I've been mostly watching on these forums since I got back into pinball about a year ago, but I'm the one who bought this machine so I feel the need to report on my experience with the transaction. I've met some great people in the PA/NJ/NY pinball and amusement circles so far, however I have to say I was really impressed by Ryan's (Jesters Amusements) approach to doing business.
This was a very fair price for RFM based on my research of current prices and I went into it expecting a "project" to work on over the next few months. What better way to spend some free time this winter, right? What I wasn't expecting when I picked up the machine was for Ryan to spend the next 2 hours with me in his shop explaining every detail of what I might need to do to fix the issues, the history of RFM and quirks of the Pinball 2000 platform based on his experience, potential issues with this particular machine, etc, etc. While we were talking we noticed a minor issue with the green aliens - just one of a number of things I'll need to try to fix. While explaining to me how best to resolve the issue he went back to his supply area and pulled out the exact replacement sleeves I would need and handed them to me. When he noticed the leg bolts didn't match he grabbed a full set of new ones and gave them to me. When we talked about the replacement options for the monitor and an LCD, he offered a brand new one that he happened to have. Instead of trying to make a few extra bucks on the deal and sell it to me for the going rate (around $250 shipped) he offered it to me for $150, a loss for him, since he didn't have another use for it. To top it all off he is donating $100 for this RFM sale to charity in my name and sending me the receipt. I wish we had more people doing business like that in the world, it would be a better place.
Is everyone in the pinball business this cool?? If so I'm going to quit my day job!
-Jay