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Found it! Anyone selling a The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings?

VeeMonroe

VeeMonroe

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LoTR, looking for no skill posts and ideally some mods (in an ideal world, the Path of the Dead one as it’s hard to find the parts).

The Hobbit, happy with any edition, but not super-interested in paying above the market rate.
 
PeterFenton said:
Who judges the market rate be interested to see what these are worth
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One sold for about £7.5k a month or so ago. How Much is it Worth? thread thinks that’s about right. I have pins here, so I’m not so super-fussed that I’m going to overpay :)

Just flagging that if someone needs to move a pin on soon, I’m interested. Not that I’m looking to pay £15k ;)
 
I’d expect a LoTR to be worth about £5.5-£6k. My last one without skill posts went for ~£6.5k, but prices have fallen since. I guess if it was super-modded or fully restored, it might be £7k+.

People tend to have a better handle on the value of vintage pins than newer ones, in my experience.

NOTE: A nice LoTR went on the forum for about £6k a month ago.
 
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Are skill posts really that much of an issue?

Just get the button protector plates or new side blades to cover them over. It will also cover the button wear that early 2000s sterns suffered with.

3/4 of the LOTRs that landed in the UK have skill posts. The others got imported. Some of these needed a hack to the CPU board if my memory serves me right......
 
Pick Holder said:
Are skill posts really that much of an issue?

Just get the button protector plates or new side blades to cover them over. It will also cover the button wear that early 2000s sterns suffered with.

3/4 of the LOTRs that landed in the UK have skill posts. The others got imported. Some of these needed a hack to the CPU board if my memory serves me right......
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Yes, for political reasons. Our previous one didn’t have skill posts, and I sold it despite my husband loving it. It was a HUO three-owners-only pin. So I can’t, as well, now buy one with holes cut in the playfield when I sold the previous one that didn’t, or one in worse condition than our last one :(
 
Pick Holder said:
Are skill posts really that much of an issue?
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Yes

3/4 of the LOTRs that landed in the UK have skill posts. The others got imported. Some of these needed a hack to the CPU board if my memory serves me right......
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You literally answer your own question :D 3/4 have skill posts. 1/4 don't then, this makes them more desirable.

NOTE: A nice LoTR went on the forum for about £6k a month ago.
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Went within the day, was a quick sale. You'll be lucky to find a repeat at that price IMO.
 
s000m said:
Yes



You literally answer your own question :D 3/4 have skill posts. 1/4 don't then, this makes them more desirable.



Went within the day, was a quick sale. You'll be lucky to find a repeat at that price IMO.
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Questions were directed to the original poster @VeeMonroe - not really anyone else.

Also my third point was not a question, it was a statement. I made no reference to price of skill posts vs non skill posts.

The factory fitted skill posts I do not think look too bad. Unlike the ones an operator myself and @steve brum knew who fitted his own on ALL of his games. These were fitted with a hole saw with splintered wood everywhere.
 
Photoshop by numbers era of Stern, can't even look at them (Sterns not JJP) 🤮 should be cheap as chips
 
What have you been offered so far and for what price Vee ?

Be interesting to hear
 
mission65 said:
What have you been offered so far and for what price Vee ?

Be interesting to hear
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Tony,

Unfortunately, almost all I’ve been offered is some LEs of less popular modern Sterns for about £9k. There’s a gulf between what people are selling for on the forum and what people are willing to offer pins for in response for a Wanted ad.

It’s obvious the modern Stern LEs that are less popular are now just sitting there - even at £9k.

I can’t tell if I’m not offering enough for a Hobbit/WoZ or whether there just aren’t any around 🤷‍♂️

I’m holding fire because I can’t tell what’s going to stay in our house, so I can’t afford to buy something that will depreciate further in a month or so. I had more luck doing a straight swap of vintage machines.

Vivienne
 
I have a skill post LOTR, I just don't see the posts causing much of an issue. Yes I'd prefer not to have posts because of the mass hysteria surrounding them, but any downside is blown way out of proportion when genuinely considering real world gameplay or visual/aesthetic negative.

It is still my favourite game despite being the only one with posts.

Extra buttons and cabinet wear round the buttons.... well cabinet wear is cabinet wear and it is not necessarily related to additional buttons but lots of gameplay because it's an absolutely banging game. Theres non of that present on mine though as its obviously had an easy life.

Extra buttons, crikey it's not hard to avoid them during gameplay, or do folks struggle to choose which button to press for the first 20 seconds and find that they're slightly within the fingers reach and that redundant button is just too darn tempting for their teeny weeny willpower to resist, or is it that the extra buttons act rather like a divining rod during play, just pulling your little twinkies in towards them, on truth though, that extra button is soon avoided and becomes a genuine non-issue within the 2nd 20 seconds of play to most adults, yes the adolescents still like to kick and scream a little and to blame their lack of ability on this non issue, but you'll find they grow out of this by their mid 30's.

I can honestly say, nobody has ever turned up to my house and told me what a lovely and interesting collection of pinball machines, but Marcel, whilst overall they're a thing of beauty, I find that thing you call a pinball in the corner is almost vulgar what with its brash attitude and its abundance of cabinetry hardware, seriously, had you been drinking when you bought that, I had thought you had a unique and interesting hobby, but now I've seen all those buttons, I see the real you and that is to say you are a tasteless collector of the shiny and beautiful hobby of pinball collecting without a single thought to the historical reasoning to the injustice which millions upon millions of faithful players suffered at the hands of the tax-man.

There'll be no button-washing in my house though, I'm a keeper, I believe we need to preserve our history, future generations need reminding of how punitive the state can be at its absolute worst. Nothing more indicative of this than the taxing of this joyful passtime, pinball.
 
Marcel said:
I have a skill post LOTR, I just don't see the posts causing much of an issue. Yes I'd prefer not to have posts because of the mass hysteria surrounding them, but any downside is blown way out of proportion when genuinely considering real world gameplay or visual/aesthetic negative.

It is still my favourite game despite being the only one with posts.

Extra buttons and cabinet wear round the buttons.... well cabinet wear is cabinet wear and it is not necessarily related to additional buttons but lots of gameplay because it's an absolutely banging game. Theres non of that present on mine though as its obviously had an easy life.

Extra buttons, crikey it's not hard to avoid them during gameplay, or do folks struggle to choose which button to press for the first 20 seconds and find that they're slightly within the fingers reach and that redundant button is just too darn tempting for their teeny weeny willpower to resist, or is it that the extra buttons act rather like a divining rod during play, just pulling your little twinkies in towards them, on truth though, that extra button is soon avoided and becomes a genuine non-issue within the 2nd 20 seconds of play to most adults, yes the adolescents still like to kick and scream a little and to blame their lack of ability on this non issue, but you'll find they grow out of this by their mid 30's.

I can honestly say, nobody has ever turned up to my house and told me what a lovely and interesting collection of pinball machines, but Marcel, whilst overall they're a thing of beauty, I find that thing you call a pinball in the corner is almost vulgar what with its brash attitude and its abundance of cabinetry hardware, seriously, had you been drinking when you bought that, I had thought you had a unique and interesting hobby, but now I've seen all those buttons, I see the real you and that is to say you are a tasteless collector of the shiny and beautiful hobby of pinball collecting without a single thought to the historical reasoning to the injustice which millions upon millions of faithful players suffered at the hands of the tax-man.

There'll be no button-washing in my house though, I'm a keeper, I believe we need to preserve our history, future generations need reminding of how punitive the state can be at its absolute worst. Nothing more indicative of this than the taxing of this joyful passtime, pinball.
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My goodness, I shouldn’t have mentioned skill posts, should I?

I need to start a new thread - ”the OFFICIAL thread for moaning about skillposts (and complaining about people moaning about skill posts)” 🤣

Genuinely, I’m not wild about extra holes in the playfield, but it does appear you can put on the decorative side armour by simply removing the extra buttons.
 
Marvello said:
Does anyone like skill posts and use them?
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In the past I have modified a ToM to include a ball save post as per the prototype for a customer. A couple of years before Mark Squires did the same.

You can always turn them off.

Install these on the side:
pinballplating.com

Stern Lollipop Rails — Pinball Plating

These are new Stern lollipop rails, with he guard around the button to prevent wear on the sideart of the machine. We keep these in chrome and brass platings ready to go. To check availability of this part or place a order: Email chris@hotrodarcade.com
pinballplating.com pinballplating.com

Those era of cabs are awful print quality and most of the non-skill posts ones as well have flipper button fade.

Anyhow - think I said this before.

Skill posts have been widely discussed on pinball forums for 20 years now.

Like them, loathe them, tolerate them - most Sterns in the UK from that era have them.

Considering the OP put in my thread they dislike the machine - I really am smiling that they want one again.

Saying that - I keep buying RFMs and selling them after 3 months.
 
Pick Holder said:
Considering the OP put in my thread they dislike the machine - I really am smiling that they want one again.
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@MadMonzer loves Lord of the Rings.

I wasn’t sure if we wanted something that was less ’unfairly difficult’ (@MadMonzer’s words) to add variety to our collection. So, I wasn’t sure whether to bring LoTR back.
 
Marcel said:
I can honestly say, nobody has ever turned up to my house and told me what a lovely and interesting collection of pinball machines, but Marcel, whilst overall they're a thing of beauty, I find that thing you call a pinball in the corner is almost vulgar what with its brash attitude and its abundance of cabinetry hardware, seriously, had you been drinking when you bought that, I had thought you had a unique and interesting hobby, but now I've seen all those buttons, I see the real you and that is to say you are a tasteless collector of the shiny and beautiful hobby of pinball collecting without a single thought to the historical reasoning to the injustice which millions upon millions of faithful players suffered at the hands of the tax-man.
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I’ve read a lot of posts on the subject of skill posts - but this is the best by some margin.
 
Marvello said:
Does anyone like skill posts and use them?
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Yes, on LOTR love them, it's pretty much the only way to complete it getting to Valhalla. They work really well on T3 as well. I think T3 can be quite fun with them switched on. It's strange, they never bothered me, most of the earlier games are designed to take money and kick you off as quickly as possible, there is skill in using them and in an arcade you get a nice go 😏.

Also liked them with on Elvis 😜
 
I sold my non skill post LOTR due to the extremely long games and countless multiballs.
God forbid you had a way of stopping the ball draining as the game would surely become boring as hell once you mastered them.

At Pinfest the poor guy behind me in the que must have been sick of his life as I was on almost 30 mins heading back home when the whole game reset on me letting him take over.
TBH I think the game itself was also sick of its life and just gave up the will to operate any longer, giving me the finger in the process 😂
 
I honestly couldn't care less about the skill posts. My old one is at the Pinball Office apparently and that had them and I completely forgot they were there.

Obviously I'd pay more for a non skill post version but it would not stop me buying the game. . . . to be fair the playfield is ugly as hell anyway.
 
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