Offer $17K, settle for $18.

LTG : )

4 routed stern pros that all need a full shop ? If so I’d say 16 topps.

Define not really serviced but still pretty decent?

$20k isn't a steal, games are gonna need a lot of work.

Listen to the other guys, offer something lower and see where that gets ya.

Do it. If you sell GB for 6, TWD for 5.5 and the GOT for 5 you got a 3.5k Metallica.

But offer him 17 like LTG says

listen to LTG

Small bills so it makes a big pile. Well worth a try.

LTG : )

Sounds low if they’re all in good shape, an operator is likely to know what they’re worth if sold individually.

But listen to LTG!

Nice Lloyd .I’ll put that one in my front pocket

Find out what his favorite pastry is and throw it on top of the pile .

and hope he doesn't read pinside.

Gulp!

I wouldn't do that.

Keep on target, keep it simple. Don't distract him from the deal or give him a reason to think.

15 thousand dollar bundles of 20's in a brown paper bag. Pull them out, place in a pile. Something plain, "this is all I got. take it or leave it".

If he says no. Slowly place money back in bag. If he doesn't weaken. Walk.

LTG : )

If you actually want them, I say offer $17k-$18k.

I don’t recommend low balling at $15k. It will just piss him off. He knows what they are worth.

$15k is 75% of what he’s asking. That’s just an insult at that point. Try $17.5k. That’s not TOO far off his price.

15 is too low, hes likely to say forget it and youll never see them again. 19 seems like bargaining for sake of bargaining. Offer 18 but take 19 when he counters. Remember pigs goto slaughter, dont get greedy.

The best advice I can offer is listen to LTG

Thing is most route games sell @ 60% or less than the "new" value. So I'd assume that he has an inkling on what second hand pinball prices are if he want's 20k. Brand new coin op pool tables can cost 4k or more, good luck getting anywhere close to that on the second hand.
If you don't want the games offer 15k, you might get lucky. if you actually want the games, offer closer to what he is asking. 18k is the lowest I'd offer if I actually wanted the games. (that's if they are as descent as you suggest)

Pro:
It’s one stop shopping for 4 pretty good titles, and you know the games

Con:
I don’t think you are getting any bargains at $5k a routed game. You are also making it seriously easier for the op by taking them all at once to someone he knows and that adds more value for him.

I don’t see why anybody would be offended by a $15k cash offer. See no reason not to start there.

He’s not gonna walk away in a huff if you have a sack of cash with you, I think people here are confusing him with a hobbyist.

This hasn’t been remotely true for a very long time.

you got some good solid advice let us know if you get them you dont have to say how much but we are now wanting to see what happens.good luck

I would be insulted if I was offered $5k less on anything I was selling. I would start at $17.5

If he’s not a pinball guy as you say, play up the amount of work and parts needed to shop them all up. Tell him he’s pretty spot on for used prices of HUO games, but routed games needing shopped and he’s a little on the high side. Offer $16k, and settle at 17.5 or 18.

I would start at 17500 and go to 18000. That is 4500 a game for non-lcd games. 20K is too much unshopped when from the right distributors you could buy 4 new pros with lcd screens for 22K.

Anyone saying 20k is crazy. If they’re routed then they’re beat. The guy probably doesn’t know how to maintain them and you’ll find a much different story under the playfield I’m sure.

15k to an operator is good. There was a guy who bought 8 classic B/W near me for around that. This guy isn’t a hobbiest. 15k is a good offer and 17-18k is MAX. 20k is silly, they aren’t worth it.

If the op has no idea about current value, then all that matters to him is what he paid and profit on that.

Start by looking up the prices the op paid when he bought the games new.

If it's around 25k then his 20kis a good deal and he probably won't go down.

It it's around 20k (what I expect) then he just wants his investment back. Use that to your advantage : say things like '20k what's they were new, now they are used', and offer 18k..

Whatever you do, don't make the negotiations long.
Next time you go there, have money available - even if it's $1000 to give to be sure and make arrangements to pick up them all.
Make an offer, and if it sounds good then close the deal.
Don't go back 5 times trying to negotiate, or he'll get bored and find another buyer. (Unless he's so unreasonable and stays too high, then walk away, give him your phone number).

Lloyd is right. As per usual.

If any of these games were listed on Pinside at $4500 each ($18,000/4) they would be sold in seconds.

As long as the playfields are good, and the cabinets are decent, do as LTG says.

Take a bag of cash and a truck to take them away on the spot.

rd

Following

Walk away. Get the Metallica you want elsewhere. No harm or hard feelings in passing.

Unless, you are comfortable in flipping those games. That would include: troubleshooting, repairing, cleaning up and possibly shipping them.

I would not pay more than 16k for 4 routed pros. They are 4-.4.5 games all day and you need to factor in a discount for buying 4 in bulk.

5k per game is the most you’d be able to sell them for on Pinside if they were in nice HOU condition.

Deals seem to be hard to come by these days, but so are games in general. I’d do this deal all day long, but knock it down a bit as LTG suggested due to the work involved.

You say 15k, he says 18k, you say 15.5k, he says 17k, you say 16k and he says sold!

Regardless of the final price, 15k,16k 17k..... I would never show up with a bag with that amount of cash in it. Bring a couple of thousand as a good faith deposit, then both of you drive to your bank and complete the deal. That's a lot of cash to be carrying around and would be an unwise thing to do.

When I first got into the hobby I would try and find good deals and buy up anything. I ended up with multiple routed pins that tended to have constant issues and always had something needing repair from the heavy usage. I then started to find HUO machines with low plays and they tend to play perfect with little to no maintenance needed. The cost is typically $500-$1000 higher for a nice machine vs routed but I feel it is well worth it. I have purged all of my routed machines and now only buy tip top shape machines. Sounds like you just want a nice Metallica and I would recommend an older first or second run Pro model HUO.

If your looking to make a profit, then no, 20K is not a great price. BUT, if your looking for a Met pro for a great price after selling the other three, I would go for it. As others have said, try to negotiate a better price but do not low ball. If the guy is firm, you won't get hurt even at 20K. Prices are going up, up, up. Plus you get the experience of cleaning and fixing up newer Sterns. I see you don't have any moderns in your collection.

Bottom line: Try to get a better price. If he's firm, pay the 20K.

I would pass, routed games trouble if this breaks or that. More $ cost to to fix.

I would agree with this. I got a good deal on a routed Stern SAM game a couple of months ago. I was told that it was in a low traffic area. I was able to play the game and it seemed to be 95% working. The guy didn't want me going through it in detail as it seemed to work. When I finally brought it home and tore it down, I realized it had Williams flipper coils in it that were wired from the 50V to ground. This was among a number of other hacks that I needed to fix. It would have made much more sense for me to just buy a HUO example for the money and time.

A take it or leave it approach is only appropriate if you'd be OK walking away from the deal. Consider an approach that leaves the door open, because you go in there from time to time.

He'd like to sell the package, but have you tried offering a fair price (on the low side) for just the one you want?

Take it or leave it first offers simply not a good approach to doing business

LTG is on the right track.

Here is what I would do. Go back, face to face, and do a bit of talking.

Listen, thanks for the offer, I wasn't expecting that. I did some numbers and research and each one of these games needs a fair amount of maintenance. I really feel as a package they have a value of $4K each, so $16K. I have a $2000 cash deposit to give you right now while I go to the bank and get the rest. Does that work? Do we have a deal? Then be quiet and let the seller talk. His response will give you a good idea on where you are at with your offer. If he comes down to $18000 right away, you still have room to negotiate. He takes the $16K , great deal.

Owner should sell them individually to get top dollar at $5000 each. But that would take time and effort. Whole idea of selling as group is to sell for cheaper price as is to make one easy deal. $15000 may be a bit lowball but I wouldn't be over $17000 unless you really wanted the pins.

If he is a business guy and not a pinball guy, go into the audits and show him how much they have already made and how long it will take him to make that again over time, minus his maintenance, space, overhead etc. Then offer $16k.

If he through $20K out then that is his high ask before negotiating. I think you make the points others have said, offer $15-$16K cash then settle in the middle (as long as you are comfortable with that).

I know others mentioned small bills to make a large pile, but personally I think a full strap and more of Benjamins is more impressive/makes a bigger visual impact. Just my preference, but small bills to me make it seem like you scraped up all the cash you had to make the deal. $100 bills all facing the same direction make it look like no big deal to you and you're accustomed to dealing with cash. Not to mention, $100's are easier and quicker to count which makes the transaction that much quicker and gives less of a chance for the seller to backout.

If someone did that to me, I'd show them the door faster than grease lightning.

Get them all at 18. Do a clean up and sell the three you don't want. List them at 5300, accept 5000. Then for some effort hauling and shopping you have a 3k metallica that you are really after.

That seems like a ton of work to save about $2k on a routed Metallica.

You guys are all thinking about this as if you are buying games out of a home collection from someone as stingy and obnoxious and detail oriented as us.

$15k cash is an extremely fair offer to a route operator looking to move on from used equipment he’s already made thousands of dollars in gross on.