This sort of happened to me last week... Contacted a guy about a game he listed for an OK price on CL nearly a week prior. I contacted him and told him I wanted to look it over before committing to buy it. It would not boot and had some condition issues. He said I was the first person to contact him, which I did not believe but I went to look the game over anyway. Some other personal events like work, ect. only allowed him to show the game one or two specific times per week. We agreed on a time and day and I honestly never expected to hear back from him. It all worked out just fine though, and I ended up buying the game and am cleaning it up now.
From my experience if you have a "NOT WILLING TO GO THE EXTRA LENGTH" to make a CL deal happen, it just never does. Lazy CL shoppers get no deals. Hell, I was asking the guy what else he has for sale because I collect more than just pinball games.
It shocks me that people don't take the extra time to ask these simple questions. I once got 5 free backglasses from someone I bought 3 playfields from and ended up restoring them and selling them for fairly decent cash. The guy had all the BG's leaning against a trash can in his basement and said they were going into the trash the next day. He gave them to me because I asked if he had and other cheap parts for sale? I tried to pay him for the backglasses but he refused to take any money from me. I would have never known they were there had I not asked.