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Topic: BBAs cheap on Amazon.com

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MasquedWarrior
rank 8
Posted:
Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:43 am
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Look at Amazon's USA page for the product. that's right, $15.56, to get it in new, sealed condition. I ordered two, so I could get super saver shipping! Don't pass up an offer like this!
 
lordnikon
rank 47
Posted:
Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:56 pm
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Crap and I just ordered one a few weeks ago when they were $19.99 hehe. I guess i value these things too much. Well if it drops even further I will order some more Wink

I currently have 3 BBA's and 2 56K Modems.
  _________________
Homeland Character: トライジール (TRIZEAL)
PSOEP1&2 Character: lordnikon - Lv57 HUcast
MasquedWarrior
rank 8
Posted:
Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:02 pm
quote : #3
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lordnikon wrote:
Crap and I just ordered one a few weeks ago when they were $19.99 hehe. I guess i value these things too much. Well if it drops even further I will order some more Wink

I currently have 3 BBA's and 2 56K Modems.

Although in hindsight, purchasing them when you did wasn't a good idea, I don't think that it necessarily means you "value these things too much." (If anything, you value the modems too much. Why do you need more than one when they only work on, like two games, and both of those games also support broadband? Even when your broadband connection is down, you can just use dial-up with your PC and enable internet sharing, right?) 1080 Avalanche needs four separate Gamecubes if you want to play with four players over a LAN, right? Therefore, I don't think 4 BBAs is necessarily too many.

Besides, at the time, you had no way of knowing the prices would drop. What if you waited for the prices to drop, but instead of Amazon having deciding not enough people buying them means they should lower the price, Amazon had decided that the BBAs are taking up too much warehouse space, and just threw them out? Sometimes, if you get too greedy, and wait for prices to continue to decrease, you take the risk that the offer will disappear, and future offers will be worse.

That almost happened to me, with this most recent purchase. Amazon's list price had been gradually decreasing, (From 18.15 to around 17.50, finally 16.75.) All this time, I wasn't buying not because I was waiting for the price to get even lower, but because I was wondering if this was correlating to a universal perceived value price drop. For this reason, I was following eBay auctions. However, the auctions I was following didn't end until after the price dropped to 16.75. As it turns out, the auctions all ended at prices far higher than Amazon's prices, even the used ones! So then, I decided, "Okay, I guess Amazon's price is the best available." Then I checked Amazon, and the price had gone back up to $35! (NO!) I calmed down, and figured it was just a marketing tactic, so they could shortly thereafter lower the price to one higher than the most recent offer, but still relatively low, encouraging people who were spooked by the false price drop into buying immediately. However, when they lowered the price back down, they lowered it to a price even cheaper than their previous offer, so I bought right away! The most interesting part is that it seems that there are still people paying more to get the BBA used on eBay than to get it new on Amazon! If I don't decide to keep the second BBA for playing LAN games, I might sell it on eBay.
 
lordnikon
rank 47
Posted:
Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:27 pm
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I needed the dialup modems because I run this site hehe Wink and I collect anything network related for these systems.

Also I am very experienced with the trials and tribulations of ordering things online, especially Amazon (my collection contains over 1400 games).

Amazon does exactly what you just said, where they lower the price, spike it back up, and the lower it again. They do these crazy fluctuations with everything. The patterns can get pretty eratic at times and yes you do need to know when to finally pull the trigger and order something. They can run out of stock on items when you least expect it.

As for buying a BBA at $19.99, my motto in situations like these: I have bought so many games, and have gotten so many good deals, that if I can get the best deal on 7 out of 10 items I buy then I am doing ok.
  _________________
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elph
rank 6
Posted:
Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:59 pm
quote : #5
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Woohoo! It's down to $14.78 Shocked
 
MasquedWarrior
rank 8
Posted:
Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:38 am
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elph wrote:
Woohoo! It's down to $14.78 Shocked

Indeed it has! By now, however, it appears that most, if not all eBay buyers have finally caught on, and aren't bidding as highly on auctions for this item, so I probably won't be able to make much, (if any,) of a profit. Therefore, I'll just keep the second BBA for playing LAN games, as planned.

Still, although I understand why lordnikon needs a dialup modem, why two? What, do you have two phone lines, two dialup isps, for in case your dsl goes down and you want to play online with your brother, or something? Have you ever actually used both at once in that way? Well, if you have, good for you, I guess...
 
lordnikon
rank 47
Posted:
Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:52 pm
quote : #7
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I simply have a surplus of hardware in case I need it. I own two dialup modems because of the off chance that I might need one or both for research. A few weeks ago I had to opened one of the two sealed brand new dialup modems to test something. The other may remain sealed forever, or who knows I might need it for something in a few months.
  _________________
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MasquedWarrior
rank 8
Posted:
Sat Apr 26, 2008 7:54 am
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Out of curiousity, what did you test with the modem?

Amazon rose the price back up to $35 again, earlier this week. They still haven't dropped it back down, though; I wonder when/if they will.
 
lordnikon
rank 47
Posted:
Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:15 pm
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I was testing a trial version for a GameCube Online game which only supports dialup. The disc doesn't support broadband at all. This is a great situation where the dialup modem came in handy.
  _________________
Homeland Character: トライジール (TRIZEAL)
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Mirwan
rank 2
Posted:
Thu May 01, 2008 11:16 pm
quote : #10
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Posts: 8
i was going to order one when they were 15 on amazon but i decided to wait. Its a good thing i did because i found one at gamestop today for $2.99. Now all i need is my own copy of double dash and ill be having some LAN games with some friends.
 
gary_b
rank 9
Posted:
Fri May 23, 2008 11:43 pm
quote : #11
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Posts: 122
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i am in the market for a gamecube broadband adapter atm. one ebay store has it for 90$ wtf are they smoking. some one needs to tell this crack head its not worth 90 dollars.

anyway i checked amazon and they have them for around 30 new. 15 used. i also checked on a modem. they run around 10$ to 15$.

does anyone know where i can find them cheaper than these prices? and how well does the dialup modems work for cube?
 
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