Feedback from community needed. MVS replacement box survey

My name is John Hancock and I have been a longtime lurker and Collector of a wide variety of video games for 25 years. I am a huge Neo Geo fan, and am asking the community for feedback. I have close friend who can make replacment MVS kit boxes at where he works. These boxes would be for those who would want to house their loose MVS carts in something that would look closer to what they were packaged with when they were new. To offer these at a reasonable price, there would have to be interest in selling a fair amount of these, like around 1000 pieces or so to make it worth his time making them. This would be a US distributor for this product.

Here are my questions:
1. Does the community have any objections to these being offered?

2. Is there interest in these boxes? If so, what amounts should they be sold in and for what suggested prices?

3. Would there be interest in MVS bags with the boxes?

4. Are there further questions that I can pass on to my friend?

Thank you for being a passionate community, and your feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Hi John,

as stupid as I may think collecting cardboard or going crazy over the condition of boxes arcade games came in is, I know there are some people here that might enjoy this kind of thing.

I don't think there will be any objections to you/your friend making these, as long as they can be told apart from the real ones (so you could maybe put a stamp on the inside of one of the flaps?).

What you should consider though is that there are plenty of storage options for MVS carts (Shockboxes, NeoMiniBoxes, Argrov Boxes) as well as Reproefforts (like the ones from NoodleShirt (1, 2) or Arcadiabay) already. As you might have guessed, I'm not too much into the collectard part of the hobby, so I'm pretty sure I missed a lot of projects here...

Not sure how many of the forum guys know who John is, though I'm sure more than a few of you guys have seen some of his youtube vids. I've dealt with John a bit over the last two years I think and he's a stand up guy that's for sure. So I'm appreciating xsq's helpful input on this and hope that things continue in a similar fashion.


Now as far as my opinion, I'd say that most people have 2-3 dozen MVS carts total on average. So for people that would be interested in repro MVS kit boxes I'd imagine that on average you're not going to get people ordering more than a couple dozen max. Which might make it a bit hard to hit 1,000 boxes worth of sales.

As far as to the quantities they should be offered in? I'd say that mostly depends upon the economy in shipping them. I'd guess people would order in lots of 5-10 at a time, depending upon how many can be shipped most economically. For instance, if you can fit say 8 in a large flat rate USPS priority box then that would probably be a good sale quantity to offer. I'm saying this as I see a lot of people ordering MVS storage solutions (Shockboxes, Neomini boxes, Windy Sleeves, etc) in the max quantities that make shipping the cheapest per piece.

For instance I've bought a LOT of Shocks. And I'd order them in quantities of 15-18 at a time (if I'm recalling the exact numbers correctly). Because the shipping boxes that Dan uses to ship the Shocks would fit 18 or so Shocks max. I'd not always order a full 18 as ordering 15 would offer slightly more packing material to be used thus helping save them from the UPS gorillas. Shipping cost per piece was a lot higher if more than 18 or less than 15 was ordered and it wasn't worth me ordering in quantities than increased the shipping as much as it did.


Personally I'd not be interested in repro kit boxes. Largely due to not needing to take up that much more space as all 170 or so of my MVS games are in shocks and don't need to be in kit boxes.



Buuuut, if authentic looking/feeling repro bubble wrap cart bags are made I would probably buy a few of those for the kits I've got that could use replacements. Can't say how many I'd need at this time as I've not thought about picking up any for "fixing" my kits yet.

Hi John. I am assuming these are the same boxes that were shown in Metal Jesus' Neo Geo "Expensive as Hell" video? As xsq already mentioned, there are a number of alternative mvs cart storage options, but variety is the spice of life so others may be interested in your solution. Would you also be interested in offering a solution for Hyper Neo Geo 64 carts? I'm not into the "collector" aspect of the hobby at all, but would like to explore the possiblity of a better storage solution for hng64 carts than the bubble wrap I am presently using.

Its been a long time since I've had dealings with swlovinst, but as bubba said, he is a stand up guy.

That being said, I don't think there is enough demand to do huge orders of these. Most people just use the shocks. There is probably a market, but I don't think its going to be a super high amount that you'd sell.

Put Liquid Snake down for 100!

I collect kits but have zero interest in repro boxes. If I did I would turn spare boxes inside out. You would also need repro bubble wrap baggies or the carts will bounce around inside, plus repro labels so you can tell what is inside, plus repro art, etc, etc...

No. Just no.

Unless your goal is to build a wall of fake kits as a backdrop for a Youtube special on game collecting fagetry.

I like the idea of a good copy of an original in these days of insane online scalping as an alternative and a middle finger. But that said, in this case, with a more niche arcade market, it seems like a really bad idea, especially if you need 1000 of them to be economical. There's far less of these things than you get with old 20th century Nintendo and Sega carts so it will be very hard to make it worth your while to find enough people to buy up that many. Those who really would want a kit, since they're pretty bland as it is, those would be out for a real box, and those without likely like me are fine with nothing, or they'll go with a pretty mini box or shockbox with cool art on it so it looks slick on a shelf. I've got 2 kits and other than the matching serials to the carts there's nothing awesome about having them out and they really are just useful for holding their original contents and extra art/mini marquees I have.

xsq said:

I don't think there will be any objections to you/your friend making these, as long as they can be told apart from the real ones (so you could maybe put a stamp on the inside of one of the flaps?)..

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i dont see any issues with it if you add that differentiating factor.

Hi John. I have been watching some of your videos lately. Thanks for making them.

I am also assuming these are the same boxes you showed in the Metal Jesus video. I think they're an ideal solution for those who are collecting and displaying the games in their original boxes. However, I'm just not sure how many collectors store their games that way.

Only about 20 of the games in my full collection have boxes, so I don't store the games in them. I personally would like to get shockboxes instead when I someday have the space to display the carts again. I can see the merits of keeping the original packaging though.

cdamm said:

i dont see any issues with it if you add that differentiating factor.

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Same here, xsq nailed it. Otherwise it'll become just another nail of our hobby's coffin. It's all about chasing illusions, but not their shadows.

I agree with most of what has been said already.

I'd say about 10% of my MVS collection are kits, but I don't really have a desire to "dress up" the remainder in matching cardboard. The original boxes have history which is cool, but beyond that are not necessarily ideal storage options from both an aesthetic and functional standpoint.

Echoing xsq, the Noodle Shirt offerings already exist at a pretty reasonable price (starting at $5 AUD, or less than $4 USD each, and under $1 for baggies), with discounts offered the greater quantity ordered. Seems like a lot of effort for you guys to recreate the wheel when this option already affordably exists.
http://www.noodleshirt.com/new-products/neo-geo-case
http://www.noodleshirt.com/new-products/anti-static-bubble-wrap-inserts

I don't plan on ordering any myself, but wish you guys the best of luck with the project.

Forget posting to the UK. The charges will be sky high.

Great idea though, I saw the boxes you had in your video with Metal Jesus I think?

Ingenious solution

+1 for a internal stamp... also, there have been other attempts in the past (you can buy exact replicas from Australia and Italy today) but the color is slightly darker (as seen in the OP picture) and you can see the "stripes" of the carton internal reinforcement (not sure how it is called....it is an "S" shaped layerbetween the two external paper layers)

Personally I'd like keeping the loose carts in such a replica box, but I'd like it to be consistent with the original MVS production (which indeed varied trough the years, but tends to be lighter color and a bit stronger than alternatives seen recently)

I would just make a small batch of prototypes and see how they do. As mentioned before just add a stamp or cutout on the inside so everyone will know it's a repro.

Thank you for all who have given feedback. A response to boxes that I used in the MJR's video. The ones I showed in that video were inverted Argrov boxes that I used then.

If my friend is to move forward, I like the idea of a stamp inside. He wanting to possibly still move forward. I know that there are alot of box options for these, but many options for inexpensive boxes are not in the US. Shock Boxes are fantastic, I just really got annoyed when some of mine got cracks in them at the folding points. They do look beautiful. I have slowly amassed about 50-60 MVS carts over time, and just am trying to get some great loose games to play and put on a shelf when done. I like the original look of a kit and it looks much nicer than some of my jacked carts lol. I recently got a loose Rage of the Dragons, which I am replacing from when I sold off my original carts awhile back.

I am not the best gamer, but one of my proud moments was beating Magician Lord. Man, that game at the end was brutal for me.

John, your comments in that video inspired me to finally beat the home version of Magician Lord recently using the Hori stick. I plan to make a review for youtube.

wyo said:

Put Liquid Snake down for 100!

I collect kits but have zero interest in repro boxes. If I did I would turn spare boxes inside out. You would also need repro bubble wrap baggies or the carts will bounce around inside, plus repro labels so you can tell what is inside, plus repro art, etc, etc...

No. Just no.

Unless your goal is to build a wall of fake kits as a backdrop for a Youtube special on game collecting fagetry.

Click to expand...

LOL
I make my own kit (getting artset separately) and normally i order boxes from Australia

BlackaneseNiNjA said:

Hi John. I am assuming these are the same boxes that were shown in Metal Jesus' Neo Geo "Expensive as Hell" video? As xsq already mentioned, there are a number of alternative mvs cart storage options, but variety is the spice of life so others may be interested in your solution. Would you also be interested in offering a solution for Hyper Neo Geo 64 carts? I'm not into the "collector" aspect of the hobby at all, but would like to explore the possiblity of a better storage solution for hng64 carts than the bubble wrap I am presently using.

Click to expand...

I doubt there's enough of a market for the hyper but I store mine in the original kit boxes, they aren't too much larger than an MVS box.

The_Chosen_One said:

I doubt there's enough of a market for the hyper but I store mine in the original kit boxes, they aren't too much larger than an MVS box.

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Thank you. I definitely appreciate the input. I have my carts in the kit bubblewrap and cardboard. I was just hoping for a more waterproof/plastic solution for storage (perhaps like a shockbox, but for hyper64 carts). Over in the HNG64 board, ElectricGrave recommended a great idea involving plastic containers. I will do some more digging for something cost effective.

Everything that can be said has been said. Probably not the most lucrative business idea.