Have you ever received something you ordered and it was not in as good condition as you were hoping? In the world of collectibles and online shopping it happens to me from time to time. Sometimes I can deal and sometimes it’s pretty disappointing.
Recently I received some outstanding games that are going to become real highlights in my collection but three of them were not 100%. Even though the damage was not very bad these games are special (a.k.a. expensive) and the imperfections were visible and as a good nerd this caused me some stress.
Some people may feel like this is cheating but after doing these touch-ups I feel better about my purchases.
Fortunately the damaged areas were on spots with just a single color and with no images or graphics. By chance I recently picked up a set of Sharpie markers in twelve different colors. Yes, I’m sure you know what’s coming. I’ll tell you this; dabbing the right color on a marked area worked better than I thought it would. In person the touch-ups look better than they do in the pictures below. What was once small white marks that jump out are now simply gone. If you know what to look for you will find the touch-ups but regardless the game looks great.
Damage front, bottom right.
Restored front, bottom right.
Damaged back, top left.
Restored back, top left.
Damaged front, in case.
Restored front, in case.
I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture of the back side while in the case but the visual appears is the same as what you see in the above two ‘in case’ images.
And here is the final glamor shot of Splatterhouse Part 2:
I’m looking forward to posting the other eight new games that arrived with Splatterhouse Part 2. And I might have set a new record for the amount of money I’ve spent on a single game!
Update: Here are the other eight games that arrived with Splatterhouse Part 2.
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Retro Megabit 
Heh – that post brings back memories. A few years back, I retouched a few cardboard Famicom and Super Famicom boxes a few years back in order to scan them, but it was a bit more complicated as I had to use acrylic and pigment-based paints and match colors as best as possible. Someone actually bought two of the games from me knowing I’d fiddled with the damaged bits, which I thought was strange, but hey – I wasn’t about to pass up selling off stuff I could easily replace.
I’m waiting to hear what your spending record was for that mystery game… You didn’t grab a Panorama Cotton or (eek) a Tetris, did you?
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Ah, you know your rare Mega Drive games! Unfortunately the one million dollar official Japanese Mega Drive Tetris is no longer on ebay… so I wasn’t able to snap it up 😛
Where you happy with your touch ups?
I’m really happy that Sega didn’t go with card board. Makes collection these suckers so much easier!
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One. Million. Dollars? Yikes, that’s nuts. The hilarious thing is, in two big bulk lots I got from Japanese sellers way back when I was buying a lot of MD games, I ended up with three Tetris bootlegs. I have one left, having given away one and having some other guy buy one from me even after I told him I’d never take any money for a copied game. He just paid more for some other stuff he picked up from me (weird, but oh well – he was happy)
I did own a Panorama Cotton for a few years, but I sold it off and some other rares when I was dead broke and needed some emergency money. Oh, I think there’s one cardboard case Japanese MD game out there (not counting the Hong Kong stuff), but I forget the title…
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cool! I can’t wait to see your purchases! 😀
1 million dollar tetris? Seriously?! Tell me more about this game!! It’s not this one I guess?: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TETRIS-Megadrive-/170820228721?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item27c5add671#ht_774wt_1134
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Well, that’s a Mega Drive Tetris, but it’s a copy! The description says so, so technically, it shouldn’t even be for sale on ebay. That, and for a bootleg, it’s overpriced. Wait… I just checked the sellers other stuff and they’re ALL bootlegs. Eeek.
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haha yes I know it was a bootleg, but is it based on the one million dollar one?
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The bootleg for sale is probably the same as the bootleg I have OR it’s based off the complete Tengen ROM. I think other than the title screen missing logos, it’s going to be the same game. Those fakes that seller has ARE good looking, by the way, but inaccurate in terms of the actual boxes for most of the games he has. I like some of the original designs better (Undead Line, Gley Lancer, Tetris and a few others lust look better in their original covers!)…
As for the price point, well you’re paying for lineage and pedigree, as it’s not easy to secure the game to begin with and getting it signed AND having a picture with the creator of Tetris? That’s priceless. And amusing, if you understand the whole Tengen story with Tetris…
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Nope, it’s not that Tetris. Like geelw says it’s a bootleg copy. Although, very nicely done.
In my comments below you’ll find an ebay link for the attempt at the million dollar sale.
Now after all this Tetris talk my upcoming additions will really fall short! 😛
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No, don’t worry about that, I’m still excited to see your purchases! 😀
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I found the link. This ebay seller has been trying to sell his signed edition of the official Japanese Mega Drive Tetris for a long time:
Million Dollar Tetris
Of course it has not sold. From what I’ve read this seller bought it for about 11,0000 Euros. I know it’s super rare but it’s still not worth that. (…but I’m still jealous)
In case the ebay link gets pulled I also posted a comment about this Super Rare Tetris.
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Hah! I recognize that picture of the guy with the creator, I think I’ve read about it somewhere some time ago ^^
1 million dollars is ridiculous though…
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I completely agree. It’s very ridiculous. For a million dollars you could buy everything from Super Potato store in Akihabara! 😛
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