FS East Coast Container, Sales Now Live

[rewrite]

That is all that is being said. Make it about KC if you want, but I'm not.

Be fair, dude: you brought him up. Just didn't use his name. There's not another "guy on the forums here that brings stuff in with no assurance that it won't be in good shape"...

Yes, things weren't brought up in a good way, but they're valid concerns. Posting prices without any indication to quality or anything is going to have people show up concerned.

 

[Cereth]

As I said, I let it go. But that cabinet had an unrepairable monitor, caps leaked and destroyed traces on it. It would not hold a steady picture and eventually died. The I/O had some sort of damage and surface mount caps came off it. I just chalked it up to a loss and bought a new taito screen and I/O. At the time, you seemed like a nice guy that was starting out and I didn't want to make any trouble.
The fact of the matter is, going and saying cabs have been checked does not in anyway justify him asking those high prices. Those aero prices are prices for a full restored machine and then some. These prices aren't any kind of "for the community" 1k+ for an aero is hosing someone simply because of the coast they live on.

Should have let me know dude. The distributor backs us up on those things if we ask. Their guarantee to me transfers on, I could have replaced things for you.

Import costs to East Coast are higher overall. Also, not every distro is giving the same prices on everything, and they fluctuate based on condition, so the price thing is valid and there'll be answers if we can provide. I'll look over the price lists again, I advised a few times on pricing but I don't remember seeing the Aeros. Don't sweat it, the reason I'm here to help is so that everything is actually fair for what it is. There were already a lot of items that were too high-priced to be worth bringing and I think we didn't even bother listing them because of it.

I know Geekman is still new at the cab importing, so bear with it for a bit as we work out a few things and get it smooth! Nobody else is really actually stepping forward and doing containers out East so I want to see something proper happen. Keep constructive info coming in, 'cause this is a lot of work to set up, and personally my time is completely booked keeping my stuff moving, so I might be slow contributing here.

 

[Cereth]

I'm not "You Guys" and I was not unprofessional, my concerns were legitimate.

I typed that post before yours loaded for me, that wasn't targeted at you. Sorry for the confusion

 

[ReplicaX]

I'm not "You Guys" and I was not unprofessional, my concerns were legitimate.

I typed that post before yours loaded for me, that wasn't targeted at you. Sorry for the confusion

No worries, thanks for the clarification.

 

[GeeDee]

Are you saying we order the cabs at those prices and you then source them and ship them.

Hows the shipping for East coast?

He did not provide me any personal pictures like I requested but he did post pictures of them in the lot.

Spreadsheet states that the prices include shipping to his warehouse in greenville/spartanburg SC (which that location is in the FAQ). OP also mentions that if you aren't able to pick up the cab yourself, they can arrange freight shipping (but would prefer not to) for a fee. FAQ also says they would prefer if you pickup or arrange a pickup in one way or another within two weeks of it arriving at the warehouse. Based on...a few posts, sounds like pics are coming in time, but like with any container, we're basically getting a Japanese arcades no-longer-needed stuff no matter how you spin it, so your always at the mercy of availability. Pics you see today should be different from pics they give out weeks and months from now respectively, etc.

 

[ninjaz0mbie]

I for one am excited to have some new buying options for CRT candy cabs, especially out east. And if @Cereth can vouch for the distributor, I feel pretty good about it.

 

[GeekMan1222]

Hey sorry for the late response everyone I was just getting back with some people on things.

So first off. The prices you see are reflected based on the prices in Japan.
If I could keep my prices sub $1000 still I would, but the drying stock in Japan combined with demand means the prices offered to me are higher, thus my price must go up a bit.
I mean I could sell machines as-is and non serviced since that is an option given to me, but that is not what I want to sell because nothing is checked over or serviced..

I am selling candy cabs to the east coast purely because I want people to have the opportunity to buy them, like I always wanted for my self for many years.

The prices you see are for fully serviced and reconditioned machines.
Machines get circulated from game centers, those game centers or other distributors sell off their machines or trade up. It is like an auction house. This is what is up for offer and this is the only way this works anymore over there. The machines are checked over before my supplier purchases them to see if they are even worth their time.

Once my supplier has a buyer for one of their machines they will have servicing and work done to the machine. That means they test the machines again and if a problem is found it is addressed. Tubes are serviced if it has one and the machine is cleaned and missing parts are replaced where possible. They care about originality on machines as well so they keep a stock pile of parts to try to keep everything original. If something is not original they will inform me and as such I will inform a potential buyer.
This supplier has been doing this for many years he is no stranger to doing work on machines.

If you hold on a bit I can get you guys some photos of what a fully serviced machine looks like.

As an East coaster this has me excited, but I do need more information. Are you saying we order the cabs at those prices and you then source them and ship them, or will you do as KC does, import a container, show off your wares and the condition they are in and then take the money? If it's the latter then that is something I am all for. Say you pull in 6 blast cities, I could drive up on a weekend and pick the one I find passable just like the guys over on the West coast have the luxury of doing. If it's the former and you are just taking money and then giving me your word your source will find me a "expected but passable cab" then I personally would want more information.

Hows the shipping for East coast?

I just paid KC $1,000 shipped for an Aero, but that was when he was charging $450 for a aero before the $600 price hike (I am not sure if that's permanent). He did not provide me any personal pictures like I requested but he did post pictures of them in the lot. I feel as though some local Cali guys went there probably picked over all the good stock. I had to continuously remind him I paid him and I am still awaiting shipping information so my experience hasn't been the best and I have no clue what I am getting but for $1,000 shipped and no other options, I would love for you guys to atleast show me a better buying experience if your asking those prices.

The machines are available in Japan right now there is no going out and trying to find it. Once you place an order and pay for that machine is your machine it is pulled off my suppliers market listings. Your name and a customer number is assigned to that cabinet so it remains yours through the life of the order. I made this very clear with my supplier and it is something he can happily and easily accommodate for us.

If you ask me anything about concerns on a machine you are interested in. I am more than happy to have my supplier get pictures of that machine for you and even get some other information on it.

In the future I want to have my own stock to sell but as it stands right now this is how this works.


** Edit and as previous mentioned I did provide an FAQ section. While I am happy to address concerns if you have any please let me know in PM or in the thread where appropriate. I look forward to do this as professionally as possible for everyone and my self. ***

 

[rewrite]

The prices you see are for fully serviced and reconditioned machines.

You should really define both of those terms. What has been done to them? What hasn't? What's guaranteed? What isn't?

"Fully serviced and reconditioned" can be taken a hundred ways. A lot of people would read that exact wording as they're fully restored, and I'm sure that's not the case. My guess is it's more along the lines of "They work as intended."

 

[Cereth]

I for one am excited to have some new buying options for CRT candy cabs, especially out east. And if @Cereth can vouch for the distributor, I feel pretty good about it.

I'm driving to LA atm but I'll update my first post with specifics of what I'm supporting btw. In short, I am vouching for the distributor in Japan, their work to get the cabs in operable shape, helping to provide cabinet information and photos, and helping Geekman correspond with them and provide the information properly to the community. I am NOT vouching for Geekman's ability to handle money, personal relations with buyers, etc. That he will do on his own. What my support means is that I'm going to help in any way I can to make this container work out, and if anything goes sour, I'll try to mediate issues that arise and help them get resolved. This is not my container, and anyone going forward should keep that in mind. Even saying that, I'm taking a risk that problems will be associated to me, so I just want clear here what I'm trying to offer as assistance. Ultimately it'll be up to the buyers here if that is good enough for you.

For reference I've had at least 5 other people ask about help getting an East Coast container started, Geekman is the only one who's had the balls to step forward and actually do it. We need more access to candies and I can't afford to do it myself, but I can afford to spare my knowledge so someone else can set up

 

[BanishingFlatsAC]

@Cereth I've made it pretty clear that I don't like you. Your response time is shit and you can barely keep shit together, so I won't buy from you.

I won't buy from KC not because he sells stuff thats beat up, this stuff is all beat up. I won't buy from him because he screwed my friend over.

You walk around like you shit Tiffany cufflinks, and you don't. If you are such a great importer, you would be selling this stuff, not facilitating geekman. I'm just so sick of hearing your bullshit that I can't sit quiet anymore.

Now geekman, he got all sorts of advice from lots of my friends and myself included after he tried to flip KCs cabs here. He took zero of it, and came with some crazy prices. I can get an Aero from KC for $600 and get it professionally restored with a better for what he is charging. There is zero assurance here as you're putting money up front before the machines arrive stateside. Cut the bullshit. This isn't my first rodeo and I've never seen this turn out right with fly by night people trying to profit off the hobby.

 

[rewrite]

There is zero assurance here as you're putting money up front before the machines arrive stateside.

Bypassing the animosity, this.... is a good point. Aside from these cabs aren't coming from a mystery vendor who turned out to be Yaton, what makes it different than the group buy from XeD?

 

[Hedonism Bot 2.0]

There'll be photos coming for things as he gets them as well. I'm largely here helping because I've seen their restore work in person and it's fine compared to what I get from my vendor. He knows expectations are the root of most problems with cab purchases, so we've been trying to find the best ways to alleviate concerns and provide what info we can.

Cost concern is valid, the way you guys brought it up however was not professional. Saying it because your attitude discredits the fact that its a valid concern. If you want to contribute, please don't be an ass.

Also @radiantsvgun I looked back and I don't see anywhere you mentioned any concerns. We can't fix things or improve if you keep it to yourself and using it to smear people in the future. I'm very disappointed to be hearing that now, over a year later.

Smear? Get real, I paid over 2k in parts to Taito for a cab that fully working is only $1500. Maybe you missed the part about me letting it go because I thought highly of your character. After seeing what’s going on lately. I was very mistaken.

I’ve bought from you and KC and I’ve had to pretty much do damn near full restores on each cab. If I pay what geekman is asking, I expect it to be like Matsu cabs, and no one has yet to come close to him. Everyone talks a big game, but not a single person I’ve bought from here has come anywhere close to the level of Matsu. Any cabinet I bought off him, I didn’t need to do anything except plug in a board. No recaps, no new buttons, no screen burn, no fixes.

What guarantee is there all these cabs won’t arrive busted up? Has everyone forgot about all those dead Windys from that order? There were videos of working machines and most of us got dead cabs.

 

[Kavas]

Are you saying we order the cabs at those prices and you then source them and ship them.

Hows the shipping for East coast?

He did not provide me any personal pictures like I requested but he did post pictures of them in the lot.

Spreadsheet states that the prices include shipping to his warehouse in greenville/spartanburg SC (which that location is in the FAQ). OP also mentions that if you aren't able to pick up the cab yourself, they can arrange freight shipping (but would prefer not to) for a fee. FAQ also says they would prefer if you pickup or arrange a pickup in one way or another within two weeks of it arriving at the warehouse. Based on...a few posts, sounds like pics are coming in time, but like with any container, we're basically getting a Japanese arcades no-longer-needed stuff no matter how you spin it, so your always at the mercy of availability. Pics you see today should be different from pics they give out weeks and months from now respectively, etc.

Totally my bad, I thought I read all of his original post. I think I got distracted by the rude but hilarious comments from DepZero and never went back.

Eager to find out what the STL costs from Greenville to Florida will be. I drove to North Carolina last month actually. Greenville is about 9 hours drive according to google (10 with breaks) but I could probably do it faster as I got to Asheville NC in about 12. I don't have a truck atm as I recently retired mine so it might be better to have some company like STL do it. From the sounds of things it doesn't matter if I arrive in person as the cabinet would be mine the moment it leaves Japan. Having someone fluent in English and willing to get me pictures of my particular cabinet would be nice as well.

 

[rewrite]

and no one has yet to come close to him.

There's a reason he stopped a couple years back. And that's lack of quality cabs left to import. . Matsu's a real cool dude. I hope he's well.

Eager to find out what the STL costs from Greenville to Florida will be.

It's STI actually. You can get dimensions for whatever cab off of ArcadeOtaku's wiki, and then send that and both zipcodes to
judy.metallo@beltmann dot com to get a quote (her business e-mail is all over KLOV and other sites, I'm not sharing anything personal).


And as I've suggested when KC was attacked, I'll suggest here with Cereth being attacked:

We have a damned feedback subforum. It's not hard to use. When you have a bad experience, POST IT THERE. Or if you have a current grievance... It doesn't belong in third parties' sales threads...

Argue in the right threads...

 

[GeekMan1222]

Here are some photos showing example of their work.

 

[Cereth]

@Cereth I've made it pretty clear that I don't like you.

actually no you don’t, you’re just an asshole to everyone so I didn’t take anything the wrong way. Duly noted now though. Wish you the best in your endeavors.

Since market and forums keep seeking to want to turn to shit over people’s egos and unreasonable expectations, I’m going to suggest something I’ve been meaning to do with my own sales. Forum and messenger are pretty shitty mediums to convey meaning/intent and explain things properly, if anyone wants to talk on the phone/voice, it’s highly suggested. I suggested to Geekman that he do the same. There’s a lot of things like rising distro prices in Japan, the time involvement of these things, little difficulties here and there that you can’t just type up, and the veil of text makes it easy to shit on anything you say with no repercussions. There’s a lot of things in this industry that people will walk all over without giving a shit for how things actually are, and it ruins everything for the people who are actually trying to make shit happen. Anyone interested in discussing things is welcome to PM me and get a voice call going. A lot of people are talking out their ass and not willing to look into it more. I’m mostly here to answer questions and let people know the state of things how they actually are, not how various people assume things are because no they have expectations that have no basis to back them up.

I’m not going to say any more on the matter here, just take anything written in text behind a forum screenname with a grain of salt, including from me. I can’t satisfactorily explain the state of things in a forum post like in a real conversation. If you really want to know what’s up, have serious questions about stuff on this order and want to know more, recommend PM and set up a voice call. I at least am happy to share.

 

[rewrite]

@DecepticonZero @radiantsvgun @Cereth

Seems like ya'll can't find it, but here it is:

Feedback Thread!

Let's let @GeekMan1222 do his own thing and maybe keep discussion related to /this/ group buy rather than past and present issues with each other?



On topic:

@GeekMan1222 these don't really look any better than what KC's offering outside of they've been hosed down. They certainly don't look "reconditioned".

Like I suggested before, you should probably explain what sets these apart since this distributor "fully services and reconditions" the cabs.

As well as maybe explain how or if this is any different than our previous group buy fiasco.

 

[GeekMan1222]

Are you saying we order the cabs at those prices and you then source them and ship them.

Hows the shipping for East coast?

He did not provide me any personal pictures like I requested but he did post pictures of them in the lot.

Spreadsheet states that the prices include shipping to his warehouse in greenville/spartanburg SC (which that location is in the FAQ). OP also mentions that if you aren't able to pick up the cab yourself, they can arrange freight shipping (but would prefer not to) for a fee. FAQ also says they would prefer if you pickup or arrange a pickup in one way or another within two weeks of it arriving at the warehouse. Based on...a few posts, sounds like pics are coming in time, but like with any container, we're basically getting a Japanese arcades no-longer-needed stuff no matter how you spin it, so your always at the mercy of availability. Pics you see today should be different from pics they give out weeks and months from now respectively, etc.

Totally my bad, I thought I read all of his original post. I think I got distracted by the rude but hilarious comments from DepZero and never went back.
Eager to find out what the STL costs from Greenville to Florida will be. I drove to North Carolina last month actually. Greenville is about 9 hours drive according to google (10 with breaks) but I could probably do it faster as I got to Asheville NC in about 12. I don't have a truck atm as I recently retired mine so it might be better to have some company like STL do it. From the sounds of things it doesn't matter if I arrive in person as the cabinet would be mine the moment it leaves Japan. Having someone fluent in English and willing to get me pictures of my particular cabinet would be nice as well.

The cabinet is yours from the second you place the order and my supplier puts your name on the cabinet. I can get you a quote for shipping if you like but the cost of the cabinet includes warehousing and pick up from my warehouse. After that you would have to pay additional fees on freight.

 

[Cereth]

@GeekMan1222 these don't really look any better than what KC's offering outside of they've been hosed down. They certainly don't look "reconditioned".

Like I suggested before, you should probably explain what sets these apart since this distributor "fully services and reconditions" the cabs.

As well as maybe explain how or if this is any different than our previous group buy fiasco.

Yeah, this should be addressed. It's not enough to say "they make sure it works" or "prices are just higher". I can't really get that point across properly in text. Just noting these things have been put in the queue to address and if there's other concerns let it be known

 

[BanishingFlatsAC]

Im more then happy to help people. Ask Hawaii, ask DJ Jimmy, and the countless people I've been helping out for almost two decades.

I'm not going to pat myself on the back, but I'm legit doing things for free, because I love the hobby. I've repro'd a shit ton of art, shared my experiences with restores, ECT. What exactly have you done for free in this hobby? You turn a profit on this hobby, not me...so get off your fucking judgemental high horse.

You're 110% right, I'm an asshole. I'll be 100 straight up with you and I promise you I am like this in person. Ask @ReplicaX who is a close friend of mine if you don't believe me.

Buying from anyone in this hobby is a gamble. However, Ill be honest when I say that I have a tough time believing an Aero is $1000 in Japan when they sell for $325 on YAJ all day long. You're not selling a cabinet you bought for a $1000 and shipped across the globe for a $65 profit....that's just dumb.

My advice to Geekman was to be a Matsu, and not a Matevi, KC, Yaton ECT. That fell on deaf ear apparently.