Quoted from Sparky

Unlike collectors, they have to take in account the hours they spend on fixing and cleaning a machine when selling.

The guy at Mira was telling how much they pax in taxes every year for their building and i now understand a little bit more. Its an astronomical amount.

Showrooms + warehouses are costing money. Having an inventory isnt free either.

Quoted from Sparky

Most dealers/distributors don't like dealing with them. They rather sell to someone who is just willing to pay the amount advertized. Less hassle. It doesn't make them bad or anything... just less interesting to collectors.

There is a flipside to this.  If you sell to a collector, you are not going to be getting calls about trivial little issues.  Collectors buy the game and then (usually) service it themselves.  The dealer will probably never hear back from a collector after a purchase.  It is just assumed that if you would buy it as-is.  Now if I was being charged $500-$1000 more, then I would be more inclined to use their warranty and services that are covered.

Quoted from Monkeybug

There is a flipside to this.  If you sell to a collector, you are not going to be getting calls about trivial little issues.  Collectors buy the game and then (usually) service it themselves.  The dealer will probably never hear back from a collector after a purchase.  It is just assumed that if you would buy it as-is.  Now if I was being charged $500-$1000 more, then I would be more inclined to use their warranty and services that are covered.

Good point, plus the collector is more likely to buy more which means repeat business. It costs money to earn a first time purchase. It is much more profitable to sell to the same customer again. You earn that by providing good service at a fair price. I'd hardly call their posted prices fair. And their current tactics just piss me off, but that's me.

Duane

This is an aside, nothing personal about anyone present or being discussed.  I have yet to meet a retail or wholesale coin-op distributor that wasn't a tad more shady than a used car salesman (and I'm talking about people I've known over the past 30+ years, including my own family).  

  
Incase anyone is interested in that Whitewater, I went by to see it in person.(I live 5 mins from them)  Im no expert or anything, I just bought my first machine last week, (not from them) but here is what I saw:
  1 side of the cabinet faded(the cabinet as a whole maybe a 6.5/10)
  Lock bar holes
  missing boulder on pop bumpers
  missing a couple of signs
  couple of minor cracks/chips in some plastics and boulders
  Wrong standup targets
  There is some minor wear on the playfield, but I can't remember where exactly. (I think in the middle)
   Hacked/burnt Gi connector
  Might be some more stuff, I didn't notice.
Anyways he wanted $2000 cash no tax unshopped
$2500 shopped, this was about a month ago.
  
  The other couple of games he had at the shop were Starship Troopers, Striker Extreme, World Cup Soccer and a system 11 game, I think it was Police Force. Might have had an X-Files machine as well, but Im not sure.
  
Hope this helps some of you guys.

Vic

Back from Pinball outlet, pinballs they had the following games:

Striker Extreme
Star Ship Troppers
World Cup Soccer
White Water
Bad Girls
Alien Poker
Baby Pac

Prices wern't horrible, I wasn't paying attention to all of them but they wanted $1750 for the Wh20.  Not a terrible price but the machine was a bit rough.  Baby Pac was priced nice $650 for it.  

Bunch of videos I didn't pay attention to.

I picked up an original ST:TNG manual for $25 so that was good.  

I wouldn't bother with the sale again personally while they did drop prices to be more in line with regualr market prices after you add tax on top of that there were really no good deals to be had.  

You mean you didn't take the Bad Girls home with you??

Not too exciting.
There was an original MM manual downstairs...I think that's the best thing I saw. (I was trying to find an MB manual...anyone ?)
Asked for a couple fuses, some novus1 and balls and was told 'too busy today with the big sale'.
Also seemed there were a couple football players (argos maybe?) there that had to go get a bigger truck cause there were buying 9 'pieces' (of what I don't know...)

meh

Hey, Adam.

What was the great sale price on WCS?

He basically said he couldn't tell me on the phone, but it would be worth my while, that was the deal breaker for me. I hate the sales games.

Dan

Nothing special, I think it was like $1800 or something like that.  The soccer ball was trashed, usual wear in the scoops, flippers were so weak ramp shots were impossible, then they blew a fuse in the show room so I couldn't play test anymore