RGB modded PC Engines for sale - eBay banned my mods

[pcenginesales]

I'm in a right mess and hope you can help out.

So basically some piece of scum is reporting all my listings (ALL my RGB and AV console mods, not just PCE) under the word "mod" just because he sells modded Famicoms (sans mention of mod) and UN modded PCEs (though I expect not for long, as a 0 feedback newbie regged in the same area as him bought one of my white engine mods last month.)

The listings do not contravene eBay policy, but I can't persuade eBay of that. And if I relist the items as just "SCART cable supplied" this scum artist will report me again.

And I was about to register the modded consoles and cables thing as a proper business. Was doing quite nicely.

Ebay are taking freaking FOREVER to respond over this and I don't trust them to EVER respond. These systems weren't even import modded either.
The SCART cables were detachable on both the white engine and Core systems.

I'm in a really bad mood at the moment as you can probably guess but if anyone wants a console I guess they go £5 cheaper now til we see if eBay will ever give me my livelihood back.

I might start a site up or something but I still do not know anything other than basic HTML so bear with me.

This is the mod for the white engine (cores are obvious)

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l291/adolchristin_2006/whiteenginesocket.jpg

All the consoles are in white unstained condition if white engine, good overall used if the other two (some are very nice.) All come with original pad and SCART lead. There's an option of a US/JP or UK power supply too, if you don't want that, please discount £6. They all have an internal amp.

The price is £55 for white engine, £50 for Cores. £15 extra for white engine US/JP mod, £20 extra for Core US/JP mod (requires a hole cut in console, uses a small black slider switch at side of console. White engine US/JP uses existing switch, no holes made.) I hate cutting holes in consoles so you pay extra for my mental stress, oh and a bit for the switch.

If you want to back me up on eBay please ask, I will give you contact details and details of my case, would really appreciate if people tell eBay that they are wrong on this because most my consoles on there do go to people who've been either out of the loop on PC Engine for ages and don't know this site, or new retro connosieurs brought over by Virtual console and stuff. Besides, the other seller is a scum artist.

Ebay have flagged my account over this so I can't just reword and relist, they'll know, meanwhile the other seller looks innocent. Even though he sells "AV Famicoms." I can't win this one til they just realise that RGB mods are not piracy enablers, or import enablers.

[pcenginesales]

Oh I should add perhaps, I only have one white engine, one core II and one Core in stock. I just will be getting more in soon. I'm an idiot who assumes that just because eBay have allowed me to sell these non policy breaking, perfectly legal consoles for 8 years, that they won't destroy me in the space of a week after I negotiate a few more consoles coming in from my Japanese suppliers. I have soe Famicoms in stock too, modded for AV. I'm not allowed to sell those, either. I hate that other guy! (It's nobody from this forum, and probably nobody that anyone here has bought from either.)

[Digi.k]

only thing I can suggest is you create your own web page and link it to your ebay one

[Duo_R]

PCenginesales, question for you. Do you build amps for your RGB modded consoles? Also do you make and sell your PCE Scart cables (and are they the 8 pin standard)?


thanks,

Duo

[pcenginesales]

Hi,

Yes I do put amps in the consoles. I also build extender leads with the amp in, which are the full amp with all the resistors and the inside of the SCART is a crazy mess to cram all that in and prevent components touching but it all works and is a help if you don't have the amp in the unit.

And those are £15 and look like this http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l291/adolchristin_2006/colourbooster2.jpg

I can indeed build the (8 pin) cables for the larger socket consoles and sell them but it just seemed a bit redundant because the way I wire up the cable will likely differ from other mods. I do this:

         R    B
            G

Then the 5 pins underneath are the same as the regular pinout.

I sell Neo Geo cables which are similar but not identical pinouts and I have in past wired up PCE mods for Neo Geo arrangement except with sync wired for the second pin for stereo. Now I feel that rather than wire as Neo Geo a better way to do this is actually to leave the 5 pin arrangement alone, as if the console is ever sold in future to a non SCART using owner then they are going to be annoyed that the standard A/V cables don't work in stereo.

The white engines are wired as Sega Megadrive II.

Now I'm mostly selling cables on eBay which is only half of my business and consoles were the other half. Like I say my HTML is basic at best and I've relied on eBay for years, also I'm not established as a site like chaoticjelly et al and as I use my ability to speak Japanese to negotiate cheap deals I can sell my consoles more cheaply than most of these sites. I've been sticking to eBay as that is where the bargain hunters go, and the new converts, and the people who plain balk at the prices outside of eBay (though I understand that if you buy in your consoles at some of the costs I've seen non modded go in THIS country, the price on top is well worth it for the extensive mod. I charge a similar price for the mod, I just buy the consoles in for lower.)

What I am saying is I do not like competing with such established people.

My major fear is eBay started targetting ENDED listings over the word "mod" and I've sold 9 consoles in the past fortnight, any more infractions are going to get me kicked off eBay permanently, tey haven't caught ALL the listings and worse yet I've sold NOTHING THAT CONTRAVENES POLICY but as eBay don't understand what RGB, A/V and probably even SCART means they blanket assume they are codewords for piracy enablers.

The copetition has reported all my Core Grafx sales just because he is selling a Core this week and clearly wants all past sales OFF THE SITE as they impact his current listings (and may cause buyers to get in touch with me for a better deal.) If he starts selling white engines I'm doomed, he's avoided such so far for lack of A/V but he bought one of my modded systems that clearly he will reverse engineer.

I know it's him who did this cause eBay slipped up and all but told me, I put two and two together and compared addresses on the previous purchase by the 0 feedbacker.

[pcenginesales]

When I say I build amps though, I don't make PCBs or anything if that's what you mean and were looking for a supplier.

I do need to branch out a bit but with the existing sellers out there, forgive me if I feel there's not much of a market. I need to live on this as I was doing on eBay.

[termis]

Do you know for sure that the other seller is reporting your auctions?  Because for me, I always had my "import modded" saturns taken off after about a day or two, so I highly suspect ebay uses some kind of automatic filter which scans video game auctions for key words like "mod", "switch", which will then get flagged, and after that, basically no point in trying to argue with ebay after they remove it.

I did have a sneaky workaround -- After the initial removals of couple of my import-modded saturns, I re-listed it, but I wouldn't say *anything* about the mod switch in the actual auction itself.  I just had a picture of the switch in the auction, and having the auction title as "one-of-a-kind" to attract potential bidders.  Then I'd say in the auction, "see below to see frequently asked questions".   Then I'd leave it for 2 days or so.  After this point, it should've safely gone over any automatic ebay/filters (of key words like import mods, etc).  At this point, I'd simply log on as another randomly created ebay user, and essentially send myself "ask the seller a question" about what the switch was for.  Then I logged back on as my original self, gave detailed description of what the import switch mod was for, and posted the answer publicly (which the question/answer will then show up on the bottom of the auction).  So with this system, anyone who clicked on the auction could read what it was for, and it'd avoid the ebay filters, as filter system doesn't seem to scan public questions/answers about the auction for those key words. 

It worked 100% of the times -- I sold about 6 import-switch modded saturns this way.  I'm sure I might've gotten a tad more per auction if the "imported modded" tag was allowed in the title, but I still got a huge premium over what bone-stock saturns were going for on ebay.

[pcenginesales]

Do you know for sure that the other seller is reporting your auctions? 

"I know it's him who did this cause eBay slipped up and all but told me"

Basically I'm not giving details because it would get the only eBay employee who has been remotely helpful to me in trouble.

The listings are being pulled up to two weeks after they have *ended.* And any current ones I list are being removed. Obviously a report... and definitely a reported anyway because I have been assured by eBay that the person who reported me is being investigated to find a link between his auctions and mine, which they can't find (because the swine fails to mention an AV capable burgandy/cream model Famicom is not POSSIBLE sans mod!

[pcenginesales]

Also, I removed the word "mod" fro the listing, the seller still got it removed over pointing out I had in fact altered the console, something that was well detailed in the listing.

The mods I do are not against eBay policy. I know and you know that your's were. You can't list import mods on eBay and I first tried a Saturn one in the year 2000. As my mods do not go against policy, they may well be casually glanced over by T+S but it's not til a community member makes a complaint and a false claim that they are pulled.

I have happily sold the PCE consoles on eBay for 8 years til this miscreant showed up.

I am probably going to lose my account, because after a certain number of pircay related policy breaches you are suspended indefinitely, and as I have so many ENDED auctions that I cannot alter the wording of, that eBay are pulling weeks after the fact, I'm at the mercy of this shit stirrer.

[Duo_R]

This is absolutely brilliant advice for listing a modded system! 

Do you know for sure that the other seller is reporting your auctions?  Because for me, I always had my "import modded" saturns taken off after about a day or two, so I highly suspect ebay uses some kind of automatic filter which scans video game auctions for key words like "mod", "switch", which will then get flagged, and after that, basically no point in trying to argue with ebay after they remove it.

I did have a sneaky workaround -- After the initial removals of couple of my import-modded saturns, I re-listed it, but I wouldn't say *anything* about the mod switch in the actual auction itself.  I just had a picture of the switch in the auction, and having the auction title as "one-of-a-kind" to attract potential bidders.  Then I'd say in the auction, "see below to see frequently asked questions".   Then I'd leave it for 2 days or so.  After this point, it should've safely gone over any automatic ebay/filters (of key words like import mods, etc).  At this point, I'd simply log on as another randomly created ebay user, and essentially send myself "ask the seller a question" about what the switch was for.  Then I logged back on as my original self, gave detailed description of what the import switch mod was for, and posted the answer publicly (which the question/answer will then show up on the bottom of the auction).  So with this system, anyone who clicked on the auction could read what it was for, and it'd avoid the ebay filters, as filter system doesn't seem to scan public questions/answers about the auction for those key words. 

It worked 100% of the times -- I sold about 6 import-switch modded saturns this way.  I'm sure I might've gotten a tad more per auction if the "imported modded" tag was allowed in the title, but I still got a huge premium over what bone-stock saturns were going for on ebay.

[pcenginesales]

This is absolutely brilliant advice for listing a modded system! 

Sadly I can't do it, right now I live off my eBay account.

All it would take would be for a competitor to read the Q+As, report the listing and have it actually READ by a real person at eBay, and removed.

Any report on an eBay listing results in a real person reading it.

My account is already targetted by a hostile competitor, so I NEED eBay to realise the mods contravene no policies of theirs.

If I did this and had the listing reoved, I'd very likely be kicked off for good. My account is 8 years olds with thousands of feedback and I live off it.

I'm in a real mess.

[termis]

Well, that's shitty.

I suppose if you know who it is for sure, sabotage can be a two-way game 

[kitkit.com]

pcenginesales, sorry to hear about your trouble with Ebay. I have bought many PC Engine games from you before and you were very honest and professional in our deal.  I am willing to send Ebay an email explaining your "mod" does not violate piracy.  Just PM me the detail. Good luck!

[Zeon]

because the swine fails to mention an AV capable burgandy/cream model Famicom is not POSSIBLE sans mod!

I just thought of something. How exactly does he list said Famicoms? If he calls it an "AV Famicom" that is misrepresenting the product as the "AV Famicom" is an entirely different revision of the Famicom altogether with different features notably the av capability and nes controller ports. Surely he could be flagged for that? Or someone could win one of his auctions and file an "item not as described" complaint, and file a chargeback because the item he is selling is CLEARLY not an AV famicom.

Of course this all depends on how he words things, in fact if someone did buy one of his "AV Famicoms" they could simply open it up and take pictures as proof that they are modded. Ebay is more about protecting the buyer than the seller lately it seems, so they would probably rule in favor of the buyer.

Also since ebay is so unknowledgable about this stuff who is to say that a pc engine does not support rgb out of the box? In fact it DOES, you just have to make it external in some usable form. Just call it a "RGB capable Pc-Engine" and mention how it has improved video quality, hell you could even say it's a very specific model released in Japan. Or even better say in the description that all Pc-Engines are rgb capable, and you have a rare/special cable that lets you take advantage of it.

If the other seller flags it again, he will have to provide info on how a pc-engine needs to be modded to support rgb out. If he does that you can flag his and provide info on how he is not selling "AV famicoms" and is misrepresenting the product.

Swine like this really piss me off, I hope HE is the one to get banned.

[Duo_R]

I would just drop that guy an email, and ask him if he really wants to start a Tony Montana scale war with you. Because we could all shill bid his auctions with shill accounts and negative feedback him like crazy. Or he can walk away unscathed.