I'm local to you and I saw this one. Something I've learned is if a normie says an arcade machine or pin is in working condition, there's a good chance it will still need work. They likely just mean it powers on at a bare minimum, or it might start but have a bunch of other issues. The playfield looks pretty good considering the condition of the cabinet. Considering the prices of pins here in CA I would be happy at $700 (or less) but others can chime in.
Project alpha-numeric games don't come up too often around here it seems, so by the time you figure out what you wanna pay someone might already be loading it up in their truck

Playfield and plastics look good… strip the Mylar, clean the playfield, new balls, rubbers, leds…. Pretty low cost to have a decent machine if the wiring is good. If the wiring is good, I’d say the $1k is well priced. If it needs a bunch of wiring hacks cleaned up, I’d lower the price accordingly.

This $1K project is gone in the time you took to post her on Pinside.

If it is a complete wreck underneath you could part it out for more than 1K.

Why are you on your computer and not in your car?

Ad's been up for 12 hours, but someone probably offered $1.5k and the seller is just holding his own little auction behind the scenes lol

Always assume games like this have alkaline damage and 1 or more bad displays. aside from that it probably will clean up nice.

Or the GI comes on and that's it. Which doesn't mean a whole lot.

I would consider the game non-working.

But a decent system 11 game for $1k, especially in CA? It's probably gone already.

That would be a great first pin to learn on and have a blast playing. As others have said, probably gone already. If not You should be making arrangements to get it today

The Culver City 1999 vending license tag is interesting, I’ve lived there most of my life and never seen that on a pin or vid on location.

I dunno if this link will work and it is CAD but prices are a little crazy. It's an ad asking for $6000 CAD for an F14.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1025259294907027/?ref=search&referral_code=marketplace_search&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A6f550a04-1b66-41c6-a7ca-1bb8c0f63a28

I would grab this at $1000 all day long! It is a system 11... and if it is even minimally working, and if the boards need work, I would still take it at $1000!

Decent buy but would be a ton of work for a self proclaimed newbie.

Yeah for $1000 that's a gift. No need for excuses, grab it now and figure your plans out later.

That game will clean up nice! I would buy it if it were local for 1k. Great game...brutal fast...awesome light show.

To answer your question, yes, but yikes....you're asking a question like that and you're about to buy a game that probably needs tons of board work, mechs rebuilt, complete teardown and cleaning, ect. Not saying a person can't just jump in with both feet but man, good luck to you. I hope you get it!

Last time I posted a project SS pin at under $1000 in sold within 12 minutes. Someone who had bought from me before literally called me and said he was on his way to pick it up, had cash, and would be at my house in 20 minutes.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/116789

I have owned quite a few F-14 Tomcats. If you are just starting out on pinball and have not done much in repairs then a project like this is not the way to go. I would not even buy this for $1k or even at all. The cab is just to shot unless you want to re-stencil, but that is a very big pain of a job to do. When it comes to a cab that needs a stencil job then I will just pass and find another machine. F-14 is a very common game and is not hard to find a good one for a good price. Almost every F-14 I have owned you are going to have to put some money into it. Most are going to need a beacon motor and belts, displays, might have acid damage on MPU, flipper work and more. Plus if it does not turn on then you don't know the status of the MPU, Displays, Sound Board, Power Supply, Beacon Motor and more. If you do not know how to fix boards the this can get expensive fast since you have to send boards out to get them fixed or replace if available. If you are just looking to get a game to play and enjoy then this is not the correct path to go just because of the cheap price. This type project is best for someone that knows how to work on every inch of the game and is wanting to do a restoration. I will say for a $1k price it should already be sold.

Eh, not every cab needs to be repainted. If it's sturdy and plays fine, let it be a beater if you want a beater.

With the clear center beacon and the white flashers in the back this appears to be an early production machine. The playfield doesn’t appear too bad. No comment on the cabinet. The concern would be that there are no pictures of inside the cabinet, beneath the playfield or inside the back box. If it “works excellent” why isn’t it powered on in any of the pics?

That said, I bought my F-14 in California about 15 years ago for $700. A very early production model. I had never owned or worked on a pinball machine in my life and was very ignorant as to what I was getting in to. I learned. (I’m still learning.) Even though sometimes frustrating, it was a fun project. For a while, before I got one thing fixed something else would stop working. It was harder to get parts back then. I had to order a used beacon assembly from some guy in Germany. I still have mine today. It looks great and plays beautifully! When I brought it out of storage a while back it had been abused and was home to a family of mice who had had their way with it. I was pretty much starting from scratch. This is where I came for help when I was stumped and I always got it. People won’t always give you the solution, but they will definitely give you suggestions and point you in the right direction which gives you the opportunity of figuring things out and to learn.

I hope you get it. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time fixing and repairing – at least at first. You’ll be completely baffled by an issue, but you’ll love the feeling when you get something figured out. There will come a point when something goes wrong that you will immediately have a good idea of what to look at. I found the F-14 to be a great machine to learn on. Hone up on your soldering skills and your multi-meter will be your best friend. As far as the cabinet goes, you can hunt down some stencils or decals and make it look like new. Be aware that you are more than likely to spend more on parts and tools than you did on the game, but eventually you’ll have the game running like a champ, you’ll be proud of what you’ve accomplished and you will be spending your evenings trying to beat your own high score. Hey, you might get lucky and the thing really does play excellent.

So...did you end up with it?

At that price it was likely gone by the time you posted. F-14s are in $2k territory now. It's a great game, but to me it will always be an $1,800 game no matter how crazy the market gets, but that's my view on the whole era not just F-14. F-14 itself is a phenomenal game that is seriously addicting.

I always pass on auctions.

This is still a great deal at more than $1000. The only question is do you want to play or learn about the hobby. If you want to play just pass. If your looking for a pin to learn about the hobby this is exactly what you want. I would open up the conversation with him and see where he will go with price.

P.S. If it was me I would be dropping bills on the glass.

Pass on this, it is not a players pin, this is a project.

1200 would be my absolute max and I doubt I'd even be willing to go that high. 1900 for it is a freakin joke. If they really have a buyer at 1650
let them have it and consider them as having done you a favor. Its clear the seller has no idea what its worth, and if it lingered this long at 1k or more theres a good reason for it. A reasonable deal for a decent pin, even as a fixer upper, doesn't last long.

Minus the cab it does look like it would clean up nice but I shudder thinking about what issues are lurking behind that BG and under that PF

I do no think this was a miscommunication situation, The asking price at $1k was priced on the lower side. Some people just want a cheap game and not concerned about the overall condition. I have heard this type story many times. One time I was even was in a situation where a deal was locked for me to buy and pick up that evening. By noon I got a message that after talking it over with the wife they decided to keep the game instead. I thought that was very odd since the wife is the one that always wants the game gone. Two days later I saw the same machine relisted by a Pinball Retailer for a crazy price. So in the end I think the original seller got a higher offer but did not have the guts to tell me the truth that they sold it to a higher offer. My general rule of thumb is if you do not grab it once it first posted then the chances of getting it are slim to none. Either the seller is working with others or they are waiting to see what the highest offer is going. to be. I would pass instead of playing these kind of games unless the higher price was still worth it. This buyer is getting greedy for a game that is not in great condition. At this point they just want to play the auction game.

By looking at the pictures with this game turned on you can see it has a battery issues since its not in attract mode. The big concern is did the batteries leak all over the MPU. With these system 11 games when they leak they get all over the PIA chips. I have had to toss some of these MPU boards in the trash since when you go to replace PIA chip the pads or traces on the board are to eaten up from the acid damage to save the board.

Yup that usually happens. He's conducting his own auction behind the scenes. You'll have a better time buying a project from a Pinsider or someone in the pinball FB groups who is less likely to do that bullshit

It's way better to spend extra and get something in better shape. That is pretty hashed. It would look much worse in person.

I can't believe no one has scooped this up. At that price there is plenty of room to turn this in to a beauty, I would be on this like a fat kid on a Smartie. I do like working on pins just as much as playing them.

Why not go check it out and see how it looks? If the board isn't covered in battery acid, if there aren't any major issues, it's certainly worth $1,100.

On the other hand, they made a million F14s so if you don't think a project is a good idea, may as well pass (just like you should pass at $1,000).

We can't tell you what to do here.

That thing has definitely been around some moisture. Just the rust on the outside tells me that. It's a gamble but it would have to a least play a game. I would have to see how many codes were coming up when you booted it up.

I just don't understand why you'd take it at 1000 but not 1100.

Saving that 100 clams isn't gonna make you any more experienced at pinball refurbishment or any more prepared to deal with a project like this.

If you like your stuff nice I don’t think you would be satisfied.

I would still pass. This seller is playing games and is not being honest. We still don't know what the right side of the cab looks like. Usually when pictures are not shown it's not a good sign. This game for sure has gotten moisture damage. I would also question acid damage on the MPU board. One of the pictures shows the game is the programing mode which is a sign that the batteries are dead or have leaked. The game probably did not boot to attract mode when first turned on. I have had to thrown away some system 11 boards due to battery acid. When they leak they spread acid into the pia chips. When this happens the pads and traces on the board are destroyed when you go to remove the chip due to the acid damage. I would inspect the MPU to the max to make sure acid did not attack these chips.

This guy is on the way to grab the game right now OP. Better hurry up and get there first.

I was in the buy it now club, but now I'm gonna say pass. Not because of the $100, but because the seller is crazy. It "plays excellent", but it clearly hasn't been played in quite a while. He says it's "in great shape and perfect condition". In what world? Can the seller SEE the machine he is trying to sell? I agree with the moister comments. Even the ball rails have corrosion on them. Because the seller is so up in the ozone and not being very forthcoming is reason enough to turn him down. He got greedy and missed his opportunity.

sounds like you don't want this game, for $100.00 and the lack of truck for an easier move ... looks like you decided !
go with your gut!

Sounds to me like the seller got a lot of responses and figured out it might be worth more than $1k. Then it sounds like he started playing games and trying to get an auction going, and then people bailed and didn't want to deal with that situation.

Probably still worthwhile at $1100, but the seller sounds pretty squirrelly, and this is probably not the best situation for a first-time game buyer to jump into. I don't think I would trust this kind of seller to actually stick to any deal, so if you do go, be prepared to walk away if you don't like the way things are going. Just because you show up doesn't mean that you are in any way obligated to buy. And don't expect any help from this guy when you're trying to disassemble and load the game.

This might be an ok deal for an experienced pinhead who knows how to grab 'n go and fix things up, but like I said, the situation is just a bit too weird for a first-time buyer.