My last purchase (CFTBL, so was no small amount), when I handed over “all hundreds” I watched the guy count every dollar. At the end he says “it’s short. I replied, no, it is not, please count again and make sure 2 bills aren’t stuck together”. He counted again and saw his mistake, but he even said before recounting “ go ahead and start packing up while I recount”, I of course said no to that as well.

“Very glib” …
Haven’t heard “glib” since being a cocky preteen and moms hand across the back of my neck. Nice!

what’s fun is when I hear one of my three sons say words like gullywasher and lollygagging

I am this way too, but for another reason. Like, early in my time in the hobby, going into a strangers house, yes, I clearly want to play their minty pinballs especially ones that I don't have access to on route and never owned myself. I wanna chat their ear off over games coming out or my favorites. But I check myself and remember that I'm in someone else's home, and unless specifically invited, will not ask to play a game. They might have other shit to do, etc. Its mostly a respect thing, but also, I don't always know people who I'm buying from.

I take wads of cash and change the direction of the bills to make the counting easier. For 100's, 10 face up followed by 10 face down. Makes it easier for me to keep track. Hope folks in this thread would still do business with me.

It's creeping more and more east bound....

I will say count the bills and look at the bills and do it twice if you sell and by.

That happened to me once, luckily the lesson only cost me 100$.

I sold a game, buyer came, nice chat, nice guy, inspect the game etc he handed me a pile of bills that I counted in front of him, all good, done deal.

Next day I meet with the seller for my next game, nice chat, nice guy, nice game, take the envelope out of my pocket, hand it to him, he went to sit at his table in my eye sight but back turned on me, counts them and pulls one fake bill, one of these movie props bills.

I was 1000 miles away from home, gave him the benefit of the doubt and went to get a real 100 at the ATM.

To this day and forever I still don't know if my buyer fooled me or if the seller fooled me. What I do know is I got fooled.

This is such an ignorant statement. He didn't state that, conceal carry is for personal protection. Its a possible life saving option that you hope you never have to use, but will be happy to have if the shit hits the fan.

A few years ago I met a Craigslist buyer in a busy restaurant parking lot to sell a few NOS GI Joe vehicles. After the transaction he explained why he wanted to meet there, know my name and number etc. He had met a "seller" at a home to purchase a rare baseball card for a few thousand dollars. The subject met him out front of the residence, entered into friendly small talk, then asked him to follow him around back to the rear entrance of the residence. Once behind the residence, the subject displayed a firearm, put it to the buyer's head and demanded the money. The buyer produced the money and the subject pulled the trigger. The firearm malfunctioned, and the subject struck the buyer in the head with the firearm, knocking him unconscious. (The subject fled, it was not his residence).

A few years later I shared this story with someone I knew. RI being the small state it is, he stated he knew that victim, saw him after the incident, and confirmed his story. Unfortunately we live in a world where someone will take a life over $5, ignorance to that fact can get you hurt, or killed.

I've carried concealed for almost two decades, and dealt with some of the worst of society for around the same amount of time. Luckily I've never needed to use my CCW, but maybe someday it will be an option I'm glad I have.

Stay alert, stay alive.

I'm sorry but your story doesn't accomplish what you think it does. In his case carrying wouldn't have done any good because had he had a gun and tried to pull it, he'd probably be dead.

The 'good guy with a gun' thing doesn't really work out as much as people think playing rambo in their mind does. And no, I'm not anti gun, I'm anti stupidity, and most people with a gun are just going to get themselves shot, not the other way around in such circumstances. Whoever is the person getting the drop on another person generally has the advantage.

At least in Mr.68's case had he needed to pull the gun or things went wrong quickly, he had the defense of he was on his own property defending his own property.

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That happened to me with a buyer who paid with fresh $100 bills. I thought it was short and some stuck together and it also happened when I was the buyer.

I do agree with you, had that card buyer been carrying, he would not have had time to draw his weapon unless he could have created distance between himself and the offender. My point was his statement, "Over a pinball machine". Some people have zero concern about taking a life over anything, $5 or $5k and you need to keep that in the back of your head when dealing with people you do not know.

Kim is great peoples. Anyone ever fucks with him I'll be the 1st to lay it on the line
*incoming STELLAR Triumph track*

Lets stop with the "guns are good" / "guns are bad" posts.

Nothing anyone types will change anyone's opinions.

And yes, I'm a gun owner and have, on occasion, carried both "open" and "concealed".

Mods I think think this thread should be combined with the divorce thread.

Guns are neither good nor bad. Bad guys have them so the good guys need them. Nuff said.

No joke, it's a hassle to load/unload pack/unpack for a single sale. No one wishes to display their anger in front of the police station if the buyer doesn't show.

Were you really going to pull a gun over $10k??

Kim is no idiot. Of course not.

Now if the situation escalated and his life was in danger. He might choose do defend himself.

LTG : )

How did that go?

Amen brother.

Both involve people getting robbed. One by a sammer and the other by the system.

Bought from a fellow Pinsider that requested the entire amount ($7000?) in 20s. I thought it was an odd request but obliged. When I got there he told me the story of previously selling a game and getting scammed with counterfeit 100s. He felt 20s were safer. He definitely counted the money. Reading this thread has convinced me to insist the seller count the money so there are no awkward phone calls later. Once the transaction is done it's done, but I don't want anyone walking away thinking they got shorted.

Definitely a con job. And he was in a rush so you'd have the least info on him as possible.

Still. Could be worse. Could have been a TRAILER PARK MAW OF DARKNESS!!!

If threatened in an aggressive way, I would.

..... luckily that didn't happen in this case

Well I have a CCW self defense story that saved a good female friend from likely being sexually assaulted. We traveled often for work and she happened to like a particular lotion that was apparently only sold at a particular strip club so she would stop and buy it when in the area. It's not the best area but she grew up in the hood herself and wasn't afraid of anything.

Anyway, in the parking lot some guy came up to her wanting to have sex with her and started trying to intimidate and threaten her. He changed his mind right away when she pulled out her CCW and pointed it in his face. So it can be important self-defense when needed.

As scary as it can be with the amount of money involved these days, you can never be too sure...

Google Earth the address, Google the person, Call the person on the phone and see if they actually can carry on a conversation about pinball or the game correctly. Contact a few pinheads in their area if they know the person.

After I've done all that, I'm usually carrying due to the fact that I have no idea where I might break down along the way. Not to actually carry, since I'm worried about getting stiffed over an envelope or a game. If the person or place doesn't add up to what I've previously googled when I pull up, I'm simply not stopping and driving on.

Just had a person try to open a full refund dispute AFTER I sent them the tracking # for a game. That was way more scary than an in person transaction I've already done my homework on. You would lose both your game and money. Was luckily enough to stop shipment.

Back in the day, the OG scam was one someone would buy a game off EBAY, ask to pick it up in person. Then the person files for a dispute and full refund with EBAY and/or Paypal and you can't provide a tracking # since it was picked up in person. You were SOL.

I did not read the whole thread. I guess someone else must have asked the same question I did

I don't understand all the 'are you gonna shoot someone over a pinball machine' comments'*. I've always considered that when a person steals something - anything - they have automatically placed the value of their own life at zero dollars and zero cents.

*The only reason not to shoot someone for stealing, or breaking into your house, is the to avoid the presumption of guilt and the associated headaches that go along with shooting someone.

I’m going to steal this loaf of bread to feed my starving family, therefore I place a value of zero dollars on myself and understand if someone murders me over a loaf of bread and feels justified. Did I get that right? You’re good with that?

Crimes against others is ok as long as you have a sob story, did I get that right?

The punishment should fit the crime… no? Or not… just shoot everyone. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

We have food banks in the United States.

Pretty much how it works up here nowadays. Sad state of affairs.

I have to add this pinball buying story. A guy calls me from the Jamestown NY area and says he has a machine he would like to sell. That is about 45 minutes from me and said I will be right over. I pull up to the corner near the address he gave me and there are 4 guys sharing a bottle of hard liquor. I look over at them and they start flashing all these gang signs at me. I pull away and say what the !*$%. I go around to the other side of the block and a pinto pulls up next to me with four different guys and again I get the gang signs from them and I drive down the road. I call the seller and tell him I'm in there area and are you ready for me to pickup machine. He goes on to tell me that one of his tenants stiffed him and that he was now selling his pinball machine to pay for lost rent. I pull in the driveway and instantanly hear someone say that so and so is selling "Billy bob's" machine and runs off. I was like holy @8%$. I had that machine loaded in less than five minutes. (Head down, 4 bolts off back, slide in back of van, four bolts off front, slide the rest of the way). I gunned it out of the driveway and never looked back. This was all for a machine I paid less than $800 for. This was all done to get a good deal on a pinball machine. I'm a bigger guy and have been an athlete most of my life so I'm not really worried about physical confrontations. I'm now in my early 50's and still go into a lot of deals not knowing buyers/sellers or the locations I'm going to. Its all about the thrill of the next deal for me!

I feel like you are trolling... but

I disagree 100% and I actually feel sorry for the people in your life that have to deal with your immoral thoughts and actions.

I think it's more like these crimes are negligible as long as it happens to someone else. Not much fun when you have a family and someone is breaking into your house to steal that loaf of bread.

And we've reached that inevitable point of every single "weird deal" pinside thread ever...

guns.gif

I’ll happily give you a loaf of bread and $20 if you ask. If you try and steal it by force I’ll equally happily make sure you never do that again to anyone.

If it makes you happy, sure, kick his ass over a loaf of bread.

But to fire a gun and kill someone over it? Seems kinda stupid.

Guess you missed the part where they said "if you ask, I would help". Think the whole point of this thread is to discuss the OP catching a scammer and to talk about similar experiences. Not sure why it has devolved into shooting someone over a loaf of bread.

For each transaction I have done, first I play the machine and then we count the money. I count it out first and then they count it out to confirm. Never have I handed an envelope. Also, I wait until we confirm the amount before loading. Good to see the OP was on it with the person that tried this. Trying to scam a pinball is not doing it out of necessity due to financial trouble obviously so people like that are pretty horrible. But, they are out there. This at least makes people aware that may have been too trustworthy. Changing how you operate is a necessity as not everyone is honest like most may be.

Chatting it up is not always an option though. So, while the person seemed to have intent that may not be the case with everyone. Last pin I bought I had to do after my little one had a sporting class. I left at 7pm that night to drive 8.5 hours. Slept in the truck on the way there, got to the location and discussed the machine for about 10 minutes. Played it, loaded it up and got back on the road. I did keep their number though as they are a great source of information and actually been helpful with any issue that may come up. Long story short, not everyone can hang out and BS all the time. The scammer of course had intent though.

People need to read and understand the laws of self defense for their state. Nobody is (or should be) shooting someone "over a pinball machine" or a loaf of bread. But someone can and will get shot if a person is put in genuine fear of their life or serious bodily injury. You will later have to articulate to a jury exactly why you felt you were in deadly danger. And be convincing.

Personally, I would be in fear of serious bodily injury or death if somebody attempted to pull a knife or gun on me or if a significantly larger, younger and stronger person(s) threatens to seriously hurt or kill me. In general, you only shoot to save a life or serious bodily harm. That doesn't mean I would let someone steal my expensive pinball machine without resistance. But if the bad guy escalates to the use of force, the victim is legally allowed to up his response to corresponding force as well.

Being aware of your surroundings, doing a little pre-buy work with phone calls to the seller or google earth searches of the destination, having a friend(s) along, all go pretty far in minimizing problems with sellers.

Always count the loot with the buyer watching you count it.

And its already relisted for 2x the price. I suspected it was this Docono scammer/flipper.

ebay.com link: itm

Is that his game room or the OP’s?

Ummm....this is USA 2023, not London 1823. The number of people who must steal a loaf of bread to feed their family? ZERO. We all love the romance of Charles Dickens novels, but that's where it ends.

In the USA...no one has reason to steal. Absolutely no one.

And let's get back to the discussion.....does anyone need to steal a pinball game to feed their urchins at home? If so, I suggest they steal a Godzilla LE....that way it'll be worth the lead diet they might find themselves on.

And bear in mind that each situation is different. You may be in the same situation several times. And you don't know how you are going to react or what you'll do, until it's over.

And except for a loved one. There is nothing worth dying over.

LTG : )

I suppose it depends on which state and which judge you end up in front of, but if they are not threatening your life, stealing is not a legal reason to shoot someone. Flash them your gun? Sure. Pulling the trigger is another story.

Of course, if we're just talking pinball machines, not many people out there are going to be able to both steal a pinball machine and defend themselves at the same time...so...you got your work cut out for you.

I agree it's sad we even have to think about this, but these days, the cash on glass mantra is a tad bit dangerous, regardless if you carry or not.