"Shut out" gig catastrophe?

Hi all, I am having trouble coming up with ideas for what the "shut out" catastrophe for a gig would be. The rest of them seem pretty easy to imagine...but what so bad about being "stuck with the labor or the goods, and no buyer who’ll make good"? I mean, other than not getting your 1 or 2 barter, what are some interesting moves you have made against the player in this case?

I had the operator's contact not showing up with the goods, and the operator risked alienating one of his good customers.

Then the customer went straight to the contact, and the operator was in the risk of losing his business as a middle man.

One thing I've used is to make whoever causes the operator problems members of another character's gang/hold/cult.

Then when the Operator's scavenging and can't find anything it's because the Hocus' cult have been through the area like a horde of locusts. When he's bushwacked while making a delivery it's because some of the Chopper's gang saw an opportunity for some easy cash. When he's shut out it's because some of the hold's population did it cheaper.

Another one is offer another character a chance to do something to undercut the Operator:

"Sally comes and sees you: 'Hey, Fixit, I've asked Sway to source some spares for my electric loom. But she's got her crew's costs to cover and wants my first born for it: Can you knock something up cheaper?' "

In a nutshell look for opportunities for other character's or (even better) other character's followers to screw over the Operator. It gives the characters another thing to get annoyed with each other over.

Cheers,

Ash

Not to mention, you've got the Operator sitting there holding onto some precious cargo.  Maybe not to the original buyer, but I bet there's a few people in the world who would do ANYTHING to get their hands on it...and the word's out, this Operator's got a whole case of it!

Not to mention, you've got the Operator sitting there holding onto some precious cargo.  Maybe not to the original buyer, but I bet there's a few people in the world who would do ANYTHING to get their hands on it...and the word's out, this Operator's got a whole case of it!

Yes, of course!

"You now have spent 3 barter on getting an ancient plasma cannon. You were going to sell it for 4, but right now, you're sitting on an ancient plasma cannon and no spare change."

It can also be some awkward cargo, as well - some cattle that's difficult to transport without detection, or a person that's difficult.

"Precious" alone has pretty good mileage, though. Hell, if hard pressed, you could just ask the player "You have some cargo that everyone wants and no one will pay you for. What it is?" and go from there.