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Atari Sign... Nice, but pricey


Nintendo Penguin

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I made decent money off a Neon beer clock I sold off eBay a while back.  Of course, UPS had to break it  :ponder:

 

 

I was thinking that shipping would be a bitch with something like this. One of the few times that paying for insurance might be a good idea.

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:D

 

I've actually been looking for one of these to complement the Super Nintendo one that I've got. That was a much better deal though -- psuedo-neon for $20.00. Of course, that was from a video store that had sort of become a porn store and they didn't want it any more... Long story.

 

I almost got a Sega one once too.

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Not that many of your probably care or anything, but my buddy is the manager of a conveinence store, and he gets neons from work all the time, mostly beer ones. I think he said his garage is hooked up with like 28 now   :D   Its really funny.

 

Tad

 

You're not kidding.. back in my salad days, I used to work as a merchandiser for one of the liquor houses in my area and these managers of liquor/convenience stores were WHORES for free merchandise. There was a d*ckhead who used to manage a liquor dept. for a local major retailer who wouldn't allow us IN without some kind of "gift" - a mirror, neon sign, jacket, or some other kind of offering. He had it all figured out, because of course we'd DO it.. I heard the guy had the greatest rec room in Milwaukee from all the junk everyone gave him.

 

Atari.. now that's another thing.. in my mind's eye, I can see that hanging up on the wall in the smoke of my favorite arcade. I'll watch this one too.

 

-rpm-

 

(On the other hand, I can see a buddy of mine making those for about $80 a pop. Custom neon signs are expensive, but these guys don't have a whole lot of business lately = a lot of spare time.)

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What are you doing at a porn store Dan?  Hmmmm??  :ponder:

 

Hehe, I realized after I already posted that I better summarize the story...

 

I used to always stop at the Toys R Us in Milwaukee on 27th street because they had a ton of SNES, Gene and Game Gear stuff that they would constantly be discounting. One day, I decided to go there with a friend. We didn't find anything, and we were going to go rent a movie, but we saw a sign up in a store in the parking lot of Toys R Us that said, "Movie Clearance!" and there were poster of Men In Black, Ace Ventura and whatnot hanging in the windows, so we thought that we should check it out...

 

We walked in, and I was immediately amazed by how small the "store" was. The entire movie section was probably 15' by 10' with a register, and I couldn't figure out how they stayed open. I looked at the movies, and I think I picked up Roger Rabbit. As I was checking out, I noticed the SNES sign and asked the clerk about it. She told me that they hadn't carried video games in years, and the owner would probably sell it to me. I was supposed to come back the next day. We left to watch Roger Rabbit.

 

Came back the next day and the owner "talked me up to" $20.00 for the sign. When he started getting it down, I realized that the store was actually probably 150' by 15', and the 140' that was hidden was a HUGE pornography section.

 

Guessing that the store was told that they could be a video store with a pornography section, and they ran with that. I checked to see if they had anything else video game related (they did not) and I left. Haven't ever gone back, either :)

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Interestingly enough, Dan, I used to work at that video store in a prior life (I now supervise a production machine shop) and I too wonder how they manage to stay open without incurring the wrath of local decency police. (I'm told that police make up a big part of their customer base.)

 

One of the things I remember most was that the prior owner of that shop bought out the entire NES inventory of some other video store, and these were sealed copies of a lot of late generation NES games. We sold them for $3 at a "tent sale" out in the parking lot, and this was 1996. Wanted your Dragon Warrior IV mint sealed? $3 at Video Savings in '96. I remember the games, but I was too much of a dummy at the time to think they were worth anything.

 

-rpm-

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Interestingly enough, Dan,  I used to work at that video store in a prior life (I now supervise a production machine shop) and I too wonder how they manage to stay open without incurring the wrath of local decency police.  (I'm told that police make up a big part of their customer base.)

 

One of the things I remember most was that the prior owner of that shop bought out the entire NES inventory of some other video store, and these were sealed copies of a lot of late generation NES games.  We sold them for $3 at a "tent sale" out in the parking lot, and this was 1996.  Wanted your Dragon Warrior IV mint sealed?  $3 at Video Savings in '96.  I remember the games, but I was too much of a dummy at the time to think they were worth anything.

 

Sounds like it! When I came back to talk with the guy, he said to me, "What is the sign worth to you?" and I said that I didn't really know, and I wouldn't get it if it was too expensive. I offered $20.00.

 

The man said that that was a fair price, but that I would have to understand that he didn't think sign worked and he would never accept a return on it. He then said, "I know you were thinking that you would pay $20.00 if it worked, but I was going to sell it for more. Since I don't think it works, I'll sell it to you for your twenty bucks."

 

I wasn't planning on returning it even if it didn't work. I was also willing to go much more than $20.00, but I wanted to feel out what he was looking for. I wouldn't have spent more than $75.00.

 

So I get it home and plug it in. Yup, it doesn't turn on... Hm.... throw switch, sign works fine. :D

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Was he a sort of heavy-set grey-haired guy with big sideburns? He's actually one of the straightest-shooters I've ever met.. former Green Bay TV personality, Channel 12 engineer, and an absolute authority on '70's porn. I still use one of his gutteral mannerisms when confronted with something really seedy: "Oh YESSSSS.. yesss, yesss, yesss"

 

I went in there recently to see if they had any video game stuff left over from the good old days, (the old owner had a closet full) but he said they cleaned out that junk years ago. Oh well.

 

RPM

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