Why such a big price difference in PCE consoles?

[juggernaut]

One of my friends is in Japan at the moment. I have asked him to find me a nice complete RX, if the price is right. He mailed me back with prices of the PCE consoles. All boxed. Since the japanese tend to re-seal their consoles, he could not confirm if the packages included styrofoam, instructions etc.

Duo-RX : $265
DUO-R : $165
DUO : $91 (!!!)

Now im just wondering why the heck, DUO is so cheap compared to the RX.

[FM-77]

Because everybody wants the latest and greatest! The Duo is old and ugly (and features hardware problems), whereas the RX is exotic and rare. Nobody bought the RX back then since it was identical to the Duo-R, and it was too late in the PCE's life cycle.

[Turbo D]

I've noticed it go the other way around on ebay lately. I was confused actually.

[FM-77]

That's not true. The American Duo is generally more expensive as it was the only model to get released there. The Japanese Duo is the cheapest model of them all.

[Tatsujin]

NEVER seen a complete/boxed DUO for below the US$150 recently (means the last two years)!! there's somethiung wrong.

the DUO normally is slightly below the DUO-R. the RX can reach the US$300 mark, if complete/mint!!

[juggernaut]

I really thought the Duo (JP/US) was the icing on the cake for cd lovers. The american Duo on the other hand is expensive, true. Despite their hardware issues, people seem to prefer the black model, and that confuses me. It has to be a matter of taste, i guess.

[Turbo D]

within the past month I've seen reputable japanese ebay vendors selling pcengine duos for more than pcengine duo-rs and rxs. I didn't mean the american one, haha.

[juggernaut]

Dream Stars have this on Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PC-ENGINE-DUO-SYSTEM-pc-engine-JAPAN_W0QQitemZ300083867077QQihZ020QQcategoryZ4315QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
Expensive? Perhaps. Personally i would go all the way, and grab this baby instead:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PC-ENGINE-DUO-RX-SYSTEM-JAPAN_W0QQitemZ300123001812QQihZ020QQcategoryZ4315QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

[Black Tiger]

I've always been able to find Duo RX's for about the same price as R's, which is why I bought a boxed RX.

I believe that their 'potential' prices are based on rarity. Since the PCE Duo sold well for years, before being replaced with the Duo R which didn't get to sell for as long before being replaced with the RX which came near the end of the PCE's lifespan.

And of course, the Turbo Duo is rarest of all. But really, completest North American collectors like to collect U.S. consoles and there aren't as many who go crazy for imports. They're also usually more misinformed about non-mainstream stuff like Turbo and are driven solely on perceived rarezness when driving up prices for stuff like Dynastic Hero, Super Airzonk and Bonk 3.

And even the few who actually intended on fooling themselves that they may one day actually accidentally play some games, their ignorance of the console as a whole leads them to buy a U.S. system so they don't have to deal with figuring out how to operate some strange foreign machine.

[Turbo D]

I just enjoy playing, not collecting. but all collectors of Turbo/pce have my respect. I would play whatever duo worked us or japan.

[Joe Redifer]

How is the RX controller?  It looks awesome.

[Tatsujin]

It looks awesome.

and plays awful.

basically it's the same as for the PC-FX (exept for the different connector).

[Keranu]

I disagree with Tatsujin and think it's a very good controller. My main complaint is that the buttons aren't nice American concave style like the Avenue Pad 6.

[MrFulci]

The Black Duo is nice. I have the US version, it's not presented me with any issues.

The Black Duo has a headphone-out jack, and volume wheel for that jack, the R and RX lack that.

Most of the complaints I've read concerning malfunctioning sound on Duo's, seems to involve the Black Duo's. I've not read quite so much abotu similar issues with the white systems (R's). Either, this is due to more of the regular Duo's being out there (And that they are a bit older), or that somethign was changed with the R's.

I've read that the R's use the same board, etc that the regular Duo uses, however, it lacks the headphone jack.

Parts may have changed with the Duo-R's. Perhaps, they used better quality parts in some areas.


In general, I've read more folsk having issues with the regular Duo, as opposed to the R and RX

[Turbo D]

do you guys think that the rx pad is better that the hori one? I've been looking for both, but results have unfortunately come up dry.