I’m looking to add to my collection of late EMs from the 70s and early SSs. I’ve bought all 4 of my pins off EBay that were within driving distance but they rarely come up like that and when they do they are mostly way overpriced. Surrounding cities Craigslists are a cesspool with few actual pins.

Looking for some savvy tips for locating pins in just about any salvageable condition from some of you guys on here. C’mon give up your secrets and help a brother out.

Lots of great tips that are really helpful. Thanks for the responses. Hopefully I can post pics of a purchase here soon. Right now I’m looking to add 2 pins to my small collection.

It’s funny, I’m a professional residential Painter and have been for 26 years and I always thought I’d run into customers that had old pins in their basements that they’d let go cheap but that’s not been the case. While I was dreaming of finding a Bally Black Jack EM tucked away somewhere I came across one older grandmother that had a Williams Strat-O-Flite in her basement and I asked her to let me know if she ever wanted to get rid of it and she said she might but she heard it was worth about $7000-$8000. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it might fetch $400 on EBay.

Thanks for the advice. They did have an arcade expo here in Louisville back in March. I was looking forward to going but the list of pins at the show was 90% post-1980 pins with only a few from the 1968-1979 era, which is pretty much my thing. I’ll keep my eye out though.

That’s the cold truth, just like every stray animal ends up finding my wife and me at our house.