Outrageous prices on craigslist! NE

drwicket

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I want to buy a new pin but am blown away buy the prices people put on craigslist here in Omaha Nebraska. People are wanting anywhere from $1700 to $2500 for pins like terminator 2 and wwf royal rumble. These prices seem very high since I am sure these pins are not in perfect condition. Also people are wanting $800 - $1200 for pinballs from the late 70s.

Am I insane or does everyone agree that these prices are crazy!
 
I want to buy a new pin but am blown away buy the prices people put on craigslist here in Omaha Nebraska. People are wanting anywhere from $1700 to $2500 for pins like terminator 2 and wwf royal rumble. These prices seem very high since I am sure these pins are not in perfect condition. Also people are wanting $800 - $1200 for pinballs from the late 70s.

Am I insane or does everyone agree that these prices are crazy!

depends on alot of factors, titles have a range, t2 is normally 1500-2200 so assuming the owner expects to be hangled down....seem to be par for the course , i do agree though they usually overvalue the pins
 
depends on alot of factors, titles have a range, t2 is normally 1500-2200

STOP

T2 normally what? No... no it doesn't. T2s START at 1000, and only get to 1500 or so if they are super duper nice. If you can find someone to buy a T2 for 2200, sell them a bottle of water for 10 bucks. I'm sure they'll pay it.
 
Yes, there are ridiculous prices everywhere. In these cases the best you can do is contact the seller, tell them you are interested, don't insult them, and wait. If the condition doesn't warrant the high price and someone else wants to overpay, let them. Usually you'll find that they are dreaming and end up taking much less.
 
Agreed, there are crazies everywhere. I check Omaha CL now and again. Keep with it, there will be reasonable posts in Omaha if you keep watching.
 
I want to buy a new pin but am blown away buy the prices people put on craigslist here in Omaha Nebraska. People are wanting anywhere from $1700 to $2500 for pins like terminator 2 and wwf royal rumble. These prices seem very high since I am sure these pins are not in perfect condition. Also people are wanting $800 - $1200 for pinballs from the late 70s.

Am I insane or does everyone agree that these prices are crazy!

Dan, the guy at the mobile audio store is a pretty good guy. I bought a Whitewater from him a couple years ago. It was priced much higher than I payed. Go look at one you like and make a reasonable offer.
 
Yeah I guess I'm just impatiant. I finnished up my lethal weapon 3 pinball restoration and now I want another machine to fix up. I mainly want something that isn't in the best of shape. I want to be the one cleaning it up and bringing it back to life!
 
Welcome to The Club

Quote - Also people are wanting $800 - $1200 for pinballs from the late 70s.

I hear ya. Up in my neck of the woods (western Canada) 1000-1500 is common for many run of the mill EM machines from the 70's. Even so so SS's with poor playfields listed 600-800. Just missed a Time Travel for $100 but only seen a few in the last six months. Arcades just as bad. A WWF in a generic cab listed st $600 twice as it didn't sell the first go round.
 
I think a lot of people in Omaha have pins they may sell, but do not want to sell them that bad. If they do not get it, they will keep it. Not to mention, I have paid top dollar for collector quality pins. There was a point in my life I thought people were crazy to "Overpay" but reality is pins in good condition go for more than average machines. A perfect T2 is worth $1700 IMHO. Hell MR Pinball book value (which is average selling price) is $1550. I picked one up for $1000 but put about $350 into it (driver board, plastics, rubber) and about 40 hours. So if you are looking for a machine to fix up, consider time and parts then $1500 is not so bad.

But yes there are over priced machines out there, but if someone buys them....well I guess the value is in the eye of the beholder.
 
Here's the thing about craigslist ads. People aren't listing for fair market, they're listing to sell and make decent profit, with the expectation that the potential buyers will try to haggle a bit. That's just how private sales work.

Even in places like Mexico, Japan, and an extremely large portion of the world (including many Euro countries for that matter), almost have bartering available everywhere. In Mexico things listed for 200 pesos (20$) can be bought for as low as 20 pesos, even in the stores. I would routinely purchase bottles of tequila that were listed in stores @ 400 pesos for a measly 50 pesos.

In Italy, my friends bartered down hand bags by being flirty with the store staff, to nearly half price. Japan even has a word that is commonly used, meaning something along the lines of "give me a fair deal".

The point is, it's not uncommon to go looking for deals, so list high because someone's always going to be low-balling you. On the flip side, low-ball people for stuff that they're selling, you just never know what they've actually invested, and what they'll accept for price.

I met someone on these forums in real life, by what I felt was low-balling an already low price on an asteroids cocktail (*AHEM* burt *COUGH*). Cocktail was listed for 250$, I shot him a low-ball deal, lo and behold he was all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake! ;) I met a great guy in the process that's been an indispensable resource. On the negative side, he got me hooked on pins. Asshole.
 
You know, sometimes you can find a real deal for one thats been stuck in the garage and they don't know what they have. I have found several but you have to be fast with the cash to go get it.
 
I have found a few good deals here and there but they are very far and few in between. When there is a good deal you gotta be like a ninja to snatch it up before someone else does.
 
Everyone is going to have a different opinion on what some game is worth. It is hard to price games sometimes as there is so many factors. I think one of the biggest factors is location. Hard to get the higher prices here in Nebraska.

As for the high priced pins on CL, well you have to figure in the idiots. They are the ones trying to make a buck off of someone who doesn't know any better.

When I sell a game, I look up the values on bostonpinball or pinpedia to get some idea of what its worth. Those are just an estimate.

Its really hit or miss on CL. If you watch it daily, eventually something will pop up for a good price and you will score a nice project. Like others said, you gotta be ready though as 10 others are probably right behind you with cash in hand.
 
Yep there are some high prices on there often. Those guys at "The Digs" seem to list the same thing over and over for the same high price.

We are getting concert tickets under arcade searches now all the time here locally..... Concert tickets, really?
 
You know, sometimes you can find a real deal for one thats been stuck in the garage and they don't know what they have. I have found several but you have to be fast with the cash to go get it.

lol....thats my specialty. my perfect saturday afternoon is driving a distance (not over 60 miles roughly) and dragging a old woodrail or wedgehead outta someone basement OR 3rd story and bringing it home dirt cheap.......problem is....you gotta be quick about it.......AND you wont always get EVERY great deal
i recently missed a black night 2000 WORKING left in a college dorm that the landlord wanted out for $400
but i made up for it by finding a 1960 or 61 williams batting champ for $300 working
and a 1953 gottlieb grand slam for $275 which would not work becuase it was sitting on the tilt
 
I agree that people often post a high price with the expectation of coming down or haggling. But the problem I'm seeing is people posting prices so unreasonably high that you don't even bother. Machines priced double what is reasonable. And usually the condition doesn't even warrant average pricing. You are wasting your time when you see that.

Yes, if a machine is above average condition, you should expect to pay more than the average price you see on Boston Pinball or Pinside. But that doesn't seem to be the case with CL. Usually the machines are below average but listed at excellent condition prices.

And so many sellers can't take a decent picture. And if they can, they can't figure out how to host it on a third party site so that you can actually see detail and decide if the machine is worth asking about. And then it seems like people can't figure out how to remove the glass, so they take a worthless picture with flash bounce off the glass.

Wow, that turned into a little rant. :)
 
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