Halloween Party 2016

A quick clip showing some of the awesome level of activity from our Halloween block party / outdoor movie.

Full clip of some of the video feeds from the gameroom during the party. 

I've gotten a little tongue-in-cheek heat from friends in this hobby about scaling back on pinball in our gameroom but watching these clips reinforced to me that I made the right call. Moving away from 'how many more pins can I fit in this room?' and towards, "how can we make this space fun and inviting for a variety of arcade-nostalgia seekers" paid off in a big way!  

For Halloween 2016 we had a great turnout for an outdoor halloween movie and some arcade goodness. :)

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We watched Hocus Pocus on the outdoor screen. There is something just fun and magical about outdoor movies in the cooler fall evenings!

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A certain dark-side force user got to stop in for some pinball action to many of our Star-Wars themed guests' excitement!

Star Wars

Arcade Move

For about 6 months I've been thinking about a major re-work of our game room and about what direction I'd like to take the room.  

Generally, the notion that I landed on was that, for me anyway, chasing the Pinside top 10 or 20 list of pinball machines isn't a (reasonably) attainable goal.   Part of the challenge is that I am my own worst enemy in terms of maintenance.   When the lights turn off and everyone leaves, I go back to work cleaning and wrenching-on games.  

Just one more cool mod, just one more coat of wax....

I do like working on pinball machines and arcades but it would be cool to get to play them now and again, too!  Plus, the pins get most of the maintenance time while the arcades were a little more neglected.

I came back from Southern Fried Gameroom Expo with this personal revelation that space is always a limiting factor.   Even at a big expo like that, there were games that weren't present and there will never be enough room (in my house or in my checking account!) to feed that one-more-again urge.   As in a lot of things, the chase is (often) better than the catch.

Do I want a gameroom to play in or a room full of trophies?

On one hand I had rough plans for adding a pool-house (eventually).   A place with bathrooms, shower, a kitchen / bar - and of course the arcade would move there.   But, would it stop with the $90,000 remodel or just keep going...?   On the other hand it wasn't lost on me that my home arcade was larger than the arcade at our local movie theaters.   

Then there's the idea that I personally enjoy arcades as much as pinball, yet one pinball machine like Wizard of Oz is equivalent financially to about 10 Tron Arcades..  

This was my quandary. 

I like pinball, I like arcades.   At peak, I've owned 8 pinball machines at once and 5-7 arcades in the same amount of time.   Yep, I know there are folks out there with (much!) larger collections and even a few people who even beat my level of maintenance OCD.   Family, demanding work schedule along with this and other hobbies - I probably won't ever be in the 20-pinball-machine upper crust of collectors. (And that's cool)  So, I decided a couple of months ago to start trimming back on Pinball games and to make some changes.

For pins, the number that I landed on was no more than 5.   I looked at each game in a duck-duck-goose-reminiscent way to determine what games would go and what games were safe for now. My guidelines were:

• These are games, not trophies: keep what me and family find fun to play
• Nostalgia
• Make the space more comfortable
• Allow for themed-areas or general theming opportunities
• Represent a balance of arcade, pinball and console gaming

For the pins, these were my thoughts:

Williams Indy - Love the theme, love everything about the gameplay. - A Keeper.

Stern Indy - Love the theme, game is fun but enjoy Williams IJ more - Sold it.

Wizard of Oz - Like the game, not into the theme. Love the lightshows and sound.   Shot geometry could be better /  the outlanes are vacuums. In the end, more trophy than game.  Sold it. 

Scared Stiff - Love the game, love the suggestive nature of the theme.  Fast game / short ball gameplay will be represented in Ghostbusters  Harder decision but landed on selling it in favor of making room. Sold it.

Ghostbusters - Who the hell knows, Would this damned game ship already? :)
Current estimate is Oct1.  If it slips any more, I'm switching my order to an MMR or a TOTAN.

Monster Bash - Love the theme, enjoy the game but it is easy.   Keeper but potential trade bait for something later.

Star Trek - Love the theme, love the light show, love the gameplay.  Classic Steve Ritchie.  It stays.

And pin number 5 well - stay tuned, it might surprise you.  Hint: I've owned one before.

Several friends from the local club popped in to help with the move and even provided some up-front design and sketch ideas as we were going through layout ideas.   This video is a timelapse over a couple of weeks using the Nest's motion-detection keyframes to create segments.  In a few places you will see they get out of sync, because some cameras got unplugged temporarily during the move.  

Still, kind of neat to see it happen in front of your eyes over the course of a few minutes..

In the end, I think what we ended up with turned out pretty well.   Pins, classic arcades, contemporary arcades, even consoles all represented in a more comfortable, open and inviting arcade.   Because in the end arcades are as much about fun with friends as they were about gaming.

The Ghostbusters Effect

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The chase for nostalgia is an interesting and magical thing.  Following months of rumors, when Stern Pinball finally announced that their Ghostbusters pinball game based (mostly) on the 1984 movie, the pinball-focused portions of the internet exploded.  
 

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Collectors, operators and enthusiasts started throwing money at Stern to line up for the privilege to buy the latest and greatest - and most expensive Stern pinball machine to date.

Cult classic movie, hand drawn art from an up and coming artist and a legend of Pinball design, how could this possibly go wrong for Stern?

If you've ever seen a Gary Stern interview or talked to him in person, you probably can predict his speech.  Really, it is like a drinking game: take a drink every time Gary says "Manufacturer" and "USA".    Stern takes pride in being a pinball manufacturer, the only pinball manufacturer to make it through the industry gloom early 2000's.  Even though plenty of pinball companies are making machines today, Stern carries the distinction of being the largest and most established.

The problem with repeating over and over that you are the best of something is that you stand to fall extra hard when you do finally fail.   Like David J. Maloney, a local ambulance chaser lawyer with cheesy dramatic local commercials about going after drunk drivers.  When he was pulled over for an alleged DUI, the local media ate up the irony with gleeful abandon.  Except, David J Maloney was shortly thereafter forgiven of his transgression.     I don't know (or care) enough of the details to make a sound judgement on if that was fair but I do know the cry for public awareness when a public figure fails is always much louder than when one succeeds.

With Ghostbusters, Stern finds themselves on the edge of a moment this like this.  When it was first announced, it was as if a giant Luigi-Mansion-esque vacuum cleaner sucked up all of the money in the pinball hobby.  If you had a pinball machine to sell in Q1-Q2 2016 in the pinball space, it was a buyer's market.  Most of the buyer's dollars were going to Stern through distributors and retailers.

Like the Wal-mart effect on local retailers but with Ghostbusters and the related secondary pinball market.   This was to be many peoples' first New In Box Pin.  

The track was set and all Stern had to do was run their victory laps past the competition.    Except, that's not what happened. 

Production delays, poor communication and quality issues are what has happened.  
"Your game is coming in June. "
June arrives..
"Your game is coming in July."
July arrives..
"Your game is coming in August."

August is here and half-past and some games have arrived.    The palpable excitement about people getting their LE games (only 500 made) are starting to be dulled by reports of playfield issues.

Insert problems, insert-ghosting, clearcoat chipping, etc..

The people having problems with their games are being vocal.  Possible that many people out there aren't having problems or haven't noticed any issues but the most vocal generate the story of history and right now that story is pointing towards a widespread quality control issue across multiple titles (Spiderman VE, Ghostbusters) and no specific promises from Stern to date as to what they will do to make it right.  

All of the sudden, if the pinball market was a balloon and money was air, it is like the balloon has been re-inflated as droves of customers cancel or delay their orders to see how "Insert Ghosting-Gate" plays out.

If you have a pin to sell, now is a great time to sell it.   But act quickly, the window will close again.

To be completely fair, I tend to believe that the reports of play field failures are likely exaggerated.  It isn't that I don't believe these people are having issues - they are absolutely having problems as the result of what appears to be a manufacturing defect in the playfield.   But, are the vocal few truly a representation of a widespread failure?   Maybe but equally: Maybe not.

 

The Social Media Effect on Pinball?

What is clear is that the days of a manufacturer being able to ignore customer requests for support are over.  In fact, maybe the name of this blog post should have been 'The Social Media Effect' on the Pinball Industry and Hobby.  

I do think, Stern could do a better job of getting in front of issues like this and communicating to the public what they intend to do and what the status of the issue resolution is.   Ignoring the community that feeds your business is a little like buying a pitbull and starving it.  

Eventually, it will eat your face off.

For what it's worth, I'm staying in on my Ghostbusters Premium order, even though I honestly have no idea when the thing will arrive or if it will have problems when it lands here.   I half suspect it will, though my personal experiences with Stern technical support have all been very positive and reasonable. 

But, what do I know, I'm just a guy that sold 3 pins in 9 hours at fair market prices.  If you are looking to cycle your collection, it is probably a good time to do so before the next have-to-have pin announcement freezes the apparently limited supply of cash in this hobby.  :)
 

July Arcade / Pinball Open House

Southern Fried Gameroom Expo 2016

This summer I was happy to get to attend Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta with my family and along with fellow arcade and pin collecting friends.  These events are always better if you can share them! 

The SFGE folks put on another great show.  It is impressive considering this is only their (3rd?) year of doing this show  - just how well it all comes together.  In fact, this year the show moved to a new venue to accommodate the growth / popularity of the event.  

In 2016, the event was hosted at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta.

My family appreciated the new venue.   Spacious rooms and clean rooms, friendly staff and roomy venue area, all walking distance to a nearby mall via a sky-bridge with good eats and shopping.

Miles staging his Mario toys out, getting ready of a day of gaming fun.

Who doesn't like a glass elevator, except for maybe Wreck-It Ralph? Jena approved, though.

Opening day, a respectable line waiting for the doors to open.

The event coordinators handled the morning /day one rush and constant comings-and-goings with professionalism and efficiency.  An organized, well-oiled machine.    Speaking of machines, the repair volunteers did a great job of keeping games going throughout the weekend.

Tournament Play

There were some real proud-dad moments watching Jena play in her first ranked tournament match.  In fact, maybe I should have spent less time being proud and more time playing better; she qualified ahead of me in standings :)

JJP

Being a JJP loyalist / I would start off with JJP, right? JJP and Flip-n-Out pinball brought two Hobbits, a WOZ and a MMR.

Whenever I look at Hobbit, I'm struck with just how awesome the game looks.  It is gorgeous and it exudes quality in person.   I have complex opinions regarding this pin.  On one hand, I think it looks great / sounds great and it was quite fun to play.    On the other hand, I'm not really into Tolkien stuff, I'm not a LOTR or Hobbit fan.   I guess maybe a symptom of my rampant ADD, I've never been able to sit through the books or the movies enough to really care what's going on.

In fairness, my complex opinions towards this pin might be colored by a largely disappointing pre-order experience with a particular JJP Distributor.

In the end, I think The Hobbit, is much like LOTR, at least to me.  Whenever I'd play LOTR in a setting full of noise and distraction, I really didn't get the love that people have for the game.   As I got to play a few good examples of the pin and go through the modes, learn the shots LOTR opened up for me. "AHA! I get it now, this is a really fun pin."   

Same goes for Hobbit.  I don't think a show is the best environment to really experience what Hobbit has going for it.   You really need to hear it, see it and feel the shots as you go through mode progression to fully appreciate the game.   Hobbit is a great second game from JJP.    WOZ was a hard act to follow.   Is The Hobbit better than WOZ?   As a matter of opinion, I don't think it is.  But WOZ might also be among the best games ever made..  

Jack's presentation covered his storied history in the industry, a Q&A format with a follow-on slide deck of some of the awesome things going on at JJP.   They continue to build Hobbits, will be building more WOZ 75th games and are staging for their next title.  From the sounds of it, the next title will scuttle the preorder-payment model and follow a more concise announce / reveal, sell and ship schedule similar to Stern.     

If you've never met Jack in person, you should endeavor to make it to a show and get some face time with him.   He's a super-sharp guy and his influence has raised the bar for pinball in quality, innovation (and price..)  Jack is good people.

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters, the hype is real.     In my short time in this hobby, I haven't seen anything in the pin community like the response to this pin.    This show was the first change for many folks to get their first plays in one of several Ghostbusters games brought to the show by Marco Specialities.

Want to check out Ghostbusters LE? That's it in the center of the frame and this is the line to get to it.

The Ghostbusters pins at the show had a line behind them, constantly.    I would love to have gotten their play counts, though the SM VE next to it got around 500 plays for the weekend.   (Not as much as I would have expected)

My impressions?   Ghostbusters if fun, fast and challenging.  Ball times are generally short, less than 1/3 of folks appeared to start Storage Facility Multiball.  I noticed two people get Mass Hysteria, in the full weekend.   The artwork is.., well art.  Gorgeous.   Nearly TOTAN-level of gorgeous in my humble opinion.   

I couldn't hear the sound very well during the show but I recently found a GB in the wild at a Movie theater and got to enjoy the full sound experience - it sounded great.   I can see, though that some of the callouts and sounds might end up being repetitive after a lot of play.   

The pro and the LE played differently.  I think the pro was a little harder, though the LE was plenty difficult.  I *really* liked the magnetic slings in the LE.  They often worked like regular slings but when they didn't - it was cool. Something fresh, something different.   Apparently Marco set them to "Very Active" in game settings.

The LE/ Slimer Mech did experience some problems a few times during the show.  At some point they had to disable him entirely.  As far as I could tell, the pros experienced no problems.   Negative Reinforcement was spelled wrong on the pro. :)

I did get to put my initials on one of the games, though I'm sure I didn't hold GC for the weekend.

At one point, there was a Ghostbusters 1-Ball tournament.  I was proud of Jena for stepping up for some tournament action, this trip.   The the video below, the GB Pro I was playing was super-tilty, or maybe the sun was in my eyes?  Playing up-hill in the snow.... :)

I spent much of my pinball time at this show running back and fourth between Hobbit and Ghostbusters.   I liked them both but for different reasons.  

Which one comes home with me? For now, Ghostbusters.  I love the theme, the art is cool and it fills a play / gameplay style hole in my pin lineup.    

All in all, Stern has a smash-hit in Ghostbusters.  Now they just have to catch up with demand.  I expect they will be making this game for years.    Looking forward to my Premium in a few weeks.

WNBJM

What can I say about Whoa Nelly Big Juicy Melons?  I was surprised how much fun I had playing this title.  I don't think I'll ever buy one but I did really enjoy it.

...and at the end of the day, who doesn't like Big Juicy Melons?  It is summer after all..

Marco had an excellent showing at this event. Really appreciate the new titles they brought out for us to play!

Getting Our Game On

I tried to balance my time between pins an arcades because I really love both.   While most of the pinball tables constantly had lines, the arcades were quite accessible.

I would like to have one of these! Love these setups

I had to double check which finger was up when he waved at me.. Very movie accurate. :)

As always, a pleasure to meet a member of the 501st!

SFGE this year was a blast.  The weekend went by really too quickly.  As, I came home and flipped the lights on in the game room it was a bitter-sweet moment; a mixture appreciation for the fun games I have but sorry the fun weekend of arcade festivities was over.  

All the more reason to go back next year! 

Buying (and selling..) Pinball Machines

Buying a Pinball machine.  The act of researching, watching, finding and buying can be quite fun. The hunt is often more satisfying than the catch, in human nature.   It can also be daunting.

In the last 6 months I've had a mixed bag of experiences cycling out games from my game room. The experiences range from misleading sales tactics and downright nearly scam-like behavior on one end, to super smooth transactions with exceeded expectations on the other.    
I've been asked about this and so I wanted to write up some quick information to hopefully aide in your pinball-buying experiences.

Buying New

When buying a New in Box (NIB) game, you have a few options.  Buy from a retail establishment, buy from a distributor or buy from the manufacturer.

When buying from a Retail establishment, if local to you - you get the benefit of playing the game on site before taking it home.  If you live close, this may also extend opportunities for machine service over the life of the game that could be helpful / crucial - depending on how comfortable you are in tinkering with electronics.   Pinball machines break.   When they do, having a local option retail store to call for parts and service is a nice feature.

That said, not everyone has the benefit of a local retail establishment.

In these cases, buyers typically deal with Distributors.   Sometimes distributors might have retail storefronts but often times they do not.  On forums, people generally refer to 'their distributors' in ways similar to the way a person would refer to drug dealers and there are definitely some similarities. Often times distributor sales are 'loose' / gentlemanly agreements, struck by phone, private message, IM, email, text or in person at a show.

"Hey man. you got the stuff?" - "Yeah man, I got what you need. - $5500 for the pro model and it is TIGHT!"

You typically won't get a tremendous amount of technical support from a distributor but they will usually have the appropriate contacts with the manufacturer to get you in front of the right people, relative to your problem.

The pinball buyer - distributor relationship is an oddly passionate one.   Everyone tends to believe their distributor is the best.   That loyalty is often paid in discounts for future purchases.  Buying from distributors is usually slightly less expensive than buying from retail. Average retail pricing for a Stern Pro model is $5500, where through a distributor it might $5200.  Premiums are running $7100 retail and $6700 through distributors, etc.  Pricing varies by game, by popularity of title, by model and by your distributor relationship.

In some cases, you will buy a NIB game directly from the manufacturer, especially in cases of preorders.  JJP (to date, anyway), Heighway, Dutch Pinball are good examples of this.  In these scenarios you will usually pay a deposit down on a game and be given a pay-schedule in which the game will need to be paid-in-full in time to ship.  Benefits of this buying method are that you could potentially save about $1,000 or more from the typical street pricing if you get in early and you may get your game before most retail buyers.   That said, you are also providing an interest-free loan of sorts to the manufacturer and often production and shipping estimates are the stuff of magic versus science.  

Distributors are basically in the same boat.  They will generally buy a bulk allotment of games from the manufacturer with a deposit and payment schedule and then begin marketing their allotments to the community through shows, events, social media, psy-ops and whatever other means that are deemed affective to separate you from your money.

The price you would pay directly from the manufacturer, versus buying from a distributor are usually congruent.    The distributors may have some wiggle-room but they aren't making a killing on games. Estimates are a couple hundred dollars per unit for their investment - which when you think about it - isn't a lot.

Distributors are an interesting bunch.  There are some distributors with Hatfield / McCoy hate relationships with other distributors and there are others that are just passionate folks that love Pinball and enjoy the hobby and thus coexist peacefully with their distributor brethren. 

Here are some distributors I've encountered.  Shop around and go with the distributor you feel comfortable with.  The user-drug dealer relationship is a tenuous one. :)

Trent @ Tilt Amusements - www.tiltamusements.com
Michael @ Automated Services - www.pinballs.com
Melissa @ Cointaker - www.cointaker.com
Terry @ PinballLife - www.pinballlife.com
Jason @ ClassicGameRooms - www.classicgamerooms.com
Jack or Jen @ Jersey Jack Pinball - www.jerseyjackpinball.com
Pinsider: Doughslingers - www.pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/doughslingers 
JJ @ GameExchange - jjb@gameexchangeofcolorado.com
Joe @ PinballSTAR - www.pinballstar.com

There are others as well but I have had specific interactions with this list of distributors.

When buying a game, ask specific questions that you need answered and be sure pay close attention to the answers. (Specifically, if they are actually answers or deferrals of the questions).    

I have encountered distributors that can be particularly misleading with optimistic-sounding non-answers to simple questions like, "When can I expect to receive my pin?"  One in particular reminds me of Bill Clinton.  Someone that everyone says is a great guy but is a master of dodgy non-answers with a smile.

"Did you have sexual relations with this woman?"
"Well, define sexual relations?"

Buying Used

Most people buy games used.   This is where most of us start out, unless you just have an unusually tall stack of cash to throw away.    Buying used, you usually find the games you are looking for from a number of common sources.

Craigslist
eBay
KLOV
Pinside
Mr. Pinball Classifieds
local forums, groups, clubs, etc.  
 (eg, gulfcoastpinball.com, gapas.net, the village, etc)
.. or used from shows, shops and retail

If you are buying your 1st pinball machine, the number one piece of advice I can give you is - find someone local in your area with more experience and bring them along.  An extra set of experienced eyes can help you to avoid a costly fixer-upper and those extra set of arms will come in handy loading and unloading your new toy in the event everything goes as expected.

It Just Needs a Fuse

There is a joke in this hobby (arcades and pins).  I saw this post recently: it was a pile of melted metal and broken glass on the floor with a for-sale ad, "Arcade Monitor, needs work: Probably just needs a fuse."

You'd be surprised how many of these are actually out there. People listing trashed out, ragged out games that do not work with assurances that "It just needs a fuse."   I fell victim to this a few years ago, buying a pinball machine.   "It just needs a $3 part."    $1200 game + $1600 in parts, I had myself a $2800 game worth at most $1400 to the typical pin buyer.  Oops.

This is where having an experienced local group of pinball enthusiasts come in handy.  Have someone come with you to look at games and be objective about the condition.

Buying Machines Remotely

If you are buying a machine from afar, get lots of pictures and video (lots!) in good light and bad light.  Have them take pictures of the boards in the backbox, of the playfield with power on and off, beneath the playfield, etc.    Look for honest sellers that are upfront about machine shortcomings.

Seek out honest answers with targeted questions like:

"I understand no game is perfect, if you were to keep this machine, what are the three things you would fix or change about it?"

"Tell me about the last repair, what broke, who fixed it and how long ago did this occur?"

"Take pictures of the worst aspects of the machine. The warts. Then, in a separate email, take and send pictures of your favorite (the best) parts of the machine."

Be sure to get pricing and move logistics out of the way and get all questions answered.    If you or the seller make assumptions, these assumptions can lead to unfulfilled expectations and a sour experience.

When paying for a remote-purchase, there is no fool-proof and 100% safeguard for your transaction.  I've used Paypal, wire transfer, bank check, personal check, square payments and cash for deals.  Coincidentally there are scams targeting Paypal, wire transfer, bank checks, personal checks, square payments AND cash.  

If you don't have a good feeling about the seller or buyer, just don't do the transaction.  There are plenty of pins out there 

Price Police

Here in 'murica, people are allowed to ask whatever they want for their belongings.   They aren't obligated to bend to the buyer's will or even base their prices in reality.   I can list a pack of gum for $1,000.  If someone buys it, it was a $1,000 pack of gum.  Most likely, no one will.   

All too often on the internet, for sale-sale posts and classifieds, people have the tendency to hijack for-sale posts with discussions about pricing.   Make no mistake, this is a shitty thing to do.. So, don't.  

If you are selling and get low-balled, respectfully decline the offer.   If you are buying and low-balling compared to the seller's price point, be polite and justify your pricing without insulting the seller or their pin.  

At the end of the day, if someone doesn't want to sell you their pin for what you are willing to pay, drop it.  Don't stalk them across the internet.  This community is too small and this asshole-ry will come back to haunt you.
 

There are only a few pinball millionaires

If you have dreams of buying pinball machines at a low price, fixing them up and selling them for a profit, I have bad news for you. 

It is not a sustainable business.

The only pinball millionaires today are making pinball machines or are major distributors with large retail frontage.   The fixer uppers / pin flip isn't going to return you windfall profits.  

Let's look at it:

If you bought a Williams Indiana Jones Pinball machine for $3500, which is about half market price for that game.
You "shop it" (deep cleaning) - costs you about $60 in supplies and 16-24 hours of labor
You "LED it" with new LED lights, costs you about $225 in supplies and 4 hours of labor
... then there are the real repairs.   
If nothing else is wrong, you got a pretty good deal.  You have around ~3800 and less than thirty hours invested.  But, pinball machines break and pinball machines that are for sale for a song are usually broken.   

Coils will cost about $6/each, Power boards, $350 for new, $225 to repair, Main boards, $450 for new or $225 for repair.  DMD's cost about $200, playfield glass about $65, playfield-specific parts can be $100-$400 depending on rarity of the title and parts availability.

So, you may have a $3800 game, worth $5500 but you also have about $1200 in risk sitting there.  Your potential profit was only $1700.   And your labor was free, if you did the work yourself...

So, even buying a game at a great price, you might make a little money on the sell but more often than not you won't make anything if you factor in your labor, parts and shipping on those parts.   ..and to reference our example to drive the point home - there are no $3800 Williams Indiana Jones games out there.  Even a Williams Indy in poor condition, sellers typically ask for the market average.

Which brings me to..

figuring out fair pricing

There are numerous sources for pinball and arcade pricing on the internet. Consider these to be more guide than gospel.

Pinside "Archive" / Pricing
PinballPrice.com
The Mr. Pinball Price Guide (book form)

For pricing, condition and title popularity tend to play the biggest role in pricing.
Stern produced 400 Tron LE's and amongst the pinball community the game was a smash hit.  It is common to see a Tron LE* sell for $9,000+

  *the feature matrix between an un-modded pro and an LE may have also contributed to Tron's value inflation.

Typically, a Stern DMD pin in good condition will sell for $3500-$5000, depending on the title and condition.   The most popular titles, Metallica, Star Trek, AC/DC, etc might sell for nearly $6,000 if they are nice examples with the right mods.

Williams / Bally DMD games will usually sell for $2,000-$4000, depending on condition.   A few titles are exceptions and will sell for $6,000-$9,000. (Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, TOTAN, Scared Stiff, etc)

Pinball 2000 sort of fall into their own category.   Pin2k Star Wars Ep1, usually will go for $2000-$2600, depending on condition, while Pin2k Revenge from Mars will usually go for $3000-$4000.

LCD Games like Wizard of Oz, Hobbit, Full Throttle, Alien are typically selling used for $7500-$8500.   Stern is expected to release an LCD title in 2016 but those prices are expected to be aligned more towards Stern's baseline / other SPIKE games.  Probably +/- $600 f

Boutique / limited run games like those from Spooky Pinball will usually sell used for more than their retail (+/- ~$9,000) prices.    Dutch Pinball & Heighway could fall into this category but as their production numbers aren't (as) limited I tend to lump them in the LCD games grouping.

Shipping and logistics

When looking for games, the natural tendency is to favor local ads, something you can drive to within a day.   I will admit that I tend to associate an 'opportunity value' to something local, when looking for a game.  If I can get it today, even if it costs a little more than I expect it should, I tend to favor the instant gratification over the out-of-region buys.

That said, if you open your searches to include out-of-region sources and consider shipping the pin, you will have a better selection to choose from. 

When shipping a pin, you can choose a 'legs on' move, a 'palleted' move and there are some 'other ways'.  

For legs-on move, you put the head down, wrap it in a moving blanket and a mover comes for the game.

The most common provider of this service is:

NAVL / STI  - Contact Michelle @ mbianchi@precision-nal.com / 630-352-3312
- I've found average prices are about $475 for this service.

You can pallet a game and ship via a pallet.   To do this, you secure the balls and loose items, take off the legs, wrap it moving blankets, cardboard optional, wrap it in pallet wrap and secure it to a pallet.   The back of the machine will be resting on the pallet, the legs secured and bundled to cabinet bottom with pallet wrap and/or cardboard and tape.   

RL Carriers is a typical conveyance for this method and prices start around $300.
Pinball companies usually by freight in packs from Freight brokers.   Ask around, you may be able to find better pricing than you can find going straight to the shipper.

Another way to ship a palleted game is to use a service like Forward Air.   It is a depot-to-depot shipping service.  The idea is, you locate a local depot and deliver the palleted game to that depot.  Forward Air, then ships the pallet to the depot closest to the destination and the buyer then picks up the game from their depot.  The average price for this service is about $275 cross-country.

There are pinball-specific moving services, run by operators and pinball industry folks. One such offering is Pinballs on the Move.  You basically schedule a buy during one of his routes and if the source and destinations are reasonably within his route, he will pick up your game and deliver it for a reasonable fee. ($275 ish, if my memory serves)

Finally, in the crowdsourced economy you can sometimes find folks willing to move a game. Try Craigslist from the seller's city, you can often find folks out of work, looking for side work and willing to do a regional pin-move.   

Services like Roadie (think of it like uber but for packages) are growing to include pickup-truck sized loads.  Today, you can likely leverage these services for a pinball move - in the future, the freight business will look more like Roadie or even to some extent: uShip than RLCarriers, FreightQuote.com, etc. 

Sum it all up

If you are getting into pinball for the first time, welcome to hobby!  

If buying used, find a bring an impartial (ideally pin-Educated) friend to help judge condition of the game.

If buying new, balance your retail options with distributor options.  If you need service after the sale and have a local retailer, consider retail. If you plan to service the machine yourself or have a repair dude in mind, enjoy the price-benefits of buying from a distributor.

Respect that people have the right to assign value their stuff.   Bring supporting materials to justify your offers and in the end of the day, whichever side of the transaction you are on - respect the buyer / seller position.

Expand your searches.  Consider buying regionally or even nationally.   Here on the Alabama Gulf Coast we are (often) limited in our local selection.  Buying a machine nationally opens up your options.   Get lots of pictures.

Shop around for shipping alternatives.

A Busy Spring in Pinball

Spring was an active season for Pinball.   If you haven't heard, Pinball is in a resurgence!

An interesting short on CNN about pinball (aired this week):

Also, meet the Pinball World Champ for this year: - Robert Gagno in the video below.   He's awesome.

Texas Pinball Festival in March was a great success.  

Right now, Stern, Jersey Jack, Heighway Pinball, Dutch Pinball, Chicago Gaming/ PPS and Spooky Pinball are all building / shipping pinball machines!   A year or two ago, to think 6 active Pinball companies would be rolling in 2016 would have been the short bet.  Exciting stuff!

In the spring JJP started shipping the long-awaited Hobbit Pinball machine. With JJP's penchant for quality and innovation, this game is sure to be a hit.

At TPF Stern announced and revealed their Ghostbusters Pinball game.  Hand-drawn artwork on the playfield and cabinet by Zombie Yeti, epic theme and great early code - will make this Stern's highest selling game.    Limited Edition's sold out in 1/2 a day.

Heighway moves on from Full Throttle and is in development of Alien pinball.  Another awesome theme for pinball, it'll be great to see how this game comes together.

In the Spring, Dutch Pinball hosted a factory tour and just recently started shipping The Big Lebowski.    The callouts / audio potential alone will make this a fun pin to check out!

After a rocky start, PPS / Chicago gaming is shipping the highly anticipated Medieval Madness remake pin.    It is exciting that this fun pinball machine has been remade in NIB-awesomeness.