Wow. Looks like that HH is either a scam or a great deal.

WOW! That comet looks nice.

There is a comet on Seattle CL for a week or two as well

^ the one on Seattle is not as good of deal......

I saw the Space Shuttle ad. Too bad the machine is way out near Arnold

That's where the fun is way out, way out, that's where I wanna be...
Oh wait, I'm already there. Too bad I don't want a Space Shuttle.

I wish I could find prices like that in my Area. I would really like to own either one of those games.

Fuuuuuuuu - Centaur is gone

Here's to hoping the seller gets back to me. What's better that 1 Space Shuttle? Two of course!

Damn, what kind of shape was that Centaur in? Not that I am in any way able to afford it.

I just saw this. Someone is going to get a sweet deal. I hope it's a pinsider.

If you want someone to get a good deal, you're going about it the wrong way. Cross promoting every good deal on Pinside drives up demand and prevents local people from getting a good deal.

I have been thinking the same thing. It is hard enough as it is. it's great to have it go to a Pinsider, but there is no need to add to the frenzy. Anyone looking will see it anyway.

I responded about a minute after the ad popped up, and have not heard back yet. Let the seller know I had cash and a truck and was about 30 mins away.

methinks its gone.

When the person gets 50 emails in the first hour. They start to think, maybe I priced the pin too low. Now when said person shows up with $1500 cash and a truck. The seller decides he wants to sell the pin for more than $1500. Then said person either comes up with more $$$ or ends up in a bidding war. it happens all the time. If you need an example, I can give you one. It happened with the STTNG that I bought last month. It started as a very good deal. It ended with me paying more than the asking price due to the condition.

By the way, I sent an email saying I was interested and could come tonight. It was within a few minutes of the listing showing up. I have not heard back either.

Very true. You also have a bunch of people (like me) who have multiple cl scanning apps running. It really is luck of the draw sometimes!

Anybody know who scored that warehouse deal near Santa Rosa (if it was real)

Different area...different prices...what the heck?

It does actually make a difference. Best way to increase the chances of blowing someone else potential deal is to cross pollinate ads for fair priced games.

I have 2 examples of where I was first to respond, had accepted offer and was enroute when others called to sabatoge/attempt to sabatoge.

1 time it was a nice core MB less then 1 mile from my house, but a dude from TX called and blew that deal. I made sure I played it back at him and he ended up at least paying 1k more for screwing things up

1 time is was a nice TAF. I was at the stinking house picking it up and the prick was actively contacting the lady to tell her he would pay more. I ended up still getting that one.

If you want to help people/locals/friends out and have the time/cash then do like I have done and take the cash and run when you know a buddy wants a game and they will take it.

By the time a CL deal is listed here, we're all probably at least 10 seconds too late to the party to begin with. The CL lurkers have their own tricks for finding ads the second they post. Even if posting the ad here were to get someone on Pinside to spoil someone else's deal (swoop in and offer a gillionbojillion dollars), those people were likely going to do that anyways without this thread's help.

I'm not bringing that up to be a thread crapper, but more for how it is harmless to have these things listed here so we can shoot the shit about them.

If Bay Area collectors are desperate for fair deals, you don't even need CL. Get to know some collectors in your community. Don't be a dick or obviously use people just to flip machines and suddenly finding games X, Y and Z that you really wanted is not as difficult as you thought. You might even find yourself inside a warehouse. Hell, you may even enjoy the hobby more! It's been my experience since I first started collecting vids in 97.

P.S. MM is still gonna be expensive though. Sorry.

That is all true. I am sure anybody really looking already knows about it anyway. I did hear back from the seller. He left his number and said I could come by tonight. I got tied up and couldn't make it though. He said I could come tomorrow if I was available. I just can't decide if I really want a Whirlwind? I would really like to find an HS2 and don't want to blow my pin fund before I find one. If anyone really wants it, I could go look at it and pick it up.

The first Pin you listed was sold to a guy in Fresno, yes I know him and have seen the HH and the $500 turned into $1000 due to the number of people who contacted the seller...

I think Sosage nailed this on the head. I like talking about CL ads too, I usually wait about 8 hours before bringing it up on here though out of courtesy. If it is a really cheap deal it is LONG gone by then.

I have friends locally that I will email deals as a heads up when I see them, based on their wants and collection preferences.

DUDE! you should have grabbed it. at 1,500 you could resell it in a new York second. or traded it for another pin. or played it and enjoyed it. ww is one of the best games ever made imho.
I must say I admire your restraint.

Unfortunately, I was communicating with the seller to buy the Whirlwind and next thing you know he said he sold it to someone else.

Sales 101:

More exposure creates more interest. More interest creates more demand. More demand inflates the prices (or at the very least reduces your odds of getting the game, and eliminates your leverage to negotiate).

Plenty of examples have been posted. Plastering every good local deal on Pinside is not helping locals get a good deal.

Was it fellow Pinsider ThatGuy? Did he pick that HH up? I'm really curious what kind of other stuff that guy has, vids and what not...

Your logic is sound. I even very much agree with it in most cases, unfortunately, this is NorCal/Bay Area Craigslist we are talking about. This situation is not that one-dimensional. I swear to you...by whatever book you want me to, with a hand over my heart...that I have heard your story hundreds if not thousands of times over without an ad EVER hitting Pinside, RGP or KLOV.

I guarantee you that there was already a very high likelihood that you were not the first person to contact the buyer. I can even more so guarantee you that someone was going to swoop in and attempt to spoil your sweet deal without anyone mentioning it on Pinside/RGP/KLOV. If you snag a fair deal off of Craigslist in the Bay Area in 2013, you're already dodging several bullets. There are people in this local community whose entire (notorious) reputation is from being known for spoiling other people's Craigslist deals. In some cases just to flip them the next day. I've heard stories of people driving several miles out of their way to pick up a game, just to receive a phone call as they get off the freeway that someone else bought it. I've even heard of situations where a buyer is in the driveway talking to a seller, just to have someone walk up and step in between them to offer more cash. Being cut off at the email point is a blessing in some cases.

Craigslist is just not the gold mine it use to be, unless you're prepared to be cut throat competitive or carry a lot of lucky charms in your pockets. Pinside/KLOV/RGP's contribution to that bad luck is miniscule, because everyone and their Mom is already watching the same CL listings without this thread.

No, another Pinball enthusiast but he's not on Pinside...so to speak.

He's a nice guy and definitely gets props from me. He worked his butt off organizing a warehouse raid and instead of hoarding it all for himself, he shared it with the NorCal vid community. A lot of guys got some nice deals from his generosity (myself included).

It also appears to have to have been relisted on cl by a flipper.

sfbay.craigslist.org link

Always could be random coincidence though

Diamond Plate too. Damn! Salt in the wound.....

Chris

Ahh, a lurker....hmm. Well, us Fresno based pinball types need to stick together. If he wants to get together sometime, feel free to pass along my info to him or vice versa!

Well, he forgot about me! That's not very nice.

What kind of stuff did y'all get? Was it from Action Video Games? I know he was selling out a couple months back...

Thanks MOF,
For what it's worth, I picked up the SS for 6 and change and will be fixing it up for a Christmas present for my girl. If she doesn't like it, I'll sell it for the work I put on it or maybe I'll keep it? I wouldn't have spotted it, if it wasn't for your post. The sound on SS is OUSTANDING!

I know! It looks amazing! Darn those flippers. I'll be nursing my wounds tonight....with some rum drinks.

Your first description is a flipper. 2nd one is someone doing legit work. (Although I detest people who put in 50 bucks worth of LEDs and jack up the price by 4-500 bucks.)

No idea who the flipper is.

I don't know who the operator was, since it's not an area I am super familiar with (and I don't remember there being tags on my machines). I know a guy that got a very nice Jackbot and another guy that snagged a nice Batman Forever out of there.

I was primarily picking up vid stuff, since the pinball stuff was slim pickings. Picked up a dedicated Mortal Kombat II that was converted to Ergheiz that's sitting in the "restoration waiting room" and a working dedicated Pole Position. Now, non-working Pole Positions are a dime a dozen, but working is sort of a rare beast. These things are super touchy and wonky. I'm holding onto mine waiting for the supposedly much more stable, multi-PP board being worked on. Then a tall stack of parts/boards/art for 90's games (I'm more a 90's collector than 80's when it comes to vids).

Fucked up story: I actually brought my pregnant wife with me for the first haul (it's a 2+ hour drive...she saw it as our last adventure before the kid arrives). I blew a tire on the way back and she had contractions on the side of the road. I almost had my baby on the side of the freeway in Fresno. They ended up being those false alarm contractions, which I forget the name of. Four tires later and I pretty much paid the worth of both machines just transporting them home. A week or so later my daughter was born.

Flippers who put in zero effort = opportunists
People who restore old pins to former glory = pimp daddies

Hey bud thanks for the kind words. The warehouse sale was pretty epic. Overall, I was/am happy about the whole thing even though I wish I would have purchased more of the pins we sold. This was before I was into pins and the three I got was the start of the madness.

Hey man, we opened it up to KLOV first then Fresno Craigslist. This was in 2010, September/October. Here is the KLOV thread.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=150733

It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. And we met a lot of cool people. And a few drunk ones too.

How's your AF and TZ working out?

-Paul

They're called Braxton-Hicks contractions.

Dave