Not offering an opinion simply based on the fact you only want it to flip it.

I would say yes. I would even say that if you were closer, and it was in great shape, and you got it working, I would be willing to buy it from you for more than you paid. What you do with the machine after you buy it is your business. If you bought the machine, then immediately sold it at a profit is no different then if you bought the machine, played it for 6 months and then sold it at a profit. Go for it. The profit you make can possibly go towards buying a game that you want to keep for yourself.

This pin "saved" pinball from the video games and prolonged William's pins being made
It is one of few pins considered "historic ground" much like "High Speed" and "Adam's Family" Flip it if you must
.... but your then missing out on one great pinball machine. ~SpOoKy

Its worth it if you get it fully working in great shape. For under $500 it would be worth $800-$900. Its a good game, my first machine and still in my collection.

There are so many other ways to make money and not take advantage of people. Flipping pins usually means someone is going to be taken for a ride.

Huh?

So if I get a HUO LOTR for $1k and I sell it to you for four times what I paid, would I be taking you for a ride?

Flippers get what the market will bear. Yes, it is possible that someone who doesn't do their homework will pay too much. Caveat Emptor.

newsflash for the dudes with broken games.. it's not worth as much as a tuned working game.

I recently acquired a SS that was non working, no backglass, dead CPU and minor vandalism under playfield at outhole. Spent 30+ hours and thanks to K's and Ed C. for CPU and Translite I have restored it almost like new, what a fun game I'll be keeping this one permanently in my game room for sure. Good luck on turning it and keeping another defender flying into the future! After restoring it and getting some play you may decide to keep it yourself! I highly recommend adding blue LEDs or a mix of white and blue in the GI under PF plastics and white behind shuttle in the head it really makes the space theme pop! However I still wouldn't pay more than 1500 at very most for a SS machine in near mint condition, I've seen two on CL here in California for 1400 and 1700 and they've been listed for several months and still haven't moved.

Good luck!

Oh noes! I've been downthumbs'd!

By very definition, AFAIK, "flipping" is purchasing something, doing as little work as possible, then selling it for the maximum profit you can get out of it. Perhaps you might have chosen a different term. Saying "I'd like to fix everything on it, maybe play it a little, then sell it... I don't intend to hold onto it for very long and would like to know what it's actually worth." may be a bit more verbose, but it also has the effect of making you look like a human, instead of someone trying to take advantage of someone else solely for money.

Anyways, I'd already said my piece, not going to get on a soapbox for any extended period of time on that one.

If the PF isn't worn to crap and back like most, and it's easy fixes, yes, you will be able to turn a profit on it. If the final price is over 900-1100...you're probably going to have it up for sale for a while as stated above. I think there's 3 of them for sale on Ebay right now? LOL.

Right, flipping is doing the crappiest repair work (often cosmetic) and selling quickly.

Same as people who flip houses or cars.

To the OP: if you don't buy this please forward the info to me. I've been looking for a Space Shuttle to do a full restoration on. Thanks.

Thanks Joey.

SS is a hard one to let go. Bought mine for $400, invested probably another $900 (plastics and new playfield, new sound board, new shuttle, new ramp, flipper rebuild, new rubber). It's a keeper for me

He's totally going to message you in two weeks with it for sale at a higher price.

Space shuttle is a great game, paid $270.00 but spend a lot to make it look good, now costing me about $1400.

got NOS mpu
NOS driver board, got those 2 boards in a great deal!
new plastic and playfield from cpr
and a lot of new parts

i don't think i'll sell it, if i do i know i won't get my investment back.

if you can get it cheap and make a little money on it for all the troubles (time, gas and more) i don't see any troubles with that. but to make a restoration (a good one) before you sell it, that another story

here's what i did so far on mine:

Space_Shuttle_(before_after).jpg

Beatmaster, awesome work. I will do a Space Shuttle restore at some point. Just need to find a great deal on a beaten one close to me.

Something that's already come up I always find grating is when someone sells a pin at a price based on what money they've put into it, rather than what is the going price. Personally, I don't care if the seller has 5000 in parts put into a 1000 pin, it's still only worth 1000.

Amen.. which is why I won't sell my SS, I'll lose money. It's like the people you see on craigslist that say "Put 300 hours into this EM they made 8,000 of, selling it for $3k".. Sure you did, and good luck with that.

The opposite is also true. If someone has $100.00 in a pin that's worth $5k, people shouldn't expect to pay less than the going rate.

True enough, as long as the going rate takes into account condition.

From a pure monetary standpoint, this isn't much of a way to make money. Consider the time and expense you take to drive to get the game, any work you put in to make it more desirable than when you purchased it, listing it, dealing with buyers, you'll quickly find that $300 profit works out to a meager hourly rate. You'd be better off getting a second job to buy the TOM.

Good looking results. I can't blame you for keeping it. You can play it and enjoy the fruits of your labor every time. Hard to put a price tag on that.

Have you ever sold a pin for a higher price than you bought it for ? I hope not with that soap box..

Here are pics from my Space Shuttle redo. I went with a overlay instead of the playfield to save some $

https://picasaweb.google.com/102059346291273924014/SpaceShuttle?noredirect=1#

and to think I thought that flipping meant actually PLAYING the machine.

</naive>

thanks people, i'm not even done yet with this pin, cab is next, it will be completly re-done.

here's a few mods i did in the machine, leds behind the thrusters shuttle, flashing led strip on the right (looks like a landing path), spaceman on the left (replacing the plastic one), light under the cab.... etc.

i will make a thread when i'm done, it's gonna be amazing.

Space_Shuttle_2.JPG space_shuttle_(Spaceman).jpg Space_Shuttle_(leds_under_cab)_copy.JPG

I just picked up a SS a couple of days ago. And I agree, the hobbyist who likes to restore is actually never going to re-coup their money in the short term. Learned that with my Space Invaders spent $400 and made $200. But I wasn't expecting anything else. With that I just finished a CPR playfield swap on my Mata Hari and it makes the whole experience of playing much sweeter. Can't see selling it for another decade. Planning a cherry SS and I like your mods BeatMaster. I was already considering some extra lighting effects and floating elements. Awesome!

This is near the top of my wish list. Would love to find a beater that I could redo (or a decent one really). Sure it'll happen sometime.

Depending on HOW cosmetically good it is, and how much really needs work will tell you if there is any profit to be made. I picked up a SS for about the same price, and I intend on putting about $1200 into it to make it really nice.

Because playfields have been remade, it has somewhat further devalued the 'decent' ones that are out there. Those of us who wanted a nice Space Shuttle can now buy a rotten one and turn it into a minty one. Because of that, I would expect unless you are willing to put a decent amount of time and parts into it, $800 is the max you're looking at... so it depends on again how much you really need to put into it to make it worthwhile.

Just want to say that I sold my Space Shuttle for a loss to another local collector, who was downsizing to cover some bills, so all you guys giving me crap 6 months ago... TAKE THAT! He even got my custom topper with custom flashers to backlight it tied into the backbox AND the hotdogs!

I ended up buying the SS that Chris restored. It's amazing and I am not selling it for any price short of straight up trade for ACDC premium. I have already turned down $2,300 for it. Chris did an awesome job and the orange led's behind the backglass make it really pop! Looks like the shuttle started the moon on fire!!