One weird day!

gb3199

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Maybe it's just how the world works, but I have a weird collecting story I want to share.
Last Thursday afternoon I went to a warehouse on a picking mission. They don't have many classic cabs left, but there's a couple I'm interested in — specifically a Monaco GP. They have like eight of them sitting there and won't sell one for under $1,200!!! Of course I told them that's there no way in hell anyone is going to pay that price. We got to talking and the guy says he's got a Pole Position 2. He pulls it out and it's near mint — probably hasn't been on a route in 20 years. Plugs it in and it works 100%. I say $200 and he comes back with $400 and I tell him to split the difference and I think we have a deal.
Then five minutes later he starts waffling and says he's going to put it out on a route and won't let it go for anything less than $800. I tried to convince him to put out some Outruns (they've got like six sitting around), but I couldn't change his mind. Sadly, they have another PP II in the back that was totally gutted.
So I go home a little dejected, but with my boards and parts that I've bought and stop at my post office. I live in a very, very, very small town, so the woman who runs the post office actually lives in it. She asks me if I collect arcade games, as one night my garage was open and one of the neighbours mentioned to her that she saw a bunch.
She then tells me she's got two sitting in her basement and that she wants to get rid of them. So my mind starts racing — maybe there'll be a Star Wars cockpit and a Dragon's Lair. And then reality kicked in and I was sure it would be a pair of hacked cabs.
So I go downstairs and what greets me? A Monaco GP and Roadblasters! Neither work, but the Roadblasters appears to be in good shape and the Monaco isn't in too bad of shape either. She's got to ask her sons if I can have them, but I guess they've been in her basement for like 20 years —*there was an inch of dust on the Monaco!
It's weird how you can look for something so long, and then boom, it just shows up in your backyard.
 
Kewl story, sucked the guy at the warehouse was like that, but looks like Karma shined on you in the end. :)
 
Sure, he is gonna put a Pole Position out on a route, I wonder if it would even earn a dollar before it broke down!
 
That's def a crazy story. You know that old saying, good things come to those who wait.
Some people in this hobby are money tards and hope it bites him in the ass later.
 
Yeah I was a little concerned about the reliability of the PP 2 … I was going to take a bunch of spare PCBs if the deal would have went through. No matter, I found what I really wanted in the Monaco. It just makes me sad to think a nice 30-year survivor is going to end up in some crappy convenience store somewhere getting beat up by kids who don't have a clue.
I even made that point to them — it would go from their warehouse to my basement —*and begged them to put something else out, but they weren't listening.
 
Only $1200? 2 years ago $800, 2 weeks ago $1000, and now $1200.. Hate to see what they throw out next time you go there. I think the more you do, the more interested they will think you are and the higher the price will go... Then like you said eventually stripped for the monitor, and chainsawed for firewood like the mint Bump and Jump they had by the firepit and the absolutely mint MACH3 I saw there before that met the same fate. People that age see a modern driving game with photo-realistic graphics, and an 8 bit racing game beside it and think 'they are both car games.. so kids will play both!'..
 
Maybe $1,500!!! The thing that's really going to suck is if/when I pick up the Monaco and need parts from them. I can just hear that conversation.
 
Actually, you should take the Monaco you have over there and offer to sell it to him for $800. It is obviously a great deal for him since he can sell them for $1200 each.
 
I love stories like that. There are still a lot of these games out there, just ripe for the picking, ya gotta just find them!
 
Yeah I was a little concerned about the reliability of the PP 2 … I was going to take a bunch of spare PCBs if the deal would have went through. No matter, I found what I really wanted in the Monaco. It just makes me sad to think a nice 30-year survivor is going to end up in some crappy convenience store somewhere getting beat up by kids who don't have a clue.
I even made that point to them — it would go from their warehouse to my basement —*and begged them to put something else out, but they weren't listening.

Oh he was listening alright! He was hearing how badly you wanted it because you were begging him. He was hoping you would buy it at any cost! He figured you'd jump at it to keep it from getting ruined out on a route. Don't be fooled by people like him. Everything he did was trying to get more money out of a sucker in his mind!
 
Oh he was listening alright! He was hearing how badly you wanted it because you were begging him. He was hoping you would buy it at any cost! He figured you'd jump at it to keep it from getting ruined out on a route. Don't be fooled by people like him. Everything he did was trying to get more money out of a sucker in his mind!

A friend who was there at the warehouse the first time around said the same thing and he's right. Even the boards I bought on the last go-round were more expensive.
 
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