good ebay deal (trackball)

[mcdo15]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6104716547&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

hmm
sounds simple and easy and price is ok to me...but this isnt a true arcade tb right?  i can live with that...it's just a mouse?

[mcdo15]

i guess i forgot to mention...

IS THIS A GOOD DEAL? I"M STILL NEW...

my bad, it's late...my bad

[independentthread]

I'm new too, but...has anybody used one of these to give input about them?  It would only be slightly more to buy a blue trackball and run it through an Optipac or the Happ equivalent.  The up side to doing that is the added connection slot for a spinner/steering wheel.  But it really comes down to DOES IT WORK!?  I mean, if you can save about 20 bucks on buying something like that, is it worth saving the money?  Are they just some lame pieces of crap that someone's making tons of cash on, or do they work as well as a $90 trackball should???

[Goz]

It looks like a 3" Betson Imperial PS2 Trackball (wired w/ 3 buttons) with a blue translucent ball. The Betson Imperials are nice trackballs. At $90 it is  overpriced however. You should be able to find one for $60 and $10 - $12 for the blue ball.

Unless your game is Golden Tee and you dig the high lip ball by HAPPS, The Betson will be just fine.

-Goz

[independentthread]

Well, my argument for that comment is that it would be 60 bucks for the trackball, 10 bucks for the ball, 20 bucks for the wiring job.  How hard is the wiring job to do yourself???  It would cost you 20 bucks to hire a computer tech for half an hour...so

[Goz]

The Betson Imperial PS2 with 3 buttons is wired..

All you do it plug in the trackball (PS2) and use the 3 pre-wired buttons and it is seen as a 3 button mouse.

Std trackballs are actually more complicated to wire as you would either need a mouse hack or an interface board such as the optipac, etc.


-Goz

[independentthread]

I admit defeat (or stupidity), I didn't realize that these come as a PS2 wired from the factory, I thought someone was doing a wiring job on em.  As I said, I'm fairly new.  And now that you told me that, you can order the red or  green ones for 79.00 off of the Betson website...evidently the blue one might be hard to come by because that guy must have realized that there were people like me who would think about paying 90 bucks for one.
Oh well, I was REALLY planning on buying one in the near future anyway.  I want one of the smaller ones.

[mcdo15]

shipping is included in the price...

i will look up the other ones...

i'm a simple guy,  i like to buy stuff that just plugs in..

thank you all for feedback

[independentthread]

Well, depending on HOW simple you like things...you know you can get one from that guy, which makes it simple.  You know what the price is with shipping included, which makes it simple.  You won't have to go looking around, which makes it simple.  If that's the price with shipping included, most places will charge you 10 to 15 bucks for shipping...
So if you wanna go the REALLY simple route, you can buy one from him, and just pretend that you're shopping at the mall instead of Wal-Mart (if you catch my meaning).

[paigeoliver]

With shipping, the trackball plate, and buttons included it isn't too bad pricewise.

With that said, I bought mine new in box for $40, and later added the upgraded wheels, and bought the mounting plate from Bob Roberts. Although mine is not a lighted model.

It is a great trackball, especially with the upgraded wheels.

[independentthread]

Well where did you find one for 40 bucks at?  Some of us live in Iowa, better known as the electronics wasteland.  It costs me more to buy anything in my area because I have to have it shipped in from somewhere else.  Buying things local is a joke.  Pass on some good websites!!!

(i.e. The local computer shops were charging $78 for an NVidia MX400 no name card, and I bought the MX440 card off of tiger direct for $35)

[paigeoliver]

I bought mine on ebay several years back. The prices on them have steadily increased as more and more Mame cabs have started having trackballs.

It wasn't THAT long ago that anything other than an 8-way joystick on a Mame cabinet was unheard of. Back then it was just a bunch of 8-way cabinets, along with a few oddballs (I recall several machines with Compusa crystal trackballs sank into the panels, I had one too, A Pole Position with the controls hooked up to the mouse, and a Tron similarly hacked).

[zaphod]

Less than a year-and-a-half ago, there were cases of 20 Imperial PS2 trackballs that went for less than $300 on ebay.  And my first several TBs were won for less than $30ea.  Prices definately are different today.

[independentthread]

That just goes to show you how good some of the old games are compared to some of the new mindless dribble that comes out today.  Do you realize that they compare things like "Rayman" to Super Mario Bros???  Talk about a travesty!!!