Q*Bert Craigslist Scam Alert!? - Q BERT COIN ARCADE - $300 (NY,NJ,CONN)

GunSmoke Guy

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Q*Bert Craigslist Scam Alert!? - Q BERT COIN ARCADE - $300 (NY,NJ,CONN)

Q*Bert Craigslist Scam Alert !? You decide...

This guy for a while posted a Q*Bert on craigslist at $950.00 obo, out of no where dropped it down to 300.00, I spoke with him on the phone he claims it's not his game it's his friends game and his friend had 2 Qbert's and was moving to I think he said carolina..The reason the price was dropped according to the seller was because when someone went to look at the game (Likely a KLOVer on here) they fiddled with it and offered him a low balling 150.00 for it or so he claims. Since they left he claims the games not working, but was last Tuesday. The picture he posted I said to him, that photo looks like an ebay listing photo in IL, and he's in NY. After I called him out on that he began to become frazzled even though the guy claims he posted photos, he seemed to rush me off the phone.. I asked him for an address of where the game is located, he said it's a new road and wanted to meet me at a Chinese restaurant ? I'm thinking maybe he has a conversion game or whatever and doesn't want to post photos of the actual machine if one even exists... The guy also said he had other crap for sale but i've been there done that drove to CT once and the guy tried to bait and switch me and some friends and we didn't bite. He's (Anthony) apparently a stock broker, and this is another one of his ads he posted: http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/fns/3248864043.html I'm curious if other KLOVers dealt with this guy yet... And to add he gave the "I'm going to burn it and get more satisfaction speech"
So you decide if this is a scam or not.. Guy seemed very douche baggy on the phone, I've been in sales for a long time and if I'm selling something I treat the buyer correctly. Supposedly the game is located in Armonk Westchester NY. I don't really want to drive 2-3hrs for no reason.. Maybe someone can chime in.
This is the Q*BERT ad in question:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/vgm/3277370044.html

This is the ebay listing where he clearly stole the photo from:
150386012625
 
I asked him for an address of where the game is located, he said it's a new road and wanted to meet me at a Chinese restaurant ?

And to add he gave the "I'm going to burn it and get more satisfaction speech"

Yup. D-bag.

It's one Q*Bert. Not worth it.
 
Yup. D-bag.

It's one Q*Bert. Not worth it.

Yeah... On top of that last night after getting out of work at 9pm, I was willing to meet the guy late just to get it out of the way at literally 11pm.. He agreed, and canceled on me later that night. Today he re-listed the ad after I told him he had a buyer, & Today I asked if I could meet him any time after 5pm..he said that he wanted to avoid traffic and meet me in the middle of the day instead. At this point I'm pretty hesitant, I'm leaning on completely passing. This is a game that at some point I'll add into my collection. But this whole transaction seems some what shady. If the game was maybe 20min or even 45min from me I would consider just checking it out... But it's around 3hrs round trip for likely bullshit / bait and switch garbage. I'm pretty positive that if someone was there to check the game out that it was likely a KLOVer but again that's even if someone actually showed up... Who knows with this guy.
 
I love the idea of a guy needing to meet somewhere else because he lives on a "new road." If there's one thing you can point to America doing as a whole in 2012, it's building craploads of BRAND NEW, NEVER SEEN BEFORE ROADS.

Why did he tell you he was going to set it on fire?
 
I love the idea of a guy needing to meet somewhere else because he lives on a "new road." If there's one thing you can point to America doing as a whole in 2012, it's building craploads of BRAND NEW, NEVER SEEN BEFORE ROADS.

Why did he tell you he was going to set it on fire?

Your guess is as good as mine, he claims it's his friends game... But again that in itself could be horseshit. Perhaps his friend gave him the cabinet dead doesnt feel like dumping money into it could be a number of reasons perhaps he's legit. So against my better judgement since I had nothing better to do on my day off I shot out to where he wanted to meet me. I surprisingly was able to make it out here very quickly even in the rain, likely I'll sit in traffic on the way back.. And not to be pessimistic but an empty trunk. I'm purposely 1hr early.. Lets see if he A shows up, B cancels or C tries to sell me junk.. If I don't report back by 6-8pm send a rescue party like I said dude seems shady.
 
How would you get lucky with something that has shady written all over it.

Seems to me like a great way to get someone to show up at a specific place carrying hundreds of dollars in cash so they can get robbed.
 
I'm trying to buy a Q*bert from a guy in Nigeria and he wants to send it to me for free but needs me to pay a $500 transfer fee to make it happen.
 
I'm trying to buy a Q*bert from a guy in Nigeria and he wants to send it to me for free but needs me to pay a $500 transfer fee to make it happen.

Hahahahaha!!!


Yeah, this whole thing has shady all over it. I wouldn't waste 3 hours of driving to get shafted or robbed in a dark parking lot. Any time something like this happens with me on Craigslist, I just say fuck it and don't pursue it. Total waste of time.
 
Well... Several @!#?@! hours later after sitting in traffic... Turns out he was telling the TRUTH!! I finally scored a @!#?@! Q*BERT!

HUO slightly over 100 total plays (and that's with me hitting the coin switch several times, as well as the previous person) no bullshit, I'll post more pics of the inside of this thing it's pretty immaculate to me considering it's age Id be willing to bet he was the original owner, has the raised gottlieb coin door, even saw the gottlieb card inside to be mailed away, the knocker all boards even the monitor looks fresh, all the boards are present and still protected by a large cardboard I shit you not this thing looks like it was in a time capsule. It does have CPO ware, minor chipping on the bottom from being moved around which are the only issues IMO.. The inside looks like a fizzgig restoration!

Some things to add to my story..

The owners friend made all of these arrangements, so the dude rolls up in a white dealer plate cargo van... And I'm like man I'm either getting kidnapped, rapped, killed all three.. but I decided to follow him to this house that apparently had an 8 car garage.. I don't even think on MTV cribs have I witnessed that. So sure enough we pull up to huge mechanical iron gates with a security pad... and sure enough one of the biggest houses I've ever seen, dude wasn't bullshitting two 4 car garages across from each other, guy had a legitimate lift that you would see in a service bay in one of the garage spots and trust me when I tell you it wasn't a standard size garage it was massive!!.. in the back left corner of the 4th bay of this mansion garage lol was low and behold this sparkling Qbert.

I plugged it in, fired it up..nothing it was dead. I didn't even care considering the condition I was ready to take this thing at 3 beans regardless, especially after traveling blah blah. I plugged in some Christmas lights he had laying around in the garage and told him that likely the people that came prior flipped both the interlock switch as well as the test switch on the outlet. And wouldn't you know it the Q*Bert fired up like a champ, the monitor was out of synch after making the adjustments it looked great.

While not a pin, Qbert does have a solenoid inside of it, on the way back home The Who's Pinball Wizard at 6:07pm came on q1043 (classic rock station in NY), so that made me smile while driving in @!#?@!ty traffic.

So was this ad a scam, NOPE! Sometimes you just gotta @!#?@! go for it! A post not that long ago someone said Q*Berts are tough to find... They pop up every so often but usually aren't cheap when they do. I got really @!#?@!ing lucky. I have been looking on and off for about 5+ years sometimes if your adventurous and patient or perhaps lucky enough you will find the game in the condition and price you want.

Indiana (My boxer dog & Q*Bert, Saying "What the @!#?@! is that thing!")











 
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more photos 2....

The original cardboard was stapled to the back door to guard all the PCB's!



The joystick seems to twist up/ off not too familiar with this, I also can't get q*bert to move, I saw these sticks have rebuild kits, I haven't even popped the control panel open yet, but noticed it has wing nuts to hold it down, and I think 1 clip ?

Didn't even magic erase this thing yet.. should clean up nicely... This is one of the best @!#?@!ing looking original cabinets i've ever purchased / come across.

Gottlieb Raised Coin Door:




It's tough to get a good shot of the PCB's with the cardboard blocking it, I havent decided if I want to remove it. Where is the battery located on the board? The one that causes potential acid damage if not changed I'd like to swap that out, what battery is it specifically
 
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PumbaJawDRop.gif


Son of a...

...nice score!
 
You lucky F&#K! Congrats and definitely an amazing score! Did he have any other games "lying" around? q looks gorgeous!
 
PumbaJawDRop.gif


Son of a...

...nice score!

Thanks!

You lucky F&#K! Congrats and definitely an amazing score! Did he have any other games "lying" around? q looks gorgeous!

Yeah major @!#?@!ing lucky.. he did actually mention about a pool table, and some shit from the 20's!? I wasn't interested in either so I didn't want to waste the dudes time.. I did mention to him if he had 50 of these in this condition I would certainly buy all of them at 300 a pop... I kind of regret not going into that mansion. Cool experience overall though... and in person the guy was cool as shit patient, helping me load, really nice.. On the phone though pretty much total d.bag lol.

Very nice...

Thanks~

as a side note and I'm sure they are original I noticed it has round torx screws on top any one know what size? I feel like needle nose pliers would work but I don't even want to mess with this thing it's that nice. I've never seen that type before ive seen the flat torx but these had a cylinder with ridges which probably original.. Any one know what size as I'm pretty sure I have a torx kit. Marquee's not lighting likely just a fs2 fuse or lamp.. I'd like to pop it open.. And one of the wing nuts seems to be stubborn, I'd like to pop the control panel off to see If it's a joystick issue as to why qberts not moving and I'd love to clean the glass bezel which is minty.

more qbert questions ...
are the what appears to be translucent buttons suppose to light up on the control panel for 1p 2p start buttons ? because they are not lighting up.
 
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