| 12/29/2005 | Added my infamous mousepad auction to the Miscellaneous Diversions page.
Also, don't forget about the Postal Service rate increases that go into effect January 8th. I'll be keeping my tradition of charging only the actual shipping costs, but they will climb a bit higher. See USPS.com for full details.
Watch my eBay ID as I should start listing stuff again come mid-January. MobyAuctions will pick up again probably around February. | ||
| 12/15/2005 | Wanna get free cool stuff, like an iPod or game systems? If you help me earn mine, I'll help you get yours. Here's all the details. I learned about this from somebody at work, and I've seen it work. He's gotten a bunch of free stuff from this site. | ||
| 12/03/2005 | Any Shoppe visitors in Japan? I need a Japanese address for ordering a game-related item off of Amazon.co.jp, as they won't ship it to me in the U.S. I'll order the item myself, then pay you back for mailing it to me, plus a little extra for your trouble if you'd like. Thanks in advance. | ||
| 11/25/2005 | Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving. To add my little part to the holiday-shopping mayhem, I've listed some new Shoppe items below, treasures unearthed during my Vault cleanup. Also got some game consoles on eBay if you're looking for one. (No XBox 360, sorry.)
Watch for more MobyAuctions on Sunday. | ||
| 11/21/2005 | Picked up a half-dozen more boxes of Jim's stuff the previous weekend, and I will be listing some more MobyAuctions until mid-December.
This one, however, is entirely mine! B-) | ||
| 11/06/2005 | *Whew*, almost lost the YOIS.BIZ domain name! I renewed two years ago and didn't realize the credit card I'd used was no longer active. So when it tried to auto-renew the charge didn't go through. Think I rescued it from squatters just in time. B-)
BTW, don't forget, the last batch of MobyAuctions ends tonight. I'll be listing a few of my own items for a couple of weeks, until I can get back up to Jim's to haul another carload back. Should be later this month, assuming gas prices remain tolerable. | ||
| 10/31/2005 | The seventh and final (for now) batch of MobyAuctions is up. These have gone so well that I've decided to list some items of my own, recently uncovered during a massive Vault cleanup effort. Watch this page, I'll post as soon as I start listing them. | ||
| 10/23/2005 | I spent part of my weekend digging through the unfiled items in my collection room, and found quite a few semi-rare duplicate pieces to sell. (No, I don't have a list, before anybody asks.) Since the auctions of Jim Leonard's games have been going so well, I thought I'd try listing a few of my own in the coming weeks.
Speaking of auctions, the sixth batch of Moby items will go up later tonight. | ||
| 10/18/2005 | Followup on "weblogic81":
I don't know which sickens me more: That he tried to snatch someone else's game away in the first place, or that he doesn't see anything wrong with it and genuinely can't comprehend why I left him a negative. | ||
| 10/17/2005 | Listing the 5th batch now. | ||
| God, I can't believe the depths of deceit some people will sink to! I got the following e-mail shortly after my latest round of Moby auctions closed last night:
(I did respond ASAP. To see my response, please refer to his feedback.) | |||
| 10/10/2005 | Fourth batch of auctions is going up. | ||
| 10/03/2005 | I'm putting the third batch of Moby auctions up now. | ||
| 09/30/2005 | Say hello to "Beandip", the new YOIS Official Mascot. (My previous kitty died back in May.) I adopted her this week. She's very sweet and loves to sniff around my piles of vintage games and hardware, but is also trained to scratch the crap out of anyone who attempts to open original shrinkwrap. B-)
 | ||
| 09/29/2005 | Well, I finally did it. I finally got so sick of gas prices that I've started walking or riding a bicycle. What this means for Shoppe customers is that I might be a few days slower mailing packages out. I don't really have an easy way to carry them on the bike so I can only mail out one or two small ones at a time, whatever I can fit in my backpack. The larger lots will have to wait until I have enough packages to justify a drive, or until the weekend when I have time to walk there.
Sorry for any inconvenience but I am thoroughly sick of getting raped at the pump every time the big oil companies get their collective panties in a bunch. I've even given up driving around looking for games, that should tell you how strongly I feel about this: I hate gas prices more than I love game-hunting. (Don't look so surprised, this is the same crazy nut who posted fake auctions to weed out cheaters awhile back. B-) | ||
| 09/26/2005 | Second batch of Moby auctions is up.
Oh yeah, in case you didn't notice I have a digital camera now, which means I can easily get pics of a game box from multiple angles and do full spreads of the contents. Anybody who wants pics, just ask. | ||
| 09/19/2005 | Jim (Leonard) has recently had to trim down his game collection, and I offerred to take care of selling it for him. There's a variety of stuff, both collectible and otherwise. I'm doing this in lots of 10 - 15 items per week and spreading out the rarer stuff so everyone can afford to bid. The first batch is up now. Nothing really rare yet, just a few things to whet your appetite. Show your support for MobyGames and the founder of SWCollect by bidding and giving these items a good home.
Also I have to say I'm surprised at how quickly I was able to list stuff on eBay. They've turned themselves around quite a bit since the last time I sold. While there are still 5 screens to go through before the auction posts, it's fast (though that could be the DSL) and I was able to navigate them all swiftly and without having to make the same changes every time (for postage preferences, etc), since eBay saves all that and it actually works. I think the only things I had to change were the category, title and description, and the item's weight for postage. | ||
| 08/30/2005 | Well, it turns out the "Masterpieces Plus" seller is blacklist material after all. One of his would-be bidders e-mailed me back and said he tried to sell to them privately. That's a C.E. no-no on two counts, selling a known fake (which he knows it is cuz Ken and I both told him) and working a private deal after ending the auction early.
His eBay ID is "wamboyil", and his e-mail address is wamboyil@sbcglobal.net. I recommend you avoid buying from him, even if he sells items that appear to be legit. | ||
| 08/28/2005 | Okay, here's (I think) the end of the "Masterpieces Plus" story. The seller never wrote back a second time, but he did end the auction early after cancelling all bids. I wrote to the bidders and told them it was a copy just in case any private offers showed up. One thing that did concern me was this auction the seller won awhile back. My graphic designer friend found it and told me this type of book is used for matching colors between a computer screen and paper. It's not proof by any means, but it does show that the guy has the information needed to print a good fake if he wanted to.
I'm watchin'. | ||
| 08/26/2005 | Heads up, gang. We may have another faker on our hands.
If you noticed this auction you might have been wondering if it's a legitimate release. (Thanks to Sven for pointing me to it.) I ran it by Ken Love, my Infocom contact at Activision, and here's his response:
I'm holding off on blacklisting the seller until he answers my e-mail about where he got this from (or chooses not to answer, which would tell me all I need to know). Also notice his location, Joliet. If he is the one who made this, it means I've finally found a counterfeiter whose ass is close enough for me to kick. UPDATE: Got a response from the seller:
I explained to him about collectors, and how they wouldn't be pleased to discover they were bidding on a copy, maybe he should mention that and give them a chance to back out. Also asked for the ID of the guy he got it from, we'll see. | ||
| 07/24/2005 | A new column has just been posted, and it's a doozy! Read about what I learned when I went undercover to root out backdoor auction bidders. | ||
| 07/11/2005 | Getting really psyched for the Video Game Summit this Saturday. If you're in the Chicagoland area, please think about attending. It looks to be a lot bigger this year, they have a local EB Games on board as a sponsor. TomMage, MobyGames' Jim Leonard and I will all have booths there. Hope to see some of you! | ||
| 06/30/2005 | Forgot to post this yesterday, but the T-shirt seller has added text to his auction to clarify that his shirt is not a 1980s original. (See how easy I am to get along with when people just do that? B-) | ||
| 06/28/2005 | Hooboy. Look what we've got here. I'm already on it. It's definitely not a 1980s original, I can tell from the colors. I've contacted the seller, explained Infocom collectors a bit, and asked him to post more info about where it came from, so we'll see. Just wanted to warn everybody.
The other two game-specific ones, listed by "senorjakehughes", are authentic. | ||
| 06/11/2005 | I'm listing new Shoppe items today! Scroll down past the news updates to find them.
Update: Okay, that's everything. Go nuts! | ||
| 06/09/2005 | Those of you with waiting list entries will be getting an automated message from the Shoppe today. This is part of an annual cleanup script that lets me know if anybody's e-mail address is no longer valid, so I can take those entries down. There is no need to reply to it. Any questions, please let me know. | ||
| 06/05/2005 | I returned from visiting friend and fellow collector Pix_Z in L.A. last night, absolutely laden with new Shoppe items. Most of it I couldn't fit on the plane and had to mail back to myself, about 4 boxes full! Keep watching this page and my BidVille listings, as I'll be listing everything in the coming weeks. I spent way more than I planned on this trip and need to make some of it back. Lots of big-box SSI games and a number of rarities.
Went to Hollywood, Sea World, Tijuana, and an area Renaissance Faire. Did some classic gaming at Dave and Buster's, and played Laser Tag at UltraZone in San Diego. Met Hugh Falk in person, saw his extensive collection, and had dinner with John Romero. (Was gonna pop by Eyal Katz's multiple addresses by surprise but didn't get around to it.) Wish I had the time to write a column about it all.
While you're waiting for me to list everything, check out Pix_Z's newly launched site, QuestChest.com. She's been accumulating boxes of stuff for awhile, and is just now getting around to listing it. Which means: Lots of good complete games to snatch up before anyone else discovers them! Negotiable prices, much like the Shoppe. | ||
| 05/19/2005 | Just a heads-up, I will be leaving on vacation next week. Any orders that aren't completed by Friday night will have to wait until I get back. | ||
| 05/11/2005 | Personal message to Arlie (westjrarl): I can't contact you through e-mail, my replies to you keep bouncing. I still have the game if you want it, but please create a free Yahoo or Hotmail account and write me from there. Thanks. | ||
| 04/29/2005 | A number of Shoppers have wanted to bid on my BidVille auctions, but couldn't because their accounts have zero feedback. I require a minimum score of 1 to block the Nigerian scammers from doing a TakeIt and wasting my time, but have come up with a workaround. Just go to this auction and enter a winning bid of one cent. I'll leave you a positive feedback and then you can bid on my real auctions. | ||
| 04/17/2005 | *Sigh*... Well, that makes two. I've just had another very prominent collector admit to me that he made a behind-our-backs deal on eBay. He's on the list now, and though he tells me he's getting ready to sell his collection and leave the hobby (entirely unrelated to this incident), I have to stand by my little principles and not bid on anything, even his really rare stuff.
I want to assure everyone that I am NOT enjoying this in any way. I wonder if I'm going to run out of potential trading partners. Let's not do this anymore, okay? | ||
| 03/28/2005 | Well, I finally had to do it. I finally had to blacklist a collector I knew for pulling the old underhanded auction trick. The seller in this listing wrote me back identifying him by name. Kills me to do this, but I've said before that I would. (I know Eyal's involved too, but the seller hasn't named him yet.) The game hasn't been sold, as the owner is still trying to figure out what to do. I sent him my suggestion: Relist and keep it up, no matter how many backdoor offers you get.
So. The seller was "bombarded" by private offers, and he freaked. Everybody who wrote him now has to wait on pins and needles for the outcome. There's bound to be some mistrust and upset feelings among collectors over this, and I'm anticipating hate-mail from the guy I just blacklisted. Everything is proceeding exactly as I wrote in that column almost 10 months ago. Hate to say I told you so, but... Actually I love being able to say I told you so. In fact, I think I'll say it again.
I told you so. | ||
| 03/24/2005 | I just noticed this on eBay. See? I TOLD you my shrinked copy was not the only one in existence. You can stop bugging me to open it now. Go bug Stuart instead. B-) | ||
| 03/23/2005 | Just finished my two-day overhaul of the Shoppe's inventory list. Everything you see should be described accurately now. | ||
| 03/21/2005 | Wow, almost a month since I've posted anything here. But at least I've been putting the time to good use. I've manually gone through the Shoppe and corrected the missing items that seem to have plagued a couple of users in particular. In the process I found about 50 games that weren't listed in the database! It's like finding buried treasure on my own game shelves! Take a look below, I'll be adding them throughout the day.
I still intend to do another column... someday. | ||
| 02/23/2005 | International Shoppers: The problem with postage calculations should now be fixed. I've completely overhauled the countries table and patched the site to interact better with the USPS's. Please let me know if you continue to get the "unable to acquire postage data" error.
Update: Okay, now domestic should be corrected too. When I fixed one problem I introduced another. (Heh, just call me eBay.)
Everyone: Be listing a few new items shortly. | ||
| 02/08/2005 | Seems our buddy "Jeff Cowe" (Eyal Katz) has gotten smarter following the auction interference column. His latest strategy when he finds a rare item is to mail the seller and ask them to add a BuyItNow to the listing, hoping the seller will bargain-price it and he can snag it before anyone else spots the BiN!
Take a look at this auction. Scroll down to the questions from other buyers. But before you get mad at the seller, do a search and you'll see that he didn't actually sell to him off eBay. I asked what happened, and it turns out "Jeff" got all pissed at having his (fake) name publicly posted along with the question he asked! So the seller ended the original and relisted it. What's interesting to me is the seller's response to the question. Very non-sequitur. It reads as if Eyal also asked him if he had any other Sierra games, but for whatever reason the seller left that question out but included his response to it.
Oh, and Eyal? I know "Eyal" isn't your real name either. Ho yeah. Little piss-monkey. B-) | ||
| 02/03/2005 | Take a look at this. A boxed Mount Drash in a VIC-20 lot for $100 BIN! Talk about the seller not having a clue about his item. Even more amazing is the close time, a mere 17 minutes after listing! The winner, "oxbowsnake", must have search bots running that text-message him or something on a match.
This is Boxed Drash #5 by my count. | ||
| 01/29/2005 | Oh MAN! I just found this diamond in my e-mail today and couldn't resist sharing it with everybody. This is in response to the column I wrote about auction interference. Sort of. It starts out that way but kind of goes off on several tangents further in. Of all the hate messages I've ever gotten, it's one of my absolute favorites.
Gosh, has it really been over six months since my last column? I need to see what I can do about that. | ||
| 01/26/2005 | YOIS will once again be present at this year's Video Game Summit in Lombard, Illinois. TomMage, Jim Leonard and I had a blast last year. If you're in the area, hope to see you there. | ||
| 01/10/2005 | This is kind of funny...
I've been getting a ton of Nigerian scammers contacting me through BidVille lately. One even tried to send me a (very bad and obvious) fake Western Union payment notice. So I've started having some fun with them in my own special way. Which is easy because none of them can spell or utilize grammar.
The latest guy's e-mail asks me for a postage quote using "UPS expresso". I write back saying that I could not do UPS expresso and suggesting UPS cappucino instead. So, heehee, the moron writes back and asks me how much that costs!! What a doof! (I told him it would depend on whether it was purchased through Starbucks or a non-chain.) | ||
| 01/07/2005 | I've just added about 80 new items, most of them from a huge Commodore score on eBay. A number of clue books, plus lots of loose disks for $1 or $2 (the disks, not the cluebooks), great if you have otherwise complete packages. The non-collectible remainder of the lot will also be going up for auction tomorrow at BidVille. | ||
| 01/02/2005 | Okay, I think things are back to normal. IF-Legends' provider turned on the flag I needed, and the cookie issue seems to have fixed itself. | ||
| 01/01/2005 | Well, DAMN.
Yet another issue has arisen with IF-Legends, this time with the cookies used to manage logins. Let me know if you're having problems logging into the site, or if it's just me. I'm seriously looking at moving YOIS to another server if our provider doesn't fix this very very soon.
What a way to start the new year. |