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The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 2:47 am
by abrugsch
Tl;Dr - don't bother looking for broken DMG's on Ebay (UK anyway)
So I just had a quick look at ebay to see if there were any broken DMG's and what I found was interesting...

Typical BIN price for a working but maybe a bit shabby DMG: ~£20-22 (+ delivery sometimes)
Typical BIN price for a broken/spares or repair unit: £30-40 (sometimes even more!) + insane delivery! :o (everything from a screen that's totally irreparable to some slight battery terminal corrosion which will cost next to nothing to fix...)

W. T. A. F.
I guess the decent priced ones get bought instantly by sudomoders ;)

I'm going to stick to car boot sales or maybe even my friend in Japan... or just use repro shells for any future ones...

Re: The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 3:16 am
by Camble
The price trend seemed to skyrocket quite a bit after the forum became more established. At least it's possible to use a replacement shell instead of hacking up an old gameboy.

Re: The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:56 am
by Tamasco
I dont know where you have been looking, but I have already bought 3 broken DMG (one supposely broken and was working) and a Pocket (broken and working also), at less than 15€, in really good state. The last one I have bought was a DMG Play it loud green.

You need to look for "gameboy junk" bidings. Every week there are plenty of them. Look for play-japan, isoy-jp2015 and dora(something else) sellers.

Re: The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:57 am
by Camble
I got a good deal on one of mine as it was just listed as "DMG-01". It didn't show up in most searches.

Re: The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 5:40 am
by ChunkeeMunkee
I paid £18 for mine on Ebay with a faulty screen and discoloured shell. Thought I grabbed a bargain at the time, now thinking I was ripped off! :P

Re: The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:00 am
by abrugsch
Tamasco wrote:I dont know where you have been looking...
I have other places to source them apart from ebay - a few retro buy and sell groups on facebook, charity shops and boot sales etc. This was just the result of a quick search for "gameboy", "gameboy spares repair" and "gameboy broken" that i did this morning. I just found it laughable that people are selling broken ones with a buy it now price that's higher than working ones.

I guess with anything like this, timing and luck play a part too.

Re: The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:41 am
by Tamasco
abrugsch wrote:
Tamasco wrote:I dont know where you have been looking...
I guess with anything like this, timing and luck play a part too.
Exactly, you dont need to russ to buy this things. Just look on eBay once in a while, find the one you want, and bid in the last moment. As I said, you may end with a working gameboy for less than 10-15€.

Re: The craziness of Ebay pricing...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:56 am
by abrugsch
Tamasco wrote:...you may end with a working gameboy for less than 10-15€.
unfortunately, this is what keeps happening :) apart from the original pair that I bought last year, any supposedly broken GB has been either working perfectly or had such a minor fault that it's basically working. And I won't destroy a perfectly serviceable unit to mod into a PiBoy ;)

so far 3 GBC's and one DMG have been declared broken and turned out to have essentially no fault! (well the DMG needed a battery terminal de-corroding (had a spare in my bag-o-bits) and a few vertical lines needed the soldering iron over the ribbon treatment. )

I'm not after one per-se right now as my project has a fair amount of work to go before it's finished... but just always on the look out ;)