Collector's frustration (missed deals, deals gone bad, general mishaps)

[dondetti]

This depressing thread is for stories of how you got unlucky: games that arrived broken or not at all, terrific one of a kind deals that you missed by a hair, finding out that your super mint & complete game you paid top dollar for turned out to be in terrible conditions or incomplete, opened a parcel with a paper cutter and cut the outer game box in the process, your game shelf broke down and ruined half of your well kept collection, bought a rarity and received a shitty russian repro - all of your collecting mishaps that made your heart sank.

One of my most memorable ones happened some years ago. My mom is a regular flea market goer and knows I'm a game nut so she casually looks after my main console interests. So after she attended one of the bigger ones in my area she told me of this guy who had a couple of loose SNES carts and one of them had a price tag of 10€, looked like I might be into it: Demon's Crest. She did not know that this one was one of my most desired games and a loose cart of the PAL version already sold for more than ten times on ebay easily, so you can see I was more than a little excited. Fortunately the flea market continued on the following day, there was hope the guy would still be there, and so of course I went together with her.

Long story short: We did find the guy again ( ), he happened to still have the game ( ) so I asked him about the price with sweating palms, hardly able to contain myself.

Guy: "Oh you know, this one really is super super rare, you should check out ebay, it sells for like 200€. I can sell this one to you for 120€. What do you think?"

Me: ->  -> ->  "No, thanks..."

Turns out, the guy apparantly got the great idea to look up what he's actually selling just the day before and found out that Demon's Crest was way more worth than just 10€. I could have kicked myself that I did not went there earlier! My mom kind of felt bad about it but I told her it's no big deal, shit happens, etc.. However deep down I felt heartbroken, haha.

Besides, who tries to sell a fucking loose cart for 120€ on a flea market of all places anyway? Moron...

[olly88]

Demon's Crest is my most wanted game. A few years ago I put off buying it when it was around £70-80 because I thought it would go down in price. Big mistake  Now it's around £200-300.

[retroone]

My biggest gaming mistake was that I passed on a CIB copy of Journey to Silius for the NES for $10.  And it was in mint condidion! I passed on it because I thought I already owned the game. I went back to the store the next day and it was gone.

[burningdoom]

Only one really bad one:

It was on a message board like this called Racketboy. Great site with great articles on retro gaming, very informative. But I didn't like the feel of the community so much, so I stopped visiting the forums there. But back when I still did, I did a trade a with regular there. I don't even recall what I traded him. But I got a copy of Pinball on NES, the Nintendo one. I was told it was just cartridge, but in fine condition. Well I get it, and it has this 30 year old post-it note on it that looks browned and faded. I go to take it off and it has like melded with the plastic and just is not coming off, even with rubbing alcohol. And since I tried to pull it off, it looks even more hideous.

So of course I go to message the guy to tell him about it. His response is, "I only consider if it works or not when I say condition."

...the fuq? Like that flies as an explanation. That's basically saying, "Oh, I don't feel like telling you the physical condition, deal with it." Never heard back from him again, but he just kept posting as a regular. So eventually I felt the need to call him out on the boards since he didn't want to deal with me. And of course, since he was a longtime regular, with good trade feedback even, the community all felt I was just stirring up shit. Made me so pissed off.

[atarileaf]

Only one really bad one:

It was on a message board like this called Racketboy. Great site with great articles on retro gaming, very informative. But I didn't like the feel of the community so much, so I stopped visiting the forums there. But back when I still did, I did a trade a with regular there. I don't even recall what I traded him. But I got a copy of Pinball on NES, the Nintendo one. I was told it was just cartridge, but in fine condition. Well I get it, and it has this 30 year old post-it note on it that looks browned and faded. I go to take it off and it has like melded with the plastic and just is not coming off, even with rubbing alcohol. And since I tried to pull it off, it looks even more hideous.

So of course I go to message the guy to tell him about it. His response is, "I only consider if it works or not when I say condition."

...the fuq? Like that flies as an explanation. That's basically saying, "Oh, I don't feel like telling you the physical condition, deal with it." Never heard back from him again, but he just kept posting as a regular. So eventually I felt the need to call him out on the boards since he didn't want to deal with me. And of course, since he was a longtime regular, with good trade feedback even, the community all felt I was just stirring up shit. Made me so pissed off.

Sounds like Nintendoage

Anyway a few years back we were doing a big street sale and just as I'm walking up to a one where I see a box with an Atari and what looked like several dozen games, I see this 80 year old looking lady grab the box and walk away. I literally missed it by about 30 seconds. Ruined the rest of my day. Never thought an old lady would be "sum guy"

[doafan]

My worst frustration was when I received my latest credit card as soon as I registered my account at Amazon started to purchase some NES titles at that moment the Little Samson was around the 80-100 bucks but at that moment didn't realize that the title was about to became so rare, decided to purchase all the titles that I managed to buy with that amount of money and now I want to kick myself every time that I see a review or comments about this title at Youtube 

[Warmsignal]

One time I went on an hour long flea market trip to look for games. Little did I realize that literally, right beside me on the highway was a game reseller the whole way there. We get there, hesitate about where to park, then go in and start looking. We come around a corner to a table where this yard seller had tons of games for all systems, dirt cheap. With out even looking at the stuff, the reseller makes an offer to the guy for everything he has and takes it. Right in front of us. So he shovels a ton of games into his van that we rode beside the whole way, and royally craps on our day. We were moments too late.

Another time at a flea market, my brother finds a box with Earthbound in it a couple of dollars, so because he found it, it was his. But he's never heard of the game before, and I had wanted it for years... *sigh* ...and I still don't have it.

Once on the website Half, I found a listing for the Saturn game Shining Wisdom for about $25 and jumped on it. Well, I never got the game in the mail. Seller claimed they "lost it". Yeah, sure. As in lost their mind when the realized they under priced it.

Last year, among many jewel case games I bought online, I payed through the nose for Magic Knight Rayearth on Saturn and the hinge was broken in the mail because the seller sent it in a bubble mailer. Really?! A bubble mailer, guy? Mailman kept curb stomping all my stuff last year too.

A near mishap occurred once when I decided to pick up Silent Hill 3 and 4 in one place. Store was having a 20% off sale, except "rares" which are under glass. Guy at the counter asks me did you get these from the glass case? The answer was a simple no. But it still annoyed me he would try to quiz me on them just because he realized he wanted to put them under glass but I guess forgot to? Guess he really didn't want me to get a deal on em. They're not rare, anyhow.

Back when I originally bought a Saturn on eBay (around 2002), I purchased the console sight unseen (was common then). I was told it was all there and had two games. 3 weeks later I receive a painted on system with no video cable, and only one game. That kind of crap was just common back in the day on eBay. There was no buyer protection, you rarely got to see pictures, and people got burnt all the friggin' time.

[aliensstudios]

Fortunately I've never had too many mishaps. The worst experience was buying a Battletoads poster off eBay and it never arrived. I went to open a complaint but the user was deleted. I was 15 bucks shorter and had no poster. I also bought a Saturn off of Amazon and it didn't work. I couldn't get my money back for some reason, I think it's because I bought in on a gift card. I ended up donating the Saturn after I somewhat fixed it. In total a loss of roughly 45 to 50 bucks.

[foxhack]

Most of the time a seller will give me a price, then try to raise the price on me when he sees what I've got in my hand.

When that happens I dump the game in the nearest table and walk away. You don't back out on a quoted price on me.

I've gotten banned from one booth for doing that.

[maximo310]

I've had multiple times where craiglist people either stopped communicating with me for no reason, or who backed out the deal last minute because they found a better buyer.

On ebay, I got a deathsmiles limited edition from a seller who listed it as very good condition along with some nice pictures of the game and LE box. When the box came in, it had tons of bends on the book and several ripped areas, and was not even close to the pictures on the listing. When I contacted the seller about it, he denied any wrongdoing, even after I sent photos and blamed me for buying his product. After 2 months, I was finally able to get a partical refund on my purchase thanks to Ebay, but I'm still kind of mad that my purchase was so dinged up in shipping.

I've also had a few cases where Goodwills kept the discs inside the case, which were usually located in the back of the store or in a area that the person at the counter couldn't see, along with no cameras. As a result, I encountered a good number of games where someone stole the disk, and left everything else behind. It's kind of frustrating, especially when one of the stores told me that there's nothing they could do about it and shrugged.

[bikingjahuty]

When I first started collecting, I was in an ARC thrift store looking for games. I had just started looking in the electronics area when I noticed some middle aged guy who was noticeably happy as he was talking to some employee near the back room where all the recently donated stuff is sorted before being put on the floor. Out of curiosity I walked over to where the guy and employee where talking and on a wood table the guy had a large plastic bag in front of him with a TV looking object in it. Upon further inspection the guy had a Vectrex in the bag and from what i could see about 6 games for it. He was beaming with happiness over the find and from I heard, he had come across it maybe 5-minutes before I had arrived at the store. The Vectrex is one of very few pre-NES consoles I really want and was pretty bummed I missed it. i was however happy for the guy who couldn't have been happier over the find.

[burningdoom]

I forgot about another one:

I went to shop that I was a longtime regular at. Sells used movies, books, music, and video games. Called Bogbean. I had gone there as a kid even. I had just recently moved out and gotten my first, used PC. I had little experience with them outside of school. I found a used PC game. I ask the guy before I ever buy it that if it's incompatible for whatever reason (since I was inexperienced with PCs), if I could take it back. He says there's a 7-day policy as long as I have the receipt.

So I take it home, and it doesn't work. I go back to take it back, and a girl is working this time. She says she can't take it back. So then I tell her I already asked the guy that works here and he said I could. She tells me flat out, "He wouldn't say that, you're lying." I'm all like, "Excuse me?" She says that it's not policy, so he wouldn't say that. As that argument is happening. The guy walks through the door with some fast-food in his hand. I ask him if he said that, right in front of her, and the SOB says "No." I about leaped out of my shoes. Got all kinds of pissed, cussed them both out, then through the damn game on the counter, smashing it, and walked out. As I was walking away, the girl runs out after me and screams that I'm not allowed in there ever again and accuses me of throwing the game at her!

After a few months, I tried to go in again, hoping that it had died down and people wouldn't remember. Nope, I'm not allowed in there for life, now.

[gf78]

Back in my Dreamcast heyday, I bought a sealed copy of Zombie Revenge. USPS must have been especially brutal, as they managed to crack the game disc and both top & bottom of the case straight through with it packed in a cardboard box with styro peanuts. 

Worse, I paid a premium a few years back for a copy of Perfect Dark new & sealed in beautiful condition. I wanted it flawless. Douchebag seller plops it in a padded mailer. It looked like a friggin squashed turtle on the highway when I opened it. I almost puked. I contacted the seller who responded "I've never had that happen before."  Prick.

[theflea]

oh gwad where do I start on this subject... lol

well lets start with the most recent...

I found a guy on Ebay who was selling a very rare NES game, Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak.
I talked to him and asked many questions and wanted to see pic's of the board. He tells me the he didn't have the tool to open it but assured me it was the real deal because he picked it up from a thrift store some years back, and there was wear of the top of the label. Well I used the make an offer and we agreed on a price, and I bought it thinking I finally was going to get this game off my list. So the game came in the mail and I open the cart to make sure it was a legit copy. and it was a fake. 
I tried to tell the seller that his cart was a fake and I want to return it, (I even sent him pic's of his cart and what a real one looks like.) he was out raged and called me the scammer. Saying it wasn't fake and I had no proof. Telling me I don't know what I'm talking about and (get this) was running a scam to buy an expensive game, play it then want to return it. If I wanted to do that I'd emulate the damn thing. lol Well now I'm just waiting on Ebay to have a little talk with him for selling a counterfeit game. I'm not worried, ebay will get me a refund with their buyer protection.
I'll tell you one thing I'm not buying another one unless they show me a picture of the board first. I got lucky with Little Samson working out fine, but these expensive carts have a a lot of fakes floating around. 

And the funny thing is, I could have had this game a long time ago CIB. A video rental store was going out of business (this was the mid 90s) and was selling all their NES games, they all had the boxes and manuals for about $5 each. I picked up Snow Brothers, Dragon Warrior IV, Star Trek TNG, and many other odd titles at the time. But I didn't think to grab Flintstones Surprise at Dinosaur Peak thinking it was just a crappy kids game. lol

I remember seeing a Vectrex in a Carrying case for $70 at a garage sale, this was early 2000s and $70 was a lot to spend at a garage sale for me back then. I did get a Vectrex later but never saw another Vectrex carrying case ever again.
At another sale only a few years ago, I asked about video games and the kid said he had an old Vectrex his grand father gave to him and wanted to sell it. He showed it to me and it was (CIB) and had the 3D glasses (CIB) plus a ton of the games also (CIB) I tried to make offers and the kid said he'd sell it but the Dad wouldn't let him. sigh. oh well.

I might add more stories to this subject in the future.

[turf]

Way back when I first started collecting NES stuff, I had a self imposed limit on what I'd spend on a game.  There was no way I'd go over $20 for a single game.  A game store I went to all of the time had Little Samson for $50.  It sat there for over a year.  I couldn't bring myself to drop the cash. 

I kick myself for this every time I get my nerve up to start looking for a copy.