Ok... after much frustration, I paid for the D&D Tower Of Doom standup game pictured here and I should be receiving it in about 2 weeks.
Why much frustration? Well... the guy I've been dealing with for the last couple of weeks hasn't exactly been difficult, but he hasn't gone out of his way to be helpful either.
First, he was completely inflexible on the price (this was a newsgroup transaction, not Ebay.) Ok fine, he wants a certain amount... I can respect that. Still a little frustrating though.
Second, he says he'll ship it or I can pick it up. Well, it's 8-9 hours EACH WAY for me to drive, which I can't do. Ok I can... but I'd rather not, and it would cost me the same (within $30) of having it shipped. So I ask him to ship it, and I'll pay for that too of course ($336.00 ouch) at which point he tells me the shipper's truck won't come to his neighborhood and he needs an extra $50 to load it into a truck and drive it to the shipper. I'm a little annoyed at this point, but I want the game and I'm tired of dealing with him, so I say... ok fine.
Third, initially he says he'll take PayPal as payment (which is how I sent him the initial deposit so he wouldn't sell it) and once we sort everything out he says I have to mail him a money order?? WTF?? He doesn't want to pay the PayPal fees. Obviously I'm not happy about this, since it will cause even more delays, so we argue some more and he says he'll take PayPal if I pay the fees. (Which I estimate at $13.60) Ok fine whatever, I'll pay them... I just want my game... Except now he insists the fees are $25... so of course, since he already has $100 of my money I can't just back out... so I cave on that too. (Yes I could have backed out, but hey I really want this game... yes I obsess, get over it.)
So FINALLY... we “agree” on a price, I send it via PayPal and arrange for shipping since he doesn't want to be bothered with it. You can bet your ass I'll be calling the shipping company every day for the next two weeks until my game gets picked up and delivered.
In case you're wondering... I did my research.
- It would have cost me nearly $700 to rent a truck and drive it there and back
- It would have cost me roughly $310 to drive my Dad's truck there, get a motel, eat a couple times and drive back, in addition to taking time away from work and being completely exhausted after 18+ hours on the road.
- $336 was a bargain... it's all the other bullsh!t I had to put up with in order to get to that point.
- The game MIGHT have been worth the initial asking price, but it's damn sure not worth the total amount spent on it so far when you include shipping and overall hassle.
Such is the life of a collector. I'm still tickled to be getting it. :)