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Home Leisure Legit?

ScoobyPrints

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Joined
Jan 12, 2022
Messages
23
Location
Leicester
Alias
Scooby
Evening all!
After some well desired holidays, I can now bite the bullet and buy my first pin. (X-Men, anyone looking to sell?)

Searching online found some really fishy sites, and thought better asking here before sending my credit card number to a scammer…

Anyone had good or bad experiences with Home Leisure Direct?
Website looks legit and all, looking for recommendations if any.

Thanks
 
HLD bought my xmen 2018 as no interest on here. Maybe they still have it for 3 x the price!
Only ever sold to them and no issues there but others who as buyers may chip in with some no so good reports.

Buy new from pinball heaven. First stop for used is on here BUT very little supply
 
Evening all!
After some well desired holidays, I can now bite the bullet and buy my first pin. (X-Men, anyone looking to sell?)

Searching online found some really fishy sites, and thought better asking here before sending my credit card number to a scammer…

Anyone had good or bad experiences with Home Leisure Direct?
Website looks legit and all, looking for recommendations if any.

Thanks
I'd post a WTB here, HLD don't have a great reputation for aftermarket service. Their inflated pricing is another issue again. Good luck with your search.
 
Evening all!
After some well desired holidays, I can now bite the bullet and buy my first pin. (X-Men, anyone looking to sell?)

Searching online found some really fishy sites, and thought better asking here before sending my credit card number to a scammer…

Anyone had good or bad experiences with Home Leisure Direct?
Website looks legit and all, looking for recommendations if any.

Thanks

As others have said, they’re legit in the sense that they are a real company who won’t take your cash and not deliver a product, but you’ll also be paying well over the odds for a machine that may not be in the best shape. Worth having a read of this thread before making a decision:


Your best bet is to put a wanted ad up on here, and consider getting another machine in the meantime if you can’t find an X-Men straight away. Then if one does come up for sale in the future you can shift the game you bought to make space / free up funds, and you have something to play in the meantime.
 
Definitely better off waiting then dealing with HLD why pay 3x the price and potentially get ****ed around for a few months. When it comes to pins they ain’t worth the hassle.
 
They're legit but as others have said, their prices are well above the value of the machines. What nobody has mentioned is that most of the machines they advertise don't actually exist in their warehouse. A lot of what they advertise are old machines that they've already sold previously. So if you place an order, or attempt to, they will try to source one to sell you. Which could take months or might never happen.
 
They're legit but as others have said, their prices are well above the value of the machines. What nobody has mentioned is that most of the machines they advertise don't actually exist in their warehouse. A lot of what they advertise are old machines that they've already sold previously. So if you place an order, or attempt to, they will try to source one to sell you. Which could take months or might never happen.
Yup what I meant by ****ed around for couple months, they tell you it’s because it’s having its 40 point light bulb check but in reality it’s either in 100 pieces or they just don’t have it and are trying to buy it for third of the price they are charging you.

Your just paying for a salesman’s latest holiday buying a pin from there.
 
Are Williams Amusements a better bet than Home Leisure?

https://www.williamsamusements.co.uk/

Just asking - Personally I haven't bought from either.
I got my Fish Tales from Williams Amusements.

I paid £3,200 for it in July and it’s missing a fish topper, which wasn’t ridiculous given HLD prices, but wasn’t - at the time - realistic for a Fish Tales in that condition. I say ‘at the time‘ because pin prices still seem to be rising.

It arrived filthy with a ball jam that the Williams Amusements guy didn’t know how to fix. After asking on Pinside and a bit of investigation, it turned out that the slingshots had 3” rubbers and this was trapping the ball in the left inlane. Even the most basic check of the pin could have resolved that problem and it was obvious it had not been played before being sold (or someone else would have noticed the problem).

I’ve subsequently, while re-rubbering the FT, have found numerous other wrong-sized rubbers. There are also numerous ‘bodge jobs’ on the machine, such as a piece of wire holding the Caster’s Club popper in place, all of which were causing intermittent faults. We’re still finding and fixing the intermittent faults.

I admit that some of the intermittent faults were very intermittent and could have escaped casual detection. Unfortunately, after we’d played Fish Tales five to ten times a day for four months, the Caster’s Club fault stopped being occasional and became game breaking (we’ve now bought a 20p metal dowel and fixed the fault).

The underside of the playfield has powdery mildew in literally every single insert. Again, a decent check of the pin would have involved - at the very least - cleaning off the mildew.

So, I paid over the odds for a guy to buy a FT on eBay for £2,600 (which I believe is the price he said he got it for), stick it in a warehouse, and resell it again with f**k all done to it. Nice £800 profit for him with the only work required having the storage space for the FT while it was sold.

On the upside, if you want a crash course in pinball restoration and repair self-taught via YouTube videos and internet forum questions, it’s a great way to get into the hobby. And I’m not even entirely joking…

Also, the Fish Tales was in stock and arrived promptly within a couple of days.
 
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I have bought from these places, i was told the machine had gone through riggerous checks , tbh I don’t believe that I think the buy them here and stick 3 k on. It’s ****y but it seems to be a viable business for them, I would buy again as the communications and delivery was good and hassle free and I was luck to spot an undervalued machine on there site , j do check back k from time to time but I do think they have just gotten a little too greedy with thr £££
 
I got my Fish Tales from Williams Amusements.

I paid £3,200 for it in July and it’s missing a fish topper, which wasn’t ridiculous given HLD prices, but wasn’t - at the time - realistic for a Fish Tales in that condition. I say ‘at the time‘ because pin prices still seem to be rising.

It arrived filthy with a ball jam that the Williams Amusements guy didn’t know how to fix. After asking on Pinside and a bit of investigation, it turned out that the slingshots had 3” rubbers and this was trapping the ball in the left inlane. Even the most basic check of the pin could have resolved that problem and it was obvious it had not been played before being sold (or someone else would have noticed the problem).

I’ve subsequently, while re-rubbering the FT, have found numerous other wrong-sized rubbers. There are also numerous ‘bodge jobs’ on the machine, such as a piece of wire holding the Caster’s Club popper in place, all of which were causing intermittent faults. We’re still finding and fixing the intermittent faults.

I admit that some of the intermittent faults were very intermittent and could have escaped casual detection. Unfortunately, after we’d played Fish Tales five to ten times a day for four months, the Caster’s Club fault stopped being occasional and became game breaking.

The underside of the playfield has powdery mildew in literally every single insert. Again, a decent check of the pin would have involved - at the very least - cleaning off the mildew.

So, I paid over the odds for a guy to buy a FT on eBay for £2,600 (which I believe is the price he said he got it for), stick it in a warehouse, and resell it again with f**k all done to it. Nice £800 profit for him with the only work required having the storage space for the FT while it was sold.

On the upside, if you want a crash course in pinball restoration and repair self-taught via YouTube videos and internet forum questions, it’s a great way to get into the hobby. And I’m not even entirely joking…

Wow. Well that answers my question.
 
I got my Fish Tales from Williams Amusements.

I paid £3,200 for it in July and it’s missing a fish topper, which wasn’t ridiculous given HLD prices, but wasn’t - at the time - realistic for a Fish Tales in that condition. I say ‘at the time‘ because pin prices still seem to be rising.

It arrived filthy with a ball jam that the Williams Amusements guy didn’t know how to fix. After asking on Pinside and a bit of investigation, it turned out that the slingshots had 3” rubbers and this was trapping the ball in the left inlane. Even the most basic check of the pin could have resolved that problem and it was obvious it had not been played before being sold (or someone else would have noticed the problem).

I’ve subsequently, while re-rubbering the FT, have found numerous other wrong-sized rubbers. There are also numerous ‘bodge jobs’ on the machine, such as a piece of wire holding the Caster’s Club popper in place, all of which were causing intermittent faults. We’re still finding and fixing the intermittent faults.

I admit that some of the intermittent faults were very intermittent and could have escaped casual detection. Unfortunately, after we’d played Fish Tales five to ten times a day for four months, the Caster’s Club fault stopped being occasional and became game breaking (we’ve now bought a 20p metal dowel and fixed the fault).

The underside of the playfield has powdery mildew in literally every single insert. Again, a decent check of the pin would have involved - at the very least - cleaning off the mildew.

So, I paid over the odds for a guy to buy a FT on eBay for £2,600 (which I believe is the price he said he got it for), stick it in a warehouse, and resell it again with f**k all done to it. Nice £800 profit for him with the only work required having the storage space for the FT while it was sold.

On the upside, if you want a crash course in pinball restoration and repair self-taught via YouTube videos and internet forum questions, it’s a great way to get into the hobby. And I’m not even entirely joking…
Jeez, are they VAT reg? If so like £600 of that just went straight to the tax man. People buy from these companies thinking they are getting a piece of mind and warranty and a properly serviced or restored game which you would expect for the prices but what you end up with could not be further from the truth. They just want the $$$$.
 
Jeez, are they VAT reg? If so like £600 of that just went straight to the tax man. People buy from these companies thinking they are getting a piece of mind and warranty and a properly serviced or restored game which you would expect for the prices but what you end up with could not be further from the truth. They just want the $$$$.
Yeah. That’s the thing.

I didn’t have any experience with pinball machines and figured it would be properly serviced, unlike if I bought from eBay.

We have done so much work on Fish Tales that it’s like, no joke, I’m like “What, is rewiring a Molex plug connector, fixing a bodged wire break and multimeter testing everything relevant in the back box not just usual maintenance? I thought EVERYONE did that” 🤨

Given I hadn’t even played a full-sized pinball machine in June last year, this has been a bit of a vertical learning curve.
 
Yeah. That’s the thing.

I didn’t have any experience with pinball machines and figured it would be properly serviced, unlike if I bought from eBay.

We have done so much work on Fish Tales that it’s like, no joke, I’m like “What, is rewiring a Molex plug connector, fixing a bodged wire break and multimeter testing everything relevant in the back box not just usual maintenance? I thought EVERYONE did that” 🤨

Given I hadn’t even played a full-sized pinball machine in June last year, this has been a bit of a vertical learning curve.
The one good thing that came out of this is the knowledge you have now gained, and can apply to fixing future purchases :) Can now buy players and fixer uppers and repair them :)
 
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The one good thing that came out of this is the knowledge you have know gained, and can apply to fixing future purchases :) Can now buy players and fixer uppers and repair them :)
Yeah. Right now, we don’t quite have the space (or time) to do major restores, but we’re planning to move in a couple of years when the kids are older and - yeah - once that happens, I’m planning to do a full restore on Fish Tales (will probably save me time in the long run), as well as contemplating fixer uppers and tough cookies like old Gottliebs 😍
 
"A lot of what they advertise are old machines that they've already sold previously. So if you place an order, or attempt to, they will try to source one to sell you."

This is what made me walk away when i was looking for my first pin,

They wanted full payment upfront for a machine they didnt even have.. crazy.
 
If you are buying new, use Phil at Pinball Heaven.
For used if you cannot find what you are looking for elsewhere, HLD prices are high…
HLD they are legit however….
I bought new from them:
New IMDN - no issues
New Namco Party arcade Pac-Man - turned up beat to sh^t
Took 3-4 months to resolve and get a new one but came good in the end so no worries.

For used at HLD?
Do yourself a massive favour and get off your ar5e and go down and view it.
Photos aren’t always what they seem.
Went down to view a pin from Scotland - Aerosmith priced same at time as NIB.
Sales guy told me it was hardly used over phone, on arrival said it was taken out of a bingo hall 🙄
When I viewed it, it was heavily used but worse of all, major split cab.
I pointed damage out to two sales guys as I pinged it immediately, they both looked dumbfounded and said they could maybe do something with price - 100-200 quid, I told them I wouldn’t touch it and not to even bother asking their Sales Manager.
So….. go and view anything is my advice.
There will be good and bad, you can also negotiate once in their showroom.
It’s a good day out as you can play all the pins and drink coffee.
They are very accommodating.
 
Does it now have a topper ?
It has all the parts for a repro topper plus Comet LED strips and a real fishing lure either stowed on top of the pin or in a box in the cellar.

Unfortunately, my plan to build the repro topper over Xmas while my mum minded my little boys was disrupted by Omicron 😢
 
Thanks all for the inputs, will consider all this in my journey.

If anyone knows anyone getting rid of X-Men soon give me a shout.

Cheers
 
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