Hi Folks - Dorset M (Martin) signing in

[Dorset M]

I stumbled across this forum on my quest to learn a bit before purchasing my first pin and have been having a look through the forum - seems a great place to look and learn. The trouble is "Ebay auctions 2016" 'page 7' has given me a right fright! Looks like a bit of a minefield out there!

I know next to nothing so any advice on securing a pin welcome. As I am now just about in my 50's I will probably be looking for a pin from the 80's (my era) with a budget up to £1k, but hopefully a bit less. Preferably located south of the M4 as I am near the south coast (nr Bournemouth). Something up together and presentable (LED'd ?) as it's going to be located in nice new home office and hopefully something that's not going to be nightmare to repair and maintain - although pretty handy at most DIY tasks my soldering skills are limited! Am I being realistic here... or do I need a reality check?

Thanks for your help folks.

 

[stoptap]

Howdy Martin and welcome.
I think you should get a very nice 80's machine for your budget.

A little tip, look through the For Sale section on here before you even think about buying off eBay. If you buy from here you won't get ripped off and you will get support in the event of their being any issues.

 

[lukewells]

Welcome to the forum!

As above, you should be able to get something that meets you needs for under £1k. Don't worry about LED's as they are reasonably cheap and you can fit them yourself!

Good luck!

 

[replicas]

Welcome to Pinball Info Martin.

 

[new forest pinball]

Hi Martin a customer of mine has a Bally vector from the eighties at tuckton. P.m. Me for his details. He wants £700 for it. See the for sale section of this forum for pictures. Go have a look and a play. They are very friendly. Welcome to the forum. Keith.

 

[cooldan]

welcome aboard, Martin. plenty folks on here in our forties, quite a few in their fifties too.
£1000 will get you plenty, especially as if you're looking for 80s games then you are avoiding the expensive end of the market, ie. DMD games.

have you got any particular titles in mind? Bally games or Williams or Stern or Gottlieb?
maybe the first thing you should do is get along to a meet and play lots of games - pinball is still very much alive, albeit mostly as a hobby in the homes of us middle aged saddos!

 

[Dorset M]

Thanks for the replies, PM sent to new forest pinball. CoolDan , at this stage I am not clued up enough to understand how the manufacturers differ. The easier to look after and set up the better, are parts difficult to come by for any particular manufacturer? For my first pin i may stick to something fairly traditional - e.g. with few pop bumpers in the top play field. How do I find out about local 'meets' down south? Thanks for the help.

 

[stoptap]

welcome aboard, Martin. plenty folks on here in our forties, quite a few in their fifties too.
£1000 will get you plenty, especially as if you're looking for 80s games then you are avoiding the expensive end of the market, ie. DMD games.

have you got any particular titles in mind? Bally games or Williams or Stern or Gottlieb?
maybe the first thing you should do is get along to a meet and play lots of games - pinball is still very much alive, albeit mostly as a hobby in the homes of us middle aged saddos!

View attachment 26622

Aaaarrrgghhhhhh !! My eyes ! My eyes !

 

[Arv]

Ah Tron guy. Blast from the past..

 

[astyy]

How do I find out about local 'meets' down south? Thanks for the help.

Hi Martin first off get yourself down to Special When Lit club in Salisbury one Friday night - you get to play a brilliant range of machines in a nice environment. See http://www.specialwhenlit.co.uk/index.php.

I'm down South too and have a VECTOR (well two at the moment) it has a lot crammed on it for your money.

 

[lukewells]

Thanks for the replies, PM sent to new forest pinball. CoolDan , at this stage I am not clued up enough to understand how the manufacturers differ. The easier to look after and set up the better, are parts difficult to come by for any particular manufacturer? For my first pin i may stick to something fairly traditional - e.g. with few pop bumpers in the top play field. How do I find out about local 'meets' down south? Thanks for the help.

Both Bally and Williams have large followings, so mechanical spare parts have been re-manufactured and both are reasonably easy to maintain. Additionally they use common electronic parts that most of which can still be obtained new. Stern (80's) are a bit more specialist, and I would say Gottlieb are for the experienced collector only as they use non-standard and hard to obtain connectors and electrical parts, as well as having less spare parts available.

 

[Dorset M]

Great to find and meet up with the local Pinheads through this forum. Having now enjoyed a Friday evening at 'Special When Lit' and also been treated to the hospitality of Robotgreg and toured his fantastic games room i am now thinking that my first pin may well be a DMD machine. The other half is also keen to spend a bit more and get a nice DMD pin, being that it's going to be in the house rather than a dedicated games room. So now on the look out for a tidy 90's pin and the budget has been upped quite a bit. Perhaps pin 2 or pin 3 will be an early S/S... but they will have to wait for the planned games room project.
Thank you for the help Greg and Peter, nice steep learning curve over the last week! Now feel more confident and ready to buy.

 

[Moonraker]

Oh and I forgot to warn you that all our machines are in tournament mode meaning that they can be very difficult to novices to open up the features and modes within the game... you may have guessed that though!

 

[Dorset M]

So I thought I'd start this hobby with a single pin from the 80's, then visits to RobotGreg and Peter at Special When Lit rapidly expanded my horizons..... thank for your help and guidance guys. Then a couple of nice and tidy Sterns popped up on here from a very helpful seller AndrewM. A van hire and day trip to the midlands later I am now the proud owner of SM and POTC.... so already in a fair bit deeper than anticipated but loving the pins and slowly finding my in to the rule sets and learning some flipper skills.

Have already ordered a shaker to add to the SM (arrives tomorrow from PH). Next stop a pin from the 80's and a pin from the 90's for a bit of variety? Will also have to get a move on with the games room before they take over the garage.

 

[DRD]

Good thing is that you made informed decisions rather than leaps of faith