so odd that the game was in the OPs hands before money changed hands ???
but agreed the OP is still trying to pay for a game he has and is being fair about seeing if the cheque has been cashed !
no point in closing the bank account think the OP has been more than fair in this odd deal!

Just tell him you're selling the pin to someone. He'll cash the check fast.

The monkey wrench in all this is a friend of a friend. Tough to do business with friends. The lesson learned here I think is you have to have more dialogue on your next transaction. Or don’t do business with friends or friends of friends. If this was a stranger you could more easily say “pack sand”. Sorry for the hassle you are getting out of this. What a pain in the butt.

oof

that hurt

Pack sand?

It's more delicate and precise than pounding sand.

EMBYONJOHN ! HEAR ME NOW !

I work in heavy construction, a wretched hive of miserable blowhards and backstabbing scum. Picture sociopaths with engineering degrees, who take pride in being abrasive and aggressive. This little purse-swinging tiff that you're in is NOTHING, don't let it rattle you.

The seller is a complete tool and has no legal leg to stand on.

YOU HAVE MADE A LEGAL PURCHASE FROM THE SELLER.

HE GAVE YOU THE GAME ALREADY. (NOTE THE WORD "GAVE" IN THAT SENTENCE, PERCHANCE?)

You gave him payment.

THAT'S IT. THE DEAL IS OVER. You didn't "theoretically" buy the game. You legally purchased it.

He didn't AGREE to sell the game and then change his mind. He SOLD the game and then changed his mind.

Here's what you do:

If he says that he never received payment:

1. Send him an email stating that you sent him payment. But since the check seems to be lost, tell him that you will IMMEDIATELY CANCEL THE CHECK and issue him a NEW ONE, which you will send to him by REGISTERED MAIL.

2. Copy your friend on the email so the seller cannot claim he never got the email.

3. Cancel the old check and send a new check by Registered Mail. Registered USPS mail is the safest way to send mail, the CIA even uses it to send classified documents.

4. In your email, say that you have no intention of SELLING the game back to him. (Not "giving" it back to him.)

5. Tell him that if he wants to, you'll gladly meet him in court with your lawyer. DARE him to sue you. (He does not have a leg to stand on.)

6. Be aggressive. Tell the guy that's you've had enough of his BS and you'll chop the game up into firewood before you give it back. Make sure that he understands that you are hardnosed prick and he's going to get NOWHERE with this.

7. THE SELLER IS BEING AN *SSHOLE. YOU DON'T OWE HIM A THING. NOT EVEN POLITENESS AT THIS POINT. F*CK HIM, RIGHT IN HIS LITTLE F*CK FACE.

Stop worrying. The seller has made it plain to the world that he sold the game and changed his mind and now he's trying to wreck the sale. There is no judge in North America that would take his side.

Even if he has a lawyer send you a letter, all official-looking, tear it up and laugh in his face. People try to intimidate, but the law is the law.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Don't let people rattle you. They have no power over you that you don't have over them also.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also, never forget this: ALWAYS CONDUCT BUSINESS IN A BUSINESS-LIKE MANNER. BECAUSE YOUR BEST FRIEND WILL TURN INTO AN ENEMY OVER MONEY.

Sometimes a guy will die without a will, and his family will be destroyed by the fighting over the estate. Literally never speak to each other again. All because the guy thought that his family of apple-cheeked, patriotic, agreeable, loving people would act like human beings to each other.

Meanwhile, a simple piece of paper dividing the estate up fairly would have left everyone happy and friends.

If you loan your brother money, get an IOU. Then everyone stays friends.

Etc.

WHEN YOU PAY FOR SOMETHING USING THE MAIL, USE A TRACKING NUMBER AND A "SIGNATURE REQUIRED". It's worth the extra $7.00. Because people are d*cks.
Ronson_flame_tank_Iwo_Jima (resized).jpg

There is no monkey wrench.

The buyer did nothing wrong. He made a deal in good faith. The seller gave him possession of the game. The buyer attempted to make payment.

There is no "dispute" here. There is no "two sides to the story."

Zero confusion.

If the buyer loses a friend over the seller's nonsense, then goooooooood riddance to that friend.

Note that we're not talking about a priceless family heirloom here. The seller didn't sell his mother's wedding ring. It's a pinball machine. One that was sold fair and square. THE SELLER CAN JUST GO BUY ANOTHER ONE SOMEWHERE.

So f*ck the seller in his f*cking f*ckety face and f*ck the friend if he takes the seller's side.

The BUYER is being messed with here by a man-baby. The Buyer is the good guy in this little tale of woe.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If the Buyer decides to cave into this BS, which I don't recommend, he should agree to sell the game back only if he gets an additional $500 for his time and annoyance. Not a penny less.

He should do that simply on principle, just for the annoyance of being jerked around by the man-child doucheebagg who sold the game to him.

I 100% disagree. I love doing business with friends, it's much better than strangers. If I know two people, and I help line up a deal between them, AND one of them tries to screw over the other, I'm calling him out. I think friends will come to an equitable result very quickly. They can just make it right, and everyone has some beer and pizza as we flip. I've sold, bought, and traded with friends. Those have always been the easiest deals I've made in this hobby. More than half the games I own were bought from friends. When I sell, I always check with friends first before a game goes to the open market. Do I get top dollar when I sell that way? Nope, but everyone ends up happy.

I would not be like the Govt and create a new rule or change your entire mode of operation because of one outlier kook and I wouldn’t use the nuclear option described above either

You are in the right - have confidence in that and continue to document every interaction in case it winds up in small claims court

This person is in left field all by himself it’s not your responsibility to drag him back to reality or change anything you are doing - especially not a reason to stop dealing with your friends

How I would handle it: Tell him the truth, that you believe he has the check in hand and is not cashing it in an attempt to get the game back.

Tell him you will be closing the account, that the check was written on, in 7 days. If he doesn't cash the check by then, it will be on him to prove he never got the check and on hm to get payment from you. This should strongly motivate him to cash the check.

Close the account and open a new one at a different bank. A pain in the ass, yes, but take it as a learning lesson to deal with only cash next time.

Now, I would be more comfortable paying him a second time if he did indeed never receive the check, since he wouldn't have the ability to "find" the check and cash it after receiving a second payment from you.

yup, had a guy pester me to even come down $5, so i did it just to shut him the F##k up.

Now that another few weeks has passed, I'm curious about the final outcome.

Obviously not giving the game back...I hope..

I'd be happy to pitch in and send another moving company to the OPs house just to keep this thread going.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was easily the highlight of that work day as I watched it unfold.

You could make the argument that indecisiveness is the worst character trait a man can have....

...or is it?

I keep going back and forth on this.

The only reasonable way to handle this would have been for the seller to offer more money to buy it back. Years ago we used to go to the flea market regularly, my dad bought an old painting off some guy that was always around, I think he gave him $50 for it. The next week the guy was telling him he had to have it back, his wife really wanted it, they finally settled on $80. Nobody was mad about it, they both laughed about it for years after that.

finished until the stop payment expires and the first check gets cashed a year or two from now.

I bought an AFMr once and asked the guy if he'd come down a $1 just so I could tell the wife I paid less for it.

Finished until the stop payment expires and the first check gets cashed a year or two from now, but the OP closed out the account and now the seller has to pay a bounced check fee. Omegalulz!!

PM sent, I can supply two Nigerian body builders that are brothers that definitely won't talk.

Kidding

Can I buy the iron madden I sold you for 3000 more than I sold it to your for ???

Yea have no idea why he would waste any time to do that unless the check was returned cut in half.

Actually the seller would have a much more expensive ride by cashing the check. Because that would be larceny by check. It would also (in this amount), be a felony.

"The buyer obviously loved the game so much they decided to pay double for it, I swear your honor!"

Most banks won’t cash a personal cheque older than 6 months. They can but they don’t legally have to.

Banks do dumb stuff sometimes. Do you want to deal with the dumb stuff if it happens or prevent the dumb stuff from ever happening?

The one time I looked into putting a stop payment on a check through BoA, the person I spoke with told me flat out that while the policy is to not cash checks older than 6 months, they essentially almost never check the dates when a check is presented. The only two solutions to guarantee a duplicate check isn’t cashed is to either keep renewing the stop payment order at $20 a pop or to close the account.

I have three checks from over 20 years ago that were never cashed—I assume they ended up in one of the infamous “Anthrax dumpsters” of mail that were eventually destroyed by the post office, but there’s still a possibility that at least one of them was left in a folder on a desk somewhere. All three were written out to large companies so I couldn’t just talk to the recipients to coordinate a replacement check and at the time I was unemployed so I couldn’t afford to be out the extra $ from a double charge. It worked out for me, bc I received the goods for 2 of the checks, and the 3rd was unnecessary so I let it go. The total for all three checks was $176, and if I’d kept up stop payments, I’d have already spent over $2400 to avoid a double payment. I now just consider the $176 as a buffer so I have a little safety if I let my balance get low.