Price sounded not too bad considering. Still only have my one pin at that moment, but I went well out of my way to get it, as I knew I'd kick myself if I DID walk away from getting it.

Tim

Yes, but I've bought more that I should have walked away from!

This happened to me recently. I went to go look at a 24 from a friend who called me first for dibs. I liked it and it was routed but still in decent shape. He would have given me a great deal on it too, but I really wanted a HUO so I declined. The next day he sold it to a local reseller and now it is listed on my local cl for $3995-way more than he paid. I shook my head and told him I regretted not buying it and for the price it was a great value. I am becoming a pinball snob when it comes to condition-dammit. Now I am still on the quest to find a HUO.

That's when you know you have a problem. So far I have been able to feed my addiction without any restraints. But last weekend I had to take a pass on a machine I have been bugging the guy for for months. Money was burning a hole in my pocket, but other options came up in the meantime.

I walked away from a machine today.

Walk away,you still haven't finished demo man or the elektra sitting in your living room

I forgot and a centaur palyfield swap,don't walk away ,RUN away

I walked away from two funhouses and a sharkey's this year, all well over an hour drive away, and in both cases ended up finding much nicer examples of each for significantly less money. It has definitely paid off to force myself to be patient.

With the market being soft-patience pays off. They always say patience is a virtue, but sometimes it sucks waiting.

If you're still interested in a game after seeing it, shoot them an offer. If they refuse it, don't hem-haw around like you're contemplating whether you should just give in and pay it, and don't be critical about the condition or their inflated price. Just give them your phone number and walk away.

This lets them know that you're serious about their price being too high and that you're still interested so they still have an option when it doesn't sell. Now you've left the ball in their court and you haven't burned any bridges.

I still can't believe I did this with my grail pin that I had been looking for about 8 years, but it worked.

First question you should have asked him was whether or not the pin was "shopped"

Here we go again......

I know, I saw the wink face

Let's try this again for the third time

too many projects is a pain in the ass. how much do you want it is the question??? been walking away from pins for that reason....

You're gonna be hunting forever if you want a HUO 24. Wasn't a good seller and wasn't really a period where many collectors bought NIB.

There should be plenty that are in great shape.. but HUO? Kind of a white rhino.. plus you'd just be overpaying for what the game would really be worth because it's HUO vs a perfectly respectable operated game.

Just 2 days ago I walked away from a Millionaire for about the same reasons you had for walking from Surf Champ . I felt it was showing good restraint and discipline. I rewarded myself today and drove 200 miles for a real nice Mousin' Around

Always hard to walk away from something, but if it's not right...well, there will always be another one!

Not disappointing to go home empty handed, but disappointing to not find what you expected.

It has to be not just about $. I've had machines I go to look at that were worse than advertised. The seller came down in price to something fair for the machine, but even for a fair price, it wasn't worth the work.

I had an experience similar to this about 3 years back. I was looking for a ToM, a local vendor told me he had one in excellent condition, the pin spent most of its life in home use, and he was willing to negotiate a fair price.

When I saw the machine his idea of excellent condition was not even close. The playfield was worn down to almost bare wood in about half a dozen places, the cabinet had several groves on it, the circuit boards all had some form of hack on them, all the female molex power connectors were removed and the wiring was soldered on to the molex male pins. He thought these were all easily repairable items and $5K was a very fair price...

I didn't walk away...I ran

Walked on a DE SW. It was 300 dollars I think. Problem is it had been stored outside, everything was trashed. The biggest was there was mold inside the head. Getting it home meant loading it in my hatch back. Then I would have had to store it inside my apt. Risk of getting sick seemed to high.

walking away is easy when you don't have the fever and are well fed.

LOL, it's also easy even if you do have the fever, but don't have the cash which would describe me at the moment.

Mold = automatic walk away for me. Doesn't matter what the title, what the price. I'm not bringing something home that could make my family sick. Period.

price price price, if its cheap enough always will buy it, and whether or not it works. surf champ with mouse droppings I may have done the same at that price, that sure is a bummer to say the least, specially when your really amped up to snag the title.

I walked on one this weekend, would have been my second pin. Went in thinking it was for sure coming home with me, no intent on haggling. When I got into the machine I found a lot more wrong than describes (don't believe the seller was being dishonest, just has no clue). I threw an offer out and the seller declined without a counter. The whole ride home I went back and fourth with myself if I made the right decision..... And for the next few days. It was probably worth the price, but more work than I was comfortable with at my current skill level. Seller was very cordial in the process and not mad about the offer, apologized that I made the 1 hr 45min one way drive.

I let another local pinhead know about the machine and he jumped on it. He knows more about getting them going than I do. It wasn't the right machine for me, but I'm happy he is getting a good deal (I think) and maybe I'll get a chance to play it someday.

I walked from a Centigrade 37 a while back. I was told the condition was OK and agreed on $250. I drove about an hour to pick it up and the pin was setting on its legs in a damp basement. The playfield condition was unknown because of the dead mouse, nest and dead mouse family on the PF under the glass. The legs were rusted beyond saving and the wiring in the head was a mess where the mouse had helped herself to insulation to build its nest. To top it all off the owner had been on ebay and decided I was cheating him and the machine was worth at least $600. I described the condition to him but he found the same machine on ebay for $1800 and his was as nice. I walked and never looked back. I'm still pissed that the seller flaked, I wasted 2 hours plus gas AND I don't have a centigrade 37.

Its really a pain when all you have to go on before making a trip is a couple of weak pics, then the travel becomes a gamble. I walked away from a Bally Playboy that looked decent in the pics, but was surprisingly way worse in person than the pics depicted. I thought about making a lowball offer, but decided I really didn't want it all things considered, everything would need redone. If it had one redeeming quality, such as a decent backglass I probably would have tried to get it.

There were a couple times at garage sales, that shape just happen to catch my eye.
Where the price vs the condition were just way unbalanced. It is a good thing i walked.

One was an EM basket case, really nothing good, total trash. I was very new to pinball. it was a parts only machine but the guy was pricing on size alone it is big it is a commercial item it has to be worth 300.00 I was thinking well i know i can get it working. maybe custom art? No way. just walked away. Another machine just solid state, just had to many expensive items missing. A couple displays, a couple plastics, one bumper cap oh and no playfield glass. Which i usually purchase new anyway. but i lifted the pf to look inside and saw a few to many pieces of brown lamp cord. Once again the price tag on the game was like 400. I did not even make an offer i just walked.

Yes i can see it being even worse if you really want the title and are driving out of your way special to look at.

Both of these were just by chance and about 10 years ago.

I have walked away from some as well.

However, I have had the situation arise twice now, where I walked away and told the seller why ( usually the price vs. condition). Only to have them contact me at a later date with a next to nothing price tag since they couldn't sell it.....So it actually worked out better that I walked away.

I walk away all the time at the auction. No way am I paying some of those prices (+tax + buyers premium). It needs to be a good deal at the end of the day.
I am not looking to profit but I need some meat on the bone to offset any repairs and still have some value.

To me, being able to walk away from a deal is a level of pinball maturity. When I first started, I brought home every game I went to look at, whether it was as described or not. Eventually, I went to pick up a game that was so far from how it was described, that I just couldn't buy it. Like you, I hemmed and hawed all the way home about whether it was the right decision, etc. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that no deal is better than a bad deal, even when you've wasted time and gas going to see it.

Probably the worst "walking away" story I have is when I went to look at a Guns and Roses. It was about a 3 hour drive one way but the pictures looked pretty good and we had agreed on a ball park price pending me looking at the game. When I got there, the game was not as described and all of the pictures that he had sent were taken from the best possible angle, etc to hide serious defects. I looked the game over, told the guy that I couldn't pay what we had originally agreed to because the game wasn't anywhere near the condition he stated it was. He basically said, "oh, I know you'll buy it as you've spent 3 hours driving here and an hour looking it. Add to that a 3 hour ride home and you'll be into it for 7 hours already. I knew if I could get you here, you'd buy it." You thought wrong mister. I drove home empty handed and a bit ticked but again, "no deal is better than a bad deal" and that would have been a bad deal.

So, you've moved up a level in the pinball maturity stages by being able to say no. This is a good thing!

Dave

I would've done the same thing. I think it's a sickness. I'm happy to see others also have this sickness

"hello, my name is Chris, and I'm a pinaholic"

When I first started in the hobby, I walked away from a world cup soccer because I thought it was 'too easy'. Big mistake! Wouldn't make the same mistake.

Feels really good to walk away from the first one. Okay, it feels good an hour after you walked away. Then it makes walking away from others so much easier.

Good work! $350 for a decent Surf Champ is totally worth it. I paid more than that for my Surfer and it had worse flaking.

Never afraid to walk away. I enjoy the hunt and the conversation.

Hello Chris

I don't have a problem walking away because I screw around so long before I decide to go the game is usually gone by the time im ready.

funny thing about regret, its better to regret something you have done rather than regret something you haven't done.