That seems to be pretty standard for CL.....I would hate to be on your end of that....have heard it too often on this site. Cure, 13 ball multiball.

I feel your pain. But you gotta remember its Craigslist, it's open to anyone... At least you didn't get lured to a motel, bound to a chair and become nothing more than a morning headline and a stain on the carpet.

Bright side man... Bright side.

Man, to lose all of that time driving too - that sucks! What a bummer - here's hoping the next deal goes better...

I made the attempt to make this pick as well but as I was typing I realized that there was no way this was going to go for that price and stopped myself from having a bad 90 minute day..sorry Jack

Pretty much any CL add that's a deal requires you to drop everything you're doing...and get there ASAP.

Scheduling a time doesn't work

I was the 1st person to contact him about the machine...so he says.

Talked on the phone for a while...seemed like a nice guy.

He said the machine was mine, if I wanted it. I told him I did. He said he'd send pics when he got home from work. Instead, I get an email saying it was sold for more that he was asking...

What an a$$hole!!!

The guy's name is Dan. He's located in Aurora.

Stay away from this loser!!!

Yep, first person there usually wins. I'm not saying its right, its just how it tends to go. Most of the under priced CL games are listed by people who are not aware of their game's value. Within 30 minutes of the ad's appearance they are schooled by 15 different phone callers. This leads to a price change almost every time.
Terry.

You're right Terry,

It's a shame it happens.

I bet this machine will be re-listed soon, by the buyer, for twice the price.

Ahhhh, Dan in aurora. This explains everything. You gotta deal w Don in aurora. Don always gives a square deal. But Dan.... That guy's an @sshole!

It will be back up on chicago craiglsist in a day or so. Probably from Moline , IL

Oh snap

Wow, that helps. Did you loose out too? No pin for a modus operandi flip at 10x$.

Hey , I didn't buy shit, you are thinking of the Rock Island flipper Kevin. Get your cities straight

I don't flip the Machines I buy. That is why I have a grumpy wife.

I called and talked to him too, he said first one there with cash gets it, and that was at 3:30 PM Eastern, I figured with nearly a 3 hour drive for me I had no chance so I just stayed put. He was nice enough to email me that it had sold and someone had already picked it up though.

That is a very douchey thing for him to do. Screw that. I feel bad for you.

Told me the same thing...

Yep 100% a$$hole

Thought about trying on this too. Glad i dint. I agree its been rough on CL lately.

What an asshole! If you tell someone "it's yours", and then they drive 90 minutes to your house, you better at least compensate them in some way. Time is money, not to mention the cost of gas. In my eyes, turning you away with nothing is akin to stealing.

I was told first person who gets here gets it. I live 5-10 minutes from him. I decided it wasn't a game I wanted despite the price and passed on it. I probably would have been the person who got it seeing as though I would have been there at 5pm. I asked if he had 50 people on their way over to fight for it and he said there were four. Basically if someone says first one here gets it and it's farther than 30 mins away its not worth the bother.

.... But yeah the its yours thing is bullshit.

Considering he commited to it being yours and you drove all the way there, I would have asked for gas money plus some.

Assuming he would refuse...

He likley would have lost his mailbox on the way out of the driveway

flip side...

how many times have you listed something on cl, had someone contact you, say they will be there with cash, and never show up?

sucks for the op... but realistically, it's the way it works...

Ah man that totally sucks. Hopefully he'll get some bad juju sometime soon.

I am the one who got it, saw it at 7:15 or so thought to myself there is no way that this is still available but called anyway. He said he had a lot of interest but first person there with cash gets it (he said he'd been flaked out on too many times in the past to hold it) he said one guy had called from Crystal Lake and we all know who that is so I grabbed 10 pieces of green paper and hit the road.

I have no intention of flipping this I will play it for a while if I like it Ill keep it if not Im hoping I can trade it to a friend who just bought 3 pins from me one of which I did not want to sell but had to to get the other two sold.

As for the seller to me he was great a nice guy selling a game in this area at a good price. I can see where anyone loosing out may see it differently and for the record I did not offer or pay more for this it was 1000 cash.

Jack if you are like me and looking for anything with a good price -better luck next time if it was a title that you have really been wanting and waiting to find one at a good price then PM me maybe we can work something out.

Steve

you would have beat me

Well, you have to realize that non-pinball folks have no idea. You wouldn't be able to convince the average Joe CL user that someone would drive 1000 or even 100 miles to buy a pinball they post for sale on their local CL site.

Some of it may be Craigslists and the media's fault actually...
The "avoid scams and fraud" link on the homepage goes to a list where the very FIRST item states:

DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON - follow this one rule and avoid 99% of scam attempts.

Say you have a first time CL seller... If the first potential buyer is 300 miles away and says, "I will be there in 6 hours with the cash", it may prompt the seller to just say, "Sure, you show up, you can have it." After considering the call, maybe he rethought the situation remembering the CL page advising of scams and though-->Hmmm, "that guy probably won't even show and it could be a scam."

"First one to show up with $" would be just fine. However, to have multiple people drive long distances at the same time, I wonder how some people haven't been beaten to death yet with the things they pull sometimes.

Moline, IL wants an official apology.

I think it's bullshit when people say "The first one who shows up with cash gets it". I understand why people do it, but it's still a shitty way to do business. In the case of the OP, however, he flat out said "It's yours". That's completely different. You can't screw the guy over after he's driven all that way because you led him to believe it was his.

Sorry Moline, meant Rock Island, but they are still in the same area.

You've seen one Quad city, you've seen them all ...

I get that you got "Craigslisted", but do you love ID4 so much that this is eating you apart? The buyer offered to work a deal with you, so you can still get the pin, which is a win-win....

_{Post edited by absocountry2 : Profanity in quote edited}

I'm in line for a TFTC this week, and that would have eaten up those funds, so since it wasn't a sure thing didn't want to risk, hope its fun, never played it but it looks like entertaining layout.

All the seller needed to do was say the same thing to everyone, "first come, first served"

I am completely fine with that reply. It allows a buyer to either haul ass of say screw it.
The problem is commiting to someone and then balking. Not cool.

Steve did nothing wrong in his purchase and glad to see he got it for exactly asking price!
Glad you were able to get it Steve!!! Let me know if you want to sell any of your other recent purchases You really have shook up your collection recently!

I would of called before I left about halfway there and 10 minutes out to make sure the guy knew I was serious.....I have done it.

Welcome to CL. Had it happen to me multiple times. After driving in LA traffic for two hours had the guy say someone offered him an extra 50 bucks so he took it.

And this is precisely why I neither buy nor sell pins on CL ...

Ahhh poop! I called this guy too. I called at about 3:00pm. Seemed like an ok fellow. He told me that it was first come first served and that he had a few other guys coming, but that none of them could have been there before 8:30pm. If I wanted it then and there, it was all mine.

I should have gone right then. Would have been there first one there by a few hours. It's just that the wife and I are temporarily living with my parents and there's no room left in this house for anything. My dumb logic had to screw me over. Looking around now, there are literally boxes stacked to the ceiling of this house, so it just wouldn't be fair of me to bring another pin into this place right now. So I thought, maybe someone here will score this one. Glad to hear it went to fellow Pinsider!

To the OP, man I feel your pain, but CL is all about being first. When he told me he had a guy coming at 8:30 I instantly felt bad for "that guy", because he'll be the guy wasting his time and gas. Ain't no $1,000 ID4 gonna wait around more than a couple of hours for ANYBODY round here. I would have been afraid of wasting my gas having to drive an hour to get it in the early afternoon, even with assurances that I was the only one coming.

The good thing is when pins like this stay within this community, it seems like when people get sick of them, there's a better chance they'll eventually let them go for a fair price. Better it went to a player like Steve than to a flipper, I say.

Just curious as to why you called the guy. You said that you are living with parents and have no room for the machine. Reason i ask this as i am a seller myself, and its such a pain in the ass when someone calls, takes up your time, to find out that they either cant even afford the machine, or like you say, dont have space for it. I just never understand why people will waste someone elses time if they are not capable of following through.

I've scored several good deals on CL. Only run into jerks or shiesters about 10% of the time. Often times you can tell from the ad who's who. Sorry you got screwed. That seller is a mega douche.

Glad I didn't know this last night, you have no idea how good I slept thinking that I beat him out.

I would have been there at 5 so i totally could have got this but since it wasn't one I had a ton of interest in I passed on going. You're welcome Steve lol

That's crappy driving all that way. That happened to me on my very first attempt at a SS game on CL. I drove two hours away into the middle of nowhere to have my calls ignored when I got there. Luckily that left me open to getting Secret Service from you a few days later!

Since it was so close I was tempted to go check it out, decided not too because I would have ended up with another pin (I can't stop myself) and I am trying to save the cash/space for a HS/HS II. Lots of competition getting good pins in the area just looking at the cities in this string!

Well, there's a very simple answer for that: He was very vague on condition. I asked him, and he gave me no specifics. All he could tell me was "I buy em and fix em and sell em when I get bored of em". The OP here said that the backbox had been damaged. The seller didn't tell me that. There were no pics in the ad, so basically I wanted the guy to tell me that it was a beautiful game that I couldn't pass up or at least a decent player quality game for a good price. If he'd have been more forthcoming with details, I probably would have pulled the trigger and stacked the game on the damn dining room table. But...with him dodging questions of condition, it made it easy to convince myself to stay home.

Damn...now I'm starting to regret not going. I love that movie. The part where Bill Pullman gives the Independence Day speech before they launch their fighter jet attack...awesome.

What I wanna know is why you are judging PurpleTophat for inquiring on a CL ad? Because you get annoyed by having to deal with potential customers? Really?

Yep, shoulda stacked it on the damn dining room table...