Should I be angry about this?? Opinions please

[1500points]

That happened to me with a member here.
I mentioned a particular game.
He said he knew a guy who had several in my area but wouldn't tell me until he picked up some other game the guy had.
I'm not too materialistic so I found it quietly humorous.
Whatever..... I had little faith in the facts after that was said.

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.

 

[bottlejunkie]

theres only one other guy (a member here) that i go to wharehouses with or let him know about if i find one but i will post it here for other local members. BUT i have waited to post it until after i have gotten what i wanted,I think everyone here would do that.

 

[joemagiera]

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.

I see most people's opinions are that the guys that find the raids and don't share are jerks. I am compelled to offer a different opinion. Going on op raids is a ton of fun. Finding them, coordinating them, dealing with (usually) cranky/crabby operators is not fun. It's work. And a lot of not fun work. And a lot of it totally wasted effort. So when I find op raids, I generally do keep the contacts to myself. Why should I do that work just to give out the contact to anyone that asks? Most of the operators I've meet are generally leary of people. Last thing I want to do is screw up a contact with an op by giving the contact info out to someone that could turn the op off to dealing with me because of it. At least or especially with people I don't know. I have local hobby friends I've taken with me several times. But like someone else mentioned, it's good to keep options open with an op. The op might not have anything else you want now, but he could in the future. I posted pictures of 3 op raids this past weekend and got many emails asking for the contacts. I gave the contacts to a few people I know.

If you do them favors as you say and they don't reciprocate, that's another story though. Time to cut them off.

 

[Oryk Zinyo]

I see most people's opinions are that the guys that find the raids and don't share are jerks. I am compelled to offer a different opinion. Going on op raids is a ton of fun. Finding them, coordinating them, dealing with (usually) cranky/crabby operators is not fun. It's work. And a lot of not fun work. And a lot of it totally wasted effort. So when I find op raids, I generally do keep the contacts to myself. Why should I do that work just to give out the contact to anyone that asks? Most of the operators I've meet are generally leary of people. Last thing I want to do is screw up a contact with an op by giving the contact info out to someone that could turn the op off to dealing with me because of it. At least or especially with people I don't know. I have local hobby friends I've taken with me several times. But like someone else mentioned, it's good to keep options open with an op. The op might not have anything else you want now, but he could in the future. I posted pictures of 3 op raids this past weekend and got many emails asking for the contacts. I gave the contacts to a few people I know.

If you do them favors as you say and they don't reciprocate, that's another story though. Time to cut them off.

Hmmm, in my opinion virtually all posts are in response to the original post which stated these guys are friends who you have helped out in the past. I would never give contact info to someone I don't know.

I, too, have ran down operators and their warehouses in the past and I never shared the info with people I didn't know either. Doing so wouldn't feel right. However, I have always asked locals that I know if they are interested.

 

[trickman]

I see most people's opinions are that the guys that find the raids and don't share are jerks. I am compelled to offer a different opinion. Going on op raids is a ton of fun. Finding them, coordinating them, dealing with (usually) cranky/crabby operators is not fun. It's work. And a lot of not fun work. And a lot of it totally wasted effort. So when I find op raids, I generally do keep the contacts to myself. Why should I do that work just to give out the contact to anyone that asks? Most of the operators I've meet are generally leary of people. Last thing I want to do is screw up a contact with an op by giving the contact info out to someone that could turn the op off to dealing with me because of it. At least or especially with people I don't know. I have local hobby friends I've taken with me several times. But like someone else mentioned, it's good to keep options open with an op. The op might not have anything else you want now, but he could in the future. I posted pictures of 3 op raids this past weekend and got many emails asking for the contacts. I gave the contacts to a few people I know.

If you do them favors as you say and they don't reciprocate, that's another story though. Time to cut them off.

Well, we don't have ALL the facts here, nor do we have the other guys' side of this. But I think the main point was that he keeps doing these guys favors and all they do is exclude him and brag about what they found in their latest conquests. Even if these guys did the footwork to get the contacts for the raid in the first place, it would be a "nice gesture" on their part to either let him come along or at least tell him that there are more games there and leave the guy's info (checking with the op first to see if it was okay of course).

There are members here that know some games that I'm looking for and I know some of theirs. I would without a doubt inform them of an available game they were wanting if I came across it. Maybe it's just a matter of asking if you can come along on the next raid. You know these guys, right? What's the harm?

 

[vintagegamer]

Darrin (sohchx) is a good dude and I can vouch that he's helped out many Marylanders, myself included.

So, I feel for him when people in the hobby don't reciprocate when he's done alot for alot of the folks here.

If someone could throw him a favor out of generosity to help him heal this wound, I'd really appreciate it.

Darrin, I don't have alot of things that I know you could use, but if I can send you something to help get past this event pls let me know. The people who view this as *more* than a hobby can significantly impact those of us who look at it as a hobby only.

 

[YellowDog]

I have been on a few raids and generally I will go in and scope the situation out. After I have managed to generate some rapport with the owner, I will ask him if it is alright to share his contact info with other collectors. Generally if approached right, the owners will shift from a hoarding to a selling mindset and I usually make it clear that given the amount of stuff they have, there is no way I am going to be able to take it all. Based on conversations with the owner, if he wants more buyers, I will either let my "inner circle", as mentioned previously, in on the deal or I will simply post the contact details here.

Either I have been lucky, or dealing with people honestly pays off. I have only had one person try to rip me off in our dealings and the Gods of Karma must have been watching because he shafted a bunch of other collectors here in Houston and he has apparently gone bankrupt because even his Craigslist posting have disappeared.

ken

 

[osver]

My 2 cents (which is pretty worthless, mind you).

Friends, even if they don't want to give up the Ops contact info, would be willing to try and get you games you're interested in out of the warehouse.

Getting pics, a game list of what's available, buying it for you, etc. can all be done without them sharing the name/location of the warehouse, and shows that they're not just thinking of themselves.

 

[vortexgt]

My 2 cents (which is pretty worthless, mind you).

Friends, even if they don't want to give up the Ops contact info, would be willing to try and get you games you're interested in out of the warehouse.

Getting pics, a game list of what's available, buying it for you, etc. can all be done without them sharing the name/location of the warehouse, and shows that they're not just thinking of themselves.

Exactly. If they're not willing to do that, they're not your friend.

Some people do need to realize, however, that many operators -- especially the older, stubborn ones who have been in the business a long time -- do NOT want to deal with the average Joe buying games for home use. You can say "I won't waste your time" all you want, but they've heard it already, they've learned their lesson, and they would rather let a game rot away (since it has paid for itself anyways) than to go out of their way for you.

 

[chuchunesme]

The only time I wouldn't tell anyone about a find is if I was going back for something myself. It's total BS not to share the location and info once you have what you wanted. I'm sitting on a pinball game but if I can't buy it then it will be passed along for sure.

 

[Brick Top]

I have friends around here that have spent years, some maybe more than a decade, just trying to establish a good enough relationship with some crabby old op, in hopes of finally getting in that warehouse of gems. There are many miles traveled, phone calls made, conversations in vain, only on the hopes that _maybe_ there is something locked away that is worth the effort.

I would never expect them to divulge any information on this contact just because we are "friends", however I will be happy to ooh and ahh and play the games they score!

 

[charger]

I have done op raids since 1994 off and on. Most recently i have been involved with approx. 4 or 5 just in the last 2 years. It is a lot of leg work, time and hard work. The old op's are a different bunch of people, and as was said in the previous posts, they really do not want a lot of people around. We have always asked the people that we would consider friends what games they are interested in. The friend of mine that I have done raids with the last 2 or so years, gets his connections, and i get mine, and we have an agreement that whom ever got the connection usually gets first pick of a game. Even when we are done with what we get from the op, we still keep it to our self's for the purpose that they usually have contact's with other op's. Sorry to hear they will not include you, but sometimes it;s better that way for you, no hard work long drives and dirty. Oh and if the are good picker's there is probably nothing really good left.

 

[kspiff]

I wouldn't conduct myself in that manner, but personally I neither seek nor participate in bulk buys.

But, yeah, I typically tend to shy away from the self entitled crowd who just try to make a profit from the hobby. Main reason I can't deal with any of the asshole collector-retailers down here.

Besides at its most extreme you have collectors who have extreme hoarding issues. I can't deal with those types well at all. And typically you're never going to get anything out of those types that isn't a duplicate or a complete turd anyways.

 

[timiskander]

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.

+1 ... couldn't agree more
cheers
/Tim

 

[hasenfang]

Maybe this sounds simplistic, but try having this type of candid conversation with your "friend(s)." Tell them directly, what you are saying here. So often people think they are conveying a direct message, when they are in fact not. See what happens, if nothing changes, you have a few choices, deal with or walk away.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it is possible that the truth of these "great deals" is exaggerated. If you go, and talk to the op, you may find out that it wasn't the great deal your friend advertised. As an example from my life, my wife and I enjoy going to auctions (non arcade related) and so does a guy from work. Every week he was bragging about these auctions he was going too and the steals he was getting. We ran across the guy and sat behind him for most of the auction, he purchased nothing. Monday morning came rolling around and the same conversation broke out again, about how we was owning at this auction. I then mentioned that my wife and I had been at the same auction, but didn't stay. I'm not sure if it was a way to try to connect with me, or what that was. His story had no basis in reality, he just like talking about it.

 

[cnlmoore]

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...

LOL! I think we all know people that fit into these various categories. Hopefully I never fall below the buddy rank on anyone's list

I learned a hard lesson about the shitbags when I sold someone a game at a sweet price only to see it sell on eBay the same week for 4x what he paid for it. Ouch.

 

[tyranix95]

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.

This is the way I see it:

A friend shares the news, cuts you in on the deal (if you want in), and covers your back (when you need it). It's all about good times and having fun, right! Bros before Hoes.

But an acquaintance does not do that. It's just business. Hoes before bros.

Do the social math.

 

[prOk]

two sides to every coin. If people didn't have a history of snaking others out of warehouses when they got the chance, people wouldn't be so scared to give up their sources. Sucks to say, but it's true. In the 14 years or so i've been in the hobby there have been plenty of times i've known about a collector finding a warehouse, another collector finding out about it and going behind the original finder's back with the information and cleaning out the warehouse. Many times, it's simply a matter of keeping the relationship with the op alive.. lots of them are simply not interested in having everyone and their mother calling and wanting a list and pictures of what's in the warehouse.

It's easy to look at it as the person that didn't find it and say 'if it was me i'd tell everyone' but the story changes when it IS you that found it and your thinking shifts to 'I better keep it to myself or it will probably get taken from me'.

 

[p1899m]

I believe in and understand protecting your find and time invested in that find but I think there can also be a middle ground. If you have friends that you tell once you've gotten a great score why not at least tell them what games you saw and ask if they are interested in buying any of them that you don't plan to grab? I know some Ops don't want a crowd of folks but you can still help a friend out without even letting the Op know you are doing so.

 

[tyranix95]

The guy has been "friends" with these two collectors for over EIGHT years and they can't hook him up with ONE good deal!? Come on now. What's up with that.

I can understand low-man-on-the-totem-pole, putting-in-time, and doing grunt work, but EIGHT years and no PIE! No way. Not Cool. At least not in my book.