I have just been looking on Yahoo Japan and a passing search on Virtual Boy stuff and it came to me that people have to look at these using the eye-shades. The chances of these being used by only the one person since it was sold as new is pretty unlikely as someone who had kept it for that long would probably keep it anyway. So it got me thinking, if this had been re-sold say 10 times and say the games 20-30 times possibly, what little delights would be on this stuff Does it make you wince when you read reports on stuff like a bowl of nuts on a bar may have as much as 10 different types of urine in there Hence I wonder where my stuff has been and what has been done with it or too it :shrug:
Funnily enough this is something I think about everytime I do anything. I am slightly OCD when it comes to cleanlyness and the thought of someone having used something before me makes me feel strange (Feels like I have a film of dirt over my hands). As soon as I get anything new out come the anti bacterial wipes or soapy water. Don't dry them though!!! I have found allsorts (Not liquorice) in console boxes over the years. I once found a half eaten chomp bar in a dreamcast, about 4 milk soaked cheerios in an sms games bundle and even cigarette butts in stuff I have bought at car boots. This thread is making me feel dirty (Kiff goes to wash his hands)
Ive bought things with some bizarre items included in the boxes in the past, Heres some of the best i can remember A xbox wrapped in tea towels (new ones as well!) Some games sent in a cereal box (with some cereal still included! A wireless xbox pad, the dongle that you plug into the console, actually had a dead moth sealed inside it! A few years ago i bought a box full of PC games of a carboot, inside some of the boxes were loads of 'Adult' magazines (and not the cheapy topshelf kind either!) A VHS video that instead of the tape inside was several pairs of women knickers. The list could go on! Possibly the worst was i bought my wife a Singstar set for christmas,when i received it, the gamebox and both the mics were covered in mouldy yoghurt, and the lid to the pot stuck to the back of the game, the smell when i opened the package nearly made me vomit, and when i emailed the seller they denied all knowledge! And nobody could be as anal as i am when it comes to hygiene, when i am round carboot sales i always carry a bottle of alcohol gel in my pocket to wipe my hands with periodically, but that stems back from my days as a nurse.. Oh and ask Parris about the breastfeeding photo as well ;-)
Hmm, I'm really having trouble thinking of ten different kinds of urine in a bar. Here's what I came up with: Human, dog, cat, cockroach, confused pigeon, ceiling monkey, passing baboon asking for directions.... Seriously, though, you should never touch nuts at a bar! So many germs its not funny. I remember a friend of mine had cancer whilst he was at college. I bought him a SNES second hand and a load of games to play. They had special screening procedures at the hospital. I didn't want to take any chances, so I disinfected the lot. And yeah, it is amazing what comes off them sometimes! We've had unbelievably dirty stuff come into the shop. I can beat the dead moth - someone wanted to trade in a game, I opened the game to check the disc, and a live moth flew out of the case!
Nasty...everytime I get anything used I clean it as much as I can, especially controllers. I hate nasty controllers.
Parris will confirm this one, but whenever i buy controllers and most peripherals, i strip them down and put them in the dishwasher (top shelf), all the buttons and sticks etc, go in a small net bag as well, works a treat!, also done that for several old computers and consoles, im sure i have some before and after shots somewhere of a amiga 500 i cleaned up so ill post later if i find them!
Once I got a dreamcast fixed by sega and when they sent it back (the kind they sent back in the "refurbished unit" box) it had a live worm/maggot in the drive tray where the laser is.
Seeing how lots of people play their handheld game systems whilst on the toilet, I refuse to buy any handheld game systems and games second hand.
i have an original gameboy clear and there is a small worm/maggot inside the case just by the speaker.. it was in there when i got the GB almost 10 years ago and has never moved.. wont even dislodge.. plus i dont have a nintendo gamebit to open it.. but hey, its like a free gift or a little gaming buddy always with you!
Honestly, I aint' got no problem with germs myself. I think that if one is too clean it's actually detrimental, kinda like how George Carlin puts it, your immune system needs to have germs to practice on. So I don't really get paranoid about things like going to a resturant where the cook is using his hands or something like that. If it's ok to eat an apple that's been on the ground and passed through a dozen hands before it got to my supermarket, then a fry cook using his hands to make my burrito isn't going to make a difference. (This is of course assuming said fry cook washes his hands and takes the usual sanitary precautions. There is a difference of course between just using your hands to cook and wiping your diseased feces-covered mits all over somone's food...) I also never get sick, I don't get colds or flu, I rarely get infections, sore throats, etc. Maybe once in the last 10 years I've had a sore throat, had a cold once about 3 years ago that lasted more than 24 hours, haven't had the flu since I was 17. I don't get flu shots, I don't overload myself on antibiotics, just eat chicken soup and get lots of rest. As far a germs on everyday objects goes (doorhandles, phones, and used game systems included,) what the hell. Can't be paranoid over everything.
Hit-Japan just sent me a pair of Neo Geo games... One of them had a hair on the manual sleeve. Delicious.
You pretty much confirmed the punchline lol My Mountain Dew LE Xbox arrived wrapped in toilet rolls (unused I hasten to add), a brown bathroom towel (now washed and used to rest consoles on when being repaired) and right at the bottom of the box... the said photograph of the female owner of the Xbox. She was totally naked on top and breast feeding her youngster. Must admit, it was a strange thing to leave in the box and I felt rather disquietened by it. It was sent back to them just in case. Never got an acknowledgment, but didn't expect one tbh. Most disgusting console I have ever had to deal with was either the PS2 Test (document elsewhere), which was filthy to say the least, or a standard black Xbox I repaired for someone who was clearly very fond of cannabis. Not sure whether you are aware of it, but it coats everything with a yellow substance which is hellish to clean off. Very sticky, very smelly and rancid. This console was caked in it and took me a long time to clean.
there was a thread similar to this...Japan games got a Gym bag stuff shipped to him in a Gym bag. He now uses it to carry his clothes to gyms. I wonder if he ever is carrying it and some japanese dude see's it and goes " I swear I used to have that bag before...but I can't for the life of me remember what i did with it!" or " Could it be? Could that be the gaijin that I sold stuff to on Yahoo and sent it to him in a gym bag?? AND NOW! He uses SAID GYM BAG?!"
Ahhhh, that explains both the immense stickiness of the cupboard doors in my old student digs (had a couple of stoners living there who loved to smoke it in the kitchen-lounge area), and why the inside of my cheaply acquired Saturn was so full of crud.
