If there is any kind of active CL pinball community in your area, your ad will last about 15 minutes before it is flagged and removed.

Never hurts to try though.

I have an active one in my area but mine runs
"I will buy your broken and nonworking machines"
so its a little different.

I mostly get EM machines but occasionally i get an SS. They make great projects and are great to bring back from the dead.

avg price ive paid is around $175.
Cap Fantastic is by best score which was $175 exactly.

"cash in your hand today for your Monster Bash, Attack from Mars, or Medieval Madness!!!" = insta-flag

"looking for a project for my personal collection" = might work

I got a TAF, FH, Teed Off and DE Simpsons for 2k from one of those ads years ago..

Some people who are willing to sell their games usually dont look for ads that someone is looking to purchase a pin.They usually set up a for sale ad and wait for you/buyer to contact them.

People who usually post want to buy ads are looking for dirt cheap deals and love to haggle and sellers wont go after those want to buy ads because of that.

There are usually more "I'll buy your old broken pinball machine!" ads than actual for sale ads on FL craigslist....started in '08ish.

You can usually tell which ads are going to take a wet rag to it, pics, then ebay. And which are collectors looking for a nice project for their permanent collection. Yeah, almost never the latter, sadly.

They all get flagged here. But we have an overabundance of Flippers and Pickers in Pittsburgh. The old, "it's only worth $50", then two days later it's back up for $1450.
I placed an ad years ago like that (before the whole pin explosion happened), met one of my best friends because of it. So I didn't get a game, but I got a good pin-buddy. And they are harder to come by.

I don't post many or spam the area with them, but I've posted a few. The ones that stay up in my area are ones where I list a specific title and specific price. Otherwise, I think most people assume your just looking for a quick flip.

Having said that I've had zero replies, so it really hasn't payed off for me.

Ive done it once for 2 specific machines. Got a couple bites, but didn.t get them. Did not get it flagged though.

Darn that's one heck of a score
I know a guy around me dying to get his hands on a Capt. Fantastic pin

I asked a friend that same question. He said it was almost all junk from operators. It seems to be a good way to get a lot of C list broken machines. In my humble opinion, people who post ads like that lose the right to simply say no thanks. Rather they should at least offer to buy any pin proposed to them - even if the offer is $100.

Just a couple years ago there was a craigslist ad for a TZ for $1200 and a Monopoly for $900. I flipped out and e-mailed right away, I'll take it. I anxiously waited for a response, and finally got back, "sold it to the skeeball guy" or something like that, referring to another craigslist ad by someone saying they wanted to buy pinballs, skeeballs, etc. So apparently it works.

I hate those " ill buy your pinball machine " ads. All they do is clog up the lane if you know what I'm sayin. If these people want to buy pinball machines, wait for them to be posted like the rest of the world. Although I think its ok if your looking for a specific pin. Craigslist is sort of a waste of time because all you see in my area is wanted ads
I would never sell to one of these people . Sorry.

I've had posts flagged, I joined the CL forums to determine why and this is what I was told.

If you are posting in the Wanted section you are flagged if you have more than a couple machine listed. "i.e.: looking to buy Addam's Fam, AFM, Tron, Cyclone, etc, etc" or "I want to buy any machines you have!" I was told that these belong in the "Services Offered" area of CL because you are offering a service of purchasing machines.

I circumvented this flagstravaganza by posting that I'm looking to buy 1-3 machines and then listing them in the title.

Don't really get why posting 3 machines works, but anymore and the Flag patrol is out in full force. Sometimes my ads would run for a day or two but not much longer if they had more than a couple machines.

My $0.02.

Why would I do something stupid like that IMHO??

I have a " Trade pinball machines for signs" listing. Looking for that business owner who needs a sign

I have posted a couple of those over the years. Most of the time I get people wanting to offload junk.

The one exception was a cheap Gilligans Island out of a church a few years ago.

I post and I get between 0-3 responses every time.

I make it clear in my post that I am a collector, not a dealer, and I really enjoy fixing them up.

I have met some really neat people in the process, and had some cool experiences. Even got to go up to Marco to pick up a junk cabinet there and got to tour their place.

I'm sure I seemed like a goober, being all wide-eyed at the NIB pins, as well as all of the older pins they had there.

I do get responses from flippers that try to sell me a game at a ridiculous price, but I just thank them for the response and politely decline. You never know when they will drop the price and contact you again, or have something else for sale.

Great points, but I think if I posted a SD CL ad, I have a good feeling it would be flagged.

I posted an ad in Milwaukee specifically looking for a FT. It got flagged repeatedly but I kept posting. It did pay off... someone directed me to an op who had one on location. I picked it up for a fair price. I also was contacted by a few other people who had one but the prices were too high or the condition too nice.

So it worked for me but it was for a specific game and I had cash in hand.