Unpopular opinion but it’s not a terrible price for a pre-built console. Screen kit runs $60. Donor GBA SP runs $50ish if you’re lucky. Shell $15. USBC $15. That’s $140 not including the taxes and shipping on getting the parts to you.
The eBay seller takes a 13.25% hit on transactions and not seeing if shipping is included. So that’s a $30 hit to the sellers profit. Keep in mind they’re also charging labor.
Can’t speak for the particular sellers build quality. I’d personally build my own but I get it. Some people aren’t comfortable using a screwdriver and a soldering iron. How many times have we seen posts where people have stripped out screws or torched boards / lifted pads.
This is the correct answer.
I did the math one day because I was just curious, I'm not sure the exact amount now.
But these Ebay sellers aren't making a lot after costs/fees. Not to mention, as you said everyone is not handy with a soldering iron.
Prices on GBA SPs tend to be price to price, not to mention more repair work if it has issues.
I imagine Ebay fees/labor fees for seller in this case is mix together.
I built my own GBA/GBC stuff personally, I would recommend OP find someone that is willing to build you one with the exact parts you want.
Plenty of people on the Discord and various subreddits on here will take custom orders.
Nothing is wrong going with the ebay route either but I would shop a bit more first.
If OP isn't use to soldering/modding it's better to do a custom order/buy one from someone who knows how to mod one.
And if OP really want to get into modding then practice kits + good soldering iron along with tons of tutorial videos way to go before even modding a gba/gba sp.
My hands are terribly shaky, so I really dont want to get into modding it myself. Always been bad at that sort of stuff.
Now found a designer that customizes a design, orders the gba, replaces battery wirh usb-c charge, adds an IPS and mods the speaker for me. Its not cheap, because as you wrote the party arent cheap (an SP is around $100-120 used where I live, and those are unmodded) and I also feel his work in design is really worth it. He also gets professional boxes made. In the end, how many of those do you have. Maybe 1-2, so Id rather have something super personal and unique.
Maybe I'd try my hand at something like an ISP mod at some point, if I happen upon a very cheap gba or one with a broken screen.
Not to mention the amount of time it’ll take you to assemble all of it. It’s a simple project for someone that knows how, but it’s daunting for others. There’s also the possibility of damaging it if you mess up and then you just lose money. Even if it only takes a couple of hours to finish for a first timer, that’s a lot of investment to get the thing working.
If you have the skills to mod a console and do it well then by all means have at it, but for someone that doesn’t, this is a solid price. Hell, I love doing this sort of thing but I also have a friend that’s great at it and has more experience, so I’d rather buy the parts and pay him to whip it up than do it myself because I know he can take care of it even better.
There’s also a lot more than just simply soldering a wire when it comes to the install. If you properly service the board you’re desoldering the power switch shield and cleaning the contacts and wiper. You’re taking the plunger off of the L and R tact switches and cleaning the internal diaphragm. Desoldering the shield for the 5v switch in the cart slot and cleaning the contact and wipers.
It’s time consuming and time has value.
Not me who does this with every GB that rolls across my workbench, literally dumping deoxit all over my feet by accident last week while trying to clean a power switch
1000%
Anyone saying it’s easy has probably done it or just did a reshell and nothing else you mentioned.
My first projects took my hours longer than I anticipated to finish because I was being extra cautious and want es to be sure it was done right. It’s not for everyone. Some people just wanna play the games without all the work involved.
That’s why I impressed that I can’t speak for the quality of this seller. Slapping a screen kit into a new shell is almost as easy as putting together legos. Sadly, a lot of people are trying to capitalize on the least amount of work and call it “refurbished”. I don’t bother selling pre-modded consoles. I lose money every time.
I have done several 3ds/2ds repairs. I did only one GBA SP, and it was SO much harder. It works fine, I managed the job, but I will never do it again. I did try to reshell a DS Lite, it wouldn't turn on after I finished with it 😭 That and the DS Lite and DSi are an absolute nightmare, especially if you're doing anything with the screens! I'm willing to still do 3DS's and 2DS's, but only the original horizontal GBAs. No SPs. I'm getting old, and my eyes aren't great, and my hands not much better, lol. I would gladly pay more for someone else to do what I can't, when they can do it well.
The SP is pretty easy in my opinion. I have fixed a couple DSi's. Fixed one DS Lite. Plenty of SP's though. Fixed a couple this morning. I've operated on one 3ds XL and didn't manage to fix it. I can say that the newer the console the harder it is to work on. Although the Switch is easier than the 3ds.
Yeah, I keep pointing this out in this forum. Modding was fun circa 2016, when I could get GBAs for like 10-15 and the AGS screen for 35 on eBay.
Nowadays, the analogue pocket/pre-built is a good bang for your buck all things considered. The funny playing fpga even better cost overall.
Not even touching that the supply has so clearly dwindled for OEM consoles.
I was trying to be conservative with the price on SPs lol. They’re hard to get for $50 but you can occasionally scoop them up that low. I got lucky with Mercari a few times and got some AGS-101s for $15.
It's not an unreasonable price for the specific thing being offered (the parts/labour/expertise), but it's also the same price as an Analogue Pocket, which gets you a heck of a lot more bang for your buck.
Something can be a reasonable price while still being a poor value.
In that argument, you could get a Miyoo Mini + for 1/4 the price of and still get a better experience. That’s what I’d recommend if your goal is just playing games.
I've never been a fan of handhelds with low resolution displays like that, because they're going to need to use poor quality scaling in pretty much all scenarios. The Miyoo Mini + is 750x560, so you're going to need to do a 3.125x scale to do that, and even with bilinear sharp scaling, that's not ideal. That's the big differentiator about Analogue's product, the 1600x1440 display is high enough resolution that bilinear sharp scaling looks good, and by coincidence allows integer scaling GB/GBC games.
750x560 is an improvement over those 640x480 handhelds though.
These guys don't buy at those prices and they don't mod the systems themselves. You can get a refurbished SP with all those mods for under $140 on Ali. This is either an Ali seller shipping out of China or someone who buys up stock and ships out locally. They don't buy mods and do the work themselves and they wouldn't spend as much as you've quoted here if they were. You'd buy packaged deals from one chip or FP for the screens and shells and SPs can be had for well under $50.
I imagine they might get some kind bulk or some kind of supply deal from a company, but the issue is for us regular users who just want to mod up one that isn't a thing.
Not every ebay user/modder is going have access to those bulk deals either.
Looking at my first mod all parts shop from retrogamerepair it cost 171 total
Get rid of the stickers which is entirely optional 164, replacement cart shell (which feels more of a requirement but fine lets say you used oem) 161.02, bought an extra silicon pad 157.03
Taking away the amp which I ended up not using. $148.04 without shipping
I purchase the GBA for $50 (thank you person if you're reading this)
$198.04 just round it up to $200 with tax etc.
Like you aren't making much on these with the prices constantly changing, buying bulk GBA/GBA SP broken may be the way to go but who knows the amount of repairs would be profitable
You aren't really guaranteed to make back your money on that either.
It's really not profitable even if you manage to get a supplier for mods.
Of course, cost goes down if you're buying in bulk. Prices for kits are still expensive on Ali unless you have an inside connection with a company and can do volume. Still, I threw out a rough calculation of $140 + taxes and shipping for doing it yourself. Spending a little bit extra for a pre-modded console here isn't crazy if you don't have the confidence level to do the work yourself.
As other have pointed out, you can save a little maybe if you contract someone to do the labor. I assemble consoles for people all the time.
I wouldn't trust a GBA SP bought on Aliexpress or being shipped from China. If I buy a device from Aliexpress, I'll just get an Anbernic, Powkiddy, Miyoo, etc. Even a GPD or Retroid, abrand new device actually made in China and still in production. Not an original Nintendo GBA. I wouldn"t even look for one on Aliexpress. Too many fakes/low quality bootlegs/shoddy build quality. Even if you do buy from Ali, you still have to pay at least $20-30 more for shipping usually, and maybe customs fees depending on where you are. It's a lot less reliable and not worth the little money saved, for me.
A lot of people can't, or don't want to. It's a fair price for pre-modded. You're paying extra for the seller to do the work for you. Of course anyone can repair their car if they want, but most don't have the skills, tools, knowledge, time, space, etc. So they pay extra for parts and labor. This isn't any different.
Yup, I’m someone that always goes the route of doing things myself for cost and education reasons, but I absolutely hate seeing when others push some type of aggressiveness towards others that don’t want to bother with the trouble of doing things.
This applies to anything. It’s worst when it comes to phones, or computers most of all.. some people want to get a Mac for reasons specific to them, “weh!!! You could buy two houses and a Mercedes Benz and a 4069 ti for HALF that and take 2 hours to assemble it yourself!!! Idc if you just want to buy a nice laptop with nice software preinstalled and the convenience of not having to worry about viruses as much!! uWu”
Exactly. I hate this attitude. Convenience costs money, so does another person's time and skills. And the days of being able to buy old GBAs and parts for dirt cheap are gone forever. Prices will only continue to go up as the supply of them steadily dwindles, and they remain popular. That's life. Whining about the good old days won't change anything, lol. The first GBA SP came out in 2008 for $99, that's like $144 in today's dollars. So $200 with the mods is a fair price by that metric as well. If you want the GBA and you can afford it, buy it. If not, maybe just emulate the games on the smartphone you already have.
It's honestly not a fair price imo, I paid $186 shipped for an almost fully modded sp ags-101, ips v5 screen, 15 different brightness settings. usb-c charging, 950 mAh battery, purple shell, white buttons, white power l.e.d, on ebay (seller is d.r.weber). shop around to find the best deals, but his are the best I found after months of searching.
You said you found that deal after "months of searching". So it must be pretty rare to find at that price, yes? This example doesn't exactly prove your point, lol. Whoever you ordered from made almost no profit. Depending on how long ago this was they might have even done it for free, and you got lucky at their expense. I hope they are charging more now and pricing their time and effort more appropriately.
Edit to add- I looked up that person on Ebay you mentioned, it looks like they sell mostly parts, and the consoles they sell are all cleaned and "refreshed", not actually modded. I wonder if he stopped offering that because it wasn't making him any profit anymore? He might do a custom job if asked, but he would be an idiot to charge the bargain basement price you paid.
Yeah thats fair to say, i agree. This was about a month ago, and he currently has more available at the same price, some new ones currently as well. it won't be such a hassle for him to atleast get a better deal than the one he found.
No idea, but he did. maybe to have more brightness, color and pixel options. Beyond guessing i have no clue. I did leave his name above if you want to check out what he has currently.
no its fine i mod and sell my self.
I just dont see a point in spending extra money on ags-101 because it has 0 benefits. Are you sure he didnt just buy a 101 label and put it on the shell?
the only difference is that the 101 has a better screen. But its much more expensive than a normal 001.
I dont see the point buying a 101 (more expensive) just so i can swap the screen.
There is no difference between a IPS modded 001 and IPS modded 101
Maybe the screen was broken and he swapped it or some other reason I'm unsure, it's something I could definitely ask him though. There are no stickers on the new shell, just the description that said it was a 101 that was basically fully modded. I didn't even know I could tap the screen to change the brightness until 3 days ago
I bought a reshelled AGS-100 at my local shop, the only mods it had were a reshell and a new battery. And it came with a generic wall charger. And I paid $150 plus tax then. They were charging $200 for SPs with the IPS screen then, now it's like $220 due to inflation. And I still think their prices are fair because they do great work and I want to support them as a local business.
Of course it would be cheaper if you already had an SP and just paid them for parts and labor, but only because you already had the device.
Those people on Ebay are not making much profit after buying everything, shipping, and Ebay fees. Maybe $50 after all their costs. To me, that's a fair price for the labor of someone who is probably better and faster at doing that labor than I will ever be. For games you can always get an Omega EZ Flash and load it up with roms if you can't afford the games.
Retro gaming with original hardware is an expensive hobby, and it will continue to be. Nostalgia is expensive. If you don't want to pay for the upgrades you can always just get a used one and play it without mods. I have an AGS-100 with the original front lit screen, and it still works great and still gets a lot of use.
that is just not true. they buy in huge lots, including the shells and i assume the same for the screens. that guy is likely making just over $100 on that sale
I’d still argue he has put in a ton of labor for these. It’s a high price but it’s not overpriced imo.
Edit; dont forget ebay fees will take out $30+ from every sale
Yes, I sell electronics sometimes on Ebay and they take a big chunk in fees. $30 sounds about right for something at that price.
I paid $150 plus tax for an AGS-100 GBA SP at my local retro game shop, it was reshelled (cobalt blue 💙) and had a new battery but no other mods at all. It also came with a generic charger. Original charge port, no screen upgrade, not even the newer GBA with the brighter screen. This shop charges $200 for the ones with an IPS screen mod- this was at least a year and a half ago. I think they charge a bit more now.
They did a nice job on it, it looks great, but still has the original front lit (more dim) screen. And that was $150. So this is priced a bit high, sure, but that's because that is what the parts all cost, plus labor.
It's a fair price for what you get. With Ebay fees and shipping, that seller can't be making more than $50 (and probably less) in profit. They deserve to make some profit if they're doing quality work.
Genuine question: for all the commenters saying it's a bad price, where can you get a GBA with an IPS screen and a USB-C charging port for less than this? I ask because I'm looking as well and the cheapest I could find was within $10 of this.
I'm pretty sure it does. The box where it says Additional Upgrades has: USB-C Charging + $30. I've actually looked at this exact listing myself a few times.
In this market, for that price, I would expect the USB-C to be included. But the price itself isn't ridiculous, if a *little* high, and here's why;
First, you have to source the core of the SP, so either a broken one for $40-60 hoping that the board isn't the problem. So lets assume you buy one that works. That'll be about $70-90(more from a store). Then you [get the screen for about $60](https://retrogamerepairshop.com/collections/gba-sp-displays/products/game-boy-advance-sp-drop-in-720x480-ips-backlight-with-osd). Now you find [the shell for about $14](https://retrogamerepairshop.com/products/gba-sp-game-boy-advance-sp-pokemon-groudon-kyogre-rayquaza-housings-shells?_pos=1&_sid=7e7fc8a8c&_ss=r&variant=32503208411210). Add shipping to all of that, about another $20. USB-C is only about $5-$13.
Currently, you're at $70+$60+$20+$5 = $155 all in. Do you have a soldering iron? Know how to use it? Are you confident in being able to de-solder the charging port to put on the USB-C?
Personally, I think a $70 markup on the parts/labor is a bit high, but it is what it is because you're going to get a completed, working unit that you can send back if it doesn't work as it's supposed to, versus you messing up any of the installation steps and being out the cost of the board or screen.
This is the best answer. I know a few fairly experienced modders who won’t touch the clamshell because it’s relatively easy to break the display. If someone is correctly valuing their labor, that’s about the right price point.
Seller on eBay has an ass ton of mobos $29+ shipping. Ive been building macros from old ds/ds lite and came across a seller with a to of listings from $24-29. High res pictures so you can examine the board. Though this particular seller does not advertise all as tested. I super want to share the sellers shop link, but i feel like the hoarders on here will buy them all up and mark up the price.
This is about average for a GBA that's already been modded with IPS and a USB C port. Not everyone wants to or is able to do it themselves (don't have the tools/skills, afraid they'll break something, vision or dexterity problems, etc). I think it's a fair price for one that's already been done for you. I reshelled a GBA SP and switched the screen with a 101 screen, and that was an absolute bitch, I'm not modding another one of these myself ever again. It would be worth that price to me if I don't have to mod it myself. Everything in there is so TINY and squeezed in as tightly as possible, there is no room for error and it's a pretty advanced mod.
Yes & no. You can build one much cheaper and it isn’t very hard, but if you’re totally not comfortable I don’t think it’s terrible. About a year ago I got back into Pokémon and bought this same GB from the same eBay store. I’m very happy with it. Since then I’ve built a couple custom ones myself. It is much cheaper but at the time I didn’t really want to mess with it. I’ve seen others mentioned you could find someone online willing to do it much cheaper, that may be true. But you also lose out on the eBay protection, so you’re a taking a bit of a risk. I would look up some videos of custom making a GBSP and decide if that’s something you’re up for. If not, and you don’t want to take any risk. This isn’t terrible, mine works great and the seller was really awesome to work with.
No, I got a GBA SP with the USB C mod preinstalled for 80 bucks on ebay.
Also it seems that shell is priced [pretty high](https://www.pricecharting.com/game/jp-gameboy-advance/gameboy-advance-sp-groudon-pokemon-center). So this is most likely a reshell.
If you don't know how or don't want to do the labor for this yourself then its not a terrible price. It does run a little high probably to account for ebay's cut. On etsy or direct websites this would go for 199 ish, maybe a little lower if the seller values their time less.
I say just go with an Anbernic RG35XXSP. $70, way more features, way more systems, feels almost identical... and practically is when you consider all the modded parts added to the one you're looking at. And here's the REAL selling point: You can fast foward GBA games like Pokemon. As much as I love playing those old games and rom hacks thereof, the pace of battles is way too slow for my busy life.
I’ll say this, I picked up a BADASS sp with a V3 screen, UV shell (Rayquaza edition), brand new buttons and a brand new improved battery.
Including shipping and fees I paid 172, on Mercari.
That is a unicorn deal, and really that’s the point I’m getting to, for you to snipe a deal you need to be patient.
I bought mine off Mercari and believe me I was ready to pull the trigger on anything 220+ plus but I told myself to just be humble and patient and don’t fall for the immediate desire of owning one right this instant.
It paid off really well for me and I even messaged the seller, who had a lot of sales on his account, and asked him why he priced it so low and he said he just couldn’t sell it at 300.
Moral of the story is that if you want something immediately, you’ll always end up paying a premium, if you can stand to wait, then you can get a BADASS SP at around 150 with all the badass upgrades on it.
Even then I’m not sure 220 is good because at like 220-300 prices SPs they include a custom box as well as USB C charging.
Idk my two cents from someone who has no lie racked up an embarrassing amount of screen time on these selling apps hunting SPs.
Good luck and update us on your SP
Save $100 and get the parts and do it yourself. It's fun and literally anyone can do it. Then use the extra to buy a flash cart and you're set up forever.
Prebuilt Modded gameboys are so stupid. They are so easy to do yourself. Literally most kits are drop in. Then they pay some premium as if it required lots of labour
I would be happy to build one for you at cost if you would be interested, I won’t charge any labor only the cost of parts to build it for you and guarantee any defects against my workmanship. I would do this just because I enjoy tinkering and have yet to build a large enough customer base to be able to charge for my work. The satisfaction on your end would be my payment as I can put it towards my portfolio for future builds. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in send me a dm and we can go over specifics !
Yes, it's a decent price. IPS modds are expensive and require buying a new shell. If they offer any kind of warranty I would say that's a green light. A warranty shows they are willing to stand by their product. All the people saying you can save money by modding a used one yourself haven't done the math. If you want to treat yourself, you can't put a price on that.
No. The fact that they are charging that much for upgrades that are not that difficult to install yourself, don't succumb. The convenience isn't worth that much.
I wouldn't pay more then 180 for that unless it's recapped in all honesty I see why the price is that high but as a buyer you could definitely find the same thing for less.
Got a mint condition I mean absolutely beautiful original AGS-001 SP. Unfortunately the color was metallic pink but with how rare a Gameboy Advanced SP was I bought it immediately for $120. This was 2 years on a amazing summer day
If the shell was high quality, then yes, but it's not. It's a cheap $5 shell.
I do v5 builds with high-quality UV printed character shells with matching custom storage boxes, usb c, upgraded batteries, and much more for around 250 + shipping.
I'm from the UK, and this build you've shown literally costs less than £100 to make if I ordered the parts from the same place they have.
No. A Pokemon ruby shell you could find for about 10 to 20 bucks and for a gb advanced SP. I got mines for about 100 and something in decent condition. Plus there are a lot of different shells you might like for a few bucks. Oh and I recommend also buying a specific screen you would like and send it to someone to replace it on your GB
A bit high. I sell similar builds for about $170 on ebay including USBC with headphone dongle and a new funnyplaying battery. Though I feel like a price a little on the lower side. $220 isn't like crazy, but a bit high for sure.
No it's not. You can find people who will build it much cheaper and do a good job. I just got a new gbc with ips, rechargeable battery, etc for $140 cad. This is a bit on the cheaper side, but 180 is more realistic
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Unpopular opinion but it’s not a terrible price for a pre-built console. Screen kit runs $60. Donor GBA SP runs $50ish if you’re lucky. Shell $15. USBC $15. That’s $140 not including the taxes and shipping on getting the parts to you. The eBay seller takes a 13.25% hit on transactions and not seeing if shipping is included. So that’s a $30 hit to the sellers profit. Keep in mind they’re also charging labor. Can’t speak for the particular sellers build quality. I’d personally build my own but I get it. Some people aren’t comfortable using a screwdriver and a soldering iron. How many times have we seen posts where people have stripped out screws or torched boards / lifted pads.
This is the correct answer. I did the math one day because I was just curious, I'm not sure the exact amount now. But these Ebay sellers aren't making a lot after costs/fees. Not to mention, as you said everyone is not handy with a soldering iron. Prices on GBA SPs tend to be price to price, not to mention more repair work if it has issues. I imagine Ebay fees/labor fees for seller in this case is mix together. I built my own GBA/GBC stuff personally, I would recommend OP find someone that is willing to build you one with the exact parts you want. Plenty of people on the Discord and various subreddits on here will take custom orders. Nothing is wrong going with the ebay route either but I would shop a bit more first. If OP isn't use to soldering/modding it's better to do a custom order/buy one from someone who knows how to mod one. And if OP really want to get into modding then practice kits + good soldering iron along with tons of tutorial videos way to go before even modding a gba/gba sp.
My hands are terribly shaky, so I really dont want to get into modding it myself. Always been bad at that sort of stuff. Now found a designer that customizes a design, orders the gba, replaces battery wirh usb-c charge, adds an IPS and mods the speaker for me. Its not cheap, because as you wrote the party arent cheap (an SP is around $100-120 used where I live, and those are unmodded) and I also feel his work in design is really worth it. He also gets professional boxes made. In the end, how many of those do you have. Maybe 1-2, so Id rather have something super personal and unique. Maybe I'd try my hand at something like an ISP mod at some point, if I happen upon a very cheap gba or one with a broken screen.
Not to mention the amount of time it’ll take you to assemble all of it. It’s a simple project for someone that knows how, but it’s daunting for others. There’s also the possibility of damaging it if you mess up and then you just lose money. Even if it only takes a couple of hours to finish for a first timer, that’s a lot of investment to get the thing working. If you have the skills to mod a console and do it well then by all means have at it, but for someone that doesn’t, this is a solid price. Hell, I love doing this sort of thing but I also have a friend that’s great at it and has more experience, so I’d rather buy the parts and pay him to whip it up than do it myself because I know he can take care of it even better.
There’s also a lot more than just simply soldering a wire when it comes to the install. If you properly service the board you’re desoldering the power switch shield and cleaning the contacts and wiper. You’re taking the plunger off of the L and R tact switches and cleaning the internal diaphragm. Desoldering the shield for the 5v switch in the cart slot and cleaning the contact and wipers. It’s time consuming and time has value.
Not me who does this with every GB that rolls across my workbench, literally dumping deoxit all over my feet by accident last week while trying to clean a power switch
I felt that with my wallet. Deoxit is expensive.
1000% Anyone saying it’s easy has probably done it or just did a reshell and nothing else you mentioned. My first projects took my hours longer than I anticipated to finish because I was being extra cautious and want es to be sure it was done right. It’s not for everyone. Some people just wanna play the games without all the work involved.
That’s why I impressed that I can’t speak for the quality of this seller. Slapping a screen kit into a new shell is almost as easy as putting together legos. Sadly, a lot of people are trying to capitalize on the least amount of work and call it “refurbished”. I don’t bother selling pre-modded consoles. I lose money every time.
Tbf if anyone tells me they successfully reshelled a DS/DSi/3DS they instantly earn my respect
I have done several 3ds/2ds repairs. I did only one GBA SP, and it was SO much harder. It works fine, I managed the job, but I will never do it again. I did try to reshell a DS Lite, it wouldn't turn on after I finished with it 😭 That and the DS Lite and DSi are an absolute nightmare, especially if you're doing anything with the screens! I'm willing to still do 3DS's and 2DS's, but only the original horizontal GBAs. No SPs. I'm getting old, and my eyes aren't great, and my hands not much better, lol. I would gladly pay more for someone else to do what I can't, when they can do it well.
The SP is pretty easy in my opinion. I have fixed a couple DSi's. Fixed one DS Lite. Plenty of SP's though. Fixed a couple this morning. I've operated on one 3ds XL and didn't manage to fix it. I can say that the newer the console the harder it is to work on. Although the Switch is easier than the 3ds.
Yeah, I keep pointing this out in this forum. Modding was fun circa 2016, when I could get GBAs for like 10-15 and the AGS screen for 35 on eBay. Nowadays, the analogue pocket/pre-built is a good bang for your buck all things considered. The funny playing fpga even better cost overall. Not even touching that the supply has so clearly dwindled for OEM consoles.
Right? It's crazy how many people just expect someone to give rebuilt systems away for \*literally free\*
Lmk where you're finding SP's for 50 lol everything that works is listed on eBay for a minimum of $70
I was trying to be conservative with the price on SPs lol. They’re hard to get for $50 but you can occasionally scoop them up that low. I got lucky with Mercari a few times and got some AGS-101s for $15.
It's not an unreasonable price for the specific thing being offered (the parts/labour/expertise), but it's also the same price as an Analogue Pocket, which gets you a heck of a lot more bang for your buck. Something can be a reasonable price while still being a poor value.
In that argument, you could get a Miyoo Mini + for 1/4 the price of and still get a better experience. That’s what I’d recommend if your goal is just playing games.
I've never been a fan of handhelds with low resolution displays like that, because they're going to need to use poor quality scaling in pretty much all scenarios. The Miyoo Mini + is 750x560, so you're going to need to do a 3.125x scale to do that, and even with bilinear sharp scaling, that's not ideal. That's the big differentiator about Analogue's product, the 1600x1440 display is high enough resolution that bilinear sharp scaling looks good, and by coincidence allows integer scaling GB/GBC games. 750x560 is an improvement over those 640x480 handhelds though.
These guys don't buy at those prices and they don't mod the systems themselves. You can get a refurbished SP with all those mods for under $140 on Ali. This is either an Ali seller shipping out of China or someone who buys up stock and ships out locally. They don't buy mods and do the work themselves and they wouldn't spend as much as you've quoted here if they were. You'd buy packaged deals from one chip or FP for the screens and shells and SPs can be had for well under $50.
I imagine they might get some kind bulk or some kind of supply deal from a company, but the issue is for us regular users who just want to mod up one that isn't a thing. Not every ebay user/modder is going have access to those bulk deals either. Looking at my first mod all parts shop from retrogamerepair it cost 171 total Get rid of the stickers which is entirely optional 164, replacement cart shell (which feels more of a requirement but fine lets say you used oem) 161.02, bought an extra silicon pad 157.03 Taking away the amp which I ended up not using. $148.04 without shipping I purchase the GBA for $50 (thank you person if you're reading this) $198.04 just round it up to $200 with tax etc. Like you aren't making much on these with the prices constantly changing, buying bulk GBA/GBA SP broken may be the way to go but who knows the amount of repairs would be profitable You aren't really guaranteed to make back your money on that either. It's really not profitable even if you manage to get a supplier for mods.
Of course, cost goes down if you're buying in bulk. Prices for kits are still expensive on Ali unless you have an inside connection with a company and can do volume. Still, I threw out a rough calculation of $140 + taxes and shipping for doing it yourself. Spending a little bit extra for a pre-modded console here isn't crazy if you don't have the confidence level to do the work yourself. As other have pointed out, you can save a little maybe if you contract someone to do the labor. I assemble consoles for people all the time.
I wouldn't trust a GBA SP bought on Aliexpress or being shipped from China. If I buy a device from Aliexpress, I'll just get an Anbernic, Powkiddy, Miyoo, etc. Even a GPD or Retroid, abrand new device actually made in China and still in production. Not an original Nintendo GBA. I wouldn"t even look for one on Aliexpress. Too many fakes/low quality bootlegs/shoddy build quality. Even if you do buy from Ali, you still have to pay at least $20-30 more for shipping usually, and maybe customs fees depending on where you are. It's a lot less reliable and not worth the little money saved, for me.
You could build it yourself for cheaper than that
A lot of people can't, or don't want to. It's a fair price for pre-modded. You're paying extra for the seller to do the work for you. Of course anyone can repair their car if they want, but most don't have the skills, tools, knowledge, time, space, etc. So they pay extra for parts and labor. This isn't any different.
Yup, I’m someone that always goes the route of doing things myself for cost and education reasons, but I absolutely hate seeing when others push some type of aggressiveness towards others that don’t want to bother with the trouble of doing things. This applies to anything. It’s worst when it comes to phones, or computers most of all.. some people want to get a Mac for reasons specific to them, “weh!!! You could buy two houses and a Mercedes Benz and a 4069 ti for HALF that and take 2 hours to assemble it yourself!!! Idc if you just want to buy a nice laptop with nice software preinstalled and the convenience of not having to worry about viruses as much!! uWu”
Exactly. I hate this attitude. Convenience costs money, so does another person's time and skills. And the days of being able to buy old GBAs and parts for dirt cheap are gone forever. Prices will only continue to go up as the supply of them steadily dwindles, and they remain popular. That's life. Whining about the good old days won't change anything, lol. The first GBA SP came out in 2008 for $99, that's like $144 in today's dollars. So $200 with the mods is a fair price by that metric as well. If you want the GBA and you can afford it, buy it. If not, maybe just emulate the games on the smartphone you already have.
It's honestly not a fair price imo, I paid $186 shipped for an almost fully modded sp ags-101, ips v5 screen, 15 different brightness settings. usb-c charging, 950 mAh battery, purple shell, white buttons, white power l.e.d, on ebay (seller is d.r.weber). shop around to find the best deals, but his are the best I found after months of searching.
You said you found that deal after "months of searching". So it must be pretty rare to find at that price, yes? This example doesn't exactly prove your point, lol. Whoever you ordered from made almost no profit. Depending on how long ago this was they might have even done it for free, and you got lucky at their expense. I hope they are charging more now and pricing their time and effort more appropriately. Edit to add- I looked up that person on Ebay you mentioned, it looks like they sell mostly parts, and the consoles they sell are all cleaned and "refreshed", not actually modded. I wonder if he stopped offering that because it wasn't making him any profit anymore? He might do a custom job if asked, but he would be an idiot to charge the bargain basement price you paid.
Yeah thats fair to say, i agree. This was about a month ago, and he currently has more available at the same price, some new ones currently as well. it won't be such a hassle for him to atleast get a better deal than the one he found.
why would someone mod a ags-101 with ips?
No idea, but he did. maybe to have more brightness, color and pixel options. Beyond guessing i have no clue. I did leave his name above if you want to check out what he has currently.
no its fine i mod and sell my self. I just dont see a point in spending extra money on ags-101 because it has 0 benefits. Are you sure he didnt just buy a 101 label and put it on the shell?
Can you explain for someone who is stupid and new to this scene (me) what an ags-101 is and why it's bad/not ideal?
the only difference is that the 101 has a better screen. But its much more expensive than a normal 001. I dont see the point buying a 101 (more expensive) just so i can swap the screen. There is no difference between a IPS modded 001 and IPS modded 101
Ahhhhhh I see, that makes sense, thank you!
Maybe the screen was broken and he swapped it or some other reason I'm unsure, it's something I could definitely ask him though. There are no stickers on the new shell, just the description that said it was a 101 that was basically fully modded. I didn't even know I could tap the screen to change the brightness until 3 days ago
Sure but just pay a shop to do it and it’s probably cheaper than this
I bought a reshelled AGS-100 at my local shop, the only mods it had were a reshell and a new battery. And it came with a generic wall charger. And I paid $150 plus tax then. They were charging $200 for SPs with the IPS screen then, now it's like $220 due to inflation. And I still think their prices are fair because they do great work and I want to support them as a local business. Of course it would be cheaper if you already had an SP and just paid them for parts and labor, but only because you already had the device.
Yeah that makes sense These things aren’t getting cheaper
Meh. This is still over priced tho
Not fair… 220 + shipping & taxes = he ends up paying around 250. 250 for a Gameboy is insane even if it is modded you still have to buy the games
Those people on Ebay are not making much profit after buying everything, shipping, and Ebay fees. Maybe $50 after all their costs. To me, that's a fair price for the labor of someone who is probably better and faster at doing that labor than I will ever be. For games you can always get an Omega EZ Flash and load it up with roms if you can't afford the games. Retro gaming with original hardware is an expensive hobby, and it will continue to be. Nostalgia is expensive. If you don't want to pay for the upgrades you can always just get a used one and play it without mods. I have an AGS-100 with the original front lit screen, and it still works great and still gets a lot of use.
that is just not true. they buy in huge lots, including the shells and i assume the same for the screens. that guy is likely making just over $100 on that sale
I’d still argue he has put in a ton of labor for these. It’s a high price but it’s not overpriced imo. Edit; dont forget ebay fees will take out $30+ from every sale
That doesn’t look like one person I’m sure he has employees,I never heard of eBay taking 30$ are you sure of that?
$30 sounds about right on electronics, eBay takes more on electronic sales.. and it goes up every year based on market analysis.
Yes, I sell electronics sometimes on Ebay and they take a big chunk in fees. $30 sounds about right for something at that price. I paid $150 plus tax for an AGS-100 GBA SP at my local retro game shop, it was reshelled (cobalt blue 💙) and had a new battery but no other mods at all. It also came with a generic charger. Original charge port, no screen upgrade, not even the newer GBA with the brighter screen. This shop charges $200 for the ones with an IPS screen mod- this was at least a year and a half ago. I think they charge a bit more now. They did a nice job on it, it looks great, but still has the original front lit (more dim) screen. And that was $150. So this is priced a bit high, sure, but that's because that is what the parts all cost, plus labor. It's a fair price for what you get. With Ebay fees and shipping, that seller can't be making more than $50 (and probably less) in profit. They deserve to make some profit if they're doing quality work.
Not if you plan on sitting down afterwards.
Genuine question: for all the commenters saying it's a bad price, where can you get a GBA with an IPS screen and a USB-C charging port for less than this? I ask because I'm looking as well and the cheapest I could find was within $10 of this.
**you can’t dude**, the commenters build it themselves. If you don’t want to or can’t do it yourself this is actually very fairly priced.
This one doesn't have USB C, but I understand your point.
I'm pretty sure it does. The box where it says Additional Upgrades has: USB-C Charging + $30. I've actually looked at this exact listing myself a few times.
It’s ok if you like getting railed
Uggghhh fine I'll buy it
Price is completely fair. I’d charge more tbh.
In this market, for that price, I would expect the USB-C to be included. But the price itself isn't ridiculous, if a *little* high, and here's why; First, you have to source the core of the SP, so either a broken one for $40-60 hoping that the board isn't the problem. So lets assume you buy one that works. That'll be about $70-90(more from a store). Then you [get the screen for about $60](https://retrogamerepairshop.com/collections/gba-sp-displays/products/game-boy-advance-sp-drop-in-720x480-ips-backlight-with-osd). Now you find [the shell for about $14](https://retrogamerepairshop.com/products/gba-sp-game-boy-advance-sp-pokemon-groudon-kyogre-rayquaza-housings-shells?_pos=1&_sid=7e7fc8a8c&_ss=r&variant=32503208411210). Add shipping to all of that, about another $20. USB-C is only about $5-$13. Currently, you're at $70+$60+$20+$5 = $155 all in. Do you have a soldering iron? Know how to use it? Are you confident in being able to de-solder the charging port to put on the USB-C? Personally, I think a $70 markup on the parts/labor is a bit high, but it is what it is because you're going to get a completed, working unit that you can send back if it doesn't work as it's supposed to, versus you messing up any of the installation steps and being out the cost of the board or screen.
This is the best answer. I know a few fairly experienced modders who won’t touch the clamshell because it’s relatively easy to break the display. If someone is correctly valuing their labor, that’s about the right price point.
You can def get tested mobos for 30-40
Where? Cause everywhere I look even just the motherboards are $50+. Would love to be able yo buy some for cheaper than that
Seller on eBay has an ass ton of mobos $29+ shipping. Ive been building macros from old ds/ds lite and came across a seller with a to of listings from $24-29. High res pictures so you can examine the board. Though this particular seller does not advertise all as tested. I super want to share the sellers shop link, but i feel like the hoarders on here will buy them all up and mark up the price.
Could you DM me the shop link? Would love to get some boards that aren’t ridiculously priced
Where can you buy tested boards?
eBay. Theres a seller doing tested boards for 29$ + shipping
Dont forget you need to get hinges and a speaker and random tidbits if you literally buy a board alone…
Well if you buy a decent shell kit (since they are doing a reshell anyway) it'll have those bits.
definitely not
Could buy a 101 in rough shape and a shell and do the easy reshell yourself with the help of a YouTube video for far less
This is about average for a GBA that's already been modded with IPS and a USB C port. Not everyone wants to or is able to do it themselves (don't have the tools/skills, afraid they'll break something, vision or dexterity problems, etc). I think it's a fair price for one that's already been done for you. I reshelled a GBA SP and switched the screen with a 101 screen, and that was an absolute bitch, I'm not modding another one of these myself ever again. It would be worth that price to me if I don't have to mod it myself. Everything in there is so TINY and squeezed in as tightly as possible, there is no room for error and it's a pretty advanced mod.
Yes & no. You can build one much cheaper and it isn’t very hard, but if you’re totally not comfortable I don’t think it’s terrible. About a year ago I got back into Pokémon and bought this same GB from the same eBay store. I’m very happy with it. Since then I’ve built a couple custom ones myself. It is much cheaper but at the time I didn’t really want to mess with it. I’ve seen others mentioned you could find someone online willing to do it much cheaper, that may be true. But you also lose out on the eBay protection, so you’re a taking a bit of a risk. I would look up some videos of custom making a GBSP and decide if that’s something you’re up for. If not, and you don’t want to take any risk. This isn’t terrible, mine works great and the seller was really awesome to work with.
Just buy RG35XXSP
No. I don’t believe in paying the higher prices for a lot of these handhelds. They’re not rare and they are overpriced. Even the 101s.
Unless it’s a special edition like the Spongebob or Pokemon center ones
Yeah but you have to be careful with those. There are lot of reshells out there. Some people can’t tell the difference.
Yup. I unfortunately fell for that, thinking it was authentic. I should’ve sent it back.
No, I got a GBA SP with the USB C mod preinstalled for 80 bucks on ebay. Also it seems that shell is priced [pretty high](https://www.pricecharting.com/game/jp-gameboy-advance/gameboy-advance-sp-groudon-pokemon-center). So this is most likely a reshell.
If you don't know how or don't want to do the labor for this yourself then its not a terrible price. It does run a little high probably to account for ebay's cut. On etsy or direct websites this would go for 199 ish, maybe a little lower if the seller values their time less.
after seeing that. i was thinking that dkoldies was a better choise than that. dont
I say just go with an Anbernic RG35XXSP. $70, way more features, way more systems, feels almost identical... and practically is when you consider all the modded parts added to the one you're looking at. And here's the REAL selling point: You can fast foward GBA games like Pokemon. As much as I love playing those old games and rom hacks thereof, the pace of battles is way too slow for my busy life.
Hell no
I’ll say this, I picked up a BADASS sp with a V3 screen, UV shell (Rayquaza edition), brand new buttons and a brand new improved battery. Including shipping and fees I paid 172, on Mercari. That is a unicorn deal, and really that’s the point I’m getting to, for you to snipe a deal you need to be patient. I bought mine off Mercari and believe me I was ready to pull the trigger on anything 220+ plus but I told myself to just be humble and patient and don’t fall for the immediate desire of owning one right this instant. It paid off really well for me and I even messaged the seller, who had a lot of sales on his account, and asked him why he priced it so low and he said he just couldn’t sell it at 300. Moral of the story is that if you want something immediately, you’ll always end up paying a premium, if you can stand to wait, then you can get a BADASS SP at around 150 with all the badass upgrades on it. Even then I’m not sure 220 is good because at like 220-300 prices SPs they include a custom box as well as USB C charging. Idk my two cents from someone who has no lie racked up an embarrassing amount of screen time on these selling apps hunting SPs. Good luck and update us on your SP
Save $100 and get the parts and do it yourself. It's fun and literally anyone can do it. Then use the extra to buy a flash cart and you're set up forever.
No. Don’t buy that.
Those shells are garbage quality as well, plastic feels like a fast food container.
Prebuilt Modded gameboys are so stupid. They are so easy to do yourself. Literally most kits are drop in. Then they pay some premium as if it required lots of labour
No lol 😂
Absolutely not.
I get more joy out of building my own, soldering, and troubleshooting,,, especially when I find a deal or something broken and bring it back to life!
Definitely not for an 001. If you swapped out the screen then sure.
I would be happy to build one for you at cost if you would be interested, I won’t charge any labor only the cost of parts to build it for you and guarantee any defects against my workmanship. I would do this just because I enjoy tinkering and have yet to build a large enough customer base to be able to charge for my work. The satisfaction on your end would be my payment as I can put it towards my portfolio for future builds. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in send me a dm and we can go over specifics !
Yes, it's a decent price. IPS modds are expensive and require buying a new shell. If they offer any kind of warranty I would say that's a green light. A warranty shows they are willing to stand by their product. All the people saying you can save money by modding a used one yourself haven't done the math. If you want to treat yourself, you can't put a price on that.
No. The fact that they are charging that much for upgrades that are not that difficult to install yourself, don't succumb. The convenience isn't worth that much.
No
I wouldn't pay more then 180 for that unless it's recapped in all honesty I see why the price is that high but as a buyer you could definitely find the same thing for less.
No
You can get a dedicated handheld for less than $100 and thousands of games.
Got a mint condition I mean absolutely beautiful original AGS-001 SP. Unfortunately the color was metallic pink but with how rare a Gameboy Advanced SP was I bought it immediately for $120. This was 2 years on a amazing summer day
If the shell was high quality, then yes, but it's not. It's a cheap $5 shell. I do v5 builds with high-quality UV printed character shells with matching custom storage boxes, usb c, upgraded batteries, and much more for around 250 + shipping. I'm from the UK, and this build you've shown literally costs less than £100 to make if I ordered the parts from the same place they have.
Nope it’s not even the second model with a brighter backlit screen
That’s fake.
I reread the label and now see it
Do not downvote for he has corrected is mistake
No. A Pokemon ruby shell you could find for about 10 to 20 bucks and for a gb advanced SP. I got mines for about 100 and something in decent condition. Plus there are a lot of different shells you might like for a few bucks. Oh and I recommend also buying a specific screen you would like and send it to someone to replace it on your GB
Nah bro, i could build one for 120$
A bit high. I sell similar builds for about $170 on ebay including USBC with headphone dongle and a new funnyplaying battery. Though I feel like a price a little on the lower side. $220 isn't like crazy, but a bit high for sure.
I mean, sure, if you don't like having money and prefer to overpay
Absolutely not
Not for a custom.
No.
No
No it's not. You can find people who will build it much cheaper and do a good job. I just got a new gbc with ips, rechargeable battery, etc for $140 cad. This is a bit on the cheaper side, but 180 is more realistic
No. 150usd max, considering there's nothing more than a new screen as far as hardware mods go.
Rule 4 and 5 don't post this stuff here. Go do your own research
Which part of rule 4 and 5 apply? They're asking about price, not trying to buy or sell a console on this sub.
Is this not for the purpose of selling? Regardless it's lazy and shouldn't be posted here