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Proper Noobie and advice

Rockythemoose

Registered
Joined
Aug 29, 2025
Messages
3
Location
Chester UK
Good afternoon lovely people. Just a quick hello from me and advice welcome.

I have always loved pinball and for the first time am now in a position to buy one for the games room at home following the addition of the pool table . Ideally I want a pin that is modern and will last that will be loved and cared for. In terms of themes the ones that mean the most to me are Rocky and Ghostbusters and Jaws perhaps star wars ( though appreciate the former are not modern and I think rocky is rare? .) I am not going to be a self repair person or adding mods that's just not me I'm a pure player.

Have considered a brand new machine but debating if its necessary or as a noobie would I be better to get a reconditioned decent pin (mainly jaws at liberty games i think the pro is £6500). Have the funds ready to go i think ideally if a second hand machine I'd like lightly played. Just some ideas and all comments are welcome. Seeing some of the comments on ebay I don't want to go through there ( I recently sold a sound bar and it was a nightmare getting the money out of them).

Cheers guys.
 
Get a lightly used game from a known member on here would be my advice. Check the "machines for sale" section in this forum, there are a few stickied threads worth a read.

 
Hi, firstly Liberty charge absolutely top dollar for all of their machines so I strongly doubt you’re getting a Jaws from them for 6.5k unless it’s been in a house fire. The game was only released 18 months ago so they can’t need much “reconditioning”!

Secondly I think you may want to reconsider your “self repair” stance if you want to own a machine, it’ll cost you a fortune in repair call outs and your machine will be down a lot of the time waiting for technicians if you don’t learn to do at least the basics. That’s fine because the community is very supportive and you’ll learn to fix issues as and when they crop up. To this end I would recommend a modern Stern Pro because they don’t break very often at all. You never know, you might enjoy that side of things once you try it.

Jaws Pro in particular has barely any mechs, the moving drop target is the most complicated thing in the machine, almost everything else is standup targets, ramps and spinners which don’t go wrong often. So if you like Jaws and have the budget to get one (used £7-7.5k, new around £8k) then I think that would be a good buy. It’s a great machine.
 
Get a lightly used game from a known member on here would be my advice. Check the "machines for sale" section in this forum, there are a few stickied threads worth a read.

Great advice cheers I'll start looking
 
Hi, firstly Liberty charge absolutely top dollar for all of their machines so I strongly doubt you’re getting a Jaws from them for 6.5k unless it’s been in a house fire. The game was only released 18 months ago so they can’t need much “reconditioning”!

Secondly I think you may want to reconsider your “self repair” stance if you want to own a machine, it’ll cost you a fortune in repair call outs and your machine will be down a lot of the time waiting for technicians if you don’t learn to do at least the basics. That’s fine because the community is very supportive and you’ll learn to fix issues as and when they crop up. To this end I would recommend a modern Stern Pro because they don’t break very often at all. You never know, you might enjoy that side of things once you try it.

Jaws Pro in particular has barely any mechs, the moving drop target is the most complicated thing in the machine, almost everything else is standup targets, ramps and spinners which don’t go wrong often. So if you like Jaws and have the budget to get one (used £7-7.5k, new around £8k) then I think that would be a good buy. It’s a great machine.
Great advice. Does jaws crop up on here very often or where would you go for a new machine?
 
Good afternoon lovely people. Just a quick hello from me and advice welcome.

I have always loved pinball and for the first time am now in a position to buy one for the games room at home following the addition of the pool table . Ideally I want a pin that is modern and will last that will be loved and cared for. In terms of themes the ones that mean the most to me are Rocky and Ghostbusters and Jaws perhaps star wars ( though appreciate the former are not modern and I think rocky is rare? .) I am not going to be a self repair person or adding mods that's just not me I'm a pure player.

Have considered a brand new machine but debating if its necessary or as a noobie would I be better to get a reconditioned decent pin (mainly jaws at liberty games i think the pro is £6500). Have the funds ready to go i think ideally if a second hand machine I'd like lightly played. Just some ideas and all comments are welcome. Seeing some of the comments on ebay I don't want to go through there ( I recently sold a sound bar and it was a nightmare getting the money out of them).

Cheers guys.
Hi,

Before purchasing go out and play a variety of machines. Theme is a big part of the user enjoyment.
However good themes don’t always equate to a game you will like.
Wish I would adhere to this advice myself.

Some games you will instantly like ( and grow bored with) . Others initially dislike and will grow on you.

Use pinballmap.com to find places to play. You will be able to find Jaws most likely not too far away.

Pins are pricey, heavy suckers to move so it would be best to be a bit confident in your purchase.
Modern (2000s) stern are quite reliable so a warranty from liberty
Or other retailer probably won’t be worth the price tag they put on.
Light maintenance is required on machines of all ages.
So you will have to ‘lift the hood’ at some point but that is part of the hobby.
It can be as satisfying to remedy a problem as having a game.

HUO (home use only machines) sold on the forum here will be in excellent condition. Any minor marks
Or Discrepancies are usually stated by the seller.
These HUO machines can be next to new but with a substantial saving over a new in box (NIB) machine.

If there’s a specific game you would like buy but there’s none for sale.
Put in a wanted ad.

Unless it’s particularly rare you should have someone interested in selling.

If you are unsure whether you are getting a good deal. There’s the option to ask on the forum
For a consensus of a pins current value.

Hope this helps.

AL
 
Great advice. Does jaws crop up on here very often or where would you go for a new machine?
Not many Jaws have sold publicly, I think only 3 pros have come up on the forum since it came out but you could get lucky with a wanted ad on here.

If you’re open to other games you could just put a wanted ad up for a newish stern pro and see what you get offered. Martin and Matt are the 2 most used couriers if you don’t want to collect a game yourself. Both are great, Martin is cheaper but you wait longer and can’t pick your day of delivery. Matt is more expensive but usually much quicker, more flexible on days and if you let him know when you ask for a quote, could set up your machine and show you how to at least take the glass off for stuck balls and cleaning. Both are great, just depends what you want.

Even if you don’t want to do repairs, if you want to play, you will end up having to do fixes here and there even on a brand new game. So just be aware of that.

For new, most people here either buy from David at Retro Arcade Specialists or Phil at Pinball Heaven.

New games aren’t always in stock and it can be a long wait if not so make sure you ask rather than just ordering on a website and expecting a game to arrive in a few days.
 
My first pinball machine was James Bond got from pinball heaven check them out. I can’t fix my pinball machine I’m in a wheelchair but my brother just helps me and it’s not as daunting as you think and lots of videos on YouTube and help on forums.
 
For a newbie I really would advise avoiding Rocky (or any pin of that era). You’re looking at a game that’s 40 years old and inevitably that means it will breakdown a lot. Chances are something will stop working by the time you get it into your house.

It’s also very basic compared to modern pins.

Even modern pins will break down. Most of the time it’s small stuff but it’s good to be able to solve these things yourself rather than call someone out. For example my Metallica today stopped registering balls when they drained. A quick check showed an LED had fallen into the ball trough and is stopping the ball rolling down. Easy enough to fix but you don’t want to be paying someone else to solve it for you. Luckily there’s lots of help on this site to get you back up and running.

Good luck with your hunt.
 
My wife and I are newbys, we got into pinball a year ago when we went to the pinball office in Sawbridgeworth. Since then we've played a lot of machines at various places but we played the most at the pinball museum in Rotterdam. However, before then we've discovered which of the older machines we like by playing them on our virtual machine, which is a half sized pinball machine we got from Pinballia. Theyre not for everyone and won't compete with a real pinball machine but we love our virtual one as a means to discover lots of machines.

We went to the pinball museum after trying everything on our virtual one and it was amazing to play them for real, but also to know a lot of the rules so we could enjoy them properly. We've actually found we don't like too many of the newer sterns, Jaws was very good but neither my wife and I liked Godzilla for instance. As such id say virtual pinball is great for new players to discover what you like. Personally i think a virtual machine sits very nicely alongside a real pinball machine collection as only the richest people can have access to hundreds of machines.

Since then we've had a Monster Bash and recently bought a Shadow. The shadow is a game that I NEVER would've bothered with because of the theme but its one of my favourite pinball machines of all time because its just so fun to play.

So please try as many machines as you can before you buy, only you'll know what you'll like. Don't rely on theme, don't expect modern machines to be better than older ones. And dont be scared of getting your hands dirty for simple stuff.
 
I would not get Rocky. As you say, it is rare. I think it is a good game for someone with a collection of games, I would not get it if it was going to be my only game, the game is a little too 'odd' for an everyday player.

You are doing the right thing by having a list. I would go to a convention and play as many games as you can, so you have a list of 10 machines that you like
 
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