It is his first pin guys, having him buy a game that has issues IS A BAD IDEA.
The display glass is available from pinball life cheap (for a small display), but you still have to desolder 128+16 pins and then solder the new one in without damaging any traces. It is not a job for the faint of heart and you very well could screw it up.
That would be helpful to someone knowing what they were doing if that were the problem. That display isn't outgassing. The board it is connected to has problems which isn't uncommon for small dmds.
The game runs 900 tops and working ones in the chicago area will sit for 700-800 on cl for weeks. It is a neat game, but like all early DE dmd's (TMNT, Hook, ST25, Batman) it is stupidly simple. It would be nice in a larger lineup but as a first pin he will likely get board quickly.
Also, if anything goes wrong with it and he has to pay for a repair he will quickly end up with alot more money in it than it is worth. I would suggest avoding it unless it was cheap (as in the 500 dollar range cheap) until you know how to repair a machine. Once you work your way up and are comfortable fixing things and have a few other machines it could make for a nice change of pace.