That is funny. I picked up a STTNG yesterday. After a failed attempt to see the pin on Friday and several missed phone calls and emails. I was wondering about the CL add myself. My wife had me call when I got to the house. The house was at the end of a dead end narrow street with no turn around. She called me back 10 minutes after I got there to make sure I was ok. Our code was, I will call you back later if everything was ok. If I was in trouble, I would tell her I wanted chicken for dinner! Like you, my experience was a very good one and the seller was very nice. It is terrible that a few bad people make us worry about all the good ones.

Same to you, it looks like we both had a good week.

good pickup, enjoy it. you chose wisely...

Congrats!

holygrail.jpg

You were fine, I live in the bay area and have used CL for all kinds of stuff. Just be smart about it. Keep money in the car, be aware of your surroundings, talk on the phone first try and get a good sense of them. If alarms go off in your head, don't go in.

Congrats on your Grail Pin! A 3 hour car ride has never felt so good

Sounds like a fairly typical experience, I think you chose wisely. Gotta go with your gut and use common sense. If something doesn't feel right, there's probably a reason. Same vise versa.

Top Men.

Now get cliffy protectors for the drop target area before that gets worse =)
Not for the mode start hole though just makes it to difficult to make.

Excellent choice
I don't think there was a bad choice here actually.

From a random seller I would probably bring a mate or my old man to be honest when its that much cash. I get worried before picking up pins because I usually have to Withdraw my cash at a shopping Centre near my work thats in a rough neighborhood

Any Pinsiders been coaxed to a secluded location on the promise of a $4k MM then mugged? This is the fear so I was just wondering how often it has happened?

There was another thread about bad sales that had some guys have problems

cliffyable

a new word to add to our pinside vocabulary.......LOL

You have chosen wisely. But beware you cannot take the IJ past the sacret seal that is the price we pay for owning IJ and the price of immortality.

I would have to vote poorly, as i'd be hard pressed to spend $4200 on a good game, more or less IJ.

You lost me at " I recently sold my TSPP." Are you nuts???

Seriously, congrats... Sounds like you have positive "Pinball Karma".

You chose wisely. Congrats.

Congrats on the nice score. IJ was my 2nd pin (first DMD) and got me hooked on collecting. Sold it because of space issues back in 2000, but I recently picked up a nice one. Not nearly as clean as yours, but cleaned up well. BAA carries the apron decal set if you want to replace that missing one.

Scott.

If you prefer the games you bought over the ones you sold, and have your family's blessing, then you chose wisely. You just need to make your family understand how difficult it is to find the pins you want in good condition, especially locally.

For me, my 'better half' likes antiques. So I used that as a comparison. If you find an antique you really like, you better buy it, as you might not ever find something like it again. Once she understood the nature of pinball she accepted it.

Since you put your family through a little stress, you might want to do something for them to thank them for putting up with your hobby. Take the wife out for dinner, take your son to an amusement park, or whatever. It will pay off greatly down the road.

Me personally, I would much rather have TSPP and Dredd than STTNG and IJ any day.

If you're worried about getting mugged. Buy a pistol and get a conceal and carry permit. Problem solved.

Congrats on a new pin. You chose wisely

Another thing you could always do is check to see what banks are in the area and wait to get the money until after you've seen the pin. Would of course need to schedule a time to meet up during bank hours.

Luckily all my CL pinball dealings have been positive, and have made some super rad friends because of it.

Congrats on the score and welcome to the IJ club. All of what you described of the bad (except for the screw holes) are typical of a previously routed IJ. You should be able to clean up and Mylar that pop bumper area, it's pretty much hidden as is.

You did the right thing. Glad everything worked oft fine.

This was my thought, but he lives in NY. Isn't NY the new California?

Regardless, back up never hurts.