#id be willing to pay a little more for shipping but the original figure is Ten Dollars. asking for 20+ with shipping on top is unreasonable

[sonknuxadow]

What if we all exploded and died

[oldnintendonerd]

Introducing my NES Collection

This was the first video game console I owned. It was bought for me by my parents, as most NES systems were for us thirty somethings. The box and all of that is unfortunately long gone. Currently, this dude is not working. It gets the flashing red light of death on every cart I put in, even after cleaning the cart with alcohol/windex and a cotton swab.

 I did clean all of the pins inside the unit just as a quick try at fixing it, but I think it needs a thorough cleaning and some pin bending. This one is not in the greatest of shape, it does have some yellowing, and I’m not entirely thrilled with its condition. But it is sentimental, as it is the one I have had since day one, when the infatuation began.

A friend had one first, of course, since that is how most of us got into almost anything, “a friend was doing it”. I was hooked the second I ran Mario to the right and stomped my first Goomba.

The NES was released on October 18th, 1985. I don’t think my friend had one immediately, it was probably not until 1986 that I was introduced to it. I did not get one until probably a year or so later as a Christmas present. Possibly even over a year, I do remember there was quite a bit of asking that had to be done. So it could have been Christmas of 1986 or even as late as Christmas of 1987 before I actually got my own NES. From then on I got a game for Christmas or my birthday, or both, almost every year.

Over time I accumulated quite a few games, even having not bought an NES game since the 90′s I still have over 40 games in my collection. Almost all accumulated when I was a kid or teenager. After I hit my 20′s I don’t think I bought another NES game at all. Here they are as it stands right now:

As you can see, it’s nothing to sneeze at, I have a lot of really good games including Battletoads, Blaster Master, both Zelda games, the Mario trilogy, Super C, Metroid, a couple Mega Mans, and of course, the classic Tetris. But, there are obvious holes in this collection, where is the rest of the Mega Man series? Either of the Double Dragons? Any of the Ninja Gaidens? How can I be missing any of these? Well, I was just a kid when I was actively collecting games for this system, and at the end of the 90′s, Nintendo had released the SNES and the N64 in that time, so there were other platforms on the table. Both of which I was also buying for during this time, and they were more expensive. Id go buy one new N64 game with my budget instead of picking up 3 or 4 used NES games.

Thats what makes this blog so much fun though. Even as a kid I would still hit yard sales, I remember very vividly haggling a guy down from $10 to $8 on Jackal, and paying for it with my own money. Probably in the neighborhood of 1988 or 1989. Great buy that game. Hours of fun.

I also managed to get an Intellivision and an Atari 2600, with about 10 games for each at a yard sale only a few houses down from where we lived. I was probably 12 or 13 years old and picked up the entire lot for $5. Both systems worked, and my brother and I played for hours with Triple Action, Astrosmash and Breakout. While the NES was in the living room like “Uh... hello!? Hellooooo!?”. This was probably 1992 or 1993, and the Atari 2600 was released in 1977. So those games, at the time I purchased them, were not even as old as the games and systems I am looking for now. 15 years? The GameCube is about 16 years old at this point. Mind blowing.

I look forward to doing a lot more of that here.

Another great buy was NES Open Tournament Golf. This was released a month after the SNES. We bought a copy brand new, I think it was a christmas present that very year. I did not have a SNES yet. Little did I know how much time I would spend with my dad playing that game. To this day it holds a place in both of our hearts. In fact just a couple weeks ago we sat down and played on the Wii virtual console about a half dozen rounds together. It’s something we try to do almost every time we get together, even if its only for a half an hour. Great memories.

Wait, why is there a sticker on it if you bought it new you ask? I’ll tell you. Somewhere in the mid 90′s my dad and I had a bit of a marathon when we discovered that it saves your money. We wanted to get to $1,000,000. A few times we got interrupted in playing and just left the console on to come back to, rather than saving play and turning it off. Well, we ended up leaving it on for over a week straight, something had gotten placed in front of the power LED so it was not noticed. I think we went on vacation or something. It was on a purple screen when we came back to it. It would then not boot, but other games worked. We figured we cooked the cartridge. So, we purchased another copy used, and as you can see it was rather expensive. Even used and a good few years after it was released. I am guessing this may be somewhere around 1994 or 1995. The 689 sticker was probably an inventory sticker or something from the place we got it, there’s no decimal point. There is a price on the back.

Even today with the high prices some of these games are fetching, $21.00 is expensive for NES Open. eBay seems to have it going around $10 shipped. Which makes it around a $7 or $8 game, tops. Bummer.

We discovered later that the original copy did still work, so when I moved out, dad kept one, and so did I. Clearly, I’ve got the used one. Come to think of it he still has quite a few of my old games. Hmmmmmm... might have to ask him about that stuff. See what he still has.

I still wish I had spent a little bit more money on the NES games as they were “going out of style” in the mid to late 90′s. You could find anything at Electronics Boutique, just bins and bins of used NES games, most under $5! Some for even a dollar or two. But you pass them up because the label doesn’t catch your eye and there is no internet to tell you what is good like today.

So now I am filling in the gaps of the collection more than two decades out of date. It just so happens that it is right when everyone else had the same idea. Story of my life. Here I am thinking I’m being original, dusting off 10 to 30+ year old video games, and I’m at least 2 years too late to the party. YouTube channels that are four plus years old about game hunting, the older videos getting absolute steals on stuff you would probably hardly have a chance to find today, let alone get for $1. Stacks of GameCube games for $1 each, GameCube systems with games and multiple controllers for $10. GameCube controllers alone are $15+ these days. SNES lots with a system, controllers and like 15 games for $20. Incredible deals.

Now the pickings are slimmer, one of the YouTube channels I follow posted a recent video where a woman would NOT part out a Genesis system and some games that went with it. It had to be sold as the package and she had it priced at $65 or something. She said something along the lines of “I looked it up online, that’s what they go for”.

Little rant here. This is the problem with game hunting now, and may be an issue as I try to rebuild my collection. Lots of people know what eBay is, check their stuff and for whatever reason, want that price. It may be a lack of understanding on how eBay works, most likely they’ve never sold on eBay before. They don’t realize that the Genesis on eBay is very clean and is listed “Tested and working”, with a 30 day return policy, and all of this plays on the price. You are not on eBay, you are selling this out of a box on the floor of your garage at a yard sale, you are not paying eBay fees to list, you are not paying PayPal fees to get payment, you are not shipping anything, and if this doesn’t work when I get home I can’t bring it back to you. $65 on eBay does not mean $65 at a yard sale. See where it says Free Shipping in the listing? Of course not, you just see the price number. The seller on eBay MIGHT walk away from the $65 sale with $40 - $45 or so after all fees and shipping are finished. A $40 bill for the same lot MIGHT get some attention at the same yard sale. I mean, people can charge whatever they want, I can’t tell people what to ask for their stuff, it is their stuff. But if you were really trying to sell it, it would be priced accordingly. $65 for a Genesis and a few games will still be sitting in that box when the yard sale is over. $25 or $30 for the same Genesis and games, now you have my attention.

Ok, rant over. It wasn’t so little. Sorry.

Despite all of the above rant, I am convinced there are still some good deals to be had out there. I like to think there are still some people willing to sell stuff at true yard sale prices, just to be rid of it, like the purpose of a yard sale. This is a tall order, but it can be done, and I’m going to try. It will all be laid out here for you to read about.

Next post - The SNES Collection, and maybe less ranting. Maybe.

No pickups yet, total stays at $83.09

2017.04.18

[garkodigitalmedia]

What I’m learning from the $5,200 upgrade

I wrote about a related topic recently, and some people thought it a little odd or rambling, I’ve no doubt this will have the same effect.  But since a big part of the reason behind this blog is to explore thoughts, while helping friends and family travel for free, while hawking credit cards, let’s go!

Here’s the problem:

We’ve been offered another ‘trip of a lifetime’ and after procrastinating on it for several months, pulled the trigger.  The trip has a sticker price of around $13,000 (cheapest I’ve seen) and we get it for $2,100.  The problem is that it’s a cruise (I know…), and the class of cabin is a bit below what I’d like.  The next level up is sold out, which leaves us with upgrading to a Penthouse, for $5,200 extra. This would mean $7,300 all in, for a retail value of about $28,000, (discounted, not brochure pricing) which is a chunk of change.

In terms of value, I know that some might be put off by the $2,100 price, but for now let’s assume ‘it is worth it’.  The problem I yet again battle with is that technically I can afford the $5,200 also.  But that’s where it all starts crumbling into madness.

What does it mean to afford something?

If you look around, you’ll see countless people driving a fancy car, fancy for you might be $50K, $100K, or more.  Can they afford it?  One answer is that if they aren’t homeless, and can pay the bills, then “I guess so”.  I address that by trying to focus not only on debts, but ‘obligations’. Debt wise, we’re debt free, so it’s easy enough to make an argument that $5,200 is just a couple of month’s mortgage payment for another person in our situation, and therefore, perhaps we deserve to spend?

Obligations is a harder one, because we haven’t saved enough to be able to retire, or for long term care or other such expenses.  We’re on trajectory for this, but we aren’t there yet.  Therefore, spending does divert from the obligations funding.  The final issue here, is that, $5,200 probably wouldn’t matter to that sort of big picture thinking.  It’s likely that by the time we die, we will have more than $5,200 remaining, even if you compound everything using magic.

For these reasons, I almost pulled the trigger.  The thing that I held back was simply that I’m not sure about the consequences of the decision, the butterfly effect if you will.  To draw an analogy, I like to look at people who would rather fly Business Class for 70K miles than Economy for say, 40K miles.

Most people who make such decisions do ‘value’ their miles.  If we were to attribute value at say, 1.5cents, then we’re talking about being willing to spend $450 for the fancier class of service.  Quite often, it is worth it, in terms of getting to destination rested, and the free booze is a nice bonus.  The jump from Business to First is a different topic though, here we might see another $450 on top of Business, and perhaps less value from the seat, and more from fancier booze, and bragging rights.

It’s these Business>First jumps that I ponder.  If a person truly values $450, would they consider saving that $450 and instead buying a $450 michelin starred meal for an experience?  I feel most will not, because of these same behavioral factors that are pushing me on the cruise.

What to do with $5,200?

Our Business> First jump is valued at $5,200.  In some ways, it has elements of the Economy>Business jump, because the cabin goes from 200 sqft to 360 sqft (50 or so being a balcony) so there is some value to the ‘comfort’.  The flip side is that horrible 200 sqft cabin is on a 6 star ship with all inclusive food and drink.  In short, I’m sure we will be able to tough it out, even if we come back looking like we’ve been in the jungle for a month without food or water.

By cheaping out on that upgrade, we could say that we have a pool of $5,200 to spend on experiences, and at the same time, if we did upgrade, I think our ‘baseline’ would be higher.  Since we’re comfortable spending an extra $5,200 on the cabin, we probably deserve to spend that much more on excursions, because we wouldn’t want to feel house poor.  Suddenly, the decision to spend $5,200 in isolation is becoming $10-$15K for a vacation.  

Crikey! We’re bumbling our way into a budget

I’ve never been a strong proponent of budgeting, I’ve always preferred to get strong income, low expenses, and manage taxes effectively.  This might be a tipping point for us though, since a budget for a trip like this could be a powerful tool.  Not so much a ‘how much can we afford’ vs a spotlight on ‘how much are we spending’.  Getting insights like this are the useful side of budgeting.

We’re now turning the planning into a series of ‘needs and wants’. No different from a lifestyle budget or plan. Technically you could argue everything here is a ‘want’, but I would say that I need to do something fun everywhere, and I also want to: stay in a safari lodge so we wake up to Lions and Elephants (and a nice cup of Tea) and when I do a bit more research we might find that we want to do a few more, once in a lifetime things too.

However, I’m also taking that $5,200 and looking everywhere for where to spend it, so once we’re done looking around the house for things that I’ve neglected, or at improvements to businesses or or elements of other vacations we have planned, I’m sure there will be less to play with.

What I’m starting to realize (or remember) from all this pondering is that there is an order to things.  Basic needs, and luxuries.  The issue that is nagging at me is that I’m starting to put the need for a Veranda into basic needs, because it does make a difference to me, but the danger here is how much impact that single shift has on all the related other basic and luxury needs, and until I figure that out, perhaps via looking at a proper budget of the vacation, I’m holding off spending.  

Make no mistake, this is lifestyle inflation we’re talking about, but unlike many people who are familiar with the term, I think lifestyle inflation is a great thing, we don’t work hard, become educated and cultured to live on baked beans.  My only hesitation is what does turn me into in the big picture, if I’m OK with that answer, I’m all for a little inflation.

The post What I’m learning from the $5,200 upgrade appeared first on Saverocity Travel.

* This article was originally published here

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8312273 https://proshoppingservice.com/what-im-learning-from-the-5200-upgrade/

[michaeljtraylor]

What I’m learning from the $5,200 upgrade

I wrote about a related topic recently, and some people thought it a little odd or rambling, I’ve no doubt this will have the same effect.  But since a big part of the reason behind this blog is to explore thoughts, while helping friends and family travel for free, while hawking credit cards, let’s go!

Here’s the problem:

We’ve been offered another ‘trip of a lifetime’ and after procrastinating on it for several months, pulled the trigger.  The trip has a sticker price of around $13,000 (cheapest I’ve seen) and we get it for $2,100.  The problem is that it’s a cruise (I know…), and the class of cabin is a bit below what I’d like.  The next level up is sold out, which leaves us with upgrading to a Penthouse, for $5,200 extra. This would mean $7,300 all in, for a retail value of about $28,000, (discounted, not brochure pricing) which is a chunk of change.

In terms of value, I know that some might be put off by the $2,100 price, but for now let’s assume ‘it is worth it’.  The problem I yet again battle with is that technically I can afford the $5,200 also.  But that’s where it all starts crumbling into madness.

What does it mean to afford something?

If you look around, you’ll see countless people driving a fancy car, fancy for you might be $50K, $100K, or more.  Can they afford it?  One answer is that if they aren’t homeless, and can pay the bills, then “I guess so”.  I address that by trying to focus not only on debts, but ‘obligations’. Debt wise, we’re debt free, so it’s easy enough to make an argument that $5,200 is just a couple of month’s mortgage payment for another person in our situation, and therefore, perhaps we deserve to spend?

Obligations is a harder one, because we haven’t saved enough to be able to retire, or for long term care or other such expenses.  We’re on trajectory for this, but we aren’t there yet.  Therefore, spending does divert from the obligations funding.  The final issue here, is that, $5,200 probably wouldn’t matter to that sort of big picture thinking.  It’s likely that by the time we die, we will have more than $5,200 remaining, even if you compound everything using magic.

For these reasons, I almost pulled the trigger.  The thing that I held back was simply that I’m not sure about the consequences of the decision, the butterfly effect if you will.  To draw an analogy, I like to look at people who would rather fly Business Class for 70K miles than Economy for say, 40K miles.

Most people who make such decisions do ‘value’ their miles.  If we were to attribute value at say, 1.5cents, then we’re talking about being willing to spend $450 for the fancier class of service.  Quite often, it is worth it, in terms of getting to destination rested, and the free booze is a nice bonus.  The jump from Business to First is a different topic though, here we might see another $450 on top of Business, and perhaps less value from the seat, and more from fancier booze, and bragging rights.

It’s these Business>First jumps that I ponder.  If a person truly values $450, would they consider saving that $450 and instead buying a $450 michelin starred meal for an experience?  I feel most will not, because of these same behavioral factors that are pushing me on the cruise.

What to do with $5,200?

Our Business> First jump is valued at $5,200.  In some ways, it has elements of the Economy>Business jump, because the cabin goes from 200 sqft to 360 sqft (50 or so being a balcony) so there is some value to the ‘comfort’.  The flip side is that horrible 200 sqft cabin is on a 6 star ship with all inclusive food and drink.  In short, I’m sure we will be able to tough it out, even if we come back looking like we’ve been in the jungle for a month without food or water.

By cheaping out on that upgrade, we could say that we have a pool of $5,200 to spend on experiences, and at the same time, if we did upgrade, I think our ‘baseline’ would be higher.  Since we’re comfortable spending an extra $5,200 on the cabin, we probably deserve to spend that much more on excursions, because we wouldn’t want to feel house poor.  Suddenly, the decision to spend $5,200 in isolation is becoming $10-$15K for a vacation.  

Crikey! We’re bumbling our way into a budget

I’ve never been a strong proponent of budgeting, I’ve always preferred to get strong income, low expenses, and manage taxes effectively.  This might be a tipping point for us though, since a budget for a trip like this could be a powerful tool.  Not so much a ‘how much can we afford’ vs a spotlight on ‘how much are we spending’.  Getting insights like this are the useful side of budgeting.

We’re now turning the planning into a series of ‘needs and wants’. No different from a lifestyle budget or plan. Technically you could argue everything here is a ‘want’, but I would say that I need to do something fun everywhere, and I also want to: stay in a safari lodge so we wake up to Lions and Elephants (and a nice cup of Tea) and when I do a bit more research we might find that we want to do a few more, once in a lifetime things too.

However, I’m also taking that $5,200 and looking everywhere for where to spend it, so once we’re done looking around the house for things that I’ve neglected, or at improvements to businesses or or elements of other vacations we have planned, I’m sure there will be less to play with.

What I’m starting to realize (or remember) from all this pondering is that there is an order to things.  Basic needs, and luxuries.  The issue that is nagging at me is that I’m starting to put the need for a Veranda into basic needs, because it does make a difference to me, but the danger here is how much impact that single shift has on all the related other basic and luxury needs, and until I figure that out, perhaps via looking at a proper budget of the vacation, I’m holding off spending.  

Make no mistake, this is lifestyle inflation we’re talking about, but unlike many people who are familiar with the term, I think lifestyle inflation is a great thing, we don’t work hard, become educated and cultured to live on baked beans.  My only hesitation is what does turn me into in the big picture, if I’m OK with that answer, I’m all for a little inflation.

The post What I’m learning from the $5,200 upgrade appeared first on Saverocity Travel.

* This article was originally published here

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8312273 https://proshoppingservice.com/what-im-learning-from-the-5200-upgrade/ from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.tumblr.com/post/184033485344

[garkomedia1]

What I’m learning from the $5,200 upgrade

I wrote about a related topic recently, and some people thought it a little odd or rambling, I’ve no doubt this will have the same effect.  But since a big part of the reason behind this blog is to explore thoughts, while helping friends and family travel for free, while hawking credit cards, let’s go!

Here’s the problem:

We’ve been offered another ‘trip of a lifetime’ and after procrastinating on it for several months, pulled the trigger.  The trip has a sticker price of around $13,000 (cheapest I’ve seen) and we get it for $2,100.  The problem is that it’s a cruise (I know…), and the class of cabin is a bit below what I’d like.  The next level up is sold out, which leaves us with upgrading to a Penthouse, for $5,200 extra. This would mean $7,300 all in, for a retail value of about $28,000, (discounted, not brochure pricing) which is a chunk of change.

In terms of value, I know that some might be put off by the $2,100 price, but for now let’s assume ‘it is worth it’.  The problem I yet again battle with is that technically I can afford the $5,200 also.  But that’s where it all starts crumbling into madness.

What does it mean to afford something?

If you look around, you’ll see countless people driving a fancy car, fancy for you might be $50K, $100K, or more.  Can they afford it?  One answer is that if they aren’t homeless, and can pay the bills, then “I guess so”.  I address that by trying to focus not only on debts, but ‘obligations’. Debt wise, we’re debt free, so it’s easy enough to make an argument that $5,200 is just a couple of month’s mortgage payment for another person in our situation, and therefore, perhaps we deserve to spend?

Obligations is a harder one, because we haven’t saved enough to be able to retire, or for long term care or other such expenses.  We’re on trajectory for this, but we aren’t there yet.  Therefore, spending does divert from the obligations funding.  The final issue here, is that, $5,200 probably wouldn’t matter to that sort of big picture thinking.  It’s likely that by the time we die, we will have more than $5,200 remaining, even if you compound everything using magic.

For these reasons, I almost pulled the trigger.  The thing that I held back was simply that I’m not sure about the consequences of the decision, the butterfly effect if you will.  To draw an analogy, I like to look at people who would rather fly Business Class for 70K miles than Economy for say, 40K miles.

Most people who make such decisions do ‘value’ their miles.  If we were to attribute value at say, 1.5cents, then we’re talking about being willing to spend $450 for the fancier class of service.  Quite often, it is worth it, in terms of getting to destination rested, and the free booze is a nice bonus.  The jump from Business to First is a different topic though, here we might see another $450 on top of Business, and perhaps less value from the seat, and more from fancier booze, and bragging rights.

It’s these Business>First jumps that I ponder.  If a person truly values $450, would they consider saving that $450 and instead buying a $450 michelin starred meal for an experience?  I feel most will not, because of these same behavioral factors that are pushing me on the cruise.

What to do with $5,200?

Our Business> First jump is valued at $5,200.  In some ways, it has elements of the Economy>Business jump, because the cabin goes from 200 sqft to 360 sqft (50 or so being a balcony) so there is some value to the ‘comfort’.  The flip side is that horrible 200 sqft cabin is on a 6 star ship with all inclusive food and drink.  In short, I’m sure we will be able to tough it out, even if we come back looking like we’ve been in the jungle for a month without food or water.

By cheaping out on that upgrade, we could say that we have a pool of $5,200 to spend on experiences, and at the same time, if we did upgrade, I think our ‘baseline’ would be higher.  Since we’re comfortable spending an extra $5,200 on the cabin, we probably deserve to spend that much more on excursions, because we wouldn’t want to feel house poor.  Suddenly, the decision to spend $5,200 in isolation is becoming $10-$15K for a vacation.  

Crikey! We’re bumbling our way into a budget

I’ve never been a strong proponent of budgeting, I’ve always preferred to get strong income, low expenses, and manage taxes effectively.  This might be a tipping point for us though, since a budget for a trip like this could be a powerful tool.  Not so much a ‘how much can we afford’ vs a spotlight on ‘how much are we spending’.  Getting insights like this are the useful side of budgeting.

We’re now turning the planning into a series of ‘needs and wants’. No different from a lifestyle budget or plan. Technically you could argue everything here is a ‘want’, but I would say that I need to do something fun everywhere, and I also want to: stay in a safari lodge so we wake up to Lions and Elephants (and a nice cup of Tea) and when I do a bit more research we might find that we want to do a few more, once in a lifetime things too.

However, I’m also taking that $5,200 and looking everywhere for where to spend it, so once we’re done looking around the house for things that I’ve neglected, or at improvements to businesses or or elements of other vacations we have planned, I’m sure there will be less to play with.

What I’m starting to realize (or remember) from all this pondering is that there is an order to things.  Basic needs, and luxuries.  The issue that is nagging at me is that I’m starting to put the need for a Veranda into basic needs, because it does make a difference to me, but the danger here is how much impact that single shift has on all the related other basic and luxury needs, and until I figure that out, perhaps via looking at a proper budget of the vacation, I’m holding off spending.  

Make no mistake, this is lifestyle inflation we’re talking about, but unlike many people who are familiar with the term, I think lifestyle inflation is a great thing, we don’t work hard, become educated and cultured to live on baked beans.  My only hesitation is what does turn me into in the big picture, if I’m OK with that answer, I’m all for a little inflation.

The post What I’m learning from the $5,200 upgrade appeared first on Saverocity Travel.

* This article was originally published here

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8312273 https://proshoppingservice.com/what-im-learning-from-the-5200-upgrade/