I've bought three machines off CL and had to go through each one...it depends who you buy them from. ALL said, "machine is awesome, new rubbers, etc." and NONE of them had new rubbers, the playfields were crazy dirty and things just barely worked...but I paid a fraction of what a shop would charge and have an average of $400 - $800 in each one, fixing them up - but they're AWESOME now, all three of the "working" ones. I just finished the first HS I bought from a local bar/restaurant and it plays just as awesome as it did when I bought it...but looks A LOT better and I'm going to sell it with a FULL description of what's been done, but it won't cost anywhere near the $2,500 the places who "fully shop" them out.

The first HS I bought was my first machine, I took it all apart within 2 weeks of purchase...three months ago. It's nice to finally get it back together but it has to go as I bought a VERY NICE condition HS from a local...and that one's next on the disassembly line.

I'm going to say, if you're mechanically inclined, have at least SOME talent in those hands of yours...and you're a bit "anal" - go for the cheaper machines that still have little to no playfield wear and go from there. Once the playfield is worn (my first HS is) there's no returning it to a condition that'll satisfy most of us...the cabinets can be fixed as long as the artwork hasn't been compromised.

The Checkpoint I just picked up has the artwork on the sides of the backbox "wiped" - it's pure black and I didn't catch that until I had it for a few days - kind of made me laugh when I figured it out - oh well, you don't see it when the machines are side by side anyway...that's how I live with it...but bought the thing for $700 and all it needed was a micro-switch replaced on the ramp so the "speed sensor" worked - playfield is decent, going to strip and clear it probably...in the end, it'll be a beautiful machine (sans backbox artwork) and I won't have a ton of $$$$$$$ wrapped up in it like I do my first HS!!

I meant to add, MOST people who are selling a pinball machine know little to nothing about it...even the ones who claim the "playfield has no wear" are full of it...an easy way to tell if they know pins or not is to ask for pics...if they leave the glass on, buyer beware! ...ALWAYS go see the machine in person these days, especially if it's a "vintage" machine.

Their definition of "great condition" may differ FAR from ours.

The Checkpoint I bought, the owner didn't even know the name of it, just advertised it as "Pinball Machine" and I had to look at the crappy picture he posted to see it was a Checkpoint. I called and said, "I'm interested in your Checkpoint machine" and he paused, I could hear him walking over to the machine, and said, "oh yeah, the pinball machine"...I knew I was in for some investigating before driving 2hrs.

He answered ALL of my questions with, "yes, it's in great shape" - what I found was a bit different. It needs a TOTAL shop out but will definitely turn out to be a beautiful machine, as stated in my previous post.

Did I mention it WILL be a beautiful machine?

Yeah, I'm definitely going to learn my lesson from the 1st HS1 purchase, I have at least $1,200 into it and considering the playfield wear and missing beacon, I'd be lucky to get $1,200 out of it - VERY lucky...

The "added value" of the lesson learned is that I definitely learned A LOT from the reconditioning process, even had the motherboard take a dump mid-rebuild, that hurt but sent it to Ed Cheung, the "master" and all is good now...he's a bit more pricey but Clive's operation (Coin Op Cauldron) was about to shut down for a few weeks in October...and I definitely had ants in my pants!