Last July holy crap. 90 days should be plenty enough time to organize some sort of pick up/shipping of a machine.
I can't see how this is your problem anymore. Can you imagine a $20-week storage after the 90 days for storage.
We all want to be good people but there is a fine line of getting the deal done.
-Mike

In 15 years I think I’ve taken two sizeable deposits and the buyers simply
Disappeared like a fart in the wind. Lucky me I guess?

In your case I’d probably just move ahead as if you’ll never hear from them again, with the expectation that you will and at that point you’d refund their money. At some point (a year? 2?) I guess you can consider yourself off the hook completely.

Send a certified letter. You will have to prove that you did everything in your power to contact the buyer.

I am not certain of the law, but I would hold onto the machine for at least 2 years.

heck with him, sell and laugh all the way to the bank! id give him 30 days, sold to the next guy!

2 yrs? Come on now, that is a long time for storing a machine.
-Mike

Again, I am not certain of the law, but I do know that in most cases the law will side with the buyer.

It costs you nothing to hold onto the game for 24 months.

The seller would most likely live to regret a decision like that.

Dude disappears and can't get a hold of him? He's in jail.

Though I agree with Mike_J and think that’s the ‘cover your ass’ solution, you quoted the buyer saying he’d be by in a “couple of days”.

What person of authority would care what you ended up doing with the machine when they said they’d be around in a couple of days and went MIA for almost a year?

I would sell the game and if he reappears refund his money. Happened to me on a cyclone pinball years ago. Gal paid, was in carcerated for 4 years and showed up. I already sold the game . She ended up putting the deposit towards a galaga instead which we delivered before she broke the law again.

Check your state possession of sold goods law. Most states have this for car sales. Send a letter and 90 days is the standard. After that you can charge for storage at $3 a day. After 30 days when storage equals money paid, its yours again.

What IS it with pinball and people on the wrong side of the law! Maybe LaGuardia was right

332F7118-A25E-4F20-AA04-E1CE3A68FEAA (resized).png

Not sure on the legal thing but I feel I did the moral thing in a similar situation.I had a guy working in my glass shop and one day he freaked out and said fuck everyone in the glass hobby and stormed out the door never to return leaving all his tools and raw materials on one of my extra benches. I left it there for a month or 2 as he had freaked out before and I figured he'd show back up to work or at least grab his gear. After a couple months I boxed everything up carefully and put it in storage again figuring he'll be back eventually to grab his 2-3k in stuff but he never returned.after 1 year I pulled it from storage and sold most if the tools and started using the raw materials in my own work.

That’s not true at all. It would cost me an awful lot to hold on to a “sold” machine for 2 years. I’d never do that for such a long period of time with zero communication.

Not all of us have unlimited space and the potential sales/buying/Profit opportunities id lose could be very large.

After say, 6 month with zero communication I’d consider the machine back on the market, at the least. I’d be prepared to refund the original buyer if he ever turned up but for sure I’d sell the game to someone else if the chance came up.

Send him is money back and then relist the game for someone else to buy.

John

Or 6' under.

As long as you are willing to refund the buyer if he shows up you're fine.

As others have said, document everything. Every time you call and leave a voicemail, send certified letters, etc...

Did you try and find him on social media to get a hold of him? Maybe his number got changed or something.

Well if it were me I would just hold onto the game and play it. You have the room and you said its a fun game. If he ever comes by just give him his game and thank him for letting you enjoy it all this time. After a couple of years of enjoying it if he still never shows up I would just sell it.

Or it's possible he dropped dead.

Hang on to it until July, one year. Most likely one of these things has happened to the guy, is in jail, pasted away, has amnesia, or has moved far away. For your peace of mind, it seems you have done your best to contact him.

I'd sock the money away someplace safe.
Go through the trouble of contacting him via last known methods and documenting it. Let him know he has 30 days to pickup or you'll sell the game.

Keep the money for as long as you can in case he comes back. Spend it when you feel comfortable he's not coming back.

The bottom line is we have an expensive hobby. If he comes back in 5 years and wants his money back we could all probably get our hand on 900 in a few days to pay him back.

About 15 years ago a buddy of mine had an antique mall & a guy in a nice classic car stopped in and bought over $2000 worth of stuff. Paid cash and said he would stop back later that week with a truck to pick up everything. After waiting several months we moved the stuff to the basement of the building. About 10 years later my buddy closed the mall and sold the building to his brother. Stuff is still in the basement as far as I know.

I think sometimes people forget, I think other times people have personal issues more important that the stuff they bought, and lastly I think sometimes people die before picking stuff up. Who know what happens but it always seems crazy when I here these stories.

Personally I sold a guy from out of state a radio for a couple hundred dollars on eBay - he was suppose to stop by and pick it up in a "few weeks". Three years later I gave up waiting and sold it again at our yard sale for more money. The original buyer never did contact me.

OK - Enough talk already! My thoughts would be 2 years & it is yours again. $25 a month for storage would put storage charge at over 1/2 the purchase price at that point and I think that is being more than fair. But to be very honest it is more likely than not that after all this time you would never hear from the guy again. So just do what ever feels right to you!

After 90 days and messages left it’s his lose. I would sell it. I would document the event in writing. It anyone was there at the time of accepting the money i would have then sign a document and date it. It you would end up goig to court the judge would have the information. Also like someone stated. Storage at 75-100 bucks a month is going to add up. Do you have any friends that are lawyers? Give them a call or contact the small claims court in your city and see what they say.

I’d be careful sticking a guy who spent time in prison for $900!

I'm trying to be optimistic...

I like the idea of putting the money in an envelope and stashing it away and selling the game. Just hold onto the envelope and if he ever surfaces you’ll have such good karma for being able to refund him. I hope the guy is OK.

Its also possible he did not tell his wife about the purchase. As he goes home and brings up the subject she throws such a fit "you bring a pinball home you can sleep in it etc) He decided he'd rather eat the money then deal with the drama at home! And was too embarassed to ask for it back. Just another thought.

Check obits, he might have died.

It's my game and I overslept my alarm. My bad. I'll come get it now. What pin is it, where is it again, what is your name?

Yeesh, did the guy die?

If you really want it gone, I'd call the him and leave a final message telling him you're done holding on to it and reselling the machine. If he calls for his money back, pay him back less $250 for aggravation, storage and stupidity.

GL

I'd find out the ACTUAL LOCAL LAWS and not take any legal advice from the **lawyers** on Pindside.

A decade ago I sold a guy a puppy.

He came out, looked through the litter, and chose a nice pup when it was 3 weeks old.

He was supposed to pick up the pup when it was 5-6 weeks old.

He never came or called.

I called his number and "mailbox full".

At 7 weeks all the other pups were gone. His dog is getting bigger, shltting bigger in the cage.

At 8 weeks I sold his dog to another guy.

Two years latter I had another ad for another litter, and I get a call "Hey, you still got my dog???", no introduction or anything.

Vid: Who is this?
Guy: The guy that paid you $1500 for the dog. You still got it?
V: The puppy from 3 years ago? (I honestly did not know how long it had been).
G: It was 2 years ago. I got busted with an ounce of pot, the cops threw my phone into the river, and put me in jail for almost 2 years.
V: Geeeze, that's bad. I'm sorry.
G: All I've been thinking about is my dog.
V: I'm sorry to say, I gave your dog to a nice family - it was getting too big for me to keep it any longer.
G: You got their number??
V: Um, no. I got a whole litter of pups here, why don't you come pick out a fresh one.
G: But I want MY dog. You know how it is.
V: I've got one that looks exactly like yours. Might be a clone! (I'm thinking that I might have to go find a stray adult dog to give him, if he won't take a pup)
G: You serious??
V: I though of you the moment it slid out.
G: Oh man, you alright. I've been looking at all the Pitbull ads, to find you. When I saw the phone number with 666, I knew it was you.
V: Hey, that 666 cost me extra. They don't just give those numbers away.
G: You ain't never lied.

So the guy got his puppy a few years late, and they ended up legalizing pot anyway.

That's priceless!

Is that Slap Shot fun?

damn, I was wondering were i left that 900 bucks

Am I the only one finding that incredibly hilarious that this had to be specified?

I have a friend that owned a small guitar store. A person came in about 20 years ago to buy an amp and put it on layaway. They then went to jail. Every year for about 6 years his daughters would make payments on the amp as a Christmas gift for their father. I just asked him if the father ever picked the amp up and he said no, but as far as he knows the guy might still be in jail. The amp still sits in his basement as the store was closed down.

If you have a contract (retail sale) abide by the contract.
If it's a private sale, do what Crazylevi said . . . just refund (his promised truck didn't show up).
Maybe Levi isn't that Crazy after all. !
(name change to Sensiblelevi?)

I was thinking more along the lines of who shells out $900 for a Socccer?

I'd have no problem shelling out $900 for a decent "Team One" or that game this thread centers around. Looks nice!

Game looks nice, I miss the one I had.