BRAG THREAD!!!

[Texasmame]

We've all heard the stories. . .

"I was driving along and, BANG, there it was, just sitting by a dumpster.  A good looking Defender machine.  Well, I load it up, get it home, replace a fuse and, what do you know -it works!"

Up until now, I've never had that type of tale. . .

~~~
Dear Forum,
I never thought this would happen to me but, I was going over all my saved searches on eBay, as I do several times daily, and there it was.  A GP2x console described as broken.  I read the description and the seller said it was fully functional except for the SD slot being broken.  He said it was probably just a broken spring, but you know how that goes.. .

So, for the $15 buy it now -  yes, FIFTEEN DOLLARS - I snapped it up.  The console, along with the power supply, arrived at my house a week later, all for under $20, shipped.

I take it out of the package and it looks pretty good, except for a deep scratch on the screen that wasn't mentioned.  From the time I purchased it, I fully expected it to be dead as a doornail for that price but I took the chance that the seller was telling the truth.  I plug it in and. . .

IT POWERS UP!

After dicking around with the interface and playing the built in game, I go get my SD card from my camera and, sure enough, I can't get the card to load.  About an hour and some Googling later, I have the thing open and am ready to attempt a repair.  I pop the unit open and then open the cover for the SD port.  Low and behold, there is a tiny piece of black rubber just floating loose in there.  Everything else looks fine.  Remove the rubber thingie, close it back up, pop in the card and. . .

SUCCESS! 

So, i just scored a fully working GP2x console for about 10% of what you would expect to pay, plus a little effort.

 


Sometimes, it really IS "just a fuse,"
John in TX
~~~

So, what are your tales?

 

[FrizzleFried]

Congrats!!!!  Nice score!

My best to date is the Williams Joust for $50.  $48 power supply later and its good as gold...$98 (Well $106 if you include the marquee light/starter) for a working Joust in good condition...schweet!

Second best is probably the Dynamo cabinet I scored for $40 + some DVDROMS...broken monitor he said...more like UNPLUGGED monitor.

Third best is likely the Atari Dig Dug cocktail cabinet for $50.00...but I gutted that...so it wasn't a KILLER deal,  but a good one none the less.

Then there was the time I got a Commodore 1541 floppy drive (at the time going for $150 new) for $10 because it wouldn't load anything...turns out the head had gotten stuck last the last sector...just pop the cover and move the head over and it was good as gold.

[spacies]

 Nice one Texas. You must be happy to join the bargain club!

I won a 32" 100hz Philips widescreen TV in an auction.
They said it had a small problem and had green edges when turned on. It also had to be picked up but was only about 20kms from me.

I laughed to myself when looking at the picture of it because it had a HUGE pair of speakers right on each side.
I won the auction, picked it up and drove home. I plugged it in, it degaussed itself and looks fantastic.

The price?  $32.00 NZD which is about $24USD.

 

You can see it in the pic.

[Encryptor]

Ok here's my story.

One of the guys I work was helping a friend of hisclean out his garage. The guy happened to have a video game he was going to toss. The guy I work with knew I was building a cab so he asked if I wanted a full size video game for nothing. I said sure and the next weekend the guy called me Saturday morning and asked if I was going to be home. I told him I was and he said they'd be there in an hour. An hour later he was backing his pickup into my driveway with a Rush N Attack in the back of it. He told me it worked but the plug on the power cord was not in good shape. I replaced it and plugged it in and the thing roared to life and played great. So for the cost of a plug for the power cord I got a working cab. I didn't even have to pick it up. It was delivered to my house!

Encryptor

[Loki]

15 bucks 

You are one lucky guy!







.... I am one jealous guy 

[Texasmame]

Nice one Texas. You must be happy to join the bargain club!

I won a 32" 100hz Philips widescreen TV in an auction.
They said it had a small problem and had green edges when turned on. It also had to be picked up but was only about 20kms from me.

I laughed to myself when looking at the picture of it because it had a HUGE pair of speakers right on each side.
I won the auction, picked it up and drove home. I plugged it in, it degaussed itself and looks fantastic.

The price?  $32.00 NZD which is about $24USD.

 

You can see it in the pic.

Nice, cozy room there!  I love fireplaces.   Oh, is that Jamie on the screen there?

[Texasmame]

15 bucks 

You are one lucky guy!







.... I am one jealous guy 

Yeah, but you still have the 8K download speed!   

[leapinlew]

I've been lucky enough that all my cabinets have been free. A xenophobe cabinet, a 1976 Atari Lemans, and 2 Nintendo cabinets. They all needed a lot of work, but free is free!

[Dervacumen]

Congrats!!!!  Nice score!

My best to date is the Williams Joust for $50.  $48 power supply later and its good as gold...$98 (Well $106 if you include the marquee light/starter) for a working Joust in good condition...schweet!

Must...identify...locate...kill...steal.

I got a SmashTV for $100 that works and looks like a charm, but I'd gladly trade it for my all time favorite.  Nice!

[spacies]

Nice one Texas. You must be happy to join the bargain club!

I won a 32" 100hz Philips widescreen TV in an auction.
They said it had a small problem and had green edges when turned on. It also had to be picked up but was only about 20kms from me.

I laughed to myself when looking at the picture of it because it had a HUGE pair of speakers right on each side.
I won the auction, picked it up and drove home. I plugged it in, it degaussed itself and looks fantastic.

The price?  $32.00 NZD which is about $24USD.

 

You can see it in the pic.

Nice, cozy room there!  I love fireplaces.   Oh, is that Jamie on the screen there?

Thanks,

We purchased this house about a year ago. It had been a student and bogan flat for 10 years and was a mess.
Being a painter by trade I could see through that stuff and flashed it up. Very cozy now.

Before:





After: Above and:




LOL, yes that is Jamie. I like that show. They get to blow up ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

[MYX]

At the auction before last here in Atlanta I purchased 2 dead cabs and a coin machine. 1 neo geo and 1 virtua fighter. I bought all 3 for a total of $30, well, probably $36 with tax and buyers premium. They were said to be dead.

In the VF, it had a monitor (which I assumed would be blown). I saw quickly that not all the wires were connected to the audio board nor the monitor. So I hooked it all up and the game came to life immediately. The problem was that the VF needed a medium res monitor and this was a standard. So I took the monitor out of the cab.
The NG had no monitor. So, I used my new monitor to test the NG. The NG came up as well. Low and behold...Beautiful picture!!!.

The Coin machine I new next to nothing about. I could make it dump a buck worth of BYOAC tokens if I pressed the test button, but I could not find any usable info about it. Ken L gave me a link about it, but it was a dead link. I did not have the time to figure the thing out and no real resources for info, so, it had to go. (I can always get one again later if I really need one. )

I have been saving for a Camera for quite a while and was within reach, but I needed a boost to get me there. So it was time to sell the stuff. TravistyOJ from BYOAC and I were talking and he advised me that the way to get the most out of the NG, was to list the game, the system and the cab sepperatly (which I did). For the NG, I got $87 for the system, $12.5 for the game(NG Soccer98), and $35 for the cabinet (Which was really pretty nice). The Bonus for the NG cab was that I got a switching PS, a JAMMA harness, and I used the coin door off the for my millipede. For the VF, I got $22 for the game and $30 for the cab, Bonus here... I kept the monitor for some future project, and the coin door (more or less for parts). Then the coin changer got hit on the buy it now and that got $75.

So it was not a bragging in this case of found, but sold.

Now, where I got my butt kicked, is the millipede. I bought it dead at the auction for $200, fixed-r-up and made it shine and only got $300 for it. I put probably close to 50 hours into the dang thing not to mention, rebuilt the PS, new bearings, replaced the Big Blue, and some molexs (sp?). Oh well, those folks got the steal of the year.

But I am still happy. I got my garage back, some gear to keep, some pretty good bread off of a $30 investment and a kick --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- camera to top it all off.

[danny_galaga]

i was given a book of Mormon once. oh, and someone once gave me the time of day 

make sure you load that gp2x up with everything (",) . mame is fantastic, as is gameboy, snes and sega genesis. check out comix zone on genesis. freakin awesome! oh, and the payback demo...

[FrizzleFried]

Not really "that kind of tale",  but one I feel compelled to brag about...

Flash back to 2000...the wife (better half) and I are looking for a condo to purchase.  We find a 798 sq. ft. 2 bedroom 1 bath condo in El Cajon California (a suburb of San Diego) for $124,900.  We put all we had down and still had to cough up an additional few hundred from family and friends (5%).   The place was small...above the garages...and in a pretty crappy neighborhood...but it was all we could afford.  We lived there for 5 years.

Flash forward to December 2005...we want to move out of state.  It's THE TIME to sell because the market is HOT HOT HOT.  We put our dinky little 2BR 798 sq ft 2BR/1BA condo up for sale...we owe about $117,000 or so on it...and we sell it for (get this)... $255,000!!  Thats right...in 5 bloomin' years we made $138,000!   After all the realtor fees,  after we pay off ALL our credit cards including a home equity line of credit we used to buy some toys (dune buggy,  RV, etc)....we still walk away with OVER $100,000.   

Nampa Idaho bound we find a 3BR, 2BA house with a bonus room,  3 car garage,  RV parking,  covered patio w/jacuzzi,  about 1,500 sq ft minus the 3 car garage...$155,000.

We have been here about a year now,  my mortgage is over $200 LESS than it was in El Cajon,  for a much nicer place...

Now THAT is the best deal I've come across in my lifetime.

[NickG]

Tummler: I'm pretty smart, if I say so myself.
Huntz: Why is that?
Tummler: This afternoon, we walked into a fruit store, and the clerk thinks I'm some out-of-town hick. "Those apples will be two bucks each", he tells me. I pass over a five. And as he's about to give me a dollar change, I say "keep it, we're even. On the way in, I stepped on a grape".

[Texasmame]

i was given a book of Mormon once. oh, and someone once gave me the time of day 

make sure you load that gp2x up with everything (",) . mame is fantastic, as is gameboy, snes and sega genesis. check out comix zone on genesis. freakin awesome! oh, and the payback demo...

Yeah, checked that out.  It doesn't seem playable, tho.  Looks like fun - reminded me of a cross between GTAII and Postal.

[bfauska]

Yeah, checked that out.  It doesn't seem playable, tho.  Looks like fun - reminded me of a cross between GTAII and Postal.

The book of Mormon, or the game stuff? 


as far a brag-able arcade stories, I trying every day to come up with a good addition to this thread, but haven't quite made it yet.

Congrats to all of you, and nice job with the real estate FF.

Later,
Brian

[danny_galaga]

i was given a book of Mormon once. oh, and someone once gave me the time of day 

make sure you load that gp2x up with everything (",) . mame is fantastic, as is gameboy, snes and sega genesis. check out comix zone on genesis. freakin awesome! oh, and the payback demo...

Yeah, checked that out.  It doesn't seem playable, tho.  Looks like fun - reminded me of a cross between GTAII and Postal.

oh, its playable all right! you mat have been looking at the video that comes with the gp2x. here is the playable demo:

http://gp2x.co.uk/payback.html

[Texasmame]

i was given a book of Mormon once. oh, and someone once gave me the time of day 

make sure you load that gp2x up with everything (",) . mame is fantastic, as is gameboy, snes and sega genesis. check out comix zone on genesis. freakin awesome! oh, and the payback demo...

Yeah, checked that out.  It doesn't seem playable, tho.  Looks like fun - reminded me of a cross between GTAII and Postal.

oh, its playable all right! you mat have been looking at the video that comes with the gp2x. here is the playable demo:

http://gp2x.co.uk/payback.html

Oooh.  Thanx.  Yeah, was just looking at the vid then!

[Apollo]

We bought and moved in to a new house a couple of months ago. The house was part of a deceased estate and was sold with some contents included. We bought the house at auction and imagine our surprise when we moved in and looked in the locked basement and found these.

[spacies]

APOLLO!!!

HOLY SMOKE!.

Even though Frizzle made 100k

You win IMO.

Lucky SOAB

[Apollo]

What's even more amazing is that I live in New Zealand and none of these games were ever bought here in anything other than generic cabinets plus none of our houses have basements.
I know, what are the odds right?

[spacies]

YOU LIVE WHERE???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you serious?
Man, I have to come visit, lol.

[Apollo]

Hamilton, come by for a beer any time dude

[spacies]

Don't invite me.
I will never leave.

My sister just moved to Hamilton.
I am visiting her at the end of the month.

So you knew I was in NZ?

That is a stunning aray of machines.

[Apollo]

yeah I knew you were a kiwi

oh and just quietly that story about the machines in the basement isn't true, sorry I thought this would have given it away

"What's even more amazing is that I live in New Zealand and none of these games were ever bought here in anything other than generic cabinets plus none of our houses have basements.
I know, what are the odds right?"

if my basement looked like that I would never come to work

[spacies]

Heh,

I was watching the warehouse raid video again and was over excited.

My workshop looked that that picture once.
Now it is over run with old junkers and the good ones cant be seen.

You got your own machine up and running?
I built myself a Donkey Kong upright to MAME and 'try' to get it in the house, but I keep changing stuff so it may be a while before its done.

I am delivering a couple of machines to AKL at the end of the month so I should call in then?

Are you a Chef? Man, thats some nice grub on your site. I bookmarked it and will show my lady when she gets home. It was her New Years resolution to cook nicer food so I ain't complaining!

I am in Wanganui at present but we plan to move North in a few months time.
Hopefully find a house with a HUGE shed.

If you ever pass through here drop me a line.

Better not Hijack this thread anymore.

I'll add you to my MSN and organize something through there ok?

[Apollo]

Yeah add me that would be cool

[paigeoliver]

The "game sitting by the dumpster, took it home and fixed it right away" thing did happen to me once, except I didn't take the cabinet. The cabinet was water damaged so I stripped the cabinet on the spot and took all the parts, and transplanted them into an empty cabinet that I already had (of the same type). Only problem any of the parts had was the monitor neckboard was cracked and took several SECONDS of soldering to repair.

It was a "Top Gunner" in a Ms. Pac cabinet. I transplanted it into a former Galaxian cabinet.

[Wade]

Okay, I'll brag.  Last year I bought from a church (who bought a Putt Putt that went out of business) a Silent Scope Dark Silhouette and a Maximum Force for $400 total.  I sold parts from the MF for $200, and sold the Silent Scope for $1250 (and that was my "get it out of here this week!" price!)  I took the $1450 and spent $750 in trading for the 3 classics in the main thread called "Name these games:" - A Burgertime, a Crystal Castles, and a widebody Mario Brothers, all in pretty nice condition.  Then, I found a tax sticker after getting the BT home that it came from a local arcade in 1983 that I had hung out at when I was a kid.  The seller and I didn't even know it!!  The game had been around a lot since then, as the arcade had been closed for at least 20 years, but I just thought that was the coolest thing - That was the best surprise of the whole deal.  So basically, I got some nice must-have classics for my gameroom essentially for free, and pocketed several hundred bucks.

Wade

[Crowquill]

Okay, I'll brag.  Last year I bought from a church (who bought a Putt Putt that went out of business) a Silent Scope Dark Silhouette and a Maximum Force for $400 total.  I sold parts from the MF for $200, and sold the Silent Scope for $1250 (and that was my "get it out of here this week!" price!) 

So you bought 2 games where you violently kill people from the church. Oh, sweet irony.

Most of my best finds have been computer equipment from thrift stores. I've gotten 2 different Dell 21" trinitron monitors for $20 and $25. One is in my MAME cab. The old celeron 700mHz computer that'll power my cocktail I'm building was $10. I've only seen one arcade item at all the thrift stores I hit. It was a green JAMMA Cool Spot cab that sold for $50 an hour before I got there. 

Back in '94 I bought my non-working Crazy Kong cab at an auction for $12. It took $30 in power supply parts to get it working and find out it had a Donkey KING Jr. PCB in it. It's now my MAME cab. I'm keeping an eye out now for a cheap Nintendo cab to put the bootleg PCB in.

[Wade]

Okay, I'll brag.  Last year I bought from a church (who bought a Putt Putt that went out of business) a Silent Scope Dark Silhouette and a Maximum Force for $400 total.  I sold parts from the MF for $200, and sold the Silent Scope for $1250 (and that was my "get it out of here this week!" price!) 

So you bought 2 games where you violently kill people from the church. Oh, sweet irony.

  Well, that's part of the reason I got the two games, and got them for such a good deal.  They sold almost all the other games to a local small time operator, but they didn't want the violent games "out on the street."  They felt better letting the games go to a collector, where they'd be used in private.  My buddy got a T2 shooting game and a working MsPac ($100).  I wish I'd snagged the MsPac, still regret that.

Wade

[um3k]

... but they didn't want the violent games "out on the street."   ... My buddy got ... a working MsPac ($100).

Glad they saved Ms. Pac from being out on the street.   Kids need to be protected from that kind of violence...

[Wade]

Well, the MsPac had a busted glass and didn't appear to work at first, so they viewed it as trash.  The reason I didn't get it is because I made offers on 8 games that all worked and didn't appear to need much if anything, and there was a chance I was going to have to take all of them home to my (unhappy) wife.  So I skipped on making an offer on the MsPac.  In hindsight, I wish I had though.

Did I mention that all the games we purchased were also delivered for free?

Wade

[shardian]

Well, the MsPac had a busted glass and didn't appear to work at first, so they viewed it as trash.  The reason I didn't get it is because I made offers on 8 games that all worked and didn't appear to need much if anything, and there was a chance I was going to have to take all of them home to my (unhappy) wife.  So I skipped on making an offer on the MsPac.  In hindsight, I wish I had though.

Did I mention that all the games we purchased were also delivered for free?

Wade

I sure would have liked to have went on that trip...
That was Rock Lake right? I never got to go there. It would have been nice to see that place in its heyday. Guys at work have told me about it and it sounded awesome.

[Wade]

Yeah, when I got that call, it was the start of an exciting weekend for sure.  Yeah, it was Rock Lake.  I loved that place when it was a pool, I thought it was the end of the world when they closed.   Then when they opened as a Putt Putt (about 8 years later) it was almost as good.  I spent some time there in high school, but not since then.  As you probably know, it went under roughly 2 years ago.  Now the church owns it all, which in truth is probably one of the best things that could have come out of it (I was afraid the entire place would be levelled/filled and turned into storage garages or low income housing or something else undesirable).  It's a daycare now, so at least it is still being enjoyed by kids.

I think it went under due to mismanagement and inevitably because of the location.  It's hard to move a former rock quarry, though.  When the Southridge Grand Prix opened, it was just the last nail in the coffin.

I wish I'd been able to get more memorabilia from the days of when it was a pool. :/

TTYL,
Wade

[More Cowbell]

My big score has come from freecycle. My wife calls me at work one day and asks if I want some free computers. I say hells yeah and go to this guy's office where he has like 20 Pentium III 500mhz computers. I grab five because he wants me to take a 14" monitor with each and I just don't have the room in my car for much. A few months later, same guy places an ad for more computers. I call and he says he already gave them to someone but that she probably doesn't want them all. She calls me and says she took 22 computers but only wants 8 of them. 14 for me! These are perfect little MAME computers that I have definitely got my money's worth from.

[mountain]

Sounds like someone may have a " found it in an alley" story to brag about soon.

http://columbus.craigslist.org/zip/289069338.html

I never seem to read these soon enough.

[crpngdth2001]

Sounds like someone may have a " found it in an alley" story to brag about soon.

http://columbus.craigslist.org/zip/289069338.html

I never seem to read these soon enough.

You in the Columbus area Mountain? I've been reading through your thread. I saw that post on CL and was late as usual. I do however have a line on 4 cabinets I'm going to buy near where I work here in Dublin...

[tommy]

I had found a 42" Sony projection screen TV on the side of the road that the original owner thought was dead. I took that bad boy home and pluged it in and it did power up but had no picture. I took the giant case off of the back and saw broken glass all over the place... long story short, it just need a new mirror in the back for the projectors to project on to, good as new.

[Hawk Daddy]

A fully working Galaga 1981 Original, and Mercs for $50 each.

Hawk