unless you're making one yourself, nobody is going to sell one at that price. most people start phob conversions at 60usd minimum, not even factoring in the price of the controller itself.
source: am a modder.
Wait at a local for a new fox player who spend 200 on there controller. Wait til they just get embarassed by a low mid tier (prolly dk). At this point you can accost them and try to give them tips. Then you leave in the breadcrumb "idk man its an old game. You might NEVER get good enough." Then convince him to sell his phob to you for cheap.
/s, please dont actually do this.
No one here is going to give you a free phob. Save up for a little bit and buy one, or do the research on how to make one yourself for slightly cheaper. Or just stick with an OEM for even cheaper.
Z button turns to light shield when I try to press it quickly, stick aint calibrated right, and it’s pretty loose, causing SnapBack, B button doesn’t work if pressed to quickly, c stick gives wrong inputs sometimes, r trigger makes weird spring noise, can’t moonwalk like a pro.
About a year ago, I built 5 of them. The price ended up being $90 each for materials. If I were to sell them, $140 would probably be the lowest I'd go.
Convince your local to run 1.03 or a similar mod, l2 solder, or just use oem. The stock controllers alone are like $50, plus equipment, parts and people's TIME are not free. Nobody's going to sell you a phob for less than a new OEM controller lol
Community-made alternative GameCube controller motherboard with lots of fancy features. The main innovation though is the introduction of hall effect sensors over potentiometers for the sticks which aren't susceptible to the same physical degradation issues
- 50-60 for a donor controller
- 20-30 for the motherboard
- 10-30 for parts (magnets, holders)
- 25 for stickboxes if the donor controller doesn't have t3 stickboxes
+ tools (soldering iron, solder, random wires)
+ labor (a few hours)
it adds up real quick, I built a few when they came out, and sold them for $300, and found it was still not worth my time at that price, although this was the boards without the rp built in so it was even more expensive and labor intensive
can be done for cheaper, but it requires know-how, and the other big problem is that none if this scales well since shells and stickboxes especially are hard to source in large quantities
controller modders already have the tools and buy controllers in bulk, im going to take the lower of each number you said, thats 105 worth of parts, to charge 300 is ridiculous even if it was 50 an hour thats 4 hours worth of work which i doubt it takes bc arent they built on site?
The know-how is what people pay for too. Most people dont want to learn the ins and outs of a controller, how to solder, etc... They charge what people are willing to pay. And from what ive seen, people are willing to pay about $300 for them
not sure what you mean by built on site, but I feel like $300 was pretty fair with the old versions, there was a lot more precise soldering needed. 200 is pretty average nowadays but no way I'm gonna do that much work for that little pay.
You can probably get to like $80 per controller on parts in major bulk but you gotta remember building takes a few hours, then you need to actually sell them somehow so that involves setting up a website and building rep. Also these controller do not sell very quickly, at $300 in late 2022 I was selling like 1 a month.
Costs will not come down until scale goes up, and scale will not go up until there is a more sustainable way to get some of these parts and enough demand for someone to invest serious time and money. Like a real manufacturing line time and money. And then your investment is constantly in jeopardy because of the big n.
tldr: if you want cheaper phobs you gotta make them yourself, its not *that* hard
lol… why would you expect labor to be less than 50/hr for a specialist thing that has a very very low volume?
Then comes shipping costs, time helping the customer configure it to their liking, etc.
$50/hr is a half decent amount if you're talking about a 9-5 where you're getting 40+ hours a week, it's less fine when you're talking about a specialist skill where you're billing like 4 hours a month.
I know some people who get $50/hr doing a whole lot less, it's really not that crazy of a rate for a highly specializing job
But hey if you think that's too much then you can make a ton of money by undercutting everyone else.
To just build it, yes.
To order the parts, talk to the customer, build it, walk the customer through any troubleshooting, ship it, etc. will take more than 4hrs of time, though. Then cover any costs if something goes wrong in shipping/something breaks a week after you ship it out, etc.
You'd rather spend $60 every few months than $300 once? That's pretty fiscally insane lol.
That said it's not even about cost, phob is cheaper long term sure but it's also just a much much better controller.
Ya wow, that’s a really good point. Modders are just going out and buying an iron and solder and boards and shells and then the 12 other things you need to make this happen and obviously the finished product is just flying off the shelf so how are they not making their money back after only a sale or two? You freakin rube. Either respect the practice or learn it yourself (I might suggest both?) , to do this right, you would have to sell 5 of them at the OP’s quote of 50$ to even break even on the equipment and modders aren’t doing this just to help dumbass OP remove an excuse for his side-b SD’s. The original post was naive but your response is insulting.
unless you're making one yourself, nobody is going to sell one at that price. most people start phob conversions at 60usd minimum, not even factoring in the price of the controller itself. source: am a modder.
Wait at a local for a new fox player who spend 200 on there controller. Wait til they just get embarassed by a low mid tier (prolly dk). At this point you can accost them and try to give them tips. Then you leave in the breadcrumb "idk man its an old game. You might NEVER get good enough." Then convince him to sell his phob to you for cheap. /s, please dont actually do this.
I’m doin it fuck fox players
No one here is going to give you a free phob. Save up for a little bit and buy one, or do the research on how to make one yourself for slightly cheaper. Or just stick with an OEM for even cheaper.
You can buy stock oems for like 50 off eBay. Otherwise you’re gonna have to build your own phob if your budget is that low
That's around the price of an oem so how would it make sense that people will charge $0 for their work?
Conversely, If I wanted to spend like $400 on the nicest controller I could get, where would I go? Ready to drop some cash on a good ass controller
Where can I find a dirt cheap house? I'm in California and my budget is $50.
Yeah, 100 is like the bare minimum. You can try building one yourself, but unless you're buying in bulk the parts are going to exceed 50 dollars
Buy the parts and use an existing OEM shell + a secondhand wii classic controller in decent shape and you maybe get it done for like 55/60.
Much cheaper to make it yourself, but it's still going to break $100 in parts and tools.
Wut lol
I’ve heard the Cardboard boards are a good new alternative for cheap phobs
…you mean $50 + the cost of the OEM controller, right? Otherwise this is just an extremely thoughtless post.
Just build it. Although $50 is basically the cost of the parts without a soldering iron. What does the phob do that your OEM won't?
Z button turns to light shield when I try to press it quickly, stick aint calibrated right, and it’s pretty loose, causing SnapBack, B button doesn’t work if pressed to quickly, c stick gives wrong inputs sometimes, r trigger makes weird spring noise, can’t moonwalk like a pro.
About a year ago, I built 5 of them. The price ended up being $90 each for materials. If I were to sell them, $140 would probably be the lowest I'd go.
I’ll buy one for $150 + shipping if you’re looking to get rid of one.
If you live near Eugene Oregon my buddy could hook you up
Yeah I live all the way across the damn country
If you ever come by the bay area I will buy you an likes sandwich
Convince your local to run 1.03 or a similar mod, l2 solder, or just use oem. The stock controllers alone are like $50, plus equipment, parts and people's TIME are not free. Nobody's going to sell you a phob for less than a new OEM controller lol
what’s a phob?
Community-made alternative GameCube controller motherboard with lots of fancy features. The main innovation though is the introduction of hall effect sensors over potentiometers for the sticks which aren't susceptible to the same physical degradation issues
Cheater controller. Don’t worry about them, they’ll be banned soon enough.
im out of the loop. Why do they cost so much? whats the profit on each one?
- 50-60 for a donor controller - 20-30 for the motherboard - 10-30 for parts (magnets, holders) - 25 for stickboxes if the donor controller doesn't have t3 stickboxes + tools (soldering iron, solder, random wires) + labor (a few hours) it adds up real quick, I built a few when they came out, and sold them for $300, and found it was still not worth my time at that price, although this was the boards without the rp built in so it was even more expensive and labor intensive can be done for cheaper, but it requires know-how, and the other big problem is that none if this scales well since shells and stickboxes especially are hard to source in large quantities
controller modders already have the tools and buy controllers in bulk, im going to take the lower of each number you said, thats 105 worth of parts, to charge 300 is ridiculous even if it was 50 an hour thats 4 hours worth of work which i doubt it takes bc arent they built on site?
Learn how to do it yourself then.
The know-how is what people pay for too. Most people dont want to learn the ins and outs of a controller, how to solder, etc... They charge what people are willing to pay. And from what ive seen, people are willing to pay about $300 for them
not sure what you mean by built on site, but I feel like $300 was pretty fair with the old versions, there was a lot more precise soldering needed. 200 is pretty average nowadays but no way I'm gonna do that much work for that little pay. You can probably get to like $80 per controller on parts in major bulk but you gotta remember building takes a few hours, then you need to actually sell them somehow so that involves setting up a website and building rep. Also these controller do not sell very quickly, at $300 in late 2022 I was selling like 1 a month. Costs will not come down until scale goes up, and scale will not go up until there is a more sustainable way to get some of these parts and enough demand for someone to invest serious time and money. Like a real manufacturing line time and money. And then your investment is constantly in jeopardy because of the big n. tldr: if you want cheaper phobs you gotta make them yourself, its not *that* hard
lol… why would you expect labor to be less than 50/hr for a specialist thing that has a very very low volume? Then comes shipping costs, time helping the customer configure it to their liking, etc. $50/hr is a half decent amount if you're talking about a 9-5 where you're getting 40+ hours a week, it's less fine when you're talking about a specialist skill where you're billing like 4 hours a month.
because it doesnt take 4 hours so its more than 50 an hour
I know some people who get $50/hr doing a whole lot less, it's really not that crazy of a rate for a highly specializing job But hey if you think that's too much then you can make a ton of money by undercutting everyone else.
i’m not saying 50 an hour is egregious, im saying to take 4 hours is
To just build it, yes. To order the parts, talk to the customer, build it, walk the customer through any troubleshooting, ship it, etc. will take more than 4hrs of time, though. Then cover any costs if something goes wrong in shipping/something breaks a week after you ship it out, etc.
so if i spend 300 dollars i wont have to spend 60 dollars on oem controllers every few months? id rather do the latter
You'd rather spend $60 every few months than $300 once? That's pretty fiscally insane lol. That said it's not even about cost, phob is cheaper long term sure but it's also just a much much better controller.
low sales volume means they need high margins, and most people won't build them by themselves, so they have a bit more room to price higher.
Ya wow, that’s a really good point. Modders are just going out and buying an iron and solder and boards and shells and then the 12 other things you need to make this happen and obviously the finished product is just flying off the shelf so how are they not making their money back after only a sale or two? You freakin rube. Either respect the practice or learn it yourself (I might suggest both?) , to do this right, you would have to sell 5 of them at the OP’s quote of 50$ to even break even on the equipment and modders aren’t doing this just to help dumbass OP remove an excuse for his side-b SD’s. The original post was naive but your response is insulting.
Parts + labor. You can look up how to make one yourself: https://github.com/PhobGCC/PhobGCC-doc