In the early days of me collecting there was a $400 Pin-Bot on Craigslist that had "cabinet damage", just needed a little fixing and would be good to go. One of my good friends to this day bought it as I didn't have the money (but loved the title) and sold it for what it goes for normally eventually. Game booted after some chip cleaning. 
Grrrrrr.
Missed out on Raven project pin just last night, it was on Ebay, machine was about 15 miles from where I work and the winning bid was a whopping $188 !
Quoted from Mcshaney:Last night an al's garage band was on north jersey Craigslist for $225
Was that you on the phone? 
Found a woman selling a RBION for $400 on Facebook.
I asked "are you absolutely sure you're asking $400?" She replied "yup. Kids don't play it anymore, and I want to paint the room."
Thinking it's a scam, I do a bit of Facebook stalking on her. Turns out, she's one of those "desperate housewives." Filthy rich, and wanted to get the game out of the house.
Now, I do not under any circumstances condone taking advantage of anyone, and I don't want to sound like I was trying to do so here, so I replied yet again "if you're indeed selling the game for $400, I'll take it. No questions asked."
She replies, "Please do, I want it gone. Here's my address: 'xxxxx' just get here by 5pm because I have a dinner date in NYC."
I say, "on my way." (She's 2 hours north of me).
While stopping at the bank, I check with her again that the deal is still on. I certainly don't want to drive all that time for nothing. She says "I think there's a problem. Probably not worth your time."
I say, "if it doesn't work, I don't mind. I can fix them!"
She goes, "no, my husband just told me he'd rather keep it now. Sorry, I hope I didn't waste your time. Glad I caught you before you were too deep into the trip."
I said "No worries. If you decide to sell it later, please let me know." She finally responds "I will! Thanks." And that was that. Had I been more local, and quicker, I think I'd have had the game in my basement; but alas: it was the game that got away.
Well, about 10 years ago I was working on a deal with someone I knew from work that used to run an arcade machine route locally in the late 80's and early 90's.
Everything he had needed work to some degree (some needing much more than others) but everything he had was complete.
The deal started off with him giving me two arcade machines that he had just sitting in a corner of his parent's back porch. Exposed to the weather, but covered to keep dry I took a rough Centipede and a decent Operation Wolf.
The big score was a double-wide storage locker full of "arcade machines". He said there was a couple of pins, but he couldn't remember them. He said he did have notable games like Pac-Man, Dragons Lair, Street Fighter II...etc. I was in the process of talking him into letting me see the locker so I could make an offer to take it. He really wanted to no longer have to pay the monthly rent on the storage units.
During this time, he was suddenly fired from work. Something about he was supposed to sell some equipment and after awhile he claimed he couldn't find a buyer so he bought the equipment. It was rumored after he was fired that he had a buyer, and that he sold that equipment afterwards for a profit.
I never heard from him again. But I did get two machines out of it. I still have both of them, I'm gathering parts now to restore the Centipede later this fall. Maybe I'll do Op Wolf after it.
Thanks, after reading this thread (probably that day or the day before ) I decided to be even more vigilant, and boom! it just showed up.
The seller said calls were coming in like crazy and someone offered more to not sell it to me.
Thankfully the seller was a terrific guy. 1.5 hour drive to find out someone undercut you would have sucked.
When I was there, that guy had called back again, so I'm happy the loading process had begun.
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Houston, TX
