I'd be happy to let this one go, but apparently Family Arcade never will, so I throw it to the Pinside Jury.

This is of course totally my side and I'm obviously completely biased, so feel free to hear out his side of this entire stupid tale before you pass judgment. He assures me he's kept complete documentation of this entire moronic affair so maybe his memory is a little better than mine.

—————-
Family Arcade - Nelson (HA HA!) - bought a WCS from me SEVEN YEARS AGO.

As in, two Presidents ago. As in, four Fast & Furious movies ago. As in around 2,500 days ago. You get the picture.

He came, he looked at it, he paid me money, he took the game and drove away. Pretty standard deal, right?

A couple days later I get a message whining about a piece of gum underneath the cabinet. A PIECE OF FUCKING GUM. Like dozens of games I've owned over 20 years. WHO GIVES A FUCKING SHIT? The game was NEVER advertised as mint, nor was it even advertised as shopped, it was advertised as a nice working WCS and that’s what it was.

The game also had an off board battery and a couple of other upgrades I didn't bother mentioning in the ad, but hey I don't get credit for that. He was focused on this piece of gum like Rain Man. Oh and after I pointed out that it was only a piece of old fucking gum and who really gives a shit, there were a litany of other complaints about a 20-year old used game that was sold as-is and that he agreed to buy and take home after inspecting it.

So, after incredulously asking what I could do to "make right" this horrible injustice I foisted upon him, I agreed to give him some free WCS plastics I had laying around, and a free cupholder, and he came over and picked them up. I welcomed him back to my place, we had a beer, played some pinball, and we SHOOK HANDS ON THE DEAL. For the second time. And we and parted on good terms. The deal was over, and everybody was happy, despite some minor bumps.

Or so it seemed.

For the past seven years, he has continued to needle me publicly over this piece of fucking gum, going back on his word that the deal was complete and he was satisfied with our arrangement. A couple years ago - due to his incessant psychotic fixation on a couple grunge-era chiclets - I offered to buy back the game for what he paid for it. He declined, of course, because I had sold him a perfectly nice game that 5 years later was now worth well more than what he paid for it.

But to this day, he refuses to let it go. The way I see it, he at least owes me a fucking cupholder and a couple loose WCS plastics, as those were supposed to buy his satisfaction and put this to bed. Instead, he welched on the deal and now you all have to hear about it.

Apparently, he wanted a reaction from me or he wouldn't still be obnoxiously referencing gum every time he responds to one of my posts, so now after your puppy turned 49 in dog years, he's finally got one and can vent about this deal directly to all of you.

Would be nice if we could get past it. Maybe this will finally provide some closure. Or maybe it just never ends? Really that's up to him.

And you! VOTE! It's important.

I'm already a loser cause I spent like 10 minutes typing that up.

I will say one thing - I actually do scan games for gum now so I guess that's a plus?

Yeah I left some fish in the coin box also. ON PORPOISE!

Hey doesn't the Bible say some shit about how you are supposed to forgive all debts after seven years?

Doesn't an unpaid phone bill disappear from your credit report after seven years?

Isn't Seven Years long enough for us to heal?

Sing us out, Bowie...

You know, that’s a good point.

How do I know he didn’t plant the gum there so he could shake me down for a free cupholder????

It’s all starting to make sense now.

Oh it’s more than just gum. You’ll hear about a “borked” cabinet - with chips even!!! You never see that on a 20 year old game!

You’ll hear about busted plastics - another shocking rarity in the world Of used pinball machines!!

I think there was a family of possum living inside the head also, and there may have been an old cheeseburger stuffed in the coin box. Game was a huge piece of shit that I tricked him into buying with my “used car salesman “ tactics.

I don’t remember this, but apparently he complained about the condition of the game on site and he asked for a discount and I didn’t give him one!!! He was so furious at my used car salesman tactics and refusal to come off our agreed upon price that he still decided to buy the game even though he knew I was screwing him. After all, he drove all the way to New York City from like 20 miles away!!! I had him by the balls and he had no choice but to buy the game and take it home!!!

Oh yeah he also just sold the game two weeks ago. It was such a piece of shit and caused him such trauma and heartache that he KEPT IT FOR SEVEN YEARS.

I wonder if the new owner got the cupholder. If there’s a God hopefully the buyer will be hassling him for the next seven years about some stupid bullshit.

Yeah me too. I’ve got my rebuttal ready!

54DA88E8-A156-4900-9E6C-B6F9B5C926FA.gif

Can someone translate this for me?

Im pretty sure neither Nelson nor myself speak Fox News.

Yeah I mean I don’t even dislike the guy! We are both passionate about pinball, we seem to have generally the same politics and worldview, and we both seem to hate a lot of the same stuff and same people.

So how did we get here? How do we build a bridge toward a more peaceful, less gum-fueled fighting future? Do we need some kind of gum / beer summit?

Here ya go!!

E06D8F40-60BD-431B-9393-E207936336C7 (resized).jpeg

I concur.

Family Arcade, I consider this water under the bridge at this point, or gum under the cab as it were.

I will consider future gum jokes as gentle ribbing and not as lashing of rage.

If there’s one thing this pandemic has shown us all, it’s that we only get so many chews at the wad. Why blow it on bubbles of anger?

Ha!

The above pic is Hollywood Vic before the Botox and hair transplant.