I just wanted to share a story about a super nice gesture that a fellow pinsider did for me. Please share some of your “over and above” positive experiences you’ve had with pinsiders and the pinball community in general!

As some of you may have seen, I placed a wanted ad for a ball gate that was missing on the Earthshaker I purchased recently. I sourced and purchased all of the parts I required for the restoration but could not find this Gate anywhere...and I mean ANYWHERE! Heck, some of you reading this might have even been contacted by me or saw my many wanted posts on Facebook pinball groups.

It turns out that this gate is unique to Earthshaker and not one supplier has access to a reproduction at this time. I contacted the amazing Cliffy (Cliff Rinear) and he gave me some very helpful advice as always and suggested some routes to take if I don’t have luck finding one. In fact, all of the salvage suppliers and remanufacturers were so polite and helpful in trying to source out this stinking little ball gate...yes keep in mind, this is just a ball gate and not exactly a high-ticket item but they all treated me like I was buying a very profitable item!

Well, the search continued around the globe but I was losing hope in ever finding one. The next day I was contacted by a person that had a friend who just restored an Earthshaker and had purchased two populated playfields from trashed games to complete his project. He put us in contact and within an hour he had sent pics of the gate to verify it was the part. I was so happy to know I finally found the gate I was so desperately seeking!!

The gentleman said that he didn’t want any money for the part...just pay the shipping costs and all was good! He got a quote and it would be $20 from Australia to Canada which I was more than happy to pay for obviously. The next day he emailed me and said it actually only cost $4 and refunded me the $16 before I could even tell him to just “keep the change”!! What an amazing gesture and act of kindness! Two weeks later (today) it arrived in my mailbox!!

A BIG, HUGE “thank you” to Boof-Ed for your generosity! I hope that one day our paths cross again and I can return the favor! When I am restoring a game, I obsess about having it perfect and missing this part was really bothering me...you fixed that!!

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