Paperboy Bubble?

hepgeek

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Things are officially getting ridiculous. There's a Paperboy CP on eBay at $510 right now, with 2 days to go. I really wanna finish my C Sprint conversion, but damn, not that much. At this rate that thing's gonna go for $750 when it ends. Maybe with prices this high someone will start repo-ing them? Anyone know a good metal fab shop?
 
Things are officially getting ridiculous. There's a Paperboy CP on eBay at $510 right now, with 2 days to go. I really wanna finish my C Sprint conversion, but damn, not that much. At this rate that thing's gonna go for $750 when it ends. Maybe with prices this high someone will start repo-ing them? Anyone know a good metal fab shop?

I was watching that one too. So crazy. I picked up a working complete CP a couple years ago on ebay for $60. Ended up selling it to a fellow KLOV'r for the same. I feel like Paperboy is picking up in popularity in general.
 
Paperboy has gone up a lot in price in the last couple years. This is one part I see people looking for that might have a CS or cab there trying to piece a Paperboy together that will really pay the price for it or wait who knows how long till the next one shows up. I'll be watching it to see how high it goes.
 
The metal panel is easy to fab, but it's the handle bars that are not going to be fabricated due to cost - people can't make them for a price someone would pay...

That said... A guy in Vegas sold a working paperboy on CL for about $250. I learned a valuable lesson with that posting - if you can't strike first - offer a fair price so at least the guy who does strike first buys it for a fair price, if you can't.
 
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People need to learn that having a hunk of wood does not mean diddly when a game has custom parts.

Paperboy is pushing $2k+ these days. So it stands to reason the controls are worth the most. It's not like you can easily play the game without it.

So Find the controls and the security first. Then you can worry about finding a champ sprint for parts... Just remember paperboy has speech and champ spring does not. So even if have a 100% cs, does not mean it's going to get you a 100% paperboy.

On the bright side, I Guess my spare controller is going up in value...
 
People need to learn that having a hunk of wood does not mean diddly when a game has custom parts.

Paperboy is pushing $2k+ these days. So it stands to reason the controls are worth the most. It's not like you can easily play the game without it.

So Find the controls and the security first. Then you can worry about finding a champ sprint for parts... Just remember paperboy has speech and champ spring does not. So even if have a 100% cs, does not mean it's going to get you a 100% paperboy.

On the bright side, I Guess my spare controller is going up in value...

Still lots of Paperboys for sale - people just try to cash in on a cheap conversion of Champ Sprint... There is a cap on the controller, because at about $350ish it's just easier to buy a paperboy all ready to go...

Paperboy, 720, Lunar Lander - all Atari games I would love to own because they have super unique controls, theme and art, but when I play them at Grinkers I stop playing after about 5 minutes, because the damn controllers... Well... Actually with LL it's not the controls... More the ramp up difficulty.... The cost to fun ratio for these classics makes it really hard to shell out the current prices...
 
Still lots of Paperboys for sale - people just try to cash in on a cheap conversion of Champ Sprint... There is a cap on the controller, because at about $350ish it's just easier to buy a paperboy all ready to go...

Paperboy, 720, Lunar Lander - all Atari games I would love to own because they have super unique controls, theme and art, but when I play them at Grinkers I stop playing after about 5 minutes, because the damn controllers... Well... Actually with LL it's not the controls... More the ramp up difficulty.... The cost to fun ratio for these classics makes it really hard to shell out the current prices...



You definitely don't see many Paperboys for sale now a days. Most people who own them keep them and I haven't seen any at $350ish let me know where and I'll buy 10. I agree with mrbill2084 there fetching 2K & up easy. 720 & Lunar Lander have gone up in price too, many titles are getting harder to find and if there's a demand for them the price will just keep going up.
 
You definitely don't see many Paperboys for sale now a days. Most people who own them keep them and I haven't seen any at $350ish let me know where and I'll buy 10. I agree with mrbill2084 there fetching 2K & up easy. 720 & Lunar Lander have gone up in price too, many titles are getting harder to find and if there's a demand for them the price will just keep going up.

When I said $350-ish I meant for the control panel only.... If you take the 350 plus another 300+ for a PCB and then about 700-800 for a Champ Sprint you are at the 1500 price range... Then add 75 to 100 for new hunter wild grips and new art work and now you are up to 2k... So... In my opinion it is just easier to find a working Paperboy... In my short time collecting I have had about 4-5 opportunities to buy one - for 1000-1500... So they are out there, but there aren't going to just fall into your lap like DK/Asteroids/Galaga/Pacman - you have to be willing to hop in the truck and extend your geographical search or collector connections or trade..

By the way - I had a chance to buy a really nice Mad Planets about a year and a half ago for 800... Before I knew they were rare and sought after... Those are the bricks - know what something is worth and it can be used to find a game you really want - I don't care for Mad Planets, but it would have been great for a trade... I also disagree that Paperboys sell for 2k easy - maybe a mint one, but most I are see need a good deal of work to get to mint... But if it's a 9/10 then I can see 2K.
 
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When I said $350-ish I meant for the control panel only.... If you take the 350 plus another 300+ for a PCB and then about 700-800 for a Champ Sprint you are at the 1500 price range... Then add 75 to 100 for new hunter wild grips and new art work and now you are up to 2k... So... In my opinion it is just easier to find a working Paperboy... In my short time collecting I have had about 4-5 opportunities to buy one - for 1000-1500... So they are out there, but there aren't going to just fall into your lap like DK/Asteroids/Galaga/Pacman - you have to be willing to hop in the truck and extend your geographical search or collector connections or trade..

By the way - I had a chance to buy a really nice Mad Planets about a year and a half ago for 800... Before I knew they were rare and sought after... Those are the bricks - know what something is worth and it can be used to find a game you really want - I don't care for Mad Planets, but it would have been great for a trade... I also disagree that Paperboys sell for 2k easy - maybe a mint one, but most I are see need a good deal of work to get to mint... But if it's a 9/10 then I can see 2K.

What you can find a game in the wild for is different than what its worth. Most people don't realize that some games have changed so much in a short time. If you ask a fellow collector, how much for your paperboy, they might think its worth about $1k, when today its 2x or maybe 3x that.

The big difference is all these collectors trying to do barcades. adding a food fight, mad planets, paperboy, tapper, tron, burgertime, 720, ect is having an effect on game prices.

Movies like pixels, wreck in ralph, ect just reminds people about the classics. All it takes is a little push. If stuff like warcraft and assasins creed make money, You might soon see asteroids, centipede, missile command, mortal kombat, rampage, spyhunter, tekken, and tetris in the theaters.
 
What you can find a game in the wild for is different than what its worth. Most people don't realize that some games have changed so much in a short time. If you ask a fellow collector, how much for your paperboy, they might think its worth about $1k, when today its 2x or maybe 3x that.

The big difference is all these collectors trying to do barcades. adding a food fight, mad planets, paperboy, tapper, tron, burgertime, 720, ect is having an effect on game prices.

Movies like pixels, wreck in ralph, ect just reminds people about the classics. All it takes is a little push. If stuff like warcraft and assasins creed make money, You might soon see asteroids, centipede, missile command, mortal kombat, rampage, spyhunter, tekken, and tetris in the theaters.

InsertCoins was the largest "barcade" in Vegas - and it went out of business... The novelty wore off quickly... The barcades might gobble up some games in an area but its collectors that drive the prices up for this stuff in an area... In a Vegas - a city with 2.5 million people there are maybe 10 people trolling for classics... A relatively nice 720 went up for sale for 2k and no one in town was interested in it for 1300 which is what it sold for to a collector that drove up from St. George which is 2 hours away... I have lots of friends who grew up in the eighties who dig playing my games, but none enough to actually buy one and restore it... Its still a VERY niche hobby... and it takes someone who is very nostalgic for the games, very handy at learning to do stuff like bondo, solder, scour CL and such... its not mainstream, and that's fine by me (more for me). I don't see prices being driven by barcades - there just aren't that many of them... Phoenix has 4.5 million people (I think) and they have one or two places... Vegas has 0 (but we do have the pinball HOF with a few classics) - that should give some perspective of how big a market it takes to keep one going... I love Grinkers, it has an amazing selection, but it is in a town where there is little else to do with your family, and those games were pulled in from outside that geographic location I suspect... The only prices I see going up really are all the lame 60-1 conversion that sit on CL unsold for between 1500 and 2k - mainly because someone got suckered into buying a $600 game with a $50 PCB from China, and not they want to sell it for what they paid when they tired of it....

What market is there besides sales between collector and places like ebay and CL? Paying someone $500 extra so you can have it "NOW" is not real value if you ask me... Someone paying 500 or 750 because they just have to finish their restoration does not reflect the true value for the game, it reflects the impulsivity of that buyer... With this hobby there is no real stability of price - when you can spend 1500 for a game today and then see it on CL for 250 the next... There is no real "retail" for these things with a few exceptions... You can go to a billiard game store and see a pacman multi of r 3500 and people buy them, but is that really what they are worth?
 
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Just curious ... what would be so difficult about reproducing the handlebars at a "reasonable" cost ... it seems like a lot of the assembly could be cut by a plasma cutter or water jet ... would the welding be the problem from there?

In a pinch, you could use a Star Wars yoke you know :) ... call it "rare Future Paperboy"
 
Probably more the time and effort to figure out engineering, plus fabricating, wiring, then you have to deal with a very limited market of people who need this. It's not exactly like a common automotive part or something that will sell thousands. Would probably need to sell for at least this price to break even a small profit. It's kind of like Pinball machine mods, they are outrageously expensive for what you get. Like literally hundreds of $$ for 3d printed items with some leds...same principal, R&D costs...
 
Probably more the time and effort to figure out engineering, plus fabricating, wiring, then you have to deal with a very limited market of people who need this. It's not exactly like a common automotive part or something that will sell thousands. Would probably need to sell for at least this price to break even a small profit. It's kind of like Pinball machine mods, they are outrageously expensive for what you get. Like literally hundreds of $$ for 3d printed items with some leds...same principal, R&D costs...

Spot on. For a shop to take on the work the engineering costs are high and you don't get the volume to get the costs down. It can be done (reproducing the controls) but the engineering costs would make it more expensive that just finding one in the wild... On simple stuff (like a Marble Madness panel where you can buy the controls off the shelf) you can get costs covered but you make little or nothing on the run.
 
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Omg!!!!!!!

$865.00 for the control Panel, plus shipping.....$905 Total....WOW!
 

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If you would have asked me last week what a Paperboy was worth I would have said "About $600, but don't buy one, they are overpriced and the monitors are hard to find".
 
I have a Champion Sprint with the Paperboy Board and Video Pcb in it plus roms.But for these prices for control panels am change my mind for the rebuild.
 
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