Ok, so I've been a collector since as far as I can remember. My mom and dad used to call me a pack rat because I would walk around with about fity matchbox cars in my pockets when I was about five. I would bitch and moan when they'd try to get rid of them. But it didn't stop there. I eventually moved on to other things. In my adolescence, I moved on to comic books, but little did I know that they were a gateway to other things. I soon began gathering trading cards, card games, board games, guitars, hot wheels, and video games. If you walk into my home now, you will see them in every nook and cranny, bulging out from the seams of every pieces of wood and sheet rock.
It's fair to say I've been around the markets of each of the above mentioned things. I've seen the trends. I bought and sold, watched the markets, and studied each from a both a microscopic and macroscopic level. In total, I've probably put forth around thirty to thirty five years. In that time, I've learned to get rid of things out of necessity. But I've also learned that some of this stuff gets sold because, well, a guy's gotta pay the rent occasionally. After all, the age-old wisdom is that there's only two things you can count on: death and taxes; If you don't have bills, then you're dead. After all these years, I've decided it's time to lay out the carpet to some of you folks and explain some simple, yet unapparent truths about collectibles markets. Here. Follow me over the to the couch while we sit, have a beer, and chit-chat. It's time to tackle some common myths about collectibles.
1. Because it's rare it's valuable
First of all, I'm going to be blunt: this notion is horseshit. First of all, if nobody likes it, then nobody is going to buy it. It doesn't matter if there's only one in the world or a billion. Simple supply and demand rules the collectibles cosmos. If nobody wants, it, then it's not worth a whole lot of cash. Secondly, if something was pumped out in huge masses like, say, Mario Brothers for NES or, say, Deathmate Comics from the 90's, then chances are that everybody has a copy already and nobody values it; I wouldn't try to make money off these sort of things. Your brownie-stained copy of Combat for Atari 2600 from 1984 isn't worth 100 dollars. Get over it. EVERYBODY had that, and they got over it years ago. It's worth about a buck. Nobody wants that crap, and for pete's sake, clean that crap up and at least try to make it presentable.
2. It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it
This is also horseshit. Now, I know, you want to point back to the previous paragraph and say "But! But!" Get a hold of your britches. So, you want to tell me that Action Comics #1 isn't worth anything if nobody shows up or is too chickenshit to bid on it? Again, horseshit. All things have an intrinsic value no matter what from what it stems. First of all, be patient because serious collectors are also patient, and you have to meet them on their own terms. Just because you have something to sell doesn't mean you are entitled to sell it. Get over yourself. Third, all markets follow a trend, a rise and fall between the spikes of the individual sales. This means that your 350 dollar toy may only be selling for 180 bucks next week. Everything that spikes quickly drops sharply, anyways. Finally, every fly-by-night buyer is looking for a deal. Buy low sell high. That's the name of their game. They aren't worried about the preservation or the significance to history or pop-culture your item may represent. If that means something to you, then don't sell it to the pimply thirty-year-old who has no concept of those things. I went into a comic shop in St. Louis. After an hour in there, I struck up a conversation about the Showcase Presents #1 they had on the wall. Turns out, they had about fifty offers but refused to sell each one of them because they were all from young kids with daddy's money. They said that a book like that has too much significance and intrinsic value to leave to the hands of an inexperienced kid who wasn't as serious about collecting as he thought he was. In Europe, you can't even buy a castle unless you properly maintain them; it's mandated by law! Taking these things into account, I hope some of you can see my point now. It doesn't matter if it's worth a million bucks or one dollar. Most things have value that exists outside the market, no matter how great or small that value may be.
3. They are selling for a ton on eBay, so they must be worth a lot of money
Firstly, if you get your prices from the listings on eBay, you are being lazy and perpetuating your own ignorance. You annoy serious buyers and sellers, and anyone who takes collecting whatever-it-is seriously.
When looking at eBay prices, the very first and most important thing you need to know is that whatever it lists for is not necessarily for what it is selling. You can find what your item is selling for (which is a very important distinction) by choosing to search using the advanced function and checking off "Sold Items". If you aren't dong this, then you are doing it wrong. Period. Plain and simple. End of discussion. All day long, you can find plenty of dollar items for sale by eBay opportunists for 1000% markup from what they would ever sell for. Don;t get trapped into the ruse. It doesn't work that way. Secondly, it's fairly well known that in the colelctibles arenas that there are some pretty mischievous accounts on eBay that buy and sell their own things. An example of this would be the strange appearance of a two-dollar copy of Beauty and the Beast on VHS that is occasionally seen to have been sold for a thousand dollars. Don't buy into that. That's likely someone buying their own item or a collaboration by a small group of people to make potential buyers think that it's worth that much, and in return jack the prices up artificially so that they can sell more for an outrageous profit. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of scams running all the time on eBay just like that, and the more you understand that, they better off you will be.
Now, the above paragraph doesn't mean that there are not regional or local markets, and when looking for collectibles then it's probably a good idea to explore those smaller markets. You can always find deals somewhere just like you can always discover outrageous prices most anywhere. But places like eBay represent a larger, overall market that spans several regions and maybe even more than one country. Price guides and professional auction services release data that represent these notions, and it should be taken into account when trying to price your items in general.
4. Graded Items
This is a tricky area to tackle, so I will start slowly. First, it's perfectly fine to want to get your items graded. There's nothing wrong with it. What's wrong is taking something that has been graded and adding a ridiculous value to it way above the market value of the item plus the value of the grade plus more than about 20%. There is value in a professional grade. There is value in the archival methods. Yes, there's even value in the time and effort made to achieve this sort of things. If you are mostly interested in preservation, then I would suggest checking out several different sources for grading items. I don't buy into the idea that one professional grading service is better or worse than another. Sure, there's going to be some differences, but if grading is subjective then there's absolutely no point in arguing that one is better in this regard. Plain and simple. Now, granted, if you happen to get an item graded by two or more professional grading services and there's a distinct, vast difference then you should use your own judgement. But if all you are doing is looking for the greatest monetary value then you discredit not only yourself, but the service, too, because it incentivizes the entire system of grading and those involved in it to raise the grade above what it probably actually is. Moreover, it simply flies in the face of the purpose of grading in the first place which is originally preservation anyways. Furthermore, it doesn't make much sense to take the average price of collectible in a raw state and then not apply that same logic to graded items, whether or it in regards to the grade or the graded market value.
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Ok, I'm just about of beer. This article is my opinion, first and foremost. This article should be taken that way at all costs. If ou agree with me, then great. If you don't agree with me, I don't care. But I hope that this might at the very least get you to think about collectibles markets in a different light. To give you an idea of where I am coming from, I love the history and the significance to pop-culture that these things represent and are apart. I want to preserve that. I want to have a part of history and that phenomenon. There's a personal philosophy that is so simple that guides my hand. Everyone is loking for some beauty in their life. Beauty is akin to some sort of perfection, however they view that perfection. I collect to achieve that perfection, that beauty, and I want to preserve that. Plato said [paraphrasing] that everything is a shadow of its true form, and collecting is a lot like that. I hope that perhaps I can get as close to that true form of whatever it is by taking part, in some way, in whatever it is that catches my fancy.
Enjoy.
Invino Veritas
8/27/18
EOF
Monday, August 27, 2018
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Metal Glo Professional Polishing Paste: Review
For the last twenty to twenty-five years, I've been collecting video games. Largely, I'm a fan of Nintendo cartridge consoles and games, though I do delve in late model Sony Playstations and games as well. As a professional computer hardware technician, I come into contact with a variety of materials that may or may not work well together. Also, I get the opportunity to regularly observe how electrical equipment (PCBs, Chips, Cables and Wires, Connectors, etc) behave under stress, under normal conditions, and what could otherwise be described as anomalous situations. Some of what I do is recommended, some of it is not. Either way, this love of fiddlin' with things in these manners translates over to the world of video game collecting quite nicely -- especially regarding cartridge games.
Recently, I joined several forums and groups devoted to the maintenance, repair, restoration, and even the configuration (modding) of video games. I've noticed an ongoing debate about the best and most effective ways to clean your games. (From here on, we are talking about cartridge games.) Whether it's using an ink eraser, alcohol, dry erase markers, or polish, let's face it, there is gong to be something out there that will eventually defy you no matter what your methods may be. But we're not really worried at this point with the outliers. This article is meant to address the normal situations, or the 80% as some might say.
Materials
- Pink Eraser - Bought it in a two pack at Wallgreens for a dollar and change. Keep in mind that the one I used is not an actual 'ink eraser', and is probably designed more for graphite pencils. I'm sure you may notice it in some of the pictures here.
- 1.4oz Tube of Metal Glo Professional Polishing Paste - That which we are reviewing.
- A Bottle of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol - This is your everyday rubbing alcohol that you'd find most everywhere that sells rubbing alcohol. The 30% difference is water. Water is generally bad for electronics as many of you understand, so it's important to make sure things are dry before we start using them after applying this stuff. You can get other concentrations of commercial Isopropyl Alcohol thus reducing the amount of water and less likely to leave a residue behind. These higher concentrations are preferred if you are serious about the maintenance and restoration of your games. But for the purpose of this review, it's not necessary.
- Dry towel - I used a clean terry cloth towel. It's one that I use for things like this.
- Cotton Swabs - The swabs I used in this process are the generic 'Equate' brand cotton swabs that you can find at any Wal-Mart. I've used foam swabs before, and I simply don't like them for you end up hitting the hard plastic shaft because the foam isn't often rigid enough to resist the pressure you may need to apply during the process (which isn't much in either case).
- 7mm Dunlop "Tortex" Guitar Pick - It's just something I use because I don't have a sponger at the house. Plus, the nylon makes it a bit softer than the usual spongers you can find at craft stores. You will see why later in the article. It was green if you must know.
- Gamebit and Driver - Standard equipment for any cartridge game collector who dabbles in maintenance, repair, and restoration of games. You can find these on eBay and Amazon, respectively, for a variety of prices and makes. You are likely to see mine in the pictures somewhere.
- Wing Commander (SNES) - This is a copy that I bought off of eBay. I bought for a couple reasons: 1.) It's not really a game that I'd care about screwing up if something went wrong, b.) It was cheap, and c.) When buying loose games from eBay for cheap from what would otherwise be obvious resellers and companies, you can be pretty sure that they will half-ass any attempt to clean, repair, or otherwise accurately characterize their second-hand products. In other words, I was pretty confident that I'd receive a copy that was at least slightly dirty, damaged in some way, and/or corroded. A perfect specimen!
- Medium Nylon Paint Brush - Used to clear loose debris from the work area and contacts.
Figure 1.1
Figure 1.2
In Figure 1.0, you should be able to see our copy of Wing Commander that bears a relatively decent looking cartridge but with one major flaw: there's a sticker over the label. This is always annoying because removal of the sticker risks damage to the label. If you don't know what you're doing, you are certain to mar the label and create and otherwise under-gratifying result. This is why I use the guitar pick. The nylon is softer than the hard plastic of the cartridge and therefore can't scratch the plastic of said cartridge. Secondly, as I stated before, I don't have a sponger at the house presently. Thirdly and finally, the contour of the guitar pick is such that it allows me to get up under the edge of the sticker relatively easy without applying too much pressure while also allowing me to focus all my force and energy on a single point to maximize my output and minimize my input pressure. Translation? It lessens the risk of tearing the label. I should probably note here that removal of the sticker took a bit of time and patience, and you must never angle the guitar pick too acutely towards the cartridge itself. Never rush this sort of thing or you are setting yourself up for failure at which point you have nobody to blame but yourself when the label tears. Oh, and there's a rental sticker on the edge, too, which I removed with the same technique. You will be able to see the final pictures below.
Figures 1.1 and Figure 1.2 each show the PCB contacts before cleaning was attempted. As you can see from the pictures, there's some pretty normal corrosion on the contacts and they are kind of dingy on the whole. We begin with our eraser, applying some pressure and scrubbing the contacts from top to bottom and side to side. We are careful to not miss any parts, and we do this for several minutes. This took care of a bit of the dinginess, but overall, didn't do much for the appearance of the contacts. I was careful to follow the techniques of using the eraser that was suggested not only on videos on YouTube, but from testimonials visiting collector forums and sites. The preferred method seems to be holding the eraser on-end with one of the points downward, and moving across the gaps between the contacts. I used the paintbrush to clear the loose particles of dirty eraser from the contacts. The eraser didn't seem to help much, but I think it may have been because I didn't use an actual 'ink eraser'. We'll test that at some other time, perhaps.
Once our futile attempts at using the eraser were concluded, I went to cleaning the contacts with the Isopropyl Alcohol and cotton swabs. I shook off the excess alcohol from the swabs as not to let it drip on the PCB or outside of the area that contained the contacts. I took several minutes to scrub the shiny gold-plated copper with little results. The corrosion just simply wasn't going anywhere, and the contacts really just looked kind of the same. There was a definite color change from the top of the contacts and the bottom of the contacts where corrosion had set in. In fact, you can pretty much use Figure 1.1 and Figure 1.2 as examples minus the dinginess. There was no gloss or shiny new appearance whatsoever. It looked used. It was time to go with our polishing agent, Metal Glo.
To open the Metal Glo polishing paste, you have to punch through the thin metal covering in the neck of the tube whereby you are instantly slapped in the face with a petroleum smell. After clearing the obstruction, I took a single cotton swab and dabbed it into the top of the tube to get a little on the end. I spread it relatively evenly across the contacts from one end to the other and got a decent layer on there and went to applying pressure across the contacts. The swab quickly became black with corrosion, and I found I had to spin the swab to find a clean spot with which to scrub the contacts. I turned the swab over and scrubbed some more, while remaining careful not to let the paste to actually dry as noted in the directions on the paste's tube. I then took the terry cloth and wiped it clean. The initial application yielded pretty good results, but not perfect, so I applied another round using the same technique. Each time, it got a little bit brighter. I was careful to hit all the surface area of the contacts. As the paste turned darker with application and showed signs that it might be thinning out and drying on the contacts, I wiped it off. I think I did a total of five applications. (I'm diligent; What?) I repeated this process for the other side. The following picture is the result after using the Metal Glo polish. Both sides of the contacts were identical in the results.
Figure 2.0
Figure 2.0 shows that there was significant corrosion removal from the contacts. I understand this isn't the best picture to show exactly how well it cleaned, but I tried to get both shadow and light to let you see the difference and reflection. The darkness you might think you see is entirely due to shadowing, reflection, or poor picture quality; the contacts were polished to a shine. If you are one who wants their contacts to look like they just came out of the box, you aren't likely to achieve those results with this, but you can get pretty darn close. If you want some numbers thrown out there, let's say you'd get a 90% of "like new" shine from using Metal Glo for simple, everyday cases of corrosion like what was used in this review.
Once you are happy with the way it looks, it's time to test the game. No suspense here: the game played fine. I want to take the moment here, however, to mention that Metal Glo is a protective paste as well as a polish. This means that it is likely to leave a bit of residue somewhere if you want to count thing on the microscopic or molecular levels. But if you are the kind of person that doesn't really care, then have fun with it. If you do care about such things, then this may not be the thing for you. Personally, I don't have doubles of any games, and I wouldn't be getting rid of the games in my personal collection anyways. Therefore, I'm good with that minor bit of knowledge that something like a protective agent was left behind while continuing to allow the contacts to perform their function.
Oh, and I almost forgot:
Enjoy. (The spot on the label is the dimple where the cart dips in normally.)
Until next time...
Invino Veritas
8/5/14
EOF
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