Quoted from mav2287:Colson totally nailed it when he said
As I already mentioned this thing pretty much fell out of the sky ( her dad's game room ) and showed up at my house one day because it had to go somewhere. Other than playing it a bit at his house and playing these in arcades I knew next to nothing about pinball machines. I also didn't really take the time to fine tooth comb it because I figured any collector that wanted it would and then tell me what it was worth and when I saw that it only said 33 balls I just blindly figured ok yea sure...
I also think I have solved some of the mystery about it at this point by interrogating my father-in-law and his wife a bit more. Turns out he did hardly ever play it BUT his bored wife was playing it while he was at work ... A LOT ... makes sense considering she is the one that bought it and he wasn't around to know. Sucks though because if I would have known that from the start a lot of the flaming would have been avoided, ♂️ LOL.
Once I got them both on the phone today I found out they bought it at a local place here in town called Amini's Galleria who sold it to them "New". The place sent a delivery truck out and a pair guys to get it upstairs. They never got to see a box or anything like that, but they weren't collectors and she was just buying him a cool toy they didn't think about it. It was carried up to the game room ( no box or legs of course ) and when they went back to truck they came back with black ones. Best guess on that is that they grabbed black on accident or they knew these people didn't know any better and kept the chrome ones.
From everything I have learned here my new best guess is that the wear is from her playing and never having it serviced or waxed or whatever it is you do to protect the field and lane. The balls are also a bit dull and old so that probably didn't help. The count I think is because it spent a lot of time unplugged. I think the battery might have just died ( Yes it does have a coin cell and it is in good shape ).
Either way this thread has been one HECK of a ride and trial by fire leaning experience!
fair play for sticking around and putting the record straight pinside pitch forks usually scare ppl off 
