You sound like you know a lot more about pins than I did when I got my first. I ended up getting a Judge Dredd based on "bang for the buck" reviews if you only had one machine even though I had never played it. Didn't even know how to open up a machine at first. I ended up overpaying for a machine that had some problems. Through this site and a lot of help by somebody the seller introduced me to, I learned a lot. I've done many repairs on it and as it turned out, everything that happened kept me in the hobby. I learned the hard way about buying a cheap soldering iron after I pulled off a trace. Now I have a very nice Hakko FX 888 and it's worth every penny. I highly recommend not going cheap on a soldering iron. I splurged on the Hako desoldering gun. It's very nice and has made a few jobs easier but I don't use it a lot. If you start doing a lot of board work I'd recommend it but otherwise I'd wait. Got an inexpensive multimeter from Sears and it has worked just fine. It's just a matter of diving in. I'm not the most mechanically inclined but I'm getting better at troubleshooting. At first, I thought pinball machines must break down every other week but mine have been trouble free for quite awhile now (knock on wood). It seems everyone gets good deals. I don't know if you have to know someone or just get lucky, but I've never found a great deal on a pinball machine. Myself, I'll overpay a little if I like the machine. I'm not doing it to make money and if I keep it and enjoy it for years, a couple hundred dollars is worth it to me.