A joke as in they're just infamously bad pads. A lot of them arrive DOA and arrow inputs will not register and stop working all together. I've heard about some people modding their TX-1000's successfully to get more life out of them, but I'm not sure what that involves. The newer TX's like the 3000 & 4000 are built a lot sturdier but these 1000's are mostly junk. $15 a piece is what they're worth. If they work and you can get c-boxes for them, then maybe $50 each.
carlcarlson is right though, you really need the control boxes to get any money for them or else they're pretty much useless. You can buy replacements online. Here's a link to an Xbox one but they also make PS2 and USB ones:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-...00-70-59m.html