Great condition? seriously? Game is worth 3500.

Can't tell if serious......

Based on what? That dingy bit of wear on the SOL, or your personal opinion of the gameplay? The tax sticker? The plugged lockbar holes?

Sorry, I don't get it.

It is NOT a 7k pin in this condition - not even close. This thing is worth at absolute most maybe $5500.

Faded cabinet and a SOL hole about the size of the Grand Canyon are good places to start.

F'ing crazy.

There ya go. $6850 on Ebay where the highest craziest prices are determined.

Welcome to the new ceiling. Ouch I just bumped my head...

Wow!

eyes.gif

Wow: that was indeed a pile (comparitively speaking, with regards to required resto dollars)--that went for a pile of cash.

Most of the games he sells are games that are in bad shape. To him they are perfect.

I spoke with the seller about this and Champion Pub. He didn't seem to have any concept of what a good condition machine is. To me, the AFM looked like a complete POS. I think the buyer is going to be one sorry S.O.B. If the game looks bad in pictures, it's awful in person. I find that whatever they look like in pictures, knock it down a couple of levels from there and that's what it will look like in person.

Thank god I live by the dopest pinball arcade EVAR (except PHOF of course)!

Saves me $6850 according to eBay.

I would like to see a few more sales of AFM on ebay and see if that price is sustainable. The AFM's listed here had not had much action recently it has seemed.

Damm I need to put my AFM on eBay.....lol

Damm I need to put my AFM on eBay.....lol

I just put mine on Mr. Pin for 11.5K.

AFMPFS_003.jpg AFMPFS_005.jpg

Mine is officially on the market for 12k. HEP cleared playfield(Mirco but with fixed artwork) with excellent original cab(coindoor decal was used to cover original bolt holes). Just drop by with cash and she can be yours.

But is it signed by Doug Watson?

It's very disheartening to see an AFM in that kind of condition sell for so much. I just don't get it. I suppose it could be shill bidding.

No, the apron is mint.

Where should it have been priced, 5 to 5.5K ?

LOL! Touche!

This is insanity. Why the hell don't I just sell all my pins on eBay where, apparently, people are willing to pay very high prices for crap? Or does the pin have to be crap to get the crazy prices on eBay?

Dude, I thought you said you'd never sell this!?

Perhaps it is shill bidding?

I'n all seriousness..... I am 31 years old and as a "NOOB" who is looking for his first Pin, I am very saddened to see this. I'm a small business owner who is doing good during this economy and considering so many others situations I truly feel blessed and beyond fortunate. I recently have become "addicted" and "hyper active excited" about what I consider to be a new passion of mine. I can afford to spend around 5-7K total for a beginners pin collection this year as long as I don't feel I'm being bent over for a Pin. I also have a previous deep sea fishing addiction and that takes up much of my expendable income. Seeing pins in poor condition like this AFM (which I admit is an amazingly fun pin but I have only played it a little) has me thinking hard about where this hobby is going. In all honesty, I truly had many more advantages than deserved. I had had help from my parents along the way through college with tuition and room and board paid in full throughout. I know how hard it is to earn a living and if the premium pins in poor condition are commanding these prices, is it wrong of me to hope the bottom drops out for the "PREMIUM" pin market? I can afford to spend money but if the top pins that are 15+ years old are actually selling (in poor condition) for the price of a NIB Stern or JJP, maybe I'll never be able to rationalize affording one. Too bad for me I suppose. I'll figure out a way to bottom the market out and get back to everybody. Ha Ha. Thanks for letting me vent. 99 Problems but a bitch ain't one.
Just Bitching,
Cheers
PorkChopExpress

I have one in a little bit nicer shape listed for 6500. If I put 1500 into it I could easily be asking 11000. The problem everybody has is they expect collector quality at a lower price however the market is saying otherwise. I know it makes it harder on the average Joe to afford these awsome machines but this is not a cheap hobby. Its also classic supply vs demand. There simply isnt Afm floating around. They are rare and most need to be restored.

It won't sell, only blown out crap sells for over 8K.

Love to play AFM but will not likely ever own one due to the skyrocketed price. I will just have to play them at the expos and friends houses I guess.

Got ya. Missed the sarcasm!

This is why I left eBay in the first place.

It's the same thing that I've been watching for a while now... the top end drives the lower end higher, and the cycle kind of repeats. Those nicely restored games that go for $10k make this game look like it is very reasonable at $6850ish to some people. Yeah, it could use new decals and a new playfield - although really, that playfield isn't half as bad as a lot of them that I have seen - but that is $1500ish and some work. So, for $8500ish and time, you suddenly have a game that people are asking $10k-$11k for.

It used to be that if you bought a $2500 game that was blown out for $2000, put in a new playfield and fixed it up at a cost of $1200 to you, you'd end up selling it for maybe $2600 or so because those upgrades just weren't that valuable to people. Now, sellers are expecting to get $2000+$1200+$800 for time+$1000 because you had it for a year for games... and in a lot of cases, they are.

It never ceases to amaze me how whenever there is a Stern bashing thread on here that someone brings up how "only a few of their games appreciated in price immediately." These prices are being driven by people who want to get more out of every machine that they put into them, and a market that no longer has much of a source for blown out titles. Agree to pay the higher prices... or look for lower priced titles.

I don't think you are out of line on the price, if this is true, then the one on eBay is a fair deal !

Jim

I guess this is what I don't understand the most. Why does $1,500 in parts + labor suddenly equate to a $4,500 increase in asking price. Granted, I would have no problem with you asking whatever you want for your machine, but I honestly don't understand why so many people are suddenly willing to pay these premiums. It used to be that only a place like HEP could get that kind of money for their work, and that was for a full high-end restore.

How many great quality AFM's out there...how many people can afford to pay $8-10K...is it gonna even out after a while? Or are prices going to get higher still? If a real cool pin similar to AFM comes out...would that lower the price? The mind boggles...

If you do sell at a lower price the flippers buy it and jack the price.
I had this happen on two games I sold, I broke even and the flipper made over two grand and took credit for my work.
I found out about it when a buyer wanted one of my games and tried to trade me back my games.
I now price them high enough that the flippers don't email me anymore.
I have a couple retailers that pay me for quality rebuilt games and I usually get the trade in to restore.
If I priced my restored AFM for 8K a flipper would buy it and get 11 for it.
I am done doing that.

Welcome back Jim!

It will take alot more to produce a true high end restoration! Just finished my AFM and I personally dropped a hell of alot more. PF, Cab decals, ramps, plastics, chroming, mods, and tons of the little stuff. Depends on how much of the stuff you use is new.

Based on this auction it makes me think about throwing a routed MB I have folded up in the garage on Ebay and see what happens. However, like others stated the trick would be finding another for less to make it worth it

The problem with AFM is the low production numbers. They claimed that was the reason for RFM. No matter what the condition, it's turned into an expensive game. Glad I got mine (in totally unplayable condition at the time) when I did.

There may be a however to all of this here. The higher priced AFMs despite being much nicer are not moving.
We see a beater on Ebay sell for that price and start saying well the nice one is worth this much.
What if the average ebay buyer (mostly noobs) does not get that value or choose to pay for it. What if this is it? The price, good or bad...

Isn't 5000 hours in time and skill worth anything? $1500 is pretty conservative, bill ung, play field, ramps, cliffs, chrome, new play field parts, LEDs, shaker, decals, paint, new Martians, new lock down assy, and scoops, seems to me I ordered about $3100 in parts.....

15 won't do it on a AFM restore, I have over 3K in parts in mine.

I just sold my NOS MB PF and parts, I looked at a blown out POS and half the game didn't work.
Trashed cab with a broken backbox and a reimport.
The guy is asking 65 for it.
Smoke another one and get back to me.

I think I have that or more...other little things - new star posts, plastic protectors, backboard decal, upgraded sound system, restoration stickers/chart, all new targets, new target decals, and many more I am sure.

Not out if line with the recent price trend. As I said if someone offers 12k to me they can have it.

Of course labor is worth something. In fact, it's worth quite a lot to someone who doesn't posses the necessary skills themselves, but 5000 hours? That seems like a ridiculously high number to me. That would be like working on the game 24 hours a day, every day for 7 months straight. If it took Chris that long to do each HEP, I don't think he'd have a very sustainable business model.

5000 hrs is if you whittle the cabinet out of a solid piece of wood.

Maybe it was a typo and they meant 500....

Only an idiot would spend 5000 hours on a resto project.

Seriously. I have been playing the same online game for TWELVE YEARS. I played it pretty much every day for 2-3 years when I had NO JOB. Would play for 8-16 hours a day, months on end. Now, granted, I have barely even touched the thing in the last 5 years, but the wife and I still resubscribe our accounts now and then to check out the changes... my oldest character, from 2001, has 6 months and a week of logged in time.

Does that kind of put it into perspective how absurd someone claiming 5000 hours of resto would be?

I don't think that you're out of line at all. If the owners of these games can cheer on rapid inflation, then the non-owners should be able to hope for deflation.

Only 2000 hours if you whittle the cabinet out of a larger cabinet. This is how Safe Crackers were made.

That's only 1 man / 40 hours per week for 2.40 years ( No Vacations or Holidays ) completely worth it ha ha.

LOL.