I have been checking eBay auctions and it is a common occurrence to find VB’s that are in good shape but have the glitchy display problem. I was wondering if anyone here (or elsewhere) buys up these VB’s in order to repair them and resell them? It makes me sad to see all those glitchy VB’s, knowing that many people will just throw theirs away thinking it is broken.

Would they? What audience generally buys these VBs? Mostly collectors, right? Would they just throw them away?

But yeah, it would be nice if someone would actually actively repair and sell them. Heck, a nice profit could be made from doing that (as long as the added repair prices aren’t too high of course).

I have been hoarding broken VBs to do this.

DaVince wrote:
Would they? What audience generally buys these VBs? Mostly collectors, right? Would they just throw them away?

But yeah, it would be nice if someone would actually actively repair and sell them. Heck, a nice profit could be made from doing that (as long as the added repair prices aren’t too high of course).

People that buy VB’s right now are probably collectors, sure, but you are forgetting there were some people that actually bought these years ago and have them sitting in their closets/attics/basements somewhere. I have a friend who threw away his VB (before I met him).

Thats so sad that some people would throw away their Virtual Boys even if they didn’t know how/just couldn’t repair their screens… 🙁

Its nightmarish to think of!

kinda makes me want to get another Virtual Boy someday (hopefully a Japanese one so it fills my collection more so)

Its nightmarish to think of!

Not really. The majority of people don’t really care about their old consoles and will easily sell it or even throw it away. It’s up to the actual collectors, fans and even profiters to preserve at least a few of them, in the end.

I bought a few to do this with but realized that there was no profits left. The difference between a broken and working VB is $10 or so which is the cost of shipping…

And with margins so small you would have to have a 100% success rate, which means if anything besides the ribbon cable connection was bad, you might actually lose money.

Basically I decided it was better to invest in stocks rather than VBs, and I think I made the right choice so far…

Really? I haven’t bought a VB system in YEARS (I’ve got ~15, so it’ll be a while before I need another 😉 )… but I figured a non-working one would be pretty worthless (<$10), and a working one would go for a little more ($25), but one that was advertised as permanently fixed would go for quite a bit more than that ($50+). I know a lot of people are willing to pay a decent amount to get their own system fixed ($50+)... I figured a fixed VB would go for at least the cost of the repair. But I really don't have the time/interest to repair them for others, so it's not for me. The number of buyers of repaired VBs may be small, so you might have to sit on them for a while... offering them at a set price, but I'd guess you'd find buyers eventually. When people want theirs repaired, and look at the price of two-way shipping to get their own repaired, or just buy one w/ one-way shipping, and they get to keep their broken one... they'll probably make the right decision. But no, I don't think VBs are good investments 😉 . DogP

From what I have seen on eBay, people ask for around $30-40 for a VB with NO stand/shade/controller/games/anything and a glitchy display problem. It’s not a very good deal at all. You would get lucky to buy one for $20-30 including shipping.

The only VB packages that sell for a good amount are either unopened units or units in mint condition with the boxes/manuals, or 100% working systems that also have all the important accessories and a few games included. I have never seen one advertised as “permanently fixed” so I wonder how much (if anything) that would increase the attractiveness of the auction.

I wasn’t asking about this to see if you could make a profit, I just feel bad there are so many temporarily-broken units out there.

Yeah, I hate to see how many broken machines there are, when it’s not that difficult to repair. I keep thinking about doing a free/cheap bulk repair day, where you pay shipping and get it to me by a certain date, and I’d repair a whole bunch at once… just to help out the community. I don’t like fixing one at a time, because it takes some prep to get things in order for the repair… and the other thing I hate are the screws (I’d probably grab some phillips screws to put back in). But, I just don’t have the free time right now to do any of that.

DogP

Hey everybody,

Johnny Phantom repairs Virtual Boys if anyone is looking to get one fixed up. Here’s his site…

http://www.johnnyphantom.me/Johnny_Phantom/About_Me.html

He is or was a member on here haven’t seen him on for a while but anyway he repaired my VB and he also did a mod on me Sega Saturn for me I highly recommend him! Oh and to save on shipping for those that can get there VB’s open, just send him the LED boards and ribbon cables.

😎

Does he still repair them though? IIRC he posted a while back that he wasn’t doing it anymore (temporarily, or maybe until further notice). Looking at his repair status, it looks like he hasn’t done anything since February (and that was a Saturn).

DogP

DogP wrote:
Does he still repair them though? IIRC he posted a while back that he wasn’t doing it anymore (temporarily, or maybe until further notice). Looking at his repair status, it looks like he hasn’t done anything since February (and that was a Saturn).

DogP

That’s too bad if he don’t anymore. That was my Saturn he modded 😀 I don’t know if it was me I’d still contact him to see if he would. Otherwise… :question: I have no idea 🙁

Would anyone with a broken VB be willing to sell me one of the displays? The right one in my unit went out and I ended up goobering up the ribbon cable even further. :rolleyes The left display works great still.

If you check eBay, there is a guy that sometimes sells just the displays with the ribbon cable. I think he charges something like $15 for each display.

Cool, thanks for the heads up! I just found one and ordered it. A little pricey, but if it works I’m happy. 😀