I think we should just boycott this thief, no lawyers, no nonsense, simple and effective. Just show this bastard what it means to be stolen from. I may not of been scammed by him but I know what it is like to just feel like you have thrown money in a pit for no return.

Wait, he's the "gummy guy?"

I've gotten a bunch of things from him before, no problem.

And those gummies brightened my day!!!

I can see the frustration from folks who got screwed.

The Chinese have poisoned us and our dogs, you really don't eat that candy do you?

It's getting pretty annoying that every part I need lately is only available from Mad. No Centaur plastics or Laser War ramp for me.

It looks like a hot dog though.

Is it true what he does to the free gummies that he ships out with the pinball parts ?

Add Guns n Roses plastic set to that, very frustrating.

The colors of the Maverick plastic set I bought from him several years ago (luckily this order I received), all faded within less than 6 months (specially the reds).

?

Ordered a complete Stern NOS factory set of MET LE textured decals $40 in the past couple of months as spares for my machine. They are NOT some type of "Jeff's Arcade" craptastic garbage.

Received in 3 days via USPS Priority Mail.

Ordered parts from Mike for at least 10 years since the business was opened (I do not even recall when MAD Amusements started), I really do not know has happened.

Granted he is not Pinball Life or Marcos, but I don't recollect being burned on any orders.

Every opinion needs to be tempered.
Maybe the lottery got the best of him.

Jolly Ranchers.
I have received gummie bears as well.

By supporting him, you support him ripping off a ton of people. Just FYI.

I share some of many honest pinball purchase experiences and get chastized because I have received my parts?

I am not defending anybody.

Welcome to PinSide.
Feel free to never ask me for help.

I think you are missing the big picture-domestic orders get shipped. We are ALL painfully aware domestic orders are received and seem to go out A-OK. As domestic buyers have consumer protections. International orders however don't. He takes the money via wire where there is no consumer protection and never ships the product. Most people trust a business as you mentioned that has been in business forever so they don't think twice about wiring the funds. He takes advantage of that and folks like you who continue to support him, help him stay in business. He preys on the international community and it is sickening.

The way it was being reported, everybody was getting screwed. I "get it". Most of the comments had ZERO value, either cheerleader or rants not "burns". Most people did not know who the person was in this thread!

If inernational are getting burned, there are still ways around the problem.
I did it with suppliers in Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, and Australia.

Networking counts.

Like I said I not defending anybody.

Who I "support" is my choice after nearly 3 decades in the industry.
I know who "sucks" and does not.

If someone wants help or needs to find a part just ask, I may be able to help, instead of getting retorted by pintards.
Sometimes I just give stuff away for free if I don't need it.

You get that international pinheads are out thousands of dollars because of MAD. Okay, I'm with you so far.

So basically, "F you, I got mine".

Got ya.

I'd rather not deal with anyone who supports others ripping off pinheads, so that sounds fine.

I guess we have interpreted the posts differently. I have only ever seen it being reported as the international community being screwed as well as some suppliers. This has been going on for years. It sucks. He takes advantage of our fellow collectors/community and b/c folks domestically get there stuff they continue to support him and keep him afloat. As a Pinsider, having this knowledge, in my opinion, there is no reason to support him.

PinSide is not the way to get someone "blacklisted" in the industry.
There are other, much better options.
This includes the international community and does not require law enforcement or legal action.

International purchases are trickier, I agree.
How do I know?
I imported multiple machines...

No, but for many it is the best way to bring awareness and warn others. These threads have kept many an international collector from falling victim and have helped inform our friends stateside about what is going on. Sadly the powers that be Attorney General, FBI (wire fraud), etc have not done much to bring about any kind of justice.

BlackKnight, I guess until now you didn't know that this piece of shit was a major scumbag, right? Ok, so now you know.... I do hope you never buy or support this asshole again.

I have never order anything from MAD before......thanks goodness.
Few weeks ago, I deleted his website off my bookmarks.

There have been much worse.
Placed orders repeatedly while overseas.
I have lived abroad nearly 12 years out of the last 20.
Still received them.
Guess I was just "lucky".

I have done my part and helped put certain individuals out of business when needed over time.
Most here would not even know who they were.

There really is no point explaining anymore that I am not supporting or condemning this seller.

close yer helmet

That would be like posting on a forum of women who have been the victim of craptaping, that you went to Chuck Berry's restaurant and that to your recollection, he did not videotape your wife taking a crap.

CHUCK_(resized).jpg

So does anybody know of another good source for lime disease products?

People have had thousands of dollars stolen from them. We are not talking about some rubber ring kits and a couple of bulbs. It's a lot of money. Yeah, there have been worse, but that doesn't make this any less effed up. Theft is theft and folks should be warned. I'm not sure how you cannot condemn someone that is preying upon our community like so. It's theft. How is that not condemnable? He has a very specific scam going on and he knows that nothing legally can be done, so he keeps doing it.

I hope M.A.D. of Mad Amusements shows up at a pin show (Pintastic New England, Allentown, York, Replay FX, TPF, Expo, OHIO SHOW etc.) so one of us can take his picture and post it here.

There's a wonderful lyme disease plush toy that might help you, in whatever way you see fit I guess.

LymieTheWorm_(resized).jpeg

GIANTmicrobes are fun and educational way to learn about various health topics and the microscopic critters that are found in and around us. Each microbe character is 5-7 inches in size -- over a million times their actual size! Perfect for teachers, parents and budding scientists, they also make humorous gifts. For children under 3 years and up. $9.95

Perhaps a different approach.

xTheBlackKnightx am I understanding you correctly when you say,

and that you know of better ways to work around this issue.

Perhaps you can offer some help?
PM the main OP, and maybe someone else here involved on how they can achieve satisfaction?
Either solving the issue of funds, product, or "out of business"?

You need not be involved, just your wisdom shared from your experiences.

Maybe MAD will be traveling to Germany to buy some "Official German Lottery" quarter and half-tickets. Just like those scam mailing in the '70's & '80's.

Hopefully a person he ripped-off will spot him and really "take his picture"

I certainly would help and offer international recourse, but this flury of negative reactions is why most many collectors do not post. It just not worth trying to explain or help people who only misinterpret and want to fight and argue.

Never condone people losing money over negative sellers.
Best of luck with the "parts wars part deux"
I hope you all find the parts you need at a reasonable price and have resources and experience required to keep your games running.

Over and out.

That's what she said.

Got it, you actually have nothing to help them out.

Now you've done it guys - you've gone and pissed off the Black Knight! We're screwed! How will we ever find parts and fix our games without his superior knowledge?!?

Actually it sounds a lot like you are actively supporting (with your dollars) the man who stole money from our overseas pinball friends. It's pretty disgraceful the way you want to be a fence sitter and reap whatever you can get from the guy when it's convenient for you.

I second this. This should not be some negative thing. IF you have past experience that may help out, PLEASE at least pass on your knowledge.

Most of what I can do in this hobby (and that I have then used in other aspects of my life), I have learned from others online. I am sure others are in this boat as well!

I'm afraid you don't. And had you been a long time member of Pinside you would be averse of the dozens and dozens of examples of this man's slight of hand tricks. Your opinion is welcome on here, but don't try and validate things you don't know about. Some of us could write a whole book on this guy. The reason you are getting so many down votes is because you are way behind the times and are mimicking comments on threads for WAY, WAY back from guys who praised Mike because he didn't rip THEM OFF. Most of us get irked when we see all the 'good guy Mike' stuff. It took about 3 years of most everyone on Pinside FINALLY getting the picture and stopping their cheer-leading and/or support for him. You appear to be innocent because you haven't been exposed to the entire history. It's deep, my friend. VERY deep.

All this talk of Mike from MAD Amusements makes me sick. I hate pathetic scam artists like this.

Someone PLEASE post this guys pic on here so we know who we are dealing with if we bump into him. Pinside needs a Hall of Shame for scam artists in this industry so we can look over one another. This pisses me off, and anyone still supporting a person like this needs to check the contents of their skull, or lack thereof.

Mike_Ducker_(resized).JPG

It all makes sense now.

Read an article about this Mike Ducker character. He's won a combined $300K in lottery earnings, but spent $125K on tickets to win that amount.

So, after taxes his lottery winnings are around $165K.

This moron has only netted around $40K of earnings from the lotto when all is said and done.

Anyone who can have a separate "Lotto Fund" as he called it in his article has a major gambling problem- certain character traits that will cause a desperate man to feed his addiction and sickness when it comes to gambling. The $125K he spent on the lotto was likely from large sums of money that he scammed international people with. He would use the Domestic income to pay rent and feed himself, then the larger chunks of money from international buyers would fund his larger lotto bets . Probably had the intention of hitting it big then maybe fulfilling the customers order, just to lose it all. Try again, and again.. And again. I'm willing to bet he'd get a $6500-8K wire in and run straight to various lotto retailers and spend a week trying to win big on someone else's dime.

These are the traits of a person with a gambling addiction, pure text book.

Please, NO ONE should give this piece of crap money- all its done is allow him to game the lotto industry and win money with stolen money. Sickening.

I'm sure you are a very nice guy. But whether you mean to or not, you come across as condescending. Lots of great people here on pinside. Lots of opinions too. If you can help, do so.

If he ripped everyone off he would not even be in business so Im sure its select rip offs. As a past customer the problem lies when there is a problem. Excluding overseas which I cannot comment on.

I have received everything I ordered, multiple time. Happy customer. BUT one time I got a wide body lock down and it was a pile of crap thin metal with spot welding showing on the top. I asked for a refund and all hell broke loose claiming I was an idiot and did not know that all lock downs looked like this.

Finally got my refund but was a hassle.

I think he spends his lottery winnings on these.

gummy-hot-dogs-25_(resized).jpg

the gauntlet has been thrown down for all of these guys adding sweets to their orders. bob roberts has upped the anty with these now
mini_moon_pie_(resized).JPG

Bob Roberts has been doing the Moon Pies forever and usually a handful of Mardis Gras bling during the festival as well. No one beats Bob!

Screen_Shot_2016-02-12_at_1.33.13_PM_(resized).png

You should change that ice cream cone to a dildo!

Asshat is his middle name
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