Another GREAT Allentown Show behind us. Just got home and wanted to say thanks again to Ivan & all his crew for putting on another record breaking Allentown Show. The crowd Friday was insane - today foot traffic seemed a little slow but I think it was the best line up of games I have ever seen at Allentown on a Saturday afternoon. Freeplay area didn't have many empty spaces Saturday (even at 4PM). Much better Saturday (as far as number of games in freeplay) then I ever remember so with what seemed like a smaller than normal crowd Saturday there didn't seem to be big lines waiting to play machines today.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello. Wayne & I had a great time but 3 long days have taken a toll. Driving home to Carlisle every night this year added 4 extra hours to each day for us but it was necessary for us to do things that way this year. I am getting too old for 8 or 9 hours total sleep in 3 days!

More tomorrow!

There were 3 Flipper pools there I had one in Free Play Friday and then in the flea Saturdsy

What an incredible weekend. I thought if I could make it to the show it would just be great: it's a six hour drive. Our local great Stephen Scohy was going and I knew I'd have a friend there at least. Little did I know.

Right when I got there I got to meet Todd Tuckey, and Frank was in tow with him, surreal.

I met Colsond3 and shook his hand over his incredible Bally Vampire!

I met MarkInc with his stunning Nightmare Before Christmas home built pin, and he patiently answered questions from me, even though I know he's answered the same questions at least a hundred times before. And what a machine it is.

NicoVolta walked in the door and I ambushed him. I thanked him for all he has done and he talked of some of his future plans. What an asset. I even got a selfie with him!

I finally got to meet some of the vendors I've been working with - Marco, Lights Out, Cointaker, PinballGifts, Pinitech, PinSound, so many others.

I got to meet rkahr who I have ordered many boards from (if only to keep in preparation for eventual problems) and Ron was so patient with me. He wanted to talk shop and made it so easy to understand. What a wizard!

And icing on the cake, today I got to be Todd Tuckey's cameraman! If you saw a middle aged overweight dude in a Phillies jersey with a camera filming Todd, well that was me. It was just a situation that started with a lunch, and ended with an exhausting day of following and filming this great venue. Todd has limitless energy! He has so many stories, too.

If I got in your way, I apologize. But no one seemed to complain and it just seemed like everyone was having such a good time.

I barely played any games to be honest. I wanted to come to the show and enjoy the sights and sounds, and meet some of the great people. That's exactly what happened. I've only been pursuing this hobby for a year now, and it has been so rewarding because of the people.

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Lermods - you had one of the best things at the show! Your magnetic pincups are terrific! So happy I noticed them and grabbed a couple.

eabundy - your Demo Man is what my Demo Man wishes it could be. It looks and plays amazing - where did you get that translite?

Signs of addiction may include a installing a shaker motor in your hotel after almost 72hrs of pinball.
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Another great show overall. By far the busiest Friday I've ever seen at the event--it was jammed. I left the show by 2pm on Saturday, but it seemed a little light compared to prior years, attendee-wise. I was impressed with the game selection overall--some years seem heavy on the EMs (or broken EMs), but was happy to find a good mix from all eras in freeplay. The weather cooperated, which was a nice change from the wet and muddy conditions of last year. The usual suspects had their flea market spaces stocked, but I've found that the cache of "rusty gold" used parts I returned with in prior years just wasn't there this year. Maybe it's just bad luck on my part and nobody had stuff I was looking for. I ate my fair share of pretzel wraps from the farmer's market. Also some crab cakes. And deep fried cheese curds. And cupcakes. I visited the breakfast counter at Bada Binggs both days and the owner said she prepped three times the amount of food they normally do for a Friday ("You pinball guys love to eat!"), and they still ran out of food as the day came to a close.

One of the highlights of the show for me was finally getting to try the bingopodcast Multi-Bingo machine. It's a mecanical marvel. I also enjoyed playing the aformentioned gorgeous Expressway as well as some seldom displayed EMs: like WMS Viking and GTB World Beauties.

As for games I've added to my wishlist after playing this year at the show: DE Playboy 35th Anniversary (no foolin') and GTB World Series AAB.

Thanks to the Pinfest staff for keeping things running smoothly. Let's do it again next year!

There were a few stand out games (to me).

The Nightmare Before Christmas - This was just amazing. It played like a production machine with fantastic shots, great graphics and sound.

Iron Maiden - As I mentiooned before, I thiink Stern hit this one out of the park, and I am not a Stern fanboy at all.

Houdini - Always like this game.

Eric Bubdy's Demolition man - holy cow that thing was nice.

Cuphead - Yes, this was a video game, but I had never heard of the game and I found the animation mesmerizing.

Colson's Vampire was a thing of beauty as well.

There were some VERY nice EM machines this year. Thank you to all who brought games for others to enjoy.
Thank you also to Rob Kahr for his help to me this year. I could not have gotten done what I did without him! What a kind and helpful person he is!

Chris

Good to know this guy lives in my neck of the woods....playing EMs can be tough bc normally the PFs are so old the ball crawls around the pin but his EXPRESSWAY PF was like glass and so smooth!! It made the ball so much more lively and game play fun...it looked great and all the chimes sounded clean and clear. That's my vision of EM pinball.

Don is a great guy I see at Allentown every year, and an EM guru!

I almost chased him down for that $400 Dealers choice on the floor but ran out of space when a friend bought a Hot Tip!

Fun show and finally home. 15 hr drive, ugghhh.

Loved the nightmare before xmas, colsons awesome vampire and finally meeting him in person, great playing radical, some of the AMAZIng EMs I have never seen before that were lovingly restored, the great pretzel wraps, and of course the people. It was fun being at a show where I don't know many and get to meet new people and play some pinball.

Also, major props to Colson for the assist in helping to find me this. What a treat to bring home. She is a little rough but can be repaired and brought back to like new.

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2018 Pinfest was in the rear view mirror as of about 8:45 PM last night for Wayne & I. After getting a few hours sleep I was laying in bed this morning thinking about what I wanted this post to say and the best I can come up with is -- I want to publicly apologize to a few and say thank you to many of the people I talked with over the past few days.

First off I want to let anyone I had to cut conversation short with know I am sorry I didn't have more time to talk but it got pretty crazy at times and I seemed to have to be talking to several people at once a few times. When that happens it is hard to shake everyone's hand and thank them for stopping by to say hello. I also want to apologize for not having a bigger & better load of project machines this year. My plans for another big load of machines was turned upside down when I wrecked my van about a month before the show while picking up a load of machines & parts in El Paso, Texas. Hopefully next years load will be better! I also want to apologize to a couple people for not being able to bring stuff they were expecting to be able to pick up from me at the show - don't worry I'll get that stuff to you ASAP.

As far as the thank you end of things:

First off and very important to me I want to thank Ivan & his fantastic crew for doing such a great job every year. I am always amazed at how well organized you guys are and how all of you are always willing to do what ever it takes to get it done. For that a big THANK YOU!

I also want to thank the dozen (or so) people who dropped parts off to us at the show. I was blown away by how many items I tripped into because of the buy-sell-trade post here on Pinside. Your parts will help save or improve several of the machines I have sitting here waiting for "some love".

But lastly & most importantly I want to thank all of the people who bought machines from us in 2017 for coming over to thank us again for those machines and to share pictures of some of those project machines all fixed up and playing great again. The biggest "rush" I get out of the pinball hobby is getting machines & parts to people who will do something with them and it is always great to see some of the results of my efforts.

I am not much of a pinball player so I never even walked over to play a machine in the "freeplay area". I did walk through once just to get an idea of what machines were on that side of the show and it looked like a fantastic line up of machines again this year. My enjoyment with the pinball hobby is "saving machines" that can be saved and parting out machines that are too far gone to help save other machines. It is always nice to get feedback from past customers (good & bad) but thankfully this year all the feedback was great and that really made my weekend.

One last thank you to everyone that has supported my son Wayne's PINITECH venture. He gets his enjoyment by creating items he thinks will be helpful to people trying to repair or upgrade their machines. He puts hundreds of hours into trying to develop and design the "best" products he can (often to just have someone copy what he has done and undercut his prices with lesser quality clones) but he has accepted the fact that some people will do that and there really isn't much he can do about it. I am a proud father - happy to see how Wayne has taken countless hours trying to come up with "a better way". It amazes me how quick his test fixtures make some of our repairs these days but it makes me a little sad to see there isn't much demand for that test stuff he has created over the years.

AGAIN THANK YOU TO ALL! Now it is time to start getting ready for York.

I am hoping to make Pintastic (June 28th through July 1st) but I don't know how long my van is going to be in the shop. Gabe stops by to talk to me every year about coming up with a load of machines & parts but so far I have not been able to get to New England to do his show.

Sorry for such a long post but it seems there is always so much to say!

Not bad, Mr. Baldridge... not bad at all. Oh who am I kidding - this hybrid contraption is a true mechanical marvel. An OUTSTANDING effort to preserve bingo and share for decades to come.

Would love to see this as a boutique commercial product and buy one for the museum.

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Ivan the glass for the GENIE fit perfect . your son was a great help with his tape measure .Thanks again freddy

Great show. Busiest I’ve seen in the 3 years attending. A lot less games left the floor from Friday to Saturday. The show floor for Saturday remained pretty full even up to 5pm.

The Stern Pro Circuit Tournament was a great event. Machines held up great across the 2 days. Congrats to all the winners and a big shout out to the entire team of volunteers who helped run and maintain the tournament machines. Also a shout out to Jay Robinson and Corey Hulse for putting it together. Lastly, the Rage Tilt Crew are so freaking awesome. They sat there for 2 straight days and live streamed the entire tournament.

Finally the Ramada. Sorry it didn’t work out folks. We kept having a few people who insisted on drinking beer not purchased from the bar and that ultimately led to the bar manager shutting the event down. Thanks to all who brought games. Sucks it was short lived. After it was shut down about 20 of us went back to my room where we setup my Iron Maiden and a BSD from @bluespin. We ended up having 2 small incidents in my room because someone who was very inebriated abused the BSD by picking it up and tilting it out. That was a show of total disrespect to do that to someone else’s machine. Then later on the DC guys brought in an Alien to setup but they were missing the power cord. Unbeknownst to me, they ended up taking the power cord from the BSD without asking @bluespin. On the surface and looking from the outside people may think this isn’t a big deal at all. It’s a power cord. However it was more driven behind the fact that one of the guys in the group was the same guy who slammed BSD. So while the DC guys were trying to do a good thing by bringing in the Alien it actually ended up being a bad thing. I wish the whole thing went down differently because we are all pinheads and we shouldn’t have to deal with things like this.

@bluespin, my apologies to you that you were involved in this mishap. Thanks for bringing the games, you are an awesome dude and most everyone appreciated your efforts.

That’s all I got. See everyone in York.

It was a little more chill at the comfort Inn bar - always seemed to be some Canadians closing the place down!

Sorry the Ramada turned into a bit of a shit show but it looks like it was epic while it lasted! Thanks
For babysitting our roommate Greg who (somehow) made it home in one piece!

I'd like to make a motion to ban all alcohol next year,all those in favor,say I. I wouldn't have the nerve to say this, if I thought you guys knew where I lived.

Thanks for the kind words folks... always loved Expressway’s look and feel, and game play is underrated IMO... this game was a pleasure to restore, and it’s got a great new home to be shared by others.

Wonderful show... just keeps getting better every year!!! Did not want it to end, like this guy who had to play ‘just one more game’... this shot taken after most things had been moved out of the inside flea market area at the very tail end of the show...

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Translite was under the game for some reason.

That was a guy playing our Dracula over in the Flea Market area while we were loading. I kept 3 machines up and running against that bathroom wall for people to enjoy up until about 7 or 7:30 last night while we loaded other stuff. We were one of the last two or three people to leave the Flea Market last night. Financially the show wasn't great for us this year (mostly because of my load) and Saturday foot traffic seemed a little slow but overall we had a great show.

Yesterday I think the weather was just a little too nice so some people did outdoor stuff instead of going to the show for sure. But Friday was insane over in the freeplay area - it had to be a record crowd as well as a record number of machines in freeplay.

Always the best part of any show!

I also want to chime in & say thank you to all the people who came by to say hi! Some even thanked us for bringing the games that we did. Friday was CRAZY! Like Skip said, sometimes you find yourself having to cut conversations short that you want to have.

Last year we had 1 booth & this year we were going to do 2 and that morphed into 4 and a 26ft straight truck!

I can't thank Rich Jiggly_Martian & Nestor dkeruza enough for everything they did. Unloading/setting up/breaking down/selling/talking to people about games & seeing people you haven't seen since the last show is a head spinning experience. These guys are GREAT friends who dragged their wives out (along with mine) to help out (we never did have time to get that group picture we wanted). It's a LOT of work that we got together in a true team fashion. Nestor only had 1 game to sell, yet was there for us like they were all his. Both guys covered me on Friday (by FAR the busiest day) when my wife & I had to leave to take Prom pictures with our daughter. THANKS GUYS!

Rob & Kim Lermods it was a pleasure to be next to you again, as it was at the York show. I was glad to help you out with my DILE after your other show machine fell through. It was fate, because I was on the fence about selling it and wasn't going to bring it until you needed a game. I wouldn't have sold it if that GORGEOUS Scared Stiff that robgo777 restored didn't come up. thanks Rob, it was nice meeting you & your wife. You guys did a GREAT job on it! That won't be leaving my collection anytime soon!

Thanks to all the people who bought games from us and to Ivan for putting the whole show together.

I was actually able to get more than 100 feet from our booth on Saturday & spend some $$$. I got a NGG topper, powder coated legs (surprised there were any left, they looked great!) I picked up may glass order, got parts ordered from Marco and I think I even played 2 freeplay games (ID4 & TOTAN) Congrats to the TOTAN buyer, I wanted that to put next to SS. If anyone had a really nice TOTAN I did bring a couple of games home I could trade..

Hope you can make it, Skip. The only thing a little lacking at that otherwise fabulous event is the flea market action.

I hope you bought one for her! There were three at the show. We need more young EM pinheads!

Man, that sucks, *Bluespin* is one of those kinda guys that will do anything to help out a fellow pinsider. Got to meet him this year also. Brought a head for a Game I needed the whole way from GA to PA and just gave it to me free. Can't get any better then that.

Yes, happened to me! On the Batman game a guy punched in 2 games. When I saw that I said "I guess I'm playing the second game!" He looked around at me and then just walked off.
[maybe it was the laser eyes!]

Bluespin is one of the good guys in this hobby, I had a business trip to Atlanta in March and he reached out to me and offered to take me to a local pinball place an hour out of his way to pick me up where I was staying. Wish I could have chatted with him more at the show but i was resting my injured foot most of the show.

So I saw this machine I really wanted! An EM, forgot the name...King Of Diamonds maybe...the one where the cards pop up on the backglass. Played a bunch of games on it. It was the nicest one I've ever seen! I decide to make an offer when I see written small at the bottom of the card..."Sale Pending"
Bollocks!!!

So a hypothetical...
Say a pinsider puts a deposit down on a pin, and will pay the balance at the show before pickup. Machine is delivered there at some expense and effort. Pinsider then wants to open it to see it before he takes it (which is fine). Then on sunday, decides they will pass because stretch wrap to wrap it back up after they open it isn't being provided.

Now, said pinsider asks for a refund of the deposit.

Is this even cool?

Wanted to say it was nice to meet NicoVolta - and thanks for the added effort with your selfie skills to make me look about as tall as you are! (I'm not)

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No.

I would probably give the deposit back and make sure that EVERYONE knew who the person was and to urge them not to deal with them.

Go to a hardware store and get some shrink wrap or straps. Good lord.

Couldn’t they source some stretch wrap at the show from someone? Sheesh.

I couldn't justify this Project Demo Pin in my collection, by having a machine that nice, all my other machines become the projects so it would cost way too much in the end to own it. You gotta show more pictures of the playfield that was the best part.

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Wanted to shout out to the Pinsiders that I saw / met at Pinfest. Including, but not limited to: JerseyJack NicoVolta CLASSICPINBALL yzfguy beelzeboob jkroeck25 rkahr too-many-pins Colsond3 toddtuckey ForceFlow flynnibus Lermods and of course Ivan1496

I know I'm missing some people - sorry for that

Had a great time, and looking forward to next year!

-dave

Yeah bluespin is such a great guy.. that I went out of my way to apologize twice for using his power cord and he still wouldn’t accept my apology.

djreddog helped to move the game in, offered tools, and was part of this whole ordeal. The games were in your room, if there was a problem with what we did, you should have introduced us to the pins actual owner.

Not going to defend whoever “slammed” the game, but Let’s all remember that these are commercial machines.

Thanks to everyone who brought cool games in for free play to share. This is my main objective in the hobby, and try to bring the cool, rare, and nicest games for all to see and play freely.

Let’s just clear the air a bit here.

1st topic is the Ramada party room. There were a ton of people there and most people brought beer/snacks/whatever. It was the waitress & bartender who created the entire mess. Nobody knew what was going on all we knew was the beer had to go. Then she freaks out and calls the police. The police were nice and honestly didn’t know why they got called. Whoever organized the party room basically set us up to fail.

As far as the BSD goes, I tilted my game because it’s BSD. I got ragged on for tilting so I lifted the game up. I didn’t drop it, slam it, break it, disrespect it or anything else. Perhaps in retrospect it was douchy of me. My bad. It was a sarcastic response to Captain Snowflake getting so bent. I apologized then and do so again now.

After that we decided to repay the host’s hospitality by going outside and carrying in an $8000 Alien. Yeah we misplaced the power cord and grabbed the one from BSD. We brought in an Alien. Everyone seemed to appreciate that gesture except one.

I brought 4 games to the show and had one in the tournament bank until 8pm. I pulled my karmic pinball weight I think. My buddies also brought games including the aforementioned Alien which we had running during the entire show for everyone to play. I don’t appreciate getting tarred with partial truths so there you have it.

See you next year.

is that Gary Stern? Damn the man loves his pinball!

This right here. The bartender had no idea that room was going to be used at all and was intending on closing at 11pm as usual - she was pissed when she found out management agreed to rent it.

Of course not - on multiple levels. If they bought the game pending payment then the expectation is you meet up at the earliest convenience and complete the transaction. Then the game is theirs. You are not storage, you are not the moving company, you are not the babysitter.

You delivered a game they commited to buy - thats what the deposit is. If they want to inspect it or not - thats a variable but helping them load or repack is not part of the deal. (Also variable if they then want to contest the game's advertised condition/etc).

Most people will help load a game because we all know its easier with more lifters and helping out is always nice... but never do that before the game is sold!

The buyer backing out means forfeiting the deposit. ESPECIALLY if they do it after the show is over! For that they're lucky to not be flayed and outted. Thats a complete dick move.

If they need packing material... they didnt plan ahead and there are people selling stuff there anyway. I know Butch2099 's group was selling shrinkwrap and their group was 15ft from the door no less

Sounds to me like a noob buyer who thinks this is some retail experience.

Thats not how this works... thats not how any of this works

That's NOT cool!! I did a parking lot deal myself with no deposit and the deal went smooth as butter. I partially shrink wrapped the pin myself ahead of time but to me....it sounds like this joker is using a weak excuse to back out bc he changed his mind. Like Flynnibus said...that deposit was your insurance that he'd buy it. So he's out that IMO. TOO BAD

Not cool.
Keep deposit for your troubles of prepping game transporting to show and transporting it back.
If you decide to refund acknowledge who this individual is so someone else doesn't have same experience.

I want to thank the people who stole my cooler full of beer at the room 101 at Ramada White hall, that was a cheap shot.

You had a cooler of beer? I hear that’s what got everyone kicked out.

What?! Who does shit like this?!

How did you get your cooler stolen?

My cooler was in front of my room#123 left it there 5 minutes to get to my car

Wait... no Todd Tuckey video yet?? What's going on? I always love to relive the show thru the TNT production.

Well stupid me accepted the paypal deposit as goods sold...so when I hesitated to return the deposit, he filed a claim.. His response is included. I was going to just give him half back, until he acted all douchey.
Also, he flaked on Sat am, not Sunday, so I did have most of a day to sell it. And it did finally sell, for a little less.

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Wow post his name so I make sure to never deal with that person. Please, for all future sellers. I’m sorry you went through that.