(Topic ID: 130288)

----- Creed of the low end pin man --------------

By dasvis

8 years ago


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    There are 562 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 12.
    82
    #1 8 years ago

    Probably been posted before here somewhere, but I came across this gem & it cracked me up.

    -----------------------------------------------------
    The Creed of the Low End Pin Man

    In a time of pinflation and craigslist tomfoolery and game-rooms becoming like cryptlike shrines - there came to be known the ones called Low End Pin men. This is their creed.

    The Low End Pin man craves not to line the walls of his lair with a NIB ACDC BIBLE with latest firmware and foundry cast brass bell mod. Ye Old Medieval Madness and the Clan Addams he avoids, unless the beasts be found on route location or at tourney. Instead the LEP man seeks the true worth of a machine in the form of the Bally Freedom, the GamePlan, the sweaty EM stood on end in a dusty corner. The undeservingly unloved, their rule-sheets short and their #44's dimmed with age and neglect - he cannot resist them.

    The Low End Pin man does not wear white gloves while playing. His pintable vibrates and groans with extended play sessions wearing it down to dust while the Low End wizard laughs maniacally. "It's meant to be Played, not Laid" is his motto, mating call and battle cry all rolled into one.

    He eschews the mirror blade, the gold plated ball, the handpainted plastic toy, the $400 repopped topper, the subwoofer, the LED generally, the fiber optic, the magic fingers massager and the High-Def Color 3D Smell-O-Vision DMD - these fripperies are not for the Low End Pin man.

    The LEP man does not buy what can be borrowed, does not replace what can be repaired, does not repair what can be spit shined, does not spit shine that which is already truly "decent" and "serviceable". He endeavors to make the Low End Pin work with his own hands, via hacked tool, dodgy internet tutorial, paint marker, decoupage, needlepoint, necromancy - whatever it takes. He does not resort to the hired gun for his board work or his coat of clear, except when he finds himself in truly desperate straits.

    The LEP man holds his breath when handling his backglass so that the flakes do not take flight and anoint him like so much multicolored dandruff.

    The LEP man is not an artist. He does not spray that which may be brushed. He does not brush that which may be wiped or smudged. He does not touch that which may be concealed by post or plastic. He has no problem with quality or workmanship, he just knows that you are not supposed to be able to shave in the reflection off the playfield of that Evil Knievel, dude, WTF?

    The low end pin man knows that the truest joy is the short green buy. When he sells the beast on to the Medium pin man, he will realize the cost of his time at $1.50 per hour if he's lucky, but who cares? The memory of the blood and sweat, the project game revived, the ball times long and oh-so-short, the echos of the triple knock shall sustain him until he can dip Low again.

    11
    #2 8 years ago

    I bought a machine from 1950 for $100 last week and have been playing the heck out of it. Does that mean I am a low end pin man? I think not! It just means I have good taste.

    #3 8 years ago
    Quoted from dasvis:

    The Creed of the Low End Pin Man

    Truer words never spoken
    Cheers Tom
    LEP#2
    Go Warriors

    #4 8 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    I bought a machine from 1950 for $100 last week and have been playing the heck out of it. Does that mean I am a low end pin man? I think not! It just means I have good taste.

    Don't sell yourself short....

    #5 8 years ago
    Quoted from dasvis:

    Don't sell yourself short....

    Ok I'll admit it. You may have put it down on paper but I wrote the book on low endness. Even in the EM world.

    #6 8 years ago

    I've got a Top Score that was a $100 Craigslist find a couple years ago; it has a silver dollar-size hole in the wood next to the coin door, splintered and ugly as hell. I mostly drink PBR when I play said game. Is that low end enough?

    #7 8 years ago
    Quoted from Collin:

    I've got a Top Score that was a $100 Craigslist find a couple years ago; it has a silver dollar-size hole in the wood next to the coin door, splintered and ugly as hell. I mostly drink PBR when I play said game. Is that low end enough?

    That counts, you are in.
    Easy fix - just get a hole saw slightly larger & drill the cab out. Then get some scrap plywood that's the same thickness as the cabinet & drill a hole in it. Epoxy the "hole" you cut from the scrap into the cabinet & fill with bondo. Sand, paint, & done. No one will ever know.

    Dasvis
    LEP man

    #8 8 years ago

    I was hoping this was going to be about a custom Creed pin.

    #9 8 years ago

    On the low end, the cheapest game I've ever bought was a Williams Triple Strike I bought non working for $75.00. The playfield was dirty but no planking, very little paint loss. Cab was solid, just needed touching up. Backglass was junk.

    Like so often, the nonworking part of it was frozen steppers. Cleaned it all up, ran like a top. I spent more for a repro glass than I did for the game/PBR parts order.

    When I bought my Royal Guard someone had drilled four dime sized holes in the front panel I'm sure to install a bar across the front door. I took a similarly sized dowel rod and put it in the holes, glued it up, cut off either side, bondo, sanding, and done. Unless you look inside nobody is ever the wiser.

    I once owned a Williams Casino woody that someone had cut a bunch of the wires in the backbox. I paid $200 for it and went through and reattached every single wire and got it going again.

    How's that?

    #10 8 years ago

    Buying a Gottlieb Vulcan for $150 tomorrow morning. Sounds very fixable from what the owner says. We'll see...

    14
    #11 8 years ago
    Quoted from goldenboy232:

    Sounds very fixable from what the owner says.

    Yeah, probably just needs a fuse.....

    #12 8 years ago
    Quoted from goldenboy232:

    Buying a Gottlieb Vulcan for $150 tomorrow morning. Sounds very fixable from what the owner says. We'll see...

    It is a great game, hope you can get it working again.

    #13 8 years ago

    Parts of that dissertation could be directly quoted from me...

    #14 8 years ago

    I must have 2 separate personalities, I could fall into either category

    #15 8 years ago

    I paid $60 for a United Singapore last summer. Do I qualify?

    #16 8 years ago
    Quoted from SteveFury:

    I paid $60 for a United Singapore last summer. Do I qualify?

    Yes Steve, you are in. Congrats.

    #17 8 years ago

    Cheapest game I ever bought was my Williams Reserve for $80 bucks.Ive had 4 pins given to me for nothing.Space Mission,Gusher,Roto Pool and Triplets.

    Ted

    #18 8 years ago

    'Cause I've got friends in low places
    Where the whiskey drowns
    And the beer chases my blues away
    And I'll be okay
    I'm not big on social graces
    Think I'll slip on down to the oasis
    Oh, I've got friends in low places

    #19 8 years ago

    Kinda sounds like the credo of a
    CARGPB member

    #20 8 years ago

    I've never paid more than $600 for a machine (including a JM).
    My average price over 17 games is $375.
    Two Freebies: Playboy (now helping keep the other Ballys going) and Blackjack (Thanks to fellow Pinsider Will - still one of my fave machines).
    Just picked up a sweeeet Buccaneer for $300.

    I am also a great believer in the EM owners' motto: Better is the enemy of good.

    Am I in?

    #21 8 years ago
    Quoted from fireball2:

    I've never paid more than $600 for a machine (including a JM).
    My average price over 17 games is $375.
    Two Freebies: Playboy (now helping keep the other Ballys going) and Blackjack (Thanks to fellow Pinsider Will - still one of my fave machines).
    Just picked up a sweeeet Buccaneer for $300.
    I am also a great believer in the EM owners' motto: Better is the enemy of good.
    Am I in?

    Well, your average price a little high, but I like your attitude. In.

    #22 8 years ago

    First pin I bought was a year ago non working, dirty $50 Jive Time with no lockdown bar and plexiglass for playfield "glass". Got that running sold it. Second pin, $300 Space Shuttle partially working with a trashed playfield...now 100% not pretty but a good player. Third pin was a partially working EM Night Rider for $200, again now a good player. Love the A list games, but I might like a paying $350 for a dirty, worn but serviceable Eight Ball Deluxe even more. Looking for pin #4 but not on sterns website....

    #23 8 years ago
    Quoted from smailskid:

    First pin I bought was a year ago non working, dirty $50 Jive Time with no lockdown bar and plexiglass for playfield "glass". Got that running sold it. Second pin, $300 Space Shuttle partially working with a trashed playfield...now 100% not pretty but a good player. Third pin was a partially working EM Night Rider for $200, again now a good player. Love the A list games, but I might like a paying $350 for a dirty, worn but serviceable Eight Ball Deluxe even more. Looking for pin #4 but not on sterns website....

    That qualifies, you are officially a LEP man.

    Yeah, 8-ball Deluxe is my grail.
    I passed on a very restorable $800 EBD last year, gave the buy it to a buddy as I had no funds.
    (that & as an avid LEP man it was against my principals)

    #24 8 years ago

    I'm a wanna-be "keep on trucking" LEP man waiting for my first local LEP buy... (I did buy my first pin for $30 many years ago)

    #25 8 years ago

    Here I thought this was going to be a thread saying someone in Creed is a pin fan. I know for a fact they are not, and Scott S. is just a dick in general. He wishes he had a cool hobby of some sort.

    #26 8 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    Here I thought this was going to be a thread saying someone in Creed is a pin fan. I know for a fact they are not, and Scott S. is just a dick in general. He wishes he had a cool hobby of some sort.

    Well, not everyone can be as cool as we are....

    #27 8 years ago
    Quoted from PinballFever:

    I'm a wanna-be "keep on trucking" LEP man waiting for my first local LEP buy... (I did buy my first pin for $30 many years ago)

    Just remembered that I bought non working Gottlieb foto finish and JITB for $100 each. The foto finish I went through, got working and sold. The JITB I'm currently working on. Does that for LEP man status?

    #28 8 years ago
    Quoted from PinballFever:

    Just remembered that I bought non working Gottlieb foto finish and JITB for $100 each. The foto finish I went through, got working and sold. The JITB I'm currently working on. Does that for LEP man status?

    Hell yes. In

    #29 8 years ago

    GILLIAN'S ISLAND
    LEP special, for those who don't know, don't need to know.

    #30 8 years ago
    Quoted from oldskool1969:

    GILLIAN'S ISLAND
    LEP special, for those who don't know, don't need to know.

    Well, Jubilee & Darling are the standards for EM LEP pins.

    #31 8 years ago
    Quoted from dasvis:

    Well, Jubilee & Darling are the standards for EM LEP pins.

    Where did it say EM pins in the title Dude?

    #32 8 years ago

    I think I spend too much to truly be a low end pin man. But give me a tired, unloved, broken pin from the barn and I am a happy man

    #33 8 years ago
    Quoted from oldskool1969:

    Where did it say EM pins in the title Dude?

    Perhaps it was the forum itself that threw him.

    #34 8 years ago

    first purchase? $250 planked, mouse pooped, house painted cab, dolly parton. second purchase? too stubborn to let it go, special force that I was about to give up on, and had to ask someone else with the same game who had to bring his PF over to find what was wrong with it. 3rd purchase? gottlieb strikes and spares that the last owner was willing to lose 1k on (he paid 1200) almost done with that one. (stupid u8gal chip) last purchase? didnt "purchase" it, was told to go get a hyperball out of his house..BG is a window, cab water damaged, hypercannon rusted in place, but you know..its 100 %Z all there..and the auger may function, it spins freely. it could happen

    #35 8 years ago
    Quoted from Meatneck:

    first purchase? $250 planked, mouse pooped, house painted cab, dolly parton. second purchase? too stubborn to let it go, Special Force that I was about to give up on, and had to ask someone else with the same game who had to bring his PF over to find what was wrong with it. 3rd purchase? gottlieb strikes and spares that the last owner was willing to lose 1k on (he paid 1200) almost done with that one. (stupid u8gal chip) last purchase? didnt "purchase" it, was told to go get a hyperball out of his house..BG is a window, cab water damaged, hypercannon rusted in place, but you know..its 100 %Z all there..and the auger may function, it spins freely. it could happen

    Nice -- Mouse pooped games earn bonus points to the LEP man as you can normally pick them up for the short green.
    In for sure.

    #36 8 years ago
    Quoted from dasvis:

    Well, Jubilee & Darling are the standards for EM LEP pins.

    Are we talking low end cost, or low end play? Because while these are not especially high end play, they seemingly come up for sale a lot for prices that are not particularly low end.

    #37 8 years ago
    Quoted from EMsInKC:

    Are we talking low end cost, or low end play?

    To me any pin that can be obtained
    and then playing
    (as long as it is fun)
    for <$300 is a bargain.

    And it is fun
    as long as it has got
    that almost made it,
    then having to drop another quarter
    for another game.
    And as always
    It is more fun to compete.

    #38 8 years ago

    Let's see...the most i've ever paid for a pin was $1400. The least was $60. Most were projects....like my recent $150 "battleship grey" and taking on water Miss O.

    The best...the $800 Twilight Zone years ago.

    Do I count?

    #39 8 years ago

    I didn't spend over $450 for either of my machines. One of them is Bally Freedom.
    Do I qualify for LEP status?

    #40 8 years ago

    There were lots of low end priced games at the auction yesterday.

    #41 8 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    There were lots of low end priced games at the auction yesterday.

    What were they going for?

    #42 8 years ago

    Best thread on here in some time.

    #43 8 years ago
    Quoted from electricsquirrel:

    What were they going for?

    It looks like the list is still up. There were lots of machines. If you hit the watch only button you can see them.

    http://www3.inetauction.net/2/G/bidder/index.htm?ws=yes

    #44 8 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    It looks like the list is still up. There were lots of machines. If you hit the watch only button you can see them.
    http://www3.inetauction.net/2/G/bidder/index.htm?ws=yes

    Thank you.

    #45 8 years ago
    Quoted from electricsquirrel:

    What were they going for?

    There were more than a few
    that went for a $250 hammer price + fees/taxes.

    #46 8 years ago

    Not a pinball machine, but I thought this was pretty cool. $875 is what it went for.

    SkyGunner.jpgSkyGunner.jpg

    #47 8 years ago

    I bought a $40 coctail night moves. I braved 45 miles into hillbilly country, spent 30 minutes talking to toothless joe outside his trailer in knee deep weeds at dusk, alternately swatting sweat gnats and mosquitos waiting for his neice to get home with the keys to the shed that housed the game. The game advertised as good condition was a shell of its former self....literally, as the cabinet was rotted away and now held together by 13 rolls of duct tape..not an inch of exposed wood. After wiping off the layer of country road dirt I could see the pf was nicely patinaed. And had all the parts including all the loose ones scattered amongst the rotted rubbers. Never one to shirk from a challenge I declined paying her asking price of $300 took out two twenties and was on my way. The playfield hangs in my garage to this day while the gottlieb board set saved another game.

    #48 8 years ago
    Quoted from robertmee:

    I bought a $40 coctail Night Moves. I braved 45 miles into hillbilly country, spent 30 minutes talking to toothless joe outside his trailer in knee deep weeds at dusk, alternately swatting sweat gnats and mosquitos waiting for his neice to get home with the keys to the shed that housed the game. The game advertised as good condition was a shell of its former self....literally, as the cabinet was rotted away and now held together by 13 rolls of duct tape..not an inch of exposed wood. After wiping off the layer of country road dirt I could see the pf was nicely patinaed. And had all the parts including all the loose ones scattered amongst the rotted rubbers. Never one to shirk from a challenge I declined paying her asking price of $300 took out two twenties and was on my way. The playfield hangs in my garage to this day while the gottlieb board set saved another game.

    I still think you overpaid.

    #49 8 years ago
    Quoted from vid1900:

    Yeah, probably just needs a fuse.....

    Was working when it went into storage.

    #50 8 years ago
    Quoted from robertmee:

    I braved 45 miles into hillbilly country, spent 30 minutes talking to toothless joe outside his trailer in knee deep weeds at dusk, alternately swatting sweat gnats and mosquitos waiting for his neice to get home with the keys to the shed that housed the game. The game advertised as good condition was a shell of its former self....literally, as the cabinet was rotted away and now held together by 13 rolls of duct tape..not an inch of exposed wood. After wiping off the layer of country road dirt I could see the pf was nicely patinaed. And had all the parts including all the loose ones scattered amongst the rotted rubbers. Never one to shirk from a challenge I declined paying her asking price of $300 took out two twenties and was on my way. The playfield hangs in my garage to this day while the gottlieb board set saved another game.

    Worth the $40 just for the story to tell.

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