Did he wind up finding a B66?

Not sure. He wasn't a Pinsider, I had met him through Facebook, so I'm not sure if you ever did find one or not.

I’ll ad: now if I go see a pin I want, and pictures and descriptions are not what I expect, I will walk. I never offer less based on condition. I’ll offer why I will not buy it and leave.

The above is what has changed in the internet days. In the pre-internet days, we answered an ad, went to a home, looked and negotiated.

What was once the acceptable way is now not.

Get out of the house for a day, come home without a game and presumably a pocket full of cash! Could work in some households

I've actually BOOTED a guy from my place once...long read so apologies up front....had an ad on CL for a fully restored 720* (video game, not pin) guy shows at my house and goes bananas (in a good way) over the vid. Plays it for a good 1/2 hour and tells me he'll take it and please hold it until he can come back during the week with a truck. I tell him "sure, just leave me a deposit and we're good" Leaves me 500.00 -vid was agreed on at $3800.00 so he needs to bring back 3300.00.
Calls me back in a week and we set up for pick up the next few days. Perfect. Left my firm early that day so I can complete this transaction. So the guy shows up with the wife (ugh) and we go to my shop where I keep the game and she gestures to him to ask to speak with him...OK. He sheepishly walks back over to me and has the actual brass balls to ask me if I'll go down to $800.00 !! Mind you--this was from 4500.00 that we nego'd down to 3800!
I told him firmly, "NO" you're taking this for 3800 and you owe me 3300. He looks over towards his wife and says "we're not doing this--not at THAT price!" I saw what they were doing here. I gently but firmly put my hand on this man-child's shoulder and lead him over to his wife, and under my breath in the most menacing voice I could gather I told them both, "Leave my house right now or you'll regret it" Wife starts shrieking at him telling him she's tired of him not consulting her, etc. So to further the shitstorm, as they were leaving, I told him that he's lost his 500 deposit. No answer from him and I really just did that so his wife knew that he lost 500.00. Dick move on my part? You bet! Oh the joys of selling!

Ya there sure is all kinds of people in the world most great but there's a few run the other way lol

Ha!! First you got to get them to show up before they walk away. I don't know as if I've ever had anyone leave empty handed (which I'm fine with that) but there has been more times then I could ever count where the person doesn't show up at all or even have the common courtesy to call and say they wont be coming because of some emergency....blah, blah. O'yeah and not to mention people that do show up two hours late, also with out a courtesy call and then walk in the door like it's no big deal and never offer an apology or explanation.......
John

Never had someone show up and not take the game I was selling.

Did just have a first time expierence with the guy who just bought my F14. He drove 2 hrs and never negotiated a price before showing up.

I think people get spoiled in the pinball hobby in how easy and hassle free trying to sell a pinball machine usually is. I am reminded of this when I try to sell anything else. Selling stuff is a pain in the ass! Try selling any kind of music equipment or a car. A ton of tire kickers and low-ballers.

I've only left empty handed once. It was a Whitewater almost 20 years ago that was destroyed. Missing topper, boulders, side art on one side, smashed lock targets and ramps...just a wrecked re-import. This was before replacement parts were readily available and the guy was asking good money for the pin at the time.

In over 50 pinball and arcade game sales, I've only had 1 person leave my house without buying...and they did it twice. First time, I contacted them on a game they wanted and gave them a ridiculously good price since I got it for a steal. They showed up and it was apparent right from the get go they were not buying the game, even my wife could tell. Took the next hour going through all the menus, inspecting the cabinet and game with a flashlight and a fine tooth comb. Played a couple of games and beat around the bush. Finally they said it was exactly as advertised and they didn't see anything wrong with it...but they were going to pass because they thought they really wanted game xxx instead. Then after wasting my time for an hour, they asked to see the other games in my gameroom. WTF? Come to find out after the fact that this person had done this same thing with basically every person who owns a pinball machine in my area. Afterwards, I offered it to the second guy who contacted me and he was absolutely shocked the first person passed. He drove a couple hours the next day to pick it up and was beyond thrilled.

Lesson learned by me, right? No, I'm a nice guy and all about second chances, so when I was selling another game several months down the road below market value that this same person wanted, I reached out again and gave them first shot. They came over again...same deal. You could tell right away this deal is not happening and I was not happy this time. We do the same dance as before and once again they passed because they really wanted game xxx instead. I contacted the second person who wanted it, he came over a couple of days later and bought it problem free and was happy. The potential buyer is a nice person, but fool me twice, now...lesson learned. I don't even consider contacting that person again and haven't had a problem transaction since.

I walked on a T2 after I turned the game off and back on it did a factory reset which was not disclosed. I still didn't know much about pinball machines at this point and I still offered to buy it for $1,500 rather than the $2,000 originally agreed too. I was lucky enough that the person declined my offer and I left with nothing. This was 6 years ago or so and the machine was in really rough shape. Some of the insert lights didn't work and I don't think the playfield had ever been cleaned.

Hell, I almost kicked a buyer out of my house once.

Had a really nice WhoDunnit for sale, guy came over w the fine tooth comb, bragging about the 5 games he owns while telling me he only buys mint condition collector games, spitting out titles to impress me (4 of the 5 were below our feet in the game room).

When he finally finished his inspection and said he wasn't taking the game, part of me wanted to invite him downstairs, point at one wall and say "So, you have almost THAT many games....that's a cute little collection", but this guy was such a dick I just wanted him out. RIGHT NOW. LEAVE.

I think I sold it for $2200.00

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/57794

If I have to sell to non-pinheads, I move the machine into the garage, out of the game room.

One Christmas I had several games for sale. I listed a Bally El Toro for $100 in the local paper (pre-internet). Everyone came to buy El Toro but left with other games much more expensive (and fun!) until only the El Toro was left. That’s the same feeling I get when I sell a machine that’s still in my game room. People want to play and compare before buying. That’s where I lost the most sales - “I think I’ll save for a better or newer machine”.

Right, it's like trying to sell your VW in a garage full of Ferrari's.

I had a guy bring his girlfriend so She could Marvel at how he beat me up on a machine.They left empty handed but came back the next day with full cash and no more questions.

ask 'em if they want a video walkthrough before they bother to come. if they don't they ain't serial

I've lost several sales that way. Guy and his wife come over to look at a lower priced game I want to sell. They play it and like it but then spend an hour playing Indiana Jones, Congo, or Monster Bash. At this point, I know my sale is finished. Once they realize their intended purchase is nowhere near as much fun as one of those, they tell me to let them know when I get an Indy or Monster Bash around the price of the other game, which is usually around 1600-2500 give or take, and away they go. They apparently get it in their head, no matter what I say, that one day I will stumble onto a screaming deal on an Indy for 2500 and promptly call them to come get it. I have since learned to turn off all higher end games and tell them they are in for repair. I have had some success in this way in avoiding this problem.

I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about and he's done it to many others in the Twin Cities.

I'm absolutely positive you know who I am talking about.

I don't know. IMO I think he sent plenty of pictures showing the pin. Plus, with the advent of digital pictures the buyer can zoom in and get a high detail closeup of the pinball's view. I don't think it was over-priced at all and the price seems reasonable.

Seller has been on Pinside for awhile, sent a lot of pictures, put a reasonable price on it and even offered an additional money off the price the buyer stated he wanted. No foul here.

I drove from the other side of Chicago to Ft. Wayne for a Bally KISS. The pictures actually look pretty good. What I didn't realize was the lower half of the front of the cabinet was always cropped out. I get there and the front of the cabinet is completely bondo because the coin door was kicked in at one time. I can live with a good wood repair, but this looked like a 3rd grade Friday art class of playdough and finger paints. I just walked away and the seller was in shock. I told him if he was hiding something this obvious, what else was I going to find?

Mind you, this was 10 - 12 years ago and I was just getting back into the pinball scene.

if original is worn out, fine......put a hardtop on it, but the point was that game shouldn't be priced as a game containing a nice original playfield still. And this happens all the time.

I was selling a Caribbean cruise cocktail on pinside. A local guy told me he wanted it and asked me to remove it from pinside and consider it sold. He even offered a deposit and I said no worries, just pay when you get here. It was $700 as I remember. He showed up and basically ignored the game. Evidently, he came to check out my place, talk about my short term rental business and tell me all about the pinball bar that he was going to open that might have an airbnb too.

After about an hour of picking my brain, I said do you want to check out the game, he looked at it for 20 seconds, didnt even play it and said he wasn't interested and then finally left. I was like WTF just happened. Even my partner asked me what that was all about?! He's like... you just spent an hour with the guy and he didn't even buy the game?

A friend of mine said he'd done the same thing to him.

I don't think so. PF looks decent. I am surprised the dented rails and the rusty fasteners weren't replaced during the restoration though. That's a $2500 above average, players condition firepower imho.

I just had one restored to better than new and with the $600 shipping, I have $5300 into it now.

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agreed but I doubt I will ever sell it.

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