Best websites to buy Imported Gamecubes

[BlackDS]

I'm in the market for a Japanese Gamecube, and I found a few interesting deals on these two sites:

http://www.toysnjoys.com/access_cube.html
http://www.gamebaz.com/?a=s&c=gc&s=sys

Has anyone purchased items from these sites, and are they reliable?

[D.D.D.]

Dunno but you can get'm for about $10 or less used in Japan.

[Dylan]

I can't get the second link to load, but the the prices in the first one are exorbitant to say the least. I'd rather just risk ebay or something than pay well over $100 for something as common as a gamecube.

[jinn]

Do you want a Japanese system for your collection or to play Japanese games?
You can always add a region switch to a USA gamecube

[brunoafh]

Modding GCs is very cheap.... and GCs are pretty much the cheapest consoles overall now a days. There aren't any consoles you can get with everything you need for like $20, not even Atari consoles. It's pretty strange, really.

[D.D.D.]

Actually, instead of spending money on a GC, if you have a Wii, you can softmod it to be region-free for GC & Wii.

[MrHealthy]

Unless its for collectable reasons, softmodding a wii or installing a region switch in a US cube is the easier / cheapest method of playing gamecube imports.

I think I payed like 75 dollars for a region modded US cube on this very forum. Normally I would say thats probably too expensive, but it came with a GBA player, broadband adaptor and memory card, so I felt it was worth the money. Very nice switch too, doesn't scar the back of the console at all.

[noiseredux]

Toys N Joys story: they had a Hori stick I wanted once. It was $50, and with shipping from Hawaii (TNJ is in Hawaii if you didn't realize) that bumped it up quite a bit. Say it was $70. But I really wanted the stick and $70 shipped was the best price I could find. It said "IN STOCK" on the product page. I place my order. I wait weeks. Nothing. Calling them is near impossible due to time zone differences (I'm on East Coast). Email takes forever because of time zone differences. More weeks go by and they keep telling me it's on backorder, even though when I ordered it said in stock. Finally I get fed up waiting and cancel the order. I get a refund after a few days. A couple weeks later I notice that the same arcade stick has been re-added to their catalog only now it's priced at $150. Fishy.

[D.D.D.]

Toys N Joys story: they had a Hori stick I wanted once. It was $50, and with shipping from Hawaii (TNJ is in Hawaii if you didn't realize) that bumped it up quite a bit. Say it was $70. But I really wanted the stick and $70 shipped was the best price I could find. It said "IN STOCK" on the product page. I place my order. I wait weeks. Nothing. Calling them is near impossible due to time zone differences (I'm on East Coast). Email takes forever because of time zone differences. More weeks go by and they keep telling me it's on backorder, even though when I ordered it said in stock. Finally I get fed up waiting and cancel the order. I get a refund after a few days. A couple weeks later I notice that the same arcade stick has been re-added to their catalog only now it's priced at $150. Fishy.

Whoa~ I forgot the name but last time I was in Hawaii I just happened to spot that place and remembered it was a toy store in LOST as well.

Yeah that place is pretty damn cool on the inside but something does seem shady about it too. Everything seems safe-guarded, at least if it seems special or collectible in any way and a lot of stuff seems artificially high. Then again it is Hawaii, even cereal is artificially expensive.

Also, I'm exhausted but, sarcasm right? About the impossibility of contact... I'm in Japan and I got a 19 hour time difference and it's not easy. East coast shmeest coast - 6 hours - you got it easy.

[noiseredux]

Yeah that place is pretty damn cool on the inside but something does seem shady about it too. Everything seems safe-guarded, at least if it seems special or collectible in any way and a lot of stuff seems artificially high. Then again it is Hawaii, even cereal is artificially expensive.

no I wasn't being sarcastic. When I was home from work they weren't open, so I couldn't call them. When I'd send emails I'd get some kind of auto-response saying that I'd get a real response in 24-48 hrs. So it wasn't exactly "quick" to communicate with them. Even after canceling the order my paypal refund took longer than I would hope.