Apeshit
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I didn't say it was a bad thing to encourage - I make DIY products. I obviously encourage it.

I do very intricate mods sometimes. It's incredibly easy to spend over $80.00 in parts.

I don't really know what you mean with this 'research' stuff, it really seems like you're misinterpreting what I meant. I don't mean encouraging people to do mods themselves is taking business away from me, but when someone comes to my thread and tells someone who is interested in purchasing from me that my prices are too high and they can do it him/her self, then they are trying to take business away from me.

I wasn't 'angry', just discouraged.  My reply wasn't intended to spite DIYers or people who encourage people do mod their own gameboys. I just wanted to clarify why I mod DMGs, and why I ask the prices that I do.

Last edited by Apeshit (May 4, 2011 8:40 pm)

Apeshit
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Also, if you can tell me a place to buy DMGs for $5.00, I'll lower my prices significantly. I check eBay on a daily basis, and in the last 2 years or so, have never received a gameboy for $5.00

Keeping in mind that I live in Canada, and shipping a DMG domestically costs over $13.00.

arfink
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Minneapolis

I did mention that eBay is not a good place to find DMGs cheaply...
I find them at around $5-$8 each at local thrift store, garage sales, etc. Probably not a steady enough supply for your line of work.

Apeshit
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Honestly, I've been actively going to garage sales and thrift stores for many years and I've never once seen a DMG.

However, I once saw one at a pawn shop, but it was $50.00 I believe. Maybe $40.00, but a ridiculous price regardless.

Also, a lot of US sellers won't ship to me in Canada, and there are very few good deals of DMGs on the Canadian ebay site.

I do offer a reasonable discount on trade ins though.

Anyway, I agree that a lot of modders sell gameboys for unreasonable prices. I'd like to hope I'm not one of them, as I try my best to invest everything I make back into the community.

arfink
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Minneapolis

I suspect that at least part of the problem is that the DMG, while it was a big seller, did not sell very well in some countries. Perhaps Canada is one of those places that didn't have alot of DMG sales? I suspect that GBC and GBA have sold way more units than the DMG.

AdamGetsAwesome
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Boulder, CO
Apeshit wrote:

Before I had the modification service, I wondered this too.

Buying gameboys is a gamble most of the time. Things like horizontal dead lines are a write off. If the LCD is scratched it's essentially unusable because even after replacing the polarized film, it won't look as good. So many broken battery doors, broken screw posts, etc, etc...
If I make $10.00 profit on a mod that takes me 4 hours to do, and one of my DMGs that has $80.00 of parts put into gets lost in the mail, I'd lose an insane amount of work.

Occasionally people try to take business away from me by convincing people they can do a backlight mod for $12.00. It's really discouraging when someone shows interest in buying from me and people tell them to do the mod themselves. They're digging their own grave in a way by saying that, because without me and my mod service, the LEDx3 backlights wouldn't exist.

I'm not going to say how much I've spent in the project so far, but if anyone knows what the paypal sending limit is- I've almost hit that twice now (on my accounts exclusive for my modding business).
I'll probably never make that money back from this project. I just really wanted to make more DIY products for modders, but now so many people are selling DMGs that are poorly modded for dirt cheap and my sales are suffering. Although, I do make a fair bit from people sending me mods from other modders that have failed or didn't work from the start...

All I read here was "I'm awesome at modding, everyone that charges little sucks." What's wrong with people trying mods themselves? I think it's a good thing. Whatever.

AdamGetsAwesome
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Boulder, CO

Also, I need 3 LEDs in my backlight about as much as I need 5 blades on my shaving razor... roughly not at all.

Apeshit
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AdamGetsAwesome wrote:

All I read here was "I'm awesome at modding, everyone that charges little sucks." What's wrong with people trying mods themselves? I think it's a good thing. Whatever.

I never said people that charge little suck. Didn't even imply it. Some people sell poorly modded gameboys and sell them for cheap, some people sell poorly modded gameboys and sell them for outrageous prices. Some people sell well modded gameboys for cheap as well.

I already stated that this project was to make DIY products. My intent was to aid the DIY community, so please don't put words into my mouth.

The LED count of my backlights wasn't the significance- it's the price I was referring to.

Trash80
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Los Angeles
AdamGetsAwesome wrote:

Also, I need 3 LEDs in my backlight about as much as I need 5 blades on my shaving razor... roughly not at all.

Hahaha!

Apeshit
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Three LEDs wasn't the point of the panels. The point was they're made to run off 5v instead of the unregulated power source.

The only reason I brought it up was because people are talking about $12.00 panels, and they're obviously referring to mine.

akira^8GB
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New York City

Apeshit, what you describe, is just people trying to help others, as I said, they are not trying to take anything away from you, just suggesting an alternative to peers. This is a public forum. Also I don't know if that happened in *this* very forum, but the previous sentence still applies to any other forum.

If you'd say a "competitor" would go on your threads and be like "hey you should let ME do it for cheaper", then I could understand.
(PS: using the word "competitor"  in a situation/place like this sounds so wrong...)

All I ever got was $3 panels. Not sure I know what you are all referring to. Seriously and totally out of curiosity, I would be really interested in knowing what sort of modification can run to 80 dollars in parts. Unless it is an internal Arduinoboy mod, I can't think of anything more expensive.

And teh price of Game Boys of course relateds to teh popularity they had in each area. Here they cost like 10USD, but there are few.

Trash80
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Los Angeles

Akira... One of my points was like, would you do screen mods for people? and if so how much... I don't know about you but to me it's so tedious and annoying. I would never want to actually roll those out as a service. I'd rather work at 7/11 or something. big_smile

kineticturtle
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Matthew Joseph Payne

I feel like there's a lot of responding without reading going on here.

Apeshit is an upright dude. He does good work, and offers free advice to people doing their own mods. He has every right ask to be compensated for his time if he so chooses.

Nobody has an obligation to not sell something just because it's possible for people to do it themselves. Why is the previous sentence kindof awkward and hard to understand? Because it's ridiculous that this is even being brought up.

Bottom line is: If you like to do your own mods, do them. Other people can decide for themselves what their needs are, whether they'd like to pay someone to make a pretty gameboy for them or do it themselves. No need to sass people who do the work or the people who pay for it.

As Frank Zappa once said, "Hey! It's the twentieth century; whatever you can do to have a good time, let's get on with it, so long as it doesn't cause a murder."

Apeshit
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akira^8GB wrote:

All I ever got was $3 panels. Not sure I know what you are all referring to. Seriously and totally out of curiosity, I would be really interested in knowing what sort of modification can run to 80 dollars in parts. Unless it is an internal Arduinoboy mod, I can't think of anything more expensive.

And teh price of Game Boys of course relateds to teh popularity they had in each area. Here they cost like 10USD, but there are few.

Well the thing is, sometimes I have to pay 40-50 dollars for play it loud DMGs, so that puts me half way to $80.00 right there.

Here's one that ran me a lot of money in parts

The kits were pretty expensive. The backlight and battery indicator were over $45.00, buttons, the DMG, dye and acetone, guitar jack, switch, crystals, custom circuit board for the toggle switch, custom screen cover.

Not all cost me $80.00 in parts, just the intricate ones. In some cases I only charge $60 for a backlit, button modded, pro sound DMG. It all depends...

DaPantz
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Bronx, NY
kineticturtle wrote:

I feel like there's a lot of responding without reading going on here.

Every thread on chipmusic.org and 8bc

pixls
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Philly, PA, USA
DaPantz wrote:
kineticturtle wrote:

I feel like there's a lot of responding without reading going on here.

Every thread on every forum ever

FTFY