So, for years this peripheral sat as the Holy Grail of NES collecting...
An "A+" rarity, it was rarely seen (if ever) and when one did pop up, it was usually a one-of cart, or maybe a deck enhancer/cart combo.
A couple times, retrogame dealers would come across a lot and sell them for astronomical prices.
Fast forward to today, where anyone with 3rd Grade Ebay skills can not only have "a Deck Enhancer", but a complete, factory sealed ADE with every game (sealed as well) for under $100.
Where did these come from?
That was the question I asked the great ebay seller who I bought mine from...
It turns out that the people who were fortunate enough to luck into this lot of Deck Enhancers and games weren't gamers at all.
Someone went to an auction in New York State up near the Canadian border, and purchased a couple of "containers" as they are called (Giant steel boxes about the size of a trailer on an 18 wheeler). The containers were purchased for sole value of the containers themselves without any regard to the contents.
Upon opening the containers, they found what looked to be store returns of some kind... Clothing, etc... Somewhere midway in the container, they came across a large cache of ADE's and games... They did some initial research and listed them for sale. They have been selling them piecemeal on ebay since then.
Brand new, sealed, with all games, for under $100.
If anyone has ever wanted one, I would suggest that you get one now while these people are selling theirs and the market prices are depressed accordingly. Once they run out of them and the only people selling ADE setups are random here-and-there collectors who were smart enough to buy now, expect them to sell for much, much more than that.
Wow, thanks for the info. I will look into that.
Anyhow, yeah, the ADE are pretty rare. I have never had one in my possesion, but I have read about them.
I got mine for around $77 USD... can't remember the exact price right off-hand. It was well worth it though. As stated earlier, once this suppy is exhausted, it'll be jacked back through the roof to get your hands on these. I was very pleased with how fast they shipped to me. You may have to ask for feedback if you're a regular eBayer, though. They didn't leave me any, and since I don't really shop on there alot I didn't push the issue.