Marco pros:
-Ships very quickly
-Lots of obscure parts
-Good customer service
-Easy to save a shopping cart/list for later

Marco cons:
-More expensive
-Higher shipping costs
-Web site is harder to navigate and I find it aggravating
-I've had a few messed up orders, which they always fixed

PBL pros:
-Best prices
-Very reasonable shipping costs
-Quick shipping, not as fast as Marco in my experience
-Easy to navigate web site
-Good customer service

PBL cons:
-Less selection
-Harder to save a shopping cart (have to use wish list)

Those are the only negatives I can come up with for PBL. I've probably placed 2x as many orders with them as with Marco and they've never messed up.

I like and use both. I placed orders with both places this afternoon. But PBL is my first choice.

_{Post edited by stangbat : Revised}

For games, it isn't too bad. But once you drill down to a category it would be nice to have the ability to refine it further or at least search through what is displayed. For example, once I get down to "Bally Attack From Mars Playfield Parts, Hardware / Fasteners", there are still six pages of stuff to go through. And I can only sort by popularity, price, brand, item #.

And they don't name their parts consistently, so when searching, you have to do several searches to cover all your bases.

Try to find a specific piece of hardware that isn't categorized for your game. Drill down to Playfield Parts >> Hardware/Fasteners and you've got 33 pages with the only sub category being Machine Screws. And selecting Machine Screws still gets you 9 pages with no easy way to find what you want.

Try to find a metal standoff or hex post that isn't listed for your game. It is a mess. 12 pages of inconsistent naming and descriptions.

I could go on, but I'll stop there. Although Pinball Life doesn't have as much inventory, I find their navigation much easier and it is way easier to drill down to what I want and find it.

I've always had great customer service on the phone from Marco...because they keep messing up orders and I have to call. I can think of three instances off the top of my head, two of which were within the last couple of months. They are nice on the phone, and they make it right, but twice I've had to ship back parts at my own expense because someone is in a hurry and picks the wrong item off the shelf. They always say they will pay my return shipping, but getting them to do so is another hassle and requires more follow up emails and phone calls.

I've ordered probably 10x as often from PBL and probably spent 10x as much and I've had one mess up that I can think of. It was five 3-1/2" rings and they sent 3" instead. Since I'll use them, I didn't even bother to contact PBL. I just ordered the 3-1/2" rings on my next order.

Plus I hate Marco's web site, now more than ever. It is exceedingly difficult to find specific items. The search is poor. I mentioned some of this in a prior response, but their categories are overly broad and you have to wade through hundreds of items. You have to constantly re-select how many items you want to display so you don't only see 12 and then have to step through 15+ pages. You now only have the option to sort by name and price, no highest or lowest price first, no item number. If you want something that you know will be expensive, you used to be able to make the highest priced stuff come to the top. Now you have to sort it by price and go to the last page.

That ended up being quite a rant. Sorry. I guess this just hit me at a time when I'm kind of frustrated. To not be entirely negative, I do appreciate the fact that they stock many hard to find items. I also appreciate that they have lower priced shipping options available since they redesigned their site.