LeatherRebel5150

Went to my local target just to see if they by chance had Live A Live since that has been on a deep discount at Targets. Didn’t find that, but I did find Pokemon Violet + Area Zero. Haven’t seen any of these since the holidays so was happy to grab it at retail. It wasn’t in the normal case either, it was on their “old games not in the planogram anymore” stack off to the side.

So check your local Targets!

Box has returned to home base, and this is what ended the trip. Quite impressed with the variety of systems represented this time. And really surprised no one took Twilight Princess, I woudve thought if any game would never start and end in the same box it would be a zelda game

Thanks all who participated and made this a smooth ride this time. See you again in a few months!

Ebay Vault sold to PSA and some part of the PSA company sold to ebay.

https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-collectors-enter-into-commercial-agreement-sign-deals-for-acquisition-of-goldin-by-ebay-and-acquisition-of-the-ebay-vault-by-psa/

Papetura’s physical release has been canceled, if anyone had preordered that and not heard

https://www.reddit.com/r/LimitedPrintGames/s/LEK4luhXCr

First one Ive ever felt in person. Apparently a 4.8. Was centered maybe 25ish minutes from my work and dam near right underneath my fiancé’s place of work. Felt another tremble last night around dinner time as well. 

Apparently was felt in much of the northeast, anyone else feel it?

I would be loading up on Expansion Paks and controllers for the N64. Especially any colored ones I would come across.

11 hours ago, Tanooki said:

It's far more insidious.  They're passing the selling fee of 10% onto the buyer.  Furthermore Mercari will no longer cover the credit card charging/bank fees and slap a percentage on top of that as well.  Roughly speaking, anything you buy on Mercari now will cost 15% more than what is posted before state taxes.  Sellers though also had a change, if you sell, you must accept any reason for a return no matter what, no optional returns or arguing around it.  There's a firestorm of anger from both sides online on various social media spaces, private forums like this, discord, review sites, and the reviews you can do on Apple and Google/Amazon stores with the app.  People are pissed and they're getting hammered.

I erased the app and closed my account as a lot of people have.  I've never sold there, but I did buy.  I won't be eating the sellers 10% fees for selling goods and the 2.9%+50 cents to cover their financial processing fees is one added reason.  They've also for sellers now put a $2 processing fee to cash out your balance from selling goods as well.

If you're curious, here's a copy of the text from the email they put out when this started on the 27th.

0% Selling Fees: The selling fee for new listings will be 0%. That’s right – what used to be a 10% selling fee is now 0% – zero selling fees! Listings created before 8:30 AM ET March 27, 2024 will be subject to a selling fee of 10% of the item price when a sale is completed, unless the listing has been updated on or after March 27, 2024.
	Buy with Confidence: Buyers will now be able to return items for any reason.
	Service Fee: When you make a purchase, a service fee will be charged. The amount of the fee will be displayed as part of the final price of your item(s) on the checkout page.
	Payment Processing and Withdrawal Fee: For listings created after 8:30 AM ET on March 27, 2024, Mercari will charge buyers a payment processing fee at the time of purchase. That includes a payment processing fee of $.50, plus 2.9% of the transaction price (includes item price, shipping, service fee, and sales tax). For listings created before March 27, 2024, a payment processing fee of 2.9% plus $.50 per sale is charged to the seller based on the completed sale, plus shipping price of the item – unless the listing is updated after March 27, 2024. Zero payment processing fees for buyers when using your balance.
	Direct Deposit: As always, you can request to cash out your balance to your checking account with direct deposit. Starting on this date, there is a $2 flat fee per cash-out.

Well there’s a lot more to it than I assumed. I never bought or sold on there so it doesn’t matter to me but I thought it would have been something to attract more sellers. Guess that’s not the case

3 hours ago, wongojack said:

So it looks like we are at the end of the list.  I'm interested to see what @WalterWhiteJr. takes from the box, but I'm also new to this.  What happens at the end?

At the end it comes back to me, I'll take something for myself like everyone else and take a picture of everything that came in the box so all can see what was in it when it got back.. Then In a couple on months start over again. I usually send it out twice a year. Once after the holidays and once somewhere in the summer. 

The two time frames allows for people to get new stuff in the holiday season and maybe clean out some old stuff to make room and put it in the box, and similarly in the summer after the "spring cleaning" season when everyone can also hit up the flea markets and garage sales and maybe find some more stuff. Exact dates are just based on me getting to it 

I give a month for people to find the thread and sign up and then depending on how shipping goes (this time was surprisingly efficient and I think the fastest it has ever gone) a couple months to make the round.

Mercari getting rid of selling fees?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/s/GQfbYsyaOV

23 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

My speed of buying things has slowed down dramatically as well. Once I completed the full sets I was after the mailman was probably happy to not have to come to my door every day with 2-3 packages at a time. Now I’m lucky if I get anything new every week. I’m definitely buying more quality as well, I am over buying filler games to just complete a set. I’ve really been focusing on NES homebrew for some reason but did also just add Fire Emblem for GameCube as well. It’s really fun not just slagging through a set and buying whatever tickles your fancy. I’m excited to wander the vendor area at MGC in a couple weeks and see what catches my eye. I’ve got a couple things on a list but nothing crazy price wise. 

Oh my mail lady would give me some real side eye back in the day. Especially around 2012-2013 I would have days with 6 or 10 padded envelops with games getting delivered and packed into my mailbox.

43 minutes ago, SNESNESCUBE64 said:

Absolutely. I was once upon a time collecting for a number of things, but then I switched to collecting some NFR stuff. These days I am not actively persuing much of anything in terms of console games.

Since about 2020 or so I've been primarily focused on my arcade collecting and repair projects. I've also shifted a lot of my focus to pcb design in the context of arcade and pinball. For now though, I'll really only be buying games I actively want to play.

Do you chronicle your PCB design anywhere? I design PCB's at work and would love to see what your working on.

The speed at which I acquire things has slowed down as Ive completed collections and have fewer and fewer things on the “need” list, but the goal has never changed. Still going for full sets. I always bounce around to different focuses. This year has been mainly the 5200 side of my collection, last year was N64 manuals, the year prior Strategy guides. Next year might be 7800 or Colecovision

3 hours ago, Bonanza125 said:

I have been seeing delays in package arrivals this month as well. Especially from the west coast to east coast. Has the tracking numbers on those 3 packages been updated within 7 days?

They all reach the major hub in my state and then just get the “in transit to next facility.” One last updated the 15, the other the 17th and one I got refunded already 

Something been going on with the usps in my area lately. Ive had maybe 2 packages from ebay go missing in 10yrs. Then all off a sudden Ive had 3 disappear this month. It’s maddening 

Never liked it or thought any of it was funny

13 hours ago, TWarwick07 said:

If there are any NES carts in the box can I still get in on this

This round is just about over. It’s done about twice a year, you can jump on the next one if you wish. 

3 hours ago, Californication said:

I'll need to pass on the train and catch the next. Moving is taking longer than expected and it doesn't look like I'll be settled in time.

Got it, thanks for the info, good luck with the move

7 hours ago, wongojack said:

Ok, I have THE BOX

I need some help identifying some of these items.  There is a pouch labeled GBA SP parts, but these items were not in it.  To me this looks like some coin cell battery holders (for which system/cart?) a portable screen (is it GBA SP?) a link cable (is it also GBA?) and some plastic separators or holders of some kind.
 

Also what system is this copy of Disc Room for?  I would open it, but it is sealed.

I can answer one thing. The battery holders are generic. You can use them whatever way you can get them to fit in any given cart that uses a battery (NES, N64, blah blah) The little gear looking things with them are replacement gears for N64 controllers so someone can refurbish they’re dead analog stick in the controller. 

The rest I don’t know

It’s not any better at least on reddit. Often times individual subs have rules against posts that generally would be asked by newcomers and naturally those kind of posts become tiresome/repetitive to “veterans.” The “is this game fake/how do I start collecting/what’s your desert island games.” etc

But as a hobby gets older it naturally becomes gatekeepy in that way just because veterans are tired of the same old same old.

I don’t think I actively dunk on newbies I either skip over they’re posts entirely or I end up in an argument with someone else in the thread that’s been at it for a while and gives what I believe to be bad advice. (Specifically using abrasives of any kind to clean a pcb, I’ll argue against that until I die)

@RH really knows how to build suspense!!

Easily the DKC series

@Fleck586 just checking in did you get the box sent out this past Thursday?

Just now, TDIRunner said:

The controls are absolute garbage making it nearly unplayable in any level that requires precision jumping.  This is even worse for those who played the originals enough to develop muscle memory on the platforming.  

Ah, I never played the originals so I had nothing to compare it too

6 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

I definitely have high hopes, and everything I've seen is keeping me excited.  However, after the Crash Bandicoot Trilogy Remaster, I will always have a fear that the end product will be a disaster.  

What’s wrong with the Crash Bandicoot collection?