Yeah, there’s a few things that have happened. 1) With Covid, Japan Post stopped shipping to the US (and I presume elsewhere, too). So now, instead of paying $5 shipping, I’m paying between $15-25. 2) The hobby became popular as a business by people with a lot of cash and flashy stores. The prices of consoles, both modded and unmodded went up ridiculously. 3) Collectors have gotten kind of crazy with prices as well.
Pre-pandemic, I could typically buy a broken screen GBC from Japan for $15 plus $5 shipping, pay $80 in parts to give it a new shell, backlit screen, and usb-c rechargeable battery, and sell it for $120, financing the next project. Now, the parts are the same but you aren’t finding a broken GBC for under $50, yet you’re still probably looking at $120-130 for sale price, making it hard to break even. At that point, you might as well be building Gunpla. Sucks but I still do it (also Gunpla).
I loved fixing up Gameboys, back in (a total guess here) 2017/18 or so. My favourite was to do up a Gameboy Pocket.
But then the prices of buying a few from Japan jusy skyrocketed. I understand the hobby grew in popularity, but boy oh boy did the prices go up!
Yeah, there’s a few things that have happened. 1) With Covid, Japan Post stopped shipping to the US (and I presume elsewhere, too). So now, instead of paying $5 shipping, I’m paying between $15-25. 2) The hobby became popular as a business by people with a lot of cash and flashy stores. The prices of consoles, both modded and unmodded went up ridiculously. 3) Collectors have gotten kind of crazy with prices as well.
Pre-pandemic, I could typically buy a broken screen GBC from Japan for $15 plus $5 shipping, pay $80 in parts to give it a new shell, backlit screen, and usb-c rechargeable battery, and sell it for $120, financing the next project. Now, the parts are the same but you aren’t finding a broken GBC for under $50, yet you’re still probably looking at $120-130 for sale price, making it hard to break even. At that point, you might as well be building Gunpla. Sucks but I still do it (also Gunpla).