How do you negotiate with Arcade Operators

You've experienced arcade operators who want to sell their beat up cabs for like an enormous treasure. How do you deal with them? Can you get them to lower their prices? Maybe if you tell them you'll buy a few cabs instead of just one. Any strategies on how to deal with them????? When I visit my folks, there's a mall near their house with an arcade where all the cabs are on sale. Like $1300 for a Tekken 3, $1800 for an MVC 2 that has a TV for a monitor that has issues? That's right the guy had to use a remote to turn on the TV of the MVC2 set up and it didn't even turn on beacuse it had problems and they're selling it for close to 2K. Basically all the cabs in the arcade are on sale but they want an arm and leg for it. I've seen this with arcade operators in general. Do you just move on or are there ways of dealing with them and just try your luck at Craigslist, Auctions, and message boards like this?

Pick what you want, show up w/ cash, and give a 'take it or leave it' offer.

Start a few hundred under what you really will pay, so you can go up a bit. You will either get what you want, or they will be so stubborn they wont budge.

Any time I have ever done a deal, games or otherwise, the 'cash is king' rule always works. When someone sees cash they can have in their hand instantly, it usually works

How did he manage to run a naomi setup on a old CRT TV because someone ignorant enough to be selling at those prices would not be informed enough to know about hobbyist encoders.

Most people don't know, but I got the bulk of my collection directly from operators by the means of dropping cash usually $1500 on just bare boards bulk buys, because cash talks for itself.


Do what awbacon recommends and if they don't sale walk away and laugh. $1300 for a tekken 3, christ.

When someone sees cash they can have in their hand instantly, it usually works

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Bingo.

Operators won't give you the time of day unless you've got tons of cash in-hand. One trick that usually works with them is doing a bulk deal. For example the same operator who wants $1300 for Tekken 3 might actually be willing to sell you both Tekken 3 and MvC2 for the same price. Corner him in the warehouse, point out how beat up they are, and show him the money, and he'll probably crack. That's a bad example though, those cabs are only worth half that price.

Best thing to do is go to an arcade auction where they will typically sell for fair market price. It's the same beat up operator's junk, but you don't have to negotiate with them for it.

cgbartek said:

Bingo.

Operators won't give you the time of day unless you've got tons of cash in-hand. One trick that usually works with them is doing a bulk deal. For example the same operator who wants $1300 for Tekken 3 might actually be willing to sell you both Tekken 3 and MvC2 for the same price. Corner him in the warehouse, point out how beat up they are, and show him the money, and he'll probably crack. That's a bad example though, those cabs are only worth half that price.

Best thing to do is go to an arcade auction where they will typically sell for fair market price. It's the same beat up operator's junk, but you don't have to negotiate with them for it.

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Totally. When my buddy and I used to do cab runs, we'd rent a large u-haul... show up at the operator with Gs of cold hard cash and buy cabs in the range of 10-15 units. We'd also buy his boards, buttons/sticks, art, etc in bulk as well.

Our biggest run was when we showed up with 10 guys, 1 large uhaul and even the Midway official arcade machine moving truck with hydraulic lift (most of the guys with us worked for Midway as a programmer or tester). We drove off with 30+ cabs that day in several trips. Boy that was fun and exhausting day. Running through his 3 different warehouses of arcade machines was amazing and a "tearful" trip down memory lane.

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StealthLurker said:

Totally. When my buddy and I used to do cab runs, we'd rent a large u-haul... show up at the operator with Gs of cold hard cash and buy cabs in the range of 10-15 units. We'd also buy his boards, buttons/sticks, art, etc in bulk as well.

Our biggest run was when we showed up with 10 guys, 1 large uhaul and even the Midway official arcade machine moving truck with hydraulic lift (most of the guys with us worked for Midway as a programmer or tester). We drove off with 30+ cabs that day in several trips. Boy that was fun and exhausting day. Running through his 3 different warehouses of arcade machines was amazing and a "tearful" trip down memory lane.

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ha ha NICE.

I tried to buy an old 4 slot big read from the local vending company. I only wanted it because it was the same one that I used to play years ago in an old hang out.

Anyhow this was about 4 years ago and the thing was in awful shape from spending it's life in bars and qwik-e marts. Awful, the monitor looked bad with burn in, the cab was beat to hell. There were lots of holes where it had security bars and had been pryed out and put back in a different place. The coin doors were f'ed up. And the board was bad. With no games he wanted 900 for it and more if he were to fix the board and include games.

I was afraid I had to pass on that.

I think ops generally price their shit the way they do so they don't become tech support to the buyer.

I know the feeling...