Does it matter? Condition is king; I've seen HUO games that weren't well maintained and looked worse off than nicely kept route games. The only advantage of HUO games other than how they are maintained is that they aren't on 16+ hours a day, stressing the electronics.

If you have receipt signed with your name.

Many years ago , Williams Blue Chip. Playfield had lot of wear , but rest of game beautiful.

HUO doesn't mean much to me as condition does the talking I have seen some routed games that look in amazing condition and I have seen some supposed HUO games in beat up condition.

No way to prove HUO via documentation. It’s possible that the condition of the game could support a HUO claim, but that’s it.

You could get with the distro and confirm that they sold it to the person you’re buying it from, but still, the thing could’ve been routed for its entire life.

There used to be a much bigger difference between routed and HUO. Because routed used to mean that games got played A LOT (20K+ plays and were left ragged). Now with so many home collectors, HUO isn't a big deal. Also, plenty of games go on location now for such a short period of time, or even if routed, the number of plays is way down from the 90s. But to your question.

I know that the new games have coin drop audits, even breaking it down into how many coins went through each coin slot. I would imagine that you could just look through the audits. HUO wouldn't need to be using quarter play.

I have several games that are in HUO condition but since there is no real way to prove an actual HUO they are are just nice low play games. HUO means nothing to me as a buyer.

Plenty of non HUO games out there that have never had a coin put into it.

OR some that have had a new NOS playfield put in. Those games, with a real nice original cabinet, are as good as NOB.

One of the things I have had trouble with when I was selling a game in the market place is the catagories that Pinside has for condition of your game. It seems that if you have a machine that is in better condition then just "shopped working", then you have to go with "HUO Undocumented" or "Documented HUO". It would be nice if they would change the "Undocumented HUO" to something else. Maybe Excellent Low Play condition. or HUO condition.

One would assume that means they can show they purchased the pin... or can show the chain of custody of the pin. Normally through proof of sale and chain of custody.

No it does not prove what someone did with the pin - but when one looks at the people in the chain, usually you can make some reasonable conclusions.

The chain of custody or HUO state do not define it's condition.. just help frame up the circumstances for which you assume the game was exposed to. Condition is king and the only thing that matters.

Is it some sort of 'fake term' - No
Is it some sort of 'be all end all' deciding factor? No
Is it useful to know? Yes

If one had the bill of sale from a distro, with your home address on it. Photos of the un-boxing in their home some where. I could be good with that. However HUO is just a statement, not a description of the condition of the game.
(Flynnibus beat me by 2 minutes while I was typing. )

If there's paperwork that shows the pinball machine was delivered to a home address, and the game is still there, with the original owner who lives there and has mortgage or other related home ownership paperwork in his/her name and address matching everything else, and the original owner is not an operator, then I would think that's about as close as you could get to documented HUO. Plus what Darcy said about unboxing photos helps.

Yup, and people have their home collection on coin/token drop to simulate the whole arcade feel.

Really? This is something someone would ask for?

If somebody showed up and started asking for my mortgage papers and proof of how long I'd lived at my current address, I'd quickly be moving onto the next prospective buyer.

Yeah but nobody changes every component. Not even HEP. I know I have one. But yes I agree NOB is a bit too far. But restored doesnt describe it either. There again it would be just a really nice low play machine.

Lol, I wouldn't quite go so far as to ask for all that. Where on my post does it say to ask the seller for that info? I was just suggesting if someone was trying to claim documented HUO, they should already be willing to show some credentials and evidence.

Simplest would be someone you know - you were there for the unboxing and you know where it has been since you visit often.

To have a documented HUO you would need a receipt in your name, a pinside unboxing thread with pics of you getting the game and assembling in your game room, then have regular photos of your game room in the pinside gameroom thread with that game in your room. Your unboxing thread should include all mods that you have added to prove validity

Is a game huo if it spends the weekend at a show?

Would a wet receipt still qualify as documented huo?
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That’s considered HUM (Home use mostly)

The people that care about a game being HUO the most wont touch a game that’s been to a show.

Worse than documented HUO is the total bullshit term 'undocumented HUO'c

'c ?? whats the "c ?

HUO does not mean shit if it’s not coming from a pinhead. I have picked up pinballs from owners and they told me they got it new and it looked like hell. They don’t shop them nor ever change the balls out, etc...

Yeah some games that I saw that were real HUO games had never been cleaned or maintained at all. Balls grinding all that dirt into the clear ramps. Grubby shooter lane, stuff stacked on the glass, scratches in cabinet...