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Where do I start?

K

kckoopa

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Joined
Feb 19, 2015
Messages
34
Location
Midlands
I'd love to start a pinball collection but have no idea where to start.

I saw a twister table and know eventually that's the one I want to get but at the moment don't think I'll be able to stretch to enough money to get it at the moment.

Am only looking to spend £500 max but don't know what that would get me.

What should I be looking for at that price?

Don't mind something that needs a little work or restoration to start with but would hopefully be in working condition!






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£500 probably won't get you a DMD game, unless it's a less desirable game and needs work, the you might be lucky. I doubt a £500 DMD game would linger on the market for long though. Plus you'd need to spend money on it to make it work, and it can get expensive sometimes.

I'd suggest waiting a little longer and saving up a little more, then enter the market with £1k for a reasonable choice and better condition games.
 
Thanks, I'll lurk here a bit longer then and hope to get lucky while I wait!


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Have you played many tables? Get yourself along to some pinball events and work out which table grabs your attention.
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
£500 probably won't get you a DMD game, unless it's a less desirable game and needs work, the you might be lucky. I doubt a £500 DMD game would linger on the market for long though. Plus you'd need to spend money on it to make it work, and it can get expensive sometimes.

I'd suggest waiting a little longer and saving up a little more, then enter the market with £1k for a reasonable choice and better condition games.
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I 99% agree with this, but at the same time the prices are creeping up and this dude wants a game at home to start familiarising himself with adjusting switches and getting a few tools together and just the glory of having a real live pinball machine of your own.

I'd say go for the £500 Hook that got mentioned. Or George's Jokerz. Or a late 80s System 11 game from immediately before the DMD era. Then trade up in six months.
 
Fair point Dan.

Compromise: save more, have £1k ready to go, only spend £500 of it, but have the rest on hand for repairs and/or trades in the near future. Danger of buying a £500 game [priced low because it's less desirable & possibly less well looked after] and maxing your budget early is you might have problems with it and it sits there doing nothing until you can afford to fix it.
 
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Have you played many tables? Get yourself along to some pinball events and work out which table grabs your attention.
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@kckoopa this is great advice from Phil :thumbs: Where in the Midlands are you? There may be someone near you who'd be happy to let you come and have a go on their games...or try and get yourself along to a Midlands league meet :)
 
I'm in Worcestershire. Will definitely try and get to a meet.

That x files one looks great but I really am stuck at £500 for the moment.

Keep the advice coming guys!!
 
As others have said, wait it out a bit and add to that £500, if you can possibly make it as far as a grand then there will be a far, far bigger range of tables to choose between and also something that will likely hold your attention longer too.
 
I know it's easy for us to say but it really is worth adding to your budget. My first pin (not that long ago really) was 5 years ago and I gulped and sweated paying £450. I didn't have much disposable income and it seemed an extortionate amount of cash. But the machine was in poor cosmetic shape and I got bored of the title pretty quickly. I saved up and got a Fishtales and I was more than happy with that.
Truth is now, I wouldn't flinch paying £6k for a nib if I could afford it. :eek:
 
Thank goodness for the second hand market, and there are some true gems to be had around the 1k mark.
 
Personally I think 500 is a bit short for buying your first table, if you can up this to about 600-700 there will be a much larger range of machines you can afford.

Also, dont get so het up on having a DMD machine. There are loads of terrible boring DMD games.
 
Chris's x files machine and the Hook one on eBay look good but I think you're all right I'm going to have to wait a while as £500 won't get me either of those machines anyway. Hopefully by the time I get closer to a grand another machine will come along. I think the likes of JP and Twister might be out of my range for a while but as you say I can buy a machine for a grand and trade up along the way.
 
You should be able to get a Twister for less than a grand. I'd also expect a JP to be in really good nick for more than a grand (but maybe I'm under pricing it as I'd like another one in the future). Both SEGAs and Data East machines generally go for less than WMS ones. Although you can still pick up some great game fro £900 ish

Take your time and find a machine that's right for you. Although they are a lot of money, it's not money lost, you've just moved it from the bank and put it into pinball form. Unless you pick a real dog you should be able to get most (if not all) of your money back when you sell up in the future.
 
johnwhitfield said:
Although they are a lot of money, it's not money lost, you've just moved it from the bank and put it into pinball form. Unless you pick a real dog you should be able to get most (if not all) of your money back when you sell up in the future.
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Very wise words and the main commandment by which I live :)
 
Cheers john, can I quote you to my wife :D
I guess it's just a waiting game until the right machine comes along at the right time!
 
The first rule of buying pinballs is telling your wife "it was £500". Doesn't matter what machine it is. There clearly is no more than a £50 difference from a clapped out LW3 and a NIB machine;) Letting on about the true amount you've spent on a toy will lead you down a route you really don't want to go down. Believe me it lead me to spending a weekend in John Lewis looking at a large selection of new curtains and being asked which shade of white fabric I preferred. Trust me it was hell, I couldn't even start to guess what the correct reply was meant to be.
 
johnwhitfield said:
The first rule of buying pinballs is telling your wife "it was £500". Doesn't matter what machine it is. There clearly is no more than a £50 difference from a clapped out LW3 and a NIB machine;) Letting on about the true amount you've spent on a toy will lead you down a route you really don't want to go down. Believe me it lead me to spending a weekend in John Lewis looking at a large selection of new curtains and being asked which shade of white fabric I preferred. Trust me it was hell, I couldn't even start to guess what the correct reply was meant to be.
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You lived to tell the tale.... RESULT!
 
Well curtains aside. Or drawn. :D I think I'll just keep hovering til a JP or ideally a Twister comes along at the grand mark and hope for the best! Thanks for all the advice guys, what kind of condition am I looking at for that price? (A question I'm sure has been asked a million times!)
 
You'll get a decent twister for a grand and an average to good JP. JP is a fantastic game. Never played twister
 
MrSpireite said:
Am I the only one who thinks. Bloody Hell a grand is expensive.....
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No you're not.

I'm going to be the spanner in the works again. I got a fully working pin in the form of VECTOR for £350. I've read down this entire thread but didn't spot if @kckoopa expressed a preference for which era of pins he likes (although I'll guess DMD if he likes TWISTER)? If you're happy being pre-DMD then £500 opens up a whole lot of choices. £500 bought my VECTOR and either of my project pins - one to play and one to learn how to fix. I knew f*** all about pins before I bought my first and it was an unknown dead project. But then I'm a masochist and enjoy diving in at the deep end ;)
 
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