January 2015: Post your finds from the new year.

[hoverboots]

Most came in the mail, and couple I grabbed while out hunting for donors today.

Oh my god that Evangelion box is glorious!

[aaron-hagel]

Picked up these today:
Sega Saturn Console
Mega Man X
and Aladdin for the Genesis.

Now I can play my old Saturn games that have been sitting on the shelf for so long.

[wiggy]

I already grabbed you duke Nukem zero hour

Crap, I thought you grabbed the one with no subtitle

[TDIRunner]

I already grabbed you duke Nukem zero hour

Crap, I thought you grabbed the one with no subtitle

If this means someone has an extra copy, I might take it off your hands.

[sheep2001]

You're not supposed to be buying anything!  You'll get in trouble with the missus! Lol

[shenske]

I already grabbed you duke Nukem zero hour

Crap, I thought you grabbed the one with no subtitle

If this means someone has an extra copy, I might take it off your hands.

well, i had a miscommunication with wiggy and i don't  need it. Pm me

[TDIRunner]

You're not supposed to be buying anything!  You'll get in trouble with the missus! Lol

For the most part, I've been pretty good.

With one exception (all of those 3DO games a few weeks ago), all of my pickups since last Thanksgiving have either been trades or Goodwill/flea market purchases (in other words, dollars at a time and well under market value). 

[TDIRunner]

I already grabbed you duke Nukem zero hour

Crap, I thought you grabbed the one with no subtitle

If this means someone has an extra copy, I might take it off your hands.

well, i had a miscommunication with wiggy and i don't  need it. Pm me

Sending PM now.

[dmc1974]

Um, no. I would never do that...

 


It's actually painfully simple. Like laughably.

• Pour a small amount of isopropyl into a small ziplock bag
• Place cart face down into bag, making sure that the entire label is soaking in the isopropyl
• Wait. You'll be able to see the isopropyl seep into the label. It will become darker around the edges as it soaks in, and eventually work its way through the entire label
• Pull the cart once it's thoroughly saturated (I'd wait about 2-3 minutes after the label appears saturated just to be safe. If it's not fully saturated then you run the risk of tearing the label)
• The label should all but peel itself off at this point. I use an xacto blade to nudge up one of the bottom corners, then just grab and start pulling. 

Make sure to pull up, and not back. That is, don't pull the label in such a way that it is folding back on itself. You run the risk of creasing it if you stress it too much. Pull directly up, perpendicular to the face of the cart as best you can. The flatter you can keep the label while removing it, the better.  But don't stress about it. It's really not all that delicate. Just be mindful so that you get the best possible results

• Place the label onto the new shell ASAP. The adhesive is softened while it's still saturated with isopropyl, which give you some play while placing it. When it dries (which doesn't take more than a minute or so), the adhesive will become VERY tacky again. You won't easily be able to move it once it's touched the cart shell. You'd have to be 100% spot-on with the placement right off the bat.

If it does dry out a bit, and you place it incorrectly, then just hit it with some more isopropyl to soften the adhesive again. 


That's it. Takes about 10 minutes, and 90% of that time is spent just waiting. So grab your gameboy, play some Tetris, and wait for the magic to happen

Do you think that would work on SNES labels too?  I found a copy of Illusion of Gaia at a thrift store for 2.00 that looks like it was put in a microwave and the shell is all melted.  I have a donor shell but have no way of printing a new label, so I thought about trying this

[wiggy]

No, not very well.  They use a "dye sublimation" printing process for the front labels, which makes it difficult for the iso to penetrate.  You'd have to leave the cart in the iso for a long time and at that point the ink may start to bleed (some do, some don't based on my experience).

We actually DO use this process to strip SNES donor carts of their labels, but we put a small slice or two in the label to allow the isopropyl to penetrate, which obviously isn't what you'd want to do to your labels.  

Will work on the made in mexico carts though.  They use normal, non-dye-sub labels.


Got a huge box of SFC controllers in yesterday (you'll see why soon ), and there were a couple of nice 3rd party controllers in with em. No use for them as far as my business goes, so into the collection they go!

[Blumpkin]

I spent the last week raiding Gamestops in my area for cheap DS titles to fatten my library. Here's the haul:



Most have been cased thanks to TCP members. But I'm still looking for North American covers to:

A Witch's Tale
Black Sigil
Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter
Lost Magic
Magical Starsign
Nanostray
Puzzle de Harvest Moon

Also picked up a couple PSP games in my hunt, and got Wizard of Oz on eBay for $21 complete.

[tiamaxwell]

@Blumpkin Looks like you found a lot of good titles. I'm jelly. My area is picked over sadly.

[Blumpkin]

@Blumpkin Looks like you found a lot of good titles. I'm jelly. My area is picked over sadly.

The guys on the Second Opinion podcast got me in a tizzy after they did a hidden gems episode for DS.

The Gamestop app can be very handy for searching stores for inventory. Unfortunately games priced below $10 get put on the floor and are very prone to theft or loss. That's at least eight ten locations that I hit up. But I managed to find dupes of Solatorobo and Legend of Heroes that I'm flipping to soften the blow. Still a handful of cheap titles I'm looking for too, so the hunt continues.

[noemann]

Also picked up a couple PSP games in my hunt, and got Wizard of Oz on eBay for $21 complete.

Nice pickup, Blumpkin. I like this game. I've played it all the way to the end. I admit that the constant enemies can be boring at times but the music and the scenery is quite nice. Good stuff. I hope that you enjoy playing it unless you bought it for someone else. I like the rpg/dnd style approach to this Classic story. I'd like to see a 3DS remake with more content than enemy battles but I doubt that will happen.

I want to buy A Witch's Tale CIB so someday i'll have a scan for you if noone helps out. My Wife is pregnant so i'll be spending extra money on Baby items but i'll snag this one eventually within the year. I've marked it so that i remember you need a scan.

edit:
if you need artwork for custom covers, the Japanese site is still on-line:
http://www.d3p.co.jp/riz/

[Lashek]

Sweeped up some cheap eBay deals, as well as hit up various Goodwill stores near me to come out with some great pickups.




Intellivision (Complete in box, boxes damaged):
Astrosmash
Space Armada

Sega CD (came in BluRay cases with manuals loose):
Cliffhanger
Dracula
Pitfall

NES (My mega man set is now complete on NES):
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6

SNES:
Killer Instinct

GBA:
Power Rangers SPD

N64:
Pokemon Stadium (Came with transfer pak, not pictured)
Pokemon Stadium 2

DS:
Meteos

Game Cube:
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix

Wii:
Lego Indiana Jones

Wii U:
Hyrule Warriors
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Game Gear:
Addam's Family
Hook
Ren & Stimpy
Wonder Boy (I believe this is PAL)

Genesis:
Caesers Palace
Frogger
Phantasy Star IV
William's Arcades Greatest Hits

32X:
Moto Cross

PS1:
Final Fantasy Chronicles
Final Fantasy IX
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Namco Museum 3

PS2:
Chessmaster
Dance Dance Revolution Super Nova (Complete with Dance Pad)
Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy 7
Driv3r
Final Fantasy XII
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Kengo
Lego Star Wars
Oni
Pac Man World 3
Seek & Destroy
Smackdown VS Raw 2010
Sonic Riders II: Zero Gravity
Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Tenchu: Fatal Shadows
Thrillville
Way of the Samurai
Wild Arms 3

PSP:
Phantasy Star Online
Sid Meier's Pirates