I currently have a lot of woodrail pinball machines I originally bought to part out listed on eBay. All are from Silverman's Auction a few months ago. My plan was to part these out over the Winter but a recent pulled hamstring and other health issues will not allow me to proceed as planned.

All machines are missing backglasses but I figured other parts would help other machines live on. Anyway - today I got an email from a guy wanting to buy all of them to make coffee tables. I have mixed feelings. I would love to see my trailer empty but selling these to be made into tables will not get parts to people who could use them. I am just not sure selling these to become tables is the right thing to do?

Anyway - I was just wondering what you guys thought. I would love to save all pinball machines but some stuff just isn't worth saving. Normally I make that stuff into parts to help other machines live on. But making these into coffee tables does not accomplish that. So I am really torn if I want to sell these to him.

eBay item number:
151513724472

Below is a list of machines I think are in the trailer. About half are pre-flipper and all are missing backglasses. Some are otherwise fairly complete and others have some parts missing.

Machines I think are available to choose from include:

1947 Marvel Oscar
1940 Exhibit Pylon
1946 Surf Queens
1946 Williams Smarty
1949 Chicago Coin Super Hockey
1940 Chicago Coin Fox Hunt
1948 Chicago Coin Temptation
1949 Gottlieb King Arthur (BODY ONLY)
1947 Keeney Cover Girl
1957 Willaims Naples
1954 Bally Big Time (25 hole flipperless) only 25 hole or bingo in the lot
1947 Nevada (BODY ONLY)
1946 Exhibit Fastball
1949 Exibit Playtime (BODY ONLY)
1948 Gottlieb Ali Baba
1948 Genco Trade Winds (BODY ONLY)

I never thought about it or I would have included a poll on this post. I did tell the guy that was interested if I made a deal with him I would want to save some of the under playfield parts as well as parts out of the heads if we were to make a deal on the lot of machines. So at least some of the parts would still be available to save other machines.

I agree 100% with you on this and I wouldn't even consider taking anything off the top of these machines if I was going to sell them to be made into tables. But I figure a good bit of the under cabinet stuff could likely be salvaged before I sold them to him.

If it wasn't for a screwed up leg right now I would just keep all of them and part them out a little at a time and before parting them out I would take several pictures of each and list them one at a time just in case anyone wanted one of them to restore. But right now I am dealing with a torn hamstring, a bad knee, and some other issues so I can't move machines. I was hoping to get trailer empty for Spring so selling them as a lot seems like my best bet.

If leg keeps improving I think I'll be OK to get photos and stuff in a couple weeks. At that point I'll do what I can to sell as many machines to people who want to try to save them. But for now I have the listing on eBay up as a "lot of machines" since I knew it was going to be at least a month (when I listed them) before I was going to be able to do anything with them (hamstring is normally 5 or 6 weeks to get better).

I am 60 this year & I have never asked anyone for help my entire life. I figure if I can't do it myself I shouldn't be doing it. Kind of old school I guess.

I really hate asking for favors even though I do other people favors all the time. I love helping people but never expect anything in return and hate the thoughts of asking for a favor since I'll be OK to hand things myself shortly. But it isn't a bad suggestion!

Ali Baba is now spoken for so one more lives on. That now makes 5 of the 22 machines I originally purchased that will be fixed up instead of being made into parts or tables. So at least I saved 5 from certain death and there is still hope a few more might be saved!

Any other interest let me know ASAP before I decide to just sell the lot for Coffee Tables.

It is funny you made the comment about taking for granted when we are doing OK health wise. I say the same thing all the time.

I have had bad knees since I was a teenager and about once every couple years I am down for a few weeks with a knee issue. But right now I have an infected toe on my left foot and a bad knee & torn hamstring on my right leg so it is really tough getting around. If I favor my left leg the toe gets worse and if I try to favor my right leg I feel like I am going pass out from the pain. Nothing worse than not being able to walk!

I am a big guy but I am super active and the sitting around is killing me. But at least things are improving every day and I hope next year will be much better than this year as been for me with my feet & leg.

At least next year I will not have to all but kill myself emptying out two houses my hoarder father-in-law filled with junk. Since he passed away I have filled 5 thirty yard dumpsters with garbage after we gave about the same amount of decent stuff to charity. So in 2015 I will not be abusing my body cleaning up a mess someone else made. We knew the day would come that I had to pay for his hoarding and this Fall that day arrived. Now all I need to worry about is cleaning up some of my own messes once I get to a point I can walk again.

I was kind of curious about that also. But considering the work involved to make a nice one and cost of playfield or machine used to make it plus other materials I would think you would have to charge $300 or more for one just to break even?

So my guess would be high end designer type people might be putting them into high end designs. I doubt it would be "normal" pinball guys buying them. If you watch some of those house shows on TV people will pay crazy prices if a designer tells them they must have it.

My biggest issue is I need the trailer empty at least two months before Allentown and have no place to store these once weather breaks in the Spring. When I bought them I had hoped to take them to York this Fall but York Show was the same weekend of my mother-in-laws funeral so that plan was quickly derailed. Plan "B" was to part them out this Fall & Winter but my leg issues put an end to that. So here I am going into Winter and machines still just sitting.

The good thing is I have had several emails wanting to purchase all of them as a lot and my bottom line price has worked for all 3 potential buyers. The bad news is all 3 buyers are over 8 hours away (in 3 different directions) and none of them can justify the cost of coming to get them. So now I am thinking about trying to meet one of them half way once my leg is a little better but I am still hoping for a local sale before I resort to driving 7 or 8 hours to meet buyer 1/2 way.

I am looking to sell them cheap so that helps. The bad thing is the central PA area was flooded with hundreds of machines from Silverman's collection in the past few months so a local sale is highly unlikely.

I am sure something will work out with these machines but for now all I can do is wait and see what direction things go. Since my leg is getting better every day my next step will likely be trying them one at a time on eBay and seeing what happens. But I am still really hoping to work a deal with someone on the lot just to get my trailer back. I am tired of renting trailers when I own one I can't use!

EMPins - I didn't get that one but you might want to check with "80spit" here on pinside. He bought a good many machines also. If he didn't get it he might be able to suggest other people to check with. I only knew a couple people at the auction and neither of those bought many machines (just a couple specific machines for their collections).

Another guy that bought a bunch of machines - I don't know his name - is one of the guys that sets up at Allentown in the flea market. Maybe 80spit would have contact info - I don't - for that guy. I know he is from PA but that is about all I can tell you about him.

From memory it seemed like about 4 or 5 guys bought about 1/2 the machines at that auction so you might stand 1/2 a chance of tracking it down. Wish I could be more help but maybe 80spit can send you in the right direction.