Huge Console Auction Debuts

neura writes "In quite possibly the largest console auction ever, someone is selling just about every development kit and production game console ever made in Japan. They also have listed tons (almost literally) of software to go along with the systems. Anybody ever seen the original Super Famicom development system? The pictures alone are worth taking a gander. :)"

Trying to sell this stuff since last year

[Animats]

This guy has own web site [sdk-team.com] and buys and sells stuff like this. Most of this stuff was offered for sale back in 2003.

The images are coming from his own web site, which is now slashdotted.

W@W!!!L@@K!!!R@RE!!!!!!!MINT IN BOX!!!!

[grahamlee]

That truly is a mighty console collection, although it's clear that this [ebay.co.uk] auction probably has better retro value, and is more affordable. Tis pity it's bigger than my house... :-(.

Don't Forget Pippin

[buckhead_buddy]

Most gamers won't give a second thought to the large lot of Apple/Bandi Pippin game console items since the Pippin never had a successful launch in this hemisphere (not sure it did anywhwere actually).

There are still an army of Apple enthusiasts who would pay through the nose for the Pippin stuff if it had been sold bundled by itself.

Re:You missed...

[xsupergr0verx]

Umm... The guy who's hosting the images got slashdotted, text showed up fine for me.

Re:The Sega Deramcast is AWESOME

[cgenman]

I'm sure the seller has quite a bit of experience in this area. He is selling, amongst other things, a development version of the M2. They didn't just hand those out free with your cereal, you know. The M2 development systems were so rare that people doubted they were shipped at all. Add to that the DD development system (did those go outside of Nintendo?), and the Deramcast, Saturn, Playstation, SNK development systems, and you have a surprisingly rare bundle. Now add in the Supergraphix, the Pippin, several unopened bottles of launch wine, multiple PS2 tools (which normally e-bay for about 20k each, I might add), thousands of games, lots of rare variations of every system released in the past 15 years, and this really does deserve to cost a lot more than 100,000 dollars.

Note that the auctioneer makes classic Japanese to English blunders, like switching S for T. In Japanese pretty much all consonants are followed by a vowel, and hence "Dreamcast" is usually pronounced "Du Ri Mu Ca Su T." When dealing with a native English speaker, an inability so spell correctly is usually a sign of below-average intelligence and a general disregard for details. However, when dealing with a Japanese speaker nothing can be read into classic Japanese translation errors.

Re:The Sega Deramcast is AWESOME

[jjhlk]

The seller is listed as living in Hong Kong, says so himself, and from "Member since: Mar-17-00" (Source [ebay.com]) I would suspect he's been there for a while. His eBay name is "lingjr", which is probably stands for Ling Junior. That's not a Japanese name. Lastly, the romanization of Dreamcast is "", or if that doesn't render, "doriimukyasuto" (Source [solon.org]).

I'm not trying to be a dick. I just think he isn't Japanese.

Re:Illegal to sell the dev. kits?

[cgenman]

Dev kits are illegal to sell, as Sony retains the property rights on all of them. However, the PS2 is far along enough in its lifespan that they don't worry so much anymore. They frequently wind up on Ebay, though they sell for a pretty penny. The Playstation 2 is well enough understood these days that there isn't any real reason to stop people from selling them. Ironically, a lot of those dev kits go to developers, as sometimes you NEED another tool to make a deadline, and sitting through Sony's lengthy approval process isn't an option. Plus the tools still cost several thousand dollars on e-bay, and don't even play games that well, limiting the audience to developers.

Now, if he was selling PSP dev kits, he could be expecting a nice little nastygram.

Re:100k???

[cgenman]

Thank you for clearing that up. Without that insight, I would never have realized that 100,000 dollars on consoles is only for insanely obsessed freaks.

Let's break this down, shall we?

PS2 development kit: 20,000 dollars
M2 development kit: I don't think any of these have been sold, but let's estimate at 20,000 dollars for the extreme rarity.
the 10 other development kits: about 2,000 each, or 20k for the lot.
games: PC Engine games are a steal at 4 or 5 dollars each, and he's got over 500 of them. Neo Geo games still demand over 100 dollars each for most titles, so let's put a blanket value at 10,000 dollars.
Special edition systems: Most of the 100 or so special edition systems he has would fetch 200 dollars each, so let's put another blanket value at 20,000
Normal systems: The Bandai, Supergraphics, LaserInteractive, Neo Geo, Turbo Express and many of the other normal systems that he lists routinely sell for over 200 each. Let's put their blanket value at 10k.

We're at roughly 100,000k already, without counting the value of the oddities in the collection such as the PSX / PS2 launch wines and the integrated televion set. 100,000 actually about right for a collection of this size, if not a little low. Of course, anyone thinking of bidding should do a more rigorous item-by-item breakdown of the value of the goods... after all, what would a collector do with a development tool? How many games for the various systems is he selling?

100,000 is not insane. It's just a lot.

Or Maybe the City of Seattle....

[hajihill]

Should a civic or possibly even private organization get behind this auction and successfully acquire these items I am certain the financial and long terms benefits would be easily felt...

For instance, a Tech Museum in Seattle, Washington could do more to firmly establish such a location as the seat of such software development in at least the U.S. In addition they could charge an admission fee to recoup the cost of the acquisition and curatorial duties associated with the maintenance and operation of such a museum. The benefits could be quite multi-faceted....

Alternatively, a software magnate (quite likely MS for example), or an extremely well-funded upstart could acquire the collection for display in their corporate offices as a thorough exposition of 'everything that came before', hence making a very firm and eloquent statement about their place in the ranking of software/console manufacturers.

for a museum

[curator_thew]

Anyone in London UK can view a selection of games consoles (and, even play some of them, including classic pong) at the design museum [designmuseum.org] as part of Sony's INTERACTION SPACE [designmuseum.org]:

Rediscover your favourite vintage video games - from Pong and Pac-Man to Tomb Raider - by playing them in the Interaction Space on the second floor of the Design Museum. Visitors can also discover the work of the pioneering multimedia designers who are defining the images we will see on our computer and TV screens in the future in the virtual galleries of the Digital Design Museum. Or they can learn more about the designers, architects and technologies featured at the museum in Design at the Design Museum, our online research archive.

It would be fantastic if these sorts of consoles could go to a museum to support future exhibitions of this kind.

Re:Let's get this out of the way

[CitizenJohnJohn]

The Apple Bandaï Pippin was Apple's attempt at a console. One from the 'What were they thinking?' file. More info here [theapplecollection.com]

Illegal?

[mike260]

100k is indeed pretty cheap, especially considering that a lot of this gear was never available to buy and sell normally.

For example, I was under the impression that you can't buy PS2 devkits, only borrow them from Sony (and pay heavily for the privilege). I'm pretty sure you can't just sell them on...makes me wonder how he got hold of them in the first place.