I was one of the people bidding more than 500 for that one. That "NEW" Turbo Duo that I bought two weeks back turned out not to be so new after all. The power adapter was a used adapter showing signs of repair from some Japanese model, the packin games were missing and there was no manual either. The controller had scratches too. About the only thing minty in that box was the system itself so I was in the process of forcing the buyer to take it back and refund me so I could get that other "New" listing instead.
I think I might as well hang onto the one I got now.
Let me get this straight. First you spent $500 on
Duo #1 and you thought the modern Radio Shack-ish box was a stock PSU and you were
surprised that it didn't come with the pack-ins and manual that weren't in any of the four pictures??
Then,
two weeks later, you turned around and bid over $500 on
Duo #2 from a lying seller.
Let me tell you something - that "new" Duo doesn't even work. The seller said it has never been booted up because it's suffering from cap failure/sound issues and he can deny any accountability if he passes it off as new. Having no qualms about opening everything up to take pictures, but stopping short of testing it is a bunch of bologna. The hucard, bandstripe, and shrinkwrap are missing and the box is beat to hell because it's been in his "climate-controlled" closet and the system has been taken in and out of it over the years. The Duo has been used and he doesn't know how to fix it, but he was smart enough to keep most of the packaging and hopes he can still pass it off as new to a sucker like you.
Meanwhile, you still don't know what a new Duo even looks like, but you'll continue to blow ghastly amounts of money while relying on Wikipedia for your information and bitching about an imagined "ebay Cartel" while the rest of us sit around bitching about the auctions you're bidding on and wondering why our hobby is going down the drain. Thanks pal.
According to Wikipedia the Turbo Duo went on sale in '92, so I think the seller's memory is a bit fuzzy.
Rather than wondering if that's true, you could confirm the fact and maybe learn a thing or two by going on Estaban's magazine archive and reading any article about Turbo Technologies in 1992... or you could look at the manufacturer date from 1992 on the bottom of your non-minty Duo.
FWIW, i did get mine in the summer of 91 ordered from Sears Catalog. (8th Grade Grade grad gift.)
Check the date by your serial number. I guarantee it's 1992.