GBax.com or play-asia.com


coltxL2717

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i've heard nothing but good things from gbax.com but i was on this site called play-asia.com and they had cheaper prices so i was wondering which site was better? if anyone has ordered from play-asia and gbax can u hepl me out.


-Thanks :D
 
Play-Asia are really nice, and fast.

On the other hand, GBAX provides for the community more so, so its up to you.
 
With GBax you can yell at the person running it right one this board (incase you're order takes too long)
 
I got my system through Play-asia.com and it just arrived today. Really speedy service, but they did not warn me of customs charges (I live in Australia). UPS called me and said I had to pay them $81 Australian (about $50 US) otherwise i wouldn't get the package. Since I'd already paid for it, i was forced to hand out the extra cash. pretty peeved - that's the price difference between the regular and the backlit versions. :(

Someone said Lik-sang *cough*accidently under-declare the cost of the items to bypass customs. Should have ordered through them!

Luckily the GP32 is absolutely great, so my greivances will be quickly forgotten.
 
Lik-sang dont always under-declare, wouldnt count on it, only heard of it once (right here), i bought my first GBA flash card from them and got hit with a £35 charge by the postie right on the door. Wouldnt order from anyone else but GBAX, there great.
 
One thing I did think was a bit cheeky with GBax.com was that they charge you £5 for using a credit card to buy stuff with. I know this is probably for background checks and stuff, but buy with a switch and it doesnt cost you as much.

GBax are still cool tho
 
bought mine from play-asia i live in the United States I didnt get any custom charge, the customers sticker said 16 dollars whatever that meant.

It was on its way to my house less than 4 hours after I ordered it, any emails I send them I usually get a response pretty quickly. I recall the other day I was looking for a particular part of the site and couldnt find it and emailed play-asia and they gave me directions when I actually reached the area I was looking for I got a 2nd email saying "you found it"
 
you're better off from gbax if you live in the UK as they are UK based too. Mine has a problem with the joystick so I phoned them and thier customer service is outstanding. I am extremely impressed :D :D :D
 
I know that this board is mostly concerned with GP32 stuff, so these views might not weigh as heavily, but here it goes, anyway.

I think that the two are fairly different stores.

Play-Asia.com is where I would go if I wanted any sort of general videogame stuff. I mean, just go there and check out their selection. They have PS2, GC, DC, XBox, GBA, GP32, and much more. If you want (or will ever want) any non-GP32 stuff, I would suggest that you buy from Play-Asia.com because they can cover most of your gaming needs. I mean, even if you think that you might want some GameCube stuff in the future, and you're buying GP32 stuff now, then go with the place that has GameCube stuff so when it comes time to make that purchase, you'll know that Play-Asia.com is a good place to deal with.

Now, on to GBAX.com. Craig seems to be a very good guy. He's supported the GP32 scene with competitions and homebrew. The big difference with his site is that he lacks all the other videogame stuff, BUT he sells all the Flash Advance stuff that is hard to find elsewhere. You know, the stuff that lets you put downloaded ROMs on the GBA. If you like that kind of stuff, I'd say that GBAX.com is the place to go.

Now, back to GP32. If it were me and all that I wanted was GP32, I would go with Play-Asia.com because I have dealt with them before and have been completely satisfied with their service!

So, there you go. A lot more text than I had planned to write. :)
 
Has anyone from the UK order a GP32 from play-asia?

If so, does the GP32 come with UK firmware?

Do you get stung by UK import tax (or does this depend on the shipping method you choose)???
 
I bought mine from Lik-Sang.com, before I had discovered the whole GP32 community -- otherwise, I probably would have purchased from GBAx. Price for the GP32 was $159 through Lik-Sang, plus $22 shipping (from Hong Kong to USA). $22 shipping was supposed to be 1-3 day shipping (hey, I was in a hurry to get it!) but it took six days for the unit to arrive -- 2 days shipping, and 4 days to process my order.

With my order, besides the original boxed unit, I also received a DVD titled "The Future of Video Games Part II", which contains about four hours of footage from E3.

Flack
 
just bought mine in korea. i avoided all those crazy customs fees and resellers HUGE markups. the non-backlit system i bought for 12000¥ (~90$) converted from Korean WON, brand new. the guys said at the store GP32 has always been priced around 15000¥. these companies that are reselling must be making a lot of profit! games are between 2000¥ and 2500¥ (17~23$) new. should have bought about 30 gp32's when i was there. ;)


btw, i bought a used one for my friend for 60000WON (about 50$, 6000¥) that i can't even tell from my new one. what a great deal!

sorry so many money conversions..
 
Hmmm...

That $90 price tag must be a well-kept secret.

I wonder if that's what the price will be once GP32 is released in Europe... because if it is, I think I'll wait until I visit Europe this summer.

This would sure make the GP32 sell better in Europe, if it actually cost LESS than the GBA with so many more features!
 
Alright, I ordered my GP32 from play-asia on the 17th and it arrived yesturday. But the customs was really cheap, $20 CAN or around $14 USA.
I picked the cheapest shipping and I live in the North West. So it will differ.
 
I was so wrong about play-asia and I just want to correct myself and hope no one else has issues with these liars.

I have made several orders from play-asia in the past and I was having major problems finding a gba sp with no dust in the stores so I asked Tom (the guy at play-asia.com) if he could find me a gba sp with no dust and he said the first box he opened was one with no dust and I quote

"We heard about the problems with dust inside the GBA screen. Although, over
the last weeks we sold many GBAs and we have not yet had any
complaint."

"Ok, I have check and the first one I picked has no dust (checked with
black/dark background game as well). If you agree, I kindly ask you to set
up an order and let me know so I can send the reserved unit for you."

So I ordered immediately I then sent 2 more emails begging and pleading that he please make sure there is no dust in the screen before shipping it his response and I quote

"Yes, no problem :) Just please confirm once you get the GBA if it suits your
needs (it most certainly will)"

The package arrived and I rushed to open it thinking finally I would have a dust free gba sp when I opened it there was alot of dust on the front of the screen, I realized that they could not have possibly checked for dust since they didnt even bother to wipe the front, when I turned it on the screen had 2 of the biggest dust specs I have ever seen on a gba sp and I have seen over 40 gba sp's to date these things were the size of the periods in old nes copyright text at the bottom of every "press start" screen thats how freaking big these specs were.


I instantly emailed them in caps asking them why they lied to me, they responded to me in denial saying

"We have checked the GBA SP before it was sent out and did not spot any
problem, maybe the parts are so small that they can hardly be seen."

(which is of course a lie as a mentioned the dust all over the front of the screen made it very obvious they didnt bother to check it which is of course what i responded with)

and I got the reply

"The order had the instructions printed that the unit should be checked carefully. Further we actually had
just a very few complaints among a lot of units we have exported."

(uh, did anyone else catch that? earlier they said "we sold many GBAs and we have not yet had any
complaint" but now its "very few complaints")

I then discussed with them the refund process and asked if I could get my money back when I send UPS and give them the tracking number and they responded with.

"Yes we can issue the refund when you send us the tracking
number."

When i send the tracking number and ask for my money back I get

"I am very sorry, we can only refund the money once the item has been
delivered back to us. It should only be very very few days."

I responded quoting the message where they had clearly told me I could get a refund as soon as I give them the tracking number and I got no response from them, I then sent a 2nd email repeating the quote and still have not gotten a response from them.




Some of you may not think this is such a big deal but I lost time waiting for the package, time picking up the package at the station, money for the shipping to and from, and temporarily (if not permenently) lost the money I paid for the gba sp all because Play-asia felt like lying about checking a gba sp for dust i mean how hard is it to spend 30 seconds checking a gba sp for dust? What kind of company wouldn't take 30 seconds for a regular customer?



Let me know what you guys think im not being unreasonable am i?
 
cna anyone tell me where the best place is to buy one for me?

i live in the USA.is there anywere that doesnt have the big import fees?
 
@Ceromus, I would be pissed as hell if I were in your shoes. I dont know what else to say other than just keep sending letters I guess...

@seth. I also live in the us, and I bought my gp32 from GBAX with the cheapest shipping. It ended up being ~175 (25 for shipping, 150 for gp32) It took about a week to get here. No problems at all.
 
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