Ethics question - If you know what is wrong with a game, do you tell them?

rturb0

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Ethics question - If you know what is wrong with a game, do you tell them?

This is that gray area - Is it ethical if you pick up a game for cheap because it is not working but when you get there you see an obvious problem (connector disconnected, etc) - do you tell them?

In the past few weeks I have picked up two games that played blind but looked completely dead when I got there. My policy is not to troubleshoot on site if the price is at the non-working level (<$100) but it makes me wonder if that is ethical - in both cases all I (and the owner) had to do was coin it up and you could hear it playing, but both times I didnt do that on site, partly for fear the price would go up and partly because the game was worth the asking price to me even if it was in fact 100% dead.

What is your policy?
 
If I already like the price, I don't even bother plugging it in, looking inside, etc.

It's not my fault the original owner doesn't know anything about their game. With the internet around these days, it's not hard to find a place to ask questions to get a LITTLE knowledgeable before selling something.

Load it up and go home.

My Joust cocktail was free because "it's been broken for over a year and we just want it gone", and it just need the vertical hold adjusted.

I only diagnose problems on the spot if they're paying me to do so....
 
I don't really talk when I'm picking up a cheap game. I load it ASAP, say "Thank you", and leave. ;)
 
It depends. If the guy selling is a chucklenuts, that's a no-brainer. If the person selling is a friend, or neighbor, that's a no-brainer too. If the guy is cool but a complete stranger, I'd still withold the info, unless he was paying me to shop it and sell it. Look at it this way - think about how much time we spend researching, fixing, gaining experience, keeping up with current market values, etc, etc. Sure it's a hobby, but if you could put a monetary value on all that time and energy it would more than make up the difference between what you'd pay if you 'fixed' it before buying it. Just like how a plumber wouldn't tell you what's wrong with your shitter if he knew for sure he wasn't going to get the job.
 
i think in alot of cases either way your still doing them a favor. they are not collectors, getting that huge "thing" out of their way is doing them a favor. Broken or not hasnt been played in years collecting dust..plus its going to someone who truly appreciates it..win win
 
This is that gray area - Is it ethical if you pick up a game for cheap because it is not working but when you get there you see an obvious problem (connector disconnected, etc) - do you tell them?

Information has value.

If it's a good price for a dead game, I'll grab it w/o looking.

If it's not, I'll poke around and get a better guess at what it'll take to get it going... it's not my responsibility to give out free info to the seller so he can up the asking price.


On repairs, it's unethical... on buys, anything goes.
 
I usually just check that it's complete, I once bought a SW cab and it was missing the Defelction PCB. This alters the price as I have to find one. Other than that load and go.
 
Usually if the game is cheap enough, I just make sure it powers up and gets a picture (If its advertised as working) and leave it at that. I may check the cabinet if it looks trashed. I get alot of sellers that ask "well, dont you want to play it?". Nah. Control Panels and coin doors are easy and cheap to work on, and 9 times out of 10 Ill be rebuilding it anyway, even if it works.

On the other hand, I just got a seller to knock $200 off a Pinball he was originally pretty firm on by showing him a bad MPU and negotiating for an hour. So really it depends on the situation as well as who you are buying from.

The tire kicking begins when a deal is just "OK" as opposed to a bargain.
 
Doesn't matter what's wrong - as mentioned if the price is right I grab and go....... USUALLY........ unless you have some "know it all high on his horse" seller that is "right about everything" and then you kick him in the taint proving him wrong and walking away from the deal. Maybe it's wrong but damn does that just feel awesome.
 
if it's a bargain (and i rarely go for anything that isn't these days,) i usually grab-and-go after a very quick inspection to make sure it's complete and not totally rotten.

as stated before, they are not paying me to come to their house for a service call and i'm not about to waste my time to suddenly have the price shoot up because i can magically fix the game by pulling out a switch or plugging something back in.

rarely do i find a seller who laments "if only it were working i'd love to keep it!" usually by the time they're selling they just want it gone.
 
The seller is selling. It is his job as a seller to know the fair market value and condition before he sets the price. If he doesn't, it is not your job as the buyer to educate him.

Why is this only a question at the low end of the pond? Would you go out to the guy who is selling a Ms. Pacman for $2000 and tell him why it is really worth $2400? No, we are collectors. We are bottom feeders. We want that $2000 Ms Pac for $150.

Sellers set the opening price. We can either haggle and risk losing the deal or pay it, smile and tell him to "grab a side and help me load it into the Gremlin".

There are no ethics questions involved. If the seller wanted to get more money for it, they would open the phone book and look under "Arcade Games, Repair", get it working and jack the price to cover the cost of the tech coming out to put that wire back on, or replace the batteries or pop in a new fuse.

And as someone bitten before, just because a wire is dangling or a fuse looks blown, doesn't mean that's all that is wrong with the box. That may be the tip of the iceberg.

ken
 
The question should be "Is it ethical to email a seller you just picked up a $50 DOT from to tell them you got the game going by simply replacing a fuse..."
 
The only way I'd start pointing out problems, is if I didn't think the deal was that great. It could work to lower the price.

If a game is cheap enough, and after giving the innards and exterior a once over, just to make sure nothing is missing- I'm loading it up and leaving.

I don't think it's wrong, because people usually sell in "as-is" condition. I either take "as-is" to mean, "I know what's wrong and not elaborating," or "I don't know, and could care less."
 
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ethics

If the price is right, buy it, take it home, and then worry about what is wrong with it. I always try to factor in what a replacement PCB or monitor would cost with what the seller is asking, and then figure if the game is worth it or not. If the cost of repairs is more than the whole game is worth then I make a lowball offer. I then forget about it if the guy is on crack/unreasonable. Nowadays I prefer buying kits, and tracking down trashed cabinets with monitors anyways. That way I know exactly what is in my game and that it was done right. Now when I sell a "project" game I tell the buyer every little thing I think it needs because I have a really bad concience with selling. I try to price my projects reasonably, and prefer trading with projects so that money is not really a factor.
 
I feel no obligation to fix a game for a seller. Or even to identify what's wrong with it. For a game I'm buying I just check that it's complete and go. Now if they have another game that I'm not buying that has an issue I can easily fix I might give some advice or just fix it if it's that easy. I'm not gonna risk messing up the deal on the game I'm buying though.
 
"I don't know, and could care less."


It's Couldn't care less. If you could care less, that would mean that not knowing what is wrong with the game you are selling is a higher priority than the last thing on earth you would care about, which what you are talking about here is actually supposed to be.
 
I allways just load it up and leave. I do like when they say oh its probly just a fuse. If its not a game I want badly I then say "oh I just happen to have some fuses with me lets try it and see if that fixes the problem". Boy do they backpedal :)
 
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