I don't know if this falls into the same category, but I have been donating pinball machines to a couple of different fundraiser/auctions for the last several years. One group I donate to is our church/school and the other is for the heart unit at our local Children's hospital. I donate the games, they get auctioned off, and the group gets whatever it sells for. I think I've donated 12 or 13 games now. To date, they've all been EM games (the next Children's hospital donation will be my first SS game - Ted Nugent), as those were easiest to find in project form that I could then clean-up/fix-up without having too much into them. Unfortunately, with pinball's resurgence, finding project games has been getting a bit tougher but I still have a couple of project games that can be fixed up for future donations.

At any rate, it's been fun donating games as the last several "winners" have all been people new to the hobby, which is kind of cool. I would encourage anyone who can donate a game to an auction/fundraiser, to do so. It's very rewarding for everyone involved. I always take the game and set it up at the venue, which allows people to play and enjoy the game, even if they don't win it.

This is so true...they're harder to find, but they're still out there. Like everyone else here, I'm looking all the time and always seem to find something that I can get fixed up and ready in time for a donation. My plan is to keep donating as long as I can.

JOESCHALL I created a few threads when I've donated in the past. Some of the threads include pictures. It's funny, I didn't remember donating a SS game before but as it turns out, I have! It's actually fun to look back at some of the threads and remember the stories that go with them. Anyway, here are a few links to previous topics that I started related to donating:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/goodbye-gottlieb-sinbad-ss#post-4928576
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/goodbye-gottlieb-world-series#post-4327696
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/goodbye-gottlieb-spin-wheel#post-4877348
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/good-bye-gottlieb-road-race#post-3692330
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/good-bye-chicago-coin-sound-stage#post-3364790
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/good-bye-gottlieb-wild-life#post-3100936
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/goodbye-williams-triple-action#post-2347464
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/good-bye-williams-blue-chip#post-1505815
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/good-bye-williams-little-chief#post-1256110
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/goodbye-bally-wizard#post-817439

That was actually a fun walk down memory lane.

Dave

I've mostly donated EM games as they were generally cheaper to buy and cheaper to clean up and repair. As I don't do my own repair work, I need to pay to have games fixed and I've been blessed by having a repair guy that's really good and also gives me a break on his rate when he knows the game will be donated. Unfortunately, my repair guy is doing less and less work so I may have to start learning how to do repairs myself

Regarding donating, as you likely saw in my previous posts, I always encourage people to do it as it's really quite rewarding. In just about every case, the person buying the game was new to the hobby. It's fun delivering a game to a home knowing that this won't be their only game...

Dave

So, was he trying to tell you that he was never really that much into pinball or did the buyers of the house say "man, we'd totally pay your asking price if that awesome pinball machine was included"? Maybe he was hoping you'd bring him another game as a housewarming gift for his new house?

And like Joe, I'd totally want to knock on the door of the house next door to inquire about the pinball machine...