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Best Pinball Bargain

DRD

DRD

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Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
5,441
Location
Newark
Interested to know when folk have done well on a pinball purchase - I don't mean buying a TAF when they were £900 and holding onto it.

I mean an eBay auction that noone bothered to bid on as it was listed with spelling mistakes. Or a ridiculous description that put people off. Or a dead game that genuinely just needed a fuse. Or a box of bits that was complete and actually worked when reassembled.

I must have brought around 20 games over the years and I genuinely don't think that I have ever bought a bargain. The barely or non-working sh1tters I have bought (Fathom, Genie, Funhouse) consumed masses of time and money ! and I suspect that it would have been better to buy a decent example from a financial perspective
 
I bought a Hurricane (garbage on the DMD not booting) from a children's soft play place for £50! This was 15 years ago mind! Got it home found the 5v bridge bad fixed that tarted it up new rubbers clean etc it was minty back then!

And wait for it...........

A local op had a TAF with dead DMD switched off not earning coin offered him a straight swap for the hurricane he grabbed it. Got the TAF home found the ribbon plugged the wrong way on the DMD! quick fix

And then..... a few months later........ came the divorce I had to sell all my arcade stuff, TAF was sold on ebay if I remember right it sold for £2600 and it was mint! The buyer arranged a courier to collect it and deliver it to PH for a complete refurb! He had not even seen it!

That's my best bargain

Ronnie
 
Fathom £50.00 eBay buy it now.. March 2005. Listed on a bank holiday Monday morning. Listed as "pin bale brocen " lol....:thumbs:
Turned out it was a young teenage girl selling it after her dad l ft her mum, and the two of them just wanted it gone.... mind you it was definitely "brocen". :rofl:
 
TZ of eBay years ago when they were worth around £1000. Was listed for £250 BIN with fault. Seller got loads of offers afterwards but honoured deal. Turned out a plug had been put on 1 pin out and hey presto a fully working TZ.

Off eBay and in the good old days I’ve had MB £900, AFM £800, SS £400, DESW (my first pin) £175, WH2o £200 (non working, hated it sold for £350), plus a few others. I missed out on loads of others as I thought they were too dear but in today’s market they were absolute bargains.

I’m sure some of the more seasoned collectors have loads of stories to tell. Even travelled to Holland to pick up a Stargate, DESW and STTNG (and picked up a Tron arcade for someone). Think I paid £750 for the STTNG which was not a bad price at the time. Hated the Stargate “shoot the sarcophagus :mad::eek:)
 
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Personally never had a bargain. A mate of mine was in with an op about 5 years ago. He got a wh20 for £400. Spider-Man, stern IJ and avatar for £1500 each.
 
Used to be able to pick up a bargain, but there’s too many people at it now, you’ve got to be quick, for example I pondered for a minute on Courtney’s Dinner and missed out! But space and money were against me, so ended up the right outcome fair play!
Been trying to wean myself off the “looking for a bargain” but it’s hard, cause when you find one it’s a rush, but then usually comes the hours & hours and expense of making it what it could be, rather than enjoying what it is. Garage clear out continues.........
Gave up trying to find a bargain TAF but in today’s climate who knows, I might have bought ok? Mind you with my recent Star Wars post maybe the madness continues?
 
5/6 years ago, picked up a TZ in VGC, that was, as the seller put it "stuck in French" (battery leakage) for £800.
 
Ebay auction for an EM Joker Poker, 1 picture of it not on legs by a garage wall. Was the only bidder £450. Home use for 17 years. Lovely condition, couldn't get it out of there fast enough!
 
If we're talking relative bargains (not comparing to current market ) then the £200 theatre of magic we bought out of the local bargain pages wasnt bad. A big local operator nearly let me have an Elvis for £100 once as an employee had put on the book value of an elvis fruit machine by mistake . We saw the funny side and I handed over £1k which was still good going for a 4 year old Stern . Not as good as the 2 year old working genesis I got for £50 off associated leisure just because " we don't do gottlieb"
 
Got a nice indy500 for a grand.

Went to pick it up, no keys so expected doomsday with the batteries but it was all good - DMD was a bit iffy but colordmd sorted that - a good clean and new locks and LEDs flipper rebuilds and rubbers and it was in tip top - its the one in my pinball shed. The guy was astounded when I folded the head LOL.

Also got a lovely TNG for just under 2K but it was acid damaged although still worked ok.

Both in my shed still and play very good.

Neil.


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Went to see a Fish Tales back in the day up for sale for £350, no keys but everything seemed to work, so offered him £300 which he accepted . Got it home pryed the door and found £267 in the coin box. So only paid £33 for a fully working game in great condition.
 
£100 for Laserball in January - has acid damage on board but was my gateway drug.
 
Occasionally get given fruit machine's with money still in them . So lowest price ever for a working arcade machine is minus £300. I know a story of a guy who bought a one armed bandit from a police recovery auction in the 80s that obvious had a dodgy past. He paid £70 quid but found £5000 in old notes hidden in a secret compartment . Now that IS a result!
 
Got a German Addams family absolutely perfect cabinet and playfield for a £1000 (swapped for a pc actually which was a nice one) , and an AFM for 1000 not perfect but good value

Drew
 
steve brum said:
Occasionally get given fruit machine's with money still in them . So lowest price ever for a working arcade machine is minus £300. I know a story of a guy who bought a one armed bandit from a police recovery auction in the 80s that obvious had a dodgy past. He paid £70 quid but found £5000 in old notes hidden in a secret compartment . Now that IS a result!
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lol
 
£200 Whitewater - Buy It Now on Ebay. This was when they were going for about £700. I couldn't hit the button fast enough. Decent shape but wouldn't boot so sold as non working. I wiggled a power board connector when I got home and it was fixed :D I might of mentioned this one before :rofl:

£600ish job lot Black Rose + Tales From The Crypt + Surfin Safari - local on Ebay was selling a ropey old BOP, could see these in the background of the cow shed ! :) Went round there, did a deal and he even delivered. BR just needed a clean, TFTC needed some hacked wiring fixed, Surfin Safari was dead but booted when I twiddled the 5v pot :thumbs:

£200 Dr Dude - chap approached me at the Slam. He had started dismantling the playfield and lost interest. I made cheeky offer - he said no, then rang me back a week later and said yes :thumbs:

£400 Demo Man - Gumtree. I immediately drove 2 hours there, in meantime he had a ton of phone calls and offers. The game was in non powered garage with the backbox sitting on backwards. Seriously :rolleyes:. So took a chance on it. Worked fine.

£125 Space Station - Local Ebay listing. Think starting price was £250. I went to look, he said if I made an offer he was happy with and took it now I could have it. He wanted it gone. So I did and it was gone :thumbs:

Oh and Popeye - still one of the best bargains in pinball :thumbs: Did a straight swap for a Swords Of Fury that I was bored with.
 
TWDLE HUO, less than a couple hundred plays and still on original release code.
 
£1701 AFM from the local Irish Pub a few months back. Half broken, legs off. First purchase so far. We rebuilt the pops, a flipper, fixed the drop target, lots of soldering - new GI bulb holders and mothership wires/LEDS, filed divots out of the trough... the list goes on. At least £2k in now and we have a 'respectable' players pin.
 
£320 for a Paragon off eBay, which I think I sold for the same amount like a year later. Came from Scotland via Martin I believe. Game was in reasonable condition just had a flaky backglass. Guy was moving abroad and keen to get rid of it before he left. It went wrong once or twice but had the issues sorted mostly when I sold it on.
 
I've had 3 or 4 Time Warps in the past between 50 and 100 quid each which all sold for 350 plus.

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Two years ago. Medusa in beautiful cosmetic condition been in a living room for 10 years. Woman had listed it on a US website and puzzled that only Americans had been in touch. Wanted £200. Had been listed for months she said and I was the first UK person to contact her. Collected it and when I went to pay she said ‘I’m so pleased to get rid of it just give me £180.’ I paid the £200.
 
About 2009 I was given my TAF, it wasn't working, a diode had been snipped of one of the flipper coils, so new diode and replace the popped transistor on the flipper board and all was good. I did give the guy a bottle of JD, he was made up, me more so.

About 2010 I bought my BSD for just over £300, but then spent a couple of weeks repairing every board in it, bought from an operator who I guess dumped all his duff boards in there, but did send him a short video of it working, he was surprised.
 
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