Disclosing repairs when selling PCB's

[thegreathopper]

I dont personally think (Good!) repairs should effect the price at all as long as fully functional. I mean without repairs they are useless aint they ??

Dave.

I agree but think of this, you are buying a Capcom CPS3 3rd Strike value approx £800.

Would you buy,

1. An as new untouched one
2. A repaired board.

I may be wrong but I have been buying and selling cabs and games for about 22 years and generally it’s the original and untouched stuff that sells first.

 

[TheDaddy]

I agree but think of this, you are buying a Capcom CPS3 3rd Strike value approx £800.

Would you buy,

1. An as new untouched one
2. A repaired board.

I may be wrong but I have been buying and selling cabs and games for about 22 years and generally it’s the original and untouched stuff that sells first.

Yeh I do agree original may sell better , But if you get an MVS for instance untouched I can guarantee the audio with die very very soon as the caps all fail around the same time in my experience. So if I was buying one ( I have 30 odd so I dont need any ! lol ) I would prefer one that has has repairs done.

I only do 80's & very early 90's stuff so I dont go near CPS3 stuff so cant comment on that , And you have put me off buying any with the £800 thing lol .

I suppose another question is if you sell your CPS3 board after you have fitted another fan , would you reduce the price as its no longer original ?

Dave.

 

[pubjoe]

I wasn't too worried when I first got into the hobby fifteen years ago. Bought a bunch of CPS2 for an average of £50 each, then sold them for the same price a few years later. The only one I looked inside was the one that fell off a shelf and cracked open.

Now prices are higher and I have more experience in tinkering. I have more reason to check inside, and I do. Of the ten CPS2 games I have now (rebuying at 4x the price, woo) I only saw internal photos of a couple presale. I'll check inside depending on value or suspicion with the visible externals. I'm not saying you shouldn't ALWAYS check, I'm saying it's common not to. I'm just contemplating out loud the benefit of the doubt thing really.

Maybe I'm too far the other way. I remember ChrisBEANS' marmalade incident. A great divisive issue of our times! It was complicated by the seller's (not Beansy's) reputation but I was still pro-benefit of doubt. I was possibly in the minority.

 

[thegreathopper]

Yeh I do agree original may sell better , But if you get an MVS for instance untouched I can guarantee the audio with die very very soon as the caps all fail around the same time in my experience. So if I was buying one ( I have 30 odd so I dont need any ! lol ) I would prefer one that has has repairs done.

I only do 80's & very early 90's stuff so I dont go near CPS3 stuff so cant comment on that , And you have put me off buying any with the £800 thing lol .

I suppose another question is if you sell your CPS3 board after you have fitted another fan , would you reduce the price as its no longer original ?

Dave.

CPS3 dont have a fan its CPS2 that does, but I get your point.

I have about 60 MVS carts all work perfect, quite a few bought new and sold probably 100 not had a faulty one yet.

SNK make great kit!😊

Funny enough about the fan that’s seen as a mod that adds value 😂😂

 

[pubjoe]

MVS has less to go wrong to be fair. Pretty much just roms. CPS2 also holds up well. The case and fan have proven their worth compared to CPS1. It's great to open a shell and see a nice shiny 30 year old PCB inside.

 

[thegreathopper]

I only really play Capcom CPS2,3, Cave & MVS which I think is different to the pre 90’s stuff.

I had a friend worked for Bell fruit, he was pretty much full time fixing old arcade boards and that’s when they were brand new.

Modern - ish games early 90’s on don’t tend to break down so much.

Back to the original topic, I have had all the Strikers games and all had no repairs and looked like new, quality Japanese engineering.

 

[Vamino]

It’s like buying a old car and yes there will be repairs done to it.

Can't say I agree with that tbh.

You don't buy a car without pictures and without driving it first, you would be crazy to do that unless you categorically know the person selling. Some sellers simply state no refunds, it works at my place and there's no refunds if it fails during your playtime. There's an element of trust that the person selling a PCB hasn't just fixed the PCB on Monday, tested it fo 5 mins then sells it on Tuesday.

Previous PCB's I've bought have had issues as soon as I've got them and during soak testing when I have the first proper session on them.

From sound issues on a Solomons Key, graphics glitches on Don Doko Don to disappearing sprites on a Mr Do's Castle, a couple of past purchases have not been the best and I've just sucked it up. If it wasn't for people like Lurch who has sorted out many of my faulty PCB's and also recent pleasant trades buying PCB's of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr I would have stopped buying PCB's ages ago.

I've got a fair few PCB's now and I find that if they are going to fail they fail pretty soonish. It's not the best hobby to be in at times.

 

[Georgian2]

Are you guys for the optics or for functionality? I don't understand how can one pay 100 more just for some stickers on eproms or 100 less for some solder flux residue. This things are made to bring money to operators, so they have to work properly not to look good. I never care for any repairs as long as the board works. A repaired board is better than an never repaired one. Less chances to fail (if fixed with new components).

 

[John Bennett]

Loads of boards have had repairs, looking closely.
I've got stuff I bought in the 90's where you can see they haven't got all the flux off from repairs perhaps even done in the 80's, maybe even by the manufacturer.

Unless it's sold as 'no repairs', I'd say it's on the seller to ask if they're that particular about how untouched they want their ancient circuit board to be.
Not working is another matter, of course, and if something's caked in kynar wire, it should probably be mentioned and shown in photos.

But it'd be a bit absurd if we ended up with folk demanding refunds 'cos there's a blob of flux on a working World Cup '90 PCB because someone's changed a TTL at some point in the last 34 years.

On the subject of carts, I've got a Bubble Memories F3 that's got 3.3V ROMs in it. No way I'm using it. But I bought it for the bargain F3 motherboard, so I wasn't bothered.

 

[John Bennett]

This isn't specifically aimed at anyone, but I do wince though at some of the boards people are paying the best part of a grand for.

There's boards out there that have been reverse-polarity'd, overvoltaged etc, then repaired... to a state that they work, but it doesn't mean lots of chips on the board have also had their lifespans shortened ,including custom ICs (although it's amazing they're still going decades after their intended lifespan - 5 years?).

I just wouldn't.

Modern - ish games early 90’s on don’t tend to break down so much.

They didn't, but Namco and Sega 3D stuff seems to be failing a lot now. There can't be many working Hikaru boards out here either.

 

[Mykill2.0]

I aways point out repairs ,I charge more as I've fixed it ,saying that I always offer full refund if they not happy also everything is at 30 year mark an should be expected to fail .