How many backup PCB's do you need (or trying to cure my hoarding)

joemagiera

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How many backup PCB's do you need (or trying to cure my hoarding)

I don't think I've ever met a cheap PCB for a game I own that I didn't pick up. People call me a hoarder, I call them back ups. But I guess I have to be honest. Do I need 20+ of the same board?

So assuming they were all working (that's not saying they will all stay working), and also assuming you were able to get as many as you felt comfortable to start with, how many boards do you think are good as back-ups? Note, not as boards to sell or trade, but a "just in case a game goes down an hour before a game party" type thing?

I'm thinking three, one in the actual game, one as a back up, and one as "just in case". Anything more you're a hoarder. Oh wait, that's me!

Okay, so if I follow through on this, I'll have plenty of boards to get rid of.

So, what do you think is reasonable to keep for games you have? And if they're for buying/selling purposes, that's an entirely different story. I mean, if you're just reselling (and there's nothing wrong with that), why should you pass up buying a dozen of the same board if you know you can re-sell them?
 
for hard to find stuff, i'll keep a spare. spare power supply, spare tron/satan's hollow boardset, spare amp boards, etc.
 
Sometimes I keep "1" back up PCB for some games most of the time though the back up PCB is just a parts board that doesn't work. I Think keeping way to many of the same board around deprives the rest of the community who are also trying to collect games.
 
So, what do you think is reasonable to keep for games you have?
I usually have 2 for most PCBs. Maybe more then 2 for games that have a part that is obsolete or hard to track down.

ex. Pac-man is an easy board to repair and find parts for so in my eyes doesn't require 20 boards.
 
Joe 3 sounds right.

Or maybe 4:
1 - In game (Working)
2 - Back-up (Waorking)
3 - 2nd back-up (Working or fixing to work)
4 - Parts (Parts only my man)



So when you sell those boards - look me up. :)

By the way, that hoarder comment the other day was just a joke. :p
 
Same here I try to keep a least one back up boardset/PCB for every game I plan on keeping in my collection. I feel I must do this since I have no clue out to repair boards. Every now and then I might have to sell a back-up boardset to fund another arcade purchase at that time, but I will search and re-buy that boardset back.
 
I have spare boards for Wizard of Wor... and I have a spare Pac board sitting around. That's about it. The Pac I will likely one day sell.
 
There's no known cure for hoarding.....

Backups??? I'm happy mine are functioning properly, will worry about fixing/replacing when the time comes.
 
I don't think I've ever met a cheap PCB for a game I own that I didn't pick up. People call me a hoarder, I call them back ups. But I guess I have to be honest. Do I need 20+ of the same board?

If they're not selling for enough to make them worth selling, (ie. centipede and pacman these days), then I see no problem with keeping 20+.


I find that somewhere between 1500 and 2000 spare/backup PCBs (total) seems to be the right number for me.
 
I've got a working backup Warlords board, and a non-working Robotron boardset that I swap chips off of.
 
ONE backup PCB is alright. Hoarding is a horrible, horrible thing. I don't get the "just in case" mindset. If a game goes down while somebody is playing, who cares? This isn't an emergency.
 
I like to keep one extra PCB on hand for each of the games in my arcade, just so I can do a quick swap in case one craps out during a party. I don't have extras for all my games though (Omega Race for example). If a local collector is in need of one I have no problem selling my extras... I'll eventually find/fix another one to replace it.
 
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