Here are a few of my cheap deals. A lot of these were pretty nice games. A few were real beaters.

High Speed $50 (fair)
Gottlieb Texan Sample $50 (rough)
Williams Lucky Strike $50 (rough)
Genco Mandalay $75 (fair)
Segasa Monaco $75 (very nice)
Williams Super Star $75 (rough)
Gottlieb Pin-Up $125 (fair)
Gottlieb Sinbad $125 (fair)
Bally Dixieland $140 (fair)
Gottleib Globetrotter $140 (cleaned up nice)
Stern Stampede $150 (cleaned up nice)
Gottlieb Lucky Hand $200 (very nice)
Gottlieb Gold Strike $200 (fair)

About 11 years. Here's the breakdown of where they came from. A lot of great deals come down to being in the right place at the right time.

High Speed $50 (fair) - word of mouth
Gottlieb Texan Sample $50 (rough) - Pinside Market
Williams Lucky Strike $50 (rough) - Pinside Market
Genco Mandalay $75 (fair) - Ebay
Segasa Monaco $75 (very nice) - Newspaper ad
Williams Super Star $75 (rough) - Place a wanted ad on Craiglist
Gottlieb Pin-Up $125 (fair) - Craigslist
Gottlieb Sinbad $125 (fair) - Craigslist
Bally Dixieland $140 (fair) - Flea Market
Gottleib Globetrotter $140 (cleaned up nice) - Craigslist
Stern Stampede $150 (cleaned up nice) - Ebay
Gottlieb Lucky Hand $200 (very nice) - word of mouth
Gottlieb Gold Strike $200 (fair) - word of mouth

What's the cool looking motorcycle in the background?

How low can a LEP man go? I have this Grand Prix for sale. It's mechanically complete and trys to start a game. That's the good news. The play field paint is bubbled and lifting and the back glass is poor. Still it could be resurrected or re-themed. Would consider parting it out as well.

janesville.craigslist.org link

I was sitting in the living room when I read this and chuckled out loud. My wife asked me what I was laughing at. Just for fun I told her my girlfriend said something funny. But then of course I had to explain the whole LEP thing. She seemed to get it. I'm sure I'm not the last of the Wisconsin LEP members. I've sold a few machines that could qualify over the years. We're a pretty frugal and resourceful bunch generally.

Yeah, there are three of those hard to find mini-steppers in this thing. Tons of relays, steppers etc. But it's always nice if a machine can remain intact. I have a couple nibbles on this now and am hoping it will be gone by the weekend.

There was a pretty nice looking Aladdin's Castle at Chicagoland for $400 this fall. This is a bargain in my area these days.

I bought this fugly Big Strike for $300 back in July...because I've always wanted a Big Strike. At some point someone painted the cab red and then put adhesive backed brown burlap over the top. Peeling the burlap back pulled up the red and the original paint. I was so disgusted in how gross it looked I didn't touch it again until last week. It's going to need a repaint in the Spring when I can get outside, and I'm not a huge fan of repaints.

Anyway I've started in on tearing it apart to clean everything up. It's always hard for me to get going but usually get more motivated as I go. This one will probably make or break my continued love for the silver ball.

FuglyBigStrike (resized).jpg

It was good but I liked it better before. I heard Pheasant Run was remodeling the ballroom for weddings etc. Apparently that room was no longer an option for the coin-op show. So the choice was a new location or half the space. Still fun but it was dark and less inviting in the new location. They were real hard nose about letting you into the parking lot area now as well.

Yep I remember you could walk the parking lot for free before. If you wanted to park in that lot or go inside you had to pay the $50. This time I was delivering a game on Saturday and they almost didn't let me in without a wrist band.

The uspide is there is a ton of space. Apparently more vendors than before. And the food court was an upgrade. It's lost a lot of of it's charm though. Oh well everything changes.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I've done it before with some marginal success. Oh well, anything will be better than how it looks now. In the meantime I'm just going to get it playing.

I'm not always a LEP man but there is a certain satisfaction in being one. It's always great finding a deal. And a lot of times a cheap project offers just as much fun as a regular pin. The other thing though is sometimes you feel an obligation to save some of them.

Still need to do a few things on this one. It's never going to be "show quality" but I finally got my free Lucky Ace cleaned up and playing good. Fast and fun game.

LuckyAce (resized).jpg

LuckyAce2 (resized).jpg

I'm not sure either would qualify for LEP membership unless they were from a flood.

Looks great. Not sure if this cap is correct? Can't read them on the IPDB. Not cheap either but maybe it's an option?

Screenshot 2023-09-20 at 2.17.40 PM (resized).png

That turned out great.