Ever get paid for a game that never got picked up?

pacray

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Have you ever sold a game, received payment, but then never gets picked up?

This happened to me a while back with a pinball game. The buyer bought and paid for the game, and was suppose to drive in from out of state to pick it up. He emailed every month or so about some delay or other, then all communication ceased. My emails seem to go through, but were never returned. The guy just vanished, and that was 3 years ago! Who pays $1200 for a game, and then forgets about it?
 
I was paid $900 + shipping for a game in October 2007 that the buyer just recently got back in touch with me to finally set up shipping...
 
On a similar note, I've got several pieces around the shop that were dropped off for repair....and have yet to be picked up...

Let's see....
Monte Carlo pinball...it will be three years this November
Eight Ball Deluxe pinball....five plus years...I can't remember anymore
Tron motherboard....probably getting close to eight years

There's plenty more.....this is just a few "highlights".

Edward
 
Have you ever sold a game, received payment, but then never gets picked up?

This happened to me a while back with a pinball game. The buyer bought and paid for the game, and was suppose to drive in from out of state to pick it up. He emailed every month or so about some delay or other, then all communication ceased. My emails seem to go through, but were never returned. The guy just vanished, and that was 3 years ago! Who pays $1200 for a game, and then forgets about it?

Oh yeah, Ray I forgot to tell you he called me to get it for him. I'll be by this evening. :D
 
Have you ever sold a game, received payment, but then never gets picked up?

This happened to me a while back with a pinball game. The buyer bought and paid for the game, and was suppose to drive in from out of state to pick it up. He emailed every month or so about some delay or other, then all communication ceased. My emails seem to go through, but were never returned. The guy just vanished, and that was 3 years ago! Who pays $1200 for a game, and then forgets about it?

I try to avoid these situations as much as possible. I would have refunded the money after about a month and sold it to someone else.
 
Auto salvage yards and storage units have a failsafe for these situations built into their contracts.

For example, if your car gets left on the highway and the police have it towed, the tow truck owner often will - and this is completely legal - begin charging an exorbitant storage fee on a per-day basis - let's say $150 per day to have your car parked at their site.

A week goes by and you owe over a grand to get your car back after going through the legal hassle of paying your ticket and finding out where the hell your car is.

You don't know about the charges yet, so you call the auto yard and ask about your car. Guy tells you sure, I've got it, you owe $1050 plus tax for storage and $300 for the emergency tow.

Most of the time people just tell them to keep the car unless it's worth a lot more than that or they are still paying notes on it.

Sometimes people say OK I will get it to you when I can, then they call back a week or so later to find out it's now $2300!

Storage units usually have a contract you sign telling them they own all your property after you go delinquent for a certain amount of time. then they sell your stuff and if you want it you have to outbid other people for it.

Doing something similar for games you sell makes sense - in the sale, make it clear to the buyer they have XX days to pick up or take delivery of the game, or it reverts ownership back to you AND you keep the money for "storage."

Of course, if they don't pay up front, you can sell it to whomever you want, whenever you want.
 
I was free storage for a SI for about 3 months before the guy came to pick it up. The only reason I sold the game was because I didn't want to put it in storage while I did my basement. The guy knew this and still dragged his feet, and I wound up lugging the game to a storage unit. I wasn't expecting extra loot for the delay and storage, but at least an apology for being a douche. I got nothing.
 
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