Yard Sale Horror Story

[mizarkgram]

I went out yard saling today (AS I do every week), and as usual, had a helluva time finding video games for sale. Last place we stopped was at this lady at the apartment complex where the girlfriend's mother is the landlady... and we figured she wouldnt have any video-ghame related stuff for sale. We looked around and whatnot, and this real old lady goes and opens this box and says "Oh, what kind of system is this???" and the seller person said it was the original Nintendo and she wanted 5 bucks (Canadian) for it. I kinda moved towards it and took a peek in the box and saw the best yard saling find I would have ever had.... There was the original control deck, and the usual crap that goes along with it, The U-Force, NES Satellite, about 30 or so games, and the Aladin Deck enhancer.

My hear t was a pumping, and I wanted it badly (its hard to find video games around here...) and then the old lady pikced up the box and said "I'll let my 5-year old play this one, I think he is getting tired of his PS2"

I was pissed.... I wanted it, it was dirt cheap, in minty fresh condition, and some little sloppy kid is gonna muck it all up whne it could have come home with me and been taken care of!!! :angry:

Just needed to get that rant out.... and to open this up for all to retell their worst Yard Saling/Flea Market/Whatever else story where you did not purposely let a good deal slip, but were robbed right before your eyes.

I'm going upstairs to sulk now

/End Rant

[Griking]

Before she disappeared with it did you at least let them know that you would have paid for it? I would have made an offer at least before leaving since you had nothing to loose.

[esquire]

You should of offered the seller $something higher than the $5, say $20. Just because the old lady picked it up doesn't mean they have to sell it to her. Sure, you may come off as a jerk, but hey, the seller is trying to make as much money as possible. I'm sure the old lady woudn't have paid more than $5 or $10 for it.

[Pantechnicon]

You should of offered the seller $something higher than the $5, say $20. Just because the old lady picked it up doesn't mean they have to sell it to her. Sure, you may come off as a jerk, but hey, the seller is trying to make as much money as possible. I'm sure the old lady woudn't have paid more than $5 or $10 for it.

No no no. I don't think you can do this. Just a month or two ago I recall we had a thread where someone at a flea market got screwed out of getting an Astrocade for something like $50 because somebody else overheard the deal he was making and talked up the price "You could get $200 for that on Ebay!" and our poor forum member lost out. The Rule, painful as it is, is that you aren't supposed to mess up someone else's deal. Even if it's some daft old granny.

So her grandson was "getting tired of the PS2"? O_O Take solace my friend. I can only imagine how - erm - grateful sonny was when grandma showed up with a comparative relic of an NES. Probably started bitching for an X-Box...

[Bratwurst]

The Rule, painful as it is, is that you aren't supposed to mess up someone else's deal. Even if it's some daft old granny.

Not quite. If you're interested in buying it for yourself, it's fair game to wheel and deal. It's taboo to just arbitrarily tell the seller they can sell it for more elsewhere. That's what I was taught, 8 years into flea market walking and thrifting.

There are subtleties to each situation that you guage on experience after awhile on whether it is cool to intervene or not. I would cut Granny down in a heartbeat because she didn't even know what the hell she was buying, coupled with the unlikely event that her sonny-boy will appreciate it. If it were a younger person my age who actually addressed the items by their brand names and such I would leave them be to their fantastic find.

[boatofcar]

Almost all of my yard sale finds are never out on the "yard", anyway...I always lead off with the classic, "Got any Atari junk you want to get rid of?" I always get great stuff for cheap with that line :)

[chaoticjelly]

You should of told the Granny it was the worst thing on the planet, and that her grandson would probably hate it, and then it would end up in the rubbish bin......

Then buy it yourself when she's gone :D

[Flack]

You shoulda just kicked that old lady's ass. Swung by the cord, an Atari paddle can do a massive amount of damage quickly.

[Jibbajaba]

Hopefully you will take away a valuable lesson from this experience and not make assumptions about yard sales based on appearances.

Chris

[tholly]

yea....you should have just offered 10 or 20 to the seller....
granny wouldnt have minded

[chaoticjelly]

You shoulda just kicked that old lady's ass. Swung by the cord, an Atari paddle can do a massive amount of damage quickly.

I was going to suggest something along similar lines, but thought I may be disowned...

You should of whacked her with the NES itself...

[BLACKFROSTT]

Grannys probably a hardcore e-bay sellin' ......... LOL

[-hellvin-]

Grannys probably a hardcore e-bay sellin' ......... LOL

Just what I was going to say but ya beat me to it. Wtf? My son doesn't like his ps2 anymore, I'll take this NES! To me anyhow, that is such a BS story, five bucks says granny just does yard salin and thriftin and sells what she think she can make a profit on and keep what she likes. You should have offered money for it. Screw the little rule or whatever I woulda straight up offered 10 for it.

[Captain Wrong]

Y'know, I know in this day and age it's hard to believe, but maybe, just maybe, that NES really is going to a five year old grandson who is going to play the hell out of it and may very well end up liking it better than his PS2. Personally, that warms my heart more than seeing a collector get yet another trophy for his bragging rights file.

Not necessarly saying that's you mizarkgram. Just noticing some people here are either really cynical or have some strange entitlement issues.

[maxlords]

I would have outbid her on it. Not paid for, fair game. Especially if there's rares. Or i would have offered granny money for just the rare games.

[mizarkgram]

I would have tried to outbid her, but I personally knew her (I used to have to walk around with her at the grocery store when I worked there cuz she couldnt reach any of the stuff on the higher shelves and stuff...) and I do know what kid she is talking about, and he is a spoiled brat if I ever saw one

Oh well.... it aint gonna burn me, its all done

ANd to whoever said never judge yard sales by appearance, point well taken and lesson learned.

I usually do not let my guard down for video games at yard sales, but the person I was with said that the yard sale would be more "antique-type" stuff, and I trusted her (since she personally knew the lady sellin the stuff) but yeah... usually when i eveter a yard sale, I quickly scan the entire yard for video games and systems, then go looking for other stuff

[Cow Bell Man]

Sorry that happen. I guess you going to put this one as a lost. Don't worry about it to much.

[charitycasegreg]

I would have offered her more. YEah its rude but if I was in that situation I would have been like please can I have this, Ill give you 10 bucks. Then if the other lady was mad Id offer her the system and a few games for free. (well prolly not that last part I just said that so I didnt sound like a jerk.)

[Cmosfm]

Well, coulda been worse. A kid's prolly gonna get this to play, and prolly like it.

Coulda been a young guy that walked off bragging about how much profit he was gonna turn on eBay with it.

[swlovinist]

If the nes is really going to a kid, then is that really a bad thing? In the collecting world, what goes around, comes around.......

[mizarkgram]

I was actually thinking of trying to buy the stuff off the lady,a dn then offering to give her a clean, perfectly working system witha few games. I really just wanted the U-Force and a fwe of those games.... Ah well.. the more I think about it, the more it bothers me less, that kid will be playing it just as hardcore as I play mine.

Now, just so that I kinda feel like I am giving offa decent impression, I thought I'd let everyone know that, as I do with all of my yard saling find, I would have cleaned and fixed everything, and then kept EVERYTHING that I do not currently own, and then either sell the remainder, or use it for the christmas gifts I am putting together for my family and close friends (instead of going out and buying useless gifts, I am putting together NES sets with teh games that I know they like(d) to play and a complete system and a few extras.... figure I might as well let other people continue to play games even tho I do not live near them no more, as I usually was the game whore who lent out games and systems and whatnotr, or invited people over for REAL "Mario Parties" burning out on all the oldy games

[briskbc]

The Rule, painful as it is, is that you aren't supposed to mess up someone else's deal. Even if it's some daft old granny.


I follow this rule when I'm out hunting. I would hate it if someone came along and messed up my deal. It doesn't matter if it is game related or not. It doesn't matter if it is some old granny. It's the principle.

[jono]

Had the same thing happen to me. I lost out on a NEO GEO colour pocket with six gemes for a fiver. Some little brat (About 6 years old) grabbed it all out of a box in front of me at a car boot sale :angry:

[Predatorxs]

Maybe she was a secret hardcore gamer, and filled her incontinance pad the minute she saw the nes items.. and stuck it to you with the old... I'll let my 5-year old play this one..

Right now! she is going through the NWC cart that was at the bottom, and she can kill Mario Bros 3 in an hour! O_O And the rest of the stuff is on ebay! :(

:vamp:..XS

[NESaholic]

You shoulda just kicked that old lady's ass. Swung by the cord, an Atari paddle can do a massive amount of damage quickly.

LOL yeah something like that!!!

[SegaAges]

I have a good horror story too dude.

My neighborhood does an annual garage sale type deal where everybody has garage sales.

I was asleep, and awoken by a friend who was out at these for a few hours. He said there was a pretty descent sized box filled to the brim with genesis games and a genesis for $30 I think it was. He didn;t pick it up because "he didn't know if I wanted it".

Obviously, we all know where this story is going. I literally got in car car in my pajamas to try and get this crazy good deal, and the box was gone.

I learned a very harsh rule from garage sales that I wish I would have never learned that I think you learned as well "You snooze, You lose"

Imagine if you had shown up 5 minutes earlier. Imagine if I had woken up to go to these garage sales with my friend. It sucks bad, but you got lucky enough to learn the hard way just like me.

[The_EniGma]

if you know that old lady ask politely if u can buy (insert things here) for (insert price here ) and she'll probably say soemhing like sure darling u can have it for free!!

Sorted.. LOL

[Darth Sensei]

You should of offered the seller $something higher than the $5, say $20. Just because the old lady picked it up doesn't mean they have to sell it to her. Sure, you may come off as a jerk, but hey, the seller is trying to make as much money as possible. I'm sure the old lady woudn't have paid more than $5 or $10 for it.

No no no. I don't think you can do this. Just a month or two ago I recall we had a thread where someone at a flea market got screwed out of getting an Astrocade for something like $50 because somebody else overheard the deal he was making and talked up the price "You could get $200 for that on Ebay!" and our poor forum member lost out. The Rule, painful as it is, is that you aren't supposed to mess up someone else's deal. Even if it's some daft old granny.


First, that forum member was me. You should never offer the seller more money for it. First come first served. It's bad form to mess with someone's deal.

Second, you should have followed the old lady to the car and offered her more money for it.

Third, the chances are 95% in favor (IMHO) that she was an ebay seller. I find that most of the people hitting garage sales now are pros.

D

[Aussie2B]

Well, as unlikely as it may be, I truly hope the granny will give it to her grandson, and I hope he does enjoy it and appreciate it. It always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when little kids appreciate the classics... except when I imagine them growing up into collectors and creating more competition for me, hehe. :P

[mizarkgram]

I know for a fact that this old lady was not an eBay seller, she is the most technologically imparied person i know of. I think the only person that has ever sold anything on eBay in my toen is me, as most people barely just got the internet (Yes, I live in the backwoods where everyone is erally out of the loop)