I enjoyed playing your Pinball Magic. Thanks for bringing it to the show.

Yeah I was back and forth many times then just decided to buy it before going to grab something in the farmers market to eat with a friend of mine. I figured if I didn't buy it then it was definitely going to be gone before I got back from lunch.

I just looked at the play meter for my game--188 on Saturday.

Unfortunately, I don't have numbers for Friday since I forgot to reconnect the play meter after I finished shopping it

shallow hal says if you can touch them they are real

Ivan puts on such a fantastic show. It gets better every year! Always great to catch up with folks that I see only twice a year. I got to meet ForceFlow in person. What a great guy! The hobby needs young dudes like him to keep it alive for the future.

My blue ribbon winner...

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I didn't get to play it, but heard it. seeing the picture, I can hear the music again in my head. again and again....

Did a Pinsider buy the Mustang Pro at a booth for $3500. I was going to buy it because I've always enjoyed playing Mustang. Figured I'd keep it and enjoy it and then sell or trade it down the line. I got a call from a person wanting to see something I had for sale and when I was finished with the deal, Mustang had been sold.

Ron, you kind of forced my hand. I thought there were several other deserving candidates for best EM. I am humbled that my game was chosen. If anyone has any photos of it that are better, I would be grateful if they could e-mail them to me.

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As mentioned early on in this thread, this was my first ever pinball show/expo and me and my girlfriend had a blast. We played in our first ever pinball tournament and that was awesome too, she is now hooked and wants to play more tournaments (yay for me). I must give her props though as she stands by my side while I drag her around the show floor. She never played pinball before she met me, and now she is hooked and enjoys playing.

Back to the show, everyone was pretty spot on with suggestions, so thank you! Farmers market food was outstanding! Early birds get the worms! Deals can be made during the final hours of the show! The only thing I regret is that I was so excited and overwhelmed with all the games and the tournament that I only met 2 people from Pinside and really wanted to meet more people. My suggestion for next year, everyone interested pay $1 to have Pinside badges waiting for you at the door. Just my thoughts.

Lastly, I would like to get some feedback from everyone on the Google Spreadsheet that was created and maintained by myself and Eabundy. Did you guys find it useful? Did you find yourself using it at the show? Should I do it again is the big question?

I wanted to buy an EM at the show. I can fix a modern Stern, but EM's are a totally different machine. I got cold feet and kept the cash in my pocket.

I will not be partaking in the spreadsheet next year....

I think the spreadsheet seems to have lost its usefulness over the last few years. It used to be an awesome resource, but on the flip side, it resulted in half of the deals being done before the games ever hit the floor, so it was great for the market, but hurt the show. People used to start asking about the sheet months in advance. I know that for the York show, they officially asked people to NOT do a sheet. I think it results in a better show without the sheet. "off the street" people have a better chance to check out more things and actually score a deal. But that is just my opinion.

Dave, you do such fantastic work on EM machines that you definitely DESERVE the ribbon! All I did was bring an extremely rare game to the show for all to enjoy, but you toil for hours making the ancient games look and play as good as new. You are a true asset to the pinball community. Whenever someone sees a fabulous looking EM at a show, the odds are good that it's a Metrando!

That's not right - the Breakshot that you purchased (mine) was only registered for Free Play on Friday, because I knew I had to leave early Saturday AM. I even paid the $17 admission to get into the show on Sat.

There shouldn't be a penalty for taking a game down if it's not registered for Free Play on that day.

I hope you enjoy the Breakshot, however!

With or without the spread sheet there will still be a lot of deals done on here before hand. Also a lot of the deals are going to be snagged up the night before during set up. Couldn't tell you how many times I've heard complaints from people saying how guys were running around the night before grabbing everything.
Lets face it, the average person off the street is not going to get as many deals as people here on Pinside chatting back and forth or people doing setup. Personally I sold 4 project pins on here and facebook that were delivered and picked up at the show. None of the sales had anything to do with the spread sheet. None of the sales would have taken place at the show if they weren't sold before hand. I did like the spread sheet. I was able to what wasn't sold and what was coming. Keep in mind it only covered a portion of games.

I think the most that you could really do is request that only games that wouldn't otherwise be brought to the show be put on the spreadsheet

I had a sure shot in freeplay next to special forces and Robo war. Wasn't listed for sale. Just picked it up there. Needs to be cleaned up and played at The Sanctum for a bit before I decide to move it on. If you're interested let me know.

-Jim

it was good to meet you and Janice Randy. Thanks for introducing us to skypilot and yzfguy too. I'm up to about 5 pinside acquaintances now so I will likely need to scale back the social aspect a bit.

I only attended on Friday but had a good time. I ended up chatting it up with people more than playing but got a few games in on some machines I was curious about. Whoever brought the Monday Night Football, thanks! I really want one but they never seem to come up for sale. Picked up a Silver Slugger from EABUNDY. Unfortunately we were not able to meet in person but the game was spot on and I appreciated that he replied to a few questions I had. As with any hobby type show you attend, there are going to be a handful of d-bags but I didn't let it get in the way of having a good time.

I'm not sure why the negative about the spread sheet. If you read the other Allentown post one vendor states "Typically I sell about 25% of what I bring Thursday, " another post talks about a guy that didn't even bring a game to set up but was buying many pins Thursday night and taking them out of the building that night. Many other post about what was sold Thursday during set up. At least the spread sheet gives the people that don't set up Thursday night a chance to buy some of the deals.

set up night deals are the same as the spreadsheet. stuff is being sold before the show.
you can't say one is ok an the other is not
just my .02

That's exactly my point. Why say spread sheets are bad but not the set up sales. It has been and always will be that the insiders will get first chance then the general public.

Had a great time at the show!
Wish I had something to haul a game back in … I would have loved that Truck Stop (not sure if it sold … was there pretty late on Saturday). Anybody know!? Ha ha.

Anyway … was a great time. Thanks to all who brought games for all of us to play! And to the great friends!

How come? Plenty of nice EMs to choose from at the show.

The weirdest thing happened to me at pinfest....

A guy I didn't recognize locked eyes with me as I was on my way to the van on Friday and said "HEY! How come you didn't respond to my message on Facebook about the Jungle Queen?"

"Sorry man. I didn't get any message."

"I SENT YOU A MESSAGE ON FACEBOOk !"

That was the conversation. For the record I never got any message on Facebook. And that game ended up as a retail sale and I sold it before the show anyway. That was odd.

There were several other jungle queen and princess games available at the show - my friend bought one. Phone numbers and emails are also on the spreadsheet - people shouldn't depend on Facebook.

i think both are a good for me. i'm not likely going to fill up my gas tank and my wallet to drive 4.5 hours without having a specific objective lined up. if I was an hour away it would be a different story

Sometimes messages from people not on your friends list end up in a semi-hidden "other" folder, rather than the message inbox. It's annoying.

Laces out Dan!

I've been to Pinfest before (had to miss this year ) but I'm going to Pintastic instead

How do they compare? What are the similarities? The differences? Is there a comparison?

The thing with facebook is messages from people who are not your 'friends' will be sent to a different folder and you don't get notification. So basically its a high probability you will get the message, but never know. You have to dig for them in the filtered views in messenger.

Both have free play rooms, flea market areas, and vendor booths. Both have tournaments run by separate organizations. Pintastic has seminars and is working on additional features. You can subscribe to the Pintastic newsletter from https://pintasticnewengland.com/ to be among the first to know about new features.
.................David Marston

pm sent

Shout out to Dave M, who apparently won an award for best EM at the show if I read the above post right. He sold me a SUPER nice Pro Pool that met all expectations. Took it home, put the legs and head on, plugged in the jones plugs, threw a ball in and started playing. Damn nice game, and great fun. Even had a nice piece of glass already on it, who does that??? My workshop is sad .... have to find another game to go in there, this one doesn't need anything.

Thanks, David

yep.
seems to impact me when using different devices (pc and smart phone) by the different people involved.

Pinfest and Pintastic are two different types of shows. Ivan was a huge help in getting Pintastic started. I will remember that forever. This is a pinfest 2016 thread so let's stay on topic please. Thanks Gabe

I recorded a walk and talk with some vendors and will be including it in our next podcast, This Flippin Podcast, and will post a link here when it is done. Interviews include Mike Frasca, Steve(Hemi) of Pinball Refinery, Joe of Lasserific, Double Danger pinball and I think a few others that I've forgotten about.

Personally had a great time and want to thank everyone that brought a game and to the vendors that took time to not only bring parts but at least 10 NIB games to be played.

Was great getting to play all the titles that are just not getting only production like RZ and TBL.

Pinball shows are never going to be perfect, seems fitting, and Ivan and team bust their asses to put on a great show. Certainly some aspects could be run smoother but by the tjme thr doors open on Friday If imagine most of the organizing team is worn the f out.

Hope to make next year.

I'm going too. Pinfest was terrific this past weekend (except nobody bought my Kicker EM) and I'm looking forward to my first Pintastic... earlier tonight I watched the video tour from last year's show.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for my Pinball 2000 H+V video sync adapter kit

Does anyone have any more pictures of the pinbabe? I only saw one posted of her next to a Dracula. Is she a wrestler?

Glad you liked the decal! Since this was our first Pinfest, we really didn't know what to expect. I apologize to anyone that stopped by when we were not at the booth. There was just too much to look at and play! We are already making plans for next year!!

I, for one, appreciate the spreadsheet. Due to work constraints I was only able to attend on Saturday so I was grateful for the opportunity to snag my TX Sector before the show.
I brought my Super Mario Bros for free play on Saturday. I was surprised and happy to see people lined up 3 or 4 deep all day to play it!
Among my favorites were the many gorgeous EMs and of course Pinball Magic! Glad to have gotten in several games on that! Another great Pinfest!

Congrats Dave - that machine was beautiful!

You need to come over for a drink and play some WOZ!!

Mike

Walk-through video:

Just watched Todd's video before bed. Always enjoy his walkthrough videos. I watched a few last week to get excited for the show. Was disappointed I couldn't get up there until Saturday, would of liked to say hello.

I got a chance to meet Todd and ordered some of his new battery boards. Great guy. Got my boards in the mail Mon. He stopped by my spot and checked out my TX. Fun to see it today in his video.

JUST finished a Podcast mostly about the Allentown Show. Should be up in an hour or so...

I didn't see Todd at the show so I'm not surprised he missed my booth... but he missed my whole corner of the show - Bummer. But he showed off a whole lot of the show that I missed!

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for Williams system 3-7 sound board potentiometer solutions

I have a few ideas for the show. First of all, a pinball repair corner. If someone who repairs machines can work the corner for a couple hrs, they get free admission. I would bring a couple machines of mine if I knew they would be looked over by someone who knows what they are doing or even at a discounted rate. I would leave my machines there for free play as part of the deal. Even just some advice is appreciated. A lot of times a repairman needs to see whats going on instead of just having it described on a pinside thread. Free pizza for repair guys.

LED corner. Bring in a machine and get expert advice on exactly which LEDs or mods would be best. You would have to buy them of course, but with all the bulb choices, it would be a lot easier deciding on the right one with a bulb expert to bounce ideas off of and the machine right there to see how they look. Since they would be selling the bulbs, it would be worth vendors time to help out in the corner. Also help with installation. Again, leaving the machine there is part of the deal.

Private raffle for everyone who brings a machine and keeps it there the whole time. It doesn't seem fair to charge someone to leave a machine on if it sells or penalize them if they leave early since they drove a long way. Maybe an extra raffle, an entry for each machine you leave on the whole show. Make sure there are a few prizes, not just one big one. Even something as easy as a paid dinner would be appreciated more as a carrot than the stick of increasing fines.

Charge more. I hate to say that, but an entrance fee of $20 is not unreasonable to be able to play dozens of rare machines all day. Comparable to what modern pinball or the pinball museum charge. Discount for multi day passes.

Let people take the machines they purchased with them. To keep the number of machines up, I think people would be bringing a LOT of machines if they could be repaired or looked at on site. Plus leaving the machines on and having them played would also shake out any bugs, which the repair corner could fix. ALSO, techs working in repair corners would be able to hand out business cards and promote themselves. If a repair person was friendly, helped me out, hell yeah I would hire them for my other machines. A LOT of other people would too I would imagine.

have drop off and pick up points in the back, out of the way. The volunteers you had policing the area and getting waves of hatred thrown at them could be better used helping people move machines. Instead of hate, they would get some thank you's.

Also, I think if people brought their machines to get looked at, more opportunities for vendors to sell accessories.

And as a final thought, open thursdays up to people who need machines worked on. That way more machines would be available for the weekend, again, having a machine worked on means it has to stay in free play.

just my 2 cents.