Whelp, I was wrong. I was able to pick up the Star Trek Pro for $3,500 after all a month later when my boss needed the space to fit in a New Metallica Premium... So I now have an Attack From Mars and a Star Trek Pro.
He had gotten a deal on it off of Ebay, and this is a dirty machine in need of some TLC. However, it should clean up real nicely. It's missing the left decal on the backbox, plastic #61 under the Vengence is half gone, the balls are chipped, the rubbers are dry-rotten, the playfield is dirty, but everything plays as it should. I'm thrilled.
To get it back to "almost as good as new", I'll need 4 balls, a set of rubbers, plastic #61, and a left head decal.
If I go nuts I could get a color DMD (transferrable to the next machine), mirror blades (transferrable to the next machine), a new enterprise toy, a Klingon toy, and an alternate translate.
I had only ever gotten in about 10 games on a Star Trek LE, but I gotta say, there is really not a lot missing between the machines. I've been having a blast on it and to be honest, if I could only keep one machine right now it would be Star Trek. It may still be just the new (to me) pin smell, but there is a lot to do on this machine. In a week or so I should have enough plays to rate it. All in all, great game.
I'll still keep an eye out for a JP, but I'm not in a hurry to pick one up. Eventually I'd like to have a rotating stable of 3 machines and change the oldest out every 6 months to keep things fresh. 1 in the 2.5k-3.5k price range (90s DMD (JP, LAH, FT, Twister), 1 in the 4k-5k price range (Used Stern Pro (ST, GOT, GB) and 1 in the 6-7k range (Used Stern Premium, CGC SE, or Used JJP (Hobbit, MMr, MBr). That should keep me in a new pinball machine (for me) every 6 months for the next 4 years for about what I have in it now. TBD if I keep just 2 or end up with 3.
Anyways... back to the original question? ST PRO or JP at same price? ST every day.
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