What happened to this hobby?

[Retro_Lover]

A case in point happening right now on a certain auction site, not a million miles from here... 4 'non-tested' (you can safely read as 'non-working') ORICs are being advertised at ---- each...that's steep enough but to cap it all... the guy's flogging an empty ORIC box and at the close of play it had reached ----.

Ha, I've just seen that. My Atmos is unboxed, but no way would I bid even a fiver on a box in that state. I think the fact that he has separated the box from the Atmos almost proves, like you said, that it is not working. Just seen a NES box for ---- + Postage, thats mental.
What amuses me about carts and other so-called "Rare" games is that the high street is miles cheaper than the bay. There are 2 Pink Planets near me and I recently got tempest 2k for my Jag for ---- unboxed. Snatcher for my Mega CD was ---- boxed, and a few others for a ----- each. Snes, Megadrive, Gameboy, are all really cheap. Makes you wonder if a few leaches are buying them from the Planet for cheap then flogging them on the bay for mental prices. Why they don't just get a everdrive cart and be done with it I will never know.

 

[baz67]

Completely agree, fella - these leeches are taking the mick.
But as thecellartroll just commented, thank god for the decent folks who help restore the faith - ie. guys like TheCorfiot on here - who not only help you out and do a fantastic initial repair / retro enhancement job (often at cost price), they also go the extra mile in testing your machine, spruce it up / add refinements where necessary and... are so darn pleasant you feel that they should charge more as I bet they are sometimes out of pocket themselves!
You can't beat the genuine guys though...and we all know who they are: I guarantee them my support and custom for good.

 

[Retro_Lover]

Do you still use your Oric, baz ?
I stopped using my Atmos due to unreliable tape loading, but recently found a windows tap player and can load taps via my laptop. Had a few great memories with some great Orpheus games like Krillys. I know this tap loading had been around for the speccy and c64 for ages, but didn't know the Oric could also do it.

 

[baz67]

Yes, Retro_Lover.

I still have my Atmos set-up loading real tapes from time to time, I'm that much of a sucker for punishment! I dug-out my micro-disk drive the other week but it's no longer functioning (PSU knacked), but if you also seek the authentic (but more reliable) experience, I definitely recommend you hook up to the cream Acorn/BBC/Electron data recorder - ANF/ALF003) for more trouble-free cassette capers with titles such as: Zorgons, The Ultra, Krillys, Xenon, Harrier Attack, Defence Force, Two Gun Turtle, Pulsoids, Don't Press the Letter Q and Mr Wimpy - there are some great games there, RL.

To be honest with you, I've never experimented with CLOADing from a Windows .tap player - though I've read about it and been fascinated by it.

Drop me a PM if you ever want to swap games/experiences on the old Oric, fella!

 

[snoopy77]

If people keep buying these things for stupid prices then people will charge stupid prices. I keep seeing SNES games that are still sealed going for hundreds and even over a thousand £?
Thats money to burn right there!

It is just what they are worth. Probably will be worth double that in 10 years time.

 

[Retro_Lover]

Yeah, never though of using my acorn tape decks.
I have these for my Electrons

http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Acorn_ALF03DataRecA.jpg

And this for my Beebs,

http://www.retro-kit.co.uk/user/custom/Acorn/8bit/peripherals/AcornDataRecorder.jpg

Might try the latter.
The beauty of tap loading is you can make use of the Oric Gamebase taps, and there are a few thousand.
Anyway, I won't clog up this thread with my Oric nostalgia.
Cheers for the replies, anyway.

 

[baz67]

Oh, come on - if you can HELP someone out (like the majority of us on here are 'supposedly' apt to do), I agree with R_L - you offer a post option - it saves the other guy a fortune in fuel, time and effort. It's an inconvenience as well as massively reducing your potential sales audience not offering a postage option - unless you've got some very good reason not to - ie. heavy/bulky items that might disintegrate in transit or a bulk sale whereupon you want rid of your whole cave in one fell swoop or you're unwell or have some medical condition which affects your mobility.

I think you put yourself in their shoes and help them out if you can. For heaven's sake, who's gonna travel from John O'Groats to Lands End for a long-lost Speccy game just so you can discuss great "R tape loading errors" of our time, over a cup of rosy lea?!

Be sensible, try and help out where you can and folks will appreciate you all the more for going the 'extra mile'.

 

[soeter04]

Of course, most of us prefer postage. As buyers, and maybe even when selling too.

But, i think RL is overlooking one significant point: the seller is bound to be aware of the fact that - by doing pickup only - he gravely limits his own 'playing field' for selling the goods. And we can therefore assume a seller has good reasons for it. We as buyers might not think they are good enough reasons, but that's irrelevant: for the seller, apparently it is. Whether that has to do with carrying goods to the post office, bad experiences with posting in the past, or just plain old agoraphobia... That doesn't matter. And that's what i meant by stating that the seller dictates the terms. We as buyers have to respect that, no matter what the circumstances or inconveniences are.

 

[Pghulme]

@all, I've moderated out a few posts. Please keep things polite and civil.

 

[Sardine]

@all , and please don't comment on prices, what you paid for when you picked up a bargain or if something you don't agree with is too expensive.

thanks

 

[freehand]

Oh, come on - if you can HELP someone out (like the majority of us on here are 'supposedly' apt to do), I agree with R_L - you offer a post option - it saves the other guy a fortune in fuel, time and effort. It's an inconvenience as well as massively reducing your potential sales audience not offering a postage option - unless you've got some very good reason not to - ie. heavy/bulky items that might disintegrate in transit or a bulk sale whereupon you want rid of your whole cave in one fell swoop or you're unwell or have some medical condition which affects your mobility.

I think you put yourself in their shoes and help them out if you can. For heaven's sake, who's gonna travel from John O'Groats to Lands End for a long-lost Speccy game just so you can discuss great "R tape loading errors" of our time, over a cup of rosy lea?!

Be sensible, try and help out where you can and folks will appreciate you all the more for going the 'extra mile'.

I not going to drag this out and will be my last comment but going the "extra mile" my feed back is impeccable and I am very proud of it.

I do not expect anyone to come from John O'Groats to Lands End e.t.c but if I wish to move some hardware or software quick or just not needed I offer "pick up only" for some dude 10 -15 mile away it's my choice.

Jamie.

 

[Cozzer79]

Just out of interest, why was my post moderated out? I was nothing but polite and civil...

Thinking about it, I might have typed it out and not posted it in the first place...

 

[slk486]

It was part of an argument, that wasn't polite or civil, even though your post was

 

[Cozzer79]

Fair enough then - wouldn't have surprised me if I'd not posted it though, the small person that is teething isn't planning on letting me have a decent nights sleep for a while it would seem lol

 

[baz67]

Oh, come on - if you can HELP someone out (like the majority of us on here are 'supposedly' apt to do), I agree with R_L - you offer a post option - it saves the other guy a fortune in fuel, time and effort. It's an inconvenience as well as massively reducing your potential sales audience not offering a postage option - unless you've got some very good reason not to - ie. heavy/bulky items that might disintegrate in transit or a bulk sale whereupon you want rid of your whole cave in one fell swoop or you're unwell or have some medical condition which affects your mobility.

I think you put yourself in their shoes and help them out if you can. For heaven's sake, who's gonna travel from John O'Groats to Lands End for a long-lost Speccy game just so you can discuss great "R tape loading errors" of our time, over a cup of rosy lea?!

Be sensible, try and help out where you can and folks will appreciate you all the more for going the 'extra mile'.

I not going to drag this out and will be my last comment but going the "extra mile" my feed back is impeccable and I am very proud of it.

I do not expect anyone to come from John O'Groats to Lands End e.t.c but if I wish to move some hardware or software quick or just not needed I offer "pick up only" for some dude 10 -15 mile away it's my choice.

Jamie.

Good to know you put yourself in their shoes.

Well done.

 

[soviet9922]

I have similar issue but i used to give away to "friends" old computers or games that i have multiple copies or units, only to find later that they sold them almost immediately, make me feel like a fool.

 

[Hiddenevil]

I can relate to you buddy, in the last few months I've really struggled to keep interested in the hobby. An experience on here shook apart what I thought the Amiga scene was about and as such left me not wanting to come back. Was shocked to discovered a couple of my friends have had similar experiences.

I think it can be a good scene, so long as you deal with honest people.

 

[Snoozy]

This is what we term 'scalping' on here and we don't like it. If we discover a 'scalper', we usually have words with them and if that doesn't work, we have our own little island, located just off the Icelandic coast called 'Bänned' that we can send them to, for an extended holiday.

Blankstare and AmigaRulez spring to mind as notable villains

So what happened to these 2?

Well Blankstare changed his name but carried on extorting and was banned a good few years ago..

AmigaRulez was dreadful, came on here bombarded the selling boards with inividual amiga games priced at 4 or 5 pizza hut pizzas. Many were annoyed with him but there was some sort of arguement and finally he was gone in a cloud of smoke.