Should I be angry about this?? Opinions please

sohchx

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So I know two collectors that I have been friends with (or so I thought) for about 8 years now. One resides in south Jersey,the other in PA. Both of them have come across multiple warehouse raids over the past year. For some reason they never give up the locations of the raids after they leave. Even if they don't take everything thats at the location they still won't cough up anything. Is this some sort of collector code that I don't know about or something? Is it just pure Greed and selfishness? I am one that believes in sharing with other collectors and if I find multiple games and can't take them all,or even if I know about a location where things are and can't get to it at that exact moment I'd rather tell a fellow collector to pick the stuff up before it gets trashed. You do good towards someone,they do good by you in return or so I thought but in this case I guess not. This infuriates me to no end and they both are always so quick to send me pictures or call me like "Dude!!check out my score!!!" blah blah. I have done these guys so many favors in the past,tipping them off to machines they were looking for,board repairs,general solder work,selling them parts cheap but I have finally decided to no longer do this as I feel I am being taken advantage of and given nothing in return but cash. Even then they were paying less then I usually charge for the services I provide,but no more.
 
You can be angry about that but I have several friends like that. Most of there stories are how they got this great deal and that deal etc. What made me angry at first was that is how they are. Once I understood that, I realized what mad me angry was they will always be like that and I can't change that.

They are still my friends but I take it with a grain of salt. There are good and bad people everywhere you go. Just pick and choose the ones you want around you and the ones you just want to talk with from time to time. I find the ones with a good sense of humor are the ones I like to keep around me and a few still get to me at times.
 
Greed is the american way.
Pretty sad that people buy into it but it is taught at every level of society eh.

Let's say they go back and ship a crate full of those things to Japan for big bucks. They pocket a great bonus for the year.

But they've isolated a friend.

Seems a pretty clear moral dilemma and which side to err on.
Life's too short for material fixation at the cost of human connections.

Good thing there are so many other games to be had by cool folks in the rest of the country.
I say F em and forget it. ;)
 
Quit doing them favors until they include you on the next raid. Or start doing the research and find theses places yourself. If you know the area they are in start looking in the phone book or online. If these are businesses still in operation they will sell to anyone with cash.
 
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Stop wasting time on those kinds of friends they just suck time and effort away from what should be fun and exciting hobby.

I have some great friends. When they found out I was collecting games, I had one of them drop off and run a 2 slot neo geo. I still don't know who. Laughs. I share my contacts and extra bits of my collections. If they don't treat me the same, I just walk away. Not my job to change a person or their nature.

I am old and I don't get impressed by how many years you collected or how rare your arcade machines are. I get impressed on how well you treat others and your character.

Great friends are out there, You just need to search them out.
 
I just had a similar conversation with my wife two days ago. I am always willing to help out people, giving them deals on parts I have or helping with repairs at no charge. Occasionally I see these same people take the things I gave them for free and try to sell them for a profit. I keep a list of the people who I feel take advantage of the community and I simply do not help them anymore. I will also gladly tell others, if they ask, in a one on one situation why that person made my list.


Also, I don't throw around the word "friend" as readily as many on these boards. I can count the total number of friends I have on one hand and still have a few fingers left. There is only one guy in the arcade community who I consider a friend right now. There are a few others who are decent guys that I have no problem hanging out with, I call these guys buddies. Then there are the guys I don't trust but will tolerate; I will acknowledge knowing these guys but I don't really have a name for the category. Finally there are the shitbags. These are the guys who are only out to make a profit off of others, the guys who gladly accept your generosity for their personal gain. I try my best to not be around these guys, though it is often inevitable...
 
Go find new friends......they are in it for the profit not the hobby.

Agreed. Friends and money generally don't mix, so if they think you'd be taking potential profit out of their hands, there is a level of trust that isn't there.


I can't see how Operators and hobbyists can mix at that level, they seem to have two very different mindsets. Ops would think about how to wring the last red cent out of a machine (rightfully so, the margins can be thin and it's their livelihood.) and a hobbyist has more rose tinted glasses about it.
 
Get some new friends.. Plenty of other decent arcade folks in this general area. Greed might be good for business but it sucks when it comes to freindship.
 
This is a tough one. The finder of the warehouse, who did the leg work, has established a contact with someone. You don't know how these people feel about a bunch of strangers climbing around in thier warehouse. Also, lots of these owners have been burned by someone along the way and are very cautious. I have been brought in on some and not on others. Most "hard-core" collectors that I know will try to keep their options open with a guy. Say he sees a bunch of games he wants but can only do some now, he wants future access so he keeps it close for now. The dynamics of these things are usually delicate unless a guy is "Buying it all". There may also be an "Inner Circle" and you're not part of it. Two ways to deal with it, move on or gently insert yourself into the inner circle and hope for the best. Honestly, been there, both sides of the fence. Best not to take it personally - life's too short. They're only games man!
 
There's a bit of etiquette for this kind of stuff.

Just be considerate and a little respectful with your friends and deals. Hopefully you'll get some reciprocation that way. Talk things out a little and there will be fewer issues. The main thing is to get invited to some places. Even some crumbs or 2nd choices are better than nothing.

If they're doing the searching/finding, then they're getting the first picks. Maybe they don't want to give up anything they can make profit off of. Maybe they're respecting the operator by not handing out his info.

Make a point of it to them. Tell them your feelings. Ask to come along on the next visit. Offer some token in exchange for the name/phone/location if they're 'done'.

I've had some dealings with people 'in the business' that I considered friendly. One of them considered my action of contacting a warehouse owner as 'going behind their back' or 'taking food away from their family'. This was after I found a construction dumpster full of cabinets. I thought I was sharing some info, but they had already been there.

It's a hard thing to address when one of you is in it for the money and one of you is in it for the fun.
 
There are friends and there are "fair weather" friends. The friends that are constantly after something to benefit themselves are a dime a dozen. Keep 'em at arm's length and feel free to exercise your right to say, "no." Your real friends will 'do you a solid' every once in a while.
 
This is a tough one. The finder of the warehouse, who did the leg work, has established a contact with someone. You don't know how these people feel about a bunch of strangers climbing around in thier warehouse. Also, lots of these owners have been burned by someone along the way and are very cautious.


This is also true, you wouldn't want someone you made contact with and is comfortable with you flooded with inquires from 3rd parties. Still, the original finder should explain some of those logistics rather than just stonewalling. Unless they're not your friend.... =)
 
There's a bit of etiquette for this kind of stuff.

Just be considerate and a little respectful with your friends and deals. Hopefully you'll get some reciprocation that way. Talk things out a little and there will be fewer issues. The main thing is to get invited to some places. Even some crumbs or 2nd choices are better than nothing.

Sounds like the posters been there, done that... These guys flaunt it in his face and are acting like little boys that can't share.

The wharehouse owner is the one that suffers because they want the stuff gone and when a dude hoards the location on the hopes that one day he'll have more money go back and get more games, the games sit until then. The wharehouse owner is better off with more people knowing and friends buying the machines, then the same friends can sell the machines to eachother when the time comes and the machines can still amongst a group of friends. Everyone wins then!
 
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Friendship and helping others in their hobby is way more important to me than making $$ or having cooler games. I could have hoarded my warehouse find in Fresno all to myself, made a boatload of money, and pulled some great machines for myself. But, I got more pleasure in letting my friend Greg E in on the deal and the friendship we built and giving the KLOV community great deals as well than any possessions I could have accumulated.

That's a bummer about your situation.
 
If they were really your friends and wanted all the cabs for themselves they wouldn't have mentioned the warehouses at all. They would say something like "oh I found it on Craigslist" instead of "I found a warehouse full of games," knowing full well you would want more info.
 
It all sounds like bragging for the sake of bragging. People like that need people like you to brag to. You ignore it and it'll stop happening. You can be nice to people, but you don't need to be a doormat.
 
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