I Knew I was in Trouble When....

rainman154

Active member
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
2,065
Reaction score
13
Location
Buffalo, Minnesota
I knew I was in trouble when I went to pick up a Pac Man here in the Twin Cities, and the guy says, "Yeah, it's downstairs in the basement".

My hopes of a walkout basement were fleeing with every step down that narrow staircase. And no... no walkout.
Well he must have a dolly right?? No.

So with him holding the top of the cab and me pushing all the weight on the bottom, we took that bastard up 13 narrow stairs and then carried it 25 yards out to the car.

Somehow he neglected to tell me I would be doing that over the phone.
Thank GOD it was not an Atari cab... aaaand that I am RIPPED!

Anyone else have a crappy experience like this? (I'm sure some MUCH worse)
 
Not that bad, I've found myself asking how easy the game is to get to before I go. I did pick up an EM pin that was a bit challenging and would have sucked big time without my sweet handtruck. We took it apart and so only the body was a pain. 2 steps up around a narrow corner out of a basement, around the grass and bushes and down 15 or so steps with a kink halfway down to street level. Luckily I had a friend with me and the seller helped as well. - Barry
 
Heh, an Atari cab in a basement...

OH WAIT! That's how I almost got banned from ever getting another upright again!

It was my non-cocktail pickup... my wife thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to haul that Centipede out of there...
 
I had something similar happen you could say. I bought a beatmania machine in Michigan, which was loaded onto a pickup with a forklift. The cabinet weighs around 650 pounds and we realized that when we got back home that there was no way two people were going to get it out of the truck. I ended up calling everyone I could to help get that thing off the back of the pickup. I think there was about 6 or 7 of us and we moved it with only the header taken off. Its something I would like to try avoid doing in the future. :p
 
I knew I was in trouble when I went to pick up a Pac Man here in the Twin Cities, and the guy says, "Yeah, it's downstairs in the basement".

So you got the $200 one from Paul in the SW side on Monday night?

I wanted that so bad but couldn't make it down til the weekend. Looks like I would have been in pain but at least had it.

Congrats!
 
Anyone else have a crappy experience like this? (I'm sure some MUCH worse)

Yup. Free Asteroids in a basement. Narrow staircase with a corner to negotiate. On the phone the lady told me she would help me with it, so I thought it wouldn't be too bad. Luckily I brought my brother. Took my furniture dolly down stairs, strapped it up and started hauling... stuck in the corner. Took the dolly off, started muscling it... stuck in the corner. Took the hand rail off the wall... round the corner and swapped some paint. We were both tuckered out after that crap, and it almost didn't feel like free was worth it. I'm just glad I took the top, the bottom was soaked with cat piss... my poor brother. :)
 
Close enough. I learned quick to ask where it is located and specifically if stairs are involved, if I need to bring a dolly, and if the seller can help load. Usually they will help but not always.

Then there is the story where I tried to help out a fellow KLOV'er and he was to go pick up a machine in a few days hundreds of miles away in a guy's basement. Spent a lot of time helping with the deal. A few days prior to pickup, the seller calls the fellow KLOV'er and tells him there is a problem. The seller had decided to try to take it up the stairs by himself and says he dropped it after making it part way up. Says it fell to the bottom and smashed into pieces. We figure he sold it to someone else and that was his best story...at least for the cabs sake I hope that is what happened...
 
I had one time that I was getting a foosball table that was in a basement. I looked at it and everything looked good so we started to go up the stairs. I asked before if they had carried it down whole and she said they did it no problem. We got halfway up and got stuck. We couldn't go up or down and then she says, "Oh that's right, we had to put it together down here." I learned to bring my own tools that night because she didn't know where hers were located and couldn't go look BECAUSE SHE WAS TRAPPED DOWNSTAIRS. I wish I could have left her there and went home (she had her cell phone...I'm sure her husband would come get her), but my wife was trapped down there with her so I had to go look for them and take the damn table apart in the stairwell.
 
I am now in the habit of asking, "Where is the machine located?" before I pick it up. A good answer is always, in the garage. Bad answers are in the basement. If I'm on a the fence about a game this can be a deal breaker.
(I'm just getting old I guess)

Steve
 
I am now in the habit of asking, "Where is the machine located?" before I pick it up. A good answer is always, in the garage. Bad answers are in the basement. If I'm on a the fence about a game this can be a deal breaker.
(I'm just getting old I guess)

Steve

Live and learn brother. Definitely going to be in my line of questioning next time!
 
Not too long ago I did a garage sale pickup for a friend who couldn't get there. I figured that the garage sale game would be IN THE GARAGE, nope, 300 lb pressboard cabinet in the basement and some random guy shopping at the sale ended up being stuck helping me drag it up the steps. Of course it was one of those deals where the cabinet had to be nearly vertical to make it up the last step.
 
Next time we talk Rick ask me about the Asteroids Deluxe in the basement that ended with the sellers back blown out half way up the smooth worn steps(no shoes or dolly were allowed) a beautiful wood floor destroyed from the basement door to the entry and a 6 x 8 concrete entry stoop that busted bust away from the house when i pulled my truck onto it to load the game. I never did call the seller back to tell him that his several thousand dollar house and back repair yielded me a game that cost $2 and change to fix. There's more to the story including his fat lazy wife wrapped up in a pink blanket on the couch stuffing her face full of snack while watching soaps, she played a part in this disaster too.
 
Last edited:
Thank god we don't have many basements in CA. Worst scenario I had was a spy hunter that had to come down about 20 stairs. That game is heavy as hell and it was sketchy even with 3 guys handling the game. Still not as bad as coming up stairs would have been. the only game I took upstairs was a defender. The seller who was bigger than the game helped me carry it and defender is actually relatively light so that wasn't too bad.
 
Next time we talk Rick ask me about the Asteroids Deluxe in the basement that ended with the sellers back blown out half way up the smooth worn steps(no shoes or dolly were allowed) a beautiful wood floor destroyed from the basement door to the entry and a 6 x 8 concrete entry stoop that busted bust away from the house when i pulled my truck onto it to load the game. I never did call the seller back to tell him that his several thousand dollar house and back repair yielded me a game that cost $2 and change to fix. There's more to the story including his fat lazy wife wrapped up in a pink blanket on the couch stuffing her face full of snack while watching soaps, she played a part in this disaster too.

Chris.. you cant tease like that..;-)
 
Long ago, I bought my second cab, a Pole Position via Craigslit. And unbeknown to me it was in this guys basement. Luckily I brought my dad along. 22 steps in a stairwell so tight we had to take the handrail off. It took 4 (me, dad, the homeowner and his buddy) of us to get that pig of a game out of there; all the while, the home owner was asking me why I didn't bring more friends??? :rolleyes:

I still have that cab.
 
Next time we talk Rick ask me about the Asteroids Deluxe in the basement that ended with the sellers back blown out half way up the smooth worn steps(no shoes or dolly were allowed) a beautiful wood floor destroyed from the basement door to the entry and a 6 x 8 concrete entry stoop that busted bust away from the house when i pulled my truck onto it to load the game. I never did call the seller back to tell him that his several thousand dollar house and back repair yielded me a game that cost $2 and change to fix. There's more to the story including his fat lazy wife wrapped up in a pink blanket on the couch stuffing her face full of snack while watching soaps, she played a part in this disaster too.

This deserves its own thread! LMFAO!
 
Back
Top Bottom