience in this area. He is selling, amongst other things, a development version of the M2. They didn't just hand those out free with your cereal, you know. The M2 development systems were so rare that people doubted they were shipped at all. Add to that the DD development system (did those go outside of Nintendo?), and the Deramcast, Saturn, Playstation, SNK development systems, and you have a surprisingly rare bundle. Now add in the Supergraphix, the Pippin, several unopened bottles of launch wine, multiple PS2 tools (which normally e-bay for about 20k each, I might add), thousands of games, lots of rare variations of every system released in the past 15 years, and this really does deserve to cost a lot more than 100,000 dollars.
Note that the auctioneer makes classic Japanese to English blunders, like switching S for T. In Japanese pretty much all consonants are followed by a vowel, and hence "Dreamcast" is usually pronounced "Du Ri Mu Ca Su T." When dealing with a native English speaker, an inability so spell correctly is usually a sign of below-average intelligence and a general disregard for details. However, when dealing with a Japanese speaker nothing can be read into classic Japanese translation errors.
The ______ Agenda
Dev kits are illegal to sell, as Sony retains the property rights on all of them. However, the PS2 is far along enough in its lifespan that they don't worry so much anymore. They frequently wind up on Ebay, though they sell for a pretty penny. The Playstation 2 is well enough understood these days that there isn't any real reason to stop people from selling them. Ironically, a lot of those dev kits go to developers, as sometimes you NEED another tool to make a deadline, and sitting through Sony's lengthy approval process isn't an option. Plus the tools still cost several thousand dollars on e-bay, and don't even play games that well, limiting the audience to developers.
Now, if he was selling PSP dev kits, he could be expecting a nice little nastygram.
The ______ Agenda
Thank you for clearing that up. Without that insight, I would never have realized that 100,000 dollars on consoles is only for insanely obsessed freaks.
Let's break this down, shall we?
PS2 development kit: 20,000 dollars
M2 development kit: I don't think any of these have been sold, but let's estimate at 20,000 dollars for the extreme rarity.
the 10 other development kits: about 2,000 each, or 20k for the lot.
games: PC Engine games are a steal at 4 or 5 dollars each, and he's got over 500 of them. Neo Geo games still demand over 100 dollars each for most titles, so let's put a blanket value at 10,000 dollars.
Special edition systems: Most of the 100 or so special edition systems he has would fetch 200 dollars each, so let's put another blanket value at 20,000
Normal systems: The Bandai, Supergraphics, LaserInteractive, Neo Geo, Turbo Express and many of the other normal systems that he lists routinely sell for over 200 each. Let's put their blanket value at 10k.
We're at roughly 100,000k already, without counting the value of the oddities in the collection such as the PSX / PS2 launch wines and the integrated televion set. 100,000 actually about right for a collection of this size, if not a little low. Of course, anyone thinking of bidding should do a more rigorous item-by-item breakdown of the value of the goods... after all, what would a collector do with a development tool? How many games for the various systems is he selling?
100,000 is not insane. It's just a lot.
The ______ Agenda
The Apple Bandaï Pippin was Apple's attempt at a console. One from the 'What were they thinking?' file. More info here