I pride myself on being meticulous and nit-picky, and as such, I don’t do dirty. EVER. You will never receive a product from me, which employs a used piece of hardware, that is dirty, crusty, smelly, etc. It won’t happen. This is part of my process. Even if you send your own personal fresh and clean unit in, it will come back to you fresher and cleaner than when it arrived. I soak, spray, polish, scrub, wipe, and whatever else it takes to make sure these things are as close to factory fresh as humanly possible.
I’ve been trying to find the perfect example from which I can extract a very clear illustration of the lengths in which I will go in order to bring something back to life. That example arrived at my doorstep not long ago (I actually bought this one online knowing good and well how utterly disgusting it was). This is how it arrived, in a stinky padded envelope, wrapped in a sticky grocery bag.
Click on that sucker to see it in all its icky detail.
Amazingly, it worked. The buttons felt like they’re been soaked in Dr. Pepper and the power switch required a pry bar to slide, and it smelled like it had consumed an entire carton of Philly Blunts on its own, but it worked. Success! This IS the Gameboy I’ve been looking for!
Believe it or not, this is the exact same unit. The only replacement parts were a battery cover (since none was present) and a glass lens. EVERYTHING else is original.
See that plastic cup in the upper-left corner? Yup, that’s what remains of the stuff used to clean this thing. A dozen or so Q-tips, a fistful of paper towels, about a third of a magic eraser, etc. Not to mention the strain that this thing put on my cleaning products 😛 I would actually feel comfortable licking this GBA at this point. Now its something that I would have no issue with handing off to a customer.
And I do it all for you! 🙂
cheers,
wiggy
Adam B. said:
By the looks of it, they should have paid you to take it off their hands! Nicely done btw.
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quinn said:
holy shit that’s amazing!
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Evan W. said:
Glass Lens? Do you have a similar one for the Gameboy Color? I’d love to get something that’ll stay (mostly) scratch free!
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wiggy said:
I only have plastic lenses for the GBC. I can check to see if there’s a glass option with my supplier though.
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wiggy said:
Well thanks!
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Anonymous said:
Nice! I would’ve replaced the speaker though. They’re very easy to find and you don’t have to sacrifice sound quality.
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wiggy said:
There was no need. It was in great shape under the grime 🙂
I do indeed replace them when needed 😉
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NintenDaniel said:
Where did you get the new stickers for the back?
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wiggy said:
Actually they’re made by the same fellow that produces the micro faceplates for me 🙂
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wiggy said:
Also, some I’m still make by hand, like the serial number labels. I used to make them all by hand
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gustavo said:
How much did you pay for that? i can imagine next to nothing..
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wiggy said:
I think in the $5 range 😉
Always hunting for cheap, busted systems to bring back to life 🙂
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Jonathan said:
Very impressive! What cleaning products do you use?
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wiggy said:
Thanks!
Mostly just this stuff:
Isopropyl
Windex
Tarnex
Goo-Gone
Plain old dish soap
Haven’t let a whole lot that can’t b cleaned by that stuff. When I do, then I usually have to move on to stuff like steel and brass wool, wire brushes, various rubbing compounds and polished. But that’s pretty rare.
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Christer Marius Abrahamsen said:
wow, was that stored in a septic-tank or woot?
Great clean up!
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wiggy said:
I know, right? At least it didn’t smell quite as bad as it looked 🙂
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Marcos said:
How do you remove the battery connector from the back of the gba?
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wiggy said:
A small flathead screwdriver. Push it in from the underside and it’ll pop right out.
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Blankita said:
So, I’m confused you can clearly see that the back has different stickers the QR code wasnt invented until recently. So is the back new? Because I’m sure you didn’t purchase new stickers? Also you didn’t tell us your secret on what you use to clean it I have permanent marker on mine and I can’t seem to find something to take it off
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