If you really want the pin offer him a little more than his asking price, say $2.8 - $3K-ish, and tell him that you will arrange for and pay for door-to-door shipping. That will get you close to $3.2 - $3.4K, but it may push him over the edge to accept your offer if he is not getting any local interest.

Also, get good high resolution photos of the pin prior to committing.

Gord

I had NAVL pick up my TOM 5-6 years ago to ship to HEP for a restoration and they put shipping blankets on top of the glass and then put the head down and used several more packing blankets and shrink wrapped the pin several times and then they carried it out to their truck with the legs on.

HEP received the pin and there was no damage and it was shipped with the legs on. I have had pins shipped maybe 15 times or so with the legs off and palletized and have never had a pin damaged during shipping that way either. I know that others have had different experiences as well, but sometimes you have to ship in order to buy/sell a pin.

Gord

How faded is the front side of the cabinet? Can you post a photo of the front?

If it is noticeably faded and the sides have little to no fade then I would think seriously about the decal for the front. If you are anal at all about the appearance of your games the faded front side of the cabinet will continue to bug you so you are the only one that can really say whether you should decal the front or not.

Gord