I voted for the HEP, but I think your math may be a little optimistic on how much the HEP is going to cost. You need the donor game, to begin with, and a donor game TZ or IJ is going to be 5k(ish) minimum at current market costs (and the worse the condition is of the donor game the more the restore itself will cost). Then you have two ways of shipping at $500 or so each way. Then you have parts and labor, possibly needing a new playfield and almost assuredly needing a new cabinet.

HEP games are super expensive, the journey is a lot of fun though. Nothing beats watching an old heavily routed beater game turn into a better than NIB game. Chris documenting each of his restores is awesome and he cares about you having a good experience (which is awesome). If you go for HEP plan for the game being a lifetime keeper.

I’m a bit concerned about the Stern node boards over time. The Bally / WMS stuff (and the very reliable SAM system games from Stern) are all repairable. The Spike node boards though I lack some confidence in.

Yep, Stern is making some of the best games of all time right now. Notwithstanding the node board concerns and some of the QC issues, the games themselves that Stern are pumping out are nothing short of epic pinball adventures. When you compare say a BM66 to a MM the differences are readily apparent...Stern has modernized pinball coding (rules, music, light shows, call outs, etc) and it’s come a long way.

This takes nothing away from the amazing games of the 90. They are just as awesome today as they were twenty years ago, but they are confined by their era code wise.

The remakes took a lot of wind out of the sales on the 90’s games as well. The scarcity of decent conditioned 90’s game made them super collectible before the remakes.

Some people still prefer originals to remakes (no doubt), but the current availability of MM, AFM, and MB have without question hurt the collectibility of those titles. Before the remakes if you sold one of those three titles you might not be able to find another one in decent shape and if you did the price might really climb on you so people wanted to hold on to them, not so much an issue now and this has impacted the restoration game market.

It used to be possible to make a bit of a profit on a used restored game. Now though, you’ll take a bit of a financial hit on a nice restoration just like if you open up a modern NIB machine.