A long time ago I bought a truck with a liftgate. Money well spent.
But there have been times when I don't have the truck or a dolly
handy.

In those cases I've found two items very helpful. A wood stool
a couple inches higher than the distance between the floor and rear. bottom
of the cabinet. Put the rear of the cabinet on the stool, remove rear
legs (and backbox if possible, or lay it down and strap it), then
remove stool and set back of machine down. Lift front of machine
up and remove front legs. Then the next tool comes into play:
a large skateboard. Get back of machine on skateboard to
position it next to tailgate of truck/suv and set it in. Works
good on hard surfaces but not lawns or dirt.

Easy-peasy.
Steve

I have moved my
Whole collection myself. Do I do it by myself anymore ? No! Because my alien le fell on me and broke my leg. Don’t let it happen to you !

It has been my experience that moving a pinball machine on your own isn't really that bad, but I'm 6'4" and 220 pounds. I've never moved one up or down stairs on my own, but I could see taking one up or down a flight.
My biggest tip if you read nothing else is not to remove the front legs until it's in the vehicle.

With that said, the steps I use are as follows.
-Use a dolly with big inflatable wheels if you have to move through grass... a refrigerator dolly will sink
-Remove balls, tilt bob, coin box, and other loose items inside machine before moving.
-Fold down top box, and strap to cabinet leaving cardboard or blankets in sensitive areas.
-Pick up rear of machine and slide a bar stool under the rear of machine
-Remove rear legs and LABEL for next owner.
-Gently set rear of machine on ground.
-Tip machine onto it's bottom.
-Slide dolly under bottom of pinball machine, with handle between legs.
-Strap pinball machine to dolly (with lots of padding)
-You can now hold the machine by the dolly or by the legs when moving.
-If you need to rest you can rest the machine on it's front legs/dolly wheels while moving.
-Wheel machine to vehicle.
-Rest machine on dolly wheels/front legs.
-Remove straps keeping machine on dolly
-Lift rear of machine into rear of vehicle (with padding).
-Push machine into vehicle until you can let go.
-Remove front legs.
-Label front legs.
-Secure pinball machine.
-Do steps in reverse at final destination.
-Pinball!

Leaving front legs on tip is a good idea. Thanks!

Unless you have to make a tight turn.

Last year I moved to a house with a walkout basement, so now I can easily move pins on my own! My days of removing back boxes are over.

Walk outs for the win!

Bumping this so I can find it easier this weekend when I finally get around to building one.

I second P2K ’s nomination for a Nobel Prize in Services to Back Challenged Pinheads With No Kids Left At Home. This thing is life changing.

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FYI, adding t-molding to the bare wood edge will help keep it from scratching the floor, and help keep the edge from wanting to splinter out.

Great idea but forgive my novice question... but is there a special tool for routing the groove in the edge of the plywood to accept the t-molding?

A router with a slot cutting bit.

If you don't have a router and bit you could get some cotton webbing and install it with some small finishing nails and some Gorilla Glue

https://www.amazon.com/Cotton-Webbing-Ribbon-Buckles-Handbag/dp/B01GB5GTTS/ref=sr_1_10_mod_primary_new

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Or you might be able to get a piece of scrap carpet at a carpet store.

https://www.harborfreight.com/slot-cutting-router-bit-set-5-piece-59637.html