I have to admit I just killed an hour catching up on all the stories. Has me thinking harder about letting people in my gameroom basement (which shocks most people when they see it). My past two homes, I'd corral people in the garage where the object for sale was usually located, and it was still a pain in the ass to say "No that's not for sale" a dozen times. At my new home here I'm just not set up to sell and need to get there. ANYWAY, I've sold somewhere near 600 machines in the past 10 years, about half & half pinball & video, and I've got a ton of stories, both good and bad. In the big scheme of things it's the good ones that outweigh the bad ones.
The good:
1. My first game I flipped ever was a $50 Power Play. It was at a garage sale, random; I wasn’t looking, and it was marked “SOLD”. I happened to drive by that same house a few months later and the garage door was open and it was still there. Two years later I sold it for $800 and the disease begin…
2. I answered a CL ad for “two pinball games” for $1300. Games were a Dr. Dude and Junk Yard. After I responded the ad was deleted. But I got a call, guy said I was first to respond, he got so many emails he just deleted them, and we picked the games up a bit later in the next subdivision.
3. ALSO in the next subdivision, right before I moved here, I drove alone to the store on July 4th to pick up some grill fixins. On my way there I spotted an open garage with a Pac Man. Dude was out there so I backed up and asked if it was for sale. He said it was, he was going to put it on CL. I got out to chat and found out he had two pins inside, a Dr. Who and Last Action Hero. LAH needed some work but it was all switch issues and I popped it open and got it running for him. Then he tells me the Dr. Who he just doesn’t like and wanked to sell. I bought it and the Pac for a really decent price.
4. (Over beers meeting the new neighbors) You like pinball machines? I've got one in my basement you can HAVE, just come get it! (Was a nice Zip A Doo I still own). Related to that, at least 3 times I’ve had people off of my CL ad call me and say they had machines for free, just come get them. Nothing great, but the price was right.
5. A guy I knew that just bought games to flip called me and said he’d picked up a nice not working Black Hole, if I wanted it for $600 he’d drop it by. If I wanted it later it was more expensive. He pulled in to my driveway with obviously a Haunted House. Still got it 
6. (Picture me at a garage sale looking at a crap video game) lady says “You like video games? I have a pinball at home I’d sell”. Went and looked and she says with a question mark, “$100?”. Turned out to be a REALLY nice Surfer.
7. Same guy with the Haunted House picked up a Judge Dredd that he described as being ruined in an outdoor but covered sauna area. It did smell chemically, but for $650 I still have it.
8. Some friends of my wife’s had a pinball they said they couldn’t get rid of on Craigslist for free. I never saw the ad, but I snagged it and ended up with a very decent Kick Off. Even found 61 cents in it.
9. Another Freebie was a Surf Champ. The owner’s kid broke the backglass, they were remodeling and it was in the way. They said they called 2-3 other “pinball people” and no one came to get it. I still have it, it’s nice.
10. I’ve got a ton of stories but I’ll stop the good ones with this one. There was a son of an operator that passed away who was getting rid of all his old man’s stuff. His dad would not have been proud, all the money was going up his nose. He initially called me on 3 pinballs which I did buy, but then ended up buying 7 video games, 2 coin changes and 4 trailer loads of parts. He was the most unhelpful douche I’ve met in awhile, left me to load by myself (“I’ll be right back”) and when he wouldn’t answer my calls 3-4 hours later, I locked up his dad’s house and left. I didn’t really want the video games, but I wanted the parts and manuals and he said all or none. I was pretty happy with the amount of quarters I found, I’ll leave it at that 

The Bad:

1. My first and one of only a few eBay purchases was a Black Knight from a scum in Springfield MO. He delivered, he was “going through the area”, and came by for cash when it was below freezing with the game on the back of a pickup truck. Too cold to power it on, but when I did the next day, after a few minutes smoke started coming out of it. Never let the smoke out. He never did return my calls.
2. I sold a game to a lawyer who bought the game based on pictures, he was about 2 hours away. He would not come to look at it, “too busy”, but we agreed to a deal. I paid someone to deliver and pick up cash. A week later he calls, barely nice at first, and says he’s upset. It’s an import, a fact I don’t care about and he never asked, and that some of the black on the cabinet had been touched up. It quickly went from that to if he didn’t get ALL of his money back including delivery, he would sue me and my company with frivolous lawsuits and take my business down. Nice guy.
3. This is more funny and about a dumb buyer not a bad buyer. I sold an old countertop video game, and when the buyer got it, I got an angry email saying it was dead, didn’t work and he wanted his money back. I asked him exactly what it did when he turned it on and he replied it was dead. Fearing a bad monitor, I told him it made sounds when you first turned it on, did the fan come on and did it make noise? His reply said “Exactly how do you turn it on?” HA! Never heard from him again.
4. And lastly and most recently I took two games to Ray at Thunderball Amusement, a Sorcerer and Sopranos, for him to sell on consignment. He sold them, that’s a fact. I received a few hundred cash, a bad check, and a crap Royal Flush. Oh, and more than a year’s worth of promises.