Heritage Auctions Thread

[guitarzombie | 924]

15 minutes ago, BriGuy82 said:

@Ozzy_98 I know they were referencing this masterpiece of wata propaganda.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/meet-the-man-who-got-100000-for-a-copy-of-super-mario-bros/

I posted this earlier and no one noticed as it got squashed between all the nonsense

[BriGuy82 | 768]

1 minute ago, guitarzombie said:

I posted this earlier and no one noticed as it got squashed between all the nonsense

Sorry, yeah shit got pretty stupid there for a second and I must've glossed over it. 

[Gloves | 11,777]

11 minutes ago, batteriesnotincluded said:

So Wiki isn’t always accurate but you’re telling Halperin has been scamming since he was 13?!  This can’t be real life how is this true and how do people hand this fraud money.  Literally born, then stealing haha out of control

Speaking of batteries, charge your phone! Geez!

[batteriesnotincluded | 23]

5 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Speaking of batteries, charge your phone! Geez!

It’s got the little lightening bolt I’m trying!

 

[Pats1717 | 62]

6 hours ago, Dain said:

Nice try, Brian. Some of you guys were ban-happy and you know it. It got to the point where you guys would swarm against me when I disagreed with your approach and I was in a pickle because all of the mods were ready to quit any time I reverted their decision. If you don't think that's the truth, I suppose I could dig out some of the Mod Squad threads here if you'd like; after all, I have the entire site sitting in front of me.

@Dain @B.A. @captmorgandrinker

I mean I think I bowed out of the mod scene maybe 1 or 2 years before the site went away. I think the majority of us worked our asses off on that site. Especially when BA VGD and I were admins. I do not think that we were that ban happy There was a whole time period that we had to handle things for you in the best interest of the site, when you were not as accessible. Some stuff just hit us out of left field including letting a banned member back to keep an eye on them, or suggesting someone a mod that hit us all out of left field (who was a big basher of the site). 

Being a mod and dealing with the problems on the site were not a picnic, and overall I think we did a damn good job. Maybe we didn't always get it right, but never was any ill intent at least. Also we dealt with absentee mods that only showed up when something happened but never dealt with any of the day to day issues. 

I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for you Dain and was very disappointed when NA went away like it did without any real closure. 

[AnimalHouse | 117]

20 hours ago, AnimalHouse said:

That guys infomercials are hilarious. "I sawed this boat in half!"

Not to go off topic again but the king of infomercials goes to Billy Mays. Anyone remember him in Dead Celebrities episode in South Park? 

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

1 minute ago, AnimalHouse said:

Not to go off topic again but the king of infomercials goes to Billy Mays. Anyone remember him in Dead Celebrities episode in South Park? 

Have you ever seen JaboodyDubs on Youtube?   If not you owe it to yourself to see his Billy Mays/Anthony Sullivan parodies.  

[Vectrex28 | 366]

4 hours ago, AdamW said:

I'm not familiar with the area at all, but from what I read in the thread, it seems the "PCE Works" prints are not properly licensed reprints. As best I can tell the operation is run out of Germany by some guy called Tobias. If you Google around "PCE Works" and "Tobias" you'll get some context.

PCEWorks crap are bootlegs and are absolute cancer

[Ozzy_98 | 55]

1 hour ago, batteriesnotincluded said:

So Wiki isn’t always accurate but you’re telling Halperin has been scamming since he was 13?!  This can’t be real life how is this true and how do people hand this fraud money.  Literally born, then stealing haha out of control

 

And the citation was him speaking about it to Forbes, last year, joking about it.  @karljobst
if you didn't see that part about Halperin scamming at age 13, I think you may want to take a look.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

2 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Stuff wears out, and as long as you're doing your due diligence when replacing something that needs it (especially maintenance items, which in the case of cartridge games could be argued to be batteries), I don't think folks should take a knock for keeping stuff going.

It's gotta be a balance, I lean more towards original parts, but batteries and components is where I draw the line.

I remember trading some games to a guy in Poland, once, when my half of the trade arrived I opened the (bootleg) carts up and discovered that although the shells were period correct, the PCBs were a few generations too modern. I didn't bother to reassemble the carts, then literally threw the parts in the junk box.

In other circles I'm in, I think maintenance/repair will be the way most people go, and generally we seem to think it's fine. Repro labels or what not is generally not good / accepted though, unless it's been so customised people can easily tell it's fan made.

2 hours ago, BriGuy82 said:

21 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Was this posted somewhere yet

https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/breaking-news-national-video-game?justPublished=true

I’m on the edge of my seat that we might find out who this mysterious “Bronty” character is if we just keep digging. 

Expand  

Jeez, was that article hard to look at. The synopsis I guess is that @Brontyis satan?

Time to grab the holy water!

2 hours ago, FenrirZero said:

It's based on a Bruce Lee quote that they had managed to butcher for both cosmetic and marketing reasons.

It's interesting how in the quote you posted, the spelling is standard, not reflecting the accent.

I'm not an expert, but aside from non-academic dialect guides and novels written in a certain locale/time period, I don't think it's acceptable anymore to be transcribing accents like this.

I personally don't see an issue, I view accents with pride, but it can lead to going down a dark path of stereotypes, racism, etc.  , Especially since many view accents with shame.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

14 minutes ago, Ozzy_98 said:

And the citation was him speaking about it to Forbes, last year, joking about it.  @karljobst
if you didn't see that part about Halperin scamming at age 13, I think you may want to take a look.

That shit is enough to make you start wondering if he's not really the Catch Me If You Can guy, but under a Witness Protection new identity.  FFS, "Mom, Dad, I stole my first million and I'm only 13!"  What a thing to joke about.  That context just makes it even worse.

[NESHQ | 5]

1 hour ago, Pats1717 said:

@Dain @B.A. @captmorgandrinker

I mean I think I bowed out of the mod scene maybe 1 or 2 years before the site went away. I think the majority of us worked our asses off on that site. Especially when BA VGD and I were admins. I do not think that we were that ban happy There was a whole time period that we had to handle things for you in the best interest of the site, when you were not as accessible. Some stuff just hit us out of left field including letting a banned member back to keep an eye on them, or suggesting someone a mod that hit us all out of left field (who was a big basher of the site). 

Being a mod and dealing with the problems on the site were not a picnic, and overall I think we did a damn good job. Maybe we didn't always get it right, but never was any ill intent at least. Also we dealt with absentee mods that only showed up when something happened but never dealt with any of the day to day issues. 

I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for you Dain and was very disappointed when NA went away like it did without any real closure. 

Were you guys paid as NA mods?

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

1 minute ago, fcgamer said:

It's gotta be a balance, I lean more towards original parts, but batteries and components is where I draw the line.

I remember trading some games to a guy in Poland, once, when my half of the trade arrived I opened the (bootleg) carts up and discovered that although the shells were period correct, the PCBs were a few generations too modern. I didn't bother to reassemble the carts, then literally threw the parts in the junk box.

In other circles I'm in, I think maintenance/repair will be the way most people go, and generally we seem to think it's fine. Repro labels or what not is generally not good / accepted though, unless it's been so customised people can easily tell it's fan made.

Oh, I totally get that.  Do as little as you can, with as original a set of parts as you can, but when you've gotta dip into the modern supply to make the difference between functional thing or doorstop, I'm ok with it.  My example of a weird board swap was an extreme example I just kind of made up, like if you had a Dino Peak (or something in line of that value, and if it had a weirdly specific board) and had to make the choice of junking it or taking another board and tweaking it a little bit but adding all the original components back on to have it good as gold again.  I'd absolutely keep the original board (and include if/when selling/trading), but really wouldn't have any shame or issue with having it be functions versus a doorstop with otherwise perfectly working components onboard.

Labels...yeah, unless you somehow managed to get some incredible NOS, some nice looking ones with some identifier on it to indicate/demonstrate it's not an original is basically required at this point, even if it's just for your home stuff.  People go on and on about how they should be able to do whatever they want with their own stuff in peace, THEN bitch about finding legit carts being "scammed" on people with shitty fake labels, then fail to consider what happens if/when they pass away and their family just dumps the shit.  Guess what, you've just contributed to the very thing you were complaining about!  Circle jerk hypocritical thinking at its finest.

[Pats1717 | 62]

1 minute ago, NESHQ said:

Were you guys paid as NA mods?

Not one cent. Took a lot of time to moderate that site. Thats why I laugh at all these posts here stating we are a bunch of vigilante elitist ban hammer dropping jerks. Certainly was not the case and you can never make everyone happy. 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

2 minutes ago, NESHQ said:

Were you guys paid as NA mods?

Absolutely sure the answer to that is "no," unless putting up with everybody else's bullshit with a straight face can be considered a perk or some level of compensation.

[Jono1874 | 144]

@karljobstIf you're still here, that video was amazing. Thank you so much for showing the general public what is going on.

As for arguing with people that are invested heavily in all this, we need to consider the fact that these are essentially crime victims. They're going to be in denial for awhile and there's nothing anyone could do or say to show them the truth if the Jobst video didn't already convince them.

 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

4 minutes ago, NESHQ said:

Were you guys paid as NA mods?

No. Like @Pats1717 said, a lot of us donated a ton of time and effort though. 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

2 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

Absolutely sure the answer to that is "no," unless putting up with everybody else's bullshit with a straight face can be considered a perk or some level of compensation.

The trolling was fun sometimes, though. 

[fcgamer | 4,723]

For what it's worth, I think the NA mods did a great job overall, and the staff at VGS is also doing a wonderful job - I love you all.

People on here often refer to me as a contrarian; although I don't set out to purposely take this stance, I'm comfortable and confident enough in myself, at least in this regard, to do my thing and have my opinions, even if the rest of the room feels differently.

Inevitably under such circumstances, at some point something might kick off, especially if one's been surfing, chatting and drinking after a hard day at work, or stressed out over everyday life problems. 

I should have been banned hundreds of times on NA, similarly though, the 72-pin Sachen games should have never been listed as Taiwan releases. 

I received one two-week ban, and the mods let me begin it on my terms, after wrapping up a NA auction transaction. That's classy.

 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

1 minute ago, Jono1874 said:

As for arguing with people that are invested heavily in all this, we need to consider the fact that these are essentially crime victims active participants. They're going to be in denial for awhile and there's nothing anyone could do or say to show them the truth if the Jobst video didn't already convince them.

For a bunch of folks still in denial, IFTFY.

[Jono1874 | 144]

1 minute ago, darkchylde28 said:

For a bunch of folks still in denial, IFTFY.

I just like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

6 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

My example of a weird board swap was an extreme example I just kind of made up, like if you had a Dino Peak (or something in line of that value, and if it had a weirdly specific board) and had to make the choice of junking it or taking another board and tweaking it a little bit but adding all the original components back on to have it good as gold again.  I'd absolutely keep the original board (and include if/when selling/trading), but really wouldn't have any shame or issue with having it be functions versus a doorstop with otherwise perfectly working components onboard.

Already happened. The full version SMW Famicom release by Hummer Team only appeared on a multicart. 

I found one in a local shop, it wouldn't work, so I sent it off to an engineering friend, also in Poland. I actually told him he could have it if he fixed it, in payment for another favor he did, but I get the sense he just enjoys the challenge of repairing stuff, and he sent it back working, though under the hood it looked crazy.

As I already had the game, I sold this repaired extra to a friend of mine for about $250 or so, essentially half price as totally functioning originals were selling for $500-600 at that time.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

1 minute ago, MrWunderful said:

The trolling was fun sometimes, though. 

In that vein, from what I remember of the old NA (the ~3.5-4 years I was a member), it really did seem like there were times when the ban hammer (temp or permanent) swung far too easily and/or quickly.  From a few years distance, I think what may have been happening was actually something else which gave that appearance.  Not being a part of any of them, it was easy to see as an outsider (that not really anybody wanted much to do with, because they'd had all those conversations before, so there was f-all to actively talk about most of the time that was actually NES related) that there were a lot of cliques and a seeming deference and tolerance of what I tend to refer to as "the old guard" (ie: the folks who had been on the site from the beginning, or nearly so).

From the outside looking in, I think that what was really happening, is that so many of the oldest members were either friends with mods or simply part of "the old guard" that they tended to get away with more shit, or at least have a much better idea exactly where the line was so that they could step right up to it, or even on it, but not over it.  Anyone else seeing what was going on and trying to pull the same shit would get a warning, temp ban when they started arguing about the seeming differential treatment, then maybe a permanent ban if they were indignant enough to keep it up in PMs, when they got back, etc.

Not being a part of the mod or admin staff, I don't know specifically what you guys had to put up with, but from the outside looking in, there was absolutely the appearance of disparity a lot of times in how one person was talked to or "handled" and someone else, who had more site "clout," and typically got away with it.  There were plenty of in-jokes that never got explained if you weren't there or did a literal shit ton of digging to figure out what the origin of something was, so some of it could have been friends shit talking each other, then someone not familiar with the protocol coming onto the scene and going too far, because they weren't part of that group, so their shit talking landed as insults as well.  I don't really know for sure, but again, from the outside looking in, a lot of it looked bad, even in the last 2-3 years.

There was at least one mod that I recall basically ending discussions he didn't appreciate by first telling everybody involved to knock it off or move along (versus locking a thread), then basically devolving into threats of banning everybody involved if they didn't shut up.  That's one of the things that led me to keep my mouth relatively shut the whole time I was on there, as nobody wanted to talk about any of the "old hat" stuff I was interested in anyway, and if you piss off the wrong mod on the wrong day, you're IP banned for life, like disappearing into a damned CIA black site.

I can say that none of the folks who are currently mods or admins on VGS were guilty of any of this in my memory.  So far everybody who's spoken up about being a mod or an admin has pleaded their absolute innocence regarding what they did and how it looked, but I can say that from the outside, there was more than enough of it that looked really bad without any sort of context (which normally wasn't given or able to be picked up in a public thread).  Maybe you guys were totally innocent of the bad crap the site and management staff got blamed for, but I'm willing to bet you can recall some folks who weren't as even keeled as the current claims are, so just imagine how that frames things for folks without the inside track.

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

29 minutes ago, Pats1717 said:

Not one cent. Took a lot of time to moderate that site. Thats why I laugh at all these posts here stating we are a bunch of vigilante elitist ban hammer dropping jerks. Certainly was not the case and you can never make everyone happy. 

I post on some home theater forums and those guys don’t mess around with banning you for breaking the rules. There is little slack given at all. It could be because it’s geared towards an older crowd.

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

Jeezus!  Who the fuck are all these noobs that nobody's ever heard of popping in here.  What the hell kind of a handle is "Dain" anyway?  And not one introduction thread among the lot.  Rude.

Anyway, Ahoy nerds!