Ok this should be a fun thread. I have been a collector in the "pinball hobby" for about 6 years now. Everyone LOVES to talk about the GREAT deals they receive, but you rarely hear about the AWFUL deals people just deal with. I have had my fair share of crappy deals over the years, and am not ashamed to talk about them. I look at my missteps as a learning experience.

So, without this turning into a flaming thread, lets discuss some of our "special" deals that ended up NOT being a deal at all. I have no shame in saying I have dealt with four less-than-desired deals over the years, lets hear about yours!

1) Street Fighter 2 - I purchased a "game in need of boards" on Craigslist for $300. I said to myself "I can absolutely source a PCB set for $400 and make this a great deal of a game"! Got the game home... started poking around (mind you it was my first gottlieb system 3). Come to find out... all the flippers were gone (5 assemblies), the coil relay board assembly was missing, the transformer was bad, ALL the circuit boards were missing. I lucked out and found ANOTHER parts Street Fighter 2 (for another $300), which completed the game-specific missing parts. Placed a MASSIVE parts order with PBR to complete the game. All said and done, I wound up being about $1300 into SF2, 40 or so hours of labor. I traded it to a local friend, valued at $900 (ouch).

2) Agents 777 - I found a "bargain rare gameplan game" on ebay for a mere $250, only 2 hours away! In my noob mindset, I looked at IPDB, saw only 400 were made and instantly did the "buy it now". Got the game home, it looked OK, but did not power up (I knew the MPU had acid damage). Not realizing it at the time, Gameplan MPU's are IMPOSSIBLE to find working. Fortunately for Agents 777 (bad for my wallet), Lakeside re-ran the MPU, for another $300. Turns out when I got the MPU in, my driver was faulty as was the power supply. I rebuilt the PSU, replaced the driver. Other various parts put this project up to $750 and about 30 hours of labor. I wound up trading it in a two-for-one deal, valued at $450 (ouch again!)

3) Black Hole (of money lol) - I had been in the market for a Black Hole for a whopping 2 months, and took the first available example that popped up locally, within my price range (warning sign #1). I showed up at the sellers house to do the deal, this is his only pinball machine and he's owned it less than 6 months (warning sign #2). He has to "sell immediately so his ex wife doesn't get it in the divorse" (warning sign #3). Like all bad deals, I had my "great price" blinders on when he was only asking $900 for Black Hole. I quickly packed the game up, gave him my money and ran for the hills. Joke was on me... I get it home and do a closer inspection... the CPU is hacked to sh!t, very poor acid repair job. The cabinet head had signifigant water damage. The bottom playfield was warped (probably from a flood). Numerous things were broken all over (another expensive PBR order...) All said and done, I was about $1350 into my "less than desirable" black hole, and about 40 hours into restoring it. The restoration came out as good as it could given the starting example, I wound up selling to a friend for $750.

4) Star Wars Data East - This "deal" takes the cake. My uncle, new to the hobby, decided he LOVED the machines I have. He also LOVES star wars, and decided he HAD TO HAVE a Data East star wars ASAP. He found a "bargain" star wars on ebay for $1100, and had it shipped from CA to CT (for restoration) for another $500. At this time he is $1600 into the game. This example turned out to be a VERY poor condition re-import from south-america that had essentially EVERY assembly hacked apart. I have never seen such "repairs" in my entire pinball career. Needless to say, this machine needed DRASTIC help. My uncle was unwilling to cut his losses and decided to proceed with the "restore" (as best as we could given the example). $2200 (!!!) in parts later, 60 hours in labor later, ($4000 if you're following), we ended up with a decent (at best) player condition star wars. The playfield ended up restoring to a solid 7 out of 10 (after addressing lots of wear issues). The cabinet ended up being a 4 out of 10 with no possibility of being better (without doing custom art).

So, all of that said, I have learned a LOT about dealing with machines, and deciding if something is TRULY a deal (or just attractively priced garbage).

What "oop's" have you made in your pinball collecting adventures???

Ugh GaryMartin- thats a heart breaker right there! Sorry to hear about your bad experience, but from the sounds of it you learned a lesson that only cost $500! (dont buy on ebay with crappy pics no matter how good of a 'deal' it seems to be!)

Thanks for sharing!

The recent "inflation" doesn't necessarily mean you made a bad deal, it just means you sold at "2011 prices".

By those standards, I think we're all guilty of making a bad sale

Dude, I think you just won the thread. Not only was it infested with insects... it was infected with DEADLY SPIDERS. Holy crap! I'm so glad nothing bad happened to you or your family! Heck of a story... where was the game located? What game was it?

Great stories guys, keep em comin!

Thanks for sharing your story, it was a great read!

I guess those of us with pinballs available are very fortunate, something many of us take for granted. I would be heartbroken if I went to that length on obtaining a game, just to find out its termite infested. Props to you for sticking with the hobby, even though your first deal was such a bad one!

Holy cow! What sort of "repairs" were done by said professional?

Sigh, live and learn...