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What was your longest wasted journey to collect a pin?

Went up to Leeds to look at a Getaway a couple of years back. The chap had told me it was like new etc etc but with a "little" fading. He was nice as pie on the phone and couldnt wait to get me there. Unfortunately as soon as his garage door went up, even from inside the the van over the road I could see it was in a poor state. I felt obliged to give it a look over but when I pointed out the there were huge chunks out of it and errors on start up he turned nasty (in front of my 5 year old son. How brave!) and told me he was quite happy not to sell it to me (his exact words) and obviously I was quite happy not to buy it.
 
GrizZ said:
Well this may not be the longest wasted journey - I thankfully have not had one of those - BUT it sure was a crushing disappointment :rofl:

Back around 2006 I bought a Swords Of Fury unseen on ebay, said it worked but needed attention, got it for £100 I believe. Super happy as it was a game I had been after. Anyway it was up near where my parents lived, so spoke to my Dad and off he went to fetch it. He confirmed it was working when he saw it - some lights and stuff, was a bit tatty , but yeah ok. So he loaded it up and took it home.

It was several weeks until I could get up to my folks to collect it. This is what greeted me .......:rofl:


View attachment 13768 View attachment 13769 View attachment 13770 View attachment 13771 View attachment 13772

To say I was gutted was an understatement. Apparently it had been rescued from a closed down ice rink ....and it looked it :-o

Amazingly - it did power up, a few lights and 3 of 4 displays worked. But cab was beyond hope, and boards were damaged/hacked to pieces. Shortly afterwards I made the executive decision to put it out of its misery and part it out - the playfield ramps/plastics etc were actually pretty good and at that time unobtainium so I easily made my money back.

Never buy blind on ebay and expect great things.

A year later I ended up with a lovely Swords so all good in the end :D
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It's like a rich tea biscuit that you dunked for to long.
 
On the contrary to this thread I was once after a Shadow and agreed to buy one. When I asked where he lived he was 1 mile from my house :D He helped my get it up my stairs

Similar situation when I bought an AWSD arcade cabinet and wanted the game Hokuto No Ken. There was only one for sale in Europe on eBay. He lived 2 mile away and met me at the local petrol station that night to drop it off!
 
On the flip side I drove from Newcastle to Paris to pick up an Arcade cabinet! It was in decent nick though
 
I think what this thread outlines is the lengths we will stretch to acquire the silver ball sometimes with nothing but a hint that everything will be OK and all fingers crossed.
 
I wonder if Martin the delivery man has a few stories about piles of firewood he has been sent to collect.
 
kevlar said:
I wonder if Martin the delivery man has a few stories about piles of firewood he has been sent to collect.
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Given the stories @pinballmania comes out with about what he's seen inside cabs & backboxes on his travels I'm sure Martin must have as many horror stories about stuff he's been sent to pick up.
 
jonathan said:
On the contrary to this thread I was once after a Shadow and agreed to buy one. When I asked where he lived he was 1 mile from my house :D He helped my get it up my stairs

Similar situation when I bought an AWSD arcade cabinet and wanted the game Hokuto No Ken. There was only one for sale in Europe on eBay. He lived 2 mile away and met me at the local petrol station that night to drop it off!
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There is more to that story.....

The guy you bought it from (aka the beast of chester moor) bought it as a 'garage find' in the area too.

I wonder who has that machine now... anyone know?
 
All my pins have come from far afield: PARAGON from Lincoln, VECTOR from Liverpool and GOLD BALL from Bristol. All a good 3-5 hours drive from where I live near Aldershot in Surrey, but everything went smoothly and I met some of the nice pinheads from here (@Dave2084, Jim Bibby and @andy respectively).

I did however offer to pick up a LOTR for a friend whilst he was on holiday abroad. I set of for Newquay at around 5pm on a Friday evening with a pocket stuffed with over 100 £20 notes. It's not that far in terms of distance (around 230 miles) but the jouney is down the A303 and then A30, notoriously accident prone busy roads. And on Friday all the City folk are heading for their cheap weekend houses in the West Country. At around 10pm I'd done about 180 miles and was just passing Dartmore when I got a text message from my mate to say the deal was off and the seller had sold it to someone else!

At the least the journey home was quieter. I found a cool American diner called "ROUTE 303" near Honiton, but it was wishful thinking that it might have a pinball machine for genuine authenticity (there was a Harley Davidson on display in the middle of the restaurant).

And the moral of the story... be prepared for a load of arsing around if it was listed on GUMTREE...
 
I remember that LOTR, i got no response from the seller on multiple occasions..
 
NEARLY a wasted trip.went up to get a WH20 up around Sunderland/gateshead way years ago.all well and good,played ok.Then it got to "can I have the key to fold it down?"

Errr no aint got key.
Well that wasn't gonna work as to get it in my dads Golf it had to be in two.
Eventually got coin door open with screwdriver,and luckily backbox key was in there (allways take a tool kit nowadays as safety torx bit would have fixed that),so off we went.
And had a close call missing a mega traffic jam at Leeds festival.Think it was the riot year

poibug

longest journey was to Farndon and back-ending up being a nightmare 15 hour day journey
 
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Great advice on the Tork driver kit, think Jagman went to collect a LOTR that had the coin door key absent, obviously not an issue with Stern for folding down and generally not with Bally Wms either I should imagine or am I the only one that relies on the rear catch.
 
TYHO said:
Welll that wasn't gonna work as to get it in my dads Golf it had to be in two.
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Interesting, a lot of people talk about renting vans etc but does a pin with removed backbox fit in hatchbacks like a standard Golf.
 
TYHO said:
I think a lot do,tho I just have a Honda Jazz which fits stern,data east,bally/williams/capcom games just folded down-cars a friggin tardis:thumbs::thumbs:
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me too. the only game i ever had to do anything with, to get it in, was Surf n Safari. here's a pic of @GrizZ loosening the bolts to slide the head down so it fit in.

SnS.JPG

there's a file somewhere that lists car types and says what fits what, and what doesn't. someone will link you to it i'm sure
 
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I should have guessed such a thing would exist - drat the '72 Ford Capri MkI is a no no
 
astyy said:
Interesting, a lot of people talk about renting vans etc but does a pin with removed backbox fit in hatchbacks like a standard Golf.
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The answer is no with regards to the golf (mk4 deffo), you can completely remove the backbox and get the main cab in but that leaves no space for the backbox itself which means two journeys unless you have a roofrack and a sunny day ;)
 
I haven't tried it yet, but the last time I had VECTOR in my Vauxhall Zafira I measured up and reckoned I could actually get 2 pins in there if they were laid on their sides, one with coin door facing forwards and the other coin door facing backwards so that wedge shape fitted together. Obviously the backboxes would have to come off, but I always do this anyway because a whole pin is just too heavy to lift of my own and it's much easier to do on old SS pins. Just 4 screws in the hinges and remove the wiring from the boards. No more than 5 minutes effort. Doing this on a modern pin takes much longer, around 30-45 minutes the last time I completely removed the backbox from a TRON!
 
Do most games still fit inside a newer Honda Jazz? Looking at getting an '08 year onwards for the other half to drive, as games won't fit in the back of her Ford Fiesta....
 
no idea mate, it will all depend on the height of the roof from the tailgate. i'd go and measure now for you (mine is an 06) but the missus is out somewhere in it. you'll need to take a tape and measure that height on any new car, as it'd be a non-starter if you couldn't get a pin in it, for any pinhead.

i'll measure it later if nobody else does before
 
I bought a seven seater just so i could move pins myself instead on relying on the wife and her car all the time.
Best vehicle I've ever owned when it comes to moving machines.
Only pain is having to keep taking out seats/putting them back in every time my son and his mates want a lift to the skatepark!
 
Am just glad there's a fairly cheap van hire company near me, cant fit diddly squit in an Ibiza bar a weeks worth of shopping :)
 
Hey, if i can fit a pin in a kia rio. You can fit one in any car ;)
 
My father in laws Citroen Picasso swallows a data east wide body like a filthy whore swallows......... Erm...... Chips when famished :eek:
 
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