Yes, I would guess that most of us have had people come to look at a pinball machine and not buy it.

Thanks for asking!

4hrs seems a bit much if they’re not serious. Unless: he was coming out your way anyway, or the machine was significantly worse than he thought it would be. Still, if he was serious, I’d expect him to make an offer before wasting 8hrs and +$100 in gas.

Really odd, I mean I've had several people message me they want something and beat me up over price ahead of time, but never one that showed and didnt take it. I also sell cars for a living and the vast majority of the time people that drive over an hour, let alone 4 are pretty serious buyers. The times when something fell through, there was a significant problem. Maybe they were casing your house for a burglary

I've walked away a couple of different times. Usually over price and condition of the game.

It's only worth what someone is willing to pay.

I just don't understand why this is bothering you so much. He wasted 8 hours of his time, not 8 hours of yours.

You've been around a while, is this really the first time this has happened?

I do sometimes try to mitigate time wasters. I was selling a TZ last week and made it clear to a few folks who "wanted to come by and see it" that it's a high demand game and I had little if any room to work on the price. But I mean, you can't force somebody to buy your game.

A little time wasted here and there is just the cost of doing business in pinball. If we all made a post for every deal that DIDN'T happen there'd be no room for left for price bubble threads.

I haven't had it happen (yet), but I fully expect it could. I try to send a bunch of pics and a detailed description of pros and cons of everything I sell. In the end, I guess I'd rather have the person walk away than buying something they're not really sure they wanted, but I'd probably be a little bummed at the wasted correspondence time, and the time I held it for them when I could've possibly sold it to someone else.

It happens to anyone who has been selling pins for some time. I tell potential buyers don’t waste their time if you lowball me when you get here. You know the price and be prepared to spend that amount.

Perhaps this was just a scheme to get away from his spouse? How are things in the buyers home life? Did you offer some warm cocoa and a blanket?

There is always another sucker who will come along

I've definitely walked away from a purchase - quite a few times. It's all part of the learning process in knowing what I want and getting there by way of asking questions, and more importantly, asking for the right pictures.
Early on, I drove 3.5 hours to check out a White Water that came with some pretty poorly lit and grainy photos. Got there to find the cabinet all hacked up and rails that were badly dented. No way I was buying that when I was on the hunt for as pristine condition one as possible. I didn't ask the right questions and for the right photos beforehand, so that's on me.
All was not lost. Got in my car and called the owner of a Road Show that was for sale on the way back. Went home happy.

Oh yeah, plenty of times. You'd think before driving four hours they'd want more detailed pics or a video but they could have had another reason for the trip anyway.

When I've done this it is because the game wasn't as expected. Maybe he didn't want to say that because he didn't want to be confrontational.

I once had a buyer that I purposely kind of talked out of buying a game.
They were pretty local though, and somewhat inexperienced and seemed kind of needy when setting up the deal.
So when they came to try the game out, I made a bit more emphasis on any negatives, and made it clear that I was perfectly fine if they decided not to buy it.
They decided not to buy, and I was kind of glad, as I think they would have been bothering me with tech support requests.
Or the game would have problems that they would blame me for, and being so local didn't want to deal with that.
Ended up selling it to someone that is a collector and has more experience with pin ownership.
It all worked out...

Walked away over 50 bucks before

I think this is being a ‘good seller’ and as you said probably sparing yourself some grief from any resultant issues as they learn about the ways of pinball. I try and do the same - I would prefer they are ready and end up pleasantly surprised versus the opposite.

Assuming this is the ad in question:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/150902

Truth is that you really can’t tell the condition of the game from the photos. There aren’t close-ups of the playfield and I can’t really get a feel for the overall quality of the restoration. Now the language of your ad makes it sound like Twilight Zone Platinum edition. So you may be overselling it a bit. Hard to say.

If you are frustrated that multiple people may be wasting your time, consider some additional photos with playfield closeups and multiple angles on the cabinet.

I’d expect perfection from the description, BTW.

Oh, I’ve also walked away over $50. Even after towing a trailer to buy the car/bike/whatever.

My .02…

I've walked away plenty of times. Little problems add up to a lot of cost and a lot of times it's not even worth trying to negotiate because there's another sucker that will come along and pay asking price. I've been that sucker plenty of times so I know.

Speaking of wasting time and money I had a guy show up for a pin who rented a truck and a stair climber and left without the pin because he couldn't figure out how to use the stair climber. Better yet he paid me the money for the pin in full and said I'll be back to get it when I can have someone else come to help get it up from the basement. He said I'll just take the legs at least that way you can't sell the pin. Lol. Needless to say I got a stair climber from my work the next day and got the pin out of my basement so he could come back to get it loaded in another vehicle he had to rent again. Was quite an experience.

I have sent buyers away before ,I am up front about my price before they come .Any haggling will be done before arrival.Occasionally a tire kicker will agree on price and then try and work the price again on arrival.Take it on the heals this aint the flea market.I offer as many detailed photos and videos the buyer requests in advance

Yeah, I’d be bothered more about the peculiarity of the situation, or what I did wrong to waste 8hrs of this guys time. I wouldn’t be worried about my lost time.

Selling isn’t quick and easy unless youre pricing your pins that way.

That game is overpriced for the playfield condition. If it had a hardtop it'd prob have sold at that price.

Yes I get lots that say for hour or so and look at it over and over this guy was 3 hours away and still walk away some people as u said why drive that far this same guy after he seen the machine got a new PF for it then asked me if I still have it I said sorry it alreally sold it and it was month later after he seen the Machine like really dude lol

Only had it happen once with many sales, but he didn't drive far. I would assume the pictures didn't show something he didn't like or the overall condition was much worse than he thought. Some people are very particular about their games. I've walked away after driving 4 hours each way for those reasons.

Yes, once had a serious collector who was going with his hands all over the cabinet and didn't want to buy the game because he felt scratches.
Felt. Didn't see.
The game and playfield was beautiful. Cabinet probably had scratches but nothing large that you would notice.
He just didn't want it as he wanted a perfect game.

Lately it seems that a hardtop reduces the price over a good original. Hardtops don’t play the same at all, and are only good if the game you’re hardtopping is trashed.

i drove three hours round trip to walk away from the first game i ever wanted to buy- stickers all over the cab, strike one. score wheels don't reset on power on, strike two. wait- is the wood between the flippers literally worn so badly that the weight of the ball makes it bow on rollover? on an $800 surf champ?

i'm out

I price my games to move fairly quickly, so I usually get enough responses that I can weed out the "needy" buyers pretty fast. Small non-pinball items I often just want to be gone ASAP with as little fanfare as possible. On FB marketplace, I will price something cheap and get 15 responses in 10 minutes. The first response that leads with "I will come right now, your price is acceptable" gets the item. No BS. No wasting half a day hearing someones life story and then getting an offer of 30% of my already super reasonable asking price. Works great.

No, I usually have mine priced that people pay, load and go.

Very few tire kickers as I tend to weed them out via e-mail.

I like it that way, my time on weekends is valuable.

I rather have a nice original over a hardtop because of the look. Hardtops definitely play better than original due to the smoothness if the surface and elimination of friction due to surface imperfections like insert edges etc.

Been there...Over time, it just doesn't bother you as much...Obviously the in person turn down is tough, but when people flake now, I don't care...These will continue to hold their value.

I feel bad for the mistakes I made in the past letting pins go for way lower than I should have, but you live and learn

when I went to buy my second game, the seller was nervous as hell that i was going to bail. I had 13 consecutive days at work before I had a day off. He must have called or texted twice a day every day before that. Then on my five hour drive he texted at least three or four times. But it was my much beloved Title Fight a not very popular title i fell in love with at PAPA, so it was worth it......... of course if i'd known i was going to lose my job of 13 years the following Tuesday, i probably wouldn't have bought it.

You did? How much was the price of the machine?

Some people aren't satisfied unless they win an offer. When I did tree work a neighbor came by while we were working to ask about a tree in his yard. I walked over, looked at it and said 100 bucks since we are already here. The customer countered and offered 95. My buddy and I gave each the look and said sure.

I don't think I've had anyone bail when they've arrived to buy a game. But, I've had plenty of tire kickers over email/PM/text or when I'm selling a game at a show.

Do you repair the original boards?

Often times, a few bucks in components can get a board back up and running. That way, you aren't trying to cover what you spent on new & expensive replacement boards.

Sure, it's disappointing that a sale was not completed, but it's not a big deal. There will be other buyers.

Sell anything and you can have a potential buyer realize it’s not for them, whatever their reason.

At least you know where the person stands face to face. When we are buying / trading items that are near $10K transactions, that's the potential buyers decision.

I find this far worse and I'm sure plenty of others have experienced this. When you have a deal in place after much correspondence and effort on the sellers part and the buyer just ghosts and disappears last minute. I can even tolerate the pathetic "my wife says I can't buy it". At least that's a response

Once a guy came to see my HUO Black Knight and it seemed like the only reason he didn't buy it was that the blue & purple inserts were faded, normal for BK even though mine is very low use and has been indoors in a dark bedroom practically it's entire life. Other than that it's perfecto. And this was over 20 years ago, my guess would be every BK's blue inserts have gotta be faded by now. Glad I kept it though, since then I corrected the color of the blue ones with 2X warm LEDs with selected layers of tinted color film over them.

I had a Spooky Halloween CE. Game had some of the worst assembly and engineering quality of any game I’ve ever owned. I took 2 days off of work after owning it for several months and l meticulously fixed every complaint I had about it. Game played great for a month and I listed it for a $1000 loss.

Buyer drove 3 hours one way from Kansas City and played two games with me on it. Wouldn’t you know… it cooked the driver board while we were playing it. He chose not to buy and drove 3 hours back empty handed. I felt absolutely terrible. That’s my only time I had a buyer drive and change their mind and I don’t blame him.

I did a trade involving my black hole machine. We agreed on trade, I broke it down drove 1 1/2 hours to his condo. Reassembled the game in his house and he played a few games and said he did not want it. Biggest Assxxxe on pinside. He did not like the game so he changes his mind. Then as I was breaking it down to leave he said he would reluctantly do it if I gave him $1000 in cash plus the trade. Both machines were equal in condition and value. Absolute scumbag. I am assuming he changed his id as he never listed another ad after that. Easter P.A. I dont rember the location.

Issue was $1250 v $1200. A classic "well I upgraded the machine with Rottendog boards..." yada yada. Not an upgrade to me.

Kind of funny to see you write that after you talk about having to replace the original Williams boards on that Firepower with a Rottendog.

Well apparently it was enough