I'd put em on craigslist or drop them off at the nearest coin op auction.

If you do, I would use a more descriptive title than "Selling" might help.

Just saying.

What are you selling? Fully working & shopped games? Games that need cleaning & some repairs? Total basket cases?

You can create an ad in the pinside marketplace, sell them at a show, post them on craigslist/facebook/ebay...there are lots of options.

He already has ads up on here. $10K by Christmas!

Oh, I remember seeing those ads. Those prices might be appropriate for fully restored games, not non-working projects in rough condition.

jthammer , are you asking what prices would be fair/appropriate for the games in their current condition?

No, they are really looking for complete games in good shape. And parts games for cheap.

So I understand that you believe these are worth a lot of money. And if you can truly get someone to pay you the dollar amounts you are looking for here, then fantastic. But really you won't find anyone on Pinside that would give you remotely the amount you are looking for here. Why ? First most EM games are in the $200-800 range. Everyone looks at Ebay for these multi-thousand dollar sales, but most of those don't actually sell (look at completed sales) and of the ones that do sell they have been restored into fabulous condition. These aren't close to that and will need lots of replacement parts (back glasses are in particularly poor condition). And if you think we are just trying to lowball you, first I'm not really interested in these games and second, I once bought an old wood rail pinball like these for $500 after reading about sales for $1500 on eBay or higher. My $500 game had a terrible backglass like yours, didn't work, the play field had lots of damage like yours. Basically my $500 games wasn't even worth $500, more like $300. You can either just dismiss all that as someone trying to rip you off, or you can accept some advice that at the prices you are looking for here there aren't going to be many (if any) potential buyers. In any event good luck.

ellipsis (resized).jpg

its worth 50 bucks in philly. how about game names and some pics to show condition?

Just click on his active ads. Games, and pics are all there.

without the heads and the cabinets being in such piss poor condition, you are not going to get much for them. Parts games don't go for much at all. if they were restored or very nice original examples, you could get those prices. Missing a ton of stuff and major things. If someone gives you $300 for all 3, i'd consider it a gift. the 2 that actually have heads and backglasses, the glasses are really trashed.

I will give respectful advice, but my "spider senses are tingling" right now, out of experience. I hope I am wrong.

There is simply very little information the OP has provided, but here is some solid advice.

If the OP believes the games are worth money and they are all EMs, I can tell you there are are only a handful that sell for "thousands of dollars", and even less that sell for for $$$, which are usually one offs that were transition EM/SS prototypes. These are unbelievably rare, and many people in some cases never knew they existed such as Bally Flicker in SS not EM.
A lot of people get confused as well in the reverse when a game was primarily SS, but had a TINY % as EMs.

There are people here and other locations in your area that have experience, but PinSide is not optimal for EMs preferences. I don't know where the whole "serial number" comment was going? Serial numbers don't mean much of a game is incomplete or not an Early sample or prototype.

EMs (1960s-1970s) bottomed out on price years ago, but have rebounded since 2010 due to rising costs of SS games, both new and used. Woodrails (1950s) have NOT rebounded and maintained marginal gains from original values 5 years ago.

Trust me when I say some people have tried to sell some 40s and 50s games for outrageous prices in the past few years. They never sold at an asking price and are generally at minimum 5-10X less in value based on condition.

If the games have not been operated for decades? (which is incredibly common right now, and expected from the OP nebulous description), disassembled, and/or incomplete, expect low response from many here, simply either out of lack of interest or experience restoring. As an additional tip, most dealers and brokers don't want them either, as they cannot make the profit margins of more modern SS, as they simply have no idea how to fix them or don't want to overall.

There is a whole lot of junk coming out of people's garages and basements lately, all from people who are trying to "cash in on the pinball craze." A lot of the stuff is in REALLY bad shape due to improper storage, or being hacked to pieces by "restorers" that damage the game worse than it was in storage. Pretty much the same as what happened in 2001-2005. Even if it is a popular title that is not going to clinch a sale, except for parts.

If you need market assistance or collector POCs in your region who specialize in EMs, games of a specific manufacturer, or era, you may contact me. I have no personal interest in the matter, I am just a collector that assists others.

If the games have been sitting in storage (hopefully climate controlled) for over 40 years?, I don't know what to expect, but I have seen almost everything on the spectrum scale in nearly three decades. Most of the time, it is mixed at best.

I see $30,000 worth of pinball machines OP. You're gonna be rich!

I have to hand it to the OP. He says has no clue to what they are worth. Says he won't get "butt hurt" by lower offers. Comes in with outrageous high prices that are OBOs. Everyone gets shook up and he gets all kinds of action and attention and offers for help. If he had lower "more reasonable" prices his ads would have blown away like a fart in the wind.

xTheBlackKnightx - OP has placed real FS ads here on pinside well before you posted your comment. We simply have a mis-informed new seller. In this case, I believe your 'spider senses' are wrong in this instance.

Holy crap.....those prices are insane. At least be in the ball park and reduce them by 10X and then say OBO.

That Minstrel Man for $4,250????????????? Just curious how you came up with that price. There is a ton of wear and planking on the playfield, and the game just looks to be in pretty bad condition overall. What a shame...I would so buy that game if it were reasonably priced just to save and restore it.

Would you accept $150 for it, given that the backglass is trashed already? That would be reasonable, given that I would have to have it shipped.

Yes, it does look that my spider senses were wrong in one area, but spot on in many others.
Post was corrected.

Education and options were provided for solutions in my original post.

It is quite hard to sell pinball machines for over 2 grand without back boxes that are over 50 years old, or simply unrestored, rough, or non-functional. All games looked somewhat raped, all are missing parts, and all are incomplete, just from a courtesy glance. None were in proper storage, which I blame no one, it happens frequently. Most people do not have access to vaults or pods. Most games are not going to be crated. Warehouses get old, roofs leak and sag.

Too much "American Pickers" going on in the past 5 years.
Check out some of the 2011 season in Texas if you want to see some good finds, local.
Long gone now, but there are many others still hiding.

Good luck OP, assistance is available, if requested for specific games of this era.

PinSide is still not an optimal location for these types of wood rails, enthusiasts here are overwhelmingly later model modern SS.
My estimates would put it at least 85% population or above.
Very few would be motivated to restore these games here, but others might in the collector circle in other locations.

If he had the head to this game I'd be happy to have it. Where is it? It's gotta be somewhere.

fdbe8d3a685002fd47fd586696e82eb5ca4469f9 (resized).jpg

opening post
original poster

you

Oops, Looks like you put the flippers on backwards

But I love (improperly) using ellipses...
If three dots is an ellipse, then what the heck is this?

Probably of by 20x on a couple of them.

Might be best to list them as a group of project machines for $1200 and take any offers close to $1000 for all 4 of them.

I have a machine for sale missing all pieces except the ball. $6895.00 (OBO)

Note: may need ball replaced soon.

Sorry, no pics.

Ok...let me know.

I really hope this is a offhand pinball joke.

If not, new owners need to start educating themselves regarding pinball history and understanding wood rails and their design.
This is not a flipper anomaly to Genco, the owner, or referenced against modern pinball machines.
Flippers were reversed on many games up to around 1951-53, and some up to the late 50s, although it was being phased out.
It required a completely pinball different skill set than games of today (especially nudging), and most players do not have the abilities to keep balls in play for more than a few seconds.

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=stop+and+go&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#2388

It's not quite a double

Funny thing is I never used ellipses until I started posting on online message boards. Not sure why it changed but it did. I like to add a lot of pauses to my sentences...for some reason.

... .... ... ..... ... ... ... .... ..... ... !

It's because you're reading aloud it in your head and you can't quite make the flow match. I'm all for commas and apostrophes but like turn signals, many haven't considered their precise intended uses. Ellipses are the poor man's default punctuation.

Yeah...that sounds like me.

If they are at the prices you posted you should be arrested.

Haha no I was just trying to be funny with my dry sense of humor. I was actually examining the game in the picture and it looks like if would be fun to play. Never really had a chance to play some of these older games.

I think you mean flippers have been reversed since the 50s with few exceptions.

Williams Stop "N' Go from 1964 has them in the traditional configuration.

image-12 (resized).jpg

I would love to play one of these games. It would definitely complement my lineup of long ball time machines lol. I love both th and lotr but I didn't think to much when I bought them and how they are very similar style adventure like pins.

I'm not big on epically long games myself. Especially during competition. The people that come over to play seem to agree.