My second machine "Spin A Card"was free. Owner put inside enclosed trailer, forgot, loaned to friend who went around corner tilted machine inside breaking off head. Miraculously Backglass survived.
Its now working flawlessly.
My second machine "Spin A Card"was free. Owner put inside enclosed trailer, forgot, loaned to friend who went around corner tilted machine inside breaking off head. Miraculously Backglass survived.
Its now working flawlessly.
Not for free, but we've bought a Twilight Zone in working condition several years ago, for ~180$, just to take it apart for parts, just because it had a good DMD, and we needed one. To think back to that with today's prices...
Got a free Lawman (EM) and Grand Slam (Bally) when I started the hobby a dozen years ago. Both projects, and both still working, thanks to a friend's help with electronics knowledge. Then last year I picked up 10 free machines--all projects, mostly EMs--with the help of a few pinball buddies and we split them up between us. The owner was a friend of mine who passed away years ago and his widow just wanted to get them out of her basement. They were all filthy and some had mouse droppings and other signs of decay, and all cost hundreds of dollars in parts to get running, but they're all running now and it made a few people very happy--including my friend's widow.
Hoping to be able to join this club some day but just not happened yet just wish some of my projects had been free makes it easier on my wallet to get them right. Thats a nice looking black rose.
A friend gave me a project Ship Ahoy and even delivered it to my house. He said he had already fixed up like four of that title and that was enough.
Home-Use-Only 1974 Williams Strato-Flite in near perfect condition. I ended up paying $100 for it to be nice but it was from a friend who himself picked it up for free from an old couple that (supposedly) bought it new and he held onto it less than a week as he was an arcade guy and kind of got it for me. So I still consider it my find.
Still had all the original plastic coin switch guards in place. Which sure backs up the story.
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Found as in : see it sitting on the street and taking it home ? No. I didn once find a Wimi bingo machine upside down in a dumpster truck but wasn't interested enough to ask if I could take it..
Found as in : people know I'm into pinball and contact me, yes, that happened a few times.
My friend Kurt found a sonic butterfly and a bally mystic in outstanding condition on the curb for bulk pick up trash day. We went and picked them up immediately!
I was given a free Star Explorer today which I think most of us would agree is the right price for that model. A retiree was clearing out his storage unit before moving from Illinois to Florida.
Mrs Mezelmods, Kristin, picked up a free Earthshaker that had the top playfield disassembled. She worked with several of our pinball friends and put it together in less than 2 months worth of Saturday’s. It was put in the lineup yesterday and plays fantastic. I was of little or no help. LOL.
I went to pick up a Ms. Pac Man cocktail table locally for $250, (which was already a good deal as we later found out it worked just fine once we re-attached the line cord) and when I told the guy I was into pinball he pointed to the corner of his garage and under a mountain of stuff there was a Firepower just sitting there. He said if we dug it out we could have it. Got it home and it booted and played. One of the funnest days I've had and he was happy to get it out of his garage.
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