SNES Preservation Project "Dead" after USPS Loses $10K of Cartridges

Megalith

Megalith

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The worst thing that USPS has done to me is drop my package without ringing the bell, but I could definitely understand this guy never trusting the postal service again. This amateur archivist had 100 cartridges shipped to him so he could dump their contents, but nobody has a clue where they are now. I guess the lesson here is that paying for shipping insurance may not be such a bad idea after all.

A Nintendo fan's project to digitally preserve every SNES game has ended in defeat after the US Postal Service (USPS) lost a package containing 100 cartridges. The parcel contained between $7500 and $10k worth of vintage games, which were en route to amateur archivist Byuu. The package made the journey from Frankfurt to Byuu's home state of New Jersey, but after this was lost by the USPS. It was the second of five planned shipments of games from a European collector, who has now been left without a large chunk of their collection.
 
lilbabycat said:
I guess shipping the dumper (lol) to the collector was out of the question?
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That is what I would have done if the collector had half a brain to work with a rom dumping tool. Loose the dumper.. meh

Loosing these carts.... Major #FAIL
 
Byuu has done great work with his emulator.... question.

What is so different to what he was preserving as opposed to the rom dumps already out there?
 
Xj8TW3k.jpg
 
It bothers me that so many comments are "he should have purchased insurance! Duh! What a dumbass!" It clearly states in the article "The sender had insurance..." It's almost as if nobody bothered to read the full article in favor of just making snarky comments about how stupid people are. The guy dumping the roms, Byuu: wrote one of the best SNES emulators, completed the preservation projects as it relates to ALL 721 USA/CA/MX games (and sold the collection he personally amassed for $25k), and I believe was just trying to get a dump of all the european/japanese/etc games. I wouldn't consider him an idiot right off the bat. The European collector was limiting the number of carts to 100 at a time, limiting the potential loss if something unexpected were to happen (the USPS having employees that would steal packages is unexpected).

This is a problem inherent with shipping goods internationally; and why a huge portions of ebay sellers don't sell internationally. Unless both countries are on a very *VERY* short list that provides insurance for 100% of the journey, then the best you can do is insure your 1/2 of the journey and cross your fingers for the rest. A couple years ago eBay made this a bit easier by creating their own list, partnering with a shipping depot company, and providing seller and buyer protection against loss (i.e. insurance) so it's easier (although still not "easy" the process for filing a claim and getting funds for said claim can take months, countries get delisted, etc.) but not foolproof.
 
XvMMvX said:
Byuu has done great work with his emulator.... question.

What is so different to what he was preserving as opposed to the rom dumps already out there?
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as was found when comparing the cart dumps he already did for the 721 USA/CA/MX carts, a good portion of the rom dumps out there don't match the originals. As it states in the article

"As our own Chris Bratt found out when investigating Nintendo's own Virtual Console service, many of the pirated SNES ROMs available online are not true copies of the game - they've been edited in some way. Not even Nintendo has the original digital images of all these games - which is how copied games find their way onto Nintendo's own store."
 
westrock2000 said:
Xj8TW3k.jpg
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The guy completed an entire US and JPN set using loaners without "losing" them so, yeah, they are lost.

The issue with losing this set is not the money. Money can be made. The cartridges that you may never find for sale again is the real issue.

He did mention today that the project may continue because the EU collector said he is willing to ship in smaller boxes.
 
bigdogchris said:
The guy completed an entire US and JPN set using loaners without "losing" them so, yeah, they are lost.

The issue with losing this set is not the money. Money can be made. The cartridges that you may never find for sale again is the real issue.

He did mention today that the project may continue because the EU collector said he is willing to ship in smaller boxes.
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He wasn't the one that lost them. I am not implying he lost them. Might keep an eye on eBay and Craigs List though......
 
Okay, in retrospect, I should have said full insurance...
 
hopefully the package will turn up eventually. that is kind of a loss for a good project.
 
Over the years I have noticed on this forum two most commonly loved things are i) overclocking and ii) shipping insurance. I am prepared to take some [h]eat for suggesting that when shipping packages, insurance is overrated. I am not saying don't buy insurance. I do think the question of whether insurance is actually worth what it costs deserves critical scrutiny. One should consider what actually goes into filing a claim and trying to recover money after a package has been lost or damaged.
 
the_servicer said:
Over the years I have noticed on this forum two most commonly loved things are i) overclocking and ii) shipping insurance. I am prepared to take some [h]eat for suggesting that when shipping packages, insurance is overrated. I am not saying don't buy insurance. I do think the question of whether insurance is actually worth what it costs deserves critical scrutiny. One should consider what actually goes into filing a claim and trying to recover money after a package has been lost or damaged.
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as the receiver you have no job to do in terms of filing a claim and recovering money.

that's the senders job.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Yeah, but fast food joints and car dealer are not supported by tax dollars.
And worthless government employees are protected by the largest labor union in the country.
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I think you'll find many fast food joint workers ARE supported by tax dollars because they're paid so low they qualify for benefits. McDonald's even encourages employees to apply for assistance.
 
tetris42 said:
I think you'll find many fast food joint workers ARE supported by tax dollars because they're paid so low they qualify for benefits. McDonald's even encourages employees to apply for assistance.
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mcjobs weren't made so you can support a family of 5.

they're there so kids can have some employment while attending school.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Remember a case in Chicago I think it was of postal workers tossing a large part of their mail for their route in the dumpster so they could take off early.
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK!
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as some one who works for the postal system thats a load of bs. just because there's one dumb ass bad apple doesn't mean the entire systems bad. the vast majority of them care about their job and making sure peoples mail and packages get to where they're going.

how most shit gets lost in USPS
1. people not printing their labels because no one can read their hand writing or have the wrong address/city name/zip code which gets the package nixed forcing an employee to hand search and correct it if possible.
2. they improperly secure their label which means it gets ripped off during shipping(a box going from east coast to west coast will go through a minimum of 7 processing centers before reaching it's destination)
3. the box gets damaged due to some one else improperly shipping another box with some form of liquid in it that ruins the package. when this happens they have to attempt to salvage/repackage anything thats damaged before going to the sender.

ultimately some stuff gets so messed up that they can't even return it so they have to wait and hope the sender/receiver contacts them to try and figure out where the box was suppose to go or be sent back.

also there's a terrible misconception that the package logistics is a completely automated system, it's not. there's only a few large distro's that are fully automated, the vast majority of them are hand sorted by employee's. not going to make this political so don't take it there but fully expect more and more issues to pop up though due to Trump freezing federal hiring, most of the distribution centers are starting to become short handed because employee's were/are retiring right now and they're unable to fill the positions. the one i work at has already had 4 people retire in the last 2 months with 5 more by june.

Mr. Bluntman said:
The first issue I see is that they used USPS, not DHL UPS or FedEx. While I feel bad for byuu and the German fellow that's out a hundred games in his rare collection, and wish them luck in recovering what was lost, they shouldn't have used USPS. Flat out.
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USPS does fedex and DHL ground shipping and most of their air sorting.. the only thing fedex, and DHL do in house is express shipping and hazardous mail that USPS isn't allowed to handle otherwise most of it goes through the USPS distribution system..

Dr. Righteous said:
Yeah, but fast food joints and car dealer are not supported by tax dollars.
And worthless government employees are protected by the largest labor union in the country.
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neither is the postal system, yes it's federal but it's a self sufficient "non profit" system, they do not benefit from tax dollars and everything they make has to either go to improving the system or to the employee's.
 
Last edited:
Genuinely sad to hear this.

Byuu is NOT a scammer. They guy is obsessed with preserving the SNES and has spent the better part of the last 20 years working towards that goal.
 
Master_shake_ said:
mcjobs weren't made so you can support a family of 5.

they're there so kids can have some employment while attending school.
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Ah yes, that's why McDonalds has a strict policy of only hiring high schoolers, and only being open after classes let out. When the first McDonalds opened it was only staffed by people going to school right?
 
Fedex, people. I don't trust USPS for anything over $50, and especially not for overseas stuff.

USPS can barely get my mail into my box. My neighbors and I are constantly sorting our own mail after stuff gets randomly sent all over my block.
 
Keep an eye out on EBay for a bunch of new listings.... :(

That's the kind of package that it would have been worth the ticket to pick up in person. To me anyway.
 
britjh22 said:
Ah yes, that's why McDonalds has a strict policy of only hiring high schoolers, and only being open after classes let out. When the first McDonalds opened it was only staffed by people going to school right?
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well college as you may or may not know is not really everyday all day also it's considered school.

but ok fine. you're right.
 
Burticus said:
Fedex, people. I don't trust USPS for anything over $50, and especially not for overseas stuff.

USPS can barely get my mail into my box. My neighbors and I are constantly sorting our own mail after stuff gets randomly sent all over my block.
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then complain to your local post office because i'm sure your street isn't the only one their screwing up so the more complaints they receive the fast they can get rid of the courier.
 
Maybe the cartridges ended up here:

https://consumerist.com/2016/10/20/video-shows-usps-worker-dumping-bins-of-mail-in-a-ditch/

USPS has been pretty okay for me in the past with just the occasional mishap, but, lately, they've been having a number of problems with misdelivered mail (both ways). Anyways, it's a shame about those lost SNES carts and the situation's effect on the archival project. I think many SNES games still stand up and are fun today.
 
Master_shake_ said:
mcjobs weren't made so you can support a family of 5.

they're there so kids can have some employment while attending school.
Click to expand...

In'n'Out Burger pays their employees starting wages between $12-$17/hr (depending on experience) part-time and full-time employees get benefits and a 401k plan, managers start at $80k a year and increase from there. All produce is fresh never frozen. All meat is fresh never frozen. All fries are hand pressed on the spot in every location. All food is cooked to order. All buns are baked daily and delivered to each restaurant, leftover food is donated to homeless shelters. It's a multibillion dollar company that somehow after all of that is *STILL* able to charge prices that meet or beat mcdonald's without sacrificing quality, employee happiness, cleanliness, customer satisfaction, or even time. If anything, they're way more like the original mcdonald's brother's restaurants before Ray Croc turned it into the real estate empire it has become (if your local mcdonalds is located in a shopping center or strip mall there's a 70% chance every shop there pays their rent to the golden arches. That's where the majority of the money comes from).
 
xaustinx said:
In'n'Out Burger pays their employees starting wages between $12-$17/hr (depending on experience) part-time and full-time employees get benefits and a 401k plan, managers start at $80k a year and increase from there. All produce is fresh never frozen. All meat is fresh never frozen. All fries are hand pressed on the spot in every location. All food is cooked to order. All buns are baked daily and delivered to each restaurant, leftover food is donated to homeless shelters. It's a multibillion dollar company that somehow after all of that is *STILL* able to charge prices that meet or beat mcdonald's without sacrificing quality, employee happiness, cleanliness, customer satisfaction, or even time. If anything, they're way more like the original mcdonald's brother's restaurants before Ray Croc turned it into the real estate empire it has become (if your local mcdonalds is located in a shopping center or strip mall there's a 70% chance every shop there pays their rent to the golden arches. That's where the majority of the money comes from).
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so you can support a family of 5 on 12-17 dollars an hour?

is that what i am meant to take from this.... commercial?
 
Even with insurance good luck proving value on collector goods after a loss.

My recent USPS experiences have been similar. For a couple of months around Christmas, anything that looked like it might have a valuable item in it disappeared. Gift cards, birthday cards with checks in them, tickets to events, etc all just vanished. Luckily it wasn't anything that couldn't be replaced.
 
xaustinx said:
In'n'Out Burger pays their employees starting wages between $12-$17/hr (depending on experience) part-time and full-time employees get benefits and a 401k plan, managers start at $80k a year and increase from there. All produce is fresh never frozen. All meat is fresh never frozen. All fries are hand pressed on the spot in every location. All food is cooked to order. All buns are baked daily and delivered to each restaurant, leftover food is donated to homeless shelters. It's a multibillion dollar company that somehow after all of that is *STILL* able to charge prices that meet or beat mcdonald's without sacrificing quality, employee happiness, cleanliness, customer satisfaction, or even time. If anything, they're way more like the original mcdonald's brother's restaurants before Ray Croc turned it into the real estate empire it has become (if your local mcdonalds is located in a shopping center or strip mall there's a 70% chance every shop there pays their rent to the golden arches. That's where the majority of the money comes from).
Click to expand...

I did not know this. I didn't find their food to be as good as I expected (high expectations). Employees were extremely friendly, though. However, knowing this - I'll choose them over the competition when I'm near one. That's pretty cool stuff. I do go out of my way to shop at places like that - treat employees well, pay well, help the community, etc..

This really sucks for both. There was a guy in Seattle that had his collection stolen out of a storage unit, too. These older games have become very hot items. Hopefully they can recover the shipment (highly doubt it). :/
 
the_servicer said:
Over the years I have noticed on this forum two most commonly loved things are i) overclocking and ii) shipping insurance. I am prepared to take some [h]eat for suggesting that when shipping packages, insurance is overrated. I am not saying don't buy insurance. I do think the question of whether insurance is actually worth what it costs deserves critical scrutiny. One should consider what actually goes into filing a claim and trying to recover money after a package has been lost or damaged.
Click to expand...

Quite right. I once bought a used laptop, repaired it, upgraded it, and cleaned it, to send it as a gift. I got insurance that was below the actual value I put into it with both upgrades and time, and I had plenty of pictures before and after. For whatever reason the person delivering the package went out their way to destroy it - a grudge against someone who turned out not to be living at the destination, as it turned out. In any case, I wasn't able to get a dime back even with weeks of dealing with the claim. Long story short, I still always get insurance and do due diligence with it, but I generally expect to get nothing out of it.
 
Cliff notes: Don't mail $10,000 of stuff in one box to save $3 on postage.
 
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