the ol' dirty edge connector bug. Classic. You'd be surprised how many times I've had a "faulty" board pass through my hands that only needed a edge cleaning to fix up the problems...
Great beat-em-up. This should get you a bit more money now, even if its a boot.
The only boots I'd permit in the collection are phoenixed CPS2's for suicide bypassing, or a Ghouls'n Ghosts (since the originals are way too rich for my blood).
Glad you got this fixed!