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FS Versus city 3 left here

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I say if you want to get a as pristine as possible, fully functional cab you will most likely have to buy it from an individual seller, not from a person like KC. Im not saying that he cant get you a mint cab, its just that with these much older,used cabs that are 20+ years old dont have crazy expectations of them being mint and that there might be a possibility of something being missing like an IO or a part replaced with another that while not original will fit/work. But also remember that you will most likely pay a premium for pristine cabs.

I hope the people that know more help guide those that dont; and that those that dont seek out advice before buying. In the end, its pretty much buyer beware, if you dont feel comfortable with a transaction then dont do it. You are dealing with used good in a secondary market.

I remember an issue KC had with his warehouse, I think most members here can recall that incident. He was holding $9K from me worth of cabs. He called me and explained what was happening to him, and I decided not to ask for a refund and ride it out as I wanted the cabs, he delivered the cabs as promised per our conversation. He has earn my trust not to steal my $$, but I still keep on eye on him to make sure he sends me what Im paying for :P . But yeah, that situation could have gone sideways and I would have found myself headed west with a shovel in hand cause either KC was gonna dig up my $$ or I was gonna bury "something" in the desert.
 
If you want to be in this hobby you need to be a little resourceful, and you can't expect everything to be handed to you. It just doesn't work that way. We deal with used items, commercially used at that, and they're going to have surprises.

If you can't deal with that then there's usually an answer, but it pretty much always involves money. You want everything clean and perfect, buy from a restorer who took on the risks and work you don't want, and pay their price for all that labor. Or pay for your own Japanese scout to hand pick the perfect cabs for you and ship them out, that will cost you too, assuming you can find someone to even do it.

All these analogies about hamburgers and Honda Accords are pointless, it's a niche business with specialized products, and you gotta treat it as such. You want mass consumer shit then stick with playing console games.
 
A lot of pro and con comments to reply to and would find me typing at least 5 paragraphs so ill try and resume.
No I did not expect NOS cabs or collectors quality. I expected complete, fully functional not beat to crab junk on some of the cabs I bought from him. Got cabs with issues that don't function properly, badly damaged, parts off and thrown in like junk for me to try and put on and treated like junk from when my shipper picked them up.
If from the beginning this guy would of told me that I was gonna get cabs with nasty burned monitors that I can't even tell what game I'm playing than I would of not bought those cabs. But due to the Great feedback this guy gets and read before buying, I trusted the guy on what he told me that all the cabs were good and ready to be picked up for when my shipper arrived. Than tried to settle it in a proper way but the guy is just not putting of his part since hes got my $.
Now this guy has been in the business for years so don't give me that crap that he doesnt know about cabs or games, he knows perfectly what hes doing and he makes a lot more than enough money to hire at least 2 people to help communicate better and give a better service even for the same prive he gives. $800-1000 for a cab is not cheap, specially if you get beat to crab cabs.

Stop trying to go against to what I'm saying and getting across to all the community as we all know I'm right to have this guy give a better describcion what everyone is getting before buying. For gods sake this guy uses his knefew to communicate and post his stuff in other places. Is he really that cheap that after buying 6 cabs he refused to even give a $50-100 discount when we were dealing.
 
I bought from him at some point late last year, a blast, his communication leave something to be desired but I agree with most here that you're paying for what you get and expect to be putting in some work getting the cabinet in shape.

Now with that being said, the cab I bought from him did have a problem that I couldn't fix, the tube that came with it was burnt and I mean burnt. Like you can clearly see the burn in on all the time, not just lighter screens, even when it isn't on you can clearly make it out. When I asked him about it the conversation went nowhere, but again what is he going to do? I live across the country it's not like I can drive out and get a new tube from him but better communication would have been have been nice because I did ask for pictures, which I didn't get ever, and asked if everything would be working including the monitor which it did work but I was expecting the massive amount of burn in, some would have been acceptable I know these are 20+ year old machine rode hard but not as much as it had.
 
@Legend Just post a feedback thread if you have an issue. It takes less work than continually coming into this thread to complain. You go on about how bad things are but don't provide details or pictures or anything (and here isn't the place to do it anyway). Post your own thread. Interested parties will read it. Everyone else will go about their day.

And $800-1000 is the going rate for a mid-condition candy cab. Times have changed, prices have gone up. Getting a chopped Naomi Universal from Ken sold as a NNC is going to run you double. The price certainly isn't a negative factor here.
 
twistedsymphony said:
Legend said:
A lot of pro and con comments to reply to and would find me typing at least 5 paragraphs so ill try and resume...
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kevindg86 said:
I bought from him at some point late last year, a blast, his communication leave something to be desired...
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Why didn't either of you leave him feedback in the feedback thread: Positive feedback to KC
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I didn't think it was a big enough deal, like I said I voiced my issue with KC and it went nowhere. I did post something in one of my own threads, explaining the situation, asking what options I could do with a tube swap, I was hoping I could find one locally easy but no. I did eventually get a hold of Tom Tran who posts for him on some of the facebook groups, he said he might be able to hook me up with something but that never happened either. In the end I was 90% happy with the transaction but that tube has and will always bother me slightly. I just assume that is how this buying candy cabs work, or at least that what people seem to think.

Pic of tube
 
damn... looks like Mr Driller
never a good sign when you can ID the game from the burn-in.
 
Yeah I recognized it immediately after taking the shrink wrap off when it was delivered
 
And really nobody has dare put negative comments and feedback because most people here praise him like a god. So people are afraid the community will turn against them but ill put my feedback as best possible so people are aware before buying anything from him again. Its just ridiculous how this guy keeps doing business and nobody stands up to demand things done better.
 
Legend said:
And really nobody has dare put negative comments and feedback because most people here praise him like a god. So people are afraid the community will turn against them but ill put my feedback as best possible so people are aware before buying anything from him again. Its just ridiculous how this guy keeps doing business and nobody stands up to demand things done better.
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What exactly is it that you want? He gets containers of used cabs, and sells them at the going rate for used cabs. As is the case with used arcade equipment the condition is gonna vary, it's the nature of the beast.

Demand things are done better all you like, but I dunno what that actually means. The pool of used cabs is what it is. The supply of spare CRTs is what it is. You want more scrutiny and weeding out, then prices are going to go up.

Everyone wants a perfect cab for a great deal, it's not that we're stupid or not sympathetic to your point, but you can't just demand reality reconfigure itself to be more convenient. I'd have a long list of changes if that worked.

You know the old fast, good, cheap, pick two saying? It applies here. If you want cheap and good quality, then you need to apply patience, wait as long as it takes for the right deal to come along, and not hesitate when you see it.

If you want to just order up cabs from a warehouse like they're still making them any old time, then you get what you get.

None of my cabs came from KC. All of my cabs have had issues. Some of them I bought missing pieces and had to source parts to reassemble them. Because that's what this hobby entails.
 
Legend said:
And really nobody has dare put negative comments and feedback because most people here praise him like a god.
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I was one of the first people on this forum to buy a cab from him and I've had a lot of people ask my opinion of him and his cabs and I've told every one of them the same thing:

I had a good experience and he seems like an honest seller but there is a language barrier and the quality of his cabs ranges from junk to mint, so make sure you see them in person, have someone local to him check out the cab from you or try to get some pictures and make sure you're happy with the cab your buying before you buy it because he doesn't clean or inspect any of his inventory.
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^that's the actual message I PMed the last person that asked me about him.

Personally the only cab I would buy sight unseen from him is something extremely rare that is otherwise unobtainable.... and that doesn't include any of the candy cabs people here are buying... You can get a Blast, or a Vewlix, or even a NAC or E2 from numerous places, those cabs are "common" in the grand scheme of arcade cabinets, it makes ZERO sense to have not fully vetted those cabs before buying.

I'm on the east-coast and when I bought my cab from him I had someone near him go and check out the cab for me first, and I had him send me some pictures before I paid for it.
 
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What Kou offers: lots of cabs, regularly incoming, quick transaction, handled shipping. You want something, he gets/has it, you get it quick. He has a Versus, you get a Versus. You want a Vewlix Diamond, you get a Vewlix Diamond. You looking for something less common but still in circulation, he uses his network and finds it for you, just make sure you get it paid.

What Kou doesn't offer: collector analysis of games, guarantees of quality.

The reason for above: Kou is a wholesaler and does large scale imports and sales. He buys out locations and warehouses, or large stocks all at once. This means what he gets isn't picked over, serviced for use first, and may be missing parts, not working, or in poor shape. It does not mean everything is junk, but it does mean that frequently there's common things like bad burn, monitors showing up DOA, Vewlixes missing IOs, etc. Hes offering to collectors despite it not being a big chunk of sales. He likes money. His warehouse costs like five figures per month. He is not going to waste what seems like small amounts of time on potential leads for one $1,000 cab that might not sell.

If you do not like the above, do not buy. Kou has a very well-known reputation outside the forum for how he doesn't business. Short of it, if you want a cab want it now, and want it from someone quick to make shit happen and don't care about condition, buy from Kou. If not, wait. I can't and never will meet his supply. I can't afford to wait for cabs to pick over them, get 2L12Bs on everything before offering them. Some day I will, but right now I can't. What pickings are out there are what you can get. Feedback is a good place to make those concerns you have voiced. I should probably do the same, but I've only had one transaction with him and my complaint with it was semi-situational.

Hope this post is objective in getting information about how Kou operates out there without being in poor taste. If anyone has any input on it or I have said something wrong, please let me know. I understand bad experiences were had, but a different sales thread entirely isn't really the place to bring it up.
 
@Cereth your post is 110% correct assessment of KC and how and why he works the way he does.

But for everyone else, expectations with KC have been clearly set. It's time to stop beating this thread to death just because you're not happy with the business model or service.
 
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twistedsymphony said:
Oh these are NEW Versus City cabs... that's an important distinction.
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I don't know much about the difference, is it Versus City is like Astro City, and New Versus City is like Blast city? That's how I've always thought about it at least. I don't have real space for back to back, so I just link side by side cabs instead, never looked into the Versus too hard.
 
Aurich said:
is it Versus City is like Astro City, and New Versus City is like Blast city?
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In terms of the monitors, internal electronics, wiring, and marquees that's exactly correct.

NVC also has a newer version of the billboard similar to the ones that were optional on the Blast City and Megalo 410.

In terms of what it can do it's no different than the billboard in the Versus City... it's just a much more compact/streamlined version of the boards.
 
Just wanted to add that Kou, when I met him is a good guy. Very polite and was patient when I visited. The volume he deals in is absolutely staggering and he works super hard.

I haven't purchased yet but I am local enough to drive over and check out the product first. The newer cabs he gets are typically very nice and in good shape, it's the stuff that's 20+ years old that's understandably hit and miss.
 
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