"... for a decent price?" -- you're about 8 years too late. You have to be lucky, and find that estate sale/Craigslist/Facebook ad and swoop in within minutes, always have cash & tools & vehicle at the ready. (It's cut-throat at times.)
Project machines are running 3-5x more these days, then what they were 10 years ago. (Seems like a junk EM machine for $100 now runs $500. Non-working early SS that was $200.00 is $800. A dead DMD that was $800 is $1800. Even the bad titles.)

And you will always be upside-down on a true restoration. Even if you find a project machine for $200.00, and spend $2000 restoring... you may not be able to get more than a $1000.00. (title dependent)

Only restore a "keeper" for your collection. Or... I suppose that rare chance you just want to do it for the challenge.
Just don't believe you're gonna make a profit, and you'll be fine.

and oh yeah... welcome to the hobby. LOL

Like Timerider said above it's getting harder and harder to find a decent deal on a machine, but they're definitely out there if you look hard enough.
Facebook, Craigslist, LetGo, estate sales, and here on Pinside are all good places to look.

One additional piece of advice I can give is to look at what parts are available for whatever machine you're looking to restore. It'd suck to be stuck with a game that you can't get parts for to complete them.

The hobby of restoring pins is a LOT of fun, and very rewarding!

Good luck!

-Paul

Check the Pacific Northwest for sale thread. There's a dude that buys containers of stuff. Maybe you can work out a deal with him on stuff in pretty sad shape that isn't for the average person to tackle?

The best deal often comes from friends/acquaintances who know you are the pinball "dude". Share your interest with folks and you may get lucky with "My dad has one in the basement that doesn't work"...

If you’d put your general location you might get a local pinsider to reach out with a project game

Just finding a project machine in the first place is difficult, for me at least. All the pinball machines I browse for have already been restored. The only ones that pop up are the generic themed EM machines.

From one "newbie" to another, welcome. And I see you are in Newnan! I just moved from there last year. Keep in touch, as I'm always willing to talk shop with a local enthusiast.

Add these 2 links to your search/quest

The Bash: http://pinballbash.com/forum/
Local to Atlanta, Carolinas, and South East

and the village: http://www.villagebbs.com/forum
Florida and South East

More Projects in Florida and South East, due to the distance and Transport costs
to other regions.

Ads for Project games Pop up all the time.

Art

Welcome! Also helps if you are willing to drive. Just took a 9 hour round trip to pick up a project Comet. You learn to enjoy road trips

What goes around comes around. See how you can help other collectors nearby and Karma will find a way.

Welcome to the sickness! Getting project machines and restoring them is a blast.
Been at it here for over 30 years now and it never gets old. Look locally for project
machines. Yes, they are harder to find for a down to earth price these days
so you'll need to be patient. And persistant! CL can be a good source. Checking
out over priced project machines can pay off. When sellers realize their
gold mine isn't, you may get a call back even if they don't accept a low offer
initially.

And don't become too jaded by what you read here either.
Steve

Once you start you won't be able to stop. And if you really like to make them as nice as you can it will be hard to recoup your investment. I've made some money and lost some. It's a hobby not a business. I do it because I love it and seeing a basket case end up looking brand new is very satisfying.

My focus has always been to get the machine in the best working order, then cosmetics.
I see machines for sale where a lot of cosmetics have been put into it, right down to custom Rule cards, yet it doesn't work! They still want a high price for it.
If you like to play get it in the best reliable operation shape.
If you try to do it all, tear it completely apart it can become overwhelming.

Spot on. Also gives you a good sense of how much work the game is going to take just to get it playable (that’s the point, right?). You can then decide how far you want to take the restoration based on time, skills, money, love of the game.

AND sometimes you fix up a game, play it a while, then realize it’s not for you. Good thing you didn’t dive into restoring it!

Of course when you then take it apart to do cosmetics there's a good chance something gets messed up and it won't work.

As you know getting it in the best working order includes a shop job, rubber, bulbs, switch cleaning.
For example;
Good working order= clean switch contacts.
Cosmetic= completely disassemble, tumbles parts, polish entire switch blades.
Good working order= re-solder poor wiring attachment points
Cosmetic= remove entire wiring harness/wash in dishwasher
Etc.

In other words just an old rag should take care of everything for a complete shop job (joking)

Toast always falls butter side down? Thats great, will remember that

THIS definitely. Make it known to everybody that you’re “the pinball guy” in the area. The deals are sort of still out there, but very rarely will you get a smoking deal that you can restore and not sink double the value into it.

you really have to be quick to get a good deal which means watching craigslist ,face book ,pinside and other adds every day. That rare 150 dollar machine is usually never worth it unless you are restoring the machine for yourself. I look at some of these pinball retail establishments and wonder how they get twice the value for an old machine or do they? You look at most of the ridiculous adds on ebay and you will find they settled for some undisclosed amount. You can flip machines but you will make less then 4 dollars an hour, the Wallmart greeter makes more. Like you I just got into this in January and so far I flipped two machines and bought 6 ,the last 4 were for my personal collection. Had to fix everyone of them even though some were advertised as perfect working condition.
Enjoy the Hobby for yourself because that's what matters. Right now its like the height of Hotwheel's collecting. You pay too much for a Treasure Hunt and 6 months later it will lose 40% of its value. Seems like there are better deals in the mid-west . The east coast sucks right now too many players. I will say that I have learned a lot about 8 bit computing and understand more then I ever thought I would. I fixed computerized equipment all my life but I never programmed an Eprom and played with the code till I got into pinball. Make it a hobby for you and it will be grateful experience.

Putting a harness in a dishwasher isn't cosmetic. More like lunacy.

And here I was thinking the opposite, lol. I guess it depends where in the mid-west you are referring to. Definitely not Chicago. Collectors/flippers on every corner.

I guess what i meant was south of you like almost to Texas and West to Arizona. When you look at the adds for these states a greater percentage of them are asking for a reasonable price. Not saying you don't see the occasional guy who had his machine since his conception, the playfield is warped and most of the paint is missing and to him its made of gold and worth five times its value. Seems like those people are littered throughout the States. Must be an interbreeding thing, Dunning Kruger effect or something.

I agree.. a lot of people were doing it not so long ago.

You don’t.

day late and a dollar short

That's what I call an 'OP-SHOP'.

Before I became friends with one local operator I was given a tour of his warehouse, and on one beat-up megatouch was a post-it-note that said 'good for auction'. Anyone doing it for a living has to squeeze out every dollar, especially now.

Project prices are so high you might as well spend twice the price for a nice working one from a seller with a good reputation.

Like someone else said above, word of mouth and being 'on the hunt' is the only way to find something cheap in the wild.

Whatcha looking for?

Ohio is tough to find used too...

Really? I just drove 9 hours round trip to pick up a Comet recently in Ohio.

Which once you get it home can also be a project pin.
Project games for a decent price was over a decade ago.
I was looking for a SSTIF, wishful thinking I am waiting to see if CGC will do another run of Med Mad.
The one I was going to get was sold out from under me and of course by the time I found out the other one that was available had been sold.

You are correct sir, I added 'from a seller with a good reputation' to my post