Should I just give him the pinball back or keep it?

Umortal377

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Should I just give him the pinball back or keep it?

I got my time warp pinball from a friend of the family like 10 years ago. At the time it worked someones, and was a little rough. He told me when I got it that if I ever go to get rid of it, that he wanted it back.

I ran into him the other day. He was hinting that he wouldnt mind having the pinball back since he has space for it now. Would you go ahead and give it back? It just sucks since I got it, it now works all the time. I replaced 2 bad displays, main display, and put it new flippers, target decals and new bulbs. Also when I first got it, I paid someone to work on the boards.

I also have a feeling any issues he has now going forward, hes probably gonna be hasseling me to work on it. But then again, cant complain but so much since he did give me the machine.
 
well reading your post I thought the qualifier was IF you wanted to get rid of it, do you want to get rid of it? far as I am concerned , if you do , he should pay for the repairs already done or tfb
 
Well, it would be hard to tell him to pay for the repairs. Not like he told me to fix it up.

Now if I felt like it, I still have the old displays and master display I could throw back into it. Not sure if that would be an a hole move though.

And I don't know if he thought I would hold onto it this long. Plus he sees I have other pinballs now. Like I said, he is just hinting right now.
 
I would explain to him this thing was rough when you got it , did repairs and you would have to see some cash to recoup the money. chances are he wont press it . you also didnt ask him to give the machine to you either, different if he said could you hold this for me till I have more room, you probably would have just dry stored it, correct?
 
Yeah I would try and get some money back that you put into it. I mean how would you feel if he got it back and then sold the thing since its nice and in working condition? Unless you feel having a pin for 10 years justifies the repairs.

Dennis
 
Since he's just hinting you can...

(A) Not take the hint. If you want to keep it... you're not a mind reader. Wait for him to ASK for it.

or

(B) Take the hint. Mention out of the blue "Hey, when you gave me this pin 10 years ago you mentioned if I was ever going to get rid of it to let you know. Well, I am considering getting rid of it. I've put $xxx in to it to get it going reliably and was going to ask quite a bit more for it, but since you gave it to me I'd sell it to you for the $xxx I put in to it if you have any interest...
 
My personal thought is that it is yours now. He gave you a non-working or partially working piece of junk. You have spent your own money fixing it up and making it nice. That voids in full the indian giver disclaimer line he gave you.

I hate when people say that shit. You are either giving it away or you aren't. You don't lay down the weak sauce by saying "If you get rid of it.. give it back...blah blah blah.". Now if he said "if you just let it sit and don't do anything to it, then I'll take it back to get it out of your way." that would be different.

I say tell him that you would happily give it back to him if he covered the cost of all the repairs you had done to it over the years.
 
Also, its not like its an expensive machine. I probably put more into it then what its worth. I probably couldnt get more then 200-300 for it.

Now like I said before, I could take some of the displays I took off and put the old ones back on. Then sell the replacement ones I bought.

Its one of those things where I would like to keep it, but he is also a friend of the family that didnt charge me anything for it in the first place.

I dont think he would resell it. I could see him giving it to his son in law possibly, but I think he would keep it.
 
He just said if you go to get rid of it, he wants it back.

Can you just say 'no way- that's a KEEPER!'?

If you don't have much interest in it, you could just ask him if he would like it back. The money you put into it probably isn't worth creating bad blood over. When you send it back to him, plainly tell him what all you did to it and how much you put into it. He might offer you something for making the repairs.

There's no telling. Don't get all worked up about it, wondering how it MAY go.

Or, you could give him a different pinball if you like the one he gave you more.
 
It depends on so many factors that we're not aware of. I can think of friends that I would give a pinball to for free and many others who I would not.

From what I know of this situation so far I probably wouldn't be too anxious to give it back without some compensation but it could really go either way.
 
Well, I do need to sell/get rid of a game to make way for an aquarium I want to put down there. That's the only reason I was considering it at the moment. I rarely see the guy so I might wait and see if he hints alittle stronger or not.
 
It depends on so many factors that we're not aware of. I can think of friends that I would give a pinball to for free and many others who I would not.

From what I know of this situation so far I probably wouldn't be too anxious to give it back without some compensation but it could really go either way.


Well, he's more of a friend to my dad. They are real good friends. I see him maybe 4 to 5 times a year at most, but he has always been nice to me and joked around with me. So if I did decide to give it back, I can't see charging him.
 
Well you got 10 years of fun out of it for what 200-300 bucks. My way I see it you can just treat it like a lease and call it a day, if you don't want to get into a bad blood type of situation. If you enjoyed it for the last decade does it really owe you anything?

Or if he mentions he wants it back say you spent some cash on getting it working and really like it and you would give him a few bucks to keep it if he likes. This lets him know you have money into it and might change his tune
 
My 2 cents would be if he gave it to you within a couple of months, maybe even out a year I would say yes return it but 10 years later??? I guess it comes down to what damage ignoring him will cause in the friendship. If he was honestly asking for the sake of making sure when such time comes for you to get rid of it to remember he would like it back is one thing, if he was pressing the issue that is a whole other.
 
Just tell him that you are not ready to get rid of it and IF that time comes, he'll be the first to know.
 
Several years ago a very good friend was moving out of town, He had a nasty capcom bowling game that he garbage picked. It was the only game he ever had btw. so he was moving and did not want to take it and gave it to me. i ended up putting about $100 into it and then about 4 years later he moved back to town and asked me about it. I told him what I put into it and that it was only worth about that much anyway maybe just a little more. I think we settled on I gave him $50 and I kept the game.
 
I'd give it back, as is. No problem. Do you really need to recoup the few hundred dollars? Think of it as a $2/month rental for the last 10 years, and move on.

After he takes it, be clear that it's his, as-is, and you won't be doing any repairs (for free).

I shouldn't have to say this, but swapping out good parts for bad would be a total douchebag move.
 
I'd give it back, as is. No problem. Do you really need to recoup the few hundred dollars? Think of it as a $2/month rental for the last 10 years, and move on.

After he takes it, be clear that it's his, as-is, and you won't be doing any repairs (for free).

I shouldn't have to say this, but swapping out good parts for bad would be a total douchebag move.

The only part I considered swapping really was the master display since I bought that very recently. It didnt work when he gave it to me, and since the game worked fine without it, I never replaced it till recently
 
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