(Topic ID: 95275)

Has anyone bought a pin from Pinball Universe

By achtungboyy

9 years ago


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    #1 9 years ago

    I'm getting ready to buy a pin that's kind of hard to find. Has anyone had any recent dealings with Pinball Universe in Grand Junction Colorado? The pin is kind of expensive and I don't want to get a bad pin or deal. Can anyone share their experiences with them? Thank you

    #3 9 years ago

    I honestly didn't even think they were around anymore. Never had direct dealings with them, if the pin seems expensive it likely is from a retailer. Why don't you post what you are looking at and price and you'll likely get better feedback if you are getting a good deal or ripped off.

    #4 9 years ago

    Wow pinball universe. I always bought their repro plastics BITD before Wayne started letting the C&D letters fly. The plastics were great, and I never had a bad deal.

    #5 9 years ago

    Yeah I remember Pinball Universe back in the early 2000s and thought for sure their website would never have been updated since then. Looking at their prices, they are definitely high, then throwing $600 shipping on top of that...Ouch!

    I think buying games from a retailer and having them shipped is a crap shoot to begin with. Not sure where the OP is located, but seeing a game in person before you buy sure helps reduce the conditional disappointment that sometimes comes with buying sight unseen.

    EDIT: The only game on their site I see that might be 'rare' is King Tut. The rest you shouldn't have any problem finding through a local collector at a much better price.

    #6 9 years ago

    Always see and play the game first when spending this amount of money.

    #7 9 years ago
    Quoted from schudel5:

    Yeah I remember Pinball Universe back in the early 2000s and thought for sure their website would never have been updated since then. Looking at their prices, they are definitely high, then throwing $600 shipping on top of that...Ouch!
    I think buying games from a retailer and having them shipped is a crap shoot to begin with. Not sure where the OP is located, but seeing a game in person before you buy sure helps reduce the conditional disappointment that sometimes comes with buying sight unseen.
    EDIT: The only game on their site I see that might be 'rare' is King Tut. The rest you shouldn't have any problem finding through a local collector at a much better price.

    I am looking for a MB or a SS. Really want an SS but they are getting harder and harder to find.

    #8 9 years ago

    If you are not local and able to go check the game out how about asking a fellow pinsider who lives close to this business to go see the game. I own an arcade in CO and know a lot of pinheads ect, and dont know much about this place except early in my collecting i would stare at machines on there website and drool. Prices seemed high back then but it is retail.
    Good luck
    Always best to See It, Feel It , Play it before buying it.

    #9 9 years ago
    Quoted from ghostbc:

    If you are not local and able to go check the game out how about asking a fellow pinsider who lives close to this business to go see the game. I own an arcade in CO and know a lot of pinheads ect, and dont know much about this place except early in my collecting i would stare at machines on there website and drool. Prices seemed high back then but it is retail.
    Good luck
    Always best to See It, Feel It , Play it before buying it.

    That is a great idea. I would love to go see it but I am 17 hours away. Let me know if you know anyone close. I would really appreciate it and even send gas money to someone who would take a look at it for me.

    #10 9 years ago

    I used to do business with Denis at Pinball Universe quite a lot, and always thought him to be honest and fair. I don't think you would have any problems dealing with Denis.

    Allen @ TreasureCove

    #11 9 years ago
    Quoted from treasurecove:

    I used to do business with Denis at Pinball Universe quite a lot, and always thought him to be honest and fair. I don't think you would have any problems dealing with Denis.
    Allen @ TreasureCove

    So I should ask for Denis when I call? I just am a little worried because I saw tons of negative reviews on Google.

    #12 9 years ago
    Quoted from bemmett:

    I honestly didn't even think they were around anymore. Never had direct dealings with them, if the pin seems expensive it likely is from a retailer. Why don't you post what you are looking at and price and you'll likely get better feedback if you are getting a good deal or ripped off.

    I am looking for an MB or SS

    #13 9 years ago

    Pinball Universe is not bad they did a really great job preparing the machine for shipping, and a decent job shopping out the machine.

    1 year later
    #14 7 years ago

    They do not know how to update their website and when you call to ask about something that says to call and ask about it they are fairly rude. The guy told me that I was looking at an outdated page and hung up on me. Does not seem like the most professional of businesses.

    2 months later
    #15 7 years ago

    I had a bad experience recently. The game was one they did a lot of work on but the work was poor quality. The switches were reversed for the pop bumpers, had a gi short problem, missing nuts and bolts throughout the game, broken parts but the most upsetting was the pictures they sent me to buy was a different machine. He did send some of the broken parts. He then went radio silent to email or phone calls. Denis/pinball universe has a poor reputation by other reviewers if you google him. Best to listen and would avoid.

    2 years later
    #16 5 years ago

    Resurrecting this thread. I'm looking to purchase a pin from PinballUniverse and got from Denis via email that they're pretty busy but their phone number wasn't working which threw me off a bit.

    Anyone recently purchase a pin from PinballUniverse and have some feedback about their experience they'd like to share? The reviews from several years ago were "mixed" at best so was looking for an update.

    1 month later
    #18 5 years ago

    I’m not sure if anyone cares at this point but I bought a Congo from Pinball Universe a month ago and overall I’m fairly satisfied with my purchase.

    Denis sent me pics of the cleanup process and kept me informed of the status of the pin while he was prepping it. He also said he would not upgrade the pin to LEDs which was a little disappointing but I could do that myself.

    When I got to his warehouse (which is a small prefab in the back of a residential neighborhood) the pin was sitting on a hand truck with the legs off. He set it down and turned it on so I could play it but it obviously wasn’t level which made it difficult to test. I was a bit nervous but the playfield was in pretty good condition, at least consistent with what I saw in the pics he sent and took the glass off and used my hand to throw the ball into each switch successfully.

    Denis helped me load the pin and I was off.

    Since then, I’ve found the following problems:

    - the kickback was only working 10% of the time.
    - 3 lights don’t consistently work even after replacement.
    - there were some loose connections in the head causing several electrical issues.
    - the playfield was covered in dust, everywhere.

    The kickback is something other people have complained about on Congo. I bent the metal rod and that seems to have fixed it.

    The lights were surprising, but I’ll order replacement twisty connectors.

    The loose connections probably happened in transit.

    The dust seemed weird, he sent me pics of the pin with all the parts off the playfield as he checked lights and cleaned it. Then when I got it, I had to take everything off the playfield and clean it again quite thoroughly.

    Overall, I payed a little more than market value for a pin I love and am fairly happy with the purchase. It came from Denis all original. I needed to install LEDs, colorDMD, and updated software.

    I will probably buy from Pinball Universe again but try and get Denis to perform the LED upgrade and if he really cleaned the pin, I’ll suggest storing it with the glass on.

    3 months later
    #19 5 years ago

    well i bought a part for Addams Family, i never recieved anything and they are not answering on my emails - looks like they are dead or they dont care about people who send them money over paypal - DONT BUY THERE

    #20 5 years ago

    They never returned any of my emails. And now reading the reviews I’m glad they didn’t.

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