Hey just wanted share our pinball pickup last weekend, which will probably be our score of a lifetime.
Tales of The Arabian Nights, Junk Yard and No Fear for $300 bucks for the lot $100 bucks each.
So I was loaded up with a Uhual trailer with 3 arcades from our collection heading to Jacksonville from Georgia. So about 8pm while I'm driving down I see an ad pop up, first I see 2 pins JY and NF for $125 each (WTF is exactly what I was thinking) as I'm typing up my message I noticed he put his phone number in the ad so I called the number. A man answers and is like Huh for the pinballs as he is handing the phone to another man probably because it was less than 10min since the ad was posted. Guy 2 is all calm and like yeah there here which one did you want? I said I was interested in both JY and NF, his response was yeah those are the better 2. Whoa Huh I ask what else do you have and he says we got a Totan also but it is in rougher shape. So I have to hold my self together and I say oh cool what would you want for the whole lot? He asked guy number 1, then tells me $300 bucks for them all! Holy Moly I got to make something happen.
OK where the problem is these things are in Georgetown AL just past the Florida pan handle and I'm already loaded up with my kids in the car. I'm not going to lie my 1st thought was go there get the pins and leave the arcades there on the side of the road and post an ad myself for free arcades on the side of the road. But no that wouldn't work as it was still a 5 hour drive after I looked it up and that would get me there at 1am doubt that guy wants to sell some pins at 1am. So I call him back and say I can be there as early as it is OK with you tomorrow and he said as early as you want I'm awake before 7am so OK 7am it is tomorrow, please call me if anything changes as I'll be driving all night to get out there and he is like sure they'll be here see you tomorrow.
Wow so now I finish my drive to Jville I got there at 11pm unloaded and went to bed for a quick nap about midnight. Woke up at 1:30am filled up on gas picked up my brother and some cash from ur ATM and hit the road it's now a 6.5 hour drive maybe a little more with gas stops to try and be there by 7am.
The last hour was pretty nerve racking as we where almost an hour late after stops for gas and coffee as we are turning down some very rural semi paved road and stop at a house we can seem them in the back yard under a tarp.

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So they are in the back yard under a tarp, I walk up the guy meets me outside and says here they are and pulls the cover off and Wow actually not to bad. Totan was the worse like he said the bottom fell out when they tried to move it from moisture. He bought just bought them from another who got them from a storage unit purchase, they have been in his back yard almost 2 weeks he says.
Here is the cash let's load them up! After the deal is made the more we look at them the better they look 100% complete if we have to part them out we still make good money but that's not what I want to do hopefully. On the way home my AC unit on my SUV froze up at gas station we had to swap that there in the parking lot that was a mission that took almost 6 hours getting my wife to bring me the part. We make it home at 1am so 23.5 hours for this round trip pinball pick up of a lifetime score.

We get them unloaded the next day and after a better look at them both Junk Yard and No Fear look to be good to try and turn on after I went through with the Multimeter and tested a few things. We put in a few new batteries and guess what they both fire up just fine they completely dried out rubbers are all cracked and the balls are rusty and very very dirty but everything is working just fine on them both.

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I started cleaning No Fear since it seemed the to be in the best condition this past week. Surprisingly the boards are in great shape and the bottom of the playfield is really clean.
So far the only things broken are the drop target return tab and I found one in some spare parts that's brass and twice as thick pretty sure it will never break again. The other thing is a tab on the No Fear mountain on top of the right side VUK and that's both an easy fix and easily bought part.

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After the tear down of No Fear this week I'm still amazed as to how good the inside of the pins are, the cabs are a little dried out but the playfields are great. No Fear has cleaned up really nice. I had just enough left over LED's for the GI and I'll start putting it back together then have to place a Non Ghosting led order for the inserts and what ever else is left. But No Fear will be down this week and playing again.
Junk Yard is in the same condition just needs a good shop job.
Totan is going to need a little work probably a new cabinet not sure yet might be able to save it.
What a great experience never thought we would get so lucky.

Anyone got the instructions on this thing

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That's what we thought for almost 7 hours was this really going to happen, but we lucked out. It will be our story of a lifetime.

I got that typo for you Thanx
Yes the excitement won't be going away anytime soon.

The Totan will be a project I am actually looking forward to, part of the hobby for me is working on the machines and constantly learning new skills. We already purchased a new Gold CPR playfield for it, then I'll get some opinions on the cab to see if it can be saved or just go with a new or donor cab one thing is for sure I want to do it right for that one. Junk Yard will be a quick tear down and shop job also can't wait to have them all working and playing next to each other again

The playfield isn't to bad really 3 areas of concern. The magnet area at the top of the geni has a couple cracks in it, the bottom of the geni bottle the insert has some wear, and the 2 purple diamond inserts in front of the left ramp the clear over the left diamond is complete missing and the right one is chipped. Overall not to bad, but with starting at $100 Totan it's an easy decision to get the Repo. Also I sent out a few pics to a reputable restorer and he informed me Totan playfields have a tendency to ghost so touch up and clear is not a good option. I'm sure when I get it out and clean someone will buy it for a couple hundred or something.

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The Gold CPR playfield landed today also and it looks great from fellow pinsider Damonator

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