Have you ever dealt with unpleasant sellers? Did they affect your decision of pulling the trigger on a purchase?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I got into retro collecting fairly early on, making my first purchase in 2005.

This had started out fine and innocent enough, with small shops and former video stores liquidating their leftover inventory, but then it snowballed following both the advent of YouTube and the emergence of the AVGN as the "banner-carrier" of the whole nostalgic "movement", which made everyone and they grandma dig through attics, basements and wardrobes in search of those dusty, yellowed and smelly pieces of plastic that they had discarded like unwanted mail years back and were now praying to the gods that they still worked (although, a few bold ones had tried to sell broken ones as well), all whilst getting the real-life equivalent of dollar signs plastered over their eyes. It was a wild, wild time.

And, to be perfectly fair, a lot of these people were pleasant enough to deal with (once you got over just how much they wanted to overcharge you and a few annoying but ultimately unremarkable quirks they had when dealing with these suddenly hot, high-demanding stuff they were in possession of), but there was an almost subculture of people who really wanted to make a point out of how much advantage they had by being the sellers, and a lot of them were known for populating retro game/oldies forums and auction sites, stalking their marketplaces.

I remember one guy (whom, should be noted, was in his late 30s at the time), saying that he wouldn't sell a game to a kid because he didn't think the kid would "respect it enough" (?!), and another one I had actually tried doing business with saying that he "wouldn't make a list" of games he owned when asked which titles he would be willing to part with... this was on his very own selling thread, BTW. I didn't do business with this guy because he was clearly on a power trip and I could smell his BS though the screen, but he was actually tame when compared with a third guy who frequented those same boards.

Looking back on it, he was probably trolling... or was just very, very maladjusted. Whatever the case, I remember reading book-sized complains about this one changing the terms of the transaction on-the-fly, complaining when items not agreed upon were absent from the final sale, and just being very unpleasant all-around. I even read that somebody was dragged into a huge group chat with this guy and many of his friends who had tried to bully a seller into lowering the price of his item, but I wasn't able to comfirm that and the guy vanished shortly thereafter anyway.

My experience on the "retro market" has been largely a positive one, but man... It has also certainly taught me when to up and leave when pursuing a game or item I want, and this was a pretty useful lesson to learn at 15.

What about you? Ever dealt with these fine specimens yourself? Did they stop you from buying/selling or did you just go ahead anyway, knowing that you'd never have to talk to them again afterwards?

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Oh, several. I’ve avoided an entire mall due to this, and the local retro market where I live can get extremely scummy. Found a few decent folks though.

 

[Segadude113]

I got into retro collecting fairly early on, making my first purchase in 2005.

This had started out fine and innocent enough, with small shops and former video stores liquidating their leftover inventory, but then it snowballed following both the advent of YouTube and the emergence of the AVGN as the "banner-carrier" of the whole nostalgic "movement", which made everyone and they grandma dig through attics, basements and wardrobes in search of those dusty, yellowed and smelly pieces of plastic that they had discarded like unwanted mail years back and were now praying to the gods that they still worked (although, a few bold ones had tried to sell broken ones as well), all whilst getting the real-life equivalent of dollar signs plastered over their eyes. It was a wild, wild time.

And, to be perfectly fair, a lot of these people were pleasant enough to deal with (once you got over just how much they wanted to overcharge you and a few annoying but ultimately unremarkable quirks they had when dealing with these suddenly hot, high-demanding stuff they were in possession of), but there was an almost subculture of people who really wanted to make a point out of how much advantage they had by being the sellers, and a lot of them were known for populating retro game/oldies forums and auction sites, stalking their marketplaces.

I remember one guy (whom, should be noted, was in his late 30s at the time), saying that he wouldn't sell a game to a kid because he didn't think the kid would "respect it enough" (?!), and another one I had actually tried doing business with saying that he "wouldn't make a list" of games he owned when asked which titles he would be willing to part with... this was on his very own selling thread, BTW. I didn't do business with this guy because he was clearly on a power trip and I could smell his BS though the screen, but he was actually tame when compared with a third guy who frequented those same boards.

Looking back on it, he was probably trolling... or was just very, very maladjusted. Whatever the case, I remember reading book-sized complains about this one changing the terms of the transaction on-the-fly, complaining when items not agreed upon were absent from the final sale, and just being very unpleasant all-around. I even read that somebody was dragged into a huge group chat with this guy and many of his friends who had tried to bully a seller into lowering the price of his item, but I wasn't able to comfirm that and the guy vanished shortly thereafter anyway.

My experience on the "retro market" has been largely a positive one, but man... It has also certainly taught me when to up and leave when pursuing a game or item I want, and this was a pretty useful lesson to learn at 15.

What about you? Ever dealt with these fine specimens yourself? Did they stop you from buying/selling or did you just go ahead anyway, knowing that you'd never have to talk to them again afterwards?

Yep. All the time. One game store tried to charge me 100 bucks for Shining Force when the price was 50 bucks. His excuse was that was the one day of the week when game prices were double. Made no sense whatsoever. I wanted to buy it to show my best friend the game that inspired me since my best friend introduced me to that game store. The guy working there was full of himself. He was into fantasy metal and D&D but a total snob about both. He kept going out for smoke breaks too. He blamed low customers on location. lol

 

[qw90700]

Most of my retro 2nd hand experience is because of Sega Genesis games. I never bought from anyone who didn't bother to take pic of inside of the cartidge to confirm the cartidge has no damage due to the scam of using broken games that looks "ok" from outside, and when you try to explain why you ask pic the guys are like "don't you trust me??? how could you call me scammer" and I'm like "dude chill no one call you scammer. send pics or no buy" lol.

Another thing, the scam of replacing the inside of the cartridge with another game. Then I prefer to test the game somehow and if the person can't prove it or won't allow me test the game myself by even bringing my Sega Genesis and its stuff to the seller's place then the deal is off.

Another thing, some people try to sell a game for a price that's too high than market price and how much these games were sold back then just because "it's oldie goodie so more valuable" but they don't think as time passes it is more likely to not work ok anymore. And they have no common sense to reduce the price to the normal market price. They say "but it was from my late father" like I would care, dude am I also buying your father's ghost? lolol

I had specific bad experiences with some buyers. Once I agreed to meet with the guy at his place to test the game but when I arrived the guy said "dude I sold the game to someone else, let me show you other games" which the games I had no care for and I was like "nah I'mma leave" he was like "dude I need money for my sick kid to afford his medical field, help the dude out buying some of these games and please don't haggle" and I'm like "I don't care but if you are sincere I hope your kid will get well" lol.

Once we tested the game and it turned out the game didn't actually contain the game it was supposed to so I told the guy "dude its inside is switched" and the guy said "dude what the fuck you saying? This game is legit" but dude this game wasn't supposed to be another game like I wouldn't know lolol.

Once the game was so in bad condition it wasn't always working despite no amount of cleaning. So I said "dude deal is off, see ya" and the guy was "you ain't walking away" and some dudes showed up trying to intimidate me "pay it or we beat you" and I said "nah, do you want me to call the police now? for a video game? this shit ain't kindergarten" and after some verbal fight I just walked away.

lolol

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

I drove for 2 hours to purchase a Sony E540 CRT 20" Monitor and when i pulled up, he didn't want to plug it in. Telling me that "I don't know how to fix these kinds of things" and "it has an EPROM error" really rude and saying shit like I never fix these things before. I walked away before he apologized, i bought it. Brought it back home, it just has a brightness issue which I used Windas to fix with a light capture device. Send him a picture of it fixed the next day.
Doubted me will you!

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I don't swear much, in public or at home. The few times I do tend to be when I see how much people or businesses are overcharging for something. Usually makes me go "fuck right off, mate!"
Much like the gentleman mentioned here:

His excuse was that was the one day of the week when game prices were double. Made no sense whatsoever

That gives me real "fuck right off, mate!" vibes

Thankfully though, most actual people I've bought stuff from have been cool. eBay sellers, store employees... third thing. It's usually the businesses themselves that stop me from buying

Amazon cancelled a pre-order I'd made without telling me, and when I asked about it they told me to just place the order again, even though the same item had DOUBLED in price!

I stopped going to my Gamestop equivalent because they were hounding me about a PAID SUBSCRIPTION to get access to their sales. Even now I see on their website that they have "exclusive deals" if you've been a paying member for 12 months

Not to mention the people on eBay who charge CIB (complete in box) prices for loose games, cover inserts or just the manual. Some even use CIB in the title for better search results, but aren't actually selling anything CIB!

 

[bjork]

I started going to game stores in the mid-90s and there were a handful where it would be listed as a game store, but it was like a comic or sports card shop that also happened to carry games. So as such, they didn't know games as well as the cards or comics. Sometimes it would be like "oh, the game guy isn't here today so I can't sell you that." Which, I get the argument that it isn't yours to sell, but why not cover the display or something, or list the days the guy is there so I can buy some stuff?

There was also a shift with the rise of ebay. I've never been one to haggle, but knew people who would and they could get a few bucks knocked off if they pointed out condition issues or whatever. But once ebay got big enough? Forget it. "This is [dollars] on ebay, this price is more than fair" became pretty common. I'm sorry, but your cartridge-only copy of some NES game does not command the same price as a sealed new copy. It just doesn't. But a lot of those shop people wouldn't budge on that stuff, and so a lot of shops that were cool otherwise, came and went. It's a shame.

Post automatically merged: Today at 6:21 PM

I stopped going to my Gamestop equivalent because they were hounding me about a PAID SUBSCRIPTION to get access to their sales. Even now I see on their website that they have "exclusive deals" if you've been a paying member for 12 months

I stopped when they refused to sell me an item without giving them an email address. I said I didn't have one and the guy goes, "...everyone has one." I was paying with cash, and he said it was impossible to complete the transaction without it. So I just said ok and left. That's just ridiculous.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I never bought from anyone who didn't bother to take pic of inside of the cartidge

Yeah, I never buy from anyone on eBay unless they have plenty of pictures showing the game. Some people just take a picture of the front of the case and call it a day. I don't care if that seller is way cheaper, I can't trust that.

I stopped when they refused to sell me an item without giving them an email address. I said I didn't have one and the guy goes, "...everyone has one." I was paying with cash, and he said it was impossible to complete the transaction without it. So I just said ok and left. That's just ridiculous.

It wasn't that bad last time I was there, but I haven't gone in a while. So who knows? I'd have walked away too. Even if you were paying by card, they shouldn't need your email

 

[bjork]

It wasn't that bad last time I was there, but I haven't gone in a while. So who knows? I'd have walked away too. Even if you were paying by card, they shouldn't need your email

This was in the 360 era, so it's been a long time. I did go in one about two weeks ago just to see how it had changed, and they've had to change with the times, but it just seems like a hodgepodge of nostalgia merchandise and they also happen to have a few games. Not really what I'm looking for, heh.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Well, not in the gaming sense no

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Another thing, the scam of replacing the inside of the cartridge with another game.

Oh, man... That was so incredibly common in my area, but I was unsure to bring it up because it seemed like such an "online forum" thing to do that it didn't seem possible to have spreaded XD

 

[Questless Knight]

Nope no one can affect my decision on what games I buy. My taste and my wallet makes all decisions.
Hell not even reviews effect what´s games I buy.

It´s enough Im a slave in this world to companies and to the government but when it comes to games not a single F-ing human being on this planet will tell me what to buy or not buy when it comes to games.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Nope no one can affect my decision on what games I buy. My taste and my wallet makes all decisions.
Hell not even reviews effect what´s games I buy.

It´s enough Im a slave in this world to companies and to the government but when it comes to games not a single F-ing human being on this planet will tell me what to buy or not buy when it comes to games.

Not buy but buy a game! Got you! Now your force to make a decision that is out of your control!

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I stopped when they refused to sell me an item without giving them an email address. I said I didn't have one and the guy goes, "...everyone has one." I was paying with cash, and he said it was impossible to complete the transaction without it. So I just said ok and left. That's just ridiculous.

Good. On. You.

The second I'm paying with physical cash, every "verification" thing they try to pull should go out of the window. And the attitude on top? Screw that -- no matter how common something is, there's no reason to assume people have or are willing to disclose it. It's the same with smartphones and other things: society just assumes you have them and are unable to process otherwise.

 

[qw90700]

Amazon cancelled a pre-order I'd made without telling me, and when I asked about it they told me to just place the order again, even though the same item had DOUBLED in price!

Ugghhhh damn bloody twatty Amazon!!! I don't usually say "Avada Kedavra" but Amazon made me say it several times!!

Once I registered on Amazon to buy Battlefield 1 for cheap. I bought the game and waited for CD-Key and suddenly *bam* "your account is deleted" and why? No one knows!!! Good thing I didn't lose much money but it's just an Avada Kedavra moment lolol. Since then I have never used Amazon. FIN!!! lol

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I drove for 2 hours to purchase a Sony E540 CRT 20" Monitor and when i pulled up, he didn't want to plug it in. Telling me that "I don't know how to fix these kinds of things" and "it has an EPROM error" really rude and saying shit like I never fix these things before. I walked away before he apologized, i bought it. Brought it back home, it just has a brightness issue which I used Windas to fix with a light capture device. Send him a picture of it fixed the next day.
Doubted me will you!
View attachment 112087

Aye this looks pretty sick

 

[jon2]

Not games, but yes; bad sales service kept me from buying stuff

Even food: I'd rather not eat than give them my money