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Pinball Decals (Lack of!)

Solar Sailer

Solar Sailer

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Joined
Jun 22, 2018
Messages
1,050
Location
Basingstoke
I've not done a pinball refurb for 2 or 3 years until now and stripped my LW3 down ready.
Went to purchase a set from Retro Refurbs and they don't sell to the UK market anymore though will sell to Isle of Man.
I kinda bu**ered now. I guess it dowm to licencing and not Brexit!
Does any one have any suggestions for me?
TIA
 
Solar Sailer said:
I've not done a pinball refurb for 2 or 3 years until now and stripped my LW3 down ready.
Went to purchase a set from Retro Refurbs and they don't sell to the UK market anymore though will sell to Isle of Man.
I kinda bu**ered now. I guess it dowm to licencing and not Brexit!
Does any one have any suggestions for me?
TIA
Click to expand...
Oh wow that's a bit crap. Not sure how it's got anything to do with licensing though.

Did you ask them why?

Very weird since they still advertise in GBP!
 
I think they are in Chile?

I ordered quite a few times from them. Last one was only about 5 months or so ago.

I imagine it is Brexit thats to blame. They literally ship to every other country according to the list...
 
Brought from RR just before Xmas.

If they still sell of british isles but not the mainland, I could forward them on to you?

Would have to pay the VAT though.
 
DanSeldon said:
Have you tried Krystian Xianek on here?
He did my WH20 cabinet decals and they are excellent.
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Xianek is good but be prepared for long queue times. I ordered a Monster Bash set and it took 1 month to arrive. If you are in no rush then its worth approaching him.
 
s000m said:
Xianek is good but be prepared for long queue times. I ordered a Monster Bash set and it took 1 month to arrive. If you are in no rush then its worth approaching him.
Click to expand...
Yep - 4-6 weeks but everything else I found looked like cheap thin shiny vinyl. I was really happy with the results.
 
Just FYI - Retro Refurbs is indeed located in London now. The phone number still uses the 0191 area code because it's a forwarding number to the business line. IF you do see a North East/Sunderland address advertised anywhere, then let them know about it so it can be removed. It's not a bother for me as I left the UK last year anyway.

We never used Facebook Messenger or social media sites for customer support, only for promotion. Better to keep support all in one place.

Not sure why they no longer sell to the UK but for me when I owned RR I was always in 2 minds about cutting off UK sales because the amount of UK customers was so small (pinball industry here is tiny), it was a completely insignificant part of our revenue, so not even worth the hassle. We had daily collections for parcels from couriers and an entire automated system set up for international orders, so whenever a UK sale came in it would mean a trip to the post office with just 1 parcel and be stood there dealing with the Royal Mail numpties for what felt like an eternity. All for £20-£30 profit? Nah, no thanks. But I did it for as long as I could tolerate.

Maybe the new owners have had a similar revelation?

Btw, I don't know about the quality of Pinball Decals EU print files but I do know they do use exactly the same satin top coat on their cabinet decals that I developed because they asked me how I did it after I sold RR. No one else in the world makes cabinet decals like that - they're either super glossy or matt, neither of which looks correct like original painted cabinets.

Quality from Pinball Center is beyond dreadful. On ALL their products. They just scan stuff and reprint it, even if it has 30 years worth of faded colours, no effort to restore or redraw anything at all. Its the whole reason I started RR in the first place.
 
So Retro Refurbs, do they or do they not ship to the UK as I've read conflicting information? Pete above says they are now located in London and the website let's you pick the UK and enter a UK address?

Thought this was a strange disclaimer, you can't buy their products if you don't own, have not yet purchased or have the game listed for sale? 🤔. Why not just say 'As our products are made on-demand we cannot process cancellations'?

Screenshot_20230422-104748_kindlephoto-657483761.png
 
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Marvello said:
So Retro Refurbs, do they or do they not ship to the UK as I've read conflicting information? Pete above says they are now located in London and the website let's you pick the UK and enter a UK address?

Thought this was a strange disclaimer, you can't buy their products if you don't own, have not yet purchased or have the game listed for sale? 🤔. Why not just say 'As our products are made on-demand we cannot process cancellations '?
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That might be a copyright thing
You are allowed to reproduce art that replaces the art that was 'destroyed' on your own game, without having to pay the copyright holder, fees
 
They must have found a loop hole or something now they are allowing UK orders.
I contacted them and they did an order for me to go ahead.
They are printed on demand so I waited two weeks or so before I got a tracking notification.
 

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I can't seem to order feom Retro Refurbs, anywhere else I can get these for Sopraons.
I have tried many times on the website and the final checkout button does nothing.
Many Thanks
Screenshot_20230622_093340_Chrome.jpg
 
Marvello said:
So Retro Refurbs, do they or do they not ship to the UK as I've read conflicting information? Pete above says they are now located in London and the website let's you pick the UK and enter a UK address?

Thought this was a strange disclaimer, you can't buy their products if you don't own, have not yet purchased or have the game listed for sale? 🤔. Why not just say 'As our products are made on-demand we cannot process cancellations'?

View attachment 200280
Click to expand...

Pop Bumper Pete said:
That might be a copyright thing
You are allowed to reproduce art that replaces the art that was 'destroyed' on your own game, without having to pay the copyright holder, fees
Click to expand...

Solar Sailer said:
They must have found a loop hole or something now they are allowing UK orders.
I contacted them and they did an order for me to go ahead.
They are printed on demand so I waited two weeks or so before I got a tracking notification.
Click to expand...

Haha that's actually brilliant.

Nothing to do with copyright, it's to stop people placing orders and then cancelling them when a deal falls through on a game they're buying/selling. Happened all the time when I was running it and p!ssed me off more than anything. The amount of money wasted on unwanted items is sickening.
 
PeteB said:
Haha that's actually brilliant.

Nothing to do with copyright, it's to stop people placing orders and then cancelling them when a deal falls through on a game they're buying/selling. Happened all the time when I was running it and p!ssed me off more than anything. The amount of money wasted on unwanted items is sickening.
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Ah OK.
Those pesky Brits exc IoM and NI canceling orders using the far distance selling rules.
We should align to the rest of the world and commit to buy/ no refunds I guess.

I was happy with my decals and my LW3 looks great.
Toying with a T2 set next.
 
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