No no no. It said WAR PIGS.

Hahaha and it resurfaces again! Pinside classic

Seems legit. One of those keys in his hand should open the coin door.

Now for the hard part finding the back box key alone so you don’t have 10lbs of crap swinging by the top of the backbox while trying to lift out the glass.

If not, he can always shoot it open.

I sold some old sealed GI Joe vehicles to a collector who had me meet him in a restaurant parking lot, at a very busy intersection. He told me he had an "incident" in the past buying baseball cards. About six months later I bought a pin off a friend of his (Small world), his friend told me what the "incident" was. He had gone to buy baseball cards for either $5k or $10k (I forget). House in a normal neighborhood. Guy met him out front, they talked over the deal, then the guy asked him to follow him around back. Once they walked around the back of the house the guy pulled a gun and pointed it to his head demanding cash. He gave it to him, and the guy pulled the trigger. The gun malfunctioned, so he pistol whipped him and left. He's lucky to be alive to tell his story. If he was carrying he may have been able to draw while saying he was going for the cash, but who knows. The perp was never found, and it was not his residence. He just knew the house was vacant and used it to his advantage.

Use common sense, look for red flags, bring a friend, and always be alert to your surroundings.

Stay alert, stay alive!

Thank you!

First few deals buying and selling was a bit worried, and felt a bit awkward when it was time to hand over and count the cash. Now it's old news, doesn't feel strange at all. I try to verify as much info as I can about a seller before showing up. That's one of the reasons I especially like buying through Facebook. I can get the person's full name and a bit of extra info about them to make sure that they're legit. Pretty hard to fake 10 years of Facebook posts and comments!

If I have a person's name and home address, then they'd be a fool to rob me. They'd never be able to get away with it. And I've noticed that for the most part, guys I'm buying pins from tend to have nicer houses and live in nicer neighborhoods than me anyway.

I also always let my wife know all the details of the seller, and I can usually tell by talking to the seller if they seem like a normal person or not.

I agree, Facebook deals seem safer. Craigslist deals I have done but it is much more of a dance between the seller/buyer trying to determine if the other is going to rob/scam.

I check the address in Google Maps to see the neighborhood/house picture if available.

We need a thread about people who actually HAVE been robbed going to pick up a pin.

I'm doubting very few.

I would bet there are dozens of people who have been in vehicle accidents while picking up pins for everyone who has actually been robbed.

Staying safe as far as "cash on the glass" is really pretty simple. FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS - DO YOUR HOMEWORK - BE CAREFUL - and ALWAYS let the seller know you have friends or family who know who you went to see and why you made the trip. (You don't say something like "my wife knows where I'll be so don't try to rob me" you just say something casual in your communication that your other half knows where you are going and why and isn't really happy you are bringing home another machine but they will get over it).

More important than worrying about being robbed is making sure you load & tie down like you expect to be in a major accident. That will better help you if you do happen to get involved in an accident or have to stop quickly on the way home.

But over the years I have learned your INSTINCTS are your best friend. If you don't like the way the "transaction feels" WALK AWAY and live to see another day!

I'm always strapped and always keep cash locked in the car until the deal is final.

Recently went to look at a potential pin and during inspection I opened the coin door to find a loaded High Point in the coin box. Asked the owner if he'd like to relocate his boat anchor before I continued opening the machine up...he apologized and we continued to inspect.

Ended up walking away from the deal, not because of that, just wasn't the right pin for the price.

After that, I also now Google Earth the house to see what kind of house or neighborhood I'm going to. Knowledge is power!

At least it wasn't a Lorcin/Jennings/Raven!

100%. it will be a short thread.

So many people apparently bringing guns to these transactions. How many have had to show or use them? Not nec. Knocking it but honestly, if you’re going to get robbed I’d say it’s fairly likely you get blindsided by an accomplice With the robber before you know what happened or you’ve got a gun already pulled on you and you’re screwed. Who’s going to draw while a gun is already pointed at you? Take the baseball card guy.. out of nowhere, gun on his temple. I guess after you’re pistol whipped you might attempt a gun fight? Just doesn’t seem like a good scenario.

Lets have a mental thought experiment.

You have messages with seller. You show up at a random location with 10k in your pocket for a game. You go into their basement to inspect the game.

Now let’s think about the possible out comes.
1) you buy the game and leave. No problem.

2) the guy robs you..... ok, how does this happen?
A) he pulls a gun on you says give me your money and leave my house.
A1) your unarmed and dont want to give up your money without a fight, you get shot, but manage to leave with your life. You go to the hospital with a gun shot wound, the cops get called and go charge them and get your money back.

A2) you have a gun, but he pulls one and says give me all your money. You have a shootout in their basement and die. Now they have your $10k and a dead body in their basement. Someone hears the shots, cops come. They go to jail. (How many people have died getting a pinball machine?)

A3) you have a gun, but he pulls one and says give me all your money. You have a shootout in their basement and kill them. Now you have to “get outta there before anyone finds out?” (I don’t really know what you would do) cops are coming for you, was it worth it? You keep your $10k but go to jail for man slaughter.

A4) you have a gun, but he pulls one and says give me all your money. You walk out of their basement like nothing happened because after seeing your gun the bad guys decide to let you just go?

I’m sure there are some more likely outcomes, let’s keep this thought experiment going. I want to hear from some of you guys that carry guns to sales. If things turn bad, how do the events play out in your mind? What are the possible out comes that you will experience with or without a gun?

Hm, not saying your crazy, but police are useless when it comes to stolen cash, speaking from personal experience.
Had my house robbed when I was in college, whoever it was stole around $4k cash during the invasion (no one was home at the time).
Called police, they came out and made a report, told me that I couldn't claim the cash, even though I had a slip from the bank showing the recent withdrawal...

They never caught the crook(s), like that is any kind of surprise...

I just tried to do this only to find that my bank has a $5k max daily cash withdrawal limit per person (not per account).
Had to take out 5 and then explain to the seller that I had to go back and get the rest the following day. Fortunately the seller was cool with it and didn't move on.

A2 and A3 are the realities. Most likely A2. If I were “The Robber” as soon as you smilingly pull the cash out of your pocket, my gun is already out aimed at your neck. And not too many people excited about buying a NIB Alien are quick draw cowboys. And as soon as you flinch a muscle that remotely looks like you’re going for anything on you, I’m squeezing one off at your collar bone to set the tone. After that it’s a shit show and there’s a full blown shoot out or you just lay there in agony as I head out and lock you in a shady basement for you to potentially bleed out where no one is going to be scheduled to be there for at least 2 days.

Honestly most people would just piss themselves in fear once a loaded gun is pointed at them. Everyone likes to think they’re a bad ass but the general population isn’t put in that scenario enough to get comfortable with it.

The silver lining to all this is no one gets robbed buying a pin. Except like 2 guys in all history.

Were not talking about someone taking cash from your empty home. This is a confrontation with 2 people about to get into a gun fight.

The cops would care. If the cops don’t care, then youre living in the wrong place.

Edit: sorry I just noticed you live in Florida. You have enough crazy there for your whole country.

Do you guys wear seatbelts in your car? I mean you can drive for years and never have an accident. Why on earth would you even need to have a seatbelt in your car?

I used to work Loss Prevention years ago, had many needles swung at me, knives, an ice pick, box cutters, cans of formula smashed off my head, cars driven at me (hung onto one hood, and one door), bitten a few times, caught a hot coffee to the face then a "three piece" that shattered my nose...only one "gun" pulled on me. Didn't piss myself (mainly because I really don't give a shit), but happened to quickly notice the screw tightener for a CO2 cartridge protruding from the grip (BB Gun). Pulled it out of his hand and dragged him back in. Did catch one cop with a gun on him, but luckily he just let me know about it and didn't add murder to his shoplifting charge. Kinda miss those days, but not the pay lol.

This thread has gone back an forth for a bit now. Some people don't believe in owning guns. I get it. That's their prerogative. I guess they don't believe in fire extinguishers either? After all, you can just call the fire department!

We are beating the proverbial dead horse here. Some of us are convinced the world is a happy place and no one need fear anyone or anything. Also, some of us live in restrictive states or countries where the government gets to decide what freedoms you can and can not exercise. If you are happy with that, fine. That's ok. None of my business.

Others of us grew up with guns, know how to safely handle them, regularly shoot them, and consider them no more or less than a tool to accomplish a purpose. Not at all dangerous in and of themselves, absent a human to decide when and how to use it. We realize that the world is not always a safe and sane place and good people can and do find themselves in dangerous circumstances through little or no fault of their own. Those people have decided, as a result, to go about their lives armed, in the hopes that in the unlikely event a bad situation is encountered, we just possibly may be able to act to avert the threat. No guarantees there, just like wearing a seatbelt does not necessarily guarantee you won't be hurt in a car accident. It only gives you options that you wouldn't otherwise have.

And by the way, although I have never actually been robbed while buying a pinball machine, I have found myself in several difficult situations over the years where I was darned glad to have a firearm, even though I didn't actually use it. An attempted car theft by four guys one night who decided to leave when I confronted them with one hand in my pocket holding my gun and a determined attitude that they weren't getting my car that night. Another time when I and two friends went to look at some jukeboxes in a very rural area and were met by several real deliverance types of guys. The jukes weren't in great shape and after a bit of negotiating, the deliverance cast started talking about us city boys who think they are so much smarter than us poor country boys and maybe need to be taught a lesson. We made a hasty retreat without said jukeboxes, and were damned glad to have been armed as all of us were.

On a similar note I avoided an almost certain robbery and/or killing by Google earthing a potential neighborhood before going to pick up a too good to be true deal. Turned out the $8k pinball that they were selling for $4k was in a ghetto where the houses were quite literally too small to house a late model WMS. Let alone the possibility that the people there would in any way have had the financial wherewithal to be buying an $8k pinball in such dire financial circumstances as their living circumstances would indicate.

The "sellers" wanted to be sure I had the cash with me since they didn't take checks. They assured me I didn't need to bring help since there would be a couple of guys there to help me load. (How thoughtful!) But they got strangely quiet when I told them I didn't need help because a few of the State Troopers I "worked" with were all off duty that day and would be coming along with me to help out...In fact, the seller broke contact with me and I never heard from him again. Imagine that!

Also, a friend who is an FBI Agent told me about a case where two guys responded to an ad selling some kind of antique (not pinball) where the seller would only take cash. The naive buyers entered the run down house and were told the item was in the basement. When the first guy went down the steps, he was shot and killed instantly. The second guy, a few steps behind, turned and ran as fast as he could and managed to escape the killer(s). I'm not sure the killer was ever caught as the house obviously did not belong to the shooter and might have been abandoned. The buyers' greed and/or trustfulness got the better of them and cost one guy his life. Whether a gun would have helped or not, who knows? But I bet they sure would have given a kidney to have one at that moment. Especially if the guy who got away, like me, couldn't have run away due to his physical condition. A gun might have been his only hope of not being killed. But the better solution was not to find themselves in a sketchy neighborhood, in a rundown house, with a sketchy seller, who tells you the thing you came for is in the basement. That was a deal better left undone!

First - I do most of my deals here on Pinside. So I just lookup their history to see if they're legit.
Second - I always talk to the guy on the phone.

I've heard this more of a problem buying / selling watches even though those are almost always traded in a secure public place. I've never had a problem with either and done a few high dollar cash deals. What works for me is feeling the guy out over the phone. Does he sound right? Is he asking the right questions? People buying/selling a 7k toy usually know an awful lot about that toy.

Or the game was stolen and they just want to sell it cheap, quick.

The fact they kept encouraging me to come alone was a bit concerning!

If an accident tries anything, I'll pull out my gun and unload in its f**king face. It would be the last mistake that accident ever makes.

I usually encourage everyone to arm themselves, but you may have some anger issues you should deal with first.

I had two guys from Klov show up to buy an arcade cab. The stench of cat piss on both of them was the best defense mechanism anyone could ever muster. I wouldn't have robbed them if they had six figures on them. Had to let the garage air out for the rest of the day. Nice guys, but holy hell it was strong, like they pickled themselves in it.

I didn’t know that smell until I was at a show with a friend and I started to smell it. Like I thought some sort of acid like chemical worked its way into my nose. I was freaking out. When my buddy realized what I smelled, he explained it was cat piss. He’s a realtor and encounters it frequently.

Crazy how insane that smell it. Whoa baby.

I ALWAYS have "stupid good deal" money on me. Usually about $1000.00 or so, in cash. My wife hates that I carry that kinda money around. But I'm telling you, there have been some screaming deals that I've snagged just because I was first to arrive with the cabbage.

Joke (resized).jpg

Lol. Yes, I got it. Mine was a joke too. I guess I should have put a laughing things, but I don't usually use those faces. I will for this one though.

Anyone ever have any issue getting paid via Paypal on a sale? Are there any downsides?

Even using Paypal "friends & family" the buyer can do a chargeback if they use a credit card to pay through Paypal. And Paypal will side with the buyer 100% of the time. So the seller will have no machine and no money if the buyer plays that game. I would never take Paypal for any large dollar transaction.

Good to know! I figured you couldn't trust these digital middle men...

You can use Zelle. Once the money is in your account, that’s it - it’s yours.

The best is when someone pays with 20 dollar bills. Sold a pin for 14,400 or something, dude brought duffel bag of 20s. Drove me nuts.

But it was all there!

That’s funny just sold a truck and the dude brought 10k in $20’s, 2 days later sold my BKSOR dude also brought $20’s I thought for sure I had all of them in the area. Felt like a money launderer at the bank

I sold a Pac Man once and the guy paid me $800 or so, all in two dollar bills!! The stack was about 10" thick! Not sure what his deal was and didn't ask!