I’m surprised the OP is selling it after reading his initial story about the game.

Then he woke up.

Just curious, why does everyone on pinside resent high level restorations? This is obviously a machine that has had 100+ hours of time put into it an an unlimated build budget. Please tell me why a beautiful restoration like this gets trashed rather than being appreciated for what it is? A machine like this is a work of art, yet pinball afficianados resent it because !?!?

It is very much appreciated.
Like a fine wine or beautiful painting, to be enjoyed and loved by the person who put all the money into it.
But if you think others or even any one person will share the same compassion for the end result of all the effort and man hours put into this machine, you may be looking for a needle in a hay stack.

I love #TimeWarp but would be nuts if I thought someone would pay me say 10k for a HEP restored one. That love is for me and I wouldn't expect anyone else to understand how in the hell I spent that kind of money on a Time Warp of all machines.
It's in the eye of the beholder.
-Mike

It's not about the restoration. We all know his work by now. It's great. It's about a title that has been played out and become passe to a lot of hardcore pinballers.

Dude is posting in a for-sale thread, NOT a owners or restore or admire-my-machine thread. What do you expect?

civility

You’re mistaking expectation of reasonable pricing for resentment.

Few pinheads “resent” high level restorations. Most of them would never spend the money for one because the money required represents an attachment to the machine far beyond the dollar value of the completed project.

Most people selling a high end restoration understand a $6500 table isn’t worth $15,000 so they don’t put up joke ads. This seller isn’t one of those people.

Don’t lump them all together. Mudflaps is cool.

I'll have to disagree. If seller is into the machine for that price he can certainly ask that much or best offer and then see what that best offer is. Lots of people spend that much on high end machines and just because it isn't worth that much to some people that doesn't mean it isn't worth that much to someone. My only point is that at least pinsiders can be civil to each other rather than judgmental.

Comes with MIss Mona's custom Pinskirtz!

Yup he's absolutely welcome to ask whatever he wants for his game

We are. There's nothing uncivil about telling someone their asking price is nuts.

This is how it works. Sellers can ask whatever they want, but we are also free to judge that asking price. The market ultimately decides the correct price. This game has been for sale for 5 months, obviously the price is not right...

To me the questions is, How long does a HEP stays a HEP ?

I get the amount of work, love and care that HEP puts in for his first client. But after that they become home used (used is the word there), so how do they hold value through time against other HUO pins.

Unless it's routed it should still command an HEP premium.

I don’t see anything wrong with the guy trying to get what he’s into a game for. And I wouldn’t consider it a “joke” for sale ad.

I don’t know many people that would be into a game for $14K after a HEP restore, and list it for $7500 some time after just to be “reasonable”.

Games in a home environment most likely don’t get abused significantly. My games stay in relatively great shape after serious work or restoration.

Price-bashing on Pinside has become anything but civil anymore. As I say in every other thread, if you don’t like the price, send him a PM with an offer. If he accepts it, he does. If he doesn’t, then he doesn’t. Simple.

They NEVER hold value. Why people would spend such an absurd amount of money and then sell I'll never understand. You will NEVER get your money back. EVER.

The guy is from Woodcliff Lake. I don’t think he needs the money, or is worried about the length of time the ad sits there for.

There’s Ferrari and Bentley dealerships right down the street from his house.

I don't think it's that straight forward especially on high end pins, where people who can afford them are not short the couple thousands it would take to get a new HEP straight out of HEP.

I am no expert in HEP prices, but how much do you think he would charge for a "new" one ?

too rich for me.

how much for just the curtain?

When a seller doesn’t have a forum discussion thread that’s probably the best way to discuss their pricing.

Public discussion of pricing isn’t usually for the OP of a joke ad. It’s for all the readers and future people so there is a record of the absurdity and the reaction to it.

Seriously, are folks really buying these hideous overpriced skirts?

Like how you referred to it as a joke ad again. All games are stupidly overpriced right now, for the most part. Has been that way for about two years. But I’m sure you know that.

There is no need for future “absurdity” reference. The guy paid $15K or thereabouts for the game, including having it restored by HEP if you actually went back and read his backstory. And he wants $15K for the game. Will he lose money on selling it? I’m sure he will lose a little.

If I wanted a HEP restored TOM, I would offer him 10 or 11 and see where he was at. I see rough TOM’s selling for 45 to 5500, “nicer” examples for $6500 - $8k.

Even so, I’m sure he’s flexible if he really wants to sell it.

Tell me though for curiosity. What do you think is a reasonable price for this game he’s selling?

No way! are you seriously from Tung Chung!?! I haven't been to Hong Kong in ages!!

You must be high. There's no such thing as an A title restored by HEP for $6500. I'd buy them all. Not saying the seller can get $15000, but this is worth WAY more than $6500.

Sold my HEP AFM in 2018 for 10k...had ~13k in it IIRC. I believe this HEP TOM is worth 8-10k.

Not as loved a title as AFM, but no talk of doing a remake (so no competition from CGC). OTOH, 6600 were built, so many nice survivors exist (I owned a CQ original for 5k). I also think as more and more modern games get consumed, there is less space for titles like this. As much as I love the old B/W games, they need to get bumped if you are still consuming the newer games.

I agree with some of that. Like I said, selling a HEP you will eat a little money. Could end up being a couple grand.

There are a few listed right now from 5500 to $9k, not HEP restored. So the going rate is at least (currently) what I pretty accurately stated above.
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NEVER say never. I clicked on this thread just because I missed my old TOM. When I sold my last house in 2007 I had about 50 pins and had to sell a bunch fast. A friend of mine said he had room for three and I said just pick. He chose a minty mint TOM, a minty mint STTNG, and a truly HUO original first owner Tommy that came out of the Loch Ness Monster collection that had never seen daylight. It probably still doesn't have 200 plays on it. Go ahead, guess the price for all three............ Let me ruin your day, $8K. So never say never. In ten years you will just wish you could buy what you can buy now, so never say never. I'd gladly pay double to get back what I sold and that still isn't near what they are worth now.

Call me when you sell your next house

Yeah, I’ve been in Hong Kong about 4 1/2 years.

first off you're using 3 of the highest retailers on pinside, and then a ebay ad. average price of a nice tom right now is about $6500

All of that is irrelevant... you're either trying to sell a game or you're not. This person is not, that is why his "sale" post is getting the comments it is.

I mean, I could list my games for 50%+ more than they're worth and hope someone bites, but I don't because it's generally a waste of time and generates stupid threads like this

I think it would sell within a month at $10k. So many nice examples cheaper than that and the left loop all day strategy makes it a boring game quickly if you play it often.

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Bite me.

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Definitely not price gouging. It's just wishful thinking

Nothing wrong with listing a game for what you have in it. There is certainly a chance someone LOVES this particular game and was thinking of sending it to HEP for restoration. For that person, they could purchase this for 15k and sell their example for 5k. That would an ideal opportunity for both parties. The buyer gets the HEP immediately and the seller gets out clean!

Like I said, he's not selling, he's fishing, which is fine, but you can't complain about the peanut gallery when you're on such an obvious fishing expedition.

Doesn't matter... overpriced is overpriced. Actually it's worse when the numbers get big... asking $150 for a $100 beater won't raise many eyebrows, but $15000 for a $10K game is nutty. And thus it sits.

It *will* eventually sell years from now when inflation catches up and the cheapest NIB pins are $10K

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I sold my really nice TOM 3 years ago for $8k and it was no where near a HEP. It did have full brass from head to toe, nice original cab and nice original playfield with all the cool mods. I think he should be able to get $10-$12k for the right buyer who is looking for a really nice TOM.

That’s not fair Ron!! You were doing metal plating back then, so you got a break on the cost of the brass. LOL.

Of course not, and I am thinking you're being deliberately obtuse now. Condition sets price, but doesn't warrant overpricing. This ToM is overpriced at 15000. A regular ToM would be overpriced at 10K. A HEP game is worth more than a normal example, but only so much more, and this one is overpriced or it would have sold at some point in the past 5 months instead of generating snarky comments.

Not really, I think I adequately supported my position above without being circuitous further. I do agree with most of your perspective anyway, and we are not on completely separate pages.

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Only on Pinside do you say you agree with someone and get downvoted. Now you’re just being obtuse.

You completely and deliberately misstated what I wrote, and I'm not going to converse anymore with you gaslighting or whatever it is.

You're welcome to PM me when this finally sells for 15K

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Bump for the 100th comment!