I work for FUN! and have for going on almost 9 months now. I love it, what better job can you have then working for a company that does what hobby you are passionate about. My position here is Sales Manager. My day to day operations consist of assisting walk in clients with their game purchases, answering phone and e-mail inquiries about games. Directing our team (listed below) as to what machine to get ready next for the showroom floor or what needs to get finished up as it has been sold. I am also in charge of ordering replacement parts from the various suppliers (PBR, Marco, Bay Area, Cointaker, Comet, etc). In addition to ordering pinball & arcade parts. I also purchase all billiard supplies for our showroom as well. Needless to say, with over 150 games on our showroom floor at all times....we all stay pretty busy here.

I know buyers that have had issues with FUN! In the past, but I believe that was a long time ago well before the staff we have working for us now. We have an awesome technician that works full time along with myself and he is well respected in the hobby in the DFW area by how thorough he is. No machine goes out our door until Erron has given it his thorough going through. On top of that we have 4 full time detailers that I must say...do a more thorough job of shopping a game out then I ever have. I'm impressed with the quality of work each of them do. They are amazing.

As for our prices. Let me say there is a big difference between collector pricing and retail pricing and we know it full well. Yes our prices to the collector market may seem high. But we have plenty of retail customers that are happy to purchase from a retail store as they know they are purchasing from a reputable company that is going to support them during and after the sale. It's all about giving the customer piece of mind. We turn a lot of equipment through EBay and have to many happy customers, we value our feedback and try to make every customer happy with their purchase. Rest assured there is no bid shilling...we do sell MANY of our machines through Ebay at the Buy it Now price in that same regard we do sell many that customers that "make an offer". Typically on any given day we have on average 5-10 open orders for games for customers.

Anyone interested in any of our machine is more than welcome to make an offer and I will be more than happy to answer questions about any machine we have over email or phone. I want you to be happy with your purchase, bottom line.

This is a whole hella different than "Joe Anonymous" Ebayer listing his game at a over-the-top high price because he has seen it on Ebay for a retailer asking price (which it may or may not actually sell at)

Sometimes, they even ask HEP/restored prices

all TRUE. and that WH20 is worth less just for the fact that colored LED's were used for GI's.Now someone that knows what they are doing is going to have to back and change them all the white like they should be.

This has been going on since the late 80s. The difference now it is more visible and more prevalent due to ease of "exposure". In the long term, most get run out of the hobby, or eventually get burned and quit. They are unfortunately replaced by another short term set of sellers, and the cycle continues. The only thing that helps slow them down was lack of availability of machines that can "turned" for larger profits(ie later model SS used games). They generally won't touch games made before 1978.

I'm also saying that many of these folks are not even in the hobby, that the pinball machine is just another "commodity" in the pile of stuff for sale. In some cases it is only pins being bought and sold, but often the pins are just a part of the pile of antiques being turned for profit...the pin sits along side vids, jukes, signs, vending machines or just about anything. There's no respect for the hobby of pinball, for them the hobby is really just buying and selling.

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This is also another reason why I end up doing "warehouse raids" when some of these hoarders (not exclusively brokers) finally pass on.
They won't sell except at horribly inflated prices (literally $$$ THOUSANDS), and by the time they do, the machines are complete junk and worthless due to improper storage, moisture, rodents, and insects. Sometimes all of this and more.
The only machines that look worse are those stored in barns or in cow pastures with the glass off.
American Pickers is much better than these situations, and the games are stacked to the ceiling with no ability to even know what is the room.

Normally, I "harvest" machines for parts, backglasses, boards, and occasionally playfields cheaply in these cases, and then try to salvage another game if feasible, but its just a losing battle these days. You need a gigantic climate controlled warehouse to keep everything secured with pallets, crates, cardboard, and stretch wrap. I don't want to do this anymore, and my time is not free.

One of my taglines to reference here is:
"If you do not know how to fix or restore a game, pass it onto someone else, don't take dump squat on it, and let it turn into a turd."

ebay.com link: itm

This is a machine I'd love to have, but not at $2000. It's a little out of my driving range, but I would be willing to if I could get it for $500. Asked the seller if the machine works since none of the photos show it powered up. No response. At least the third time it's been listed at this price.

He thinks "Time to retire, lets cash in " Love ebay

ebay.com link: King Of Diamonds Retro Pinball Machine 28

Nuts to ebay and craigslist. Between the completely unrealistic pricing, verging on fraudulent descriptions, and the very real possibility of being scammed I'd much rather stay on pinside. Even here there is some ridiculousness and have to be vigilant about scammers but not to the level of those others. Pretty sure most of the dealers just use ebay to drive traffic to their sites off ebay anyway

Ebay used to be great for picking up nice non working project games 10-15 years ago. Today they're almost non-existent. I bought well over a dozen, within reasonable driving distance, early Bally SS & Gottlieb EM's games for $200 - 500. Those days are long over.

SMH

I know this is an older post, but this means next to nothing. The ads are marked as not sold. Wishful thinkers can ask crazy all day long, in the end all that matters is what was the figure that actually changed hands, if at all.

Yea that'll never sell, I just hope he did not pay $15K for that monstrosity new when there's Mission framework w/proc out there!

Had to post this. This guy is actually in the business too, probably even on here . If you are interested, I would go with the OBO option.

ebay.com link: Cactus Canyon Pinball Machine Original Bally 1998 w p roc MINT

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That’s probably Darren, owner of Pinballz arcade. He traded a Batman 66 (Premium) for a Cactus Canyon a couple years ago. I’m sure 2020 was a tough year for Pinballz as it was for every entertainment venue.