What's new
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

The all new eBay Auctions / Facebook / Gumtree / Shpock 2021 thread!!

Status
Not open for further replies.
Lockdown has created a new breed of haves & have nots. Lots of people on full/most pay with nothing, i.e. holidays etc. to spend it on and people who’ve effectively been chucked on the scrapheap, no job, no prospects. The haves, with money burning a hole in their pockets are, I suspect, the ones doing the buying.
Brilliant post.
 
Lockdown has created a new breed of haves & have nots. Lots of people on full/most pay with nothing, i.e. holidays etc. to spend it on and people who’ve effectively been chucked on the scrapheap, no job, no prospects. The haves, with money burning a hole in their pockets are, I suspect, the ones doing the buying.

I feel most for the kids. This could all get very political when kids that overwhelmingly do not die from this have had their school educations trashed, university educations trashed, were imprisoned in halls of residence, leave uni with 50k debts, face insecure employment, collapsed gig economy in leisure/ retail where many went on to work ..... start seeing vaccine passport pensioners going on cruises.

There will be a reckoning.

In the mid 1970s the UK Labour Govenment had top rates of income tax of 83% and unearned income tax at 98%.

If they don't tax you directly, they will get you with inflation. Inflation could obliterate much "wealth" regardless of what taxes are set. UK Inflation peaked around 25% in the 70s and 80s.

Absolutely any pool of wealth is a future target to pay for this mess - Pensions, Earnings, Taxes on multiple properties, Rental Properties (rent caps used to exist in the UK and still do in many countries), wealth taxes, inheritance taxes.

After the Great Depression in the USA, the government even made it illegal for private citizens to hold gold by confiscating it at knock down prices. If you got caught holding gold coins, it was jail.
 
Yeah the situation with kids and particularly Uni students is pretty brutal. The fact they were asked to go back to halls, pay their yearly fees, and then essentially locked in is just nuts. That's even before you consider the almost total loss of the whole Uni experience that you'd normally get.

The stuff with exams seems really crazy too. I don't particularly remember doing amazingly well in my mocks, I had the attitude that I would knuckle down when it mattered and get the results then. But kids today are getting exam results based on teachers' subjective assessments of them, which seems ripe for inaccuracy and abuse.

Where I would differ - and this is probably contentious - but I see housing as being something that people should live in, not see as investment opportunities. I therefore have no issue at all with punitive taxes on second+ properties, etc. The sooner house prices are more aligned with the reality of salaries, etc the better as far as I'm concerned. I realise that's a simplistic mindset, though.

EDIT: Just realised that this thread is going way off topic.
 
Two of my boys are in uni, really feel for them. Money for nothing it seems but making the best of a bad situation.
 
With regards to uni this might be a turning point for more on the job training and less debit for the next wave if young people ?
 
I feel most for the kids. This could all get very political when kids that overwhelmingly do not die from this have had their school educations trashed, university educations trashed, were imprisoned in halls of residence, leave uni with 50k debts, face insecure employment, collapsed gig economy in leisure/ retail where many went on to work ..... start seeing vaccine passport pensioners going on cruises.

There will be a reckoning.

In the mid 1970s the UK Labour Govenment had top rates of income tax of 83% and unearned income tax at 98%.

If they don't tax you directly, they will get you with inflation. Inflation could obliterate much "wealth" regardless of what taxes are set. UK Inflation peaked around 25% in the 70s and 80s.

Absolutely any pool of wealth is a future target to pay for this mess - Pensions, Earnings, Taxes on multiple properties, Rental Properties (rent caps used to exist in the UK and still do in many countries), wealth taxes, inheritance taxes.

After the Great Depression in the USA, the government even made it illegal for private citizens to hold gold by confiscating it at knock down prices. If you got caught holding gold coins, it was jail.


Yup. Gold, actual gold, not paper, & bitcoin are the only two ways I see of protecting your stash. And I think those may be fallible. Thank God I’m 63 and maybe only have a couple of decades left. It’s gonna get mucky.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DRD
Who cares about educating future generations? We can't let old people in care homes die, you monsters!

*sob*
 
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" don't know who came up with it, but it sadly wasn't me
 
With regards to uni this might be a turning point for more on the job training and less debit for the next wave if young people ?
Problem is kids want to earn from the off so think uni will help them get the higher salaries, I remember in my day it was the YTS at £25 a week, I got lucky at 16 and didn’t need to do that. All 4 of my kids have been to uni, the 2 older have done well and hopefully the next 2 will🤞
 
I dunno I sometime think kids just go to uni as a right of passage , if we set up big campus style location In or around towns for the 18-27 year olds on a room basis with washing and communal living I think it would be popular stepping stone to becoming an adult ? And on the job learning of course
 
Sorry to dig up the past and bring this thread back to pinball but I've reached out to @robertlucas1970 over this £5k SM situation and he's quite frankly mortified about the whole affair. As we all know when Robert has a pin he likes to take it back to new and beyond and although he said only flippers and rubbers in the ebay advert he has infact send me a picture of all the new bits hes istalled including a ramp, wireforms and plastics. He put on ebay for £5k willing to accept £4k and hadn't got around to getting that across to the forum before we, myself included, jumped on it. He had infact pulled the advert as he didn't need the sale now but will still sell to the forum for £4k if anyone is interested, I'd have it if I had the £4k. I apologised to @robertlucas1970 for my pitchforking and I hope that @Jmac can see that this was not a flip as we first assumed.
 
correct me if im wrong but it seems something that isn't respected enough in this game are the fact that there are people putting good work into restoring pins and bringing them back from the dead. When I say not respected enough I mean the market doesn't seem to care if a pin has had hours of restoration work put into and could be a collectors piece vs the barely playable beat up old arcade unit the price is expected to be the same or similar. Seems unfair to not value someones time and effort especially if that's their business.
 
correct me if im wrong but it seems something that isn't respected enough in this game are the fact that there are people putting good work into restoring pins and bringing them back from the dead. When I say not respected enough I mean the market doesn't seem to care if a pin has had hours of restoration work put into and could be a collectors piece vs the barely playable beat up old arcade unit the price is expected to be the same or similar. Seems unfair to not value someones time and effort especially if that's their business.


This isn't an example of that though. I played this machine 6 months (ish) ago and it wasn't a barn-find. It was pimped, rebuilt, no damage to doc-oc, powdercoated, new coils, LED's & playing beautifully.

I'm pretty sure if Robert had have popped the advert on here for £4k listing the new upgrades then it would wouldn't be an issue. It's only the fact it pooped up on ebay at £5k rather than being offered back into the community that was the issue.
 
or until some sort of buyer validation process can be sorted on here.

Any suggestions out there for this greatfully received (without alienating half of the forum!!)

I have a £1k+ forum bill for hosting due in the next two weeks... Massive part of me now wanting not to bother. Whats the point?? If the forum doesnt pay for itself then i'm done - I bannkrolled it to the tune of many £k's over a number of years...

Or I could just plaster Adverts all over the place and be done with it.

Personal view - Im fed up of people looking to get the most for everything... Basically "Screw any community... I'm out for what i can get" mentality.
You know what... go to Ebay and see what fun and games you get... or Facebook... I would bet that people get FAR less hassles on here than any of those.

This place isnt perfect. Some would argue in my efforts to get things working better i have broken it - Yes, you know what, I'll take that on the chin. But at least it was done in the attempt to make this place a better place.
 
Last edited:
With governments around the globe printing money due to covid, the value of real assets in £ has gone up:

Bitcoin, premium watches, gold, mobile homes .... and pinball machines.

If someone bought a game mid 2020, there is a fair chance it will sell for more now. That is not spiteful behaviour. That is a fall in the value of paper money.

The spike in prices in the past 9 months is probably as sharp as any I can remember

Bitcoin is not a real asset. The rest yes. I’ve just had to have my watch collection re-insured for almost double why it was previously insured for!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
This isn't an example of that though. I played this machine 6 months (ish) ago and it wasn't a barn-find. It was pimped, rebuilt, no damage to doc-oc, powdercoated, new coils, LED's & playing beautifully.

I'm pretty sure if Robert had have popped the advert on here for £4k listing the new upgrades then it would wouldn't be an issue. It's only the fact it pooped up on ebay at £5k rather than being offered back into the community that was the issue.
No, it's cool, I wasn't referencing that pin just making an observation about my perception of the market since we're on the subject and I've seen people turning their nose up at prices that are "unfair" without considering the work that has gone into them.
 
No, it's cool, I wasn't referencing that pin just making an observation about my perception of the market since we're on the subject and I've seen people turning their nose up at prices that are "unfair" without considering the work that has gone into them.

I completely agree and have an example at the back of my mind although I'm struggling to think of it.

The work and love that people put into these machines is vital. I've always thought that we're custodians for the older games and I do think that most genuinely appreciate this as can be seen from shop log comments.
 
Any suggestions out there for this greatfully received (without alienating half of the forum!!)

I think it may happen naturally Paul, I've already had a couple of messages today, it would be very hard to police anyway.

I don't think it's an issue for the newer Spike games anyway. It's more the older titles.

Hope you're feeling much better mate.
 
we are going to look a right bunch of Charlie’s if no one on the forum buys the Spider-Man for 4K btw :)
Sorry to dig up the past and bring this thread back to pinball but I've reached out to @robertlucas1970 over this £5k SM situation and he's quite frankly mortified about the whole affair. As we all know when Robert has a pin he likes to take it back to new and beyond and although he said only flippers and rubbers in the ebay advert he has infact send me a picture of all the new bits hes istalled including a ramp, wireforms and plastics. He put on ebay for £5k willing to accept £4k and hadn't got around to getting that across to the forum before we, myself included, jumped on it. He had infact pulled the advert as he didn't need the sale now but will still sell to the forum for £4k if anyone is interested, I'd have it if I had the £4k. I apologised to @robertlucas1970 for my pitchforking and I hope that @Jmac can see that this was not a flip as we first assumed.
 
Thanks mate - i am today.
(Though having read through the above the temptation is to head back to bed again!) :D

You absolutely should mate 😁

Get yourself something nice to eat & drink and switch the laptop off. Glad you've perked up.
 
Going back to what Paul mentioned with suggestions- Is there anyway to add an ‘Selling Intentions’ tab or some sort to our profiles? Not to trip people up with but maybe to make it clear how you’d like them to use the forum in the right spirit- could be good for newbies so they don’t p*** a lot of people off by accident? Tell me - is this a terrible idea? Just trying to think how Paul can keep the forum sustainable.
 
I think it's important to get a sense of perspective. Just because someone puts a machine on eBay for £5k that does not mean that it will sell for that price or anywhere near it. When I buy stuff on eBay I generally lowball until we get to a reasonable/cheap figure. For example I bought a coal scuttle today with a buy it now of £120 for £75. Likewise when I sell things on eBay (and I have bought and sold thousands) I overprice stuff so that people can make an offer and feel like they're getting a bargain. People really need to feel like they've not paid the asking price. I haven't bought or sold many pinball machines and I certainly don't see it as an investment or a business sideline in any way. What are we talking here? A few hundred quid? Hardly worth the bother. Anyway the point is that I'm fairly sure Robert Lucas isn't actually expecting or hoping to get £5k for it (I could be totally wrong). Taking as an example, I listed an RFM that I bought from JC Rox for £2k for £3500 a year later and accepted an offer for £2300. That was purely because people onthe forum were telling me it was worth £1500. I have a hot tub advertised for £2000, I accepted an offer for £700 (but he didn't turn up). What you see on eBay isn't usually the full story. People need to sell stuff at its market value or close to otherwise they're going to get annoyed. Simple as that.
This. Basic marketing principles. I think many here, while are extremely knowledgable about Pinball, aren't exactly covering themselves in glory when complaining about resellers.

There could be a rule that a sticky thread contains sold/buy information including dates and prices regardless of channel, which would help both newcomers and long term members keep track.
 
so if I see anyone flipping anything I've sold I just won't sell to them. Its not the forum's fault its the ****wits that flip. I've just put a warning on a few of the Facebook forums for the crazies that are selling at stupid prices and to come here so I encourage everyone lets not stich each other up here.

Neil.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom