Topic: Camping out for the PSP

[Caustic Saint]

I've linked to a few of my blog posts in the DS forum before, and thought today's might be of interest. I spent last night camping out to get a PSP (more than one of them, actually), and today's post is more about the experience of the legendary Japanese lines than the PSP itself.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

[KDR_11k]

Did you get one? Are you planing on making the big bucks by selling them on eBay?

[odifiend]

Woah, out of sheer curiousity I checked ebay for the PSP.  How much are these things?  Not one is selling for less than 350 and the games are all selling for at least 50 bucks.

[NintendoPiccolo]

PSP...so expensive....I'd rather buy groceries...

[Renny]

But if you're the first one in your county with a PSP you'll be so happy you won't need to eat. You just aren't hardcore enough.

[Mario]

Wow, lots of nice people, including yourself. Sounds really exciting, I hope something like that happens here (Australia) for both the DS and PSP launch, but I really doubt it. On one hand getting a PSP at launch will be much more exciting than waiting for one, on the other hand I don't trust Sony launch hardware and i'd rather wait for it to drop in price.

I wish you had picked up Lumines, i'm interested in hearing impressions of that, got any Ridge Racers impressions though?

[Caustic Saint]

I'm going to answer a batch of questions in this one post, so I hope it doesn't get too muddled.

KDR, I got three of them - two are on Ebay right now. My goal in getting more than one was for the extras to earn enough of a profit to cover the cost of keeping one unit for myself.

And yeah, Ebay prices are getting out of hand. I saw one guy whose "buy it now" price for the Value Pack was $1,000. That's insane. My auctions (I'm not linking to them, so please, no accusations of pimping my own sales) include a PSP Value Pack, Ridge Racers, the Famitsu PSP special issue, a screen protector, the giveaway Ridge Racers sticker, and one of them has the Demo Disc. (I only got two of those and am keeping one for myself). I started my auctions at $350 with no "buy it now" price. I'll let the market decide how much they'll go for in the end.

Ridge Racers? It's phenomenal. It really, really is. The demos I saw in the stores only only had the intro FMV and not any gameplay. I'd seen gameplay stills, but they're nothing like seeing it in motion. This is going to sound like a total "Sony graphics whore fanboy" comment, but it's worlds beyond the screens I've seen for RR on DS. And don't bother with the "use the touchscreen for analog steering" bit - I drive with the d-pad on the PSP. Downshifting and drifting through a long turn is effortless and an absolute blast. I'm not a big Gran Turismo fan and prefer arcade racers. Ridge Racers is exactly that and it does it oh-so-well. There's a reason Famitsu gave it a 37 out of 40. It's just that good.

RR is also very import friendly. Lots of English in the menus and the in-game announcer is even in English. I don't care for his voice though. It would've been a lot cooler to have Reiko-chan going "Sugooooiiiii!!!" after pulling of a great drift than some generic dude saying, "Man! I didn't know you could do that!"

I may get Lumines, but I've got Mr. Driller on my DS to satisfy my puzzle cravings right now. I may pick it up eventually though. I've got enough store credit on my points card (Bic Camera gives you a certain percentage of every purchase in store credit if you've got their card) for a free game, but I'm not sure what I'm getting yet. I'm eager for DK: Jungle Beat, and that's out on Thursday. If I cash in the points I've got saved up, I can get that - with bongo controler - for about $10. ^.^

[PaLaDiN]

So, I'm going with the assumption that so far the PSP is a good system if you like racing games.

I don't like racing games, so am I right in staying away from this thing for now?

[odifiend]

So Caustic... how much did you pay for yours?

[Caustic Saint]

I paid 25,900 yen ($245) for the PSP Value Pack, 4,530 yen ($43.02) for Ridge Racers and 540 yen ($5.13) for the screen protector for a total of 30,970 yen ($293.15). Using my Bic points card, I got 3,090 yen in store credit, but cashed in half that amount for a 3-year warranty.

Paladin, there's only one racing game out right now - Ridge Racers. Need for Speed Underground: Rivals is coming out this month, and GT4 is due sometime in the near future. Only 2 of the 21 games out this month are racing games. Heck, there are 3 different Mah-jong games out this month. Would you base your decision on that? It's hardly like the early days of the Dreamcast when racing games made up a large percentage of the games.  

[Ian Sane]

I think there's an obvious test that you have to make.  How long does the battery last?

[Savior]

If you buy a Japanese PSP, you can play American Games, but not American Movies/Music...

So Why not wait instead? Unless youve got lots of disposable income to burn i dont see why you would buy one. I know ill probably wait alot for one...  

[Caustic Saint]

Ian, I got a little over two hours on the "out of the box" charge, and it took about 3 hours to charge it all the way up last night. I haven't done the full battery life test yet, but will do so soon.

Savior, I bought a Japanese one because I live in Japan. I'm not concerned with getting movies or music on UMD. That's something I really don't see catching on, so it didn't have any influence on my decision. Plus, I have money to burn right now, so why not get one. ^.^

[Savior]

Caustic my comments werent directed at you... I was talking about the guys spending 600-1,000 Dollars on the system. If you live in Japan theres no reason why you shouldnt be interested in one.  I also agree with your comments on how Movies/Music might not catch on. Though If i get one ill probably be playing MP3s on it.

Gamespot claims the batteries run around 90 minutes to three hours. Simple/Puzzle Games make the battery last more than that. If thats the case thats real short... Much Shorter than What Sony promised.  

[Caustic Saint]

No worries. Yeah, prices are getting out of hand right now, but that's normal for just about anything that's in high demand and limited supply. While I wouldn't spend that much for a PSP, I'm more than happy to try and sell one for that amount.  

[Savior]

What are the loading times like Caustic?  

[Caustic Saint]

The load times are about what you've been hearing. That said, it's really not a big deal. they're faster than PS1 or PS2, so Sony's clearly learning. I still only have the one game to go on, but that oughta change by the end of the month.

[Dracula]

Great story, but there should have been a pitcure of #5's face in there somewhere. Have you sold any of your PSPs yet? If so how much did you getl for it/them?

I was thinking of buying a PSP, but since my DS had dead pixels, and I assumed that the first few PSPs will have some problems to, I have decided to wait until the American/European release. Also there really aren't that many great games on either system in the next few months anyway.

[Caustic Saint]

Sorry, I'm protecting #5's secret identity. ^.^

The auctions for the two systems that are on Ebay end Friday evening (Japan time). I'll post the final bids here if people want to know. (Not to brag, just for info if anybody wants it.)

[Dracula]

I could not login to my account for a few days, but yes I'm interested in knowing what the final bids were.

[Caustic Saint]

One went for $560 and the other topped out at $611. My profit was about $550, which covered the cost of all the PSP stuff I kept, plus put $250 in my pocket.

Any other systems I pick up now are going to friends for cost plus shipping charges. It was cool to make the money off the Ebay sales, but I think the days of mad profits on PSPs are going to start waning soon, so I don't see a need to keep doing it if the returns aren't going to be as high.

[vudu]

Out of curiosity, did you open the boxes to check for dead pixels, broken analog nubs, etc, or did you sell the systems without opening the boxes?

[Caustic Saint]

Yes, I tested both systems. I used the AC adapter that came with my PSP and my copy of Ridge Racers. The only thing I had to take out of the package on the ones I was selling were the systems themselves. I even went to the extreme of handling them with gloves on to avoid getting any fingerprints on them. They were both in perfect shape - no dust, dead pixels or air bubbles.

For the prices the buyers paid, I felt it was my responsibility to ensure they were getting perfect systems.

[Dracula]

They were pretty expensive, but I might have paid that much for one, if I was sure to get a system without any flaws. And its impossible to know that, so thats the reason why I have not gotten a PSP yet. I should have lived in Japan too.

[Djunknown]

Nice story Caustic. I still find it amazing that's almost a norm to camp out.  

6 Cheeseburgers? Are they WhiteCastle size or something?

Good luck with #5. Use it as a chance to test out the wi-fi capabilities. ^_-