Love the decal wear around the start button. They must have played it a lot in that house....

I don't know about anything else, but as a lifelong IT guy... let me tell you, the inside of some people computers (which are obviously HUO) are ridiculously filthy. If you are a smoker with pets... it can get really disgusting.
I don't do computer repairs as a rule, but employees will bring I their home machines for us to fix and they can be seriously nasty!

HUO doesn't mean much to me- a pin is going to look a lot better from a non-smoking low play bar than a chain smoking high play household.

They are using the term HUO as in, "Hey, we are only using this in our home." not that it came from anywhere that way. It's a mistake a lot of sellers that aren't collectors make, and it's equally common to find HUO machines from people like that who don't know to list it that way. Both of my HUO machines came from that situation.

I stupidly fell for a HUO listing on eBay. Problem is he had good feedback so I contacted him and did a deal off eBay to save some money so I couldn't really do anything. When the game got to my house I could tell right away it was a route game the front of the cabinet was drilled into filled and the repaintd from what looks to be an attempt to break into the game. Idk about anybody else's houses but that stuff surely does not go on in my house. I basically overpaid for a restoration project.

That old cat thread from at least a year ago provided me with a list of names that I would never purchase a machine from. All seem like good guys, but a cat crawling around the inside of a machine or sitting on the back box is a real turn off.

I am also terribly allergic.

Pretty good looking game. What exactly is the point of this thread?

I like how the inside of the cabinet, looks like someone changed their oil inside it. THat guy knows what he's doing. he's requesting pins, he's a seasoned veteran. Basically misusing the term HUO on purpose fishing for suckers. Shady.

Btw, ES didn't have decals. That's just paint wear around the start button. I like how there is a wear in the playfield for the apron drain as well. You have to have 10's of thousands of plays to acquire that kind of wear on a playfield.

This dude is flat out lying in his FS thread.

You wont find an EARTHSHAKER in this condition anywhere for this price!
True statement!

How the heck can you tell condition from those pics?! Sure the inside looks dirty, but the pics are so far away and some are blurry, so who know what it really looks like.

For $2500, if I were even remotely interested, I'd be going to look at it in person.

And for God's sake, PLEASE stop thinking HUO means perfect. Not everyone that has a pinball machine is a collector. Some don't even know the playfield lifts up! It is a term that, while it may be true, is never a guarantee.

Chris

about 25 percent of the machine i go get seem to have an owner that is surprised that the glass slides out to exspose the pf- they look at me like im standing in there living room with no pants on----

yes the glass comes out, and no this machine has not been propery cleaned or waxed in years. its huo

Lots of people here in France also use the word "HUO" without knowing really what it means. They think "nice condition" = "HUO"..... plus all the people that claim their pin is HUO and are of course unable to prove it. OK for a recent Stern this is often quite likely and you can check it with some details but when I see old WPC's supposed to be "HUO"...

I would bet my AC/DC premium to anyone elses NIB Stern that game is NOT HUO. There are many tell tale signs if you have been around awhile in this hobby.

The back inside of the cabinet, looking like someone stored greasy tools in it is a dead giveaway. If it was an unmaintained HUO example. the playfield would be filthy but the inside bottom of the cabinet would look like new, since nobody would know how to get to the inside.

The other tell tale sign, is the fact that your right drain line, has playfield wear right along the apron. WEAR ALONG THE APRON. It's not rocket science. In a home environement, there is NO WAY your getting 50,000. Plays on a game. that's about how many you need to break through the lacquer coating to get wear like that. The seller is straight up full of shit.

I think the seller means it is currently only used at home.

I've always said HUO describes the pins life, nothing about quality or condition. Bought 2 "HUO" pins with documentation that were not in the best of shape. The house just played them a lot as their only pin with multiple kids.

It would seem the "HUO" term is just about as predictable as the "PF is a 8 out of 10" term.

One person's 8, is another's 4.
One person's HUO is another's "it was in a bar for 10 years but it's been in my house for the last 2"

Moral of the story, forget what the description says.
If your interested, ask specific questions.
If your still interested after you get the answers, go look at it.

Nothing says you "have" to buy it. Sure, on some occasions it may be a waste of time and gas,
but if you're really looking for a specific pin, who knows, you may just trip across a HUO gem.

i went and looked at a SP that a guy called a HUO. He was the original owner but it had water damage from his basement flooding... and he still tried to get a high price for it .. lol. I love my routed SP

That thing been touched up more than Bruce Jenners face.

Condition, condition, condition.........not words.

That its likely not HUO or its nice but not $2500 nice.

more like $1200 nice. Maybe $1400 if it was in my back yard and didn't have to drive far to get it.

The inside of the cabinet does look dirty, but I don't think it is wear in the right outlane by the apron.

I think it is a reflection from the metal rain on top of the apron.

ESwear.jpg

The slings are broken, and it looks like the ares betw2 mylar sections is ball swirled or dirty. Not defending the seller, but just not sure where everyone is seeing bad wear on this.

I'd love to get an Earthshaker, and all the decent ones I have seen are way over $1400.

Chris

You can never ever prove a machine is home use only. I love it when people try and produce the receipt as proof, last time I checked, operators get receipts when they buy games as well.

You can tell a game is HUO but not prove. Drilled? Coin door wear? Shooter lane wear? Overall condition? Overall cleanliness?

Any combination of factors and others depending on the game.

If the receipt is from the / a distributor with your name on it......it helps but condition is still king.

This post on CL was originally priced at 3250 and not listed as HUO. Then once it popped on Pinside it went down to 2500 and HUO. He said he was the second owner. The left arrow by the upper left flipper has alot of wear but couldnt tell if it was dirt or damage so I took a pass.

I think the first owner was Aladdins Castle.

I have 2 true HUO games and they look like they just came out of the box, STPro and T3.

ST did just come out of the box, that doesn't count. Has to be 20 years old to even compare. But i've had games from an arcade that were 30 years old in better shape than the ES is.

how do you know for certain that the owners did also not happen to own a bar? pins are fairly portable- i would stick to looking at its condition and not a box or paperwork that came with it

I disagree. Maybe if you personally know the person. But really, operators get the box and a receipt. If you have first hand knowledge of the person then yes, you can "prove" it to yourself. But try and sell it HUO, unless I know you personally, your "proof" is meaningless.

Besides, I don't think the spirit of the thread was asking the question about people who have first hand knowledge. Unless you know the person the game is coming from, a receipt and a box don't prove a thing.

Condition is the proof.

Told you that guy was full of shit and knew exactly what he was doing.

Every one in awhile you can get a HUO 'positive' surprise. Saw a RBION on eBay, was looking for a HUO/low play machine without flipper button wear. Guy emailed me back, said he heard HUO ones were more expensive, hence his higher price. The next day another email, guy said that he's lowering the price since someone emailed him to say it's not HUO, that it has a 'long white scrape on each side of the cabinet', and he lowers the price big-time. I did end up telling him that those 'scrapes' were actually part of the artwork, and it does look HUO. He kept the lower price for me to click the buy it now button, ended up with a very nice RBION out of the deal.

Michael

This is definitely a home use only machine if you don't count the 10 to 20 years it was on location.

I'm only the second owner of my Spider-man, of course the first owner was Regal Theaters...

Now I can say, it's HUO (since 4 months ago).

Robert

People who think HUO doesn't mean anything have not owned HUO's. Sure it's possible that one could be misused in a home and played to death, but I'll be damned if that has ever been the case documented on any forum.

Every HUO I have come across, including 2 WPC's and a bunch of sterns, has looked leaps and bounds above even very good condition, shopped, routed machines.