Activision (Re-)Labels: Critical mass
So over the last few days, quite a few cartridges started making their way into my collection. I did one major batch/rush over a couple of days to get as many as I could. Just because I'm basically doing reproductions by adding these new labels, I decided to keep the costs reasonable as an additional challenge. Basically keep each cartridge under $10 (Canadian). I was able to do this with the only exception being Robot Tank which ended up being $14. Everything else was from $2 to $10. With eBay I was trying to keep shipping free where possible but tax added a couple of bucks. Overall I got some good deals especially a copy of Frostbite for $2, even though the label was in rough shape.
I ended up getting a couple of duplicates, one of Freeway and one Sky Jinks, as in a couple of cases I bought batches.
Facebook Marketplace was a great especially since I came across somewhere further south in the province that was shipped at a very reasonable price. That was 7 cartridges there.
Found another one in FB for Spider Fighter.
On my way to my place up north came across a person selling a bunch for $5 each and picked up 8 carts via Kijiji. Kaboom at a retro video game store for $10+tax.
About half a dozen from eBay. I'm still waiting for Megamania, Robot Tank and Starmaster to arrive from a couple separate orders. Weird because these two were from Ontario and I received orders from British Columbia last week; they should have arrived quicker.
Interestingly enough, there were 3 carts that were in better shape than the ones I had in my collection, so I swapped those: Commando, Decathlon, and Boxing.
Here is the Spider Fighter from last weekend compared to my original copy on the left. Colours are fairly similar.
Here is a picture of an immaculate circuit board for Commando (this was my original copy):
Here are Enduro, Grand Prix, Seaquest, Pitfall, Hockey and Plaque Attack. Six titles I picked up for $5 each. I got Commando as well, but did it in a separate batch after wanting to compare with my original copy since it was in stellar condition.
Here they are again with originals (in the left). Colours as before are not perfect matches, probably because of fading over the years (UV or just oxidation?). Ice Hockey probably glows in the dark.
Here are the other 15 I picked up before I removed the labels. Decathlon, Commando and Boxing were my original copies. Some of them were pretty shoddy. Chopper Command must have something spilled into it since I took ages to clean it up without any brown stuff getting wiped (blergh!).
River Raid was a mess. Couldn't get the label out after 4 days of having sitting in Goo Gone. I ended taking a Sky Jinks extra cart and re-purposing it (AG-019 for Sky Jinks, AG-020 for River Raid). Strangely enough, the RR had springs, why SJ did not.
Here are they with all the new labels. This took 3 days in doing them in batches.
And here are all the cartridges done so far. They all work, although some needed some extra cleaning with the contacts with three of them actually needing to be sanded slightly.
At this point Megamania, Robot Tank and Starmaster should be done in a few days. I'll keep looking for copies of Barnstorming, Bridge, Checkers, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Skiing and perhaps Pitfall II. I will most likely need to spend more than $10 on some of those titles.
Edited by AlwaysOnPlanetPatrol
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