Longest Time Spent Working A Deal

[counterfeit3w]

What is the longest time you have spent working out a deal for video games?

Both of my longest deals revolve around Turbografx-16 games. First contact made 4/7/12 and finally bought the stuff 3/17/13 (CIB TG16, games, and few accessories) and the other 7/21/12-???? (still can't complete this transaction for 10 TG16 games).

[GamerTheGreek]

Id say when it comes to craigslist maybe 2 to 3 months. I do have a guy in PA that has a bunch of things i want but he needs to dig em out for me and its a on going thing to get him to do it. I got a nice 5.00 controller but its hard to get him to do it. he does alot on ebay so knowing and getting to electronics shouldnt be an issue for him. I cant think of many deals ive had that have taken more than a year to get going

[Tanooki]

A few days or so before Christmas through the first few days of the new year (around 2 weeks or so.) I found the Sharp NES TV I have on craigslist, but due to some really bad timing I had to vacate my condo for scheduled termite tenting for prevention. Around that the seller was this retiree (never had kids) who had the tv system and mostly never gamed on it and just used it as a bedroom tv, but he'd be on and offline between responses for days. Thankfully being US military his code of honor stuck for life, and he told me he had other offers for more cash and some harsh comments trying to sway his favor, but because he promised me it I got the thing which pleased me. So between that and eventually taking it to using the phone for the last week + a 180~mi round trip drive I got the thing. It was a lot of nervous mail and phone tag, but it worked out and I hope never to have to drag something out beyond hours let alone days again because there's just too many predatory jerks in the last few years in getting gaming stuff.

[jonebone]

Hmm... in theory, I'm still working a deal from about 2 years ago, though I haven't followed up within the past 6 months. Thanks for reminding me!

Longest successfully completed deal? Probably about 2 months.

[LaughingMAN.S9]

Technically this wont count but i remember finding a nearcomplete copy of valkyrie profile for 20dollars locally when it was going for over 100 online

Problem was it was missing disc 1, so i found a seller of disc 1 on these forums willing to sell me disc 1 for 30, but this dude was seriously flaking on the deal for whatever reason, i had paid almost ummediately but didnt get the disc for like almost 6 months, we would go back and forth via pm's for months, he was always busy, or would miss the promised date of shipping, would try to refund my money, we would work out another deal bla bla bla finaly got a complete copy of valkyrie profile for less than half the going rate

[Buyatari]

I've had many deals take longer than a year. The really long ones were all with non-collector industry people.

The longest with another collector was ~2-3 years.

The longest deal I've ever had was with me and another collector as buyers and a non-collector as the seller. This took 5 years from initial contact to finally getting the goods in hand but it was worth it.