Messing with a collectible...

[Cless Aileron]

Just as a little question to ask.  Now, first of all, I have to show what I spent $180 on:



If you don't know what it is, it's the tournament edition arcade stick that was for sale exclusively at this year's Comic Con and only 250 of these were made for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  Due to the limited print, it's already on eBay for like $300!  Pretty much, this is the big thing I grabbed there.

Now, I am already using it today (it's what brought me back into playing Street Fighter IV and Soul Calibur IV and I'm going to use it for the rerelease of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 on Wednesday and Tekken 6 in October) so when I bought it, I had every intent to use it for my fighting games (and even a few other arcade games *cough Ikaruga cough*).  Modifying it is more of a different story and I got a little curious about your opinions on messing with a collector item like the one I have here.

I thought about doing a little modification to the stick, one being swapping the artwork there.  To put it this way, if I had gotten a TE stick when Street Fighter IV came out back in February, I would have customized it to be more of a Tales of Vesperia themed stick (with this stick, I found myself deciding against doing it).  And if I find I prefer a different kind of gate that the stick uses, I would swap it out.  Oh yeah, and there's also modding it so it can be used on a Playstation 3 as well as on an Xbox 360.

Now, considering the situation here, I'd like to ask what you think about with these questions (I'll answer my own question, just so you see what I say about the topic):

1.  Would you have, for example, sold the collectible arcade stick on eBay instead, even if you were looking to get one of these arcade sticks to play fighting games with?

If that was my intent, I would have bought more than one, like what I've seen others doing.  I bought the stick with the intent of playing my fighting games with it.

2.  If you decided to use it and just take good care of it, would you have modify it in anyway (change the artwork or modify the inside with some parts)?

I'm finding myself not wanting to do it to this stick due to the collectible status.  Now, I do want to modify it to have it also be used on a Playstation 3 and look into seeing if I prefer a different kind of gate for the stick.

So, I just want to hear what you have to say about messing with a collectible.

[pedrocasilva]

I wouldn't modify it, if I wanted something to mess with I'd get some regular SFIV stick (the $70 ones) or a standard Horii one... or something like that. And if I couldn't afford a extra one, or didn't want to have an extra one... then I'd sell that one, for $300, get a $70 one and profit $230... which is more than what I have at the bank at the moment. *sobs*

Also, cheers on getting your hands on such a valuable item.

[Kogahazan]

1) Would you have, for example, sold the collectible arcade stick on eBay instead, even if you were looking to get one of these arcade sticks to play fighting games with?

If I could afford it, I would have bought the original tourney edition stick for personal use and get this collector's edition for selling. I'd be eating most the cost of the first stick, but I would keep it to use.

2) If you decided to use it and just take good care of it, would you have modify it in anyway (change the artwork or modify the inside with some parts)?

I wouldn't modify the collector's edition, however I may as well if I'm keeping it to use. I personally am not too fond of the artwork on the collector's edition, so the first thing I'd consider modding is the art. If I really wanted to preserve the collector's value of it, I wouldn't use it at all and keep it as a display piece, but sticks are meant for using so I would just get one of those regular tourney edition sticks and be more willing to mod it.

I'm starting to have trouble with square gates now for whatever reason. Squares are nice for shooters like Ikaruga because in games like those, you want to make small movements at a time and the square gates excel at that because they're sensitive to small movements.

However for fighting games, it is perhaps because of the Happ style sticks at school that I am starting to prefer octagonal gates as of late. I'm having trouble hitting the lateral directions when doing quarter circles or similar. It's sensitive, so my hand wants to stop motion after hitting a diagonal because I don't want to move so much that I hit the next diagonal, like if I was doing a quarter circle forward motion, I don't want to move my hand so much that I hit the up diagonal.

So if I was serious about getting back into fighters, I would try to see if I can get used to the square gate before looking into octo gates, and would modify that if I felt that octo gates were better for me.
The buttons are supposed to be okay, but I've heard about better ones, I would possibly look into swapping out the buttons as well if I felt the default buttons aren't as good as I want them.

[Carnivol]

In general, a heavily customized Limited Edition item is "technically" if the customization job is done well; worth even more than the original item. You've basically taken a 250 item and made a one-of-a-kind out of it, and to replicate it, someone would have to track down one of the remaining 249.

Second, keep ANY AND ALL parts you remove from it (if you are replacing anything), these will become invaluable as spare parts for anyone who owns one of these or wishes he/she did.


In general, though, my experience with L.E. items is that they tend to be exactly the same as normal stuff, just with some tacky artwork/logo slapped on it. Dunno if this is the case with the stick, but if it is, by all means just get some identical factory parts and do your custom butch job from there instead. But if the stick is made out of exclusive L.E. 250 pcs. only stuff, by all means go ahead and do your customizations to it.

[pedrocasilva]

^ It's basically identical to the mass produced $70 model, but with a different faceplate.

[Kogahazan]

It's basically identical to the mass produced $70 model, but with a different faceplate.

No, it isn't. The $70/$80 (PS3/360 respectively) stick is the Standard Edition which is smaller and uses Mad Catz stick & buttons. The $150 stick is the Tournament Edition which uses the same authentic Sanwa stick & buttons used in the official SF4 Viewlix cabinets. The Comic-con Edition stick is identical in parts to the Tournament Edition stick except the deck artwork, color of buttons & side edges, and dust cover on the stick shaft.

In general, a heavily customized Limited Edition item is "technically" if the customization job is done well; worth even more than the original item. You've basically taken a 250 item and made a one-of-a-kind out of it, and to replicate it, someone would have to track down one of the remaining 249.

Well, it is worth more to serious players, but it should be worth the most to yourself if you have it customized, since it is modified to suit you. If someone wanted to buy a modified stick, there are already people who will make a stick to your specifications to sell to you.

Either way, all models of the Mad Catz fightsticks are mod friendly if you choose to modify it, with pin-outs for buttons being clearly labeled on the inside and a universal mounting plate for the stick for easy swapping of all parts; little stick modification experience is needed.

[pedrocasilva]

I stand corrected then.