Xbox 2001 Launch Team Edition

[GoTeamScotch]

I am now the proud owner of a 2001 Launch Team Edition Xbox!

^Generic image from online^

Only 60 of these were ever made (some say it's closer to 40) and 15 years later who knows how many are still in existence. Halo editions, for example, about 200,000 were made. I saw it pop up in an online auction site (not ebay) and watched it like a hawk for the week that it was up and put in the winning bid earlier today and it should be arriving in about a week.

From Wikipedia:

The Xbox Launch Team 2001 Special Edition is a translucent green Xbox with a jewel that is silk screened with the message "Great work!" and a copy of a printed signature from Bill Gates. This Xbox was sold, not given, to members of the Xbox launch team. Two exclusive translucent green "Duke" controllers were included. [...] The Launch Team 2001 consoles were hardware revision 1.0 and all were produced in a Mexico production facility on November 7, 2001 or November 8, 2001.

Needless to say I'm extremely excited to own a piece of gaming history.

Anyways, this Xbox is broken in that it powers on for a moment and then immediately shuts off. Fixing it is not an issue for me but I wanted to ask you all what your thoughts are about upgrading it. Upgrades I would be possibly doing include: 1.4ghz CPU upgrade + 128MB RAM upgrade (courtesy of N64 Freak), 2TB HDD upgrade, Xerc, and iND-BIOS (TSOP). My question is basically this: how much of a heinous act would it be to 1) open the unit and repair it (breaking the seals) and/or 2) upgrading its internals? Would doing so hurt the value of the unit or would making an already rare item even more uncommon only increase its value? I know for many collectors, having the seals broken and non-stock hardware installed can be a bad idea but I just wanted to see what you guys thought about that.

For the record, I don't plan on selling it any time soon.

[sixties keith]

Such a find mate well done, would love to own something like that so you really got a nice xbox there.

imo if you open it up i would assume it would lose value your in abit of a hard place with it not working. did you get anything with it box, manual's etc? if not and your not worries about the collection value (depending on how much you actually paid for it) i would open it up and fix it. you say your not going to be selling it any time soon so i wouldnt worry too much about it.

you wont have any probs getting it sold in the future anyways, especially with me on the forum

[xman]

I say rip it apart and make it useful. I would use what you paid for it as a guide as to how much of a collector's item it actually is. The thing with rare Xboxes is there is nothing real special about them. That version you have looks nothing more than a jewel change. Now you compare that machine with a fully modded machine, maybe with a large HDD, a cool LED job, HDMI converter and wireless controllers, what would you find more useful and appealing?. Add to this the machine you have isn't actually working in it present form.

[Xphazer]

Modding it would be a nice way to throw 800-1000$ out the window.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Xbox-Launch-Tea ... Swgn5XEqjS

Edit: Just realised it was dead, I say sell it as is or mod it to your taste then.

[GoTeamScotch]

if you open it up i would assume it would lose value your in abit of a hard place with it not working. did you get anything with it box, manual's etc? if not and your not worries about the collection value (depending on how much you actually paid for it) i would open it up and fix it.

Nope! Just the Xbox by itself. No cords, controllers... nothing.

The thing with rare Xboxes is there is nothing real special about them. That version you have looks nothing more than a jewel change. Now you compare that machine with a fully modded machine, maybe with a large HDD, a cool LED job, HDMI converter and wireless controllers, what would you find more useful and appealing?. Add to this the machine you have isn't actually working in it present form.

I wouldn't be doing any cosmetic mods. What makes this unit unique/valuable is the exterior case so I want the outside of the box to *appear* to be stock. It's all the same hardware inside so that I don't have a problem playing with.

[xman]

Take the time to use a hairdryer on the seal labels being careful not to discolor them and carefully removing them and no one will ever to be able to tell you have been inside. Now the choice is, do you want it for yourself or are you just going to on sell it and make a profit by your restoration?. If it is the later, keep it stock. I'm presuming you will find a power supply issue is all that is wrong but don't right off a trace corrosion problem which is very common for the real early Xbox. If you want it for yourself and didn't pay a crazy price for it and really want it for yourself well that is your choice.

[BuZz]

Very nice!

[GoTeamScotch]

Take the time to use a hairdryer on the seal labels being careful not to discolor them and carefully removing them and no one will ever to be able to tell you have been inside. Now the choice is, do you want it for yourself or are you just going to on sell it and make a profit by your restoration?. If it is the later, keep it stock. I'm presuming you will find a power supply issue is all that is wrong but don't right off a trace corrosion problem which is very common for the real early Xbox. If you want it for yourself and didn't pay a crazy price for it and really want it for yourself well that is your choice.

It would be for myself really. I have about 20 boxes right now, 2 of them anything special, and I haven't had a main daily-driver kind of Xbox for a while so yeah. Any selling would happen years from now. So I guess modding is the conclusion on that!

Any problems the current board has would be irrelevant because I'd be replacing it with one of N64 Freak's boards. I'll probably keep the 1.0 board. If nothing else for ram chips because I could use the practice. I still break half the boards I try to do ram upgrades on.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll probably make a post about the restoration/upgrade later once it happens.

[toxicmedz]

Modding it would be a nice way to throw 800-1000$ out the window.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Xbox-Launch-Tea ... Swgn5XEqjS

Edit: Just realised it was dead, I say sell it as is or mod it to your taste then.

Where are you getting this price estimate? The Launch team consoles aren't even close to worth that much.
If it was a Partner xbox.. maybe. But a Launch team I wouldn't spend more than $700 for a Perfect condition one with BOTH of the original green translucent Duke controllers.
A Non functional Launch team on its own I'd say to the right person could fetch 250-300ish. Anything more than that is pure insanity. Also I'm pretty sure the wiki is wrong about there only being 60 made... pretty sure the number is higher than that with how many are in peoples collections and Still pop up on ebay.. I wouldn't trust that number unless its actually backed by a reputable source from a Xbox team member..

[GoTeamScotch]

Modding it would be a nice way to throw 800-1000$ out the window.

Where are you getting this price estimate? The Launch team consoles aren't even close to worth that much.
If it was a Partner xbox.. maybe. But a Launch team I wouldn't spend more than $700 for a Perfect condition one with BOTH of the original green translucent Duke controllers. A Non functional Launch team on its own I'd say to the right person could fetch 250-300ish. Anything more than that is pure insanity.

There's currently a broken one on eBay listed for $1,300 and another one that includes a bunch of extras going for $1,900. But of course an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it so the eBay ones might be on the high side. The auction I won, however, had 8 unique users bidding at least $400 with the selling price being just under $600 total. To be honest, I had planned on spending much more than that.

This took place on a somewhat obscure online auction site. They don't receive anywhere near as much traffic as a place like eBay. You can find stupid cheap garage-sale style prices on old finds. Like this lot last week that I got for $13 (+ shipping) and sold a week later for $65 (softmodded) and the Halo controller by itself can sell for $40.

My point is that it sold broken and by itself (no cords, accessories) for a pretty decent amount on a bargain-discount kind of online auction environment which is saying something.

[PhobosDevourer]

Mod it for sure.
Noone outside this forum appreciates the value that these things have, plus it is for you only.
I would love to see your final product you're overall really clean on your work.
Good luck!

[GoTeamScotch]

Got it in the mail today!





The case is in good shape. It's not perfect but it's not bad by any means. Definitely the best looking Xbox from 2001 I've come across.

When I powered it up at first I got into the dashboard and it appeared to work ok. I had to go to work so I stowed it away but when I came home it would only flash red and green lights with no video. It reboots 3 times and on the third stays on and frags. I haven't encountered this before. Like I said, I'm not too concerned with repairing the motherboard because I intend on replacing it.

Quick video:


P.s. I found this Xbox the first day I started browsing the auction site it was on. It also happened to be located a half hour away from me. Small world.

[GoTeamScotch]

Heads up - I was able to talk to the Supply Chain Program Manager for Xbox back in the day who oversaw all of the manufacturing operations for the Xbox console plastics including these special edition ones. He said that about 1,000 units were produced!

Here's the thread we're talking in if anyone's curious: http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/200 ... any.62327/
There's some interesting stories that he shared about the production process.