Do you guys contact sellers that have pins you are interested in that have crazy prices and try and bring them back to the real world with pricing?

This question only pertains to pins you are actually interested in. I don't need to let people know their nuts if I don't really want what they are selling.

Case in point.
I've been looking for pinbot, one hit craigs within driving distance today.
Price, $4000, and no I did not add a zero. What few pics there are makes it look pretty good, but not anywhere near 4 grand, price is probably around $$2500-$3000 too high.
No type of pinhead talk in the ad and it's called an "antique". Which suggests to me they watch too much pickers or pawn stars.

Can you really get someone to take $3000 off a pin that they are asking $4000 for?
Do you link them to information suggesting they are way off on the pricing?

I'd hate to miss out on something local just because I didn't make any effort. But asking someone to take 75% off of something that they asking $4000 for seems like a stretch to me, even if they are wrong.

How do you handle it?

Thanks for the advice, i'll let them know i'm interested and politely give them values based on best condition and worst and let them know I have cash and they can contact me if they would like to sell it.

Worked a few years back when I bought my car lift (I got $2600 down to $1600), by making an offer and letting him sit on it for a while. But that was something incredibly hard to move and he had to have it gone by Christmas. About 2 weeks before the 25th I got an email that said "Hey joe if you still have that $1600 Christmas comes early for you", lol.

When it comes to pinball machines it's incredibly hard for me to be patient for some reason.

The whole negotiating thing is why I like to look in the for sale section here on pinside
Most people are realistic with their asking price and if they are not the price police clobber them anyway, lol. Leaves me never being the bad guy.

For the record I contacted the seller.
Politely stated the value on pinbot is from $700-$1600.
I suggested the check the forum sales section here.
Also stated that in a craigs search if she did a search for "pinbot" it would yield results for jackbot and BOP for around $2000 and they are newer much more valuable machines.

It was a She, and she replied asking what I was willing to pay and said she set the price at that because that what she has seen them for sale for, i'm guessing the source of that pricing would be ebay.

I said i'd love to see it and make an offer that was between $800 and $1200, maybe more if the condition is really good and if those types of number were acceptable to lmk and i'd drive up.
Told her I had cash in hand and I was willing to pay what it's worth because i'm keeping it for myself.

I won't hold my breath, but I put it out there because it would ashamed to find it sold for a reasonable number and I didn't at least try.

At least she will know we are both being honest.

Go figure one of the other titles i'm been interested in is now on craigs, space shuttle "newly redone", $2500. I know an extremely nice SP can sell for quite a bit, but I don't feel like someone that knew about a $2500 space shuttle would plainly list it as "newly redone" without more details.
Looks nice, but not collector nice.

I check pretty often, never seen it until today.

So, funny enough I get an email today asking if i'm still interested in the pinbot from last month.
While I am, after spending quite a bit (for me) on a batman forever (which I am in love with at the moment), my interest is now low in a pinbot.
I'd buy it, just not at the same price as I once would have.

Just goes to show you, when you can take someones 1000 bucks on a toy, maybe you should take it.

Ok, sorry for the last post, I got a response.
They paid $6000 and need to get $4000, lol.

Nope, I was kinda shocked.
I originally told them I was interested around a grand, so I figured them contacting me a month later meant they were ready to play ball, but nope, they need 4g's from it, lol.
Guess the joke's on me.

Well, getting them down to a grand is quite the accomplishment, last time you and I spoke they were at what, 2 grand still?
I never went there, but their emails said 4g's was the minimum, lol.

I've learned the hard way what corrosion can do on a system 11 and how much it costs to be fixed, if it can be fixed. So your $600 offer sounds fair.

If I didn't just get batman forever i'd probably take another crack at it, but I can only spend so much on toys.