#1: I would give him $2000 for mint MM (changed my mind, i would give $300 and fly as fast as i can)
#2: Nothing
#3: I would try to ask more money from the first seller, if he doesn't want. I would pay him a amount for his gas and time and call the second buyer.

1) I would ask if it was stolen (I always do anyway). I would give him $300 as soon as possible and get the heck out of there. It is the sellers responsibility to know the value of his goods.
2) Offer him more money. I have no deal with the other buyer. It is the sellers responsibility to make the decision.
3) I would know the value of anything I sell so this would never happen. But given the constraints of this argument, normally I would hold myself to the verbal agreement. A few hundred would not make me change my mind. But if someone offered a significantly more amount of money, like this machine's value would command, well, I would go with the higher offer. $300 or several thousand. That is significant. But I would call the first guy and tell him the situation and give him the opportunity to match. First guy still gets dibs.

cool topic gweempose, for the first situation i would likely just give the person what they were asking for pricewise. most of those listings are scams anyways! for the second situation i would ask the seller to contact me if the deal falls through but wish them the best of luck selling it. On the last deal I would feel obliged to the first person i told to keep my word, a deal is a deal..., once again very interesting topic hope to see more responses.

1) I'd pay more as long as they would sell it to me. If after discussing the machine with them I realize that if I offer more, they are going to stop the sale and play games trying to get more money, I'd give them $300 and be gone. It is a two-way street.

2) I tell the seller that I'm interested and make sure they have my contact information. This is what I've done in the past and it is what I'll continue to do. Often you get contacted by the seller because the person didn't show up or tries to lowball. Deals fall through all the time.

3) Sell it to the guy that is coming over but get contact info from the second guy in case of a no-show. And yeah, when dealing with CL I'd believe a no-show on a $300 MM.

1) The contract has to be respected . Value is the value . Often , i offer a gift (bottle of wine for example) to show i am grateful about the great deal..

2)I don't move - Sometimes , often , the first buyer never comes and you win the deal for the first price .

3)I never sell my machine - i offer it for gift to my friends .

From France ,
Lionel.

1- I'd pay the asking price.....Seller an Buyer need to do their homework on the value of the product... What about the seller that has no clue to it's worth and asks $3,500.00 for a $100.00 machine? What about the fool that bought the $100.00 machine for $3,500????????? Goes both ways here.........

2- Make sure the seller knows I'm interested and if the deal falls through to please call me...

3- Sell it to buyer one, unless buyer two has offered an insane amount over the original asking price.. Money is money, and it makes the world go around..

Interesting thread.
#1 I would give the asking price and feel like I got a deal of a lifetime.
#2 Ask that if the deal falls through to let me know. I do not do bids on Craigslist!
#3 A deal is a deal. BUT, if the other buyer offered up a substantial amount higher that what I was asking for it, I would let the first buyer know and give him first dibs. If it was just a small amount more, I would say no thanks, a deal has been struck.

I have a follow up question. When selling a machine , how much do you disclose? For example selling a machine to a new collector, do you show the scratches or cabinet is faded and state how that impacted the value. If a switch has a problem or the LED is missing dots? I believe burning a new buyer, hurts our hobby. Great question

Describe "burning a new Buyer"? For the most part, you can tell a new buyer everything that's wrong and even explain that 1 minute they work and the next they don't..You can even discount the machine to the new buyer, to help him out.... I guarantee within a week, he's calling you telling you you sold him junk because he cant work on it and had to pay someone $75 and hour plus parts and they took him for a ride.....

Full disclosure! If you know about it, tell it. I wont sell or trade a pin now until I can shop it out and make sure it plays 100%. Ive traded off a few with an issue or two and have let the receiver know about it but I still felt bad about the swap. I just dont do it till Im done with it now....If I miss an opportunity for a trade thats ok with me. And I definitely dont want to burn a new guy getting into the hobby. I dont do this for a profit so I ask for what I have into a pin and hopefully can pass along a good deal.

Just went through the issues for questions 1 & 2 a month ago.

Seller listed a fully functioning TAXI machine for 200.00 on Craigslist the day after I bought my Frankenstein.

I emailed immediately, and he got back a few hours later stating that about 3 others were interested in seeing the pin.
I told him if it was in good enough condition I would possibly go 500.00. he wrote me back saying he was meeting with the first guy in a short while and would get back to me. Well... he emailed a few hours later saying he sold it to that guy for 200.00.

So:
1. If I was actually there with the 300 in hand, I would pay and scram! My experiences with letting them know it is worth more is, it throws up a red flag to them to hold off and look into the true value, and (me), good ol' mister nice guy is out!
2.I did offer more money, but the sellers good ethics left me out again!
3.If it was a lot higher offer, It would raise the red flag to me to look into the value. if it was slightly higher... first come first serve!

I'd kind of stay away from the whole issue...I mean pinball is a luxury item?

kind of like feeling bad for some lawyer with tears in his beer about paying too much for a 3 million dollar 'boat ' in the Hamptons you know?

Now and then we all get a break -sometimes people just want things gone in a bad way.

I honestly don't see the first two scenarios as questions of ethics based solely on the information provided. I think the scenarios cause people to assume ignorance on the part of the seller due to the price, but there is not enough information to conclude that, necessarily.

First of all, I am never fast enough to ever catch the best deals, so it isn't going to come up. I would tell the seller that the machine is worth more and offer more. But I usually pay full price for pins.

#1 Found a CV at a garage sale a while back. Seller had bought it new out the box and had the receipt to prove it.Pin was in mint condition and he wanted $2500.00 for it.I gave him the money and down the road I went.I didnt tell him it was a collectable,he was happy,I was happy.
#2 I would not have a problem making a better offer,thats business.
#3 If I'm the seller,that gets into the grey area.If I'm selling to someone I know or sold to before,the sale goes forward.If I have settled on a deal for $300,and someone offers a $1000,I would have to communicate with the 1st guy what was going on.If his in the middle of a 3 hour trip to my house,I guess I would let him have it.

happy,I was happy.

@gweempose

So you would take the cheap game and offer the seller more money after the deal. That's essentially charity and separate from the deal. That's why I don't think the deal question you raised is really a question of ethics. You are willing to make provisions *outside* of the deal, once you got yours, and on your terms.

What if the seller was an old lady who sold the game to you for $300 to buy food for her grandkids and said, "Oh, I just read these go for 6k+ and I expect you to make it right." Would you?

What if the seller was a total jerk - a rich guy who lived in the hills, and sold you the game for $300, basically a small fee to him to have that unsightly pedestrian box of junk off his property? Still offer the "rebate" out of ethical obligation and knowledge of "fair market value", even though he never asked?

As long as both sides are being honest about what is being bought and sold, the price at which they do it has nothing to with "ethics". It's a price decided on by an individual buyer and seller that suits both for those goods and in that particular circumstance at that time. Nothing more, nothing less.

Gee a CV HUO for $2,500.00, now thats a deal.

i've only sold one machine and we ended up trading as opposed to selling outright. Being upfront with flaws is the way to be, literally any tiny imperfection that i noticed i told him about. and anything that wasn't working i inform people about. no other way to do business. the old lady and rich jerk comparisons should hold no influence on the decision though. either you think you owe the person money for fair market value or not. anything after that is just justifying your choice. "oh he was a rich jerk, i deserve to get this for 300" or "i feel bad for the little old lady i should have paid her more." consistancy is important.

I have ethics and morals ?? .. news to me

@gweempose

"It's definitely a question of ethics. I believe what you are alluding to is that my willingness to take the game home for only $300 is not entirely ethical."

No, if someone offers me a brand new Corvette for $100 I don't think there is anything unethical about paying $100 and taking the car.

The presumption that is being made is that because the game (or car, in this case) is being sold for so little, the seller *must* be ignorant of the item's value and I have an ethical obligation to either tell them or make up for it somehow.

In fact, con-men use that trick all the time. They sell you something for pennies, then cleverly reveal that in fact it is worth more, MUCH more, and they are down on their luck, etc. So you, feeling guilty, give them money to make it even. But what they sold you is really worthless.

If a person has a MM and has no idea about pinball collecting and says "wow, I'd sure be glad to get this out of my basement and make a few bucks in the process. But pinball is so boring and nobody plays it any more. Let's see, I bet I could get $300 and some sucker will turn it into a coffee table or something."

If that guy gets his $300 then he's happy, end of the story. If the jilted lover who sold me her boyfriends mint Corvette gets her $100, she's happy, end of the story. If some guy pays 10k for a beat MM, which I would never do, but he is happy with it, end of the story.

It's only a question of ethics if the seller says "I don't know anything about these things. What do they usually go for?" And you reply "$300" when you know otherwise.

Ethical yes however, isn't that their problem? Nowadays one can easily look online to see what something can sell for. I am an extremely nice person but, I may just increase the amount a bit and explain that it could ne worth more. This could also depend on the personality of the person or reasons for selling the item. Talking with someone and finding that maybe they are selling because of an ugly divorce or something... maybe they want to only get the $300 to get back at a cheating spouse? It could happen.......

Actually, in my example I stated that a jilted lover sold the car to me for $100, meaning she knew it was worth more, but had her own reasons for selling it for only $100.

I was working with this fellow who was really into cars and you know how car guys know other car guys? Well a friend of his was going into bankruptcy & to make matters worse his wife filed for Divorce - so he had to sell off his car collection fast.
He had a #s matching 70 GSX 455 STAGE 1 for 10k and nobody wanted it (25-30k car)
He sold the others two camaros , a big block Chevelle , and some kind of Mopar ?
It was all cash and had to move by the weekend - the guy told me I could of had a show quality GSX for 7k
I guess with all the emotions he didn't want some banker or x-wife's new BF rolling down the street in one of his cars.