E-commerce

The title says it all. On Tuesday, I bought this item on eBay, which promised to include a Pump It Up USB soft pad, two Pump It Up PC games, and a “Complimentary Music CD.” I was skeptical - the seller had very little feedback, and all the PIU PC games are incredibly rare. But I figured at less than $100 shipped it was entirely worth the risk.

I thought it was even more likely to be fraudulent after I saw the seller put up another instance of the same thing, the same day my auction closed. But I held out hope.

Today I got my Pump It Up USB soft pad, two Pump It UP PC games (Evolutionary-US and PREX3, FYI) and my “Complimentary Music CD” (which turned out to be the Banya Original Collection game CD), all perfect and untouched (though Banya wasn’t in the original game case).

I’m in shock. I’m in awe. I’m in ecstasy. But even in my current off-the-wall state, I have come here to report to you, my loyal readers (all two of you) that there is currently a(nother) bundle of PIU Evolutionary, PREX3, Banya, and USB softpad, with a starting bid of $97.01.

A lot of the stuff from Monday’s post is still around, mostly wrapping up in the next couple of days. There are still several zillion PPP game + controller sets for about $80 each. The Keyboardmania set (pieces sold separately) is still available. There’s also a Keyboardmania 1st mix game + controller up, currently under $20 shipped. (That won’t last, obviously.) What, was Keyboardmania declared toxic or something while I wasn’t looking?

There are overpriced copies of PNM 1 & 2 (PS1) which might be nice if you’re desperate.

There are copies of GFDM:V2 and GFDM:MPG for PS2. There are always copies of those up, of course, but the difference is that these actually have starting bids of $6 ($12 shipped). Good games, so if you don’t have them, consider picking them up.

That’s pretty much it. Well, that was fun and pointless. Until next time!

OK, someone suggested that instead of whine about all these great Bemani games I couldn’t get after the fact, I should list them while my BMS acquaintances could still bid on them.

So, welcome to the first ever semiweekly Bemani eBay digest post, wherein I randomly pull out the things that are rare/reasonably priced and blather about them uncomfortably.

The coolest thing this week is probably the full set of Keyboardmania gear with starting bids of $0.01 each. In other Super Session news, there’s also one of those cute little keychain GuitarFreaks games if you’re into that sort of thing.

Next up is the Domestic DDR pile. As usual, all US DDR games are plentiful. As is not usual, this seems to be a good week for DDR: Disney Mix - there’s one here as well as the one here that I mentioned a bit ago.

Beatmania: there are a couple of CDs for the actual arcade games - meant to be popped into that JAMMA setup you surely have lying around. I wouldn’t mention this except that one of them is Beatmania III, which I always seem to have difficulty explaining to people. (”No, really, there was one with a pedal!” “Sure there was…”) There are also a few (5key) 3rd mixes, 4th mixes, etc.

Import DDR: eh, someone has DDRMAX2 and EXTREME JP package up for sale. Good deal if you don’t have either already, since they’re great games.

Pop’n Music: two full sets worth of the Dreamcast games, ending in two and four days, and a non-BH Pop’n 10 for $30.

And I almost forgot to mention this week’s Para Para Paradise firesale. Most game/controller sets are up for $75-80, down from a standard price of $100ish.

Here’s an interesting meme: what does your Amazon.com recommendations list say about you?

In order of size, here are the categories and sub-categories Amazon thinks I like (taken from my “___’s Amazon.com” page):

Applied [Sciences], Software Design, [General] Nonfiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Health, Business, Robotics & Automation, Mathematical Physics, Software Development, Statistics, Probability & Statistics, Number Theory, Entertainment, Neuroscience, Consciousness & Thought, Cognitive Psychology, Recording & Sound, Cosmology, Logic, Object-Oriented Design, Circuits, Perl, Security, Relativity.

You could quibble with the usefulness of some of the larger categories (Health includes most Neuroscience and Cog Psych books, for instance, and Nonfiction includes pretty much everything else), but overall this is not a bad picture of my interests.

Unfortunately, it seems to be deteriorating as I browse. Now it says:

Electrical & Electronics, Pure Mathematics, Arts & Photography, Health, Software Design, Art, Mechanical, Software Development, Mathematical Analysis, Entertainment, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Statistics, Probability & Statistics, Mechanics, Quantum Theory, Study Guides, Systems Analysis & Design, Object-Oriented Design, Mathematical Physics, Neuroscience, Stereo & Audio Equipment, Calculus, Circuit Components, Circuits, Logic.

Where did all the artificial intelligence topics go? And why does “Arts & Photography” contain such gems as Electromagnetics Explained and Noise Reduction Techniques in Electronic Systems?

Thank gdb I didn’t go to work for Amazon.