icbrkr Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 C'mon OShea, drop the prices to $.80 a cart again! Sell groups of 10 for $7.50, or offer other deals for large lots. If they ever did, I'd make the 3 hour up there and pick up a trunkful! I'd love to see the underground warehouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 C'mon OShea, drop the prices to $.80 a cart again! Sell groups of 10 for $7.50, or offer other deals for large lots. If they ever did, I'd make the 3 hour up there and pick up a trunkful! I'd love to see the underground warehouse. Me too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 (edited) **UPDATE** Ok wow, it was a rough day yesterday. Sorry about the delayed post. So we heard back from all 3 testing sources. 2 of them wouldn't even touch the lot after they tested the games! The amount of gold was so negligible and the process to extract the boards and remove chips and junk so involved for the tiny PCBs (about 1/8 oz raw weight) that 2 of the gold refiners flat out refused to take them in. We're going with the 1st guy, who was the only one of the refiners to give us an offer. That offer is literally pennies per unit. There's no effing way that Oshea is going to get anywhere near his asking amount from the scrap world. We're giving Oshea our offer today, but I'm not very hopeful. Once Oshea gives us his answer (and I'm not holding my breath) I'll fill everybody in on the exact details and amounts of money per unit for this lot. This doesn't surprise me. As I said before, Atari was very skimpy with the gold flash on those boards, and the chips aren't worth all that much either. My father (who's worked for years in the scrap industry) looked some of them over with me last week and said that they would be considered low-grade scrap, because of the low precious metal content and the labor involved in extracting the boards from the cartridges. The scrap yards he's worked for wouldn't even touch them until all that was done, and even then, they'd probably only pay X cents per pound for the boards, depending on the gold content. I still believe that the best use for those games (aside for selling them intact) is as reprogrammable media for homebrew games, and that's especially true of the 7800 titles. I'd make a pickup run out to O'Shea's myself (a 780-mile trip for me) if they would offer a decent bulk price for unopened cases/packs of cartridges, assuming they reject the scrap offer. However, since these games have been taking up space in their warehouse for some twenty years now, they may decide that freeing up that space is more important to them. I guess we'll know soon enough. Edited November 11, 2009 by jaybird3rd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 no way they will sell these games for a few cents each.they should sell by the case!!!!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 **UPDATE** Well, the deal isn't dead yet. He didn't flat-out refuse our offer. He asked for us to email our quote to him and that he's waiting "for a few more quotes to come back." He also said if our price matches somebody else's then we can rebid. He also tentatively approved for us to come in and divert some of the shipments, so some of these titles may be saved after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 I've got two Ford trucks and if I knew of someone local either in OKC or the city where O'Shea is, who could manufacture carts with them, I'd gladly go in and fill both trucks up in exchange for being allowed to skim 20 or 30 carts off the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 If anyone goes out there to pick things up, I would say-- take video. The footage could make a GREAT documentary. -John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddlepaddle Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Gold is $1,100 an ounce right now. So basically these carts are worth a cent for every $200 an ounce in gold. This is good news. What this means is that gold will have to get to about $10,000 an ounce before these little gems become victim to the smelter. Our Atari 2600 carts are safe!If congress keeps propping up the economy; we could be at $10K/oz in a couple of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 If Albert needs a hand, truck, 6x12 trailer for a run to the caves, I could possibly swing it with my wife's permission of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJeff2 Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Just melt them all down please. It will raise the value of all the remaining matching carts in circulation. That is all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted November 16, 2009 Author Share Posted November 16, 2009 **UPDATE** Apparently a number of different people contacted Oshea about Ballblazer and Jinks, so he's holding those 2 titles ransom. He believes they are worth $15 a game because of the chip. So now if we get the bid, those games as of now are not included in the lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 **UPDATE** Apparently a number of different people contacted Oshea about Ballblazer and Jinks, so he's holding those 2 titles ransom. He believes they are worth $15 a game because of the chip. So now if we get the bid, those games as of now are not included in the lot. It sounds like eBay resellers have been reading this thread. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 **UPDATE** Apparently a number of different people contacted Oshea about Ballblazer and Jinks, so he's holding those 2 titles ransom. He believes they are worth $15 a game because of the chip. So now if we get the bid, those games as of now are not included in the lot. I call bullshit on that one. He would have done something about the price when they where 80 cents a pop a number of years ago, not now that he's desperate and looking to melt them down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 **UPDATE** Apparently a number of different people contacted Oshea about Ballblazer and Jinks, so he's holding those 2 titles ransom. He believes they are worth $15 a game because of the chip. So now if we get the bid, those games as of now are not included in the lot. I call bullshit on that one. He would have done something about the price when they where 80 cents a pop a number of years ago, not now that he's desperate and looking to melt them down. He will just hold on too them trying to sell them at that price for years. Then the same thing will happen again. He will have sold 3 carts in 3 years and then he will dump them for cheap. At least the pokey's are safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted November 16, 2009 Author Share Posted November 16, 2009 **UPDATE** Apparently a number of different people contacted Oshea about Ballblazer and Jinks, so he's holding those 2 titles ransom. He believes they are worth $15 a game because of the chip. So now if we get the bid, those games as of now are not included in the lot. I call bullshit on that one. He would have done something about the price when they where 80 cents a pop a number of years ago, not now that he's desperate and looking to melt them down. He will just hold on too them trying to sell them at that price for years. Then the same thing will happen again. He will have sold 3 carts in 3 years and then he will dump them for cheap. At least the pokey's are safe. Well, if anybody's interested in bulk quantities of any other of his titles then contact me. Minimum bulk order 10k games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 **UPDATE** Apparently a number of different people contacted Oshea about Ballblazer and Jinks, so he's holding those 2 titles ransom. He believes they are worth $15 a game because of the chip. So now if we get the bid, those games as of now are not included in the lot. I call bullshit on that one. He would have done something about the price when they where 80 cents a pop a number of years ago, not now that he's desperate and looking to melt them down. He will just hold on too them trying to sell them at that price for years. Then the same thing will happen again. He will have sold 3 carts in 3 years and then he will dump them for cheap. At least the pokey's are safe. Well, if anybody's interested in bulk quantities of any other of his titles then contact me. Minimum bulk order 10k games. What kind of prices are we talking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 BTW, I knew there would be several people backdooring this and contacting O'Shea directly. There was no way around it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I don't get it. If word gets around that you might be selling certain games for less than your current price, and a bunch of people contact you to express interest in those particular games, you'd think this would be a sign that you should lower your prices, not raise them. At least they'll be safe from being scrapped, as long as they've made up their mind to try to sell them as complete games (although I still don't think they're worth $15). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 At least they'll be safe from being scrapped, as long as they've made up their mind to try to sell them as complete games (although I still don't think they're worth $15). They are not worth 15. They are not worth $5. That is why he is sitting on tens of thousands of each of them. They were priced ok at $2, but they were priced very nicely back when they were $.80 each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Well, if anybody's interested in bulk quantities of any other of his titles then contact me. Minimum bulk order 10k games. So does this mean you got the bid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted November 16, 2009 Author Share Posted November 16, 2009 Well, if anybody's interested in bulk quantities of any other of his titles then contact me. Minimum bulk order 10k games. So does this mean you got the bid? Not officially, but I don't think too many people are biting. We were lucky enough to find 1 out 3 of our gold refiners who would actually take the lot to refine. Not many gold guys want the hassle of opening up 1M+ boxes and cart cases for small, populated PCBs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Yeah, no one jumped on them at $5, so suddenly they may be worth $15?!?!?! WTF, that is totally bass-ackwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 **UPDATE** Apparently a number of different people contacted Oshea about Ballblazer and Jinks, so he's holding those 2 titles ransom. He believes they are worth $15 a game because of the chip. So now if we get the bid, those games as of now are not included in the lot. That is absolutely crazy. We better keep quiet about the super chip titles... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted November 16, 2009 Author Share Posted November 16, 2009 Yeah, no one jumped on them at $5, so suddenly they may be worth $15?!?!?! WTF, that is totally bass-ackwards. Well, just because he told us that he thinks they're worth $15 doesn't mean that's what he's selling at. He did give us an initial offer for that lot separate that was much lower than $15, so I think he's just trying to negotiate with us. Regardless, he is asking for much more than we can afford to take on the scrap deal because the remainder of the unsold lots are getting melted down. And there's about 30k of Ballblazer/Jinks in the lot, so that's a lot to bite in unsold units with a large scrap price discrepancy. In other words, he may be sitting on lots of Ballblazer/Jinks for a long time. Option B is always to play hardball with him and take the whole deal or none at all, but then again I don't know how many other offers he's had from other scrap companies so that could burn us in the end. It's an interesting turn of events to say the least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Yes, very interesting, definitely, and thanks so much for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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