(Topic ID: 167069)

Judge Dredd purchase = cursed!

By mamawaldee

7 years ago


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  • Latest reply 7 years ago by Frax
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#1 7 years ago

Warning, this post is lengthy!

I have been looking for a nice Judge Dredd for two years and have always missed it by an hour or a day, whatever.
About four months ago a relative crap-ton of them went up for sale within close road trip distance for me, and ignited the spark. I had $2.5k to spend, which used to be more than enough. I responded in time for two of those ads, one sold locally within a day, the other I made arrangements to buy and the seller was to meet me halfway which was only about 45 minutes away.

I was supposed to pick it up on a Monday, seller was unavailable. Moved it to Wednesday, but thunderstorms were forecasted, so moved it to Friday. On Thursday, seller calls me, wants to do the deal but I didn't have the cash on me. On Friday, I load the truck with sinewave UPS, hydraulic lift, blankets, tarps, rope, and the cash. Go off to work, as I will go to the meeting place from there at lunchtime to avoid the traffic.

An hour before I'm supposed to meet this guy, he emails me telling me the machine is now not for sale, because he has discovered that it was fried by a power surge during those storms two days prior. I immediately think he got a better deal, but why the hell would he have wanted to do the deal with a fried machine the day before? Anyway he was listing error codes, which boards were toasted, and a detailed troubleshooting procedure that traced root cause all the way back to the house electrical box (improper surge protector wiring), and how other games and various appliances in the house were also killed by the storms. Maybe the thing did get hit by lightning, he went to some trouble to make it up a story like that. Original price was $2500 for a clean domestic machine, unfaded cabinet with no mods or topper. I offered to buy it post-apocalypse for $1500 as-is, but he said he had to keep it now as it was too much of a loss.

So, I got angry and put out a detailed want-ad on Pinside for an identical condition game, price and distance, including the full detailed version of the above story, just to make me feel better and release the rage. To my surprise, I got responses, but all of them were people seeking contact information for the fried machine. So I redo the ad, removing all references to the supposedly dead machine, and all restrictions except distance. The forum thread that went with the ad was pretty useful, and I eventually got several members to offer up machines, but either the prices were alot higher, or the distance too great. I can't buy unseen and ship anymore, it stresses me out, mailing a check to someone I don't know, waiting, wondering if I will get anything or if what I get will be worth a damn. I'd rather pay more to the seller than the shipper.

Miraculously, I found a machine 20 minutes from my house, but he wanted $3400. Domestic machine, very clean, and fully working. It had the crane mod, some LEDs, and the bright gold Chicago topper, but the front of the cabinet was really faded out. I didn't have that much cash available and it took a few weeks to gather the funds and convince the wife. I was going to pick up the game this weekend.

Seller changed his mind today, not selling now. I give up. I have ceased looking for this fugging game, it appears to be a doomed effort, like a curse. The wife will for sure grab the funds, and I have a Rob Zombie coming next April. So I'm looking at two years before I can resume hunting this stupid thing. I have never had this much trouble buying a pin.

I like Dredd, and it was nice that other people seemed to hate it, keeping the price low. That Stallone movie did a good thing. I like it because it's probably one of the highest featured games for it's price. I have room for three more pins and have been looking for a Dredd since the grail (Monster Bash) should be near the price ceiling and won't go much higher, especially when staring down both barrels of a remake. I can wait for that one.

Unfortunately, it appears the going rate for a decent Judge Dredd in the rustbelt is no less than $3.4k. My experience says the price on this game has risen 36% in the last six months, which is insane. How much is it going to cost me in two more years?

This sucks.

#13 7 years ago

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I thought prices on Pinside were cheap, I used to pay retail and didn't know any better.

Four of our games were bought retail, at least I'm not underwater on three of them given today's nutty prices:

TAF, $4200, back in 2003.
CV, $3200, back in 2005.
TZ, $4000, back in 2006.

I quit looking for machines in 2007 as we were out of room. We moved to a bigger place 18 months ago I started looking again and holy mother bejeezus these prices are out of orbit and I consider myself lucky to have made those three mistakes back then. I feel like I'm trying to outrun the inflation.

I never understood why JD was so cheap, figuring it had to be association with the Stallone film, which I have never seen based only on rumors of its crappyness. And compared to these modern stripped down Sterns it really is alot of machine for the money, but I have had no luck at all scoring one. I can't spend more than a three hours driving one way, I just don't have the time to spare right now and for the foreseeable future.

The closest one so far has been six hours away, and it seems the way people keep changing their minds when it comes to letting one go, I won't risk a long drive to find it's already gone when I get there. I'd rather pay a grand over the going rate to pick up a good example at a reasonable distance for cash.

But I'm giving up on finding a JD for awhile, maybe for good; Spooky is building RZ alot faster than expected and I probably should just save up and get ready for it and not stretch the finances so hard.

By the time I'm ready to hunt JD again the price may be beyond justification

#18 7 years ago

Yea, I knew I was about to overpay. But it was 20 minutes away so no shipping cost. And I was tired of looking.

It was a fine example with the exception of the faded front of the cabinet, I was going to try having that airbrushed back in. The sides were OK, not sharp red, but not all washed out like the front. And all the unobtainium parts were there.

I was trying to justify the price to myself.

I may unintentionally end up sounding like a prick, but I want the whole thing to crash so I can get more games for reasonable prices. I'm not selling the ones I have unless there is a personal catastrophe, so it doesn't matter what I paid in the past. The whole pinvestor concept I think has ruined a good thing. Look at the Rob Zombie game, rumor is like 30-40% of those games were bought as investments, production is still ongoing and you see NIB for sale at $3.5k over list price.

It's insane!

#23 7 years ago
Quoted from ForceFlow:

Try putting up a WTB ad. Who knows, it might shake one loose.

I did that, and it worked. But the seller changed his mind.
My wife really didn't want me buying the game but she reluctantly agreed. As expected when the deal fell through, she made those money go to "home improvements" i.e. living room remodeling.

Money's all spoken for now, gone.

#29 7 years ago
Quoted from balboarules:

Where are you located that your having a hard time finding a Dredd?

Michigan, 45 minutes north of Detroit, and half hour south of Flint. And my well water is unleaded.

Part of what I learned by running that want-ad was that there were many nice examples all around me for cheap. And they got sold and were shipped to far away places.

#45 7 years ago
Quoted from phillymadison:

You think your cursed now? Wait until you actually get the game. Multiple balls being fired because of bad opto's. Crane issues. Deadworld problems. Searching for the topper!!! This is just the beginning

The first Dredd I almost got, the one that suffered the supposed "lightning strike" two days before pickup, that one didn't have the topper.
I searched extensively and located one for it. Imagine the bonus disappointment I experienced from having to contact the seller to cancel on that topper.

It does appear the game is finicky, not that I'll have to debug one any time soon...

#48 7 years ago

I'm not specifically looking for a cheap one, I would like a good one.
Used to be with this title you could get a good one cheap. Those days are over it seems. I agree there are a few deals, but less every day.
If a deal shows up the competition is fierce. Luckily I have been able to play this game and like it, because my original interest in it was based on the (incorrect) fact that people hated it and couldn't give it away. I underestimated this acquisition's difficulty alot.

A big part of my problem is reluctance to buy long distance. I have only done that once, for a Scared Stiff from a good seller on here. The distance was 10 hours one way, so impossible. From the moment I put the check in the mailbox I was all stressed out. This was last year Memorial day weekend, the mail ran late and the seller cancelled the pickup I arranged due to non-payment. That got straightened out after a few more days. When the game finally arrived via NAVL, it had a twisted leg and some corner separation, which is minor compared to what has happened to other guys. Machines dropped, tipped over, forks through the side, squished from being stacked. I just don't want to risk either losing a few grand or getting a mangled mess.

For me a road trip is 3 hours one way, max. I'll only do that for reputable pinsiders for games held with a deposit.

As for Craigslist, I have never used it. Too many horror stories on here with grossly misrepresented machines, or you get there and it's already gone, or its just really a bidding war in disguise. I drive an hour to work, so if I find something within that I might take a look, but I don't walk around with pin level cash, so by the time I came back it would likely be gone anyway. My wife has used CL to buy and sell a few things, and every transaction was messed up. She no longer uses it for anything.

Even though I have no free cash now (wife took it), I checked local CL and surrounding areas, nothing. Ebay has one reasonably close with severe cabinet fade and missing plastics for $4.1k. There is a local retailer with one for $3.5k. I called and it is available, I suppose I could take a look and see if it's not crappy, see if he will eat the sales tax put it on the CC and pay off quick. But for that much the game would have to be unfaded, not beat up at all and be complete with topper. I don't think it will, but if I swing by there I'll report back. It's about a half hour away.

In all likelyhood I'm looking at 6 months to 1.5 yrs to seek this game again. What do you guys think the price will be for a good example in that timeframe? I'm guessing the game will be $5k within two years. There has been one at $5k in the market here for some time.

By that logic it will make little difference if I charge one from a retailer right now, just to get this bug out of my system.

You guys do have some sweet machines though

#52 7 years ago
Quoted from phillymadison:

How can it be ok to buy one one week but if you couldn't find one fast enough you can't?

Yea, I know, it seems pretty lame.

Provided we can afford it, I pretty much get whatever I want. She gets the tax return to play with.
Dredd fund was leftover tax refund money. Normally she just gets it all.

But she knows I have been after this game for two years, so she gave me a break. I have been doing a three week living room remodeling project going on 16 weeks now, so tension is a little high.

She didn't want me buying the game, especially since I picked up SS, RFM and TFTC in the last 18 months, and deposit on RZ.

Now that Dredd is dead again, she gets to make me put in new flooring instead. Happy wife you know.

#58 7 years ago
Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:

Collector quality examples are already at $4K.

What's a collector quality Dredd go for today? Or a very nice Dredd?

I almost paid $3.4k for one with a faded cabinet. Front had no red left, sides were better. Had deadworld, some LEDs, Chicago gold eagle topper, steel crane mod.

Really, I don't care to pay alot for a bunch of mods, I can mod a game myself, but I cannot fix a faded cabinet, and I can't stand the idea of buying a Dredd with decals.

NO DECALS!

I'd rather have a very nice base game with all of the unobtainium parts present including the topper.

Would there be any use in putting out a want ad for a future purchase? Like start looking now for someone who has the right game and already knows they want to move it out in 6 months to a year from now?

#61 7 years ago

Obviously decals are preferred to a beat to hell cab.

I'm sure your game looked great. Decals installed right, with those Stern leg protector thingies installed from day one are fine.
But ask the guys who's Stern NIB decals started peeling. On a restored game, I don't know if those decals will stay put. Prep might have not have been done right and won't show up right away. I think the wet method might be more problematic concerning adhesion longevity.

On a game where the price of nice original cabinet puts it out of reach, I'll buy a game with a crappy cabinet just to get the base game, and I can choose what to do about it later, if anything. I have a rather colorless Scared Stiff that I got recently for a good price. Cabinet is not gouged or scratched, just faded. Some day, I'll try airbrushing the color back in. If that fails, maybe decals, or just leave it alone. I have an otherwise nice RFM with beat to shit decals, gouged and peeling all over. That one will be my first decal job experiment.

But that's not the reason I said NO DECALS here. For a Dredd it's cheap enough (well used to be) that an original cabinet in good shape should be affordable. I'd prefer that to a bunch of mods I can do myself. For this game, I'd rather have no decals.

I was lucky enough to have picked up a few nice A list games long before the prices went insane. I took several years off and came back to find prices have gone absolutely bonkers. I can't afford cosmetically nice original games anymore.

Decals will be unavoidable going forward.

#63 7 years ago
Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:

An example flowback is JD, as people look backwards from choking at A Titles and NIB games towards lower end machines.

I'm doing EXACTLY that.
Previously, last game was bought off Mr. Pinball Classifieds in 2007. At that point we had four with room for one more, but I quit collecting to do other things and finish up the basement. Eventually we ended up moving to a bigger house. Now there is room for 10-12, so I started looking for pins again. I discovered Pinside a little over a year and a half ago.

Unfortunately for me I'm a A-list junkie. These prices put an end to that, so I went straight to the B/C list and crossed fingers hoping for a housing bubble style implosion.

The MMR effect on speculators was a fun thing to watch. I hope they remake them all.

#74 7 years ago

Yep, going to wait it out. Started a new ad.

I'm obviously not a power user here, so I don't know how to easily search for other nearby members who have a specific game. But, I have received solicitations from other people wanting to trade with me for stuff in my collection, so either there is a way to do it, or they are just being systematic, like the Terminator.

#75 7 years ago

Bump

Still wondering if Pinside has built in search capability to find members with games you want, or if it's done manually.

I've had people contact me for trades. With news of pins getting stolen nowadays, it's maybe a good idea to hide one's collection and location..

1 month later
#76 7 years ago

Update, Dredd is in the house. Actually has been for a couple weeks.

Thanks to Dan in Pennsylvania for a very nice machine.

Thanks to all the Pinsiders for advice.

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