RD - Can you honestly say you would describe a game as HUO while attempting to sell it, but fail to disclose giant wear spots covered up with stickers and paint in your description? I have a hard time believing you could do that with a straight face and feel good about it.

You may have nailed the dictionary definition of "HUO", but missed the heart of the matter: omission of important details germane to the sale.

What is going on around the shooter rod apron on the front of the cabinet?

Had a Xenon, Centaur and Space Invaders in that book. All games unfortunately pretty far from as nice enough as this one.

Again, condition is not what HUO is describing. It means it's been in a house. Once you cross that bridge, you'll be on the road to zen.

So a suitable description could be (with bracketed explanations ...)

Haunted house, HUO machine (ie it has been in a house since it was made in 1982) This is the machine that was featured in the book (insert name here)

Machine has been restored by (insert the guy's name here) He has lovingly restored the machine. Note the decals around the pop bumpers and (insert other things here) All electronics are mint. Machine plays like new.

How's that ad grab you? Pretty good huh...

rd.

No probably about it, the wear isn't even entirely hidden by the new rats. Clever solution though.

Funny RD, who knew the directions to "zen" were dispersed by you on a pinball forum?

I noticed you qualified your HUO description with the appropriate details, thereby making my point for me.

Trust me, your viewpoint is simple to understand. HUO = Home Use Only. We get it.

The game is just fine, your description may have come up short. Best of luck with the sale.

Holy crap. I don't think I would ever spotted the new rats. Great job spotting that. I do see the wear underneath but i agree that is a very clever way to address the wear!

Thank you very much! Just trying to point out what the seller missed; want to make sure any potential buyer knows what surprises await.

If you continue to address me, I can assure you I will likely respond.

Insider tip: nobody thinks you are cool when you brag about how many games you have owned. Stick to what you know best - flipping machines with questionable sales tactics.

This game is definitely not Home Use only, as advertised. And the "restore" job is nothing short of amateurish. Regardless of who did it, it is definitely not on par with what is considered a professional restore. That's 2 strikes too many for the asking price, IMO.

I'll agree with this. For modern Sterns HUO only implies condition because they are so new, but for older games the moniker to shoot for is CQ which does reflect condition. There were some good eyes in this thread to point out the non-original restoration work, which does hurt the value of a CQ game, but again this is not advertised as such.

I've owned two HH's, one was rough and one was very nice so I'm very familiar with common wear and tear on this title, but even the nice one was not as nice as the one in this thread. FWIW, GLWS, etc.

Are you going to take your ball home now, too?

Everybody can see your conduct here, ensconced for posterity. I rightly pointed out serious issues with your description of this game, and you attack because you are sore you got caught. Man up.

I don't mean to pile on the seller, but I appreciate people like Silver Bullet calling out 'omissions' like this.

I am new to pinball and I am looking to buy my first pin. I am not interested in this particular pin, but I could see how a buyer might miss or fall victim to some of these conveniently left out issues (stickers hiding playfield wear? Even as a noob I would think that's pretty important to disclose upfront). It's an expensive hobby and it's a tight knit community. Obviously, anyone selling a pin wants to sell it for as much as possible, but we need to hold each other accountable.

That being said - GLWYS and hope you make sure to let potential buyers know everything up front.

I would like to see a close up of the front of the cabinet. Around the shooter in particular. Looks like there was another shooter apron and possibly a crack in the cabinet...I don't know could be the flash or something...

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Can't tell whats going on here...

It is a very clean HH.

It's normal, HH's are usually routed out like that around the shooter.

One of the first I remember playing back in the day too. I still love the audio and artwork, classic.

Yep, I was about to agree. Mine has the same types of marks.

Why is that? Mine has it too.

I completely agree with your point that descriptions and pics should be fair and accurate (and certainly not misleading). You also offered a real service to potential buyers pointing out the flaws/restorations on this machine that wouldn't have been obvious to many of us.

But since rotordave agrees with me on the definition of HUO, I'll take you up on that offer of a gold star.

I think the seller is missing the point - when you ask TOP DOLLAR people expect MINT CONDITION.

If you asked $2K for this game no one would question the condition. But you're asking double that, and the condition isn't twice as nice.

The amount of calling out is directly connected to described condition and price.

It's because Gottlieb changed the position that the playfield sits to accommodate a multi level or tall toys inside the same cabinets as non multi level games. When the playfield angle was changed (set lower at the top), the cabinet had to have the plunger area routed at a slight angle to put it back in line with the playfield. Also, all games that had this "notch" at the plunger had to have 27" legs on the front and 31" legs on the rear to make the ball roll normal. (MGoW, HH, Spirit & Caveman) The only exception to this is MGoW, it was the first game to have this done to it and Gottlieb didn't have it worked out correctly. I usually put 28 1/2" on the front with 3" levelers on any Mars to make it sit correctly and look better.

Steve

Thanks for the reply, interesting. I always assumed that this was damage caused when moving the game rather than something done at the factory. Have a look at mine though, certainly a lot rougher than example in the picture posted above - could this have been a prototype game where they were still working out the issue and just did a rough job to see if it would work?

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Does BlackHole also have the angled cut for the shooter?

Sometimes the plunger assembly works loose and beats up the art work a little. It looks like maybe someone cleaned up some damage on yours, masked it off and repainted it flat black.

Steve

Black Hole doesn't use 31" legs on the back and it also doesn't have a upper playfield or tube requiring more area so it doesn't need to be routed.

Steve

Some day I need to play a haunted house

Here is a shot from mine. You can kind of see the routing.

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One of the neatest games of all time. Not a speed demon, but tons of ingenuity.

Does it have lastability in a small collection once you get past the initial excitement of 3 playfields? Just curious as I wonder about it and Black Hole as games of interest.

Probably not in a 2-3 game collection. I am partial to HH over Black Hole and actually like the play of Devil's Dare over both.

Haunted House is just a neat game with a great art package and some really cool features (trap door, fall-away target, triple playfields, etc) but, by no means, a desert island pin.

Right on & same here. I wouldn't acquire HH before getting 7-10 of my other faves first. Like it better than Black Hole as well... and agreed that Devil's Dare has the fastest action. But the sound and art package is pretty bad on that one. BUZZ BEEP BUZZ BUZZ BEEP BEEP (infinite repeat) aaaiieeee!

Didn't know that shooter rod area was common. Bought mine last week thought it was damaged but I guess that's factory.20141229_135124.jpg

Spirit is the best of the three, but good luck finding one...