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Tobin aka devon020305 on eBay

DRD

DRD

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Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
5,434
Location
Newark
I asked about world poker tour values on the forum the other day. Detective @mark9 put one and one together and asked on the thread whether I was looking at the game being sold by this guy on eBay. This prompted a few warnings from forum members about this seller's probity and past problems folk had experienced. I also got comments from other people saying they had and would buy from him

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STERN-2006-WORLD-POKER-TOUR-PINBALL-MACHINE-CHROME-PLATED-TRIM-AND-FULLY-LEDS-/221804396553?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item33a4928009&nma=true&si=oNYSnzcjV%2FZ%2BTaHqHhYWDknjf7Y%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I had never met or dealt with Tobin before. I had a long chat with him on the phone about the condition of the game, extent of any wear, the warnings I had received on the forum etc and then travelled to Hove and bought the wpt from him yesterday for the agreed 1,800.

Given that people clearly have views on this guy, I just thought I would impartially relay my own experience. The game was as described. I gave it a good test at Tobin's place, played a few games, went through the diagnostics etc and it seemed fine. I adjusted a faulty switch I spotted whilst I was there. Having got it home and been over it more thoroughly .....

Three 5 minute jobs:

it was missing just one bulb
One 3a fuse had been wrongly replaced with a 5a
I had to adjust a wireform ramp to raise it by a mm

One 15 minute job:
I had to tighten the rail bolted to the cabinet that the playfield slides as this was disconnecting a plug from a socket in a drop target bank. There is only a small amount of clearance here, but that is a game design point

It is early days, I know, but it now all seems fine and withstood a couple of hours play today. I think at least this amount of niggles would be expected with the vast majority of games you might buy on eBay. I certainly had massively more trouble with the TZ and Vector I bought on eBay. And my eBay fathom is an entirely different universe of pain.

Tobin is clearly a dealer. He imports from Europe, sells them on. I would look at his games again, but in the knowledge that he is buying games from Europe essentially blind, giving them a once over and selling on. And I recognise that he does not go through his games with the same eye for detail that many on this forum would.

I płayed the Gottlieb Caveman he was selling on eBay a couple of times. I did not look inside it or test it. But it looked in remarkably good nick as it has a factory mylared playfield. The cabinet was in great condition too. Couple of broken plastics. Won't be many left in the world in this condition. Really basic game play, and a hugely complex beast that I would never risk buying for fear of future repairs of stuff I just do not understand as it is a full size (basic) video game and a full size (basic) pinball in one !,,,, an interesting pinball folly
 
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You did the right thing though looking at it in person first. Unless it's someone I know and trust I wouldn't do it any other way either, too much money to be throwing blindly at people, especially via eBay.

Enjoy WPT, its a cracker!
 
Peter

Is there much risk of that with the coin cell batteries on Stern SAM boards?

Thanks
 
I didn't look inside Caveman.

On my wpt, the CPU board had been repaired. It is presumably a hack, but I guess replacing mini components on these with like for like is quite tricky ... Anyway, I saw this hack before I bought the game and took a chance it was ok and bought it
image.jpg
 
Anything with a battery there is always a risk, even coin cell batteries. That certainly looks clean and tidy. I wonder if the "mod" is a 50/60Hz mains Frequency get around...! :cool:
 
As hacks go, it looks a competent one. But what it does, whether it is stable ..... I have no idea. The game came from Italy. The board has an Italy sticker on it too
 
Mine was originally for Italy. I swear I've seen a picture online (maybe pinside) that has the same work done on another board for WPT.
 
I am relaxed about it. It is probably a service bulletin or adjustment for the European power supply per @Moonraker. It looks too neat and considered to have been done by an idiot

An idiot would have used a rusty nail in there, or maybe some kitchen foil. To insulate the diode leg in green and use that really fine green wire looks a factory hack to me. How many competent bluffers would have bothered to use green on the diode when they could have used nowt, or insulated it with any colour they liked !
 
It's not a "hack" it was done at the factory. Anyone remember the WPT endless multiball or reset issue? If not there were many threads on RGP about it at the time, this was a workaround for that on boards already produced and was corrected on the boardset that went into POTC (WPT being the first production SAM game)

Edit to add just seen the service bulletin by @windoesnot his assumption is correct
 
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That is the risk with buying from flippers, they will unlikely see/note all the faults as they are in for a quick buck via a quick flip, owners who play/maintain their machines will have better knowledge of what's up for grabs when they decide to part, always best go and view in person if buying from a flipper/op, ops are often (but not always) of the opinion that things which would make the average pinheads eyes water being perfectly acceptable, well it's earning money so it must be OK :D

Tobin is going to the trouble of bringing these games into the UK which must be a good thing, wonder how many less machines would be in circulation without his intervention.
 
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I largely got over my Tobin car-salesman disaster a long time ago, though £800 pounds lighter getting the game to a condition it was described as so... and truly acknowledge that not all of his games are bad. For me, the final straw was the lack of an apology and arrogance of his last statement that 'if it was not for people like him and his Dad Nick, us players would have no pinball machines to play in this country'. Nice eh....

Heard shouts of him getting a second chance, but there's three of us up here in the North that I know have been stung, the others not as bad as I was, but stung all the same. It's a real shame though as he obviously has a good contact in Europe for unusual stuff, that Caveman, that Pinball Magic etc.

I think he should join up here, in this thread actually, see if the conscience can be pricked enough to try a little harder and be a good guy in pinball. :rolleyes: :D

Glad to hear you came off OK @DRD. Curious what his response was to the warnings you got on here.
 
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I purchased a pin from him once, I went down to see the machine, he was very nice, accommodating and did not hide the fact he imports them form Poland and Eastern Europe, like JD said if you buy from a collector you are bound to get a better machine.

Yes he's selling tables for profit, and I agree he brings in loads to the UK market which at the end of the day is a great thing for us all, more variety, one could even go as far as saying lower prices.

The machine I purchased did have problems even though I had been down to see it, no more so than other random ePay purchases I have made in the past.

Would I use him again? Yes if he had the machine I was after or one at a good price. But I would always want to see it first.
 
i have got two machines fromm Tobin - both TX's.My advice is what I do for virtually all pins - ask for good pictures and also I ask for the bad bits-not the good.If I feel it is still worth that I would go and see it,money in hand ready for final check before I buy.Sometimes tho ya have to take a gamble if it's a hard to find game-in that case my mantra is beggars can't be choosers.Took a gamble buying a n import to get my Big House cos I kbew I wouldn't get one from this country
 
i bought off Tobin once, despite loads of warnings against it, and am happy with the deal struck.
i was very happy with what i got - ok i paid too much and i had to replace a transistor on it, but nobody twisted my arm and i enjoyed the thrill of the chase in fixing it.
i'm sure i'd feel differently if i'd bought that famous rusty-balls-severed-earth-braid-missing-coils TOM, but hopefully he learned from that.
 
My Dad bought our Avatar from him he was very nice to us when we travelled down to Brighton for the day to collect it.
 
Tut tut Dave, Think we will have to get the pinball police involved.
 
Looks like Tobin has gone from sinner to saint as the thread has progressed.
 
Is he barred from the forum?
Why doesn't he come on here and list his machines, rather than ebay?
As I agree more imports is good for buyers, not so good for "investors" though.
 
I have known Tobin for eons ever since I first got into pinball, was great to find someone who lived local that had a steady supply of games every wrk arrive , I played some insane games that I didn't even know existed back then and this was well before I even heard about UK pinball or had even been to gathering... God I remember the days of Addams families coming in by the lorry load and going on eBay for sometimes around £800.
I think he got a bit of a hard rap as in his defence he doesn't really no much about fixing games he can clean them up but certainly wouldn't look inside the back box and notice a burnt out connector for example. I have had loads of games of Tobin and I know all of us down here have had games off him over the years.
There would be a load less games in this country if he wasn't bringing them in, but be warned he is a Rottweiler at negotiating :)
 
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