Well dudes, I’ve been waiting since February to make this post, and today, nearly 9 months later, I finally get to make it…though with a hell of a lot longer story to go along with it than I would’ve liked. If youre the tl;dr type, bear with me, it’s worth the read (I hope).
It all started back in late February when a fairly new NintendoAge user (another forum I frequent) by the name of Impose_Gaming showed up in the NA Discord chat. They told a story of how they used to be in an executive position at EB Games Canada, and somewhere in the conversation he mentioned that shortly before he left the company, he had acquired two 6′ tall Virtual Boy kiosks from EB’s storage warehouse. My ears perked up like a dog who was just asked if he wanted to go for a walk, and I immediately started trying to talk Impose_Gaming out of one of them, as this item has been my white whale/holy grail for years.
He was on the lookout for some high-end SNES and N64 items at the time, and I had a few key items he was looking for, so we got to work on a few trades. Before we got too heavily into the kiosk talk, we made a couple of separate trade deals for some higher-end SNES and Genesis games. Those trades went off without a hitch, everybody received everything promptly and in good order, so we had begun to establish some trust. Finally we got down to business and started working on a trade for one of his Virtual Boy kiosks. He was on the lookout for N64 NFR carts, and I had a full set. We ended up arriving at a deal for the kiosk for my minty Majora’s Mask NFR gray cart, and equally minty N64 test cart. Those items broke my heart to see go out the door, but at the same time my collecting focuses had shifted a bit, and I wasn’t as attached to the N64 NFR set as I once was. That deal really cut the head off of that collection, so I ended up trading away the rest of the NFR set as well in the weeks that followed.
I packed up his NFR carts (there were a couple more in there, after all I had to offset what was estimated to be a $700 shipping cost) nice and securely and sent them out the day after we arrived at the deal. He received them promptly, and he was a happy camper…That’s when the complications started.
Originally he had planned to send me the kiosk via Purolator, DHL, or some other major courier, but reason after reason kept popping up as to why these couriers would not agree to transport this package from Montreal to Vancouver. First the kiosk was a few inches too tall for the truck, then it was an insurance issue where the delivery company deemed the kiosk too fragile to insure, etc etc. I was beginning to get a bit anxious about the whole thing, since by now it had dragged on for a couple of weeks. Finally we found a solution online called Uship, which is essentially the Uber of delivery services. You put an offer out to transport ___ for $___, and deliery drivers can accept the offer. It has a feedback system like eBay, so you have some idea of who you’re trusting with your cargo.
My communication with Impose_Gaming was a little bit spotty, he would always respond promptly and had a good attitude, but the communication was quite short and vague much of the time. I didn’t have much to go on but his word. So one day in March after a few days of waiting I contacted him and asked him if he had any luck finding a shipper on Uship. He said he had, and that the particular driver who had accepted the offer was going to take 21 days to deliver the kiosk to me. I thought that was a curiously long time to hand-deliver something, but Impose_Gaming gave me the phone number of the driver (with his permission), and I now had a direct line of contact to the driver.
I had worked out a delivery day with the driver and everything seemed on pace for a successful delivery….then a few days out from the agreed delivery date, the driver sends a text saying “having a little issue at the border, but don’t worry I’ll be there on time”…I thought, “the border? This is a Canada/Canada deal, why the hell is he crossing borders?” So after that, the driver goes completely dark, totally incommunicado. No returned calls, no answered texts, nothing. I was beginning to really worry that I had been duped out of some of my most valuable games. Then a day or two later I get a message from Impose_Gaming telling me that our driver may have gotten into some trouble at the border. Again, pretty vague, and I was worried.
A few days pass and Impose_Gaming hits me up again, telling me that our driver had been arrested at the Canada/US border for drug trafficking, and that his truck and all its contents had been confiscated by the border patrol. Our driver turned out be pulling double-duty as an international drug smuggler! I of course was incredibly bummed to hear that, and I honestly didn’t know if what I was being told was legit or not. All signs pointed to a trustworthy guy navigating a difficult deal, but of course by this time it had been a few months or running around and my faith was shaken. Impose_Gaming got back to me and told me not to worry, that he had been in contact with the border agency and that they had told him the plan for retrieving the kiosk. I’d have to wait another month before it was released from their custody, and following that month there was another two-month window for the owner to come and claim the merchandise. One problem: The kiosk is sitting at the border in BC, and the owner is in Montreal. I began to accept the fact that this one wasn’t going to pan out for me, and was beginning to accept my loss. Throughout all of this, Impose_Gaming was a total gentleman (and I was in return) and he assured me that he had a business trip to Portland in the coming months, and that he’d be there within that two-month window to pick up the kiosk and settle this. I was a bit skeptical to say the least.
In the week leading up to the planned trip out west, I didn’t hear much from Impose_Gaming. I sent him a few messages and got some short responses, but I didn’t have high hopes that he’d follow through and actually make the trip. Then about 2 days before the planned trip, a tornado ripped through parts of Ontario and Quebec, and apparently Impose_Gaming’s business centre and warehouses suffered significant damage. He explained to me that he would not be able to make the trip as planned, and that we’d need to come up with another solution. A loooong time had passed, and many factors had interfered with this deal, but again throughout it all Impose_Gaming never gave me the hint in our communications that he was trying to pull anything on me or be anything other than upfront. We wrote that kiosk off as a loss, and it’s probably sitting at some auction house or something right now.
Another while passes and I reached out to Impose_Gaming to ask him what the plan was going forward. He told me that he had another plan, and that he may still be able to get me a kiosk. He told me that since he originally had two, he had planned to keep one for himself and trade one away, but given the circumstances, he would find a way to send me out the second kiosk. After a little time figuring out the logistics, he had a plan to send me out the other kiosk with a professional shipping company, at a cost that I won’t disclose here, but that is probably a significant multiple of what you may be thinking to ship a 100-lb, 6′ tall kiosk. I had nothing to lose so I agreed to that plan, and he told that if for any reason it didn’t pan out, he’d simply send me a lump sum of money for the games I had sent him, and we’d just write the whole fuckin’ thing off. It was now September, so I was willing to listen to any plan at all.
A few days later he sends me a tracking number and tells me the kiosk is en route. I check online and sure enough, it is registered in the system. I get a call from the shipping company to confirm a delivery day and time, and at this point I could not believe it, but it really seemed like this deal might actually have a happy ending. The delivery was scheduled for this morning between 8:00-12:00 noon, so I took the morning off work to meet the driver….I wait…..I wait until past 12:00….past 1:00…..and, nothing. By now nothing could surprise me, so I put on my gear and got ready to head into work for a late shift….Then the phone rings, and it’s the delivery driver! He got lost and couldn’t find my place, so I gave him directions over the phone. Half an hour later he shows up, opens the back of the truck and, holy mother of sweet baby Jesus H. Christ himself….there it was. A beautiful, minty Virtual Boy kiosk! After nearly 9 months, it showed up looking great! I couldn’t fuckin’ believe it. I hauled it inside and set it up in my game room, probably as excitedly as I have ever set anything up in my life. I plugged it in and the sign lit right up.
I cannot express to you what elation I felt after going through nearly all of 2018 wondering if this deal was ever going to close successfully, and finally having the kiosk in my possession. Impose_Gaming and I forged a strange bond over this, having to work through what felt like the most destined-to-fail deal ever. He ended up way out of pocket and well into the red on this deal, having cost him both of his Virtual Boy kiosks and a seriously substantial amount of money in shipping and logistics. Impose_Gaming, if you’re reading this, I hope you realize how much I appreciate your willingness to accommodate and sacrifice to make this deal work out in the end. Consider the world’s longest piece of feedback for a hell of a guy.
ANYway, without further ado, I present to you my collection, with this beautiful kiosk as the cherry on top. I couldn’t be prouder to be the owner of it, and now there is another long story to tell about how it all came together. Thanks for reading dudes, enjoy 🙂
