moral dilema. found money in a game, what do you think

[Hyde]

keep it and dont think twice

I'd say this is the best course of action. The guy acknowledged that there was money in the machine. He didn't make an effort to open it up and get the money for himself, so he must not have really cared about it.

I don't really see a moral dilemma. The guy was aware of a large sum of money in the game but didn't think that mattered very much. You bought the game and took the risk. What if you popped the game open and there was no mechanism inside? You would be mad, but couldn't really blame the seller for it since he was unable to open the machine. Would you expect him to pay money to cover for your loss?

The hobby is a gamble, and you lucked out. The seller is fine with that, so there is no moral issue.

 

[mc300baud]

if he had a concern about money being left in the machine he would have opened it up, either by trying harder to find the key or drilling it out. but he didn't and left the lost key problem to you and even acknowledged there was money in there when you were loading the machine. i see no issue with keeping the money.

if it's such a dilemma to do so you could always donate part or all of it to charity.

 

[Level42]

Practice good Karma. Offer to give it back. He won't take it any way, but it'll come back to you 10fold somewhere else.

I picked up a machine that I was going to repair for someone once that had + in quarters in it. I gave it to him immediately, and he handed it right back to me and told me to keep it.

Totally agree with this....how would you feel if you were on the other side ? He very likely will say "keep it" but be impressed with your honesty and won't forget that....you never know when or how that will help you in the future.

 

[Mongo]

I have bought a fair amount of machines in the past. I was buying from one operator who would open every game before selling. If he couldn't get the coin door open... even if he was nearly positive it was empty... the game was not for sale until the door was opened.

As I see it, there is no moral dilemma here based on what you posted as the conversation when it was determined by both you AND THE SELLER that there was money in the machine. He said "it sounds like YOU have about $75 in there". That indicates to me that he was fully aware that there was money in the machine and it belonged to YOU. If he was really worried about it he would have held onto the game until he found the key or said something to the effect that if there was more than a couple of bucks in there he would trust you to return it. If he would have said "it sounds like there is about $75 in there... let me find the key" that would indicate to me that he did not intend the contents of the coin box to be part of the deal. His failure to find the key and let you take the game would not invalidate his intentions.

What if you bought a $50 Karate Champ that was a converted Major Havoc and the op couldn't find the keys. You get it home and find the original PCB and Amplifone Boards still mounted in the machine? That's about $500 worth of extra stuff. What then? Would you feel obligated to return that? When you buy a machine, unless otherwise stated during the deal, you own that machine and everything in it.... parts, money, rats nests, dead birds, cat piss, it is all yours.

Now, if this guy is a regular source of games for you, I would strongly consider returning the money just to keep good relations with a regular source of games even though you have no moral or legal obligation to do so.

 

[ChompingQuarters]

I bought my DK Jr. which was pretty trashed (Now my D2K) for $100-$125 and found $50-$70 in it. When we tipped it back we heard the money and I asked for the final time "you 100% sure you don't have a key?". He stated that the machine is his old roommate's and that he never picked it up and he was moving out of state in less than a week and needed it gone and it wasn't his $$$$ anyhow.

 

[paulliadis]

The dude didn't even know where the key was, so he wasn't going to get to the coins anyhow. Keep 'em and use the money on your new game. The game was the true owner of those coins anyhow!

 

[LyonsArcade]

i bought a gizmo jr gumball machine from a business owner for $40 yesterday. he didnt have the key but said he would look for it. when we were loading it we heard coins moving around and he laughed and said " you probably have about $75 in quarters in there". when i got home and got into the machine i found $121. jackpot! now my father in law... is trying to guilt me into giving the money back. i think he is crazy. what do you think. what is the craziest thing you have found in a game.

The guy knew there was money in it, and let you keep it. No issue here. If he didn't know, maybe somebody could argue something about it, but the fact that he knew there was at least some money there means there's no problem.

 

[LyonsArcade]

Only after the person selling it notices what looks to be $75 in the wallet and still selling it to you for $40.

Yup. If the guy really was concerned, he would have said something. If you find somebody's wallet on the street, be a good guy. If you buy a wallet at a yard sale, be a good guy. If an operator who makes quarters for a living hears what it obviously tons of quarters sloshing around the inside of a game, jokes about it, and helps you load it up... keep the money.

IMHO.

 

[LyonsArcade]

Totally agree with this....how would you feel if you were on the other side ? He very likely will say "keep it" but be impressed with your honesty and won't forget that....you never know when or how that will help you in the future.

This is completely false.


In your little scenario, you're suggesting the guy didn't know there was that much money in it; so he sold it for 40 bucks.

Now you show back up and say "Hey, there was 120 in it, here's $60".

If he really doesn't know there was a bunch of money in it, don't you think he's now going to be a little upset that the guy walked off with 60 bucks of his?

There's only two outcomes to this.

1. The guy knew there was probably money in it, and let it roll.

2. The guy didn't know there was a significant amount of money in it, and now you're going to tell him you'll keep 60 bucks of it.

If he doesn't know, alerting him to it... and then KEEPING half of it is just going to piss him off.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[LyonsArcade]

I had a similar situation with an old operator a few years ago. He was being very generous and gave me all the machines in his storage locker, if I helped him clean it all out before the end of the month.

It was one of those deals- take it all, or nothing, and there were several dumpster candidate pieces for sure. There were also plenty of outstanding machines.

While I was loading one of the machines, I unclipped the bill stacker and it was jammed full of bills, and I don't just mean ones, and when I say jammed, I mean like a hefty stack. I already had the machine on my trailer, and technically we had our "all or nothing" deal, but I still walked over to him and handed him the wad of bills.

The guy was so happy he ended up giving me even more games from another location, one was a Last Action Hero pin, which I shopped, sold for 1K and then drove over and handed that money to him as a surprise.

Come to think of it, why did I do that again?

Oh, I remember, that damn Christian upbringing!

No offense, but this is rediculous. Jesus Christ didn't go around helping businessmen make more money, for free.

Now if you would have taken the 1 grand and gave it to a children's charity, blame that on your Christian upbringing.

Just my .02

 

[tta583]

Wow...5 pages and a lot of opinion yet no one has posted the obligatory dildo in the bottom of a cab pic and asked if it was offered back to the seller. I'm kind of shocked.

 

[SeanMcL]

Really guys? It's really going to be something like 3-1 against* giving the money back?

What ever happened to treating someone else like you would want to be treated? I have trouble believing this is really up for debate.

This goes a long way to explain all the "I got hosed by a KLOV'r" threads.


*I did not count, just guessing.

 

[bheineck]

Split it with him! He gets $100 for his machine and you get a free machine and a twenty. Everyone is happier than they were with the deal as agreed!

 

[VectorJunkie]

Really guys? It's really going to be something like 3-1 against* giving the money back?

What ever happened to treating someone else like you would want to be treated? I have trouble believing this is really up for debate.

This goes a long way to explain all the "I got hosed by a KLOV'r" threads.


*I did not count, just guessing.

If I tell someone to take the machine and I comment on how much money must be in it for "them", I don't want to see the machine or the money again. Are you guys missing that the seller knew?

He was being a good Christian giving it away to someone that needed it more.

The Seller Knew!

 

[bit_slicer]

He paid you $81 to haul away his junk.

Do yourselves both a favor, keep it, and don't bring it up again, ever. If you bring it up or offer x-amount that's less than the $121, then he is suddenly tasked with the moral dilemma as well, i.e. suddenly the seller might see it as shady or dishonest that you didn't return ALL of the money! Or he might be put-off that you somehow "got away with" $121 of HIS money, even if you've offered to return all of it. Remember, ops are a strange breed and think very differently than collectors.

My best advice, keep the $81 and secretly use it to buy more of his junk to haul away.

EDIT: Also consider that an op might think a deal is good one day, but have very different feelings about it the next day after the deal is done. Bringing up the "stolen" money would certainly exacerbate the situation.

 

[Tombo]

Keep it. When you buy a game that's the way it goes, whatever's inside belongs to the new owner. There is another thread on this.

I found some Viagra in a game one time. Didn't give it back...

Crap! Did I sell you that Koam3 SVC Chaos game? I think my stash was in it when I sold it.

 

[paulliadis]

Really guys? It's really going to be something like 3-1 against* giving the money back?

What ever happened to treating someone else like you would want to be treated? I have trouble believing this is really up for debate.

This goes a long way to explain all the "I got hosed by a KLOV'r" threads.


*I did not count, just guessing.

If I heard money sloshing around a machine I was going to sell and was too lazy to open it up and see what was inside, I'd be fine with the buyer keeping whatever was inside.

 

[SeanMcL]

The Seller Knew!

You can't prove that. The seller did not have the key, and did not know the amount of money in there. What the seller knew or didn't know is all assumption. What is solid fact is the guy sold a machine with $120 in it, for $40. The seller should be contacted and told.

If the circumstance really is that the seller knew, then it doesn't hurt to tell the seller about it.

If the seller didn't know, then keeping the money is wrong.

Edit: The fact that the OP even had to ask shows that he thinks this deal is questionable. No one posts a thread asking "I bought a game for $50, it was exactly as described and I paid for it. What should I do?"

 

[LyonsArcade]

You can't prove that. The seller did not have the key, and did not know the amount of money in there. What the seller knew or didn't know is all assumption. What is solid fact is the guy sold a machine with $120 in it, for $40. The seller should be contacted and told.

If the circumstance really is that the seller knew, then it doesn't hurt to tell the seller about it.

If the seller didn't know, then keeping the money is wrong.

Edit: The fact that the OP even had to ask shows that he thinks this deal is questionable. No one posts a thread asking "I bought a game for $50, it was exactly as described and I paid for it. What should I do?"

Have you ever bought a game for less than it was worth? Did you take it back to the guy and say "You know, this Donkey Kong isn't worth the $100 you were asking. Here, let me give you another 300 bucks!"

Of course not! Your reply is inconsitant. You don't do that with the other areas of your life, but selectively want to do it this time.

If something is for sale, you pay the price and then it's done.

When you go to Best Buy and they have something on sale, do you pay full price? Why not? It's worth more than what they're asking.

It's just a completely asinine argument.

 

[JamBurglar]

The fact that you felt the need to post here asking for advice is the telling thing. To me it just looks like you are obviously torn about the situation and your seeking justification to make yourself feel better about wanting to keep the money.

Everyone has different morals and standards and it's really about what you can live with. Personally, I think you should be a "man" about it. Make your own decision and either keep the money or give some or all of it back, but don't rely on other people to be your moral justification and don't try to justify it by fooling yourself like "well, he never gave me the key so fuck him, he's evil, so now I don't feel bad about it." Those are just ways of trying to avoid dealing with the bigger question of what you feel is the right thing to do. At least be honest with yourself about it and then make up your own mind.