Never. Just a horrible idea. Could turn friends into enemies and enemies into bitter rivals. Just think about how you would enforce such a ridiculous clause.

Don’t sell a game unless you are willing to not care at all what happens to you after you sell it. When you sell a game to someone, you aren’t renting it to them or asking them to babysit it for you, you are selling it.

Sure, I've done it for years. Sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't for various reasons. Doesn't hurt to ask the buyer when he comes to pick up the game.

John

Would be pretty easy. If the Buyer later decides to sell the pin, he first contacts the Seller and says, “hey, I was thinking of selling for $x. Are you interested?”

The Seller has the option to buy back at that price. If they can’t reach a deal, Buyer is free to sell to others.

I’d be interested to hear others experiences. It seems like half of Pinside operates this way.

I did years ago on a sale. Really appreciated the offer and felt great two years later but no room. Was nice though.

What good it is if the buyer offers to sell it back to you, but for a million bucks?

Missing the point. Maybe million bucks is market value years later. At least they thought of you first.

Now offering days or weeks later, well that’d be weird.

Geez Levi. Lonely world for you on occasion, eh?

Yep. I had an absolutely beautiful, Bally Star Trek. It was meant to be a permanent part of my collection. My best friend saw it and HAD to have it. So I sold it to him, for what I had in it. But.... If EVER he tires of it, I get to buy it back for that same price.

Oh, and it lives in my shop. We share a building for our businesses.

One time I sold 2 games, but had second thoughts and wanted to keep one of them (ACDC Luci). I told the buyer I wanted to keep it still, but would still sell it as I had agreed to. Then I asked if he was ever going to sell it, please give me first chance to buy it back.

He told me I wouldn't like the price. Later, he sold the game and never gave me a chance to buy it back anyhow.

Rob

In most cases this is probably fine, but people can get weird with money and competitive pinball sellers markets. Emotions will cloud judgment when someone feels taken advantage of or a perceived agreement doesnt work out.

I've seen feuds firsthand that turned former friends into enemies over a couple hundered bucks flipping games. We've all seen threads here where someone posts about getting "ripped off". Half those threads are basically 2 adults arguing like kids on the playground.

Provided (as the seller asking for ROFR) you are able to separate yourself from any sense of entitlement or fairness about it, I think it could make sense… but only in an informational sense: to let the buyer know it is of interest to you and could make for a quick sale.

But the moment any sort of ‘why didn’t you allow me to…’ or ‘but you only paid me…’ enters into it you will hit the exact scenario CrazyLevi mentioned. If you can keep all that nonsense out of it… why not?

Yes, but just among actual friends. Nothing in writing, but just more of a "hey if you ever sell this give me a call first". I wouldn't do anything like that with people I wasn't close with, too messy.

...but you're still friends, right?

I didn't personally know the guy.

It’s all about the class of the buyer/future seller, really.

Sell games to people who really want them, not just people who see a quick buck in it.

Not leaving meat on the bone is a great way to dissuade those types. I don’t sell often, so it doesn’t come up, but I’ve witnessed it and several games in my collection currently have the “ROFR” clause. Doesn’t bother me at all, and I will gladly honor the sellers wishes, because I cannot imagine ever selling the games.
That’s why I bought them, because I wanted them as permanent pieces in my collection.

If you want good deals and good friends, honoring people’s wishes to have “dibs” is a wise decision. Even better to offer them at a reasonable price, average market or slightly below that.

I’ve seen plenty of cases were people “trade” games for the same prices year over year. Some guys I know recently sold/traded some classic WMS like MM or TZ for $2400, because in a few years they will trade/buy yet another A-title for the same price.

Money can’t buy that kind of trust with a tight knit network of collectors. If the people you are dealing with are of quality, then you would be wise to respect them.

If you’re just in the hobby to squeeze every last dime out of it, and make as much money as possible, obviously this doesn’t apply. Nothing against those people. The hobby will always have the business side, and the old-school collector side.