A guy in Kentucky texted me about a non working White Water and F-14 Tomcat he wanted to sell -- both for $1700.

I called the guy, we talked about the machines, he sent me pictures. If he was an hour or two away I would have been in the truck and on the way to get them. . . he was over five hours away and would not be available to meet up for a couple days. I made the mistake of showing him some goodwill and told him that his asking price was too low. . . he said to make him an offer and I told him $4K not knowing anything more than I could see in the pics. A day goes by and I get a reply back asking if I can go $5K -- more than I was wanting to spend on two unknown functioning games a full days driving away. Another day or two goes by and he says White Water is working and someone wants to offer him $6K if I am still interested (he'd prefer a local sale). I just said Thanks, but no.

Kept the text on my phone. . . just to remind me some deals are still out there.

I've since seen the F-14 listed for sale as a project here on Pinside so I know someone ended up with them!

The way I look at it, if I didn't tell him someone else would have. Who knows how many other people the guy contacted besides myself? I offered what I thought the games were worth to me. I know its not always reciprocal, but I do try to treat people the way I'd like to be treated.

That's because you probably do your research and are a smart seller. This guy didn't know the first thing about pinball machines -- they were his dad's and he was cleaning out a shop trying to help the family out. I know it was a gamble on my part and yes, I lost.

Exactly. Given the distance and potential time frame for pickup I knew the odds of someone else sneaking in were likely.