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

[Wundercade]

I bought a Galaga and a Ms. Pac that would fall into this category. Both non-working, lady wanted a hun a piece. I did not even bother to look or plug em in. If I am buying it non-working at a price I am happy with, it just isn't necessary to do anything but load the game.

That doesn't mean that humanity doesn't factor in. If a little old lady was selling a game because she can't afford to fix it and she's giving me a sob story about sentimental value and how much it'd mean to her if she could just get it fixed rather than sell it. Then I'd probably take a look and fix it if I could and tell her "this one's on me". Humanity is more important than scoring another classic IMO.

 

[SeanMcL]

It's unethical to misrepresent your side of the transaction. As the buyer, the only thing you can misrepresent is your money and your motive . If your money is legal tender, and you didn't lie about buying the game for your daughter with brain cancer to lower the price, then you are in the clear.

 

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You know what, I'm fairly clueless beyond the basics when it comes to a lot of stuff like automobile repair and stuff around the home - I'd shit griffins if a plumber came over and said, "Eh, this pipe just needed (two second fix)" and left without charging me. So as far as I am concerned, that's just the world we live in. If I were to get a great deal on a game that just needed the brightness turned up on the monitor or whatever, yay me... it can offset the costs the next time I have to take my car in.

 

[mspaeth]

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.

If someone asks me to let them know what was wrong when I get it working, I will, but I'm not going to tant them if it was something simple....

 

[rturb0]

If you do taunt, it's always best to make the subject of your email "Neener Neener". They love that.

 

[EthanB]

You're there to buy a game. If the price is right, shut up and load up.

I don't do any troubleshooting until I get home. I'll take a peek inside, but that's it. No wiggling of wires or adjustment of knobs.

Do I act dumb? Sometimes. It's just like going to look at a car. Even if you REALLY REALLY want that one, DON'T let the salesguy know that! (Although he or she probably already knows, just don't CONFIRM it for them!)

I don't think it's unethical. Everyone makes their own deals. If they want to sell a game for $100 or less and I'm willing to buy it, then everything is Kosher.

 

[88mph]

I'm in the 'grab it and go' camp (after checking to see the game is complete). I do the troubleshooting at home.

 

[mhanlen1]

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.

eye appreciate the semantics lessons an from hear on out ill try an knot upset the grammer please

Ahh, the pleasures of being a new member on another message board. And having to endure yet another round of the nitpicking that comes with having a small number of posts. Have at it, I guess.

 

[Talon2000]

I just give it the once over, make sure it's not missing anything that's going to be a pain to get. I do like to plug em in to know what I'm getting into. It's only cheap until the parts order is placed. typically, if you just listen the owner will tell you everything you need to know.

 

[gorfchampion]

eye appreciate the semantics lessons an from hear on out ill try an knot upset the grammer please

Ahh, the pleasures of being a new member on another message board. And having to endure yet another round of the nitpicking that comes with having a small number of posts. Have at it, I guess.

That's Phet's way of initiating you to these forums. I got the same treatment.

Back to this thread, load it up and go. If they are selling cheap, they don't care about the damn game otherwise they'd keep it/fix it.

 

[EVB]

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?

Kind of a silly question. You are buying, they are selling. You want the cheapest price so why make it more expensive for yourself. This has nothing to do with ethics.

I use to place wanted ads for games and I got a guy local that had a few games to sell that did not work. One was a Tempest that was seriously in mint condition. I said I'd take a look at it and decided if I wanted to buy it or not. When I got there I was interested in the machine since it was super nice looking but I already had three at the time and really didn't want to deal with another one unless I got it for super cheap. Well the guy said he had gotten it because it was his favorite game. So I offered to fix it. I took the monitor home and rebuilt it to get it working again and brought it back to him and installed it. I gave him a $100 estimate and he gladly gave me $150 for fixing it. He was very pleased to be playing his Tempest again. I told him it was a really nice machine and he should just hold on to it.

 

[RLEVIN]

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 you are paying asking price then there is nothing wrong with it, it is jsut icing on the cake but if you talk them down form their asking price then that is a dick move. IMO

 

[mystery_base]

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?

What is your policy?

Buyer has no obligation moral or otherwise to demonstrate what may or may not be interfering with a game's operation at the point of sale. Most of these transactions are cash & carry. You're happy with the advertised price or you wouldn't be on their doorstep. If your first impression of the cab is solid, then the less talking the better. Pay up, load up and get out.

my .02¢

 

[jar155]

I used to until I got burned for being nice. I shared this over at BYOAC...

If it's not fixed by the time you get there, it's because they don't know how to service their machines. You might clean up a specific issue, but it's an indicator that other problems might be overlooked. Drop your offer and walk away if they stick to the same asking price. Besides, if you fix it, you just increased the value of the machine, and that's a perk that should be meant for you after you've become the owner.

I went to go buy a Ms. Pac-Man when I was fairly new to collecting. A guy wanted $400 for it, but he said it had issues. I went out there with a few fuses, some solder, and my soldering gun. I was unsure of buying a non-working game, but he said he'd let me work on it for an hour or so before taking it home. Well, fast-forward an hour later and I had it working 100% after fixing a few cold joints and replacing the fuses. I pulled the cash to pay him and he said, "Well now that it works all they way I can't let it go for under $800. They go for that on eBay all day."

I stared at him in disbelief and with a dirty shirt and hands. I just spent an hour fixing his machine and he went and jacked up the price. I told him it would be $50 for the fix, and he refused to pay it and said that we didn't have a deal. What an a-hole.

 

[bjk7382]

I went to go buy a Ms. Pac-Man when I was fairly new to collecting. A guy wanted $400 for it, but he said it had issues. I went out there with a few fuses, some solder, and my soldering gun. I was unsure of buying a non-working game, but he said he'd let me work on it for an hour or so before taking it home. Well, fast-forward an hour later and I had it working 100% after fixing a few cold joints and replacing the fuses. I pulled the cash to pay him and he said, "Well now that it works all they way I can't let it go for under $800. They go for that on eBay all day."

I stared at him in disbelief and with a dirty shirt and hands. I just spent an hour fixing his machine and he went and jacked up the price. I told him it would be $50 for the fix, and he refused to pay it and said that we didn't have a deal. What an a-hole.

I would have either paid first so the game was yours, kicked his ass after he jacked up the price, or just disabled it again before leaving. I would have been pretty pissed.

 

[Mike Doyle]

I picked up a group of machines with another collector from a basement with a horrible staircase; the deal was to include a pinball machine but the seller already sold that before we got there.

She had a coke machine and asked if I wanted that when I mentioned the pinball being gone but the total for all the games being the same, I said "yes".

We hauled that heavy bastard up the basement steps and as we were rolling it down the sidewalk she said, "the coke machine is extra". WTF?

 

[Peale]

I would have either paid first so the game was yours, kicked his ass after he jacked up the price, or just disabled it again before leaving. I would have been pretty pissed.

Agreed. Tube necks are very fragile, you know...

 

[ArcRevival]

You may think you know what is wrong just because a wire is loose or unplugged etc, or it plays blind, but a lot of times there can be more issues that you dont and cant see until you get home and dig in. The game might play blind but could have a graphics issue that you dont see until you get the monitor going. If that happens on a vector you could be pretty screwed.

 

[ElGwako2006]

If they say they plugged it in and it didn't work, i pay them the money and take it home to look at it.

However, there was one time i did feel bad...and this may be the grey area because of the ease of the issue. The owner plugged in the game and showed me a few things about it. It didn't work but i noticed the back door was off and the switch wasn't pulled out (or taped over to hold it in). I held back from mentioning it and when i got it home....that's what the problem was. Now, i just make it a point not to bother with looking at it too closely like that if the price is right. In the end....the seller was happy to get rid of it and geta fewbucks and i was happy to acquire it.
Had i showed him the switch and he saw it worked prior to finalizing the deal ,would he have still sold it at his asking price? I wonder. Would have sucked having drove 1 hour to it, fix it for him only to have him ask for more $$ or decide not to sell it.

 

[hasenfang]

I guess I come down with just about everyone else here. Basically, I can look at the game and say, hey I think this is a problem and do a quick once over. However, a blown fuse maybe a symptom of a larger problem that I do not see in the 10-15 minutes time I spend looking at it. How many "its just a fuse" games have we all read about? I personally purchased my DK that way, it turned out to be a bad chasis on the monitor, but I got the game cheap enough in good condition that rebuilding the monitor was still a great deal. I had no real way of verifying on site that the game board did/did not have issues. I was also assuming someone I didn't know was being honest while trying to get this large item out of the way. If the price is right and I want it, I will take it.

If anyone is interested in free troubleshooting of my games, please let me know!