No specific experience, but I would never buy a pin sight unseen unless I knew the seller had a great and honest reputation and provided 20+ pics. You hear all too often on here about people getting burned on Ebay when that pin they bought looked nothing like the pics.

Well that is about the funniest thing I've seen in awhile.

Ebay don't even care if they send you a machine that is different from the pictures.

LTG : )

I tried to dispute one before. But after the cost of shipping and hassle I kept it with disappointment. Also won great deals with the one picture games as the sellers don't get a ton of bids. I always buy knowing I will have problems with said game and if it's priced high go to view it. Since the sellers often say I did not know you could take the backglass off so don't know about batteries and such

I second what practicalsteve said. Unless it's nib, I wouldn't touch it unless you see it in person.

My problem...well, one of my many problems with eBay/Paypal is that it's set up so that the bad guy wins. A bad buyer can pay with a credit card, file a chargeback and get the item and their money back very easily. A bad seller can quickly withdraw the money that you send them, ignore their eBay/Paypal account and Paypal just says, "Sorry!" I've been screwed both ways.

Assuming you're not getting scammed...well, unless you're buying from someone who knows pins (a re-seller, retailer, heathen) you have no idea how much that person who spent 10 minutes to sell a $5k item knows about their pin. Home use usually means home use since they bought it 2 years ago (the 10 years before that it was in a wet storage locker). Very nice can mean anything from it's one of the nicest that they've seen out of 10+ examples or the flippers work, it kicks out a ball and the cabinet still stands (with 10 drywall screws holding it together).

I'd like to think that you can still find good machines on eBay though. I sell there all the time I just decided to warranty the boards now because anytime a board issue arose (usually from shipping) I would just have them send it back for me to fix for free. But for all that I explain and offer, most buyers just look at the price and the pictures. The more possibly negative things I show or describe, the more likely they are to hit the back button and buy one from someone who shows 1 picture and a single line saying "very nice condition" in the description. Then they find me again later and ask for help.

I guess the bottom line would be, know who you're dealing with first, and then find out what you're getting.