Took this non-working PSP 1001 in as a trade towards a work system. I gave him $20 credit for it. I usually scap them for parts but if this is a rarer exclusive system it might be worth having it restored. Older customer in his 50's. He claims he bought it this way with the case and that it is not a custom job. I know the customer isn't lying to me and had no incentive to do so. Perhaps he bought it used and did not know. He usually wants the cheapest possible unit and would not have (knowingly) paid extra for a custom paint job. The Power , Hold and Vol text on the right side are done very well if it is a mod. The wireless connection symbols are also there but the small PSP logo at the upper left and at the bottom of the screen are missing. The back and sides look standard retail. Sad to say, but there are many Pittsburg Steelers fans in this area. My first guess if it is not a custom job is that it may be a Steelers unit? Is there a list of official PSP exclusive systems anywhere?
I'm going to say it's just a custom faceplate. If it was anything officially licensed, it would still have the Sony, PS and PSP logos. All official 'special' PSPs I've seen still have those (the Sony name at the very least, no way they'd drop that!) And if it was an official Steelers design, I would think their logo would be there somewhere (or an NFL logo, etc). The custom faceplates you can buy have all the printing very professionally silkscreened, only missing the copyrighted logos. Here's a yellow one, for example: http://www.gaminggenerations.com/store/1000-faceplate-yellow-p-2105.html I can't say 100% of course, but the lack of copyrighted logos indicates it's probably not official...
Hard to see but that could be it. He said it came with the pouch which clearly has the logos on it but he could have bought it used and not known.
The bag threw me off. I bet you guys are right but is there a place with all the licenced PSPs pictured? I've seen these websites for gameboys.
If it's a custom faceplate, the sticker under the battery will be removed or punctured or damaged to get to the screws that hold it on. Right?
Its a custom faceplate (replacement) from China. I work for GS and they come back from our warehouse looking like this refurbished sometimes. If the screen is really scratched insted of filling it in they slap one of those cheap faceplates on it without the logos. Everything outside of that is legit so it can throw you off. As for the cases we sell them JUST like that in a varity of colors. I have that exact one as well as red and blue currently for sale in my store
I ever bought custom cases for a PSP. They even come with a replacement sticker... The numbers aren't the same, but it looks real. The best way to see if it is official is to look at the edges of the screen/lens. The official one looks like one part, but with the unofficial faceplates I've seen the lens looks a bit cheaper and it is a separate part.
Also, official cases are double injection molded, meaning they are two layers - the inner colored plastic layer and the outer clear surface/lens layer. I have yet to see more than one manufacturer of aftermarket cases use this technique, and they made a big deal when they did.
Ultimately you have to ask, why would Sony (a Japanese company) make an official PSP for fans on a single, American, Football team? The amount of money needed to produce the faceplate for what will likely less <1000 units doesn't make much sense to me. Then again Microsoft makes a lot of random 360 faceplates.
My logic was that the Steelers won the SuperBowl in 2008. In 2009 PSP had a special edition blue unit sold only with Madden. Nintendo did once offer a Gamecube (in Japan) dedicated to a baseball team but as you said it is a Japanese company so perhaps they weren't sure how a dedicated handheld system dedicated to Football would be recieved. If you can't sell a PSP to fan of the team who just won the SuperBowl in their own city then trying to market one to the entire country isn't a good idea. Hell it could have been a contest prize or a very limited run via the Steelers website. A standard retail unit with a different faceplate wouldn't be too hard to pull off. The Steelers themselves might have purchased 100 units swaped the faces and sold them at team shops or online. We have limited edition Xbox 360 units (some with tiny runs) for multiple movies and games and even things that really have nothing to do with Xbox like social networking websites Twitter and Facebook. To speculate that it might have been possible that a limited edition was test marketed somehow in Pittsburg to gauge reception prior to a blue Madden edition that was going to sold country wide wasn't THAT far fetched but it doesn't look like that was the case or someone here would have heard about it.
