Toronto, ON
Quoted from Mando:but if its your only one best be a good one
Come on now, you know this will never work. For collecting pins you either have many or none cause having one is just silly 
Just kidding lol Before I started in this hobby a fellow collector had invited me over to check out his collection of games and I was floored to see he had around 20 pins in his basement and thought that was nuts. I told him that if I could just get one I would be happy and look at me now nearing 8 pins now in a matter of 15 months.
My advice is before you buy your first pinball machine, try to make friends with some local collectors on here or RGP. This way you can go check out their colletion and they might even be nice like friend was and showed me a few common issues and basics to be familar with cause stuff will break or need to be maintained. Also keep in mind certain machines will have specific problem(s) or common wear areas on the playfield such as:
Johnny Mnemonic might have the hand switch error glove might not be working at all or Funhouse Rudy's eyes or jaw might not be working properly. Rollergames has common magnet wear by the upper right flipper or The Shadow has wear by the Sanctum lock.
If you don't know of any local collectors you can always check and see if there is a Visual Pinball recreation of the game you are considering buying. It will play similar to the real thing and give you an idea on the game's flow, shots, animations, modes and sounds for the game. If you have never setup VP before you can read my 5 minute guide to get you up an running on a PC desktop computer I posted on a local forum here in Canada called maaca.
http://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5886
There are other things to check before you commit to a machine but it is best to post on here for a price check and maybe we can give you pointers or even come look at the machine with you. Good luck and hope you find your first machine soon. Remember just because you over paid for a particular game doesn't mean the next person will so take your time and find one for the right price and stand to lose very little money.
Miramar, FL
