How do you sell a Mame Cabinet?

[Superdude]

I have built 2 extra cabinets from spare parts.  Does anyone have a guide as to how to sell them?  I don't think I can sell them with the roms.  How would I sell it as? (As Mame ready cabinet?).  I am just looking to get what I paid for and maybe a little extra for my labor. Has anyone here ever sold a Mame Cab before?  Any tips? What should I lookout for?  
Thanks!

[SNAAAKE]

Try ebay.
So...2 extra cabinets eh...?  

[paigeoliver]

Ebay is not the best place. Try either a live arcade auction, or your local newspaper.

[tmasman]

Your best bet is going to be selling it locally.
Advertise it as a All-In-One or Mame machine.
Most people that would fork up the $$$ don't know anything about mame, so you'll
need to hold there hand a little (where to gte the games, where to put the rom files, etc...)

Like Paige said, try the newspaper, fliers, or local auctions.
Put up fliers around any local colleges & arcades (if they'll let you).

Good luck & let us know how it works out for you.

[Superdude]

Thanks guys.  I'll take your suggestions. Here are a couple of pics of the cabs look like:

[Superdude]

2 more

[Superdude]

Last One....

Each one cost 500 in parts total.  So I am looking for maybe 700?  Is that too high you think?

[Hoagie_one]

$700 SOUNDS LIKE A DEAL

[tmasman]

Just out of curiousity, what type of monitor (TV, PC, Arcade)...
And what type of PCs are in these things?

$700 does sound like a good deal & I don't think you'll have a hard time
getting that if you stick your nose in the right places.

Good luck!

[Superdude]

Super pac and Gorf have standard 19inch arcade monitor set veritcle.  (IE No horizontal games will play correctly)

The Gorf has a P3 500 Mhz system with
a Sound Blaster and 192 Megs of Ram
8 gig HD

The Super Pac has a P4 Duron 800 Mhz Chip
with a Sound Blaster and 192 Megs of Ram
10 gig HD

The Machines were converted to Jamma and use a JPAC.  Both run dos and have Auto Switches from craftsman in them.  (One button Power Switch).  Buttons were left over from former projects.  They are brand new.

[Bill_S]

I think your price is awfully low.

Where do you live  
I might be interested in the pac for that price.

[Superdude]

Chicago, IL

[Bill_S]

That's a little too far to drive from Ohio.
Does the super pac have 4 way joystick?
Can you give more specifics on some stuff.  Like the 2 buttons on the left.

[Superdude]

I have a the original 4 way joystick from the pacman.  I replaced it with a Happs Competition 8 Way.  The control Panel layout is:

Left Side
Blue Credit (Page Up List)
Red Exit Game (Page Down List)
Middle
Joystick, Button 1,2,3
RIght Side
Player 1 Player 2

No need for a keyboard.  Games Start by pressing Button 1 or Player 1 or 2.  Menu Layouts Change by Button 2, Menu Pictures Change by Button 3.  Credit and Exit Game Page Up and Down the list. See pic below for a better layout reading.

[paigeoliver]

I would put the 4-way back into the Ms. Pac and sell it that way. Just set it up with the vertical 4-way games. Advertise it in the paper as a "Ms. Pac-Man arcade game, plays 100 different games". Your potential buyer would probably be happier with a Ms. Pac-Man that could actually play the Pac games, than they would be with one that had an 8-way and couldn't play them right.

And yes, you do leave the games on. I have never seen anyone actually successfully sell a Mame cabinet WITHOUT the games anywhere besides ebay.

I would list it in at $900 or best offer. It simply isn't worth your labor to sell something like that at only a $200 profit. If I sold my Artic Mini the asking price would be $1000, and I would probably get it.

I actually had someone offer me a dedicated Missile Command for my Artic Mini back when I had listed it for sale with the 19" s-video display, the crappier original controls, and without the computer.  But I didn't trade, because I had dealt with the buyer before, and I knew it wouldn't really meet his needs.

[Binary010]

Paige

Legally speaking, how can you sell a Mame Cab with roms installed?  To the best of my knowledge you require ownership of the roms inorder to sell them with the cabs, and from what I can find out online there are only 2 public domain games, and they are really a far cry from showing off the ability of Mame, and assisting in selling the Cab.

On the same vein, can you purchase a copy of Capcom Classics, Microsofts Return to the Arcade, or other games that emulate classic arcade games and install those Roms in a Mame cabinet as long as the software goes with the Cab?

I have run into this problem myself, and curious if anyone can answer this question.

My apologies for hijacking the thread for an Off Topic question.

[AlanS17]

It still has to do with selling a MAME cab. You're not supposed to sell it with the roms. Even Ebay auctions have been removed because people tried to offer roms with their cabs. Installing one of those game packs would be a legal solution, but ultimately you will want MAME working. The best recommendation would be to give clear directions to the buyer on where to get the roms.

[clok]

Looks like a great price, Im sure you will gt it. As for selling it, Im pretty sure for legal reasons you cant sell it with anything on the HD, including an OS unless you are including the disks, or Reg Number. I would advertise it as a MAME ready Cab, somebody calls and has any interest, and they are legit (THIS IS SIMPLY A SUGGESTION, legalities of it are up to you and buyer) just let um know you will give them a set of CD-R's with the mame roms (if you have them) or point them to one of the 20 or 30 burning guys. I personally wouldnt sell it with anything on the HD other then an OS (if you have the CD and reg number, or the DOs 6.22 disks) with MAME installed. Tell them where the roms go and leave it at that.

Legally you are pretty much stuck to bought or freeware items.

[AlanS17]

You can leave the OS on there legally without giving him the disks. Just so long as you don't use the registration number on any of your own machines. That would constitute using the same copy of an OS on multiple machines. Who keeps track of that, though?

[Hoagie_one]

Seller is not responsible for misuse of old leftover HD info if he unknowingly sold a used machine with an Os onit.  Buyer is supposed to wipe it within a certain amount of time after purchase.

My bosses friend re-sells lease computers, thats what he told me.

[AlanS17]

Seller is not responsible for misuse of old leftover HD info if he unknowingly sold a used machine with an Os onit.  Buyer is supposed to wipe it within a certain amount of time after purchase.

My bosses friend re-sells lease computers, thats what he told me.

I've never heard that. If he can back it up legally then cool. All I know is that Microsoft has a lot more money than I do for legal counsel and if they decide to come after me they aren't gonna lose. So I figure it's best to stay out of their way and just avoid trouble...

[paigeoliver]

I never said anything about leaving the roms on being legal.

But guess what? Those roms you have aren't legal either. Those dozen Ms. Pac-Man machines with bootlegs boards at every game auction are not legal. That hand held Nintendo controller with 100 games on it is not legal.

What am I saying? Almost all of us are involved in the grey area of playing bootleg games. So, no reason to talk legalities, you threw those out the door when you downloaded the 17th rom variation of King of Fighters.

[Superdude]

I went down to a couple of local amusement vendors.  They sell Mame machines as well.  The prices were a bit higher than mine. ($4000 for a 2 player one brand new)  They leave the roms on as well but makes them sign a contract stating that he is not responsible for what is on the hard drive and it must be wiped.  The roms are only on for testing purposes of the machine to make sure it is working.  

[misfit777]

I have two mame cabinets all setup and ready to go. Both are 25" cabinets with i-pac keyboard emu's and ultimarc arcade vga cards. The pc's are both xp 1700's with 512 of ddr ram each. The hard drives are maxtor 40 gigs. Both are using the mamewah front end(thanks minwah!) and are setup for zinc daphne snes nes n64 and mame. I will not provide the roms for leagal reasons. Please email at poohy@optonline.net if interested. Pricing is very very very resonable

[misfit777]

Forgot to mention that in in the ny,nj,pa area and pics are available upon request.

[misfit777]

You have mail!

 

[Hoagie_one]

Seller is not responsible for misuse of old leftover HD info if he unknowingly sold a used machine with an Os onit.  Buyer is supposed to wipe it within a certain amount of time after purchase.

My bosses friend re-sells lease computers, thats what he told me.

I've never heard that. If he can back it up legally then cool. All I know is that Microsoft has a lot more money than I do for legal counsel and if they decide to come after me they aren't gonna lose. So I figure it's best to stay out of their way and just avoid trouble...

I got nothing in writing, just word of mouth from a dealer.  He might be full of it.

[grafixmonkey]

Including DosMame or linux w/ mame installed on the HD would be legal.  I would leave the roms out, as well as any other commercial software, because while all my friends have aquired plenty of illegal software of one form or another with no problems, my one friend who tried to sell two or three unopened, packaged, licensed copies of Microsoft software on eBay was shut down and got an email from Microsoft's piracy police, because the software he was selling was from a pile of boxes donated to a university organization and not marked for resale.

[DaveMMR]

I've sold a couple of used computers and the first thing I do is wipe that hard drive clean.  If the OS (Windows usually -- actually always) was included with the original computer -- I'll do a clean install and give them the discs.   It's good practice because you never know what you have laying around your harddrive (personal information, etc.)  Even if it was just for a MAME machine, it's still a good idea.

Yes, there are methods and programs to recover lost data from formatted and even destroyed hard drives, but the cost is usually prohibitive for the casual buyer.  Usually...

The angel on my shoulder says just install MAME and tell they buyer they're on their own for ROMS.

However, the devil on my other shoulder says maybe you can slip him a couple of ROMS on a disc or something if the buyer needs a push in the right direction.

Of course, the decision is in your hands.  I'm not advising you either which way.