Deadly
New member
I have come to the conclusion that trying to sell anything nice on Craigslist is painful and possibly impossible (oxy moron?) unless you want to practically give it away. Even with it being tax return season – epic fail. I would like to say I'm not one of those poor saps that got sweet talked into buying something at major retail markup and now screwed because of it. I simply want "Fair market value" Against my better judgment (and what I normally preach) I listed a bunch of machines for sale asking for offers. I chose this route because no matter what price I ever ask l still end up with low ball offers and/or "what will you take for it" emails so why not head the problem off at the pass right? When in Rome ........
My attempt to sell some of my machines has fallen nothing short of disappointing. I normally don't like to throw up numbers but at this point I also feel it's worthwhile to list a couple examples to show you guys what the market (at least local) appears to yield these days and the caliber of people I've dealt with. I love emails stating "I've been saving" or "it's all I can afford." If I sprout a damn hemorrhoid does anyone care about my personal status? No ....they don't. Therefore I don't really care about their financial situation either.
Robotron Multi Williams with Jrok board 95% restored – Offer of $350
Star Wars with rebuilt Amplifone, SW/ESB kit and rebuilt yoke – offers from $300, $350, $300, $600 and $900 (I have much respect for the $900 offer simply because it's MUCH closer to a realistic price and the guy has been super nice) but still declined as it's still much too low for this machine (like I need to even say that)
I had originally tried trading machines for a pin. This effort unfortunately yielded no deals however yielded many emails asking, "How much would you sell this for" yadda yadda. I responded to the original emails I received when I was looking to trade letting them know I'm taking offers. Wow – this was a failure as well. Either the person didn't respond, or came back with a ridiculous "insulting" offer. I even located ads people ran (WILL BUY ARCADES!!) Receiving emails (CALL ME I WANT ALL) and then responding to them letting them know I'd call them later and asked them to please come up with a low and high figure (depending on their impression of the condition of machines) and asking them to please use fair market values. (not verbatim but clsoe enough)
I also included the fact that I am personally willing to pay fair market value for something I want and expect the same. And also stated I very much agree with the old "the more you buy the better the deal thinking" Yeah – communication dead. Yet another fine example of uncovering the truth about a person. No they don't buy arcades – they buy CHEAP arcades only. Big difference and why they deserve to be flagged.
My favorite - a guy emails me asking to look at a machine the next day. I repsond saying sure give me a call when you;re ready. He flakes. Then he answers my ad telling me he wants two machines (different ones) so i responded, "I was hesitant to respond to you because you failed to call me. Why should I think you'd show up for these?" Yep - another one that didn't respond.
Conferring with a couple local KLOV brethren asking for thoughts – pretty much expressed the same anger and frustration of people being idiots and people low balling or flaking by not showing up. But the most useful/sensible comment that was made is, "People don't have a clue what these thing are worth and it will take awhile to find the one person that does. Like the housing market a $300,000 house will set whereas a $200,000 is more prone to sell. Cheap games are the ones that sell."
I'm done with my rant – I still don't feel any better but I do realize now that I will sit on these machines and save myself the aggravation of continuous disappointment and constant reminders of how cheap and inconsiderate most people are.
No you may not have back the 10 minutes of your life I just wasted.
My attempt to sell some of my machines has fallen nothing short of disappointing. I normally don't like to throw up numbers but at this point I also feel it's worthwhile to list a couple examples to show you guys what the market (at least local) appears to yield these days and the caliber of people I've dealt with. I love emails stating "I've been saving" or "it's all I can afford." If I sprout a damn hemorrhoid does anyone care about my personal status? No ....they don't. Therefore I don't really care about their financial situation either.
Robotron Multi Williams with Jrok board 95% restored – Offer of $350
Star Wars with rebuilt Amplifone, SW/ESB kit and rebuilt yoke – offers from $300, $350, $300, $600 and $900 (I have much respect for the $900 offer simply because it's MUCH closer to a realistic price and the guy has been super nice) but still declined as it's still much too low for this machine (like I need to even say that)
I had originally tried trading machines for a pin. This effort unfortunately yielded no deals however yielded many emails asking, "How much would you sell this for" yadda yadda. I responded to the original emails I received when I was looking to trade letting them know I'm taking offers. Wow – this was a failure as well. Either the person didn't respond, or came back with a ridiculous "insulting" offer. I even located ads people ran (WILL BUY ARCADES!!) Receiving emails (CALL ME I WANT ALL) and then responding to them letting them know I'd call them later and asked them to please come up with a low and high figure (depending on their impression of the condition of machines) and asking them to please use fair market values. (not verbatim but clsoe enough)
I also included the fact that I am personally willing to pay fair market value for something I want and expect the same. And also stated I very much agree with the old "the more you buy the better the deal thinking" Yeah – communication dead. Yet another fine example of uncovering the truth about a person. No they don't buy arcades – they buy CHEAP arcades only. Big difference and why they deserve to be flagged.
My favorite - a guy emails me asking to look at a machine the next day. I repsond saying sure give me a call when you;re ready. He flakes. Then he answers my ad telling me he wants two machines (different ones) so i responded, "I was hesitant to respond to you because you failed to call me. Why should I think you'd show up for these?" Yep - another one that didn't respond.
Conferring with a couple local KLOV brethren asking for thoughts – pretty much expressed the same anger and frustration of people being idiots and people low balling or flaking by not showing up. But the most useful/sensible comment that was made is, "People don't have a clue what these thing are worth and it will take awhile to find the one person that does. Like the housing market a $300,000 house will set whereas a $200,000 is more prone to sell. Cheap games are the ones that sell."
I'm done with my rant – I still don't feel any better but I do realize now that I will sit on these machines and save myself the aggravation of continuous disappointment and constant reminders of how cheap and inconsiderate most people are.
No you may not have back the 10 minutes of your life I just wasted.
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