Is it more profitable to sell an Asteroid Arcade Mach. whole or to Part it out?

[lifestop]

Hi,

I am fairly new to Arcade Machines and I am wondering if it is better to try and sell an Arcade machine whole or to part it out.  I am in need of money for an upcoming vacation so I am going to sell my old Asteroids Upright on Ebay.

I'm sure every situation is different, so I will list the details and maybe you could help me decide what to do. 


[Atari Asteroids Arcade Machine Upright]

Condition - The Good:
-PCB works great
-Sound is great
-Cab is in good (not perfect, but good) condition including:  Bezel, Carboard monitor bezel, and Marquee
-Buttons all work

Condition - The Bad:
-Monitor needs repair, local T.V. Repair man said it could cost up to $100  =(
-Needs new floor protectors ($1-2 a piece)
-Needs new control panel overlay (the art is worn off in places from use)
-No Manual
-Marquee light is burned out
-There are no coin receivers (internals), but coin door is fine
-Previous owner taped door-sensor buttons down so that the machine will stay powered-on when the doors are opened.


Also, which parts are worth selling and which should I just toss?  Any idea what I should ask?

Thanks for your help!!

[CheffoJeffo]

You might post some pics ... someone here may be interested ...

PS - Where are you ?

Cheers.

[lifestop]

I'll try to post some pics this weekend.  I live in Missoula, MT.. kind of the middle of nowhere.  =)

[CheffoJeffo]

Oddly enough, I have been to Missoula ... now that was 18 years ago, but still ...

Too far a drive for me now.

Cheers.

[DarkKobold]

Let me chime in on this one:
   A working asteroids machine usually sells for 500-1000... (Yes, a large price range, but, these things have lots of flux)

Parted, the working parts sell for:
 Vector Mon: 200-300
  Boardset 100-150
  Empty Cab: 20-50
  Harness: 20-50
  PS: 10-15
  Atari lit buttons: 20-40
  Marquee: 10-20

You may make a little money parting it, but it would be worth your time to try and fix it and sell it working. The most valuable part of Asteroids is BY FAR the vector monitor.

If you can solder, a cap kit usually fixes a G05-802. (Does the monitor have 2 boards or 3? a picture would help) This quadroples the value of the machine. Easily.

Next, if the boardset isn't working, the easiest thing to repair are the ever crappy atari fingerboard connectors. Simple as pie, and often fixes many problems.

Having a DMM handy to check fuses and voltage out of the Audio Regulator board helps too.

Really, a non-working asteroids won't net you much.

The marquee lamp is bar-none the easiest fix of them all.  A new starter and bulb fixes 99.9% of them.

I restored my asteroids, so if you have any questions, just ask!

[paigeoliver]

Asteroids monitor isn't as valuable as other vector monitors, as it is really common and a lot more reliable than the other kinds.

Asteroids is usually worth quite a bit more in one piece. Space Duel, Black Widow and Gravitar ARE NOT.

[lifestop]

Thanks for the comments!

What kind of problems can a cap kit cure?

[lifestop]

Well, I've decided to sell most of it on E-bay.. hopefully it works out. 

Thanks for your help!

[Q*Bert_OP]

What are you gonna do with the cabinet?

[Stingray]

Sigh. Yet another vector game gets parted out.

-S

[ChadTower]

This is the wrong place to hang out if one is  into parting games for profit.

[AlanS17]

Asteroids monitor isn't as valuable as other vector monitors, as it is really common and a lot more reliable than the other kinds.

Asteroids is usually worth quite a bit more in one piece. Space Duel, Black Widow and Gravitar ARE NOT.

That's a frightening thought, isn't it? If everybody dissasembles their machines because they're worth more that way, what happens to all the complete machines?

[ChadTower]

It's happening a LOT now.  I see more posts on usenet for people parting vectors out than I do for people selling them.

[lifestop]

Stingray:  Well, it is a shame that I'm not in a position to fix the machine, but now maybe someone else will have the parts they need to fix their's. 

qbert247:  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cabinet.. do you need it?  I might turn it into a mame box if no one is interested.

[Q*Bert_OP]

I'd like to buy the cabinet, but #1 I'm in Texas, #2 I'm all out of room, #3 I don't think I heve enough money to start another project currently. 

Please don't destroy it!!!

[paigeoliver]

The monitors out of Space Duel, Gravitar, and Black Widow tend to go into Star Wars and Tempest. I have no clue who is buying the other parts.

[lifestop]

Well, the moment I listed my items on E-bay someone e-mailed me telling me how I might fix the monitor..  so CRAP..  I cancelled everything (lost some money in the process) and now I'm going to try and restore the machine.  It might take awhile since I have no money..

but I feel like I have to do it..  or you guys would find and kill me  =o


Thanks for the motivation.

[ChadTower]

You're right.  We may.

[Stingray]

You're right.  We may.

And would be neither quick nor painless.

-S

[ChadTower]

If he parts it out, and does not at least sell the parts to one of us, I will force him to sit and read the entirety of every political thread Everything Else has ever had.

And then I will make him act the threads out with hand puppets. 

[monkeybomb]

If he parts it out, and does not at least sell the parts to one of us, I will force him to sit and read the entirety of every political thread Everything Else has ever had.

And then I will make him act the threads out with hand puppets. 

And I thought stingray's implication of slow painful death was bad.

[SirPeale]

I thought I had cruel thoughts.  I bow to the new master.

[Stingray]

Oh the humanity!

-S

[nostrebor]

If he parts it out, and does not at least sell the parts to one of us, I will force him to sit and read the entirety of every political thread Everything Else has ever had.

And then I will make him act the threads out with hand puppets. 

Don't forget the geographically correct dialects and accents during the puppet show!

[ChadTower]

I don't care about accents, but the stick up the behind of many of the participants is a must.

[DarkKobold]

Asteroids monitor isn't as valuable as other vector monitors, as it is really common and a lot more reliable than the other kinds.

Asteroids is usually worth quite a bit more in one piece. Space Duel, Black Widow and Gravitar ARE NOT.

I agree with the latter...  But the former does not make a word of sense.

It may not be worth as much, but it is still 200-300 on ebay.  The recent one that just sold is the cheapest one in 6 months at just over 200. That is pretty damn valuable.

[paigeoliver]

Yes, but a nice Asteroids starts at $700 and the monitor is worth $200-$250.

A nice Gravitar, Black Widow or Space Duel starts is $500, and the monitor can often be sold for over $400.

I am fairly sure Hyperspace Arcade Services does Asteroids monitor repair by mail (not listed on their website, but I am almost certain someone on Klov.com had their Asteroids monitor fixed by that guy).

[ChadTower]

A nice Gravitar, Black Widow or Space Duel starts is $500, and the monitor can often be sold for over $400.

I've never seen a nice Gravitar or Black Widow in that price range.  Had I seen them, I would own them.

[paigeoliver]

Here is an example.

Space Duel, fully working. Did not sell for $500.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6181954644&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Space Duel with working monitor and some sort of power/cpu problem (sell incorrectly said he thought it was a monitor problem, reading the description and looking at the picutre of the working monitor I can tell you that it is not a monitor problem). Sold for $255.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6183134256&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Black Widow and Gravitar don't come up nearly as often, but they sell at similar prices. A lot of sellers don't even TRY to sell them in one piece, as they are a lot harder to sell than Space Duel is (being that Space Duel is an easy local sell, easy to sell in the paper, easy to sell to people who come in the shop, etc).


But like any vector game there CAN be exceptions, especially really nice exceptions with really good pictures in really good condition that come up at exactly the right time.

[ChadTower]

One in NY, one in GA.  Doesn't come close to where I am.  Vectors rarely pop up here for anything less than max premium.

[Stingray]

One in NY, one in GA.  Doesn't come close to where I am.  Vectors rarely pop up here for anything less than max premium.

Same for here. As a matter of fact, they rarely pop up at all, at least not when I'm searching.

-S

[ChadTower]

I've seen one reasonably priced, advertised vector here.  It was a Black Widow that was on Craiglist, nonworking, for $50.  The guy said he had so many responses he had no idea how to handle it.  He had received like 30 responses in the first hour.

The only other reasonably priced vector I've seen, I bought myself, but it wasn't advertised.  It was the AD I picked up for $75, nonworking, after calling an ad that was for a Sega Turbo.