It's arrived and in my hands, so the time to play it cool has passed! Scored this BIN on ebay a few days ago: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mega-Man....
And for those who are curious here are pictures of the board and shell codes: http://imgur.com/gallery/WQcqCBD...
It's in great shape. A little cleanup and I'd say it in VG condition. This was at the top of my want list for years, so I am quite chuffed that I finally got one and didn't pay an arm and a leg for it. I actually feel a bit bad, like I stole something. I'm not losing sleep though hehe.

Usually recommended to wait two weeks before linking so you don't get backdoored. Congrats, though! Nice snag.

Congrats! Post the board and the shell codes near the bottom of the inside of the cartridge when you get it....I've been DYING for that information for ages now

Good call, thanks.

bump

I saw when you first posted and I've been keeping an eye on eBay for another 5 screw to replace the one I have that has minor label damage! Awesome score man!

Thanks for not backdooring me  

Haha I wasn't looking until you posted you scored one so I wouldn't have! You gave me the idea to keep my eyes out.

Oh silly Phleo... all you had to do was ask.  I've had this for years and years...
F-16 & B-18


 

This one's F-15 and B-18, whatever that means

I know you got it, along with some other small but important holes in my little oddball archive of odd Phleo things. but you don’t talk to me like you used to and we’ve grown apart    

Would love to read the date codes on yours too but...

I can’t confirm without a shadow of a doubt, but my theory on this is that those code are the number of the actual mold used to make the shell.

When making the shells they probably use a couple molds at a time, and as time goes on they get worn out and need to be scrapped. The Quality Control folks likely put numbers on the molds to easily identify flaws during production.

Because they used multiple molds at a time a single print run can have any varying number of mold numbers, but they generally should be in the same neighborhood. For example, your Front and Eric’s front are 1 digit off. Not bad.

I believe that as time went on the numbers got higher for later games. They’re sort of a pseudo-quasi-hemi-demi-semi date stamp, and as time goes on in our hobby I think these codes might come in handy eventually (imagine if someone did a back swap on Stadium Events or NWC and it could be caught simply by that little B-x code)

I worked in injection molding for many years and often the numbers were cavity markings as well since alot of molds were multi cavity so you could have traceability on where it came from. So it could be cavity marking and possibly identifying a mold or manufacturing location or facility. I certainly wish we had some industry input from someone who worked around where these shells were made. Plastic shells like these were incredibly easy to make and mass produce.

For sure a great snag off Ebay!!!
 

Yes, I do recall when you were quite inseperable chums.  Time is a cruel mistress indeed.
 

nice! 52 week of 1987 on the board. three screws were well on their way. venture to say the box print had changed from dr. wright to dr. wily at this point?

Great score! I saw this literally a moment after it
sold. Oh well, congrats

This wasn't the most newly listed item in the results when I found it. If I snagged it right before you, I wonder how many people passed it over.

Hmm, I've never popped my copy open. I'll have to do that and report back.

Nice, ha ha I always try to keep an eye out for things like this but since I am in Canada I dont see alot of listings (as people list it to only ship to US). One day I will get the last few 5-screw 3-screw variants im looking for, gotta play the long game though

Nice pickup. I see that one recently sold on eBay for ~$1200. Makes me wish I'd kept mine when I had it 10 years ago.

I get the regret and that sounds like a lot, but honestly what is $120 per year? Not much, even at minimum wage. I hope you did what you needed to, and you’re probably better off now. Even if you did something “dumb” with the money at the time, it’s experience gained and perhaps lessons learned, you’re quite probably better off.  
 

Thanks, I appreciate that.  

I definitely over-committed myself at times to my collection.  I'll be keeping a lookout for a bargain copy of Mega Man 5-screw, though.  I wouldn't want to pay $1200 on it, even if I had saved $120 a year for it!

Haha, certainly not! It is a pretty big chunk of change at once, whether coming or going and however you get it. I just meant, I don’t think it’s enough to worry about something that you did ten years ago. That is also a significant amount.