 I'm sure by now, most of you have heard of a growing auction site, Game Gavel, formerly known as Chase The Chuckwagon. If you have been living under a rock for the past two and a half years, and haven't heard of Game Gavel, its an auction site created by gamers and collectors for gamers and collectors, aimed at being an alternative to eBay by saving sellers money and giving buyers great deals at the same time. I won't bore you with the details, but they do have a nice Game Gavel vs eBay comparison page you may want to take a look at.
So now you're probably wondering what this has to do with RF Generation, and don't worry, I wasn't paid off to convince you to join Game Gavel. But RF Generation and Game Gavel have become partners of sorts. Have you noticed that little Game Gavel logo on the right over there under "Our Friends"? That's there because the people over at Game Gavel really are our friend, they have graciously added RF Generation to their "Friends" listing viewable on every page on their website, which I'm sure has brought in more than a few new members.
But wait, there's more!
As a special bonus to RF Generation members, Game Gavel has added us to a select group of affiliations. What this means is that as an RF Generation and Game Gavel member, you can now add your RFG username to your Game Gavel profile.This will display an RFG badge next to your auction listings and will allow buyers to search for items for sale by RF Generation members!
So, if you're not a member of Game Gavel, then what are you waiting for? It's free to join and cheap to sell. And it certainly doesn't hurt to take a look, you won't know if that game you've been looking for is there unless you take peek. If you do sign up for Game Gavel, be sure to add your RF Generation username to the Affiliations section.
If you're already experiencing the greatness of Game Gavel and have an account, its easy to add your RF Generation affiliation. When logged on, simply click "Members" in the blue bar and then under "Account Tools" click "Update Contact Info/Change Password" and the fifth section down is where you add your RF Generation username.
And if you want to see what your fellow RF Generation members are selling on Game Gavel, you can click "Advanced Search" up by the main search box, and simply check the box for RF Generation.
If you've used Game Gavel already, share your stories in the comments below.
As many of you already know, I dislike eBay, in fact one might say I hate it with a passion. In fact, I refuse to buy any type of gaming device from the site. So, I was extremely pleased when in January of 2008 I read a post on the Digital Press forums from Dragon Warrior Jasen, that he was fed up with eBay and toying with the idea of making his own auction site dedicated to video games with minimal fees. When he came up with a name and made the site public a couple months later, I made sure I was one of the first to join GameGavel.com. I listed numerous auctions but had very little success, but I believed in the theory behind the site of no fees whatsoever and stuck with it. Later on in 2008 I came across another site, ChaseTheChuckwagon.com, with a similar philosophy of only charging a modest final selling fee. I quickly joined that site and have been listing auctions on there since.
[img align=right]http://www.chasingthechuckwagon.com/chuckwagon150.jpg[/img]
However, a couple days ago, I got the email that every other GameGavel member got from Jasen, stating that the site will be closing. Jasen blamed the closure on himself, but I do not believe that it was any one person's fault. I think the failure was the combined result of people not believing that a free auction site could work and sellers were charging the average eBay price instead of taking into account the fact that they're not paying 8%+ fees on their sale as they would with eBay.
[img align=left width=200 height=57]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/07822GG LOGO.jpg[/img]Anyway, yesterday I got an email from GameGavel's Jasen Hicks and one from ChaseTheChuckwagon's Mike Kennedy, about half an hour apart stating that CTCW will be purchasing GameGavel's domain name and will be taking over operations.
Mike's plan is to co-brand both names, keeping the ChaseTheChuckwagon.comn name that some 2,000+ member knows and love and combining it with the more universal name of GameGavel.
So what this means for us, the gamers and collectors of the world, is a bigger and better site than has very modest final selling fees, that was built by gamers/collectors for gamers/collectors.
 So, I was checking out GameSniped today, and they listed some very interesting and rare Atari auctions they stumbled upon at eBay, sold by the Atari Museum.
He has quite a few unreleased prototype hardware items that are pretty cool.
One of the neatest things he has for auction is a box and manual for the game Quadrun. Now, as you may know, Quadrun is one of the rarest 2600 games (rated a 9 on AtariAge's rarity scale), so finding a box and manual for agame like this is really a once in a lifetime experience, and the current going rate of the auction reflects that. As of this writing, the box/manual is going for $200. Quite spendy for some cardboard and paper if you ask me, but I suppose it's worth it considering how much that game usually goes for.
Another neat item he has up for auction is a prototype of the Super Breakout LCD game, only one of two known to exist. Currently that one is priced at $385, and will likely go even higher as there is one day left in the auction. Pretty darn neat looking thing that would make you the center of attention in the game collecting world. Also, notice how much that proto looks like an early 80s version of the iPod? I wonder if that's where Apple got their inspiration...
He also has quite a few other protype system boards, hardware, and other items for sale. Take a look and report anything you found interesting.
There's some other great auctions up there including some game concept art, promotional poster for the recent Atari Flashback 2 plug and play console, some sealed Activision LCD games, a service kit, diskettes, and some rare accessories (including a CX-70 light pen.)
Click here for a full list of what he has for sale.
Also related, GameSniped listed a promotional display and lenticular sticker for the 2600 classic, ET. I might just buy that and make it the centerpiece of my collection just to show my affection for the gaming greatness that is ET for the 2600...
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