What was your worst dry run?

88mph

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One time I went out to pick up a Night Driver upright (working) that was about an hour and a half away from me. I had called the guy to arrange for the pickup, and even called him just before I hopped in the car to go. I get to his place, and no one is there. I could see the machine through the garage windows (it looked to be in great shape). I tried calling him, but no answer. After hanging around for a while I just headed home..

That's my worst dry run--what about yours?
 
Worst: The douchebag who sent me to a non-existent address in Caldwell... I drove around for 30 minutes pissed. Knocked on a few doors near where the address was "supposed" to be. Douchebag was probably in one of the houses laughing at my ass.
 
the ellusive Q*bert...

For the last 2.5 weeks I have been trying to deal with this douche about his Q*bert. Long story short his email address doesn't always work supposedly. I had to find him on Twitter and sign up and use that crappy service. Did some searching for his phone number and it has been disconnected. He lives 80 miles away from me and I think I know his address but I dont just want to show up that wouldn't be kosher. Been checking twitter and all four of my email addresses like every few hours for over 2 weeks. I hear a little here and there from him then nothing. He keeps saying he is going to email me pics and I never get them. He claims he did email me pics and I never got them. I tweet him and he acts like he never gets it. He Tweets how is going to have to sell his Q*bert on ebay and I am like WTF I thought you were going to sell it to me locally. This Shite is getting old fast. I don't know what the deal is with people selling arcade machines I have had and heard of people getting the shaft and getting strung along like crazy lately. Oh and this guy contacted me it wasn't like I contacted him originally. Its 2 frustrating to go into all the details but if I don't have something in line for me looking at the thing in a week I am going to tell this guy off big time. That is if I can get a hold of him. lol I wouldn't go through this much work just to bone a really hot chick its just to much of a pain in the ass the only thing is I REALLY want a Q*bert.
 
How about an "almost" dry run for the other person?

I delivered a pinball from Austin, Tx to Harlingen, Tx (about 5.5 hours one way). We called the lady the day before to confirm, and everything was good. I had a buddy ride along to help with the driving, as we planned to be there by 9am.

We left at 2:30am and headed down. Driving thru the night (no traffic), we got there way early (like 7am), so we went looking for a place for breakfast. Finally found a place that wasn't a 'taqueria', and killed some time. Finally get close to our scheduled time and we head over to her house - and she's not home!

We call the number we were given, and can hear the phone ringing inside. Her little dog is yapping at us through the window. We call back to Austin and make my boss head to the office early (we normally open at 10) to find another phone number. He gets a cell number and get the voice mail. He leaves a message, gives us the cell number, and tells us to wait for a while. We fall asleep in the truck.

About two hours later we're still waiting. The cell phone battery is dying, so we go looking for (and find) a Radio Shack to buy a car charger. While we're doing that, we get a call from my boss saying the lady just called and was on her way home. Apparently, even though we talked to her yesterday, she woke up this morning and completely forgot we were coming, so she went shopping. :rolleyes: Of course, she left her phone in her car.

Finally got the game inside and set up, played a few games to make sure it was okay, and headed home. Hit a lot of traffic on the way back (including one border patrol checkpoint) and hit Austin about 7pm...
 
Hate peaple like that. I make a point to always be early or at least on time for every appointment personal or business.
 
Mine was a 1-hr trip to pick up my TRON, and after fighting with 13 concrete stairs and my piece of shit handtruck, failing at acquiring the machine.............



Luckily, I got to go back the following weekend with a bigger handtruck and more help. Mission accomplished.
 
How about an "almost" dry run for the other person?

I delivered a pinball from Austin, Tx to Harlingen, Tx (about 5.5 hours one way). We called the lady the day before to confirm, and everything was good. I had a buddy ride along to help with the driving, as we planned to be there by 9am.

We left at 2:30am and headed down. Driving thru the night (no traffic), we got there way early (like 7am), so we went looking for a place for breakfast. Finally found a place that wasn't a 'taqueria', and killed some time. Finally get close to our scheduled time and we head over to her house - and she's not home!

We call the number we were given, and can hear the phone ringing inside. Her little dog is yapping at us through the window. We call back to Austin and make my boss head to the office early (we normally open at 10) to find another phone number. He gets a cell number and get the voice mail. He leaves a message, gives us the cell number, and tells us to wait for a while. We fall asleep in the truck.

About two hours later we're still waiting. The cell phone battery is dying, so we go looking for (and find) a Radio Shack to buy a car charger. While we're doing that, we get a call from my boss saying the lady just called and was on her way home. Apparently, even though we talked to her yesterday, she woke up this morning and completely forgot we were coming, so she went shopping. :rolleyes: Of course, she left her phone in her car.

Finally got the game inside and set up, played a few games to make sure it was okay, and headed home. Hit a lot of traffic on the way back (including one border patrol checkpoint) and hit Austin about 7pm...

Mine was similar to this, 3 hour drive one way to pick up a pool table, call the guy the day before to arrange pickup, everything set up. Arrive at the guys business (Pool table/game store) at the agreed time, which was 2 hours after the stores listed opening time. I call his number and can hear the phone ring inside the store:confused: call the emergency contact number listed on the door, no answer. Head down the street to stop for lunch, come back 2 hours later, still not open. Half hour later he Finally answers his cell (emergency contact number) and show up 20 minutes later to let us in. He comes in bleary eyed and mumbles that he doesnt open up every day, and I dont think he was even alert enough to realize that he had just talked to me the night before
 
My friend really liked my TZ so he asked me to look out for one. Saw one for sale in Reno for $2000 about 5 years ago and it looked nice. Was told it was really nice. Mentioned it to my friend and showed him the pics. He drove from L.A. to Reno for this thing. The seller forgot to mention that the previous owner replaced a bunch of the under playfield screws with ones that were about a 1/4 inch too long. The pics convienently didn't show the damage but there were holes and/or pushed up wood all around the playfield. Also, the translite from the photos had clearly been replaced with a cheap repro. I really felt like I let my friend down especially because I didn't go with him and he bought it anyway.
 
Went to go get a Bump N Jump and never could find the address. I found the street. I think it was a joke but a member here said he was there the day before. They emailed later thanking me for picking up the game which I never got.
 
Not video-game related, but I was (still am) looking for a parts car for my station wagon. Found one in a "local" paper. Call the guy, he's in NYC (I am 2 hours away). Guy tells me yeah, it's a Buick, only 35,000 miles on it!! $400. I'm like, it's perfect, right? Grab a buddy, jump in his car, got the cash, drive ALL the way to NYC on my ONE day off.

Get to the Bronx, find the address (love that GPS!), and the father is deaf, the son is challenged (to be nice), the car is beat, and it's a FORD?!

I bought myself a GPS on the way home for me, and we had NY pizza, so it wasn't a TOTAL loss, but yeah....

Video game related, found a non-working Blackout pin FS, call the guy. Yes, he has it. Ok, I'll come get it tomorrow. Call him in the morning, can't reach him. Get ready to leave and he calls me back. "Oh, yeah, a guy came and picked it up yesterday. It's sold." Great thing I called BEFORE I left the house that day.

And, when I bought my Turtles machine, I had to pick it up twice. First time, I brought the wagon. I've moved games in it before, no big deal. Apparently, Konami 4-player cabs are a LITTLE bit bigger than the opening of the car door (because it slopes on the corners a little bit). Got the machine in all the way to the CP. If I had some ratchet straps, I could have just tied it in, but I ended up going back with my truck to get it. The thing that really sucked was it was an hour drive away, so it was a lot of gas/time wasted. But it was worth it in the end.
 
Back when my wife was on bed rest during a high-risk pregnanc...ohhhhh Dry RUN! I thought you said dry spell. ;)

Nope, never had one of those. Like the dude from the movie Grindhouse, I never miss.
 
a local guy that had a junk shop told me that his brother had some pinball machines. the brother contacted me and i drove one afternoon all the way to Atlanta near the airport to look at the machines. he had a Evil Knievel and a Black Knight. after checking them out, both machines had battery acid damage on the mother boards. the playfields needed repaired, the back glass on both had bad paint loss, ect, ect. in other words they needed a total shop out. i offered him 300 for both, and i think that was a good offer since he was not going to do anything with them. he excepted my offer. it had rained earlier that day and he thought i would get stuck behind the house. i asked if i could come back in two days to pick them up, he said ok.
i called him the night before to make plans to come get the pins the next morning. he stated he had been talking to a buddy (damn those buddys) and he came to the conclusion that these games restored can bring well over a thousand dollars each and that he could not take 300 for both. he was now stating he needed 800 each since they are so valuable restored. i said well, a person has to spend a lot of money to get it to this value. i told him its not worth it to me to pay 800 for a non working pin that in this kind of condition and spend 500 to 1000 plus my labor getting it back in good shape. this guy only saw the the value of what it could be. he said well, ill just get my son to put it on ebay. i have not seen it listed for over 4 years now.
so, bottom line it was a wasted trip, wasted time, and wasted gas for nothing.
 
I try not to even look at a game unless I have cash + a truck to take it immediately. It's too easy for an *advisor* to make the seller doubt their price. Not to say sellers should be taken advantage of, but most of them have no idea what it takes to get a machine in top shape and sold for top dollar.

As for dry runs; about 20 years ago there was an ad in the paper for a 57 Chevy Convertible project car for $1K, no phone number, just an address. My buddy and I jump in the car and head out, but it turns out there isn't an exact match in Kansas City. We notice several other cars circling the block looking for what we assume is the same car.

Thinking it could be one of the surrounding cities, we head off in the next logical direction. No luck there, but the same scenario with other cars circling the block. Finally after visiting four towns, we give up. One house that did match the street number had actually put up a cardboard sign warning everyone that no car was for sale there.

Either a great joke on all of us, or someone got a great deal.
 
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