Try and sell it where it is.

By the time you travel to get it, pay someone to do the playfield. And you'll likely need help with the electronics. You'll lose way more than you could ever sell it for.

Rare doesn't always mean valuable.

LTG : )

Where is the game located?

John

God I love defender, fun pin. If I came across it for a great price I’d fix it electronically and get it playing good. But just keep it at that, maybe worry about the playfield down the road. It’s probably not as gone as my current skateball lol.

Gotta disagree with you there, in this case it absolutely does. Defender goes for Fathom kinda money, at least, and it's much harder to come by. Even if OP did a ground-up resto I think the worst he would do is break even.

Defenders have fetched upwards of 10k for nice ones. RIP your inbox!

If the playfield is in great shape and cabinet is nice too, fully working you’re looking at about 6k imo.
If the pf has wear and cabinet had some damage and non working your looking 3k ish. Of course this is rough guess.

Personally, I find this story a little fishy....Pinside often has new pop up accounts and trolling individuals.

Subjectivity aside, if this is all true, congrats on taking ownership of a rare title.
You will have many interested buyers, and certainly a bidding war on your hands. Let the new owners handle the restoration.

Post the pics you have and watch the offers roll in.

It can be addicting. If you can tackle most of the work yourself, go for it !

LTG : )

We have one individual in our community who often does things like this (Scam/troll)

A picture is worth a thousand words, you have provided as such. Congrats on a very sought after title!

Looking forward to seeing this story unfold.

Jim

Clean it up and put it up for a best offer with an outrageous price. This is unfortunately how things work around here. This is the only was to establish "market" value, or to sift through and find that person(s) who want this in their collection bad enough. It is a rare and valuable title.

Ohh pics. Yeah scams have been on the rise and with a new account can’t blame anyone for being suspicious. I’ve sold a few games and have never had to meet at police station just fyi. Seems unnecessary and problematic of turning the game on and testing it for the new buyer.

PF looks okay. I see some wear but not a lot. If you have the electric skills and aren’t in a hurry to liquidate assets try and get it running and cleaned.

It’s common for a game that age… Without have touch up skills yourself, you’d spend more time and money than you’d recoup.

And once you have possession of it?

John

Except that this title hasn't gone for less than 8k for at least two years now, as long as it hasn't been through a flood this game is very valuable.

Leave it like it is, we'll you might want to clean the glass.....LOL. With this sorta title it doesn't matter if the game is working or not, it will still bring the big money. The playfield has a little wear that we can see but again it's not going to hurt the value really, because of what it is. Whatever you do don't try to touch it up, just leave things alone and sell it like it is if it's not anything you want to keep for yourself. The rarity is what is going to sell the game, the cosmetics and electronics can be fixed by the new owner and you'll save yourself a lot of time and grief by just passing it along like it is. Trust me.

John

The last three I've heard of went for 8-10k within the last two years and I don't think that any of them were restored being getting them playable.

I would not restore it.
Get it working and clean it up (yes), restore it (no).
Looks to be a nice survivor and it’s only original once.

If you don’t get the keys then be careful drilling out the locks. Don’t do something stupid like going at it with a crowbar. That playfield doesn’t look bad, and most collectors won’t want the paint touched up. Get a rubber ring kit for it, wipe it down fix the electronics and call it a day

I think John meant, where is home?

This is correct. It should really just be carefully cleaned up and repaired. Nice survivor condition means something especially for this game.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll make out fine on this deal.

Pinside will be a good place for you to sell when you're ready. I agree that you're probably better off not doing much to it.

IMO, it's one thing to have this approach, but it's another to be this overt here in this community where you are trying to get help. You never know who's reading. For example, I'm in Vermont. I know a lot of pinball techs here, at least relative to how many there are in this state.

Not questioning your ability to fix things, but why go through the trouble if your just going to sell it?
Having never worked on a pinball machine before you’re starting from scratch and will likely be spending may hours trouble shooting, ordering parts, researching online, posting in forum threads etc. etc.
I’m not sure you’re going to get that much more for it working then you will for it as is now in a sort of “barn find fresh” sort of state. You also risk fucking something up once you start working on it and decreasing the value.

Whatever you do, do not try to touch up or repaint anything. If not done professionally, these repainted areas will most likely look bad and will probably detract from the value of your machine. It’s best to either leave the paint job as is or get a professional restorer to do it (which may take a while. Mechanical and electrical repairs can be done with a learning curve and can be a fun/satisfying process.

Drool.

In order to restore a playfield properly, you have to remove every single component. It's a daunting task for me still and I've done it many times.

And that's just the start. In order to restore a machine properly, you'll likely need carpentry skills, will have to refinish metal (often re-plating or powdercoating), be able to diagnose and solder many components, do some paint matching in the cabinet and clean many parts in various ways (tumbling, ultrasonic, hand cleaning).

You'll also be searching for some parts that are very hard if not impossible to find.

For those of us that can restore a game, it's a rewarding experience - but just be aware that it requires 40-80 hours of work and $3-5k in parts. If that sounds like fun - go for it! There's lots of great advice and how-to's here on Pinside.

If that doesn't sound like fun - list it for $6k and don't lift a finger. The buyer will happily pick it up at your house.

Not that I am even close to being in the running for this machine but if I was I’d be cringing at every single mention of repair and restoration being mentioned by the OP. Even using the wrong cleaners will cause unnecessary damage that WILL cause a loss in value.

It’s one thing to take an honest interest in pinball restoration but to just conquer something because it’s there should be saved for a hike in the Green Mountains.

Do everyone a favor and just sell it for good money and no effort. Everybody wins…

Defender is not a good place to practice your first repairs just because you inherited this machine.
Most likely the batteries have leaked and destroyed the boards, and the glass is so dirty it makes me wonder if perhaps there’s a mouse nest or something.

As it sits, you’d get a very fair price soliciting offers in its current condition, and you could buy some decent machines if you’d like to get into pinball.

Defender is awesome and very fun, but as stated, only a very select few people should even be considered to restore this. A large amount of those “pinball restoration” companies are ran by clowns and jackasses who do horrible work and hack machines for a quick buck.

You’ll probably get offers north of several grand. Take them, buy a cool machine to learn on.

Saddening that someone had to pass away for this to become a conversation piece.

Definitely excited for you, and VERY jealous. What a "barn find"! That game will restore nicely in the right hands.
Lots of updates please,

Jim

Probably have to drill it. It's easy.

No.

Not to mention during it's life it may have had the lock replaced.

LTG : )

Do you have experience with drilling locks? Just the centre, not too much don’t damage the cabinet a new lock will be just a couple bucks.

As someone who buys and sells games somewhat regularly I'd strongly recommend against doing anything to the game if you're going to sell it.
Anyone seriously interested in your game won't care about whether it works or not or any existing damage to original paint.
It's really easy to screw up restoring a game like this and lose $1000+.
This is like a barn find car with original paint; if you're going to sell it just leave it alone.

It’s working state and even condition are really not that important. The right money will come
along easily and quickly on this if you just sell
it as-is. If you attempt to work on it (or even move it your self) more harm than good is almost a certainty based on your statements thus far.

The head has to be removed to transport it, otherwise it’ll probably get ripped right off and destroy the machine.
Legs come off as well.

Do you have any local Pinheads who can give you a hand? Have you watched videos on how to breakdown a pin for proper transport?

I would remove it, and IMO a sleeve isn't necessary, but be super careful with it. Don't let anything touch the back side. Early solid state games, especially Williams, had foam insulators and sometimes even wires around the displays that pressed up against the rear of the backglass, so there's a very real chance that the vibrations during transport could cause rubbing that would wear artwork off the rear of the backglass if you kept it in the head. Been there twice. If this were my rare game and it was a couple dozen miles away or less, I'd make a separate trip just for the backglass if necessary.

Another lock to drill. Good thing it’s easy. Your not looking to drill thru. Go slow the metal is soft. What your hoping for is to create a space that the tumbler pins can pop out and release and tumbler can turn. Sometimes it will turn while your drilling. Just center the bit and go slow. I think I’ve used a bit sized around 5/16” with good success. Can always go larger after. If done right there should not even be any shavings inside the machine. Just don’t go screwing that gem of a game up. We will never let you live it down…. Lol

And if your laying head down secure with strap not too tight. Don’t let the head be able to slide along side rails it will put strain on wiring harness. Secure it from moving somehow.