Is this the guy?

how-to-get-a-medical-marijuana-card-in-California (resized).jpg

Some money up front= may never be seen again? Dunno about that. Are they giving you pics to judge from or probably not due to machines are not in their possession? Guy comes from Cali kinda screams overseas container. Be cautious.
-Mike

What games do you see that are cheap on CL in Minnesota? At this time we have lots EM games that are under $1,000, but I’m not seeing any great bargains.

Sounds like a scam already to me. Unless you can go and see the game(s) yourself and in person, steer clear. Anyone asking for money up front is usually a scammer.

As a lot of people on this site have said, "cash on the glass".

Got any last names? I know a Chris and Shawn that are big into arcade games and restoring them. They have sometimes dealt with pinball machines and Chris gets loads of games and parts from operators. Where are they located in MN? I could go look at them for you if they are in the Twin Cities area.

Setting aside the advisability of buying sight-unseen, I wouldn't send thousands of dollars to a random guy on Craigslist without significant assurances. As in several recent references from verified pinball people. Without that, you are setting yourself up for disaster. The "cash up front" thing seems fishy as well -- if you were selling to some random guy from the internet, wouldn't you want full payment in irrevocable form before you shipped a game?

If you're going to do this, demand references and check them out. Also, maybe see if you can find a local Pinsider to check out the games (and the guy) for you. That still wouldn't verify that he'll actually ship them of course, but they could at least confirm that the games actually exist and that they're in roughly the condition described to you.

On a lighter note, looks like your medicine is agreeing with you there, o-din! Can you also use that card to cash checks at Ralph's?

No, but it gets me a discount at a Holiday Inn Express.

Sounds like escrow could be good for you:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-not-get-ripped-off-in-pinball-vids-guide#post-1813455

Reading the six posts ahead of it is also advised.

Your cards expired

He got stoned and missed it.

Photo looks legit. I mean, California still allows colander hats in drivers license photos, right o-din?

Also his last name is Vannote, middle appear to be Beard.

No way. Wearing a hat for your license,since when is that allowed in any state.
Walk away. If you continue don't cry when you lose your money.
-Mike

Google is name, born 1980,likes to get in trouble with law enforcement. Likes to record alot for youtube.
Do your due diligence!
-Mike

Looks like John Bender with a scuzz beard.

That is not a hat. That is part fi his religion. The FSM.

Ok, had to google it but that's kind of awesome. I now like this guy (but I still wouldn't buy from him without a bunch of references).

also, 100% a scam. That pic of a DL has been around the internet for a LONG time.

Definitely a scam. Anytime you ask for a picture like that, ask them to write your username and the date on a piece of paper next to it.

Just buy games in person. Why are people so naive?

Scam! Never buy site unseen, or send a deposit! If it was a fellow Pinsider that has been here for years with a great rep. & the distance was too great to travel, & the pin was being shipped after looking at several pics. That would be a different story.

For what it's worth... the ID in the photo was the topic of discussion on a different message board going back to 2015. The people who posted that image seemed to post it as an example, meaning that image was publicly available and was not posted by Christopher himself.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1912169-Hijabs

Looked at the photo you posted and the photo posted on that website and noticed that the orange crossing out is the same. The only difference is that in your photo, he crossed off even more in the lower left to cover the watermark of friendlyatheist.com. I believe your photo looks slightly darker because your photo is a photo of somebody's computer screen.

That ID also appears on this site (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/07/21/another-pastafarian-gets-his-drivers-license-with-a-colander-on-his-head/)

The image on that site has the same cross out patterns.

SCAM! Run! Save Yourself!

If you have to ask....whats your gut say?
Hats are not allowed on Ca Driv Lic.

This guy was allowed for religious reasons. The ID is real. But the guy trying to scam OP is probably not the guy who the ID belongs to.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/07/21/another-pastafarian-gets-his-drivers-license-with-a-colander-on-his-head/

Do you have a link to what machines/ads you're referring to? This might help us locals identify

minneapolis.craigslist.org link

now that we had confirmed as scam, time to have some fun with the correspondance and share it here

Wow. Why wouldn't a scammer use a more convincing license photo?

FSM is awesome though. Hah.

That's a good start. Scumbag until proven not a scumbag.

There's a theory that scammers are often intentionally shady -- using terrible grammar and suspect stories -- to screen out the mildly intelligent before sinking the hook. Saves them time on the back end, since you don't want the dope you've invested hours in fleecing to wake up before he mails that check.

Keep leading them on.
This could be fun.
Ask for address, phone numbers etcc.

There are entire websites dedicated to people who mess with scammers. Funny reading...

I saw an ad on cl in the Long Island section. Sounds like this guy.

I saw "money transfer " and said cash works, right?". We corresponded a while until he said I could look at the merchandise in MN.

I wrote back " MN - Montana? "

Last I heard from him.

No transfer was ever happening unless it was hand to hand.

Tell him you now have a friend that lives close by, and that he is willing to go over and check out the machine before finalizing the deal. Will be interesting to see if he then changes the location where the machine is "actually at". Or if he comes up with some other bs reply.

Every time I see the thread title when scrolling down through the Pinside Forum list, what always pops into my mind is:

Deal-or-No-Deal (resized).jpg

Your story sounds like it's a No Deal.

Any resolution on this? I was currently in process of purchasing some pins for Vermeer Muller

Classy.

I was in talks with this guy also but when I had a pinsider agree to come look at the games in person for me, the communication stopped.

Was dealing with this guy for almost a week. He went dark after I suggested an escrow service, except that he told me I was not serious about buying the pins, and that I'm crazy for not just wire transfering the money.

He also tried to tell me I was trying to scam him by asking for his driver's licence, because I was going to try and pose as him and fraudulently sell pins.

I think some harassment is in order.

Two emails I got from him are;

[email protected]

[email protected]

Phone he called me on is 612-500-0231, called me to tell me that since he was sending me a product there was no way he could be scamming me, and if I sent the money, the pins were on their way.

Lets let him know that pinballers don't like scammers