Quoted from Colsond3:See my post above #4446.
I agree with most of what you said, and said not to make a big deal about it. I paid $500 for the HLA, and lost $125 selling it. Oh well. What I don't like is when someone lies to your face to flip a game. I am as honest as I can be in this hobby, and have had nearly all good dealings with people. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't bullshit right to someone's face. And I've went out there and found plenty of games "in the rough" myself.
And for me it's more this reality: I had two other buyers interested that collected EM's and really wanted it (who I know would have held onto it). This guy responded before them, so rightfully, I gave him first dibs. He said he really wanted this particular game also. He listed it two days later after putting a few rubbers on it, touching up the cabinet (badly) and putting a new ball in the trough (which I love when people include that in their listing, as if putting a new ball in a game is some major event, repair or expensive). Besides that I had already given him a brand new ball when he picked it up.
The long and short is...I would have rather the game went to one of the other two guys who I know were actually looking for this title and would have kept it in their collection, at least for some amount of time. A good home. Now if they want to buy it, they have to pay way more for it, and they would have to deal with this fella.
It's not the money for me. That part is just an irritating addition. It's the fact that I would rather people have games that want them, then some schmo that could care less about what game he has, barely does anything to it just to make a buck, and then unnecessarily increases the supposed value of the game for the next time it's resold. It's a dangerously cyclical thing that affects the well-being and affordability of games in this hobby.
I just sold a Star Action a week or so ago for $160 just to hook someone up. And I spent a few hours on it getting it to work, LEDs, shopping. And still sold it for that price. Wanted the game to be in circulation instead of storage. I lost money on that too, but I made someone very happy. That brings me joy. If scamming people, lying, price gouging and eventually making the hobby unaffordable for some new pinheads is someone else's thing, I will never like that or be an enabler of that behavior.
TAF, TZ, AFM, even BSD and other DMD's and alphanums...prices vary and that's understandable. If flippers make every EM worth $800 to $2k, this hobby could lose some good people and supporters who can't afford more than a $400 or $500 game at a time. And either way, that's a loss.
I agree 100%. I have even given away for free quite a few games to folks I know would keep the game and never sell it. I call it "Permanent Loan". If they ever think of selling the game, it comes back to me. Has never happened, to my knowledge.
My gripe is with the folks (some who have probably NEVER gone out searching for games on their own) who bitch about someone making a profit on a game for ANY reason. Way before e-bay and Craigslist came along, I used to pay 300 bucks a month for a 'Pinballs Wanted' ad in the local paper. Some of you have no idea what it costs to track this stuff down.
St Louis, MO
