Is this anybody here?

YellowDog

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Donor 2011, 2013
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There is somebody on ebay selling a Mystic Marathon control panel on EBay (link). Not trying to price police here, but for that price, a little truth in advertising should be in the description.

1) it is not complete. There is no wiring harness attached to the joystick or the buttons. If anybody buys it, they will have to do their own wiring.
2) The buttons are wrong as is the joystick. The MM kits had Wico 8 way leaf joysticks and leaf switch buttons.
3) The joystick color is wrong. The MM kits had a light blue joystick the same color as Bubbles and the blue Joust stick.
4) The CPO looks like a reproduction. The giveaway is the black. It looks to be an inkjet with polycarbonate laminate like you would get from GameOnGrafix and other repro vendors.
5) The control panel looks to have been a Robotron panel converted to something else one or more times, with holes filled and redrilled.

As I said, I'm not trying to price police, but when you post something that could be mistaken for an original part, you should at least own up that it is a reproduction. You can ask whatever you want for it, but I have had several people ping me about it already and a couple of them asked if it was NOS. If they were to pay that much, I would expect it to be NOS not a $75 build out of repro parts.

ken
 
That's funny- it looks almost new until you see the pic of the underside.

It doesn't look too bad, but why didn't they at least fill the old holes in the CP?
 
You might have him on the absurd price, but that is about it. Everything else you said is mentioned in the description, "Custom Overlay", "fabricated for a Robotron panel". The seller has a ton of pictures so you can see it doesn't include the harness and it clearly shows the types of buttons and joysticks.

It may be described to mislead, but unfortunately it seems most of the sellers in this hobby do that as well.
 
You might have him on the absurd price, but that is about it. Everything else you said is mentioned in the description, "Custom Overlay", "fabricated for a Robotron panel". The seller has a ton of pictures so you can see it doesn't include the harness and it clearly shows the types of buttons and joysticks.

It may be described to mislead, but unfortunately it seems most of the sellers in this hobby do that as well.

I agree. I was not trying to bash anybody. You can set any price you want for anything you want to sell. It is just that you should be clear about some things.

The exact quote is:
This control panel was fabricated for a "Robotron" style cabinet and is a drop in replacement

Fabricated FROM a Robotron panel would be more accurate.

Also fully populated to me, would include the wiring harness. The wiring harness for a control panel is as much a part of the control panel as any of the buttons or joysticks.

If this sucker sells, I guess I should go dig out a couple of my swiss cheese control panels and get GoG to pop out a couple more overlays.

Given the price, I think it is a little misleading not to be explicit that this is a reproduction and not just a cleaned up NOS cp. Especially since that is more than I paid for the last 2 MM boardsets + an original MM control panel.

ken
 
My comments were due to the fact that you commented on this one particular auction because of you closeness to Mystic Marathon. We both agree that it could of been described a lot better and offered at a much better price, but I wouldn't say it is nearly as bad as items described and sold on here or Ebay.

And don't dig out some crap control panel to sell (not that I think you actually would) just to make a buck. You'll just help seed more auctions like this.


I agree. I was not trying to bash anybody. You can set any price you want for anything you want to sell. It is just that you should be clear about some things.

The exact quote is:


Fabricated FROM a Robotron panel would be more accurate.

Also fully populated to me, would include the wiring harness. The wiring harness for a control panel is as much a part of the control panel as any of the buttons or joysticks.

If this sucker sells, I guess I should go dig out a couple of my swiss cheese control panels and get GoG to pop out a couple more overlays.

Given the price, I think it is a little misleading not to be explicit that this is a reproduction and not just a cleaned up NOS cp. Especially since that is more than I paid for the last 2 MM boardsets + an original MM control panel.

ken
 
My comments were due to the fact that you commented on this one particular auction because of you closeness to Mystic Marathon. We both agree that it could of been described a lot better and offered at a much better price, but I wouldn't say it is nearly as bad as items described and sold on here or Ebay.

And don't dig out some crap control panel to sell (not that I think you actually would) just to make a buck. You'll just help seed more auctions like this.

My comments were prompted by several collectors (who are attempting to put together Mystic Marathons) asking me if this was an original MM cp. As this is a buy it now auction, the possibiliy is there that someone will just see it, buy it thinking it is original and be disappointed. But that is the nature of Ebay. Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware.

And I agree there are a lot of really badly described and misleading auctions on Ebay.

Would it be the same if it were a Centipede control panel that had a Quantuum overlay, a Happ trackball and reproduction cone switches on it for $375?

As far as starting up my own MM repro cp factory, I guess I should have put a :rolleyes: or two after the statement. I have made the file GoG printed for me available to anybody who asks for it, without cost, so anybody can make them. The real gating factor in MM repros, is the boardset. There were a limited number produced. It is unknown how many were sold, but damn few have survived, unless there is a back room at some distributor's warehouse piled up to the ceiling with conversion kit boxes.

ken

PS: If anybody knows where that distributor's back room is......:D
 
I saw screw the CPO and get working on the stencils. A stenciled MM is one sweet looking design.
 
If it sells, I am going to list my MM side art..

I thought someone did have a huge pile of MM pcbs in a warehouse. I think they wanted like $300 a pop.. This was like 10+ years ago.. I want to say t was a big pcb seller back n the day. I think think it was TNT, but someone like that.
 
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