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Huge Console Auction Debuts

Posted by michael on from the comic-book-guy dept.

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. :)"

36 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Let's get this out of the way by andy55 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's get this out of the way:

    1) This guy is the most dedicated console collector the world has ever seen!
    2) This guy is the most fucked up collector the world has ever seen!
    3) Imagine a Beowulf Cluster made out of them...
    4) (Obligatory MS dig for the white Xbox at the end)
    5) (Obligatory all you base belong to us joke)
    6) Sure, but don't they support Ogg!
    7) In Soviet Russia, the consoles buy you!
    8) I have an Atari 2600, you insensitive clod!
    9) Let's get this out of the way
    10) ???
    11) Not Profit!

    --
    G-Force music visualization
    1. Re:Let's get this out of the way by Justin205 · · Score: 4, Funny

      You forgot the Simpsons quote.

      Unfortunatly, so did I.

      --
      "Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
    2. Re:Let's get this out of the way by andy55 · · Score: 5, Funny

      12) I, for one, welcome our new console Overlords

      --
      G-Force music visualization
    3. Re:Let's get this out of the way by CitizenJohnJohn · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Apple Bandaï Pippin was Apple's attempt at a console. One from the 'What were they thinking?' file. More info here

  2. Commercial posts on slashdot? by skywolf · · Score: 4, Funny

    When advertising, please place 'FS:' in the subject line to avoid causing offence. Thanks,

  3. Re:yeah! by Defunkt · · Score: 5, Funny

    And just think... if only 3 people ever play it, it will have been the most successful 3DO game in the console's entire history!!!

  4. shipping! by Coneasfast · · Score: 4, Funny

    HIGH BIDDER HAVE TO HELP FOR SHIPMENT & PAY ALL SHIPPING FEE, DUE TO ALL ITEMS MIGHT OVER 100KGs !!! HIGH BIDDER MAY HAVE TO PAY SOME THOUSAND US$ FOR SHIPMENT

    that's gonna be one hell of a shipping cost. it may be cheaper to rent a ship and go to hong kong to pick it up yourself :)

    i guess if you are willing to pay 100k it may not be a big deal.

    --
    Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
  5. 100k??? by homb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The dude is selling this for $100,000 starting price. That's pretty insane. Unless you're a store wanting to resell this in a 3rd world country (even then, it'll be hard), you're not going to make your money back.

    Truly this is only for the insanely obsessed console freaks.

    1. Re:100k??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's no group of people (no matter how small) that isn't represented somehow on Slashdot.

      Something tells me the Amish are not represented here.

    2. Re:100k??? by Jardine · · Score: 4, Funny

      The dude is selling this for $100,000 starting price. That's pretty insane. Unless you're a store wanting to resell this in a 3rd world country (even then, it'll be hard), you're not going to make your money back.

      Maybe the guy just got married and his wife told him to get rid of all that electronics shit. So he comes up with a plan: auction it all off on ebay in one lump but with a huge starting bid. If no one buys it then he can go back to his wife and say no one would buy it. But if someone does bid on it, hey, $100000 is a pretty nice chunk of change.

    3. Re:100k??? by badasscat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The dude is selling this for $100,000 starting price. That's pretty insane. Unless you're a store wanting to resell this in a 3rd world country (even then, it'll be hard), you're not going to make your money back.

      Yeah, a third world country like the USA...

      There are a lot of import and collector's shops in this country. Most of them that I've been to are lucky to have one of the items on this list, and it'd usually be the showcase item in the store. I mean come on, a Dreamcast dev kit? Any store I know of would die to get their hands on one of those, and they'd slap a nice $1,000 price tag on it alone, easy.

      In fact, this is obviously a HK retailer or wholesaler looking to dump a lot of stock quickly. It's not a collector, it's a guy who sells games for a living one way or another (he may not have an English web site or any US contacts; maybe this is the most convenient way for him to sell here). Look at his other auctions; no way he's got new, unopened copies of games (and systems) lying around because he's a collector. I collect games; this is not a game collector's collection, this is a game seller's collection.

      That said, some of this stuff would get him into a lot of trouble if some of these companies found out he was selling it. I'm not sure if Ebay's going to let this auction go through to the end; dev kits, in particular, are mucho taboo to sell, though the older ones he could probably get away with. Nothing recent, though.

      I will admit I'd give my left arm for this collection. If I had $100,000 to spare, I'd bid.

    4. Re:100k??? by cgenman · · Score: 5, Informative

      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
    5. Re:100k??? by ghack · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Nope...this stuff will not get into the US.

      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&ie =UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=customs+seize+dvd & http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q= customs+seize+nintendo

  6. Re:How ridiculous we all are... by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 5, Insightful
    You know, on a side note, after waiting about ten minutes for all the images to load, and only 85 out of the 300 or so have, I have come to the conclusion that if the seller were to list each item separately, he would probably double or triple his returns, regardless of the increased administration costs involved in doing so. This is because buyers are more likely to spend, say, $300 on some item, than $100,000 on a million billion things.

    But that's just me. Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh well.

  7. Very impressive by chewy_2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ..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.

  8. I wish my bank offered... by grainofsand · · Score: 5, Funny

    "..INTERNATIONAL BONK TO BANK TRANSFER.."

    I wish my bank offered Bonking services - maybe I wouldn't moan about their monthly fees if they did.

    --
    A dream is good. A plan is better.
    1. Re:I wish my bank offered... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wish my bank offered Bonking services - maybe I wouldn't moan about their monthly fees if they did.

      You would if they were any good at bonking.

  9. Actually a good investment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
    .

  10. Trying to sell this stuff since last year by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative
    This guy has own web site and buys and sells stuff like this. Most of this stuff was offered for sale back in 2003.

    The images are coming from his own web site, which is now slashdotted.

  11. the wheels are in motion... by vdoogs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nice. Just a few more university japanese courses so I can read the development manuals, a couple (or 80) grand to hustle up before the auction ends, and my ultimate goal of porting Mary-Kate & Ashley: Magical Mystery Mall to every system ever made can be realized.

  12. Re:The Sega Deramcast is AWESOME by dopaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't you get the impression that the person listing the auction is not a naitive english speaker? All of the hardware is Japanese and the seller is located in Hong Kong. A few spelling errors doesn't change what you get.

  13. Illegal to sell the dev. kits? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...

    1. Re:Illegal to sell the dev. kits? by cgenman · · Score: 4, Informative

      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
  14. W@W!!!L@@K!!!R@RE!!!!!!!MINT IN BOX!!!! by grahamlee · · Score: 4, Informative

    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... :-(.

  15. Ownership/License doesn't allow sale of DevSystems by PenguinOpus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  16. Re:How ridiculous we all are... by Granos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look at his selling history and active auctions. He's been selling this stuff on eBay for over FOUR YEARS. He has about 100 seperate items on sale right now. He is probably bored as hell of it. This auction was a great idea, even if no one bids the $100,000 dollars. It has generated HUGE amounts of publicity for him(it had 20,000 hits before it hit /.) If no one bids on it, he'll have no problem selling the items seperately. And maybe, just maybe, there's a video game obsessed nut rich enough to bid the 100k.

  17. pretty obvious why by prockcore · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's pretty obvious why he's selling all of that. He must be getting married and the bride-to-be said "you can either play with SEGA, or play with me, your choice"

  18. Re:How ridiculous we all are... by bersl2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Um, Dad... can I borrow $100,000?"

    " WHAT?! "

    "...plus shipping..."

  19. Re:The Sega Deramcast is AWESOME by cgenman · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  20. Re:How ridiculous we all are... by lspd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have come to the conclusion that if the seller were to list each item separately, he would probably double or triple his returns.

    If you honestly believe this you should buy the set, split it up, and relist it.

  21. Heh, Mallrats... by Cyno01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for sega."

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  22. Re:Can you overnight it? by whiteranger99x · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, once I receive the funds, I'll be sure to send you all the P-P-Playstations and X-X-X-Boxes.

    --
    Join the TWIT army now!
  23. Re:Price by cgenman · · Score: 5, Funny

    For a collection that large, I'd spend $100K any day.

    So would I. That's probably why we don't have it.

    --
    The ______ Agenda
  24. Customs by igrp · · Score: 4, Insightful
    If any US-based /.'ers are considering spending their kid's inheritance on this just be sure to check with a lawyer before you bid (Europeans likewise, I guess).

    You're not just looking at the $100k pricetag plus S&H but also at spending quite a bit at customs (and it's going to be a b**ch to get some of this stuff cleared by customs in the first place). Oh, and be sure to tell the UPS guy not to leave the stuff on the front porch. ;)

  25. Re:The Sega Deramcast is AWESOME by aka-ed · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I can't figure for the life of me how Americans, who generally have a limp hold on a single language, can be so critical of an Asian who isn't in perfect command of English.

    If you used your imagination to determine what it might be like doing business in a second language you'd know:

    1. translators will not keep your business interests in mind as well as you will.

    2. Since it's difficult to determine where your own errors may be, it's even more difficult to spot errors made by a spellchecker. And what commonly used, unmodified spellchecker would have correct spellings for "Deramcast," Famicon, or the many other specialized words in this ad?

    --
    I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
  26. Dear Sir... by punyhumanpromo · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...I know you are a trustworthy man and am approaching you in the strictest of confidence.

    My name is Wan Dev Kit, son of Wong Dev Kit, Hong Kong's foremost exporter of video game systems and utilities. Following the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong, my father disappeared and his bank account has been frozen by the state. This has caused great hardship to my family who have been unable to access his account.

    However, there exists a loophole in the law which allows foreign companies to remove existing stock from Hong Kong following the takeover. To this end I am seeking a discreet, reliable foreign partner to provide the sum of $100,000 (ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS U.S.) in transfer fees which will allow my father's company to operate outside Chinese control. In return, you will be richly rewarded by the Dev Kit Electronics Company.

    THank you for your cooperation in this matter.

    Wan Dev Kit