http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/anyone-ever-buy-from-mp-amusements

Stay away.

Oops, I misread the title. I have never purchased anything from MP that I can recall, so I do not have an opinion.
-Ed

Where's my popcorn?

I live in York and have tried to buy from them twice. They won't negotiate price at all. Unless your willing to pay the price they have listed I'd stay far away.

From my experience, you're better off posting a "WTB" (wanted to buy) ad here on Pinside and/or RGP for whatever game(s) you're looking for & buying them privately from a fellow collector. You usually get a better price than buying from a retailer, and you can also research the seller and/or ask for references to get an idea about how their past transactions turned out.

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I have never bought from MP Amusements but I have ended up with machines they have sold over the years buying used machines off Craig's List, etc. And when ever I see a MP Amusements sticker on something I am looking to buy I really get worried. I have never seen worse machines or more poorly shopped machines than stuff I have purchased with MP Amusements stickers on them.

Being a guy local to their area it is my understanding when dealing with them it is pretty much a crap shoot. Sometimes you can end up with a decent machine and other times their stuff is really bad. But so far everything I have seen with their name on it has been more towards the really bad end of things.

Sorry to have to say but I really don't think I would consider buying another machine with their name on it even if you were not buying it directly from them at a high price. Just too many hacks & shortcuts from my experience.

Live in York, too. They are very expensive and stuck on high prices. No room to negotiate. I've learned from others to stay away.

haha, at least the feedback has save you some pain

Stretch -

Where are you located and what are you looking for?

Chris

He wants a batman dark knight

I'm pretty sure I know of another pinsider in York that has a HUO BDK and he wants to sell

Awesome.

I recently purchased a few things from M&P and actually had a very good experience. I bought a Monster Bash which is in really nice condition but it was expensive, although less than many others I have seen for sale. At the same time, I bought a Skee Ball machine.

I had a couple of small issues with the MB (Phantom Flip issue on Monster Bash and an LED light that was not working) and also the fan on the Skee Ball was loud. They came out within a week and fixed everything even though I am a 3 hour drive from them. I had also inquired about a mini-barcade (60 in1) for the house and they brought it with them when they came for the repair and told me to use it for a few weeks and see if I like it. I did not have to leave a deposit or anything. If I didnt like it, they would come back out and pick it up.

I mentioned to them that I read a lot of poor feedback on them on Pinside and they stated that it was probably from a few years back. They said they used to sell unshopped pinballs as people wanted something for a low price. However it often ended up with people unhappy. They said that they now primarily sell restored machines which you will pay more for but are in great shape.

I was very happy with my purchase and found the customer service to be excellent. I primarily worked with Gene who is the sales guy. The delivery was made by Mike who is the owner and was a really nice guy as well. Maybe I got lucky but after my experience I would recommend them.

One other thing to note is that when I was looking to buy the Monster Bash, I expressed my concern with the bad reviews, Gene said that they will deliver the machine and set it up and if I was unhappy in any way, they would take it back and refund my money, so I really had no risk. They also accepted credit cards which was also great as I had the ability to dispute the charge if I had problems.

Good luck!
Ed

That's good to know.

Ed,

I have heard both sides of the M&P story and it is my understanding (being a local guy) that the guys at M&P are OK personally but buying from them is like a crap shoot. Sometimes things turn out just fine and other times not so well.

But like I said - from my experience working on machines they were suppose to have shopped and were sold for fairly high prices - when I tore into those machines they didn't fully shop them. They just did parts of machine that could be seen without removing ramps, plastics, etc. Also all machines I have seen with their name on them have been basically done the same way.

Glad to hear you had good results and for a retailer their prices overall are not really out of line but if I were a buyer I would look at the machine you are going to purchase closely before handing over any cash.

It is also good to hear they have good customer service from someone who has bought directly from them. That is huge these days!

I have personally seen what they do. Most games are reimported touch up crap. I once went to look at an unshopped bsd that was supposed to be super nice. No fade excellent condition Turns out the reds were sprayed with a rattle can ( one if the workers told me as if I couldn't tell) CPU acid damage , and just total junk. He wanted 1250 and this was about 4 years ago.

Junk Junk and more Junk

Stay Away unless you want headaches.

If you do buy from them I know someone who can fix all the issues you are going to have at $50 an hour

HaHa If you would have issues you would have never gotten your money back. I challenge 1 person on here to come forward and say MP issued them a refund!!!! - My experience with them was horrible! Plain awful and I had 2 games on order when I had a problem with 1 machine they did not make right. Gene Goodman is a piece of shit!! The guy is an absolute asshole.

Look at all my pinside posts and see how many people I speak poorly about

2.

1. Gene Goodman
2. Mike Patz

So far it sounds like Ed is the only one that has bought from them and had anything good to say.

Like I have already said above - I have never bought from them directly and don't know them personally so I can't say for sure how they are to deal with but I have never seen a machine with their sticker on that was anything decent let along good.

Since I have not bought from them directly I will not say anything bad about them but my experience says - run baby run!

they would bring games to allentown and i bought a few off them in allentown (many years ago) - i don't recall anything negative. i know at allentown they were very flexible on pricing.

i remember one was a high roller casino for $1100. i think they were asking 1600 - it was a well used HRC, he saw me playing it and said make an offer.

i jokingly offered 1k and he said 1100 we have a deal.

i know i bought another one also - i just can't remember what it was.

thanks ed

AS long as you go there and see it youraself you will be ok.. see it play it etc. Their description at times is bad. They are honest people and have been doing this before most of us were born. If local give them a chance..

I remember about 8 years ago they brought a bunch of games to a show i was attending. Their tech was touching up the heads of the games with a small paint roller and black paint.

I never even bothered to look at his games after watching the paint work going on.

If anything if you can go there your self and see it play it and look at it good you will fine but just don't buy on line

They are anything but honest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! x 1,000,000,000

Mike P sold a non working game (I think the title was Playboy) to his neighbor!!!