Well done Adam!
As soon as I saw the ad I knew there would be a million guys trying to lowball this seller to see if he didn't know what he had on his hands.
I don't think this guy was running an "auction". If that were the case the machine would probably still be in his hands as he took more and more offers.
Sometimes it's just about making the right offer and causing the seller the least amount of hassle.
For something this rare, you don't mess around. This might be the only SG I've seen posted for sale publicly since I've been collecting.
I was lucky to find one within a few months of starting my search, but I can count on one hand how many have changed hands in Ontario/QC in the last 10 years. Looking forward to restoring mine later this year.
Congrats!
The guy was just some rando, it was his only machine and he had no idea what he had. He got the game from his father in law when they downsized their house and he said it hadn't worked in 16 years or so. He has no idea where his father in law got it.
I talked to him about the offers he was getting, he said in the time it took for me to drive from Keswick he got 35 emails about the game.
Offers as low as $300. Although the $300 guy he said went from $300, to $500, to $1000, to $1500. The usual suspect of ambulance chasers and the like.
I knew what market value was so I went in high at $2500 for the machine as that is what the last one that was working and in nice shape that I know of sold for recently.
Once I got pics and saw the wear and saw it wasn't booting I came down in price to $2000 which was still higher than everyone else bidding.
I still think it was a bit overpriced but I checked with MrNiceGuy as his SG was the first one I missed and I asked him when he sold that one, and that was back in 2011 so it has literally been 5 years of searching for this game.
But this is the perfect example of the market today I knew I wanted the game and I didn't care that I had to overpay a bit, I knew there was going to be competition for the game so I knew I had to go in high to even have a chance. It's a sellers market for sure out there and if I was just another person offering $1500 for the machine, no guarantees I'd get it.