$700 F-14 Tomcat, CL Indiana - an 8 hour round trip. The owner did not feel like putting the last 25% of the playfield back together after shopping and leveling inserts. Had a brand new Rottendog power supply and Pinscore displays, too.

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MM that was literally 2 minutes from my house! I went there as a favor for a buddy in Chicago to look at a DE Simpsons that the guy was selling. My buddy had a friend that wanted the Simpsons so he asked me to check it out and make sure it looked ok. I got there and looked over the pin...all was good so I asked if he had any other pins. He did and one was the MM. I asked if he'd be willing to sell it and he said he didn't want to at that time. We became friends after that and eventually he sold it to me for $7200. Never thought I'd be able to own a MM and REALLY never thought I'd find one minutes away from where I lived!!! BONUS!!

my dr dude via wanted add, paid 900 for it a year ago and have since made it my pin. I will never sell her ever! recently got a BTTF for 400 via CL wanted ad. I have yet to finish the mixmaster, LED's everything and I have 2 big shots for it. BTTF is a work in progress.

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Rarely found good deals locally, but I was always willing to drive to Oregon or Idaho from Seattle. Found a Fathom for $400 in Boise ID that was going to be taken to the dump. Found a nice Diner in ID for $900 that just needed batteries. Picked up an Embryon and an early production F-14 for $300 each in Wenatchee, WA. Locally I got a Cosmic Gunfight for $350 in nearly perfect condition and a Vector for $100 that just needed a resistor. Bought a Mata Hari for $350 in Medford, OR that had an Alltek board and a full set of Pinscore displays which also included the original MPU.... just needed an $0.08 connector pin repaired. Scared Stiff...$1500 (OR), CFTBL $1800 (OR), pristine F-14 $600 (OR), High Speed $400 (OR), KISS $200 (OR) that had a smashed back glass, beat cabinet and an average playfield...since completely restored.

Many others like this but that was 5 or 6 years ago. For me the greatest fun was the hunt. Thought I would find, fix and resell them, but mostly I found them, fixed them and kept them and ultimately sold games....after I got to enjoy them... when I ran out of room. Most I had at any one time was 28.

My best find was a Corvette, SS, TAFG, and TOM for 10K I was pretty damn excited about it.

I only have one find, and it was exactly this. Fully functional Strikes and Spares for $100 in a garage sale, the guy was moving and needed to get rid of it quickly. That was my first pin, and I've been hoping ever since to be able to have another find like that but no luck.

I got a free Gorgar from a church basement rec-room when the new Priest did not approve of it being there.

I got my Spiderman from a warehouse fire for about half the going rate at the time. The cabinet was scorched up the side and it needed a good shop job, but it cleaned up very nicely and already had a full Cointaker LED kit installed. I think it only took 8 hours of cleaning plus one can of black spray paint for the legs/rails/speaker panel. We saved enough money that we were able to get some mods for it like the subway train and buildings I got used off Pinside, a shaker, powered sub, and custom plastics and we still have less than $3K in it. I'd never played one, otherwise would never have been able to afford one, and it is my husband's favorite.

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$650 Getaway from a Laundrymat about an hour from me. It was filthy and the high voltage section was bad on the DMD board was bad, so their "fix" was to put a new display in it that still looked like crap lol. My boys' favorite game and the last Steve Ritchie game I have left.

I was driving home from work one day seen a garage door open and overflowing with arcades .I pulled in knocked on his door this really nice older man told me he used to have a route . After a hour of BS I asked did you have any pinball he said ome mon in way in the back there was Elvira and the party monsters and GNR I bought all of them for$ 500. G
They were in poor shape I mean plum wor out . But that's my best find .

I was given a Firepower recently. in 94 I bought 2 KISS machines for $300.

I bought my WWFRR for $175 in great condition. It was in a college campus game room and unplugged because the shooter lane switch was stuck and kept firing so they shut the machine off. I asked what was wrong with it (I was new to pinball at the time) and if they wanted to sell it. They said "it has some problems" so they would sell it for $175. Turns out there was about $200 in quarters in the coin box as well! I did return the quarters as the guilt of keeping them after getting the machine for what I paid for it would have probably killed me.

250 bucks for a non working HS

Well, it's not a gold m

Good on you. I'm an honest person but if they were that dumb to not take the money out of a routed machine before selling I'm not sure I could have done what you did.