| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Massively, and more

More Sites You Might Like

You can buy your own SNES retail display unit

by Griffin McElroy on Sep 27th 2010 11:15AM

An eBay user by the name of rifaavalon recently tipped us off to an item of interest that's currently on his storefront: An SNES retail display unit. This relic comes with an illuminated case, a monitor, a console and two built-in controllers -- but no games. (We're sure you have some lying around.)

The opening bid for the display unit is $100, which may seem a tad high for a secondhand video game console cage at first glance. Then again, think of it this way -- you're not just buying a demo unit, you're buying history. Think of all the shoppers this thing distracted with its 16-bit siren song. Better yet, think of all the hand grime that's been baked onto those controllers! Those things could probably be used to re-clone a good portion of the human race in the event of some catastrophic disaster.

Source: eBay

Tags: auction, ebay, nintendo, snes, super-nintendo

Reader Comments (38)

$100 for a non-yellowed SNES console? Probably worth it right there.

@SuperShiggs

Really? I have two that aren't yellow! Too bad I love em' too much to sell them :-/

@SuperShiggs

Yeah, why do they turn yellow? Mine did too but it was beside a window most of the time.

@thisredengine From what I recall, it's a side effect of having the fire-resistant chemicals in the plastics they were forced to use to make later models (causing discoloration over time when exposed to light or air, I forget which).

@SuperShiggs

The bottom half of that one is yellow upon closer inspection.

@onan The yellowing effect can be, almost completely, reversed though. Just do a search for Retr0bright. It's a paste you can make at home and apply to your old consoles and computers to reverse the yellowing. There are some before and after photos on the website, and they are mighty impressive.

@SuperShiggs
Google retr0brite (with a zero). It's some chemical compound that you can mix yourself that completely reverses the yellowing in most plastics.

I'd rather have a Nintendo Super System, to be honest.

Uh... the guy has 0 feedback and that picture is suspect. Doesn't look like the most trustworthy auction.

must. have. NOW.

Wow! I remember those. Such good times standing in Toys R Us trying to get in as much Mario world or DKC as I could before my parents dragged me away. Those things even made Stunt Race FX look awesome.

Why did they cram a Netflix envelope under it though?

@lucktacular - I used to sit in Sears and play on one of these while my mother shopped. Those were the days....

Actually, no, the days after we purchased one for the house were the days. I no longer needed to bother going with my mother to Sears.

thats actually not bad for 100$ ill bet the bid skyrokets in a short amount of time for sure, though! looks to be in good shape too.

This is pretty neat. If I had a game room and collected arcade machines, this thing would probably fit in nicely.

Ultimate monument display! If it were just 100 dollars then I would jumped on this faster than Mario on a Goomba but the bid will eventually rise. I would've cleaned the heck out of it then replaced it with my mint Snes.

Damn, nostalgia. Anyone else feel that?

@Asok

I got some vivid flashbacks of playing SF2 Turbo and Starfox on these. Good times.

Does anyone else have this pet peeve about sellers who don't just have a "BUY IT NOW" for their items? I don't even bother looking at the "auction-type" pages anymore.

@thisredengine You don't like waiting a week to find you were sniped at the last second?

Oh my god, I want it. I spent many an hour behind these machines in stores while waiting on my mom to finish her shopping. "Mom, i'll wait at the games" I remember getting a lot of play on Super Mario World 2 at a sears back in the day.

I remember my mom pulled out one of the controllers on one of these displays so I could play it. I wasn't tall enough to reach them normally at the time. I wonder if you were supposed to be able to do that...

@Seroth Moms can do anything they want. ANY-THING.

I haven't even opened my snes yet... or my xbox... my snes is worth 750:) dollars. yup. my xbox about 70 dollars right now...

Hey guys this is the seller.

Unit is in perfect and I mean perfect condition. I thank the guys at Engadget and Joystiq for getting this out there.

Either way I thought that I would throw this out there, that I will sell this thing, and it will get to you no matter what.

System works like a charm. I played a game of Super Mario World on it before throwing it back into its hiding spot.

Happy Bidding! =)

@rifaavalon

If a yellowed console and yellowed controllers are perfect condition, than my PS3 fat I have on ebay right now is in brand new condition ... >_>

@rifaavalon

don't listen to this jerkoff, he prob wasn't even around when they had these display units up... i was, and i waited in line for about 30 minutes till the last greedy kid got taken away by his mom giving me a chance to hog it for another 30 minutes till my mom dragged me out.

for $100 starting bid its almost insane for a collector/gamer to pass this up. good luck on your bid and i hope you score big (at ebay, dirty minded bastids)

This looks pretty horrid to be honest.
Think about the vendor... the picture tells more than a thousand words about him, and I don't even know how to put all those words.

@Altrix

+1.

Plus, for a perfect system, the second controller's harness seems to be broken, or coming loose (plus, obviously, all the disgusting yellowing..blah).

Lastly, did this not come with a bottom half?

@Altrix

oh no a display unit form the early 90's isn't in perfect condition... this guy is a fraud. a FRAUD!!!!

I'm 25 and I remember those at Toys r' Us, I feel so old... SF2, Mario World, Uniracers, Maximum Carnage, Jurassic Park. I'm old.

@Hawkz900
Have you yelled at kids to get off your lawn or turn down that damned music?

I recently bought a cabinet to put all my old consoles in (all hooked up!) in the living room so my wife and I can look like adults when people are over but can bust out the old school games from time to time.

that would be nice cuz my controllers are broke........wait wtf am i saying, ive got an emulator on this computer!

@x3r9g6 Real Thing > Emulation

Seems like he took down the photo on his auction that has the actual console on it...
yeah I have no trust in this auction at all, but I still bid because it would be sweet to own lol.

Kinda confused why this made news? These store displays are always for sale, eBay and elsewhere. How about a Nintendo Playchoice 10, or a Virtual Boy store display unit? I know where those are for sale if you want to link to them too. Do an eBay seatch for these things for various systems and you'll see em on there semi-frequently.

I want it, but I know that I cannot have it....

@Chazzr - Panties if I'm not mistaken.... silky.....

Breaking News

You can buy your own SNES retail display unit

Reader Comments (38)

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:17AM SuperShiggs said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:24AM HBlakeH117 said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:33AM thisredengine said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:48AM onan said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 1:05PM Oobgarm said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 1:21PM s0mmie said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 3:51PM Levi said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:18AM Ahmedz said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:19AM BongCum said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:23AM HBlakeH117 said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:23AM lucktacular said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 5:16PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:24AM mu93n said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:26AM Poor Tom said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:29AM Hayatoblaze91x said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:30AM Asok said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:44AM ACLerok212 said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:32AM thisredengine said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:42AM FriedConsole said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:41AM KrazyCalvin said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:50AM Seroth said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:08PM CamelCamelCamel said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:35PM Jerri Cop said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:44PM rifaavalon said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:50PM HTCEVO said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 2:03PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:44PM Altrix said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:53PM HTCEVO said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 2:05PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:46PM Hawkz900 said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 1:34PM BrokenTriforce said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:47PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:51PM x3r9g6 said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 1:24PM s0mmie said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 2:49PM Aclos09 said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 3:53PM Levi said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 4:15PM thelolotov said

Posted: Sep 27th 2010 5:20PM BananaBoat said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW