The near miss thread.

[8BitMonk]

Today I went to pick up an Asteroids Deluxe that popped up on LetGo for $300 and noticed the guy had a Centipede sitting there as well. He told me it was playing blind and I asked if he'd be interested in selling it for the same price as the ADX and he agreed! I was pretty stoked, two classic cabs for $600 is a good deal day!

So then I asked to open up the back and see it playing blind to make sure there were no other issues. When I popped off the back the PCB was gone, wth!

The guy was legitimately shocked, wasn't trying to scam me, he had no idea it was gone  or where it was. He tells me he has a friend that fixes them for him but swore it worked the last time he got it back from the guy and then the monitor went out.

So while I'm hemming and hawing contemplating either making a slightly lower offer or just paying the $300 sans board since it's still a decent deal he pulls out his phone and starts dialing said friend apparently to ask about the board.

Long story short, he reaches the friend who he hadn't spoke with in some time, the friend has the board (fully working btw) and then proceeds to tell the guy not to sell it to me and that he can get him more for it.  I lost the deal.

This felt akin to getting a big fish up into the boat and it slipping off the line and back into the water last minute, total gut punch. It also got me thinking others might have similar tales of woe.

Anyone else with a 'near miss' yarn to spin, share it here!

[paigeoliver]

We were at this house, where the wife was selling all the games for a moving sale, while the husband was angrily mowing the lawn.

I had previously bragged to my buddy that I never pay more than $150 for anything (btw, still true, haven't paid more than that since 2005). Buddy came to look at Dig Dug, monitor decided to not come up, with my help the price instantly dropped from $300 to $100. It was now my turn and there was a Donkey Kong Junior that didn't already have someone clinging onto it. Nice, working, no sideart, a bunch of political bumper stickers on the side. We got to $175, I pushed hard for $150 to keep my street cred, she called her husband and the price went up to $500.


I was once at an auction looking for a Berzerk cabinet. Was hanging out with 2 guys, who were not real friends, but were at least acquaintances that I knew pretty well. Almost everything was going for cheap, let them know I wanted the Berzerk cabinet, most of the games were going $25 to $50 at this point. My cabinet comes up, guy one bids on it because he wants the board, and guy two starts bidding because it would be an easy multicade conversion. Ends up selling for $125 to multicade guy, whose SUV can only hold one game. I ended up with 8 games on the truck having spend about $50 overall (I flipped a CPS2 fighter in the parking lot for a lot more than I paid).

[pbj]

Centipede seller sounds like a turd.

[yotsuya]

Centipede seller sounds like a turd.

I agree. You probably should have offered him another hundred in cash, take it or leave it. I hope it's friend wasn't basing things off of eBay pricing.

I've never spent more than two hundred bucks on a game either, but I'm getting ready to drop $550 on a classic I really really want.

[ark_ader]

I answered an advertisement on Craigslist for a shell cab at Mountain coin.  I go down and there was a street fighter cab empty with some cat ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and empty bottles in it.  The OP says he wants 2 bucks for it, so I say sure.  It ended up that the OP's buck equals 100, so $200 for an empty cab with cat ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in it...that was disappointing.

[Titchgamer]

I answered an advertisement on Craigslist for a shell cab at Mountain coin.  I go down and there was a street fighter cab empty with some cat ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and empty bottles in it.  The OP says he wants 2 bucks for it, so I say sure.  It ended up that the OP's buck equals 100, so $200 for an empty cab with cat ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in it...that was disappointing.

Sorry but I nearly just spat my beer over the laptop reading this!

LOL

[CheffoJeffo]

About the only "REALLY wanted it. Didn't get it." situation I've had was for a non-working two-player Computer Space. Was really excited about it, made the drive, got there cash-in-hand to discover that the seller had gotten it to work and no longer wanted to sell. I told him that I would have done the same in his place. He also didn't want to sell his Death Race, but that was never a realistic expectation anyway.

Have had a couple of instances where another collector and I wanted the same cab at auction and couldn't come to an agreement before bidding. As a result I paid double what I wanted for my NAOMI showcase (it was the Virtua Tennis 2 that we both wanted and we eventually ended up swapping back and forth as we tired of it).

Unless the price is AMAZING or the game approaches GRAIL status, I'll reset expectations at the first hiccup (e.g. the board was missing). Keeps me from getting over-invested or ripped-off.

[lilshawn]

offered a lowball 1/2 price for a POS nonworking machine. guy says no way, and if he fixes it he can get double what he's asking he just doesn't have the want to fix it. say fine whatever good luck and part ways.

a month later the non working machine is back on list for the same price. few weeks after, it's advertised as working with a double in asking price to match.... week later, back to non-working and old price... week later... working again... but this time the old price. few weeks later... non-working and the price I offered him.

no thanks. enjoy your machine.

[8BitMonk]

Fun to hear some other stories. 2 bucks = $200.. what!? 125$ BZ for a multi-cade, ugh. If only the seller hadn't tinkered with that Computer Space ahead of time! Totally relate to trying to drive down a price that extra $25 only to blow up the deal too, there IS such a thing as over-negotiating.

I'm always amazed when I hear other collectors who've managed to stay at a couple hundred bucks or less for every cab. It wouldn't be impressive if they were all crap cabs but I know both Paige and Yots have some nice machines in their collections including classics. Seems the days of ultra cheap cabs are dwindling though.

Centipede seller sounds like a turd.

I agree. You probably should have offered him another hundred in cash, take it or leave it. I hope it's friend wasn't basing things off of eBay pricing.

He seemed like a decent guy and did genuinely felt bad about backing out. Think his friend just put it in his head he was being taken advantage of. Who knows, maybe I'll hear back, he did say he needed the money. He rated me 5 stars on LetGo today so the well isn't totally poisoned I guess.

Regarding negotiating more... a part of my story I left out was that I had actually paid him for the ADX, taken it home, and returned with the cash for the Centipede. So I had actually made an extra 30 minute trip to come back and get the thing. I did pressure him some, told him we had a deal, that I had made an extra trip, and that it was easy for his friend to tell him he'd get him more but that in all likelihood any more that he'd get wouldn't be worth the hassle of retrieving the board (his friend lives an hour away), fixing the monitor and sifting through Craigslist buyers who would either flake or negotiate the price lower anyway.

[8BitMonk]

offered a lowball 1/2 price for a POS nonworking machine. guy says no way, and if he fixes it he can get double what he's asking he just doesn't have the want to fix it. say fine whatever good luck and part ways.

a month later the non working machine is back on list for the same price. few weeks after, it's advertised as working with a double in asking price to match.... week later, back to non-working and old price... week later... working again... but this time the old price. few weeks later... non-working and the price I offered him.

no thanks. enjoy your machine.

On a scale of 1-10 how tempted are you to contact him again just to say I told you so. 

[lilshawn]

On a scale of 1-10 how tempted are you to contact him again just to say I told you so. 

about a 15 3/4.

at the time I was considering asking half again under that just to see what he'd say. 

[pbj]

Regarding negotiating more... a part of my story I left out was that I had actually paid him for the ADX, taken it home, and returned with the cash for the Centipede. So I had actually made an extra 30 minute trip to come back and get the thing. I did pressure him some, told him we had a deal, that I had made an extra trip, and that it was easy for his friend to tell him he'd get him more but that in all likelihood any more that he'd get wouldn't be worth the hassle of retrieving the board (his friend lives an hour away), fixing the monitor and sifting through Craigslist buyers who would either flake or negotiate the price lower anyway.

Should have left that part out.  Now YOU sound like a turd.

[8BitMonk]

Should have left that part out.  Now YOU sound like a turd.

Which part is turd-worthy in your opinion? Everything I told him was absolutely true, nothing underhanded.

[yotsuya]

I don't think 8bit did anything wrong. They had a deal, the seller was the one that reneged. That's not pressure, that's legitimately venting to the seller. The seller was basically a reverse tire kicker.

[pbj]

Meh, if you're looking for side deals, you need to have cash in hand and space available in the vehicle.  Deal was dead as soon as he drove off without the game. 

And, frankly, behavior like that is why I've always dragged the game for sale into another room and locked the gameroom. 

Turns into, "I'll give you $500 for both of them or no deal" or, "I decided I want this other game" real quick otherwise.

[8BitMonk]

Pressure probably wasn't the right word, just some basic grumbling and expressing to him it may not be as easy to sell as his friend told him. My main gripe was that I made an extra hour long drive to go drop off the other machine, get cash, and drive back which was a waste of my time and gas. Evidently he didn't think it was turd-worthy cause he gave me the 5 star rating on LetGo.

[yotsuya]

Meh, if you're looking for side deals, you need to have cash in hand and space available in the vehicle.  Deal was dead as soon as he drove off without the game. 

And, frankly, behavior like that is why I've always dragged the game for sale into another room and locked the gameroom. 

Turns into, "I'll give you $500 for both of them or no deal" or, "I decided I want this other game" real quick otherwise.

I'll agree with this. The few times I've sold anything, it's outside by the curb or on my patio. Ain't nobody coming in Casa de Yot except for guests.

[Le Chuck]

Meh, if you're looking for side deals, you need to have cash in hand and space available in the vehicle.  Deal was dead as soon as he drove off without the game. 

And, frankly, behavior like that is why I've always dragged the game for sale into another room and locked the gameroom. 

Turns into, "I'll give you $500 for both of them or no deal" or, "I decided I want this other game" real quick otherwise.

I'll agree with this. The few times I've sold anything, it's outside by the curb or on my patio. Ain't nobody coming in Casa de Yot except for guests.

Yeah, x100.  Half the time I'll meet them in a wal-mart parking lot and money changes hands first thing, then I do back of truck to back of truck and off I go.  The other half it's in the driveway or in the garage.

Incidentally I have no good "near miss" stories.  All my misses are by a mile.  Too little or too late. 

[paigeoliver]

I'm always amazed when I hear other collectors who've managed to stay at a couple hundred bucks or less for every cab. It wouldn't be impressive if they were all crap cabs but I know both Paige and Yots have some nice machines in their collections including classics. Seems the days of ultra cheap cabs are dwindling though.

A big part of it was simply taking every great deal that came my way, if I liked the game or not, and then trading into the titles I wanted. I have also traded a good bit of labor. I got a really nice dedicated Naughty Boy that had a board problem in exchange for doing 3 cap kits for a 60 in 1 builder. $30 later the Naughty Boy was good to go and I swapped it easily enough to another collector for a Ms. Pac-Man.

My $150 limit is normally on initial cabinet expense. I can and do go over that total once I am finished with some games. I do all the FPGA multi-boards in the proper cabs, and I obviously can't finish them at $150, but I make sure I don't pay more than that for the cabinet.

[leapinlew]

I've bought and sold a good number of machines. Not as many as some of you, but probably somewhere between 30-40 machines. I'm a MAME guy, so I rarely have original machines. My first couple machines were freebies. Back in the early 2000's, arcade machines had very little value, so you could still find free machines. I don't think I had any near misses. Most of my misses have been like LeChucks - missed by a mile.

I paid $350 for a MKII machine that was converted. The cabinet was in great shape, it had an ipac, good controls and a 25" arcade monitor. I thought it was worth it.
I paid $200 for two bartop kits with the intention of selling them. After fixing them up, they sold for $350 each - I lost money on those.
I paid $250 for an original Crazy Climber that had some video issues. There was an arcade auction in a couple weeks and I was able to flip it for $600. (This is where I learned how much the auctions rape you)

I have a hard time purchasing machines for much more than the cost of the parts it takes to build them.

[Le Chuck]

I paid $250 for an original Crazy Climber that had some video issues. There was an arcade auction in a couple weeks and I was able to flip it for $600. (This is where I learned how much the auctions rape you)

Just saw a Crazy Climber go for almost 2K at auction a few weeks ago....crazy

[leapinlew]

I paid $250 for an original Crazy Climber that had some video issues. There was an arcade auction in a couple weeks and I was able to flip it for $600. (This is where I learned how much the auctions rape you)

Just saw a Crazy Climber go for almost 2K at auction a few weeks ago....crazy

Yeah... I was expecting it to go for more, but it was a buyers auction and I had no choice but to sell it. The auctioneer started off at $1,000, which was a good sign but had to drop all the way to $100 before the first bid came in. Whatever... it could have turned out worse. I've had a good run in arcades. I've probably made more than I spent, which I think isn't the case for most folks.

I wouldn't count this as a near miss, but it's definitely a miss. A local arcade had a broken upright Star Wars and I was speaking to the owner about it. He was going to send it to auction as-is and I asked if I could put an offer on it. He said sure, and I said $75. No surprise, but that deal didn't happen. I didn't have much money back then, but even then I knew just the yoke was worth $200. I was trying to make the deal sweet. I think fair price back then would've been $500.

I did finally get my stand up star wars cabinet, 10 years later and it wasn't anywhere near $75.... or $500 for that matter.

[Le Chuck]

I got a giant size Star Wars Trilogy for $50.  it was the big bastard with the seat.  Worst buy of my life.  The assache alone of moving that thing wouldn't have been worth it if they had paid me $500.  I did that guy a favor. 

[pbj]

The first few Super Auctions I went to had deals like that... Gigantic crap games like Operation Wolf for $50.  Worn out pool tables $75.  Etc.  not worth the space they occupy.