A Shenmue promo pen - 1998

On my first trip to Japan in 2006, I went to a local little shop somewhere in Osaka that sold all sorts of computer games related stuff.

Somewhere way down there!!

I ended up buying a whole manner of things, which I am sure to talk about. One of which was a Shenmue Pen (shown below in a glorious photo I took). I've kept in the box the entire time, so I can't comment on how the little blighter writes... but I bet that if you tried to write with it, the little thing would only scribe "Do you know where I can find the sailors?" or "Umm...".


It's just a standard ball-point pen, but it's from the Japanese promotion of the game and as such is quite a rare item. I've never seen one before (a Shenmue pen, not just a pen). I know there's a lot of promotional material for games these days, but it's rare to see something from 1998 lurking around. The shop owner said he'd picked it up sometime in 1999, so it's original location is unknown to me.

I've decided to sell this little gem, so if you fancy a chance of owning it, go and get yourself a piece of gaming history.

EDIT: The original post lacked content somewhat, which was kindly pointed out by a reader and fellow blogger - have a read in the comments section. I respect the DCJY is a place for premium Dreamcast content and admit not meeting that requirement in my original post. My intentions the entire time were to allow an avid DC fan the chance to own this piece of history... I didn't want it going to some loser that'd mark it up.

There's a particular comment below that really got my back up, but we can take that offline, Ross.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gagaman do you duy Dreamcast stuff and ofter view days you seell them?

Man this things are rare.

Animated AF said...

Huh? No I don't, but what has this got to do with me?

Barry the Nomad said...

Martin, I have the Free Comic Book Day issue of Sonic The Hedgehog. Would you be willing to trade a small, insignificant part of your Dreamcast collection for it? I'm thinking a UK print piece, a Sonic the comic, a memory card cap (red or white) or a PAL demo disc. I'm really just looking to make a fun trade. If anybody else (Gagaman, etc.) are interested let me know :)

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/bigcovers/archiesonic.gif

Animated AF said...

I think Martin is more after money at the moment, but I may as well link to my trade thread over at Racketboy here, as I have a whole heap of stuff to put with: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=11475

The Dreamcast Junkyard is becoming the Dreamcast Market place! XD

Barry the Nomad said...

lol... DreamBay.

Thanks for the link Gagaman! I assumed he was in it for the money (aren't we all?)

The Golden Cat said...

Good idea.

I'll trade this magnificent copy of POD 2! The case is all smashed and...

I'll get my coat.

Anonymous said...

didn't realise this was a place for people to advertise their ebay auctions. i hav no respect for this site anymore

Barry the Nomad said...

Well considering you don't even have a chutzpah to post under an identity, your opinion will probably be disregarded.
Besides, I've never seen a Shenmue pen before, letalone have been given the opportunity to buy one.

A Moomintroll said...

Barry: Agreed, but what does chutzpah meen?

Barry the Nomad said...

technically chutzpah means "Utter nerve", but it can also mean "bollocks" which is another term for... well, you know.

Animated AF said...

The Anon guy would really hate the Retro Treasure blog!

Anonymous said...

My name is Ross didn't realise it required "bollocks" to tell people on the internet your real name. I cudn't b arsed signing up to more shit so jus posted anom. anyway i'm just saying that adverts for some guys selling his dc stash on ebay isn't what i come to the site for. Also isn't マーティン relatively new to the dcj team? i remember a few months ago when he joined n i can't remember any decent posts from him and now he's just using the site for his own profit.

and Barry mate stop lickin arse

"Besides, I've never seen a Shenmue pen before, letalone have been given the opportunity to buy one."

Caleb said...

I personally think it's a bit annoying that someone new to this blog just suddenly started to use it to promote his own Ebay auctions.

We have blogged about auctions and websites selling dreamcast stuff before but none of those articles have been for direct personal profit.

However, he is talking about somewhat rare stuff though so that sort of gives him a pass.

I don't think that Martin is going to make a regular feature out of this though. And he probably shouldn't.

He probably would have been better off doing an article about the items and then mentioning that he had those items for sale rather than just putting up a blatant ebay advert.

I think most people consider this a site where people write some decent Dreamcast-related content. We have a pretty niche readership.

I understand why Ross is a bit angry that there is suddenly adverts for personal profit Ebay auctions with no real content in them.

Again if Martin would have done an article talking about the items and linking to his auctions rather than a direct advert there would have been no problem.

Caleb said...

Again I want to be clear that I personally really don't give a flip one way or another.

I am just saying I understand why guys like Ross might be upset.

People come here for content.

Adverts are NOT content.

Barry the Nomad said...

Lickin "arse", right.
Well, better to lick the arse of the guy with all the sweet Dreamcast stuff than the guy with a stick up his ass.

マーティン said...

See edited post.

It seems that Barry understands my idea here. I guessed most people hadn't seen a Shenmue Pen, and so 'advertised' it here.

I didn't mean to offend any readers, and I am sorry if I did.

I'm also sorry to Caleb - I know I am new to this site but I feel I have a lot to offer. Part of that offer, in my eyes, was passing on some of my great SEGA Dreamcast Collection on to some avid readers.

Whilst I didn't mean to offend any readers, I'll say that Ross sounds like he needs to get laid. Maybe then he wouldn't be so uptight. Barry has great contribution to this site as a frequent commenter; we'll take this offline if you want to bitch more. I'm off. Probably to get laid. Again.

NebachadnezzaR said...

Take it easy, boys. Last time I checked we were all grown men here, so no need for harsh words. Leave that to 12-year olds ranting about 360 vs PS3...

Ross, I understand your point of view, but your way of presenting it wasn't surely the best. If you had given Martin the opportunity to defend himself you would understand that this was in fact an act of consideration towards the yard, giving us an advantage over the other ebay users

Caleb said...

"I'm also sorry to Caleb - I know I am new to this site but I feel I have a lot to offer. Part of that offer, in my eyes, was passing on some of my great SEGA Dreamcast Collection on to some avid readers."

The reason this site has built up so many avid readers is because we provide a ton of Dreamcast-related content.

Doing a Single picture ad for your own personal ebay auction is NOT going be to considered content by a good portion of our avid readers.

It will be viewed as an outsider trying to use a built up fan base to make a quick buck.

Now if you would have done a quick one paragraph article about the promotional pen with some witty (or in Tommyleece style filthy) remarks and then mentioned that you had one of these rare items for sale then that would have been fine! The title of the Article was "Shenmue Pen!" Not "WTS: Shenmue Pen 4 Sale!"

A paragraph about the Pen would have been content and you would have promoted your auction with a link as well.

I am wondering why the hell you were dense enough to mention that the auction was yours in the first place.

The people who are pissed off by self-promotion would have never followed the link and found out it was a personal ebay auction. The people who wanted to buy the pen wouldn't have given a shit because they just want a chance to bid on it.

In any case...

Really nobody will really care as long as you provide CONTENT (i.e. Words arranged in some sort of logical order.) I know you can do that since you just spewed a whole page of words in the edit.

Caleb said...

See now the re-write with story about going to Osaka that's a hell of a lot better than the original 3 sentences!

If anyone has a problem with a blog like that they can just piss off.

That's a good bit of Dreamcast History Martin.

Tom Charnock said...

Hee Hee! I've been away from the net for a few weeks so I've missed all this. Love it! Keep it up fellas

fatherkrishna said...

I never really saw a problem with it in the first place... Lord knows there's been some cack printed here in the past, not an inconsiderable amount by my good self!

I just thought it was interesting to see a pic of the pen... I didn't need a back story. (Although I like the one that appeared!)

The ONLY opinion I feel the need to heed is that of Tomleecee, and I can't remember him losing his cool about much of the twaddle that's been posted here in the past.

IMHO Martin has done nothing wrong and needn't have apologised for anything. Oh and Ross, you're just being a cock.

fatherkrishna said...

Oh, and I bid on the pen too!

Barry the Nomad said...

Glad to see all is cleared up! :) Btw, thanks for the kind words Martin. Whoever wins the pen needs to get Yu Suzuki to sign a copy of Shenmue with it.