This is definitely a minor tale but it stuck out for me and I figured it was worth sharing since it is about myself trying to sell on Kijiji. As stated numerous times before in other tales, emailing was an important part of dealing on Kijiji. I remember one time in particular that made me shake my head.

 

Back in the year 2010, it was extremely common to be able to hop on Kijiji and find a NES with 2 controllers, the Zapper and 10 games for like $30. I had similar luck with systems like the Genesis or SNES.  It seems like I could go buy these lots every other day at will. If only I had bought more back then!

 

I recall on deal I did with a Mother selling off her sons NES collection. Her listing was not even accurate at all. There were different games in box than listed and the NES console had a SMB3 inside which was not listed. To top it off she was also very aggressive (in a nice way) trying to get me to take her vintage TV along with the console and games. It was obvious she just wanted this stuff gone and did not care about making money. I declined the TV and was very happy with that deal otherwise.

 

My point being, that over a short amount of time I would end up with many doubles ready to be recirculated back into the market. This was a practice I am positive EVERY collector did back then. Buy a lot, take what you need and resell the rest to fund the next purchase. I fondly miss those days.

 

Moving back to the tale at hand. One particular time I had built up a nice sell/trade pile and listed it on Kijiji.

 

The huge lot consisted of:

 

Nintendo System with hook-ups and RCA cable

2 controllers

Zapper

NES Advantage Joystick 

NES Code Book

 

Carts

 

Blades of Steel

Chip and Dale RR1

Dragon Warrior

Faxanadu

Festers quest

Friday the 13th

Hogans Alley

Ironsword CIB

Operation wolf

Othello

Pac Man

Quattro Adventure 4

RC Pro Am

Rad Racer

Shadowgate

Silver Surfer

Super Mario Bros 3

Super Mario Bros/ Duck Hunt

Total Recall

Willow

Winter Games

Wizards and Warriors

 

I remember having a hard time moving the lot for a fair price, probably since there market was overflowing. I think I wanted somewhere around $200 CAN. I got so many lowball offers, which was and always will be common.

 

Then one day I received an email from a man stating he wanted the lot and was happy with the price. I was delighted to say the least. As I often did (and still do when selling), I went through the games and double-checked to make sure the lot and the list on Kijiji listing matched. I was shocked to find that Othello was nowhere to be found. I search high and low but I must have made a mistake by listing it because who in there right mind would want to steel Othello from me???

 

I emailed him back right away and broke the news.  “Othello is missing, and I will knock a few bucks off if that’s alright with you”. I did not think much of it since it was just an Othello cart… I had everything ready to go and was moving forward with arranging a time and place to meet.

 

He replied shortly after “The deal is off! Othello was the main game I wanted in the whole lot.”

 

I was like "What the...? Really? Othello?” My mind struggled to comprehend the situation.  I replied trying to patch together the deal but he was completely not having it. That was that, never even made it past the email stage on that one. Who knows maybe he got cold feet and just used Othello as an excuse? Anyway I ended up selling the lot shortly after to girl who intended to give it as a gift for her boyfriends birthday. What a wonderful happy ending.