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| When buying used carts... |
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| wiggy:
How OCD are you about cleaning them up? Personally, I can't stand all the stickers, BBQ sauce, Pepsi, etc that ends up on these carts, but I'm not one to pass up a decent deal. So, I've found that I spend entirely too long cleaning the damned things in order to keep them from tarnishing my collection. I bought 10 carts today. Spent about 2 hours disassembling and cleaning them. My arsenal of cleaners and tools just seems to keep growing as I've started to add to my cart collection for the 1st time in about 10 years, which of course means that I just spend all that much more time fiddling with them. Here's what I'm talking about. Luckily they all cleaned up pretty well with minimal amounts of torn labels and whatnot. |
| TyrannicalFascist:
Pretty much every used cart I pick up gets a thorough outer cleaning with the Mr. Clean magic eraser, and a I go through quite a few Q-tips to clean the pins. Haven't opened any up yet. I need to pick up some Goo Gone to finish one of them and my Sega CD too. |
| WolfAlmighty:
If it's salvageable (meaning no MAJOR damage to the label or case) I definitely clean them up as best as possible. I got a Snow Brothers cart that was great except it was owned by a smoker so the entire thing had a yellow film over it. It took about four cotton swabs dampened with alcohol to get the yellow off, but it's all good now. I also got a cart of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Mindscape) which was dirty and simply covered in rental stickers and price tags, both old and new. The game didn't work, either. I spent about an hour and a half getting all the labels off, then taking the cart apart and cleaning not only the contacts, but also all the goop between the contacts which was shorting it out and causing it to malfunction. Was it worth it for a $4 game? No, not really. :P However, it's in beautiful condition and plays the first time every time and since it was technically a freebie (the guy threw it in with the auction I bid on for Last Crusade) I really can't complain. Now we just need a cover for it. ;) But overall I'm quite picky about the cosmetic and functional condition of my carts. My stuff doesn't have to be mint, but it does have to look very nice with no more than a few minor flaws or it gets put in the pile to resell until I can find an upgrade. Definitely any game I put into my 'collection' will not have any dirt, grime, or rental stickers anywhere on them. |
| Pikmin Overlord:
I am beginning to believe that all collectors must have some sort of OCD. I have to think that the majority of people who visit this site do, as they feel the need to case their games and print out corresponding cover art. I'm certainly one of those people, and I thoroughly enjoy it. That being said, I obviously embrace my OCD and definitely care about cleaning all of my carts. I find it a little therapeutic to be honest, and I am always happy to see a game that was a disaster look like new again. For me, the label is the selling point. If it is in good condition, the I can usually do anything with the cart. This past weekend I picked up a bunch of NES games, including Taxan's G. I. Joe, which had writing all over it. Luckily, the games were cheap, so I grabbed a couple that were in great condition and just swapped the labels after heating them up with a hair dryer. Now it's like new! |
| wiggy:
@TyrannicalFascist - Wait 'til you crack one open for the first time. You're gonna be like "Eww, that's nasty!", and all of a sudden you're gonna want to pop open all your old carts LOL! Luckily, I've been opening every cart and cleaning it (whether it needs it or not) just before I case and shelve it. @WolfAlmighty - I'm the same (doesn't need to be pristine). I used to insist on my games being pretty much perfect, but that was before I bought used games, which was like 20+ years ago. That copy of Glover in the pic above literally had 5 stickers on it >:( @Pikmin Overlord - It's definitely satisfying to get 'em all cleaned up and working properly! And yes, asking you guys how OCD you are is like asking Stephen Hawking whether or not he has any interest in stars :P All collectors = OCD Us = Super Mega OCD ;D |
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