Wanted Bally Widebodies

[cmrl9]

And who's paying them? I've got money for two pins at the moment but I wouldn't consider a standard Bally Williams for £6-8k.

I personally know someone who paid in that region for one, it was immaculate and utterly amazing in real life. The 8k end is gold plated (effect) rails, new cabinet artwork etc. Basically better than it came out the factory.

 

[J.C.Rox]

@J.C.Rox had em all at one point. All gone now though... might be a thread about that somewhere still.

as per above, the trick is finding them actually for sale, let alone specifying your price which is wishful thinking. I appreciate instinctive noob action to protect yourself from vultures though, but got to be realistic. My 1st Roadshow cost £1,200, and was in decent enough nick, only 5yrs ago. My 4th Roadshow cost £3,500, only last month. The latter had a ColorDMD, solid but slightly faded cabinet, tasteful LEDs and beautifully preserved playfield. £2,500 might get you something these days, and I appreciate you don’t mind scratches and broken coils etc, but it’d undoubtedly require work and your problem would be many hard to find parts - previous reliable suppliers like Pinbits are no longer in business. Some Euro suppliers filled some gaps, but Brexit put them off sending to the UK.

First, find a machine for sale, then ask yourself - does it fit your criteria/standard (if not what’s the compromise?), and then finally - do I want to pay *that* for it.

Any excuse to fire this pic out, was my dream collection and I genuinely miss all 7 and the way prices are i wish I'd kept them all!!

 

[cmrl9]

And who's paying them? I've got money for two pins at the moment but I wouldn't consider a standard Bally Williams for £6-8k.

I will say personally there is a disconnect between the prices that forum members have and the real world. Having spent a while trying to buy one that I couldn't afford. As a newbie you are tempted to go to the likes of home leisure direct or the games room, the mechanical aspect scared the hell out of me and I assumed buying from a retailer will alleviate that issue. eBay I was never sure what condition it was actually in.

If I had still lived on London when I had issues with STTNG I would have paid someone to fix it, having no idea where to start, however being in NI it limited my options and forced me to have a go.

I am grateful to this forum and it's members in keeping prices accessible, I only found this forum by luck. I have been and will try in future (subject to personal finances) try and maintain this with machines I own.

it really boils down to two parts, experienced forum members purchased machines in the late nineties early 2000 when no one wanted them and you couldn't really give them away, in terms of money. There is an attachment to these prices, which I'm grateful for.
The current market prices don't have this attachment.

 

[Kenny Taylor]

In fairness a lot of these top titles have always been expensive when you look at say the price of a Stern at the time. Sterns and every manufacturer’s prices have gone up and so have these. Personally I wouldn’t get too fixated on widebody pins. You can’t go wrong with any of the Bally/Williams titles. Start collecting then perfecting your collection to suite your taste as time goes by..

 

[AlanJ]

Ive been offered £6.5k for my IJ, I declined the offer and it was raised to £7k - which I declined again. I had an offer of £8k for my TAF a couple of months ago, which I'd accepted, but then my purchase of a TAF project fell through (The seller got a better offer), so I pulled out of my sale.

IMHO, these are sought after machines that people are willing to buy at a price that is a few £k less than the price of a modern Stern LE many of which are not that great to play - i.e. tomorrows clunkers. Much much safer to buy a nice condition, reliable 90's game with proven gameplay and desirability.

 

[cmrl9]

In fairness a lot of these top titles have always been expensive when you look at say the price of a Stern at the time. Sterns and every manufacturer’s prices have gone up and so have these. Personally I wouldn’t get too fixated on widebody pins. You can’t go wrong with any of the Bally/Williams titles. Start collecting then perfecting your collection to suite your taste as time goes by..

True relatively speaking.

 

[GezTheHealer]

@cmrl9 yep there is a difference buying from HLD, or a coin-op operator who has made back the price of the machine siting it, or a hobbyist looking to help fund their next machine. HLD have some choice, range, tax, profit margin... best description I’ve heard is that they’re for footballers looking to fill their games rooms.

Prices are quite arbitrary anyway but if you paid close to the 7.3k they’re asking for a STTNG you’d be loosing a fair chunk of change when looking to sell it on, say on here. I bought a nicer JD through the forum a few years ago for less than half what HLD were selling one for. The JD at HLD didn’t even boot up when I went to see it(!). So I learnt you can’t expect minty restores just because the price is high.

My advice to newbies, as a relative newbie myself would be to wait for a fair price on the forum and know you may well be waiting a while. Or look at what’s on offer at a show like Pinfest/play expo. Try not to overpay.. nobody wants to be that guy a few years down the line when you come to sell it:

‘but I paid X amount for it, we all know what it’s worth!’

A more modern stern Star Trek pro (far from a clunker) Has been 4.3-4.6k at Pinfest/Play expo this year. If a ST:TNG is 4k… for a 20 odd year older machine.. in players condition.. I wouldn’t fancy it; but that’s me, people can pay/ask what they like.

He’s picked out JD/RS/Pop-eye which should certainly be at the more affordable end. That colour dmd RS with LED’s for 3.5k makes sense, so less the LED/Colour DMD is more around 3k for what he describes.

Some of these Bally/Williams 90’s: CV / IJ / (and I thought TZ to an extent) are noticeably beyond say 2-3k entry prices for the same era games. But if your paying 7/8k they should be fully restored/looking like new. There should be a few grands worth of work put into them - not a few hundred.

There is a JD for 3.9k on eBay… as others have said; decide what you think is fair.

Welcome to the minefield.