i guess you realized you were the one asking about it, not me. Anwyays, I take it from my first glance that this is a backup unit. I'm not sure about this particular model, but I saw one on Yahoo Japan a long ass time ago, that ran in the 15,000 yen range. They come up so infrequently though that it's hard to say.
gamechoice club in hongkong used to sell them for US$200. Its a rarity allright, especially if its boxed.
Its nearly impossible to buy one boxed, like rare beyond comprehension. I'm sure at one point Gamechoice had one, but I'm positive that they haven't for YEARS, same goes for NTSCO. Griffins are generally worth $300 (one recently sold for I believe $400 on eBay, a year or two ago, one sold for $50 on eBay) but I've had many offers from $600-1000ea for mine (I've got 3.) Then again, I've had many chances to buy them for $250 (from a HK dealer.) Also It's name is the Magic Super Griffin, not "Super Magic Griffin" I had Rob change the name and still people forget or don't care. If you are looking for just a way to play PCE I suggest a PCE-PRO from Tototek, they have 32M of Flash so the game is not volitile and it can retain multiple games. It can also play Street Fighter 2 Dash and is but $100. For collectability though, most collectors can't top a Magic Griffin in rarity.
I think you should pay whatever you have for a boxed one. I've only seen 1 of the dozen Griffins I've seen.
For some reason, I find the whole idea of illegal backup devices being "collectible" funny. I'm not having a dig at anyone, it just tickles me.
Same here chap. Seems very odd in a funny way to me too. Even stranger when some guy pays $20,000 for a Russian bootleg StarWars toy, cos it's the only known carded example (iirc, it's a shoddy gold coloured Imperial Guard with red arms).... Crazy, crazy world....
Its hard for me to sit back and just read. If I were to say Dracula X wasn't collectible, would I be correct? Collectibility is subjective. By saying these "backup devices" are illegal, it doesn't make it so. Judging them and their users is ignorant. I can tell you why they're "collectible": 1) They are rare in the truest sense of the word. Many of them were released in far fewer quantities than Darius Alpha. 2) The "rare" ones retain their value. The Magic Super Griffin's value at least doubled from its original ~$120 in 1990. 3) Many (if not MOST) people (while you may not) find them fascinating (their functions, their history, their archetecture.) You can scoff at what they represent but their value has absolutely nothing to do with their motive.
Chill mate, if we were scoffing we would just say "what a fucking moron, paying that much for some bootleg copying shit" What they are designed for is basically the copying of games, the whole "Public Domain ROM/Home Programming testing" thing is just for legal loopholes. I have not judged their users at all, and considering you have openly offered to illegally burn games to EEPROMS for people, it would be easy to judge others by what you have said you have/will do for a fee. We don't care what they are used for, we just think its funny that something thats on the far extreme of the (unofficial) gaming spectrum demands so much money. You wan't to find them interesting for their history and architecture, that's fine. I didn't want this to turn into a flame war, I was just expressing my opinion, same as someone who say's the XBOX is crap, or the PS2 destroyed gaming. I never said they weren't interesting, I just said the prices were humorous.
I'm not offended (yet) If we lived in a time without emulators, wouldn't you see their value? The truth is that not all "backup devices" are valuable. A PCE flash cart on the other hand is worth no more than what it was last year. Prices now adays aren't that way because of their function, it's their desireability. Also, yes you could judge me for openly offering my services for a price, the same way you could judge a whore for offering her services. Some people are whorey when they want money.
