Chalk up another vote for disliking Marco's site more since the change. I personally don't think plife's is great either, but it at least hasn't gone downhill.

"You can never order LEDs from marco...they are just horrible prices with those."

Why would you with Cointaker giving you a 10% pinsider discount? I'm kind of disappointed that Marco's pinsider discount was only temporary. It was only 5% and since their markup is obviously very high anyway was it really hurting them?

Believe me I wouldn't. But that's what the original post stated. Every once in awhile I'll be making a Marco order and think of just throwing one LED I need in the basket, ouch...no thanks.

I talked with Terry at the Midwest Gaming Classic as I was buying 5 of the adjusters because I have the same problem with them breaking. He's looking into having someone make them out of stainless.

Bryan (CARGPB 14)
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/bspins

Andrew ( from Marco ) saw this Thread and was some what disappointed . He just called me and said Starting NOW !! For 48 hr's to make up for any Bad vibes , he is offering Pinside Member's Only ( so in the comment box, type in Yr Stage name ) 40% off on ALL Supplies.. Log-n to Marco , Make yr Order , Do the credit card info, hit apply and in the Coupon Box type in Cap's " APRIL FOOLS "

I've ordered from Pinballlife and Marco, I like them both.

I'm willing to pay more for shipping if it's something I want, and I need it very fast.
Marco's is located in SC, so me being in NC I'm gonna get it pretty quick, even with something
shipped ground.

Last week I ordered a flipper rebuild kit from Marco's, but almost didn't. Their website showed
it was on backorder. So I called and talked to a super nice person, found out they were waiting on sleeves. So I asked if they could ship the kit without them and they said sure. The rep went to their warehouse, got all the parts together and priced out the parts individually and saved me some money. I already had sleeves from new coils I recently ordered, so I didn't need another set from Marco's. The kit arrived, and everything was perfect. Showing on backorder on their website almost kept me from ordering, so I'm glad I made the call.

I don't like to play the "this one VS. that one"game when it comes to vendors. The vendor would have to really suck, and screw up things for me not to use them anymore.

If any vendor has a part I want, and need, and they are charging a reasonable price for the item, I'll purchase from them. I always try and stick with companies that I've used before. Both Pinballlife and Marco's have a proven track record of excellence with me.

If I have to pay more for an item that one vendor has, and nobody else does I'll do that. It has to be something that I really either want or need to stray from vendors that I regularly use. Even when I've done this I've not been burned.

All the vendors listed on pinside are established and have a proven track record, which is where
I normally start when looking for parts.

The pinball resource is always an option too... Super cheap, huge inventory but requires more work on buyers end to pay and find the parts as you have to order via phone or email.

pbl for me

Exact same thing for me! First leaf switch I adjusted and the damn thing broke.

LMAO!!!!

I also had placed an order with MAD (had some parts others had out of stock) last week and had no problems.

Classic! And you suck B_R! Had me going there for a bit

We used to order a ton from Marco, Now recently we have switched over to Pinball Life... Avg Savings is about 20% and when you use as many parts as we do... It adds up

I needed a specific coil, specific outlane post, ordered from marco (PL didn't have them). Shipping now has an option of USPS ($5) instead of the $9 UPS rape. I ordered parts this past sunday night, shipping said it will be here by friday, I was shocked to see my parts here already today (2 days early). I think Marco has stepped up a bit.

I Had too !! Marco is Good People !! Their Ship-n is a Flat Rate no matter what you Buy !!

I agree. In some cases Marcos prices are twice as much.

At the Texas Pinball Festival, Marcos was selling current model Stern flyers for $5 each. That just seems wrong.

And Marcos new web site is even harder to navigate, especially if you want to browse game-specific parts, you have to wade through pages of common stuff.

Wow... And here I am giving them Away... What was I thinking! Aww hell FREE FLIERS FOR EVERYONE!

I've placed orders on several occasions with Marco and Pinballlife and been extremely pleased with both. It really is hard to be totally devoted to one retailer over another in this hobby.

I look to pinballlife first since most parts are wear parts. Then I go BAA mostly because Ricks shipping is better, then I go Marco to get the game parts I can't find anywhere else. If those 3 don't work for me (like system 6 stuff) i have great luck at PBR, MAD, and LSG which I really like also.

We are lucky to have the options we have now. I am not even talking about playfields and sideart that didn't exist when I got into this hobby.

Anyone have BR2 from a DMD board?

Kenny

I like Marco Specialties, but I'm gonna have to give my overall vote to Pinball Life.

I ordered some coils to rebuild my flippers a while back. One of them was defective, so I emailed them and told them what happened.

I immediately got an email back saying they'd overnight a new one to me. A day later, I recieved a new coil free of charge.

AWESOME cutomer service.

Marco would've did the same,, You Must've called them Real Early !! Carrier Pigeon huh !!

Marco has the best customer service and best selection around. They get most of my orders, unless they don't carry a part.

I wish PBL would carry a more diverse stock. Seems like I am always ordering from 3 different places. Anyone know if they plan to carry more stuff in the future or is the plan just to stock the essentials for the cheapest price?

I prefer PBL since they are so close to me I usually get stuff in 2 days. This helps because I am still a noob and often order the wrong part 9just ordered the wrong flipper bushings for my RCT and now I am just sitting here waiting for the correct ones to come in so I can finish putting it all back together.

I went to PL in person because I wanted 10 sheets of glass. I ended up getting over $1000 in parts and was standing there with cash in hand ready to pay. Terry gave me a discount on top of the already good prices. He could have just taken the full amount and I would have still walked away happy. He has my business. I have also ordered with others and had no problems.

+1

Terry told me he has no plans on carrying game specific stuff. There are enough guys selling this stuff already.

Bryan (CARGPB 14)
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/bspins

I'm after the DMC (Back to the Future) decals.. Marco have sold out.

Pinball Life Costumer Service is Excellent! Both are great but There's something about Pinball Life

PBL does have a few game specific parts (or maybe you might want to call them mods) I purchased his LOTR one eye flasher and was very impressed with the kit. I just got his RBION shrunken head flasher mod for the backbox and I really like it and how it reacts during the game

Link?

Actually, Terry does not even have them up on his website. He told me about his kit at the MGC show. I had to call him at his store to have him set up a customer account on his website to buy a couple of them. The kit comes with 2 LED flashers and the white flashers work really well lighting on the head.

For Canadian customers shipping is always high no matter who you use, but Marco's switch to partner with iGlobal for their international shipping has made them the last option to use for me. The prices iGlobal charges are not any lower than what Marco used to charge before, and if you use their "guaranteed duties/taxes" shipping options you end up being gouged. For example back in January I ordered about $125 of stuff (8lb shipping), and my lowest cost "non guaranteed" shipping option was $40.08. If I chose the Canada post option it was $34.00 for shipping, which is mostly in line with what any shipping company would charge but I would've been forced to pay another $40.00 for the "guaranteed taxes and duties", for a total of $74 dollars to ship $125 of stuff. Insane.

I chose the no guarantee option and took my chances, and as expected there were no extra taxes or duties charged on the shipment. I complained to Marco, and after a couple of emails with them trying to convince me I really was saving money with iGlobal, they stopped responding to me.

So, moral of the story:

If you are in Canada, and must purchase something from Marco, prepare to be gouged. On a positive note, before they switched their shipping policies I had nothing but good experiences with them when I had issues with orders, and the shipping was prompt. If they dumped iGlobal for Canadian customers and went back to their old shipping charges and policies I would most likely use them again.

I agree, Marco's choice to use iGlobal to process Canadian orders places them firmly at the bottom of the list of vendors to buy from.

I'll order from two separate vendors to get what I need before I give Marco the business. Mostly because of the gouging they permit.

... How hard is it to have some decency and put NSFW? This really irked me.

Ask Robin to add a pansy filter.

BTW...get back to work and stop surfing the internet.

I hate to be contrary but I love the new Marco site. You can type in the name of the game in the search box and you get everything for that game... on the left side are categories to filter the parts list, and you can sort by price. That's a fantastic feature.. I can't tell you how much time I've spent tediously cross referencing part numbers or specs in manuals to find the exact matching hardware... Marco has it right there. I noticed you can also enter your games in your profile, which can have big advantages if integrated properly in the web site (but I don't know what it does).

However I do order from PBL when they have the item I want... they're just flat out cheaper across the board... I find many items at Marco with a full 50% markup above PBL prices... that's a lot of cash folks. At most there is a 1 day difference between shipping, but I've found them both to be fast. I order from both.

Pinball life 4 Life! but if Marco has some hard to find part I need, I will bite the bullet and pay there amazing shipping costs : P

I hate to think of all the money I've blown on shipping charges, just cause there is no one stop shopping for pins. Usually when I need parts I end up buying from pinballlife, Macro, BAA MAD, cointaker, and others all on the same day just going through my list of crap needed. Even though Macro prices are nuts I usually start there just cause the inventory selection is bigger and I have more chance of finding everything I need at one spot there, though I pretty much get all my LED's from cointaker (Supers and Retros rock), Pinballlife's Ablaze LED's are great too and nicely priced, but the cointaker warm Retros can't be beat for GI's IMHO

Ha!

Agree...

...and Bay Area and PBResource as well of course. Whoever's got what I need.

I don't mind paying a bit more for some things from Marco.
Never had a problem with them. It's well known that PBL is cheaper.
But I use Marco's site for parts cross reference whether I'm buying
the part from them or not. And their logo is cooler.