I just sell them as is and never look back.

No sense paying for storage, that makes them worth less every month.

If they get stolen or flooded, I'd be out completely (homeowners insurance does not cover stuff in commercial storage, nor do they cover flooding).

Parting them out takes forever, my time is worth more than the headache.

Take a pic, stick a price on it, and sell it right here as one lot. Bam. Done, spend your time on things that actually make you money.

I make it a point to fix it up regardless of price. If you part it out or sell it as a potetial part out, that is one less machine that will ever exist.

Sell as is. I buy games like that.

There may be something that interests me as well but since you do not disclose your location I have no idea if it is even worth thinking about.

Everybody's skillset and resource level is different. What may seem as an un-restorable machine may be exactly what someone else is looking for. I, personally, have never parted out a game and I've brought back to life many that have been considered trash by others.

95% of our machines came through the door as a project I bought depending on what I wanted to do next. Sometimes it's a playfield restore and clear, other times it's a cabinet re-spray. If I feel like making a backglass, I buy one with a thrashed glass. I don't spend too much money on them, just time. Restoring them is the part of this hobby I really love so the time is well spent in my eyes.

Put them up for sale as projects, mention what you have in to them, you might just get your money back and the game will live on.

Art.

Sell the as-is to someone who wants to give them the TLC.
There is not enough money in parting games. You are working too hard for too little money and there is so much waste.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info

Location! =)

Sell them - someone out there is looking for a project I'm sure

Sell as projects. If I had room I would buy them myself.

Like they said,location is important.There are one or two of those I would grab in an instant if I were closer.Jungle Lord is a great game,obviously so is Firepower.I love really messed up project games.Fixing them and restoring them is where all the fun is for me.

I'd love some inexpensive early SS projects, been looking for a few to put on route in the future.
location?

If you have the means to bring them to the Allentown show, how about bringing them there to sell in the flea market area? It's only a few weeks away..

I would suggest, sell them as is. Get what you can out of the ones you do not want. Other people will want them.

If it was something I wanted, I'd fix it, even if that means I need a tech to fix it up.

I don't part machines anymore. Parted too many. Sell as-is to someone who will get it going and save it, or do it myself.

Last I checked, Williams, Bally, Gottlieb, Data East, Zaccaria and Game Plan aren't making any more pins.

Plenty of things I've done for enjoyment in my life didn't make financial sense. It's OK, the enjoyment is priceless!

If you are out of room, send it to a friends house, or put it in the game room at a local boys club or something.

Not every pin has to be concours perfect to be enjoyed.

Some of us 'financially challenged' folks love projects and less desirable pins, that way we have something to work on and play when done!

Give some away. Sell some. Part a couple out. Keep a couple that you may actually feel like restoring someday.

I know when I started out I would have taken a pin that was more barewood than paint on the playfield and a mismatched (or no) back glass. All I wanted was a pin I could play at home.

Those early beater games a great way to start out. I am glad my first few pins were rough. I did some really dumb things and a game that is worth very little and is already beat lets you do that without feeling bad or scaring you off from the hobby.

The OP brings up an interesting phenomenon. You can't ever find a beater pin when you want one, but they never seem to be listed for sale and when you do list one for sale no one will "bite".

Sell as-is to get them off your mind and stop paying rent.
If you don't have time to fix them, you probably won't have the time and motivation to part them out. And if they're that rough, they're probably not worth trying to restore them all yourself.

This is bullshit. If you part out 20 machines, you might actually save 2. People will buy rare parts for spares, and people will buy parts they need from you cheaper but could get elsewhere, and people will buy better condition parts than what they have, and people will buy parts they need that won't affect gameplay. You get my point I think.

If it helps you sleep better at night, believe what you want. When you part a game out, you aren't saving anything.

Just the kind of projects I look for. If I were closer I would definitely take a few off your hands. I hate to see good player machines parted out to help one "quality resto" become complete.

I've never parted one out, I've always believed in allowing them to be saved. The key is not picking up to many projects, otherwise instead of looking at one long term realistic project, you are looking at many that equate to a headache and realization that you're never going to get to it all.

Everyone should have pins to play, and one project to work on at a time. I'm sure I'm not the first to learn this lesson the hard way.

List them all, whatever doesn't sell or can be easily be restored to players condition, part out. Everyone here seems to want them saved, so post a list and let them take them off your hands. Whatever they don't take is probably is too far gone. You are too far for me, but I'm always up for an obscure title.

I have never parted one out, I have saved a few, I even saved a parted out game, all that was there was the cabinet and most of the playfield, no boards or glass at all. Anyway I saved it, played it and then sold it for what I had in it.

i don't suppose there are any em's stashed away in there?

Woohoo! Whatever happened to Fire!?

i part them out. if i can have a nice piece of wall art and a ton of extra parts for $100 its well worth it for me.

That sounds awesome Skip. I've been looking around recently for another restoration project after I did my Laser War. I'm in Central NJ, would you still be interested in possibly selling one of those beaters? I'm more of an electronics guy, I am in the same boat as far as debugging/not replacing boards as well, I've got all the gear to probe and scope and that's my favorite part of the process. I am admittedly not so great at the playfield restoration process, and I lack a lot of the tools for doing it correctly (and probably the patience too!), but I'm learning and would love to give it another shot.

How much to take the F14's, or at least one, off your hands pre-projecting them?

I found out about 10 machines from 2 different owners that went to the dump less than 3 years ago. I wouldn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. Price them low and get rid of them. Not every Cleopatra needs to be "saved". You should be able to get a hundred bucks for a carcass that can be built into a pinball simulator.

I had a bunch of folks on byoac light into me for stripping a stern galaxy to build my simulator, but they were all wrong. I found a great deal on a Seawitch that I used a bunch of the parts on and sold it at a tidy profit. Right around the same time I stripped my Galaxy, I found a nice looking player for $400. I use my Galaxy VP simulator almost every day and nothing beats having an entire rack of a-listers sitting in my den that I could never play without travelling a thousand miles.

The only thing that really matters are your own economics and values as a collector/hobbyist. I saw you weren't looking for offers, but I haven't seen anyone step up and try to take the whole unit off your hands.

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