Coin Taker

Cointaker is in PA.

JJ at game exchange Colorado
Trent at Tilt
The fine folks at Cointaker
Pinball Refinery

Call all of them. It's a hassle, but buying NIB is almost like buying a used car. The closest distro is not always the cheapest. You can mention you're on pinside, but I've actually found that my price is the same when I mention pinside versus not mentioning it.

JJ at GEX and Trent at Tilt are the ONLY 2 worth calling IME.

You are wasting your time with the others. These guys have the best service, best prices, and are the most accomodating I have found!

I specifically avoid cointaker at all costs. After the crap that went down with them selling their IM original a week or so before the IMVE annoucement that was all the reason I need to never support them.

Nope - most will give you fair numbers, but there's a few that are almost always $50-100 more than the rest. Also call Mike at Flipper Fidelity.

To play the game here, those two are the highest I've found in my searching. So it's all relative.

Call coin taker, and tell Melissa that Travis recommended you to her.

very interesting!

^"Duff man angry" Don't be mad because I help take care of my dealer, just as she has helped me.

Call Melissa at Cointaker !

Yeah, I don't quite understand the way pinball prices work. I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong, but the process is really quite taxing at times. I know it's only $100-200 on a large purchase, but it sort of shows you that each distro has their own small agenda at play. It is what it is, though. I think all of the guys I've called and spoken to have been class acts, but the prices are all different.

The only real joke I've found (no offense) is the distros who say they offer a "Pinside discount" when I've NEVER been given two different numbers. And I've tested this theory, ha.

Just call the whole list and see what comes of it. Building a reputation will help, but I can say that it didn't necessarily help me get a better price on a second NIB I had quoted.

I purchased my KISS LE from JJ at Colorado Game Exchange.

I didn't want to buy from Automated…just look at what they're charging for KISS LE.

I just picked up a NIB Star Trek Pro from Trent at TILT. Was a great transaction and i would buy from him again in a heartbeat. Good guy and pretty impressive place he has.

If I were to buy the Hobbit, I couldn't buy directly from Jack. I'd go through an out of state distributor to bypass the 7% sales tax in this state…and his plant is all but 20 minutes from me.

JJ at Game Exchange - great guy to deal with.

I bought my NIB Mustang Pro from Cointaker, they even threw in a few mods.

Many good Distros out there.. Melissa at cointaker has been awesome to deal with! JJ at GEX is fantastic as well! If your new game has a problem JJ is great about helping with Stern warranty issues (that's important!)

I recommend Trent at Tilt Amusements (http://tiltamusements.com) or JJ at Game Exchange (http://gameexchange.biz).

In the past, Trent has usually offered the best price. However, both offer great service, and both have gone to bat for me when Stern required me to go through my distributor to get replacement parts for game issues.

Cointaker is awesome!!

So what you are saying is that CoinTaker should have violated their agreements with Stern and told the person to wait a couple weeks? I mean yes, it was a bummer. But I'm not sure any vendor would have said no to a sale right then.

I have my games shipped. So a typical pro in the 46-4700 range shipped NIB to my zip code. Anything within a hundred bucks is no big deal to me. The service is where it matters. All of those mentioned are large volume dealers with stern and are able to help you out with problems after the sale. That's where the distros can really shine.

I am saying they lost future business by opting to sell an IM original for top dollar just a short time before the IMVE annoncement. As has been noted many times by Stern, they keep their distributor network in the loop before the general public. It is highly suspect that they chose to sell their own personal game (already open and being used on route if I remember correctly), not sell it to their close personal friend that had been looking for an IM, and instead sell it to someone else given the timing.

Given the many choices for good/great distributors to buy with, I know whom should be avoided.

Cointaker quoted me *removed - Call them for a price* with a red tremor shaker for a KISS pro a few weeks ago. Been waiting to pull the trigger due to the issues I've been reading about. Trent quoted me the exact same price minus shaker and I had to pick it up. I haven't called anyone else.

JJ is great. I've bought from him twice. That said, I think the above is rather unfair to many of the great distributors.

Gio at Pinball Refinery is awesome. There are about others that are great too. I've bought from five (5) different distributors over the years, they all had their pros and cons to some extent.

Trent at Tilt Amusements is awesome.

I said "IME" which means In My Experience.

I was not trying to be fair, I was trying to be honest that from my experience with the most recent 4 Stern games those are the only 2 people worth calling. It is interesting that others have not found that to be true.

Call Melissa at Cointaker. She has been very helpful in helping me solve the issues with my KISS Pro I bought from her last month.

FYI -your NIB game will ship from Chicago, so you can't pick it up in PA.

Deal with your local distributor. If you have an issue, then you can deal with your local distributor. Chris and Melissa at CoinTaker are great folks.

I know this is a Stern discussion, but if you pick up your JJP in Lakewood, it is 3.5% sales tax as Lakewood is one of those NJ urban enterprise zone with reduced sales tax.

Thank you.

I didn't realize that.

know parts of Long Branch that are on the beach, with million dollar condos, fall under the UEZ…can't figure out how.

Because there are many parts of Long Branch that are just brutal and could really use some type of revitalization.

Ah, I see. Your writing style is often one of absolutes and is misleading (at least in my eyes). Telling people they are "wasting their time" with anyone else is a pretty major absolute and infers you have experience with all the other distributors.

Talk to Mike Pupo, his prices are the best, he's in Reading PA; runs Flipper Fidelity; great dude; his # is 610-223-4082.

You gotta give the Pinball Refinery a call Steve Or gio are great people to deal with if you had a trade they might take the trade I would never deal with coin taker had a bad experience with them will never buy another product from them also if you want the best LED's In pinball talk to art from Comet. I think it's all about customer service sometimes the cheapest price Is not the best deal..

it is the internet Tiger... everything is just an opinion

That said, call Trent and JJ first! THEN go down the list and compare with others.

I'll have to call her and see if I can finally get a price. I have literally called her 4 times and got a "I'll call you right back with your prices" and then radio silence.

I suspect you're not looking for a distributor in the south Texas area, but for those that may be, Charlie at www.joystixamusements.com has always done right by me.

I agree!!! JJ is very easy to deal with!

I've bought from Charlie before and I use to refer him a lot of business from Lake Charles.

Charlie is a fun guy and his parties are awesome (he is an amazing host) but his prices just don't compete with the guys who drop ship direct from Stern. He sells at or near MSRP...I would buy from him if he were even close to the other retailers but he sadly is not.

I guess I still have a bit of butt burn on Charlie for Metalica LE too, but such is life.

There is 8.25% sales tax if you are in Texas as well.

I stand corrected - I called and spoke to Melissa at Cointaker. Best price delivered thus far, also includes a shaker. Call her up.

It does help that I get things shipped to a terminal, but still.

True, he does charge more than JJ / Trent, but some of that is offset with shipping in my case. It's also nice to have that relationship with someone local to me. He's quick to service what he sells. I can also call Charlie and set up a time to stop by over my lunch hour, and spend time playing the newest (or newest to me) titles. Plus, he's good taking trade-backs. I purchased High Speed, kept it for a year or so, traded it back towards a Monopoly which lasted only a month. Traded that for Avatar which lasted a year or so, then traded that towards AC/DC Premium. ....hard to do that with someone who is not local.

Not if you pay with cash.

This was why I bought my old Tron LE from him even though I could have obtained one cheaper elsewhere. My then previous distributor for Stern was Jack so I thought I'd try a local guy.

My good friend that lives in Houston agrees with this statement. For us in Lake Charles he sold to we've had different experiences (mostly due to the distance, not entirely his fault by any means).

Yep, Charlie is a great host and the parties at Joystix are awesome.

Gosh, this was not my experience with Charlie at all. I've talked with him about trades and left the discussion feeling like I had a piece of rotten wood. I guess that's how a retailer needs to conduct business but I just didn't get the vibe of straightforwardness, which as a repeat customer (who referred him a lot of business) I felt I should have received.

I certainly don't want to bag on Charlie as he's a fun guy and has great traits and he stands behind his used machines better than many retailers.