He hasn't ripped you off.

I agree, if it was that important to you, you should have made that clear prior to bidding.

Honestly I would have probably canceled the auction on you too. As LTG says, "No deal is better than a bad deal"

Hmm, I almost bid on that machine because it was in my neck of the woods. Thanks for the heads up.

If the game can't be tested prior, sounds kind of fishy to me.

Anyone who does not allow for testing a game that you are paying thousands of dollars for is hiding something. It sounds like you were being very reasonable. Why would anyone cancel a sale just because you want to plug the machine in? Thanks for the heads up as well.

Really??? If you where picking it up and not plugging it in to test it than your a fool.

Sorry, but IMHO, I think that's total and complete BULL.

1 - You list a game in perfect working order on Ebay.
2 - You know most people won't come out to see it till after the sale.
3 - On top of that, if it's working, what are you worried about?
4 - Not to mention the fact that under the new policy rules, if you sell the game and a person takes it home and it's messed up, you can return it and get your money back up to 6 months afterward.

So the seller should've had no problem with letting anyone try the machine before, during or after the purchase. Stand by what you sell or don't sell it at all. Or at worst, be honest and give a description that it has issues so you know what to expect going in.

All said and done, I agree with Herb in the sense that sometimes the best deals are the one's you DON'T make. Stay away from that seller.

I cant believe someone actually agrees with this. Im a retailer, I sell games daily. And it doesnt matter if its a 200.00 video game, or a 10,000.00 pin, if it is being picked up, the buyer will be testing it to make sure that it was as i said it was. I insist on it being tested. Myself, I dont always test games that i pick up, but that is a different story. If im buying from someone I know, then i expect them to be honest with me.

Well, I see both sides here as well - and you seem to be a bit aggressive about this whole testing business...so I'd tell you to take a hike myself. You not only have opportunities to test things prior to bidding, but you also have guarantees to your advantage as an Ebay buyer. If you are going to be a hassle to deal with, I'd move on to the next bidder just like he did. Yes, you are paranoid, and yes, you are unreasonable. You don't have to treat everyone like they are crooks.

It wasn't prior, he already bought it.

Funny too, the people who buy games NIB don't rip the box open to check inside the box to see if there is a pile of rocks in there.

Would you really buy a game from someone that wouldn't allow you to test it beforehand? Seems pretty odd to me.

Ha...true that. I ripped mine apart and threw it in the trash before loading the game up.

2k for a twister is nuts anyway. Everybody underground now!

What is this I don't even... If the pin is advertised as working, prove it.

I've bought CRAPLOADS of items on Ebay that I have not tested before hand. If someone is being nitpicky like that, they already bought it - it wasn't a pre-bid request to test - then yes - go fly a kite, I'll deal with the next honest soul who isn't out there to find some tiny problem and pin me to the wall. BYE

Glad you are off the hook for the game.

You know it was not working 100% now.

So every time - every single time - you move a game it always works 100% after the move?

Shady Sadie indeed

If you state 100% working you should be willing to prove it before pickup.I always am.

If your selling something as 100% working, you shouldnt have anything to worry about

Serious, really, let me know your ebay ID so i can make sure to not ever bid on one of your items if this is how you do business.

I bid on games all the time, and have bought more than most. And it all can be very simple. I know for a fact that I have bid on games that were not within a reasonable distance to test. I bid on the item, and when i go to pick it up, then i do a quick test to see that it is as advertized and i move on. Now if the guy showed up and tested the game, it was as advertized, and then tried to renegotiate, then sure, tell them to take a hike. But if you are not willing to prove that the game works as you stated in an auction, there is only one conclusion, and that is that the game is not as advertized

The OP was just trying to save himself and the seller from a future headache, I don't see why the seller should have had an issue.

If he advertised the game as 100% working, he should have no problem with letting the winning bidder test the game.

Had the OP received the merchandise and it wasn't working, the seller would be on the hook for a refund anyway, and would have to deal with the hassle of getting the game back and refunding the money.

Some more nefarious sellers will pull these kind of stunts because they know that buyers won't want to go through the hassle/expense of returning the game later.

I'm not saying that this particular seller was doing that, but when you are going to drop $2k, it's better to play it safe than sorry.

Totally agree with this. I'd say you dodged a bullet.

I would never refuse to let someone test a machine but this OPs post throws a lot of flags to me. It just seems like it would go wrong no matter what. Would I have bought the machine the seller had listed? Not at the winning price. The guy also wouldn't take your money though. The OP seems to be going to extremes to have the ability to test it, which would make me think they have unreasonable expectations. It just sounds like a huge pain in the ass from a sellers perspective.

wayout440....Your name fits you perfectly. You are indeed way way way out there! Wouldn't buy anything I couldn't test for that kind of money. Ebay or not. Picky is getting on his case for ball trails or a burned out bulb. Plugging it in and making sure it turns on is as advertised is normal for most of us...other then you I guess.

Remind me to ignore anything you sell for fear I might upset you by asking for some pictures. LOL

Anybody have a link to the auction? I'm curious

I'm not sure what that question means.

Basically, if I claim that something works 100%, then I want to demonstrate that it does indeed work 100%.

You would not buy a $50 lawnmower without gassing it up and starting it - so you CERTAINLY would not pay $2000 for something as complicated as a pinball machine without coining it up.

$2000 is top dollar for a Twister, so you sure don't want to put a bunch of money and time into that title.

ebay.com link: 1996 SEGA TWISTER PINBALL MACHINE

OK, at this point I would tip in favor to the OP as the last line in the guy's description says:

"You are welcome to come see and play before bidding."

If you can do it before you can do it after.

You can play, you just can't plug it in. Seems fair enough!

ebay.com link: 1996 SEGA TWISTER PINBALL MACHINE

Wow, startled at the prickishness of some of you guys. Even if the game is perfect, it sounds like the seller is unreasonable and I would have refused to complete the sale too.

Yeah glad I know who NOT to purchase games from. this thread has pointed out a few.

Its not. Like people have said dude had something to hide. No if's and's or but's about it. Even the shadiest of operators would let you plug it in.

Looks like negative feedback on the transaction has been left.

Tony sounds like a douche who is selling pins that don't work.

No joke. He did you a favor. There are countless better games than Twister for over $2,000, especially when this one was guaranteed to have issues if he wouldn't let you play it first.

There are 2 sides to every story; I'm not sure we even have the full story from one side documented here.

The buyer seems to be a little high maintenance to me, personally, after doing this for more than 10 years. In all fairness to him, though, I've not spoken to him in person or done business with him on a game - at least, I don't think I have.

I've found high maintenance buyers in the past to be the type who show up, and tell you a lamp is out, a switch doesnt register, something simple and then demand a massive discount. I've known people to bid whatever it takes, then show up and try to negotiate the price down to what they really wanted to pay, using a small scratch or something very simple to fix that I could fix in 30 seconds. I have turned away buyers in the past, by telling them simply that I don't believe we should do business, as I don't think I could satisfy them, based on conversations with them. Would I like their money? Yes. Am I willing to take the headaches? No!

I think a simple solution here would have been to inform the seller you don't pay until you test the game and are happy with it. I wouldn't let someone I don't know load a game in their box truck while we go have breakfast, I've got no guarantee that it'll be there when we return. Depending on how the buyer made his demands, I might have gotten a little defensive, too.

The whole storage thing amazes me. I don't take people to any of my storage units. I don't want to get cased to be ripped off later. If I sell a game, it gets picked up somewhere else.

He had no business saying with certainty the game was working. Even if it was working before he moved it to storage, anything could have gone wrong during the move from his shop to the storage.

You should not have to be responsible for potential issues related to him moving the game and it should have been tested by the buyer.

Maybe I am not expressing myself well in the text. I do agree with John. Sometimes these high maintenance buyers turn out to be huge headaches. I have handheld a few and even set up games for them on location...something I would actually rather not do. Too many things can go south during transport. Most do not even try to negotiate the price, so yeah if you are high maintenance its no worry for me. I'll just wait for a buyer I am comfortable with.
It just sounds like everyone here is burning this guy at the at the stake and he hasn't even done anything wrong. Its all a bunch of assumptions.

That was kind of my point, you articulated it much better than I

Okay then.......note to self; don't buy from Tony Pinto from Classiccoin-Op and don't but from wayout440.......done.

OP, you probably dodged a bullet.

There was no reason the seller shouldn't have let you test the game.

I have bought games on eBay and picked up in person and not once has a seller at least let me try the game to confirm it was in working condition. He won the auction. If the seller isn't hiding anything and commented it was 100% working I'd certainly at least like to make sure by playing a 2-5 minute game. I certainly don't think that is asking a lot of the seller.

That's fine...but get it correct...my eBay ID is wayout1221.
If you are that paranoid that this Pinside thread causes you to not buy from me so be it.

Others have said the same thing, but you are better off that the deal fell through.

I bought my first game on eBay. I drove from Chicago to Louisville to pick it up, and the guy had the game set up and let me try it out to my satisfaction before loading it up. I overpaid and was later kind of bitter about it, but it was my fault because I was excited about buying my first game. I couldn't blame the seller at all, as he let me inspect the game, play it, etc. before taking it home.

I have sold only one machine on eBay. The guy came down from Madison, so obviously it would've been impractical to test the game before bidding. He won the auction, but I insisted that he check out the game and play it as much as he wanted before taking it. I even told him he was not obligated to buy the game if he thought I had misrepresented it in my ad. I'd rather not sell a game to someone than have that person feel that I ripped them off.

If someone gives you a hard time about wanting to test a game before buying it, you are better off not doing business with him, in my opinion.

All the OP wanted to do was test the pin before laying down the cash. Anyone who disagrees with that I'd have an issue with.

Wow bro...seriously? You ever buy a car? You telling me you never took it out for a test drive EVEN IF it was BRAND NEW?

Come on! We've all bought tons of stuff untested off Ebay. I bought my wife a $20K grand piano in FLA. I didn't fly down to test it, but I hired a piano tuner from down there to go and check it out for me to make sure it was in as described (perfect) condition. And you can believe that that was after I was the winning bidder and the seller was fine with it.

Point is, when you're buying a big ticket item you want to test it out. If you're really selling a perfectly working item, you wouldn't have any worries about the winning bidder wanting to come over and test it out to make sure it's as described. In fact, that's EXACTLY what a good/honest seller should want. End of story.