Where are the games coming from?

what era pins are you mainly looking at to gather and ship?
E/M
Classic S/S
or Alpha-numeric or DMDs from 80-90s
or modern era

If you get this off the ground, please post pictures of the haul.

and... If you know you're board work and aren't afraid of some elbow grease, it's a cool adventure.

Dammit, like I need another project........
Yeah, send me the list please.

Good luck. Just remember, it's worth finding someone on the shipping end to inspect things for you and throw a lock on the container after inspection. Have them mail you the key. Bait and switches happen on these deals. If you can, fly out there and see it for yourself before paying for everything. The cost of the trip is worth it to avoid getting burned.

If the EMs are actual Italian AABs from GTB 70s era
or other home grown Italian EMs
then i would be very interested.

A little advice if I may, while I have never done this my self, I know of a couple of ppl here in Australia who have. They bought containers from Italy and let me tell you, they were dogs (the machines).

Half of them, if not 75%, had heaps of issues. All ranging from wrong sound boards to acid damage, wrong speaker panels, cable ties holding down ramps or switches above the pf'd, to really obvious and ugly hacks. Playfield wear was also a very common theme that I noticed and the bodies were average for the most part.

This is regardless of whether it was an A list title or not.

I have thought many times of doing what you are doing, the only way I will, is by going there personally to inspect the machines.

Good luck, I do envy you that it sounds like you can do it, but do it with your eyes open!

I'd be interested, especially if we could get someone on the other side to confirm what is being sent. I have heard horror stories about the condition of some of these machines and so I am wary. If we could get pics and confirm that what is going into the container is what comes out I would feel a lot better about the process. I'm anxious to hear more about it as you get more information.

I already have a WMS Apollo and GTB Domino ( or should I say Playmates)
Too bad the Apollo is not a Lunar Shot, the supposed Italian version of Apollo.
Wonder if the Domino is actually Grande Domino ( the GTB Italian version)
Speed Rush looks interesting,
but not impressed with "the 100 yards"
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4125&picno=48122
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4465&picno=5502
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1501&picno=22765

I may be interested depending on titles available and cost. Please PM me the list.

Michael

I'd like to see a list also please.

I may be interested

PM sent.

Pm sent

I just bought 10 games from the Italian guy you speak of. He did have pretty good pictures. I've bought LOTS of containers in the past, so well versed in the troubles that will ensue. I will say that his pictures were decent. he did good playfield and backbox board pics, so i have a pretty good idea of what will or won't be there to fix. I don't kid myself, i know it will all be a screwfest of failures and work. I'm waiting for these 10 games to arrive now. should be here in the next couple weeks.

that said, his prices are just too high. yea he's got some decent titles, but the 20+years of wear is tough on these games. For example, flipper wear from ball drag (not from broken flippers or broken nylon bushings) tells me these games were really played with perhaps 50,000 to 100,000 plays. that's high mileage for any solidstate game (not EMs though.)

if his prices were about 25% less than his asking, it wouldn't be so bad. but he's right at the price edge on most titles. Frankly i couldn't find 36 games to buy from him that made any financial sense. (36 games is a half container packed full.) Factor in brokers fees, conversion to Euro, and all the parts/time you need to invest, and it just doesn't make sense (unless you're desperate for a certain title that he has.) I really had to go through his list of games very closely and do lots of math to come up with 10 games. I bought mostly stuff that you just can't get here in the U.S. I think paying current market price for games here in the U.S. is actually a better deal than getting most titles from him and paying the costs in time and parts.

Stuff that i bought included Zacarria games (which just aren't available here, since they were made in Italy!), a "Grand Prix" (Nascar for the Euro market), stuff like that. Common stuff like Addams or Attack from Mars, etc, just don't think it's worth it unless he drops his prices. And yea, he really refused to negotiate on price too. Which explains why his list of games for sale really hadn't changed much in the year that i've been getting emails from him!

A local guy to me (and a moderator here) bought a 1/2 container from him last year. I tried to talk to him about that, but he was silent (i guess that's not surprising.) But i've seen these games around the state as he's sold them. His prices are high (which is to be expected, given what he had to pay mr.italy for the raw machines). and the condition is dubious (from what i've seen), but not unexpected. All i'm saying is this... you better know how to fix machines and have lots of parts (mechanical, electrical, cosmetic) if you want these machines to turn into something decent. Me, i'm willing to do that. But a lot of people may not...

just my 2 cents...

Are we talking about this guy (machine description and picture pasted below)?

BALLY-WILLIAMS MEDIEVAL MADNESS GOOD ORIGINAL PLAYFIELD, ONLY ONE SIDE CABINET DECALS FADED FOR THE SUN , coin door painted bad work , little wear . 1 € 6.000,00mm2.jpg
mm1.jpg

Krankypants

Thanks for emailing me the lists. How much is shipping going to add to prices ?

Yes that's the guy

Depending on additional costs I am very interested. Been looking for a Doc Who and Johnny for a bit and I don't care if they only ever end up being players condition games.
Can't seem to find either one for sale locally so this might be a solution.
Thanks!

This is a great solution to getting some more pins out here that would be difficult to get without shipping from the east or Midwest. Not getting an amazing deal price wise but still very reasonable if you can do some work on them and are looking for some pins..

JM is one of the games I would be interested in. The game he shows pics of looks to be pretty decent but with a severely faded cab. Unfortunately there is no legal place to buy cab decals for this game from. I'm sure there are plenty of bootleg places to buy them, but I don't know any of those people so therefore I have no "in" to get a set.

1300 Euro = just shy of $1500, plus shipping. Figure if you get a half container load that is what? 20 games? If the container costs $3000 to ship, that means each game would cost $150 to ship. Not unreasonable. But add that to $1500 for the game and you're at $1650. Add in parts, etc, and it gets difficult to justify in a hurry on a game that is worth what? $2K in nice condition?

Now if the game was $1K plus all of the above costs then it would be worth it, IMHO.

The seller obviously knows what these games are worth, and is pricing them right at that level where once you finish fixing/restoring them you have just a little more into them than they're resale value.

Personally I don't mind doing the work to restore the games as I rather enjoy it. But it would be nice when the game is finished to know that you could maybe make a few hundred on it if you had to sell it or another opportunity came your way.

Michael

Would not be very surprised to see Jm go for 2200 to 2400.. I think you could make a few hundred potentially on some of these titles you just don't see come up often here. Really though perhaps better for those looking to fix up and keep for a while. Very tempting just have to find more space and convince the wife

Games like Johnny and dr who would be poor container games. Too many potentially worn areas and motors and specialty parts.

I'm paying $2200 for my ten games' shipping, plus brokerage fees. I think a half container is more like 4000 by the way, after all the fees. And I did not get insurance! Again you really need to do the math and assume the worst. That way when the worst arrives, you're not surprised. I have a feeling any 1990s Wms game will be hammered. Did you see the who dunit and monster bash playfields??

Even if JM did go for $2400 in very nice condition you have to get it there. Considering the non-available cab decals, you'd never get it there. So let's say it sold for $2K with the faded cab. I always figure at least $250-$300 for parts plus decals, ramps, etc, as needed. Figure cost+shipping+parts and you are likely in it for around 1800-1900 best case scenario.

And that's not counting the surprises you are going to run across.

Now, if y'all don't mind, I have got to get to work and get off Pinside or my wife is going to kick my butt when she gets home!

Michael

Hi Clay..

So how many games fit into a half container?

Michael

I sold a Johnny working and shopped and faded not long ago. Took a while to get 1800.

36 game in a half if stacked. 72 in a full container.

There's certainly the low supply and high demand here to justify some sort of importing, but it does seem like the prime time for doing that from Europe was a decade ago. Maybe there's some way to organize getting a semi load from the Midwest or East Coast?

Most of Europe was cleaned out by the end of 2002. I can't imagine there's much left.

I sold my *very* nice Johnny a few years ago and it took a LONG time to get $1600.

Ok so if you figure a full half container @$4K that works out to $111.11. Very reasonable. I agree with you and everyone else who says the game prices are too high. In order to justify the cost of the repairs/restoration the price of the games has to be lower. Especially when you consider that a lot of stuff is just not available.

Agreed. The golden age of container games was around '95-2005. After that everything started going downhill as the best of them had already been cherry picked. I know cause several of my A-list games are reimported.

Buying a bunch of games from back east where they seem to be plentiful and hiring semi to make one trip back to the west coast could be viable if the logistical nightmare could be overcome.

It really depends on how many games get loaded up, etc. Someone would have to coordinate the loading from a central location because there's no way a driver is going to stop at 50 places to pick up games. So there are costs associated with that too.

Someone would basically have to be hired to go around and pick up all the games, pack and prep for shipment if not already done, then deliver to a central warehouse for shipping. There are plenty of truck lines that could handle it though.

Michael

Even 4000 may be light for a half container. Last time I did a half container, about 2005 from the uk, it was 150 per game shipping for 32 games. I can't imagine shipping costs have gone down since then.

Note this time, since I bought just 10 games, they are palletized, two to a pallet. Again could not find 36 games from this list that made financial sense. Floated out emails to friends and they mostly weren't interested either - prices too high for the risk involved. Don't under estimate the risk!!

Initially I just wanted to buy four zacarria games. But he would not even talk to me until I reached $10k in prices! That's how I ended up with 10 games.

Way better off doing an "American Picker" roadtrip to the Mid-West, maybe even Chicago with a Sprinter. You would end up with better titles of your choice, less rash, less cash, less repairs. (I've done this before myself). Hell, I would even have more confidence buying a bunch of games from "FUN" in Texas. YMMV, gotta hate west coast prices...

If you want to buy games, go to the Allentown show in May. Best show for price and selection.

We are still working with a container we got from Spain back in 2013. You really need to know what your are doing when it comes to fixing these games. Yes it is fun but the fun slowly disappears as you work your way through it.

Just for starters you will need to know basic electronics, cabinet work, playfield repair or how to do a playfield swap and it is not for the faint of heart but I will say it is very rewarding too if you have the time and resources to do it.

The reason we did it? Was to flesh out our own collections and pass on the other games to other liked minded collectors that would like to restore their own games the way they wanted without paying someone else to do it and pass the savings on to them.

There was a total of 32 games, 3 where swapped out for games we didn't buy like a non working bugs bunny for a second white water and I could go on but we still consider it a part of the process and figured it was part of the experience.

Currently we still have and all are various stages of working/projects,

CFTBL
Getaway
DE Star Wars
Bugs Bunny
Safe Cracker
Scared Stiff
Medieval Madness
Champion Pub
Theatre of Magic
White Water
Stargate

Listen to people like cfh and fellow pinsider's that have gone down the rabbit hole and be prepared for wild ride and don't risk money you can not afford to lose.

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image1.jpeg

i would like to stress the adage from above, "don't risk money you can't afford to loose." That's why i didn't bother with insurance on the ten games i bought. maybe dumb... but i figured what the shipping company could do to my games was nothing compared to what the Italian public already did to them!

that all said i love buying games in mass. be it a warehouse raid or a container (or half a container.) Just today all the good deals are really gone. Again if the Italian guy just had price about 25% less, he would sell all those games. But i look at his list (he sends it out every month), and see games on there for a long long time. i think the good deal games get sold quickly. i would love to buy maybe one or two games at a time from him, but he can't be bothered. he wants at least $10k in sales to talk to you. i just can't make the math work... and man, as someone that has a game buying problem, i really really TRY to make the math work!

Even Allentown was a bust this year, at least for me. I used to come down and get a few decent projects for reasonable dollars, but this time the pickings were pretty slim. Pinball is popular again and the prices reflect that.

i'd be interested in seeing the list.