Thats spot on.

Why would someone do this? Too lazy to grab pictures of their own machine?

Did they ever actually have the machine in question for sale at anytime?

So many questions!

A pinsider went to someone's house to look at a game for 2k. He was rude and the seller refused to sell to him because of his attitude and low ball offer. He takes pictures of the game and goes home to list it himself for 2600. I went to buy the game from the original seller for 2k. When the seller asked what rhe game goes for, I pulled up a current ad that showed their game in their house. Sellers were very confused and wondered how that could happen. We talked for a but and realized what the guy had done. After this not being the first time this pinsiders name has come up for shady practices I called him out for it when he listed another game asking if he actually owned it this time. He didn't like that and told me to mind my own business. Shady pinsiders go on the blacklist.

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Caveat emptor.

shrug-what.gif

This scenario is so convoluted and stupid I'm not sure how you would make a rule prohibiting it.

Don't advertise a pin that isn't in your possession would cover it unless on consignment.

This is just sketchy BS.

A "Do not sell games you do not own" rule would also end the obnoxious "joke ad" trend that reached it's height during the COVID price explosion.

I've also seen "listing for a friend" situations too, but that pretty much covers it.

Listing a game that isn't in your possession and that you don't have permission to list is not cool.

The "seller"'s marketplace privileges have been suspended for now.

Thanks for bringing the situation to our attention.

NO, it's not. and even less cool is posting pictures of someone else's home without their permission. that's a serious violation on many levels. and frankly, if anyone did that to me, their marketplace privileges would be the least of their concerns.

Can we know who the "seller" was who did this incase they get their selling privilege's back? Always nice to have a heads up on who you are dealing with.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/machines-fs-under-3000-in-pa-md-dc-va/page/4#post-7263288

A quick search reveals the offender to be yonizzell. Not sure why everyone is being so coy if you can just search.

This is still for sale https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-gold-wings-15

Can we focus on the important part here?

If you are in the Pinside gang how do we throw our set up at people when we roll up to low ball their games?

I'm thinking

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Get to work on the tattoo design.

Pinnnsyyyyduh!

This is completely insane. I can't believe someone would go through the trouble of doing this.

We have had some people doing something similar in our industry. I set up at various coin and collectibles conventions throughout the year. Basically what certain people would do is ask to see an item in your showcase, get a price from you and then take a couple pictures of it. After they leave your booth, they would list the item on eBay for more than your asking price. If the item sold, then they would come back to your booth and try to purchase the item (sometimes even try to beat you down on the price).

Long story short, I no longer let people take pictures of anything unless it’s somebody I know.
Not sure what you can do to stop people from using your photos on a CL advertisement though?

Also, if I figure out that somebody has done this I won’t sell them the item. Let them sort it out with eBay and their buyer (not my problem).

If you’re going to be selling something that belongs to someone else, then it needs to be on an agreed upon consignment basis, not shady stuff like this.

If ones moral standards are not blocking the way then what’s the issue? Rather creative actually. It’s like some form of involuntary consignment…

What happens when a Pinside member sends the seller funds for a machine he does not possess or own and then goes back to find the real owner has already sold it, doesn’t want to sell it anymore or refuses to sell it?

The problem is the person making these sort of advertisements has no real authority or control of the actual machine.

I’ve seen it the other way around many times, where the “seller” is trying to short things he doesn’t own yet to pre-flip a game he might buy.

We had this in New York a couple years ago, an establishment had a bunch of pins for sale, so an enterprising gentleman visited, took a bunch of pictures, and then posted a bunch of ads at higher prices so he could “sell” them, and then buy them at the lower price and instantly flip them to his buyers.

It was a pretty brain dead scheme and was called out quickly by a few irate NYC pinballers.

Like I said it becomes a moral issue. The above examples are just an extension of that.

And clearly I need to add the disclaimer that I do not condone this. FYI of course…

Nothing wrong with selling a game for a friend oftentimes but yeah this is not only scummy but the guy seemed like a real poo poo head

This was a bad situation, but it was a one-off that can be handled by manual intervention. This doesn't need some rule, which will result in all the rules-lawyering: people try to make their behavior just technically come in underneath the rule, while for completely unrelated situations we'll have self-appointed forum cops accuse others of violating their pet rule. Just let the feedback and reputation system do the work.

Damn Newbies,Oh wait

i was one of those irate pinballers that called him out. and i'd do it again. and if i recall correctly, that guy got real familiar with karma. as he was then also the same guy who got held up at gunpoint and robbed of thousands in cash, in a NIB purchase setup scam.

I admit, I'm having a hard time seeing what's so bad about that scenario. You're there to sell stuff, right? You could have other, direct customers trying to talk you down on price too, right? You're not being forced to sell at a lower price, right?

Seems to me, the person listing your item on eBay and then buying it from you is, at least in some sense, doing you a service. Your item is getting broader advertising that it might have, you didn't have to do any of the work to deal with eBay (and frankly, there are lots of good reasons to appreciate not having to deal with eBay directly), and you got an extra sale at the show that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

Except there isn't actually a machine available for $2200. Unless you buckle and sell it for less. In which case, you advertised the pin for a higher amount than you thought it was actually worth anyway.

I will grant there's a lot of debate around the idea of "short selling". And some of the concerns are legitimate. And certainly it's not kosher for someone to come take photos of your private residence and post them publicly. But short selling comes with its own risks, and no one's forcing you to participate. If you believe the machine is really worth $2500, then don't sell it for less. The person trying to short your pin will come up, well...short. And you'll still get your pin sold.

I can tell from the posts in this thread that this opinion isn't going to be popular, and I'm sure lots of people will get their shorts twisted over it (no pun intended). The person in this particular example seems to have gone beyond just a simple short, and maybe the moderation was well justified in this case. But the general practice of selling something you aren't actually in possession of quite yet, is a tried and true if risky business practice. And it only works if the owner of the item goes along with it.

So if you don't like it, don't go along with it.

Dang, no wonder he's worried about those Pinside gangs, they're ruthless.

Yeah, you're defending some real scumbaggery for some reason. And really missing why it's so shitty in your defense and acting like the seller is complicit in it. Gross.

Short-selling über capitalists definitely not welcome in my gang. We sell for fair prices to cash-on-the-glass buyers, then give them the secret handshake.

If there's one thing we don't need any more of in this life, it's rules! Let people do what they want. If someone is engaged in truly unethical behavior, it will come to light and we as a group can ostracize them, or ban them or whatever. But please, no setting up rules to regulate behavior along with the requisite behavior police to tell us all how to behave. People with common sense and reasonable ethics can pretty much figure these things out on their own without someone policing them.