WHAT MACHINE STARTED YOUR LOVE AFFAIR WITH PINBALL?

So I was going to respond to a forum post on this particular subject, but I felt that it would be better to respond to the question here...

Here it goes:

I had never even had an interest in pinball before this particular day at work. I was parusing the local classified ads online when I saw an ad from a guy selling a Big Guns pinball machine in Saint George, UT(30 min south of my location, Cedar City, UT) for $200. I sat back for a minute and thought that a real, full sized pinball machine has to go for more than that price, so I was interested. At this time I didn't know if I just wanted to flip the machine, or keep it for investment purpases so I made some phonecalls.

I called the guy who put the ad up and he stated that he was selling the machine for his parents. He said everthing worked fine the last time the machine was powered up(years ago), but there was a pop up where the ball drained that wasn't working correctly. He told me that somebody had already offered him $250 for the machine, but he couldn't come and get it for a day or so. I offedered $275 and said that I whould come and take a look at it after I got off work at 6:00pm. He said that would be fine and I was excited.

For the next few hours I researched the hell out of pinball machines and how to fix them. I even called a pinball repaire guy in Vegas and asked his opinion. He said that you will probably end up spending about as much as youre initial purchase price to get the thing running correctly(great advice BTW).

Later on that day I check the ad out agin online and the price was now $400. I'm was kinda bummed because I knew what was happening. I called the guy(kid, maybe 20-22 y/o) up again and he apologized for raising the price, but somebody said they would buy the pin for $400 and that they would be there that night to pick it up. He then said that he could sell it to me for more, but $425 seemed too rich for my blood not knowing much about pinball machines.

Long story short, I ended up passing, but somehow I caught the bug. A week later I was talking to a guy who lived 3 hrs away in SLC that had a Baywatch that he was willing to trade for a pistol that I owned. Kinda funny how one week I was not willing to pay $425, but the next week I was willing to trade a $850+ gun for one.

Well that's how I got hooked.