Condition...if it's true HUO they are normally G O R G E O U S....

My old TSPP was HUO and super minty...like new out of the box nice...

It's actually quite easy to tell if a machine is HUO or not with the appropriate pictures.

Holy mother of run-on sentences, Batman!

And:

Really?

You should borrow some of B_R's extra punctuation.

Are you an English teacher?

location pin + 100% restore = HUO like pin
there is a chance for every machine out there
-
and about the gameplay, a huo or 100% restored machine plays so much nicer than a location pin.
you get much higher scores and much more fun.

I couldn't possibly disagree more.

Typically HUO pins are clean where it is impossible to get clean. They sparkle where typically even a good restore will have trouble replicating. Everything is in the original state from the factory. I have had a few of them and no they don't compared to a high end restore. HUO in my opinion are still better and I do alot of high end restore's. I have owed a few HUO games and still own a Catacomb today. Just awesome.

For the most part HUO games are clean and take little to get them working and looking new. That being said, I picked up an awful huo Tommy recently. The game had bad cigarette stains and they replaced the broken rubber rings with hair ties and shoved paper in the areas to stop the ball from going there. The playfield was black! The woman had her original receipt but didnt care for the game.

Depends on the owner too.

games are fun!

-jon

Then how else would you verify it's HUO without using your eyes. Please explain it me Doug. Obviously checking out a machine in person is ideal but that's rarely the case. If you couldn't disagree more with my comments then you should have plenty of better ways to verify it without using your eyes.

He's a fuckin Ninja Bojo, how do you think he can tell??

If you can't show me a receipt with the current owner's name on it, then it can't be proven IMO. I have bought and sold many machines and I have seen verified (with receipt) HUO games that look like complete garbage. I've also bought routed games from operators that once shopped out could easily pass for HUO.

I am also a fuckin ninja

In fact many years ago I sold a game I bought that was routed to a collector. The game was gorgeous, but confirmed as routed to the owner. Less than a year later he sold it someone else as a HUO machine. I'm sure he used his eyes and guessed wrong on that one.

HUO is virtually impossible to prove. That term literally means nothing to me as I base what I will pay on condition alone. You also have to keep in mind until very recently the vast majority of pinball games were sold to operators to route. I think you are safer off assuming a machine is not HUO and just basing value on condition.

All my HUO, the cat pissed on most of them, but atleast its HUO. An extra $1k for when I sell them please.

HUO pins are great they are usually very clean and play a bit better because the inserts are not as dirty and the shooter lane looks really nice but be careful it could be magic eraser action but receipts for HUO are a must but condition is king I usually use a scale of 1-10 and avoid the word minty when I can and don't say I like the pin too much because then people will think I'm trying to pump up the value so always be careful with that where was I again?

No. Don't have to be to know how horrifyingly terrible that "sentence" was.

Too much

you need to use 1 of your 9 fingers to hit the 'period' key!

one more emoticon, and we get the 11th one free!

-jon

WHAT? Really? WHY? They mean nothing as far as the history of the pin. Why does everyone make the same mistake when talking HUO? Receipts... nice but don't tell us anything really.

Pinball machines are a lot like classic cars. Restored machines are nice but pins, like cars, are only original once. As soon as you restore one, it's originality is gone forever.

A HUO pin is usually a very nice relatively unmolested "survivor". Like a survivor classic car, it will have all-original paint with virtually everything being factory original except for some basic maintenance items like rubber and lamps (same with a survivor car).

I have a couple HUO pins that I bought from people I've known all my life so I know they are HUO but I also have some nice survivors that are not HUO. The non-HUO survivors all have a "story" to them that explains why they are as nice as they are though. If I wanted to be a jerk I could put them on eBay and claim they were HUO and from their condition you wouldn't be able to tell.

Just like classic cars, unmolested and unrestored mint survivors will almost always be worth more than restored machines to collectors. They are only original once.

HUO means nothing.Sellers-(Flippers) attempting to maximize profit.I'm not talking about the recent titles.Decades ago I purchased games that were truly mint.Routed games.It all depended on the location and the operator/owner.As an example my TZ has never been routed.I bought it from a private collector who purchased it new.He was constantly moving it around to not lose it in a pending divorce.Now it is nice but has miles on it literally.Point is a well cared for location pin "could" look better than a non-location game.Eye test is best.Look before you leap in other words.