He should be shot for that.

$1,200...

I'd do $1200 any day of the week for that, worst case is parting off the machine if more is wrong with the pin.

whats the seller asking? He might tell you 500.00.

Dead game. No way to know how many problems and errors truly exist. Try to get it for <$1000.

STTNG is a beast. Tread carefully as it will eat your hours trying to fix little nit-picky things. Fairly steady once you dial it in and get everything done. Getting there is the problem.

I was thinking $1800 max depending on how you value your time.

if you pass, offer 1200 for me and i'll pay to have it shipped

I died a little.

WHERE did he cut them? That's critically important I think. If he had cut them on the playfield right by every coil and lamp, it would be a lot easier to cleanly fix than if he just sawed off the bundles up in the head. I wouldn't mind resoldering everything, because I just look at factory solder and what other people have done when they "rebuilt" the game and cringe..

/facepalm.

Pass. The only way I would consider semi-reliable to fix this other than building a new harness from scratch would be to put 9 million molex interconnects inline where it's cut. It wouldn't be too expensive, but a lot of time, and you're introducing a TON of extra points of failure.

Don't pay more than you feel cost of parts is.

seriously, this sounds like the perfect project for me. PM if didn't want this for yourself and don't mind having navl come pick it up.

Agreed. You just don't know what you're getting into. Equivalent to a car that's totaled but then repaired. Never going to be the same again. On one hand you could reconnect every single wire and have it working. On the other hand you could spend hundreds of hours trying to chase down wires and never knowing if the wiring is good, but there are switch problems or board problems...

And as others have said that game is a beast and can be hard enough to keep working even without texas chainsaw massacre head removal!

Why would the idiot just cut the bundle of wires and take the head away, this makes no sense.

Kinda like the post of the guy that bought a LOTR a year ago and his buddy was in a hurry to get out of there, so they just left the legs on it and stood it up and drove around a corner and the pin fell out of the truck and slid into a ditch across the street.

I think I have heard just about every thing there is to hear now.

Ouch take it easy Rommy is probably reading this. As good a deal as it seems I agree with NJgegcko.

This is a totally fine price. If you know what you're doing you can reconnect all those wires. It will be time consuming but probably could be done in a couple hours using heat shrink and be almost as good as new. I would not hesitate to drop $2000 on this. Properly fixed up, you can get $3800-$4000 for STTNG in the state you described fully working and properly cleaned.

But it really depends on if you know what you're doing. If you're a newb at this stuff, you might want to just pass. If you are capable of these types of repairs then chasing down problems after, it's a steal at $2000.

There are a few ways that this could be handled to fix, and while they would add more potential points of failure, if done right that should be almost negligible. Just an idea- I would put in new connectors with the Z type middle things in between them where the cuts are. I tend to think that is easier to trace then doing a million molexes because you can usually visually see immediately when they go wrong.

If it hasn't been played in 5 years, it probably has batter acid damage and minimally will need a shop job. You're looking at a LOT of work... but, if you're looking for a STTNG, I don't think it's an unfair price at all. I'd personally snag it if it was offered to me with that problem at that price - and I am not looking for a STTNG in any way.

I would say adding in z-connectors is a bad idea. They are notorious for causing problems and most people get rid of em. Do it right with solder and shrink tubing.

This is a non-working game, with unknown damage in the backbox, and in questionable working condition. It can be put back together, but it's not a trivial task. I would say $1200 max. but I would shoot for sub $1k to make you feel real warm and fuzzy about it.

overpaying for project games is the biggest mistake for newbies. Get it as for as low as you can, so you have room to work if the cannons are all stripped out and half of the wiring harness is severed and the transformer is internally melted. Without it working your taking the risk. If it's complete and cosmeticly nice, i'd go up to $2000 but not over.

Lowball the hell out of this one! I'd start at $500 and work my way up. Sure it sounds low and I know a really nice one of these is an expensive machine. However... I'm cheap when it comes to possible basket cases

You have a lot of leverage in terms of negotiation, the way I see it. Here are some considerations.

-Can't see what's happened/happening under the pf.

-Can't see the condition of the boards in the backbox. Something quite possibly wrong. If you're good with that, no problem. Unless it's a basket case with acid damage and blown traces.

-Harnesses butchered. That's gonna take some time. Then some more.

-Time is money. And you'd be about to go on a spending spree with your time.

-The guy is not a pinhead but said it played fine. I usually take that to mean 'something significant is not quite right, but... usually fixable'.

-Likely in need of misc parts. Possibly a new DMD if it's the original, flipper rebuild, a few switches, maybe some oddball unique parts, cliffy's, rubbers, board reconditioning, etc etc.

-Butchered harnesses to that extent may affect resale to more knowledgeable individuals later on. I'm not sure about this one, but just throwing it out there. It may deter me. Although I know it's definitely possible to make it functionally identical, it does detract from the overall 'original condition' of the game.

I'd lowball too, just considering the cost of the harness and time alone to put it all back together.. It's at the very least a 2 two day job if you are taking your time and know the game very well. Taking in that into factor 16 hours x "your hourly rate" + harness cost (+200), plus hiring a locksmith to open the door (+60) + new lock mech for door = $1000 - $1400 at the very least. And you don't even know if there is acid damage from the batteries.

You are playing russian roulette....in this case let the seller hold the gun the entire time. I wouldn't touch it if he wants more than $1500 and even then I'd go with Steve P3 suggestion start at $500.

If it was unworking but did not have the harness cut, I would say up to around $2100 depending on cosmetic condition.

The cut harness reduces the price by up to $1000.

What an idiot. That is a $1000 max pin due to his stupidity. Tell him that none of the Ebay pins have their wire harness cut in half.

Wire harness is a big and expensive part of the game.

$5000? man, some people just get dollar signs in their eyes. $1500 is MORE than fair on your part for a game that has been butchered and may or may not have an unknown number of other problems. and according to you it's not like the visible aspects of the machine are pristine. you'd be a fool to pay $2,000 or more. I hope you manage to convince him of that.

$5000 is what you get for a fully-working, zero faults, recently-shopped exemplary example of a STTNG. the one you're after is known to be heavily damaged, and there's no way of verifying anything about any parts under the hood. it's a gigantic risk. that dude needs to understand that.

$5000 is HUO less than 100 plays perfect for a STTNG

I would print off this thread and let him read it. And say. Here is my offer. If he doesnt take it. Walk away

Very wise advise, grasshopper.

Make it so. (see what I did?)

Already owning one might make it a bit easier to make sure you have everything hooked up right.

Was he looking at COMPLETED sales prices?

this is true and we all encounter it, however, stay with it, dont walk away, 1500 is fair and maybe more than fair for some, but I like that price and you never know, he may come around.. its hard to sell pins that dont work for lots of money, if you stick with it, you may end up with it....

I don't think I'd go higher than $1000, that's a lot of work to patch it back together.

I'd solder the wires back together and heat shrink, or get a new playfield harness from Jim Shird. Playfield harness would be my top choice.

Many of us strip games to piles of parts when we do restorations, so swapping in a new harness, or splicing the one in the game, would only add a few hours of work in the overall scheme of things. We also rebuild everything, and go through all the boards, so again, not a big deal if you're looking from that angle.

$5k now? Clearly this guy is not MENSA material. He probably works for the Obama Administration.

How about you take your bullshit to another board?

I felt a little taste of vomit myself.

any updates?

I once started work at a shop where my first job was to put a engine back in a Chevy van where the previous mechanic had also cut all the wiring harnesses. Apparently he thought that would make the job easier.

Don't worry about it man. Sounds like a headache. If you wanted to pull the trigger you would've. Something held you back and it was all the uncertainty regarding the machine and the seller. No loss there. Leave your number and he will contact you if he wants to sell it after months of being on eBay.