Sale/Trade Horror Stories

[Waffles]

Because I was way too young at the time I started getting into retro collecting (barely a teen at the beginning), I didn't really have many resources to grow a collection. Thrift store finds and "donations" from friends (who just wanted to clear out inventory from their already crammed rooms and saw no use in holding on to their childhood consoles) was my main source of retro junk.

However, at one point I really wanted to expand on that and began dwelling into the extraordinarily shady world of board-based marketplaces.

The "horror story" I'm about to share happened about 99% due to me being a gullible teenager who really didn't know what they were doing, but it still bothers me nonetheless.

I had just posted my beloved console on an auction site (I needed the money to fuel another obsession) and I had also posted links to the sale on a forum I was a regular of at the time... well, someone contacted me on that forum (on behalf of another person) and started talking to me about how much better of an offer they could make if I just cancelled the auction. I saw no problem with that (since I somewhat trusted the person acting as in-betweener) and accepted.

This person... was nuts.

They complained endlessly about the stupidest junk, they keep bringing on things that had already been agreed upon a million times before, and they kept going at it even after the point of sale. One night I found myself being dragged to a group chat on MSN Messenger where him, the person who had contacted me on that forum and half-a-dozen of others started verbally abusing me over something that had been talked about endlessly and I thought had been made clear.

NOW, I should mention that I messed up, too. I'm not a 100% innocent. I failed to pack the thing properly and I think one of the accompanying carts got damaged as a result. That, I'm owning up to. But this guy was three decades my senior at the time and acted like I had just killed his dog or something. It was really quite jarring.

It, thankfully, didn't go further than that (not when I could block the lot and leave that forum, which I guess was a good advantage of those days), but it made me so bitter than I never went back to selling anything outside of a few selected sites.

What about you? Any stories to share?

 

[Yousef]

A lot of guys I traded with came back with damaged cases and even one time traded me a non functioning disc

And the one time my trade went completely fine, I was sadly going through a rough day, and when I say me I mean my dad who was really really angry one day and when he got mad, he can be really unpleasant and uncooperative, which led me to almost losing a game but even worse; I would’ve looked like I broke a deal because I had no way of informing my friend since I didn’t have his phone number. My dad thankfully gave in eventually and the trade-back went fine and we both got back our games and everything was fine and dandy, PTSD notwithstanding.

 

[Waffles]

even one time traded me a non functioning disc

Always hated that!

 

[Yousef]

Always hated that!

Yup! Although opening up about the downer stories has helped me remember, a really good friend traded me call of duty ghosts and last of us, which I did enjoy, so there’s there’s that

 

[Inkingsama]

I have no trade horror stories, I got a good deal both times, traded sonic lost world 3ds for mario kart 7 y pokemon white 2 for pokemon pearl. One time i almost got one of my cousins to trade his mario 64 ds for one spider man game i had but he asked his parents first and they got pissed like i was stealing his game...which i kinda almost did, to be honest.

The only story i have which is more about regret than horror is that i sold my DSI XL for very cheap to my aunt when i should have charged like triple the amount because she didn't want to give me a discount for the wii she was selling but i was young and thought i was being nice(aka a stupid moron), and the console didn't last like a full year after that anyway because the kid she gave the DSI to left the console besides an open window and it rained and the thing got severely wet. What a dumbass. Now i have to play with a ds lite and it hurts my hands. I miss that DSI...

 

[Gorse]

I was the horror in this story. READ ON... IF YOU DARE!

At around age 13 or so, my friend had just bought an R4 card for his DS, and was selling off all his games. (He would later come to heavily regret this.) I, a PSP devout at that point, had just been gifted a spiffy new 3DS, and was looking to build up my collection.

My friend had this big binder thing (one of those cloth ones that zipped up) with a bunch of different pockets in it, each one containing – so we both thought – one DS cartridge each. (Remember, those things are tiny.) He gave me a deal: I'd choose a pocket, pay him two dollars, he'd open the pocket, and I could have whatever game was inside. Easy.

I pointed to a pocket and paid two dollars. He opened it, and there were two games inside. We laughed for a bit – I'd gotten quite the deal! Two games was nice, I thought, but three would be even better. So I point to another pocket and pay him two dollars. He opens the next pocket. A DS cartridge spills out. Then another. And another. My friend's face turns white as he realizes what he'd done. He had not put each individual cartridge in each individual pocket – he'd stuffed ALL his games into the one I'd chosen and forgotten about it, with the first pocket clearly being overflow.

I walk off with about 15 DS cartridges for $4 (about $0.26 per game), whistling all the way.

 

[Yousef]

I was the horror in this story. READ ON... IF YOU DARE!

At around age 13 or so, my friend had just bought an R4 card for his DS, and was selling off all his games. (He would later come to heavily regret this.) I, a PSP devout at that point, had just been gifted a spiffy new 3DS, and was looking to build up my collection.

My friend had this big binder thing (one of those cloth ones that zipped up) with a bunch of different pockets in it, each one containing – so we both thought – one DS cartridge each. (Remember, those things are tiny.) He gave me a deal: I'd choose a pocket, pay him two dollars, he'd open the pocket, and I could have whatever game was inside. Easy.

I pointed to a pocket and paid two dollars. He opened it, and there were two games inside. We laughed for a bit – I'd gotten quite the deal! Two games was nice, I thought, but three would be even better. So I point to another pocket and pay him two dollars. He opens the next pocket. A DS cartridge spills out. Then another. And another. My friend's face turns white as he realizes what he'd done. He had not put each individual cartridge in each individual pocket – he'd stuffed ALL his games into the one I'd chosen and forgotten about it, with the first pocket clearly being overflow.

I walk off with about 15 DS cartridges for $4 (about $0.26 per game), whistling all the way.

 

[Inkingsama]

. He had not put each individual cartridge in each individual pocket – he'd stuffed ALL his games into the one I'd chosen and forgotten about it, with the first pocket clearly being overflow.

Why didn't he take back the deal? I would have given your 2 dollars back and make another offer. Which games did you get?

 

[Gorse]

Why didn't he take back the deal? I would have given your 2 dollars back and make another offer. Which games did you get?

It was a done deal, baby! We were both very honourable gentlemen, I assure you.

I'm sure that, at the time, he wasn't thinking about how much more he could sell each of those games to someone else – he must have just been happy to get rid of them, because he was really excited about his R4. Unfortunately, that little devil ran games way, way slower than retail copies, and I never gave his cartridges back! Nyah-nyah!

They were great games, too! I don't remember all of them, but I definitely got things like Donkey Kong Jungle Climber (or whatever the DS version of that is called), Pokemon Trozei, Pokemon Dash, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and Sonic Rush, along with lots of shit shovelware like Prey the Stars and some abhorrent geography educational game. Still fills out spaces in the 3DS software library app, though!

 

[owari_da]

I've got a story for you: when I was like 15-16 y.o. girfriend made some "boob flash" on Polaroid and gifted it to me, I was kinda ScArEd that mom or dad will find that photo, and so I hid it behind paper of Gran Turismo 4 box, aaaaand friends were picking it from me to play like every now and then, but(i guess and hope) nobody ever didn't found it.