How would you handle dealblockers?

Renaissance 2K

Renaissance 2K

CAGiversary!
Feedback
27 (81%)
I read a number of threads on CAG about people raiding GameStop, pawn shops, and yard sales finding rare, expensive titles for pennies on the dollar. Some people even try to talk the seller down on their prices to get an even more extraordinary bargain.

One thing I haven't heard mentioned, though, is the possibility of clashing with another CAG at the same location who knows just as much as you.

Let's say as you're ready to pay for that copy of Stadium Events for $4.75, a random bloke appears out of nowhere and says to the seller, "Hey, that's not a fair price. I'll give you $20 for it." The seller then refused to sell it to you at the original price.

What would you do?

- Give the game back to the seller and walk away, defeated. (Optional: Kick the new guy in the nuts first.)
- Start a bidding war with the other CAG and raise the price even higher.
- State the actual market value of the game to the seller, and walk away laughing.

While I'm sure some of us will have some funny responses, I'm curious as to how people would actually handle the situation as well.

Thanks!
 
LOL at least use a game you may actually come across. But by chance that scenario happened, wouldn't everyone of us grab the game, pay quick, and run? No way I'd chance anyone seeing what I just found.

In the situation you describe I would offer the person the max I am willing to pay. I am assuming you want the game to complete your collection.
 
The only time that would happen is if both of you were in the store at the same time and that would probably be pretty rare. When I find something good I usually try to pay as fast as I can for the item put it in the car or a bag or my purse, then if I want to look for more stuff I go back to the shop or sale and get more.
 
- Give the game back to the seller and walk away, defeated. (Optional: Kick the new guy in the nuts first.)

If you already are in possession of the game and the money has been exchanged, why the hell would you do that? It defies logic. I'm hoping there's missing pieces to that choice.

- Start a bidding war with the other CAG and raise the price even higher.

Well, yeah, if the other jabroni offers $20 and you have $22 and can get something to make a huge profit, you better outbid him. Think of it as eBay in person. It also helps if you're 6'5" and a body builder, as then intimidation can come into effect against both the seller and the other dude.

- State the actual market value of the game to the seller, and walk away laughing.

I wouldn't bother with that. If the seller is willing to give it away for peanuts to begin with and hasn't bothered researching the value of anything he's probably selling in a hurry just to get some money for it as quickly as possible. Secondly, stating the actual value to the seller in hopes of the other jack-ass not getting it is hypocritical, as you never had any intent to state the value to the seller if he sold to you. This is a sore loser tactic, and you'd be the one deserving a swift kick in the nuts for it.


So, yeah, if I were to run into a situation like this, a bidding war would likely occur, and someone walks away happy.
 
- Give the game back to the seller and walk away, defeated. (Optional: Kick the new guy in the nuts first.)

If you already are in possession of the game and the money has been exchanged, why the hell would you do that? It defies logic. I'm hoping there's missing pieces to that choice.

- Start a bidding war with the other CAG and raise the price even higher.

Well, yeah, if the other jabroni offers $20 and you have $22 and can get something to make a huge profit, you better outbid him. Think of it as eBay in person. It also helps if you're 6'5" and a body builder, as then intimidation can come into effect against both the seller and the other dude.

- State the actual market value of the game to the seller, and walk away laughing.

I wouldn't bother with that. If the seller is willing to give it away for peanuts to begin with and hasn't bothered researching the value of anything he's probably selling in a hurry just to get some money for it as quickly as possible. Secondly, stating the actual value to the seller in hopes of the other jack-ass not getting it is hypocritical, as you never had any intent to state the value to the seller if he sold to you. This is a sore loser tactic, and you'd be the one deserving a swift kick in the nuts for it.


So, yeah, if I were to run into a situation like this, a bidding war would likely occur, and someone walks away happy.
 
[quote name='captainfrizo']- Give the game back to the seller and walk away, defeated. (Optional: Kick the new guy in the nuts first.)

If you already are in possession of the game and the money has been exchanged, why the hell would you do that? It defies logic. I'm hoping there's missing pieces to that choice.[/QUOTE]

I agree completely, but in the scenario I was presenting, nothing had been exchanged yet. Short of snatching the game out of the seller's hands, throwing the money, and running to your car, this wouldn't be feasible.
 
New question: In your scenario, have you already approached the seller and hammered out the price? I mean, if the guy just told you "yep, that's 4-and-three-quarters" and you said "Ok", even when guy #2 comes by with his $20 you could argue that hey, you just made a deal with me for 4.75, you can't back out now just becuase I had to take 3 seconds to open my wallet. Since at this point you're holding the game, you could just keep a death grip on it until your point is made or until one of them attacks you for it- in which case, you make new offer of game in exchange for not pressing assault charges. :D

In all seriousness tho', the times I've found super-deals, I either buy fast, or hold the game against me in such a way you can't see what game I'm holding until I'm ready to pay (this only comes up in buy x game for x dollars situations.)

The most important thing is don't let go- as long as you have possession of the game, you have control, even if you have to resort to 'throw money and run away'. ;)
 
[quote name='Renaissance 2K']I agree completely, but in the scenario I was presenting, nothing had been exchanged yet. Short of snatching the game out of the seller's hands, throwing the money, and running to your car, this wouldn't be feasible.[/QUOTE]

Ah.

Alright, in that case, I stick by the bidding process.
 
I've had nothing of the sort happen thus far, except for if you count the time I ran into another CAG in what I thought was 'my' goldmine store for guides. We're both from my general area, but the store was an hour's drive from either of our homes.

We bs'd for a bit, introduced ourselves and then we divvied up the guides in the democratic fashion. I also mentioned that I was there a month prior and I had snagged over 80 guides from there over a few days.

This person now hits that same store(Best Buy in Middletown, NY) at their leisure as they still are very lax in pulling the guides.

As for the hypothetical situation in the OP's scenario, if the seller looked like they were about to take the other guy's offer and it was only 1/10th of the value of the item, I'd do the dick move and mention what it's REALLY worth. Then, I'd walk away laughing my ass off, especially if the seller yanked the game from the other guys hands and walked off with it.

I've actually mentioned to people on CL what some of their stuff is worth in e-mails, usually when I had ZERO desire to buy them myself. I figured that I would want someone to tell me what something is worth if I were selling something 'zomg rare'.

Some people take the advice and end up pulling their ad(s) and some just keep the ad(s) up and sell the stuff for whatever price.
 
pull out my handgun, kill every witness, grab the game, drive 100 miles away to a motel and take the fake i.d. out of my glovebox and grow a beard.

Eventually sell on ebay

Anyway, in reality..

offer him a blow job, or if woman offer to eat her out or somethin
 
You'd need a deal wingman of course. Someone to start up a conversation with everyone in the area to distract them from you as they are buying so you go home with the hot chick and they get stuck with the fatty... err.. game. You get the hot game, they get the fat guy. Something like that...
 
[quote name='DaftPunkFan37']pull out my handgun, kill every witness, grab the game, drive 100 miles away to a motel and take the fake i.d. out of my glovebox and grow a beard.

Eventually sell on ebay

Anyway, in reality..

offer him a blow job, or if woman offer to eat her out or somethin[/quote]WTF?BJ for a videogame?
 
If you have your charm/intimidate skill maxed out, then I don't see it being an issue.

Seriously, though. If you see a hot item, you best grab it quick, GTFO, and then come back for any other items you may be interested in.
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']You'd need a deal wingman of course. Someone to start up a conversation with everyone in the area to distract them from you as they are buying so you go home with the hot chick and they get stuck with the fatty... err.. game. You get the hot game, they get the fat guy. Something like that...[/QUOTE]

dealblockers = cockblockers?
 
What would you do?

"- State the actual market value of the game to the seller, and walk away laughing."

Hell yeah, if I can't win I'm gonna act like a POS. :D
 
Has something like this ever happened to you OP?

I couldn't see it happening much as the guy trying to offer more for something your buying (and in the middle of paying for) would be in the wrong.
 
The seller wouldn't likely care about the real market value, technically, you could do that with any item in the pawn and the seller probably has a lot of people stupidly tell him what items are worth $ on ebay. People are probably taking 3$ games and telling the pawn owner that they are worth $100 on ebay every day. Eventually if your the seller you become immune to people who like to tell you what your item is worth. A pawn shop is in business to sell items as quickly as possible as well. With the economy the way it is now more people are pawning and less people are buying so they are trying to sell to whoever comes in the store to buy. If they only gave someone 3$ for a game as trade in and are turning around for $10-15 they don't care what its really worth on ebay because they are still making a profit.

With that being said if you told a pawn shop owner that game x was worth 2k they would probably laugh in your face.

From personal experience if I am shopping at a yard sale and the seller says "this item is worth x amount on ebay" they are most likely lying because they are trying to get more money for their item since they know its worth squat on ebay. I have actually gone and looked up items on ebay that I have been told were "collectibles" or "worth money on ebay" by sellers (whether they are pawn shop sellers or the person who runs the yard sale does not matter here) and found out that the item they were selling was worth at most 5$ on ebay. Most items that I am told are worth money by the seller are items that have no bids on several listings when you go to look at completed auctions on ebay, hence why its sitting at their yard sale.

If he cared he would take 10 seconds to look each item up on ebay and check the value himself.

One thing about ebay is, a lot of people THINK they know what they are talking about when they quote ebay prices but very few people ACTUALLY know what their item is worth on ebay. Ebay is so generic nowadays that everyone just spouts "its worth x on ebay" to look smart or to make it look like their item is worth money.
 
I live in Philadelphia, so there aren't too many yard sales in my neck of the woods. This sort of thing happens a bit more discretely on Craig's List or trading forums, though, so I was just curious how a CAG (tm) would handle it.

Then again, I seem to have pretty terrible luck when it comes to stumbling across valuable rarities. Either I never find it, or I find it when I don't have any cash on hand.
 
[quote name='captainfrizo']- Give the game back to the seller and walk away, defeated. (Optional: Kick the new guy in the nuts first.)

If you already are in possession of the game and the money has been exchanged, why the hell would you do that? It defies logic. I'm hoping there's missing pieces to that choice.

- Start a bidding war with the other CAG and raise the price even higher.

Well, yeah, if the other jabroni offers $20 and you have $22 and can get something to make a huge profit, you better outbid him. Think of it as eBay in person. It also helps if you're 6'5" and a body builder, as then intimidation can come into effect against both the seller and the other dude.

- State the actual market value of the game to the seller, and walk away laughing.

I wouldn't bother with that. If the seller is willing to give it away for peanuts to begin with and hasn't bothered researching the value of anything he's probably selling in a hurry just to get some money for it as quickly as possible. Secondly, stating the actual value to the seller in hopes of the other jack-ass not getting it is hypocritical, as you never had any intent to state the value to the seller if he sold to you. This is a sore loser tactic, and you'd be the one deserving a swift kick in the nuts for it.


So, yeah, if I were to run into a situation like this, a bidding war would likely occur, and someone walks away happy.[/quote]

I'd deal with this in the very same way. To me, a sale isnt going to make or break me, and its never worth getting into a major fight over. Its most likely the person selling the game or whatever just wants what they are offering for it and its first come first served. Being one who has been in on some fantastic purchases over the years im somewhat open to being bid over, but dont figure its gonna happen often, rare at best...:D
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='Renaissance 2K']This sort of thing happens a bit more discretely on Craig's List or trading forums, though, so I was just curious how a CAG (tm) would handle it.
[/QUOTE]

That's a bit different- for online dealings, the owner has possession of the item at all times, and the 2 buyers aren't nessecarily aware of each other. The seller can always lie to back out of a deal (my dog ate it, my brother's stoner friend stole it, my girlfriend got pissed at me and ran it over, etc.) They don't even have to lie- all buyer 1 can really do is send angry emails and maybe leave negative feedback, since they aren't in possession of the item.

For an online deal, I like to think I'd just let it go- but depending on the item, I might offer more or state the real value... depends on how bad I want it or how pissed I am for getting fucked over.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top