Last updated: January 22, 2002 - Updated this
page
If
you've
made it this far, then you're probably wondering what the hell I am
complaining
about. I mean come on, why is this "The HELL Story" when I scored all
those
cool games? Look, I got a Joust PINBALL for crap's sake, and yes it
doesn't
work, but they only made 402 of them, and they don't come up for sale
every
day. Allrighty then, settle in and get comfortable, 'cause ole' Madoc's
got a tale to tell...
First, some words of
thanks
to all those who made this trip the fun-filled excursion it was:
Thanks,
Indianapolis Airport Security, for forcing me to check my tools box. I
could have disassembled the plane in-flight just like you suggested I
could,
with my cordless Dremel tool.
Thanks,
United Airlines, for first delaying my flight 1 1/2 hours to replace a
lavatory door, then not transferring my box to my plane. Also, thanks
for
losing same box and allowing me to specifically say I wanted it left at
the ticket counter when it did arrive in Oregon.
Thanks,
Mariott, for fux0r1ng our reservations so I had to switch hotels, and
invalidate
the address I left on my baggage claim slip.
Thanks
again, United, for delivering my box 2 days after I needed it, to the
hotel
I was no longer staying at, rather than keeping it at the counter as
your
representatives assured me you would do.
I'm not bitter. Really.
So,
rather than a bunch of cool pictures of ancient arcade games, I had
this
instead:
Here's a picture of the
counter of the hotel my box containing all my tools and cameras arrived
at:
Here are the contents
of
the box, which I could have used to down the plane I was flying in:
Here is the box itself:
Since the box arrived
too
late to take the pictures I wanted, here's some from my plane window
flying
back from Oregon to Denver, CO:
Pretty,
huh? So, this is the explanation why the pictures in the slideshow are
incomplete - I had other folks taking them wherever and whenever they
could
over the course of a couple of weeks. Not all games in the deal are
pictured
adequately as a result. Add to this the inconveniences of re-checking
our
hotel key cards every day due to them forgetting we were there, air
travel
in general, and the games themselves being completely unprepared for
shipping,
and you may understand my frustration.
Chapter the First, in
which
our Heroes encounter an opportunity..
Okay,
enough
whining. Here's the deal. Bobo (who's Bobo? Did you READ the FAQ?)
asked
about a game on Ebay, the seller said he had that game plus a bunch of
others he'd be willing to sell as part of a bulk deal. Only problem is,
the seller is in mid-west Oregon, while Bobo is in Colorado. Oh yeah,
and
the total cost of the games was a bit much too. So Bobo brought me into
the picture. I wasn't much interested, until I got to the listing for
the
JOUST PINBALL. As I mentioned, these are very rare, even more so than
my
Joust 2. If I could get the pinball and the regular Joust, I'd have
some
kind of Holy Arcade Trinity. I gave my blessing and half the up-front
money,
and booked a flight to Oregon. I had a feeling of dread the morning of
the trip, like something was going to be terribly wrong that day. Since
it didn't feel like DEATH, just annoyance, I proceeded at my own risk.
Gee, I hate being right.
A comedy of errors
ensues
When we
got to the games' location, nothing was prepared for us to move. Doors
on games were missing or misplaced, keys for locks were not marked or
even
present in many cases, and others had doors that could not be secured
for
one reason or another. Originally, we were to also purchase some 30
boxes
of parts and accessories. Having spent my day flying a couple thousand
miles, the second-to-last thing I wanted to do was look over maybe 10
boxes
and a 12x14 room strewn with parts. The VERY last thing I needed was to
have the best items cherry-picked out of the bunch by the seller while
I was standing there, and then be expected to box everything else up
myself.
Personally, if I was the seller, I would have had everything readied
for
departure, to save time and headache, and had the cherry-picking done
long
before the buyer arrived. As it was, we nearly refused the deal because
of it.
Do you want Ramps with
that
truck, sir?
Finally,
we agreed that since we had already sorted through all the crap, we'd
take
what was directly related to the games we were purchasing, and leave
most
of the rest. Besides, we didn't want to waste time having to box things
up. The next day, the promised 52' semi arrived, minus the ramps needed
to wheel the games in. The game location had no usable dock, and unless
I wanted to spend the rest of my trip in the hospital, dead-lifting 5
tons
of games onto a semi was out of the question. So, we awaited the
arrival
of the ramps, but had plenty to do. This is where we put together
locks,
keys, took apart pinball games, and generally got everything ready to
be
moved. Don't get me wrong here - I don't expect everything to be
perfectly
boxed and ready when dealing with an operator in a warehouse deal.
However,
we were dealing with a collector/operator and everything was "on
location",
mixed in with other people's games. Don't even ask about the "pinball
dolly
of death".
"Disaster strikes", or
"Madoc
passes cardio-pulmonary, vascular tests"
We
decided
to
wheel out as many of the closed-up games as possible while awaiting the
arrival of the ramps. The first game to be moved out was Space Invaders
- strangely, it was the one we had the hardest time getting prepared.
It
went without a hitch, mainly because I had nothing to do with the
moving.
But, it was my turn to take a game outside so I chose my new baby,
Joust.
The video one. Put it on the dolly, tilted it back and *RUMBLE SHAKE
SLIDE*
THUD. I was showered with broken glass. Can you guess what it was? I
knew
immediately. The monitor had not been properly secured, and slid into
the
back of the game cabinet, breaking the neck of the tube. "Oops. My tech
must have been working on the monitor and not secured it."
I'll
tell you this - my family crest is not a caveman wielding a club for
nothing.
The Spelman family temper (or "family curse", as told by those who
married
into the family) is famous through 3 states. This is the closest I came
to blowing my top, but I didn't because I had bigger fish to fry at
that
point - United, about my lost box. Have you ever had a dog and two
people
on either side, both calling it, and it can't decide which direction to
go first? This is what kept me out of jail that day. I *ahem* DIRECTED
everyone to open up every machine and make sure all monitors, boards
and
power supplies were secured, no loose parts, etc. before moving it. No
other machines were damaged during moving. No other machines had any
unsecured
parts. Of course.
"I'd check that but my
TOOLS
are in my BOX.."
My
mantra for the day. I swear, get Bobo and I together for any length of
time and we start playing 'Who can be the biggest smart-ass'. I think
Bobo
won.
Head 'em up, move 'em
out!
The
truck ramps arrived, and we successfully moved everything up them and
into
the truck. As you could see from the slideshow pictures, Bobo and I did
the majority of the heavy moving. Here's the order of pain:
Jukebox: "Oh dear god
this
thing is GRUUUUUUNNNNNNNTTTTTTT *gasping* heavy!"
Sprint 2: "What's a hernia
feel like?"
Atari cabs: "I *GRUNT*
F*CKING *GRUNT* HATE *GRUNT* ATARI!"
Stern cabs: "F*cking STERN
cabinet"
Bally: "Hey, I think this
used to be a Pac-Man!"
Nintendo: "I've got this
one!" "No, I've got it" "No, it's my turn" *SCUFFLE*
Pinball: "Let's not use
the dolly, I looked at it cross-eyed and it almost collapsed."
Lucky
us, we started around 9am, the ramps arrived at 1pm, and we had the
semi
on it's way by 6pm. A few days later it arrived in Canon City, where it
was unloaded and the contents stored for the time being. Now comes the
fun part...
Added January 22, 2002:
Chapter the Second, A Deal
Gone Bad
Rule
#2 in life is "You never REALLY know someone until you go into a
business
deal with them." The corollary to that is "Never go into a business
deal
with a friend if you wish them to remain one."
I
have
very mixed feelings about writing this section. On the one hand, it all
really happened this way, and I have the e-mails to prove it. On the
other
hand, I don't really wish to make things more difficult for Bobo in
getting
rid of his games. I don't think a cautious buyer has anything to worry
about when dealing with him, but I would advise taking prudent
precautions.
I would advise anyone dealing with an unknown individual through
e-mail,
the same way. Regardless, this web page is here to document the tale of
a deal gone bad, and to serve as a warning to other collectors that
some
deals come with a hidden price tag.
A Simple Plan..
I had
heard
for 6 months before this deal that my Discs of Tron environmental would
be brought out to me the following month, starting in January 2001.
After
the deal, we had committed to a $4000 payout and an additional $4000 in
installment payments, plus another $3000+ for shipping from Oregon to
Colorado.
The goal for me was three-fold: 1. Sell enough working games to pay for
shipping costs and some of the installments 2. Get some games working
and
then sell those 3. Have, at minimum, the 3 games I wanted plus my EDOT
shipped to me. About 1/3 of the games should have been "no-brainers" as
far as getting them going and out the door. Another 1/3 were good only
for parting out, and the final 1/3 needed some intensive care but
probably
could be salvaged. We worked out what we wanted for each game, and I
asked
Bobo to get the "no-brainers" sold. As he was telling me he had
commitments
on at least 5 games right away, I didn't think it was a problem.
"Cherry..Cherry..LEMON?!
Doh!
Stupid lemon!"
When June
progressed
into July and nothing had been heard yet, I asked about the progress of
selling the games. Every buyer had backed out or flaked out for one
reason
or another. I had SOLID sales leads from here for some of those and had
to tell them the games were sold, then I'd turn around and find out
they
weren't but Bobo had someone else interested. This game of ping-pong
continued
without producing an actual SALE for a couple of months. More promises
were made to bring out games and again were pushed back to later dates.
Meanwhile I would get indications every so often that our installment
payments
were not going to continue to be paid out. I had let Bobo handle all of
that and found myself more than once having to explain to the seller
how
Bobo's being late with the payment by 2-3 WEEKS had nothing to do with
me personally.
"Patience be damned!
I'm gonna
go kill something!"
Eventually,
I tired of the ping-pong game (or is that Ponzi?) and decided to take
control
of the situation. The dilemma I was facing was how was I going to get
out
of this bad situation? I didn't have physical control of any of these
games,
and as I was paying Bobo who was paying the seller, I had no control of
when our money went out. We were paying late fees of $5/day and I had
the
seller calling me at home because he could never reach Bobo. I could
have
sold my stake in the enterprise to Bobo, if he had the money, but would
still be without my EDOT, which was separate from The Deal. Nor could I
afford to both buy him out and spend another $3000 to haul all the
games
another 1100 miles to Indiana. I saw my best bet as figuring up the
value
of all the games (minus our "keepers"), if sold in good working
condition.
I'd take that value and subtract half the shipping from OR to CO, and
pick
games equal to that value. To get him to agree to this I deliberately
chose
several games that were of decent value but not working. This way he
could
sell the good working ones quickly (haha) for cash if needed. I picked
11 games, plus my Joust, Joust pin, and EDOT, to which Bobo agreed, and
seemed to agree to bring out in a truck with a trailer, or to drive out
in a U-Haul.
When 14 equals 13..
Having
put Bobo into a corner, he quickly backed out of the transportation
agreement
I believed we had. I contacted a private shipper and had him go out to
CoS and pick up the requested games. Granted, this would cost $1800 but
at least I'd have my stuff and be done with any more dealings. My
frustration
level was high, as it was now early September and still no games had
been
sold or shipped. We did this deal in JUNE. After some confusion about
the
time and day for Bobo and the shipper to get together, games finally
got
loaded and the shipper was off to Indianapolis. As games were unloaded
at my house I discovered neither Bobo nor the shipper had bothered to
consult
the list of games I had provided them both. As a result, I ended up
with
Mr. Do's Wild Ride instead of the Mr. Do game, and instead of 14 games,
only 13 showed up.. 13?!? And guess which was missing? One of the few
games
I actually had a buyer for, Donkey Kong. I got a small discount for the
shipping because of the error but still was not only short a game, but
was short that money I had been counting on getting from my buyer!
Let the
finger-pointing commence!
It's my
opinion that if you make a deal with someone, you follow through on it.
A deal was struck in good faith then broken, and I was a part of it.
I'll
never be able to make that "right" and am thankful that the seller in
this
deal did not hold me fully or personally responsible for the debacle.
Another
lesson or two for you, the gentle reader of this warning, to take with
you before you make your next deal: Don't trust anyone to hold an
original
copy of a contract for you and send it to you later. Don't ask someone
to enforce that contract without either party having proof of breach.
Whose
responsibility is it to check to make sure everything is correct when
someone
delivers goods from one place to another? All three parties. Who
actually
checked in this deal? Me. Yet, somehow it wasn't anyone else's fault
things
were not delivered to me as promised. When, later that week, a game I
was
holding for Bobo was picked up by a third party, who do you think took
the time to check to make sure we had everything? Me and the shipper.
Why?
It was our responsibility to do so.
I've got a buyer for
that
game for $500 er $275 er $150 er...
So I
was
one game short and out $500. My final payment to Bobo, to be forwarded
along with his payment, was $500. Well, we agreed Bobo would sell the
DK
and send that money along with his $500. As Bobo had *4 or 5* potential
buyers for that game lined up, it would be no problem getting it sold.
Well all the $500 buyers dropped out, but someone would buy it for
something
like $275. I said "Fine just get it sold" then got in return "Well the
buyer backed out but someone wants to buy it for about $150"
paraphrased.
At this point, it is NOVEMBER. I'm ready to be done with all this. The
friendship was toast about the time he talked about reneging on the
final
payment and then asked me to deal with the seller because the October
payment
was late. I didn't think I'd ever see any money from this so I told him
to sell it for anything he could, and send the money on. I would send
the
seller the difference between my $500 and what he sent. At the same
time,
I sent my $500 to the seller and told him if Bobo actually sent more
than
$500 to send me back the difference. Last I heard from the seller was
in
early December, and he had not yet received a payment from Bobo, and
Bobo
was ignoring his messages.
It's done, done, done!
So far,
I have sold about half the games I got out of the deal. Two of those
had
to be parted out because they were so screwed up. The other half is
working
well except Dig Dug (which I have not started on yet) but I have to
sell
them for near-Ebay prices to see any money back out of this venture.
I'm
out $5800, a spare Flash backglass, Joust pin manual, Centipede NOS
marquee,
and whatever I've spent for repairing boards, joysticks, monitors, etc.
I've made back just $1310 so far. I hope to make as much as $2350 from
the remaining games, which would make me just about break even on the 2
games I'm keeping out of the deal - but only if I sold them.
Was
it worth it? On the one hand, I've learned much about a variety of
arcade
games, worked on my first pinballs, and gained some valuable insight on
the nature of humanity *snort*. My original goal was simply to get a
Joust
pinball. Along the way, I've lost a good amount of money, two
friendships,
sleep, hair, a parking space, and above all, I feel like I've lost some
honor. No. It was not worth it. Nor would I do it ever again.
M.O.
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Copyright
2002 Madoc Owain