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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. :)"
..but I wonder how much more he would have made if he'd listed each item individually, instead of a bulk lot? It'd be a fair bit of work (not massive, since he's already got the details for most of the items), but you think it'd probably be worth it.
1) Buy this whole kit and kaboodle for $100K
2) Open the most bitching video game museum ever
say it with me now
3) PROFIT!!!
Seriously, I would easily pay $10 or $20 to see some of this stuff. This is probably the best chance an existing computer museum has to get a piece of console history in one fell swoop.
Of course, it's not like this guy couldn't have been so dedicated as to milk phones from a zillion different auctions and make up this whole thing as a prank.
- JoeShmoe
.
As far as I know, the development kits are still Sony's property - they're understandably rather touchy about their intellectual property and would not want such a machine to fall into the hands of the general public. Specifically: I thought all development machines were still owned by Sony, you just pay for being able to use them.
I would not be suprised if he receives a visit from Sony's lawyers demanding the return of their development hardware...
My experience with console development systems is that you have almost no rights to transfer/sell. Everything must be handled through Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo. I predict that, if they want to, they can confiscate all of his development systems. Maybe the rules are different in Japan, but I doubt it.
"For $100k I want the seller to understand business, he's likely never to come across money like this again"
So let me get this straight: lacking complete and utter command over the English language suddenly makes you a poor businessman?
Let's ask you a question: how many languages do you speak?
I'm sure you're a millionaire computer geek who knows it all, right? You MUST be entitled to talk down to anyone who isn't as holy as you. Someone who doesn't meet your expectations is somehow less of a person, right?
Take a break, you don't have to be an asshole every day of your life.
Don't forget "Impressive, but does it run linux?" The answer is actually yes for some of them.
Click here for a free picture of an iPod!
Damn! I was hoping to see the famous Sony/Nintendo stillborn child, the Play Station (note before you flame:Play Station i.e.2 words not PlayStation!), and it seems to be about the only one he hasnt got! Or did I miss it amongst all the Slashdotted photographs?
Oxford Dictionaries Online
Your experience must be pretty narrow, then. I lived in Japan for eight years and Viet Nam for one, and everywhere, the pronunciation issues that make up what we would call a Japanese or Vietnamese accent made their way into writing, frequently even among advanced speakers such as my wife.
If you have many (or any) Japanese friends, you've probably noticed, for instance, that when faced with an "Is that word spelled with an L or an R?" choice, they will usually get it wrong. A close friend of mine has a master's degree in EE, works for a large Japanese electronics company, spends many months out of the year in the United States (in places where there aren't a lot of Japanese), speaks English extremely well, and still flubs the l/r thing all the time.
The guy's spelling level is in line with his overall grammar, and we don't know anything about his educational background. He may have learned English at a conversation school, where spelling isn't taught at all.
He may be going on nothing but what he learned in high school plus his experience since then.
I'm sure he really is a native Chinese speaker.
It's a big collection but more in size rather than range. I mean, 16x Spectrum +2, 23x BBC Model B... and so on. Pretty boring mainstream stuff, in quantity.
Yeah, he's got an Oric. I'll hand that to him. But what would set the colleciton off would be a Jupiter Ace, maybe some MSX machines, a SAM Coupe.
As it stands, it might be worth buying to resell individually on eBay, but few items are boxed so that makes single items all the more unattractive.
In sum: Not worth the space you'd have to devote to it.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
No, I think the simpsons featured it first, in that episode where grandpa gets his drivers license and falls in love with that old woman who ditches him.
"So sit back, relax, and watch our revue! In Soviet Union, revue watches you!"
Family Guy did it a couple years later I think.
But it was an '80s thing before either of them.
Nope...this stuff will not get into the US.
e =UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=customs+seize+dvd & http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q= customs+seize+nintendo
Customs will put a stop to this so fast, it will make your head spin. Current laws allow you to ship yourself ONE dvd/vhs/video game from overseas AT A TIME, and something tells me that 50 freaking game consoles and thousands of games would not make it through customs. Customs would assume that some of them had to be pirated, and would just keep the stuff, with likely there being some legal problems for the bidder.
DOn't belive me? http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&i
Ha! As someone with a fair amount of experience dealing with US businesses trying to work in other cultures, I can tell you this assumption is unfortunately naive.
My brother's spending a lot of time in China lately. The country's crawling with American businessmen, small businessmen, who'd be analogous to this electronics/junk dealer. You'd be amazed at the attitudes, given your post. (Translator? They'll come to us, right?) It's screwy, but even when their small business depends on this one contract, they just don't "get" it.
That's leaving alone far more approachable, familiar, western cultures. I went to France in March. You want to be sympathetic to your American overseas, it's a situation they might not know that well -- but you know, fairly often they make no effort at all. Even in the UK, where there's a common language, there's a large share of American business types who just don't try to be polite, let alone spell "colour" like the natives would spell it.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Damn you, ebay !!!! - Homer Jay Simpson
[why was this auction removed ? im speculating the dev. kits, that or ebay thought something was fishy when his page got 20,000 hits in a matter of a few hrs.]