(Topic ID: 249868)

Playfield Bulk Buy - Best way to value, sell, etc.

By robertmee

4 years ago


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  • 54 posts
  • 20 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 4 years ago by robertmee
  • Topic is favorited by 11 Pinsiders

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    #22 4 years ago

    From a guy with years of experience doing this first off all I can say is "good luck". Regardless of how you do it or what you do you will find it takes hundreds of hours to deal with something like this.

    If the art is nice on a playfield you are likely better off selling it whole (as it sits) but from my experience once you start looking at them closely you will find only a low percentage of them actually have good art on them. Even if they were nice moving them like you did likely created some damage to a lot of them. (I am not faulting you for the way you moved them but there is really no great way to transport dozens of playfields).

    The issue with selling them whole is shipping is insanely expensive. Boxing them is a PITA and packing supply cost add up quickly. And it that isn't bad enough most people will not want to spend more than a couple hundred dollars for a decent playfield (including shipping) unless a machine has some value. In other words who is going to want to pay $300 plus shipping for a nice fully populated Flip Flop playfield plus another $100 or more shipping when a nice Flip Flop machine in working condition is only worth $600?

    On the other hand parting them out with take hundreds of hours and an average playfield only has about $300 worth of parts on it and in most cases that is a stretch. I have done hundreds of them and it really isn't a money maker!

    As you have already found out you will be getting dozens of emails asking for specific parts, specific playfields, etc, Next people will start bitching because you didn't get back to them - or because of the fact they really wanted something and you sold it to someone else - etc.

    Something like this seems like you struck gold but in the end you will find you killed yourself for nothing. Don't get me wrong I find doing these parts very rewarding - the issue is people just don't understand how much time & energy it takes.

    In any event if I can help you in any way feel free to PM me. I have ZERO interest in buying more - I already have too much - but I will gladly help you if I can.

    I have the same issue here not knowing what to do with dozens of beautiful fully populated playfields I have accumulated over the years. The "rough ones" are easy - I just make them into parts and list those parts on eBay. It is the nice ones that I find are the problem. You can't take them to shows without risking damaging them, I don't want to deal with packing and shipping them, and I hate to part them out since they are nicer than the playfields in 90% of the machines I see at shows. What the heck do you do with those?

    FYI - almost every playfield is marked somewhere for easy ID. Some are marked under the apron and others are market under the top arch.

    #26 4 years ago
    Quoted from robertmee:

    Fantastic post, and confirms alot of my thoughts. I'm not trying to score big on these, really just bought them to save them. I hope they go to good homes and help someone find that elusive part, or just as wall art. Yes I can see some areas of damage from the way the OP stored them, so you hit that nail on the head.
    As for PMs, so far everyone has been respectful and patient. I'm in the early stages of even knowing what I have, and I have my day job too, so it will be a slow process at times.
    Thsnk you again for the detailed post.

    No Problem!

    In general people are "decent to deal with" but if they think they missed out on something they can get nasty pretty quickly. For the most part I have had very positive experiences as a seller but I have had several guys get upset because I sold machines at shows and didn't wait beyond the time they set with me to come buy those machines. This year at the Allentown Show I had a guy that was suppose to come see me right as the show opened at noon. He never showed up until after 2 PM and then he was mad because I was in the process of trading the machine he wanted for another machine. He showed up two hours late - how long can you hold something for someone without a deposit?

    The main thing to realize is it is all about saving machines and parts. Don't get discouraged and realize this is going to take a ton of time & effort. I do it more or less full time since I retired and can still only process about two playfields a week. Listing parts takes way more work than anyone understands that has never done it. Just making sure assemblies are complete and fixing minor issues with each assembly takes time, taking pictures more time, listing is time, answering emails is time, packing takes time, etc. I figure an average of about 25 minutes per item if you look at all the steps involved.

    Anyway - best of luck!

    #27 4 years ago
    Quoted from Tomass:

    One thing I will say, I would pay more than most and expect shipping to be high, as games are very limited in my market. I love the classics, mostly system 11's and they just do not come up very often.

    Looking at the load in the truck I can tell you almost 100% for sure it is all EM or early SS stuff and there is likely nothing as new as a Williams System 11 playfield in that mix. It is rare for System 11 and newer stuff to be sold in bulk and most lots like this end up being a lot of rough EM parts with a few Williams System 3 to 7 or Classic Bally & Gottlieb SS in the mix. I know Big Guns doesn't fit into what I am saying here but that is likely the only newer playfield in that lot - maybe one or two others but it is hard to say for sure from the pictures.

    My bet would be 65% EM's and 25% earlier SS with maybe one or two slightly newer playfields like that Big Guns. Not a ton of high powered stuff for sure but still a bunch of good old parts.

    #32 4 years ago
    Quoted from robertmee:

    Not too far off, but actually 3 system 11 pfs (Pinbot, Big Guns, F-14) and 1 DMD pf (Gilligan).

    If you think about it when I posted 65% EM, 25% early SS that leaves 10% for unknown (or 5 playfields) so you having 4 newer playfield I was about "spot on" not that it really matters. My main point was although you got a 'bunch of stuff" it isn't really a bunch of higher dollar stuff that would be worth the cost of shipping to most people.

    Quoted from Dayhuff:

    Exactly what he said. Local pick up only or take them to a show. No way would I even hint at shipping any of them.
    John

    John has been at this longer than I have and I agree with him 100% as far as not shipping them. Sadly if you limit it to a show or local buyers you will be hard pressed to get more than about $35 or $40 each for anything other than a decent Classic Bally or Stern populated playfield or the System 11 stuff.

    I took a bunch of "wall art playfields" to a couple shows and had them out for between $10 and $20 each and would have brought most of them home if I didn't make a deal at the last minute with a buyer at the Allentown Show on the lot of them. I don't remember the exact numbers but I think it ended up like $7 each for the balance of what didn't sell.

    #35 4 years ago
    Quoted from dung:

    Dunno, when the thread is asking about the best way to sell something maybe he should be listening to someone else if going by post history means anything.

    I have probably handled more machines & sold more parts than 99.9% of the people who post here typically with great results. My biggest issue is age is working against me at this point in life and I really want to scale things back. Some people just don't seem to understand that and keep wanting to attack me over some BS from one of my warehouse deals a couple years ago.

    I doubt if you will find anyone in the hobby that works harder trying to get parts to people at a fair price and my customers tend to agree. So I really don't know what you are talking about with your comment and really don't care. Anyone who wants a background on me can easily see what I am about by looking at my thousands of feedbacks on eBay and the handful I have here. My eBay user is pinjunk just in case you don't believe me and want to see what people think of what I do!

    If OP wants some help I'll be happy to help him however I can. Otherwise I'll keep working 12 to 18 hours a day trying to help as many other people in the hobby as possible.

    #38 4 years ago
    Quoted from dung:

    You tend to post these fake for sale threads in the non for sale sections of the forum and draw it out. You also tend to make a ton of excuses as to why things are not sold or not listed. So yeah, I am going to point that out when you are giving *expert advice*. You spend loads more time on this forum talking about how you can't do something than you actually do it.

    Some people are busy beyond belief and some people just can't seem to understand that. I am in my mid 60's and when I take breaks resting my feet & legs I post on Pinside. The rest of most days are 15 to 18 hours a day working with machines or parts and helping as many people as possible. I am suppose to be retired and instead I am working with pinball stuff 80 to 90 hours a week. I am busy and you and a handful of other people just can't seem to understand that.

    There has NEVER been a "FAKE" for sale thread. I made a post about a deal I had in the works and everyone wanted to see pictures I couldn't take because the machines were 450 miles away. That deal took me over 2 years to finalize and I am still not done with everything. But over 75 happy customers know all the machines were real and everyone (but 4 we kept for our collect) were sold.

    I currently have my parts business up for sale. I am not going to unload 4 trailers and a storage unit just to take pictures for picture collectors. If anyone is serious they can come see everything I am trying to sell for about 10 cents on the dollar. Otherwise it is just dreamers wasting my time!

    #40 4 years ago
    Quoted from Rolpa:

    Methinks this is not the right place for this discussion?
    OP, I sent you a PM - I may have interest in some of the Sys11 stuff.

    Dung has been trolling me for years. He is the type guy I warned the OP about earlier in one of my post. As far as me replying to Dung I figure it just bumps OP post back to the top for more people to see. And as far as your email to OP -- I am sure everyone wants the 3 or 4 decent playfield wanting to leave the OP with all the junk to deal with. That is the way this stuff always works.

    #51 4 years ago
    Quoted from dc2010:

    I own 3 pins, I'm not flipping sh*t. I'm not a dealer, flipper, or even a hoarder, I'm trying to rebuild a collection lost to Arson.
    Frankly at prices discussed there's no flip there anyway, even if a bulk buy happens they will go to several different collectors, not 1

    I have talked to OP via PM and he isn't interested in selling in bulk at this point according to what he told me. I have no interest in any of it - I already own way too much stuff for someone my age - but I offered to help him any way I could since I have years of experience with both bulk purchases & parting out machines.

    As I told him all I can do is give him suggestions but bottom line how he handles things is entirely up to him. The main thing I can't emphasize enough to Pinsiders here is deals like this are no easy task. EVERYONE seems to want a piece of it and sadly it drives the buyer (OP) INSANE. I have had it happen to me so often I don't even post when I make a deal anymore. People just take all the fun out of it by not leaving seller along for a minute so they can step back and process things. Everyone wants to have "first shot" at the stuff so people just keep pushing & pushing trying to "justify" why they are the ones that should be getting the stuff.

    Give the OP some time to figure it all out. Once he does there will be plenty for everyone.

    Enough said!

    #53 4 years ago
    Quoted from dc2010:

    Why did you quote me? I won't comment further, as the op and myself have agreed to keep our conversation private.

    I quoted you because several times since the OP put this post up you talked about wanting to buy stuff in bulk. You are not the only one that did that but you were the most recent so I just basically replied to your most recent post.

    Unless you have experienced what it is like being on the receiving end of dozens of people trying to push you in one direction or another when you post something like this you don't have a clue how stressful it can be.

    OP arrived home with a truck full and put up a post before he even had a chance to unload and look at what they bought and all of a sudden dozens of people are emailing him talking about what they want. Not thinking about what is best for the seller, not thinking about anyone else, just thinking about what they want to happen. That is exactly why I stopped posting when I fell into bulk purchases. I got sick of being hounded by a bunch of people before I even had a chance to process exactly what just happened.

    These deals take a lot of work - it takes time to figure out how to do the best thing for the pinball community - how to get a reasonable return on your investment - and what path makes the most sense to go down. It isn't easy and once someone has experienced it 95% of the time they would never want to do it again.

    I have no interest in any of the stuff but I am interested in helping people in the hobby and the best way I can help OP is by trying to explain why it is in their best interest to step back and think things over for a few days before they take any action. This is just my opinion - I don't claim to be perfect - but I have been through this process several times and I know what to do and what not to do by this point.

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