What happened with the portable 16bit third party consoles? Some prices are ridiculous

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,102]

I was bored and was looking into the portable SNES consoles that were released many years ago. I have both the Retroduo Portable and the Original Supaboy and always liked them. I was checking around ebay and the prices on some of these sales are kinda stupid. Especially the Supaboy. From what know/can gather the original Supaboy was discontinued a long time ago and replaced by the S model, which itself looks like it was discontinued and was replaced by the Black and Gold Model. The Black and Gold one is still in production and can be readily had so I'm wondering why people are spending stupid money on the older versions? Is the newer model downgraded in some way? I haven't really found any comparison of this new model to the old S model so I have no idea. 

The RDP on the other hand does appear to be discontinued completely  though is still in stock at some online retailers for $80 people are spending in some cases over $100.

These things were "big deals" back in the day though I think most people didn't use them long after the novelty wore off.

Edit* Damn even the FC Mobile II has a couple of high sales above $100

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=supaboy&_sacat=0&LH_PrefLoc=1&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=retro+duo+portable&_sacat=0&LH_PrefLoc=1&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

 

 

Edited September 5, 2020 by LeatherRebel5150

[phart010 | 1,790]

I got the retrobit rdp2. Stopped working after 1 year. From what I have found online, it seems they solder that was used has a tendency to crack and make bad solder joints. A guy demonstrated the fix, which was to redo all of the solder... I’m not going to do all of that.

I would imagine all of these things are made with the same level of quality. I wouldn’t waste money on this stuff, it’s trash in my opinion 

[Mega Tank | 1,101]

2 minutes ago, phart010 said:

I got the retrobit rdp2. Stopped working after 1 year. From what I have found online, it seems they solder that was used has a tendency to crack and make bad solder joints. A guy demonstrated the fix, which was to redo all of the solder... I’m not going to do all of that.

I would imagine all of these things are made with the same level of quality. I wouldn’t waste money on this stuff, it’s trash in my opinion 

I believe it has to be with how well you take care of the Retro Duo Portable 2. My friend and I got both of ours, new, at the same time. We liked the features. Mine still works to this day and his broke. I have his as he was hoping a shop I go to could fix it, but they refused to work on repairs saying it wasn't worth their time. He would jam the SNES adapter the wrong way etc. I don't doubt they are finicky, but I would guess a lot of people just don't take care of them or I just got extremely lucky with the one I bought.

[Tanooki | 5,125]

To the original question, perhaps mental illness?  Seriously.  There can't be an actual competitive collectors market for years old to many years old clone systems known to have real problems and perform like crap, if not be partly if not totally broke out of the box. The RDP was never great, and the Supaboy pre-S was a dumpster fire of all sorts of problems.

I know the SupaboyS/SFC were remade entirely with better components, construction or key--the core, as it will run anything SNES special chip or otherwise entirely accurately, even the stuff SD2SNES pulls of.

The FC Mobile88, that's a bizarre one but I could figure the price because of all those non-emulated clones on the market it's the most accurate one as it can run almost anything thrown at it other than the 3-4 most complex special chips (like the VRC6 and 7, a Namco one or two, and the most technical Sunsoft chip.)  I have one, and it truly is amazing how good it is, the only oddity, it always smells like the plastic is burning after some use when the batteries warm up.  But hey I've had it like 5 years, it sips power, and hasn't caught fire yet.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

I have the original supaboy, I had 2 batteries for it that both stopped taking a charge in about a month. Stopped bothering after that