Someone selling a rental unit on fb. Is it legit?

HornheaDD

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There's a fella on one of the Neo groups on facebook that has this AES for sale at $4500, and says its a rental unit.

Ive never seen any officially released consoles with these stickers on them. They look like they added vinyl stickers to it, and one of them is pretty redundant. Is this for real?

To be clear I have zero interest in buying it but Im just wondering if its something that was a thing and I never heard of it.

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GohanX

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Okay so lots of red flags here.

1: What rental place is going to send anything in a retail box? Look at old Blockbuster system rental stuff, they were in hard plastic durable cases.

2: Vinyl stickers weren't really in wide use in the early 90s, and even if they were legit they would show peeling, fading, etc even if they were in storage.

3: I'm pretty sure someone Armoralled that system at some point :keke:
 

yagamikun

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The first run units (low serial) had the green stripe on the box as opposed to red so far as I'm aware, and those were likely rental units as that was the original intent. But as @GohanX said, I doubt a rental outlet would rent out the actual box. With those stupid stickers, though, that's NOT worth $4500. Did the seller list the serial number of the console?

The only "rental" unit worth its weight in gold is the hotel unit so far as I'm aware. @Neo Alec any idea?

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Tarma

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Ok, in Japan, prior to the retail release of the AES, you could rent a console. They came in very plain, but distinctive packaging - similar to what was used for the old-style sticks (if you've ever seen one of those boxed).

The unit, iirc, looks the same as any other Japanese AES - there are no distinctive markings, although I'd imagine the serial numbers to be quite low, and I think they had a different AES product code to the retail consoles.

So, yeah, could be an ex-rental console, but without the packaging, it don't mean shit to collectors. Just another loose AES.

To the best of my knowledge there was never a specific rental only AES console for NA.
 

HornheaDD

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One guy did respond to him asking about the serial numbers. Says its an AEC?? what??

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Tarma

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Yeah, AEC was the product code for the rentail units before they moved to AES (retail units).

The only real difference is the outer packaging for the boxes.

I still thought they were Japanese only, but maybe there were some AEC units officially brought into NA.

Don't think it's worth 4.5k... unless it was pristine with all packaging - then some dust collecting shelf queen might be tempted to blow their wad on it. The one you found ain't worth half-that.
 

HornheaDD

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Huh. Well, I learned something new about the rental units today.

Yeah those stickers definitely caught my attention, especially the terrible color scheme, and the oddly and unnecessarily placed NEO GEO sticker on the bottom left of the stick lol.

edit: looks like the guy actually does have the rental box, in the orange/black/white color scheme like the sticks. And it does say NEO-AEC on the box, and the manual does have a green stripe on it. So I guess it is legitimately a rental unit, but basically besmirched with the extra 'cool' stickers.
 
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Takumaji

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Tarma is right, the homecart system was meant as a rental-only system at first, then demand grew bigger which made SNK change their original plans and finally offer it for sale.

For what it's worth, I remember a guy from Maro Stuttgart who claimed that his homecart system was a rental system before but it came in a suitcase.

The system shown here doesn't look right to me, the placement of the SNK and Pro-Gear Spec stickers is very amateurish.
 

Hattori Hanzo

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Rental system the freaked version. This is pretty sad. I can't even mod the RGB on mine because I want to keep it stock and those fuckers sticker bomb a rental system.
 

kernow

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Rental system the freaked version. This is pretty sad. I can't even mod the RGB on mine because I want to keep it stock and those fuckers sticker bomb a rental system.
Fuck that. Bypass the shit out of it. Why not?
 

Hattori Hanzo

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I don't need to, I have a CMVS and the MVS version of the NeoSD. The CMVS is always hooked up anyway. I'm just that anal with my AES. Will only do it if I have to repair something anyway. Till that happens I keep it stock.
 

wyo

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Huh. Well, I learned something new about the rental units today.

Yeah those stickers definitely caught my attention, especially the terrible color scheme, and the oddly and unnecessarily placed NEO GEO sticker on the bottom left of the stick lol.

edit: looks like the guy actually does have the rental box, in the orange/black/white color scheme like the sticks. And it does say NEO-AEC on the box, and the manual does have a green stripe on it. So I guess it is legitimately a rental unit, but basically besmirched with the extra 'cool' stickers.
I have a boxed NEO-AEC unit with unibios and RGB mods. Does he have a pic of the serial label? 26676 seems high for a NEO-AEC.
 

Neo Alec

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As far as I'm aware, the original rental units aren't particularly rare, but it is nice to get one in the packaging in good condition (without stickers added to it).

Tarma is right, the homecart system was meant as a rental-only system at first, then demand grew bigger which made SNK change their original plans and finally offer it for sale.
I also think a more likely scenario is that the rental units were done as a test release (like the east coast release of the NES in 1985) with a plan to sell them direct to consumers all along if the test relase indicated a demand for it.
 

HornheaDD

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I have a boxed NEO-AEC unit with unibios and RGB mods. Does he have a pic of the serial label? 26676 seems high for a NEO-AEC.
I dont believe he had a pic of the serial, no.
I don't need to, I have a CMVS and the MVS version of the NeoSD. The CMVS is always hooked up anyway. I'm just that anal with my AES. Will only do it if I have to repair something anyway. Till that happens I keep it stock.
heheh.. anal
 

Alphabet

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Rental system the freaked version. This is pretty sad. I can't even mod the RGB on mine because I want to keep it stock and those fuckers sticker bomb a rental system.
I think NGF sold a handful of system under what they called the “Core Version” with their logo. It could be interesting to see what the packaging looks like here?
 
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