Has anything like this happened to you whilst game shopping?

[dreamcaster]

There's a Good Samaritan store on the way to my university, so every Monday I stop by to check out what they've got.

Today, I went down the back of the store where the games usually are. There was a small stack of NES carts for $1 each.

I pulled the stack off the open shelf, and placed it on the table and started having a look through it.

Mostly stuff I either had, or didn't want. Then, there was a Bubble Bobble cart. I know, it's not a rarity or anything, but I don't have it, and for $1 with the manual I thought: "yay!"

Anyway, I put it to the side of my stack.

This guy (some middle aged bald dickhead), walks up - I move the the Bubble Bobble closer to me. He points to the stack asking how much it is. I look up and say, "oh, they're $1 each".

He then quickly grabs the Bubble Bobble and hides it behind his back.

I just stood up and stared at him and said: "Um, I was going to buy that."

He says: "Well, too late now."

Now, I was prepared to start a full blown confrontation - but I was running late, AND it wasn't exactly a super-rare cart we were dealing with.

So I just said to him: "YOU FUCKING PRICK." And walked off out of the store.

Anyway, yeah - so the topic is: Has anyone been in a similar situation to this, and how did you deal with it?

[chadtower]

So I just said to him: "YOU FUCKING PRICK." And walked off out of the store.

Anyway, yeah - so the topic is: Has anyone been in a similar situation to this, and how did you deal with it?

It happens at yard sales and fleas constantly. There is one golden rule: If you actually want to buy something, do not put it down. If you put it down you could lose it. It's that simple.

[Raedon]

you snooze you loose.

[VACRMH]

I've never had anything like that happen to me, usually no one cares about the games wherever I go...

But from now on, I may keep the stuff i'm interested in closer to me.

[dreamcaster]

It seems I have once again over-estimated human decency. :roll:

[anagrama]

Not with videogames, but I once had an similar encounter while flicking through a bunch of LPs in a charity shop - there was a guy already looking through one rack when I got there, so I had a look through the rack next to it instead, and pulled out a couple of things (Younger Than Yesterday by The Byrds, and Paranoid by Black Sabbath, if I remember correctly). At this point, the guy next to me gets pissed off, and says "Hey, I was looking through them". I said, "No, you were looking through those ones", pointing at the other rack. Obviously not happy with that, he grabs the Sabbath LP out of my hands and throws it across the shop! I say something along the lines of "Suit yourself, prick, it's not like I've paid for them yet", before he offers me outside for a fight and then strops off (!). I calmly pick up the LP, pay for both (£2 :) ) and leave via the other exit, shaking my head and despairing for humanity...

[downfall]

I've yet to have it happen, but it's because I do what chadtower said. If I see anything I'm remotely interested in, I'll pick it up and carry it around the entire store with me and then put it back if I decide I don't want it.

[roxybaby]

Occasionally when I go to the game stores the clerks who help me will grab a game out of the case before I can see what it is. But that guy you ran into sounds like a complete prick!

[sniperCCJVQ]

Golden rule : When your not sure if you want to buy something, keep it in your hands until you take your decision.

[hydr0x]

Golden rule : When your not sure if you want to buy something, keep it in your hands until you take your decision.

exactly, never ever put something down you might want to buy, i see this all the time, people "stealing" away things from others, you've got to be careful...

[AndyG]

I'm glad that it's never happened to me, considering how much I go to flea markets and garage sales. I always know, however, if I am going to buy something, that it never leaves my sight.

[punkoffgirl]

That is pretty crappy, but some people just have nothing in the way of courtesy or social skills. I don't know how people can do things like that.. it'd be like walking up to someone and taking something out of their hands.

[autobotracing]

I have not had that happen ..good thing too because I would probally would go off on someone :eek 2: :hmm:


let me share some lore with you

I was at the flea this one time and I know who the game dealers are out there {they are vultures}anyway I was at this table and I was buying crap like crazy from this guy because it was so cheap like nes games for a dollar and I looked through the stack and grabbed final fantasy,dragon warrior 3 and 4 and a few other games and left the rest because they were kinda crappy.then one of those dealers came up and seen those in my hand and got pissed and said I already took all the good games :evil: .The dealers at the flea here are the common type that dont know jack about games and think everything is either nintendo or sony.They are also the kind that think stuff like mario and donkey kong are rare and expensive.I actually like those type somtimes because they will have stuff like ff3 for $5 while mario all stars is $20 because it has 4 games on it and its rare OMG. :roll:

[Sph1nx]

[quote="downfall"]I've yet to have it happen, but it's because I do what chadtower said. If I see anything I'm remotely interested in, I'll pick it up and carry it around the entire store with me and then put it back if I decide I don't want it.[/quote
Thats why proper usage of baskets OR shopping arts are a must!

:D

[poe]

That is pretty crappy, but some people just have nothing in the way of courtesy or social skills. I don't know how people can do things like that.. it'd be like walking up to someone and taking something out of their hands.

Speaking of that, one of the local second-hand game stores have a customer (probably the difinition of a vulture) who saw a guy playing a vectrex at a thrift store once, and said "Hey can I play that?" Then the guy rips the vectrex out of the wall socket, grabs the whole system and runs to check it out. His reasoning for the whole incident was that the proprietor of that thrift store and he are good friends, so she would have set it aside for him anyway, so it should have been his in the first place. The worst part about this is that the store owner who told me about this does business with that guy regularly, and thought the whole incident was funny, so I'm inclined to take my money (and my own good finds) elsewhere.

[Sosage]

So I just said to him: "YOU FUCKING PRICK." And walked off out of the store.

I hope you said it nice and loud so that anyone in the store would have to look in his general direction (and the store was busy). I haven’t had this happen to me, but I am always paranoid when I find something and have to put it down so I can use both hands/arms to dig through another pile (I often ask my girlfriend to hold onto stuff for me in stores or swap meets where baskets are not an option…while no one has “grabbed from my stack”, I have seen people eye-balling my finds before).

It is stories like this (and the vectrex tale…what a childish jerk) that make me want to oh-so-believe in karma.

[Pantechnicon]

Some of this behavior you guys are describing is un-freaking-believable. I thought the way people carry on at my local thrifts was pretty bad but this stuff takes tha cake.

[charitycasegreg]

That almost happend to me at the flea over this weekend. I found a box of a nes with 21 games all with sleeves most with manuals. They guy said 30 bucks so I looked through it. I noticed some guy walked up next to me looking through the box of sega stuff. He asked how much for the nintendo stuff. They guy told him 30. I grab the nes box and was looking through. THen the guy says, "ill take both boxes" And I go, I was waiting to buy this, luckily the dealer said, Yeah he was here first. So then the other guy left. Then I got the nes games and a computer game, resident evil.

[bigdaddychester]

Thats why proper usage of baskets OR shopping arts are a must!

:D


Unfortunately, some of the thrifts around here don't have a basket or a cart. Furthermore there are some morons around here who would take it out the second you look another direction. I've been known to put an NES game in my back pocket while pilfering through another box of stuff. If I find a "motherload" I'll just tote the box up to the counter and get what I want there.

[Nature Boy]

It hasn't happened to me, but I'm the type of person who would've grabbed the Bubble Bobble cart as soon as I saw the guy lurking. I can't remember anything specific, but I know I do stuff like this all the time - people are generally jerks and you can't trust 'em...

What you should've done is laid out that SMB/DH cart and pretended you wanted that. Sometimes people just grab the stuff thinking that if somebody else wants it it must be a good deal :)

[-hellvin-]

Wow. Just wow. I hate probably 85% of the entire human race. God. Being particularilly violent I probably would have been the first person to murder someone with an NES cart. While Mr. Fucking Prick's head was the other way I would have started fucking bashing SMB/DH into his fucking skull until he was unable to move.

[chadtower]

To my surprise, she was a witch, from Salem, Massachusetts. A high priestess of the occult, in the church of satan.

Really... I went to high school in Salem, MA, and my wife lived there until she was 18. Just which witches belong to the church of Satan?

LOL

[YoshiM]

Unfortunately, calling him a prick probably made him chuckle. People like that don't care, they just take.

Typically I try to hang onto my finds in some way. If I need both hands I'll tuck whatever it is under my armpit and if its many items I'll stack the stuff by my feet (and clasp my feet on either side), put the stuff in my lap (if sitting on the floor) or hunch over the stuff while placing what I don't want out of my personal "bubble" (works well if the items are on a table). I've found not many people will get their hand close to your torso trying to reach for an item and I can close my arms to protect the stuff in case anyone tries anything funny.

If anyone DOES try to invade that person space, you could always yelp and loudly call them a pervert. LOL

[MarioAllStar2600]

Ok I need to know something since someone mentioned shopping carts. Do any of your thrift stores steal shopping carts from nearby stores? Mine stole 2 of them from the Family Dollar 2 stores down. When I went to push it out to the car they yelled at me. LOL

[vintagegamecrazy]

I haven't had that happen to me thankfully, last week I went to Goodwill found a bunch of games I wanted (they keep them under glass) the girl was very nice and let me see everything and when I was done she took my stuff and told me she would put it under the checkout counter until I was ready. I liked that.

PS You want a funny story. I went there a while ago and found a package of 23 boxed nes games for 39.99 and didn't have the cash, so I called my good collector friend and told him to take advantage of the deal (I figured if I couldn't have, why not help out a friend?) He shows up and was looking at them and some guy was trying to get them to sell the lot for like 20.00 being a cheap bargainer and my friend wanted them and right in front of the other dude he says I want these and I'll give you full price. They easily went for it and the other guy got all mad.

[Cmosfm]

Another Rule - Putting an item in your pocket is NOT considered stealing until you leave the store with it. If theres something I want, and I want to shuffle through some other stuff, I put it in my pocket...as soon as I'm done I take it out and I mention what and why I did this to the cashier. Never a problem.

[dreamcaster]

I hope you said it nice and loud so that anyone in the store would have to look in his general direction (and the store was busy).

Well, it would've been audible to anyone in the back half of the store. But unfortunately the store was empty (almost closing time) and all the clerks where at the front (it's a surprisingly big store).


Unfortunately, calling him a prick probably made him chuckle. People like that don't care, they just take.

I was just really frustrated because I was running late already and didn't have time to deal with him properly. Usually my words are of my higher quality.


Typically I try to hang onto my finds in some way. If I need both hands I'll tuck whatever it is under my armpit and if its many items I'll stack the stuff by my feet (and clasp my feet on either side), put the stuff in my lap (if sitting on the floor) or hunch over the stuff while placing what I don't want out of my personal "bubble" (works well if the items are on a table). I've found not many people will get their hand close to your torso trying to reach for an item and I can close my arms to protect the stuff in case anyone tries anything funny.

If anyone DOES try to invade that person space, you could always yelp and loudly call them a pervert.

That's the thing! I had the Bubble Bobble on the table, with my right arm over the top of it. I thought I'd be polite (plus get this prick interested in the other carts I didn't want) but sliding the stack over to him on MY left. It was when I moved my arms that he quickly grabbed it. I didn't have time to react.