Hmm Hmmm
Now that I'm here to buy this pinball........ Some questions:
How many balls does she take?
Is she clean?
How man rubbers has she got? Are these new or used?
Can you nudge her and does she tilt easy?
Did you flip her over yet?
Look at those legs.. Are they perty or what?
Wax on or Wax off? Which is better?
How am I going to bust her up to get her in my volkswagon?
First thing I'd ask is something generic. How do you like the weather. What do you think of local pro football or baseball team ?
Listen to the tone in their voice. Then see if it's the same when they answer questions about the pinball machine.
You can learn a lot about people, if you just listen.
LTG : )™
The only two questions you need to ask:
How much is it?
When can I take it?
If you're buying a pin from someone's basement, they likely don't know much about it. To them, it's just an appliance that's taking up space. It's up to you to determine what you want to know about it.
Most of the questions that you listed are maintenance questions that you can find out by either reading through the manual or with research on the internet.
But, some folks are happy to chat about it even if they don't know much about it. It all depends on the person and their situation. If the seller is inclined to chat, I try to get a bit of history on the machine--how long they had it, where they got it, etc.
If you're buying from a collector or retailer, that's a whole other story, and they are typically more open to questions and discussing the care & feeding of a machine.
Quoted from ForceFlow:Most of the questions that you listed are maintenance questions that you can find out by either reading through the manual or with research on the internet.
Read his questions again, only this time take your time and allow yourself to smile.
-mof
Quoted from mof:Read his questions again, only this time slow down.
-mof
Oh. 
It's a pinball forum, darn it! lol
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Woodcliff Lake, NJ