I drove 4 hours to get a game. Get there, guy says it's in his garage. Has a bunch of shit piled on it. I say "How long ago did you take those pics?" "A few weeks ago".

Then we met the new tenants, who had chewed up every piece of plastic in the game as well as peed and pooped all over it. I said "It's gonna cost about $250 to replace all of the plastic stuff they've chewed up". Guy wouldn't come down on the price. I'd driven 4 hours already, took the game anyways.

Ended up doing a full restore on it. Makin' lemonade outta lemons and all that crap.

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I’ve bought around 80-100 games in the States for me and other people in NZ.

Unfortunately, you gotta realise, 9/10 people don’t want to sell to you.

Look at it from their side.

Why would they?

If the game is a decent deal, they have 50 local people who will buy it for cash NOW and pick it up NOW. No being dicked around with messages or packing or transport. Having a truck come to their house is a day off work being dicked around by useless truck companies.

USA (unlike us down under) is still a “cash money” society. Bank transfer payments that we do 10x a day are rare. Most folks don’t even want to give out their account number.

Unfortunately that’s just the way it is.

If someone sends me an ad for a pin in Ohio and says “can you get this for me” I just say no. Unless I personally know the seller.

The only way around it is to have contacts in cities who will go and pay cash for pins and collect them and drop them to depots. For a fee of course.

rd

You should have told him to pound sand! That is the worst! I’ve had cases where I’ve started to walk away and then suddenly the seller changes their mind.
Cash in hand talks!

Hahaha. Touché sir. Touché.

some people (including me) do not want the hassle of shipping a game, to the other side of the country or to the other side of the world
that is just how it is

I've walked away from 2 project games when they were in much rougher shape than the photos indicated. I said thanks, but I'll pass, and when I went to leave, the sellers each said what would it take to get the games out. So I tossed out a low-ball offer, and they both accepted them.

Sometimes sellers just want the game out and don't want to deal with trying to make arrangements for another person to come for it.

Be like rotordave and just vacation here for 4 weeks then take a game home as carry-on luggage

Selling a game is a balancing act at the best of times. You put an ad up and in the first 20 minutes you’ve had 10 enquiries. You want to keep all buyers interested until you can sort through the tyre kickers and actually get a deposit/sale.

Most sellers will favour a local pickup “cash on the glass” buyer over a “needs to be packed and shipped, pays deposit then balance in 2 weeks” buyer. And thats only talking interstate - not other side of the planet.

I’m assuming this seller had heaps of interest, some local, some interstate, and you. He’s deliberately keeping you warm until the deal is finalized with whoever could get there first, pickup and pay cash. In the very unlikely scenario all the others fall through you’re his next best option.

You’re more likely to get an OS sellers interest if it’s expensive/overpriced/niche game. The market is so strong right now, most sellers don’t need to engage an OS buyer to get asking price.

As mentioned above, a local buyers agent might be your best bet. I’ve heard of dealers that will do it for a fee/margin.

Op is likely a newer buyer in the hobby. Most likely hasn't been a seller very much if at all. He will likely change his opinion when he has been on the other side of things. Selling can be super easy, but can also be a hassle. Pic collectors, tire kickers, the "serious" lowballers, nitpickers, the wonderful folks unable to read descriptions in sale ads, and more are all the types sellers run into.

Shipping companies frequently operate during the same hours many folks work. Most don't want to take off work to deal with that.

Op, you're new. Deals don't always work out. Adjust your approach and on to the next one. Best of luck bud.

Rare that a pin or two doesn’t follow me home.

Amazing what you can fit on 1x pallet ….

rd

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I’ve sold two pins where the Buyer paid and arranged shipping. They both paid asking price realizing my time to prep for shipping and the inconvenience.

Both buyers had good history here on Pinside so I trusted them.

Slow down, Build up your post history here on Pinside and you may have to pay a little extra for a pin that’s overseas.

Have fun, it’s Pinball!!!!

Pinball is all about relationships. People like to buy and sell with people they know or have some (not necessarily pinball) experience with. Also cache Monet.

Ooohh! Trident

I don’t think the OP is calling anyone out for not wanting to ship. But just say it. Sorry, not interested in shipping. That’s all that is needed. No need to string anyone along.

I’ve shipped a few pins. For me to be comfortable doing so, the buyer needed to have history and a good rep here on pinside. And as mentioned above the buyer made it easy; didn’t nickel and dime or waste my time. At this point it wouldn’t matter if it went to the midwest or down under.

Yes, do.

Call me a dick but I won't sell overseas. It's enough of a pain in the ass just packing a damn game properly enough to ship in the US and hope it doesn't get forked by a lift along the way.

As a Canadian, I'm qualified to say, "what a hoser!"

I live in WA state now, had a Canadian come down said he wanted to buy my Apollo 13. Okay, sure, I'll hold it for him. He gets here and then gives me a sob story about the border, having to pay taxes on the way back and expects me to give him a break because of that. He never said a thing about it before coming, so I also found that a hoser move and stuck to my price.

Dick

I knew that was coming. WAY too easy.

SOFTBALL ASS MF

Ohhh Trident. Love that game. Put the new code on it.

You are a damn saint!!

In what kind of selling situation is the first person to contact ever given any kind of preference? Selling a used car, a thing on Craigslist or whatever. If people did this and had like a queue and worked through each person in order until some conclusion were reached, nothing would ever actually sell. It’s the first person to act, to buy, to show up, to be a serious buyer that gets preference. Now if you put down a deposit or received some kind of promise that is a bit different and I would expect someone acting with integrity to honor the deposit or promise.

I thought the international dateline put you into tomorrow, not next year. By 2023 things will be worse!