Pinfest is a blast! You’ll definitely enjoy it!

There are some pretty good deals most years.
Plan to show up when it opens on Friday, a lot of the good deals tend to go early on (some sell before the show).

Sometimes you can find a deal late on Saturday if someone doesn't want to bring something home. But yeah, most of the deals disappear early.

Pinfest is the BEST place to buy a pin.

Lots of stuff for sale, it’s my favorite show. “Deal” is all going to be relative in the year 2023, but prices are always pretty fair I think. good place to buy a game but I would keep your expectations in line as far as pricing goes.

Doors open Friday is your best bet to find what you want. Lots of games trading hands early on. Also watch the Pinfest buy/sell thread, as a lot of people post games for sale there. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinfest-2023-buy-sell-trade-want-no-hotel-talk

Bring cash.

If a game is priced well, make the deal immediately. It will not last long otherwise. If a game is priced high, it may go down by the end of the show. Then you can maybe bargain a bit.

On titles, I would say don't expect a bunch of A-list stuff or the really popular Stern's (LOTR TSPP) unless its is in someone's booth. The freeplay area with sale tags generally has a good mix of stuff, but not the super sought after games.

As a newbie I wouldn't be expecting to just show up and snag something.

I see shows as more useful to pre-buy a show game at a slight discount under NIB price from a vendor, or help identify particular titles that you then want to seek out to buy later.

Maybe the bigger shows like Pinfest are different, but in my experience shows like Southern Fried have not been good marketplaces to just show up and buy something.

Cash is king some pins sell pre sold before the show but lots are there on Friday but Sat if they don't sell most guys are willing to drop a lot more so they don't have too bring them home ,great show all around plus tons of parts also best show for sure

Pinfest is a fantastic place to buy a pin, although not necessarily the one you were going in to buy. Well priced games will sell like they do on pinside... quickly. The pins tend to skew from 1975 to 1995 pretty heavily. It's not the place to go for a showboat pin, but if you are a players pin guy it's heaven. It has been my experience that if there is something you want, put up a want ad that you are going to pinfest of post in the buy/sale/trade thread what you are interested in and looking for. People travel from MILES around and its a great place to meet up to buy/sell/trade a game. With that said, last year I brought Rick and Morty and Attack From Mars LE to freeplay. Both sold at Pinside Prices. The previous year I brought for sale black knight and el dorado. Traded Black Knight and had a deal for El Dorado when I got home. Bring "walking around" money if you are looking to buy something. Cash is king. It's THE place to get an EM. If you are a try it before you buy it guy, its also a great place to play random things you'd never normally see. Bring a game if you can to get in free.

Here is someone's random walkthrough of last year's show.

I traded for that Black Knight you had actually. These are great types of deals. Lots of friendly folks too.

Friday is the day for best selection. Saturday is the day when you might get a bit of a deal later in the day. (But if you mis-time your offer on the remaining deals, you also might go home with nothing!)

Unless you are buying from one of the dealers that will be there who might take a cc, bring cash! Most of the private sellers will not take personal checks, cc, or various digital forms of payment. Especially from somebody they don't already know.

If you are a newbie, know how to work on the game you buy, be willing to learn how to fix it, or have the phone number of a good repairman in your area. Whatever you buy will eventually need to be fixed. Maybe a year later-maybe the next day.

Pinfest is a lot of fun. There will be many games there for sale. Some good, some less so. Keep your eyes open and you will learn a lot while enjoying yourself. PS 90's B/W A list games are getting expensive! Looking for a "solid deal" is a very relative term. A nice A list game could easily run 5-9k, depending on condition!

Yep... and I'd never laid eyes on a Sorcerer until the day I traded you my Black Knight for it. Both are great games but Sorcerer would never have been on my radar if it were not for Pinfest.

Have reasonable expectations. There are lots of buyers that will be competing for good purchases and lots of sellers competing for your $’s. Flexibility and decisiveness result in deals…if your expectations is to get only ‘the best deal’, you will likely be going home with exactly what you brought!

…of course I’ve only been there twice, so what the hell do I know.

And here is the writeup post Allentown last year on how to have fun at the show.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-show-tips-and-tricks-how-to-maximize-your-time-and-have-the-m#post-6910025

Get in on Thursday. That’s when the real deals go down.

Generally they want you to keep it there but you can pay an early removal fee of $40 if you have to bail early or the other person is uncomfortable having it on freeplay.

Is there an outdoor flea market as well? I haven't seen anything mentioned about it.

Yes. Flea is both in and outdoors.

Its looking like there is going to be a lot of pins there for sale...even some new faces selling a significant number. Bring those stacks of cash!

Better to set up inside, particularly with weather uncertainty. Outdoor flea is not what it once was many years ago. Most people set up indoors now. The outdoor flea used to be bigger when people could enter it without paying admission to the general show. Flea market buyers were often hobbyists looking for parts or cheap project machines to work on. They tended to be cheap (thrifty?) and there was a greater attendance by them when they didn't have to pay to get into the main show. I don't blame the show promoters for this. They need to make money otherwise no show. After many years of flea market spaces, I now find it's better to set up indoors.

Thanks.. I wasn't sure if the outside area was open earlier than the doors. I thought it may be out under the covered area behind the building.

You'll find people in the actual parking lot with stuff in their vans or on the trucks for sale/trade, but I don't think you can get into the flea market area before official open.

There are two types of games at Pinfest:

1) Beautifully shopped/restored games that are priced fairly
2) Trashed, unshopped beaters that are priced HIGHER than the shopped games

I've never understood it, but every year I see it. Try to get in early and get a fair deal, or stay late and see if those beater games come down in price if you're willing to do a shop out.

Deals that were open and available to everyone at the show by the end included:

No Fear: $3500
Several Jokerz: $1600-$2400
Target Alpha (Fully working) $400
Vulcan (Fully working) $800
Xenon: $2600
Dr. Who: $4,000
Pool Sharks: $1800
JJP Godfather ($11,000)

I think the recent deluge of really good new games on the market is putting some downward pressure on the $3000-$5000 DMD games. Quite a few nice games made it through to the end of the show Saturday with no buyers. The last two years, many of these games would have been snapped up before the show even opened on Friday. I know I am not really into spending $5k on an older game right now when I can pick up a newer game with more lasting power in a home collection for a couple grand more. There are also a lot of games in this price tier that are popping up as owners want to sell two to pay for one new game. It is a great time to be a buyer right now if you are patient and are willing to negotiate.

Some folks are turned off by some seemingly high prices on games in the freeplay area. A lot of the time I think this is due to owners wanting to bring the game for freeplay, but maybe do not necessarily want to part with it at the games current market rate. So they stick a "make me sell" price on it instead of a "not for sale" on the tag. Sometimes marking a machine "not for sale" gets even more attention from people trying to buy it. I have personally experienced this in prior years, so I can understand why folks sometimes just stick a high price on a game to keep the inquiries down.