dustinzoom
Active member
I will look for games anywhere. Every so often I have some luck with estate sales, either in person or online. I found one that was selling some pinballs, but I was going to be out of the state during pickup. Before bidding, I contacted the person in charge of the sale. He told me I could bid and that he would be available the following weekend for me to pick up. I ended up winning a complete early Bally pinball in decent shape.
All week I was in communication with the person in charge of the auction. When I went to pick up the auction item, the first thing I noticed was a large dumpster in the yard. The person I had been working with told me that he was not sure where the pinball was, but that he was making calls. After speaking with the clean up crew, he said they claimed it was at the very bottom of the dumpster.
We both looked in the dumpster. It was a good sized dumpster and was REALLY full. The guy even climbed into it and moved a lot of items around. We never saw any sign of the pinball. With the size of the dumpster, there is a chance it could have been buried somewhere, but I think they would have had to remove the legs or break them for it to be that hidden.
Most likely something questionable happened. Either someone else just took it, it was sold to someone else, or someone from the clean up crew walked away with it and claimed it was in the bottom of the dumpster.
The guy I was working with had me follow him to his house and he refunded me.
I am disappointed, since this was an auction and not a Facebook Marketplace deal. It was also about two hours away from my house. But I wanted to share the story. As always, the deal is not done until you are driving away with it.
All week I was in communication with the person in charge of the auction. When I went to pick up the auction item, the first thing I noticed was a large dumpster in the yard. The person I had been working with told me that he was not sure where the pinball was, but that he was making calls. After speaking with the clean up crew, he said they claimed it was at the very bottom of the dumpster.
We both looked in the dumpster. It was a good sized dumpster and was REALLY full. The guy even climbed into it and moved a lot of items around. We never saw any sign of the pinball. With the size of the dumpster, there is a chance it could have been buried somewhere, but I think they would have had to remove the legs or break them for it to be that hidden.
Most likely something questionable happened. Either someone else just took it, it was sold to someone else, or someone from the clean up crew walked away with it and claimed it was in the bottom of the dumpster.
The guy I was working with had me follow him to his house and he refunded me.
I am disappointed, since this was an auction and not a Facebook Marketplace deal. It was also about two hours away from my house. But I wanted to share the story. As always, the deal is not done until you are driving away with it.
