I just passed one up today, and I am still not sure it was the right decision.
Yesterday, I saw an ad on craigslist for old school arcade games as the title. It was at the top of the list, so I know it was recently posted. The ad was for Robotron and Asteroids and all it said was Best offer and a phone. about 15 miles from my home.. I called immediately and got the answering machine. I leave a msg, and am anxiously awaiting a phone call. Finally, I'm on my way home, and my phone rings... its my machines calling... I really want Robotron. So the guy says he's had them for about 10 years and he bough from a dealer.. Everything works great, hasn't touched in awhile, and needs the space. I asked what price he had in mind, and he says $250.. I said Robotron is SOLD! I'll take it. He said the same price for Asteroids, so I made some phone calls, and found someone to take the Asteroids as well. He said he'll clean them up and have them ready for me. We make arrangements to pickup on Sat. I called him this morning for directions, and he says the monitor on Robotron stopped working, and fades in and out. I start to whine a bit, but decided to continue as planned and hopefully get an even better price. I got to the house, and these are in gorgeous condition... nicest I think I've ever seen. I start looking at Robo, and start wiggling some wires, and the monitor starts to show life. The game took forever to work, but after about 5 min, a test screen pops up and says Rom error. We rebooted the machine a few times, and no luck. The guy was only willing to knock $50 off it. I walked away without the machine. I was kinda hoping to have him flag me down before I drove off, but it didn't happen.
Sorry for the ramble..
