According to your numbers there are $33 reasons not to have insurance. It all depends on your tolerance for risk.

$33 is change in the couch cushions after dropping 7k

I'm sure that $33 in insurance works just like UPS's "insurance", where they have paragraphs and paragraphs of exclusions and packaging requirements that guarantees them to weasel out of any liability and is instead just a quick way to make $33.

I can tell you that for Fastenal in order to get insurance the item must be crated. Fortunately I had a great seller who crated and delivered the crate to the store. Not particularly relevant here, but thought I'd mention it

Sucks to see this!

According to ad, he's only "kind of a pro at it".

yep, I usually over insure all mine as well.

exactly. When you are spending $6-8 grand what is $50?

So did the seller buy insurance or not?

You should name the seller -- he sounds like a d-bag. That isn't everyone here!

And I am so sorry about your situation, I know from personal experience how much this sucks. And given you wanted to share it with your son (which again I relate to).
I wouldn't respond to 80% of ppl on this thread, they are just being utterly unhelpful. Everyone is full of great advice -> until it happens to them!

Well hopefully he's doing something to rectify the issue as now that I know the facts he needs to take responsibility....if he thinks its a $200 fix than offer to ship it back him (at your expense) and get your money back...he can fix for $200 and resell the game....

Sorry to hear about this fiasco OP. It will be a long and painful process, but I hope you get your fair resolution you're looking for. I've always been nervous to ship my own games because of potential situations like this.

I did ask a local Pinsider who shipped three games in about a month's time, how he packs games for shipment. I think he gives solid advice, and it gave me a good laugh too.

Here is his process:

"I always have the game in my garage and ready to go the day before shipping.

Here is my packing process:
-Coin box out. Balls out.
-Fold the head down (cardboard between the head and the game)
-Cut cardboard to cover the entire machine
-Shrink wrap the shit out of it (the good thick stuff from home depot)
-Tip the game up and take off the legs, shrink each separately and then together as one
-Continue to shrink wrap the shit out of it until you think you're overdoing it. Then continue shrink wrapping!
-Lastly, shrink wrap the coin box to the front of the machine (game on it's back, coin door facing up, set the coin box there and wrap over it)

The shippers will show up and take the machine with the coin box. Don't forget to give them the legs. Then you're all done."

Thats how my guy shipped the game with a couple caveats....after the initial cardboard, shrink wrap he installed blankets and then shrink wrapped again, wrapped the legs and shrink wrapped to game, then wrapped and shrink wrapped the coin box on top, strapped to a pallet and called it good....its a lot of work for the seller, but its worth the extra work (if u have the right seller)

Just fair warning- I shipped one pin that was well wrapped before they got there and they refused to indicate it was in good condition on the paperwork and marked it "unable to inspect".

The guys handling it did have a valid point.

Happy u mentioned that....the guy who shipped mine waited for them to arrive, and take photos before they packaged the game up for shipping....he had everything ready to wrap so it only took about 30 minutes to strap to the pallet.

The selling listing and seller have been posted several times.

Will the delivery company wait for you to wrap it all up? I would think they have a schedule they might need to keep?

Excellent point.

Like I've said I've never shipped a pin so I have zero experience with that. That being said they waited for my seller, and they took a dozen or so pictures to document condition. I also had mine insured for $9K

I bet because they were insuring it for 9K, they want to make sure they understand the condition before it disappears in a mountain of shrink wrap.

Probably correct....like someone mentioned earlier. I really don't understand why anyone wouldn't throw an extra $100 on big insurance. If your paying $5K+ on a game who cares about another $100 if u get some leverage with the shipper.....I guess the buyers lesson is not making sure the seller didn't insure his game, and the sellers lesson is not insuring it! They both made mistakes....

I shipped some high value pins, insured, with STI. They noted 'insured: high claim value' on the bill of lading for all to see. No shipping issues.

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. The seller should make this right, since he claimed to be an experienced shipper.

This is the reason I roll my eyes at every “shipping is included!!” Listing. I would never accept that arrangement on a pinball machine.

How about you and I come up with a sale price on the game that we can both be happy with, and I’ll deal with having it shipped like I do every time? Shipping a pinball machine isn’t like a key fob or a flyer you just throw in to sweeten a deal. It’s important, it’s expensive, and it needs to be done right, and I’m not interested in getting it “free” when I know you have every incentive to maximize your profit by shipping it as cheaply as possible.

Same goes for buyers who offer me my asking price “if you include shipping!” WTF are you talking about man? Gimme a break.

They do but these aren’t realistic or timely solutions for many jobs. Eddie is always my first call if I’m buying or selling a game within about 400 miles but it just isn’t going to work if the game is going to California.

Zplumb sorry to hear! Truly the shipping of these $$$ games is probably the low point of this hobby. Every time we have a game shipped I freak the "F" out until the pin is up on it's legs and on. Now, during pre-ZOMBIE apocalypse is just not a good time to ship. We tried several of the small time shippers incl. Bob Cunningham and everyone was on lock down and was not on the road at all. After a month of the pin sitting in the seller's garage, we hesitantly hired STI w/ insurance. My lady watched the driver man handle the pin out of the truck, even after she it was super fragile. I can't imagine what these machines are subjected to when no one is around to supervise.

Doesn't STI at least have a basic amount of coverage? Like $1200 or so?

Anyway, here's the guy. https://www.google.com/search?q=doc+brundys&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GFRC#spf=1588729037166

Used to have a bunch of pins in this "dave and busters" type place. It went under becuase his payment system sucked and the food was outrageously expensive. He's always listed his pins for way too high but "free shipping!" Guess he was going cheap on the shipping so make it look like a good deal.

Yes, sti gives around $1200 worth of insurance for the minimum delivery price.

Someone just listed a NOS TDK lower cabinet. Doesn't help with any head damage though.
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/95752

Talk about serendipitous

so whats the update? Im interested to see if the seller is doing anything to make this right?

No kidding.

How about we all chip in and buy this for the OP? I'm in for $50.

I’ll help

How about the seller pays for it ...like he should have paid the $500 for proper insured shipping.

Just don't use Pilot to ship it.

At least he's doing something...I would be relentless in pestering the guy until u get some sort of workable resolution

Yeah, I don't get it. The seller is a serious collector who's had dozens of high end games many duplicates to boot. He knows what things cost and saying it's a "$200 fix" is complete Bull. If you grab that NOS cabinet I think you'll be way ahead as far as cost to fix it all. Hope you do.

Any updates on this?

Did anything ever come of this?

Wtf happened with this....