Don't worry - you are far from the only one. It is sooooooooooooooo hard trying to do this in a "fair way" --- I have a good many past customers, friends, and people I have purchased from in the pinball community who I feel I really would like to give first shot at some of this stuff but that wouldn't be fair to everyone else. I even have a couple buddies that I had lined up to split the deal with me that I can't even work with without playing favorites. I know some of those guys will be upset with me but I want this to be a level playing field so NO ONE will jump in line in front of anyone else.

My son will be picking the games he wants to keep and the rest will be sold. I was planning on keeping a couple of my favorites but I have even decided against that. I figure some day what is mine will become my sons so why not just let him pick the machines he wants to keep right off the bat.

"Houston we have a problem" if any of you younger guys don't remember this it was from the earlier NASA days. Anyway - in my "this is the way the game will be played" post I said something that has raised an issue and several questions. I am not looking for your "wish list" right now - that would be nearly impossible for me to keep track of. Once I post a list of games I want your wish list from that group of games ONLY.

SORRY ABOUT NOT MAKING THAT CLEAR!!!

And to any of you that have already PMed about something don't feel bad it is all good! I have no problem answering a few emails but I will not make side deals or release names of games ahead of time regardless of our past history. Several of you have a good idea what is in my collection but no one knows what I have added from this warehouse deal or other purchases over the past few months. And no one really knows what I'll be selling or keeping (including me --- because I have not got a list from my son yet).

Only one at this point but I don't know what all is in the warehouse deal yet.

I have been answering emails pretty much non stop since I posted this and I really need to get started getting stuff moved around and getting the garage cleaned up a little so I have to get to work shortly. I'll try to get a quick reply off to everyone that has emailed so far but I will not be able to keep answering emails if I ever expect to get machines ready to go.

One thing I realized today is there is going to be a "smarter way" to do the first load. Instead of me moving everything out of the garage to put machines back into the garage it is going to make more sense for me to just keep the machines in the garage that are already in their and will be for sale. After looking around all but one or two machines in the garage will be getting sold anyway and it might even end up being all of them once my son finally decides. So the "first group" will be a mix of: working projects, finished machines we never listed for sale, and projects. Price range will likely be $750 to $1500 each depending on title (with one or two running a little more or less but the average range will be in that 750 to 1500).

I talked to my son a little more today and I think we might be able to get this party started sometime during the first week of the New Year. Without saying 100% for sure I am going to try for posting the first list (likely 14 machines) on 1/5/17. That way we all can have a day or two to recover from New Years Eve and also it will be close enough to the weekend that anyone that can only come on the weekend still could be "first in line" for a machine or two.

Joe,

I know the feeling! I was always a little sorry I sold that Sorcerer and I did the same thing with a Grand Lizard. But to be very honest I regret selling pretty much any System 11 I have ever owned except for Jokerz. For some reason Jokerz never did anything for me?

A little hint to you guys reading this post - I like Data East & Williams System machines the best of any pinball I have ever played so guess what there will likely be a lot of in these groups of machines!

You took the hint backwards!

Since I like those machines I have been "hoarding" them for years. Now it is time to let them go. Even if I did keep one of each of the System 11 and Data East games I own (but I wouldn't have room to do that) I would still have plenty of them for sale. Some titles I have as many as 3 or 4 of so I will not run out of Williams or Data East stuff early in the game. I also tend to "like" hoard early 1980's Bally machines so I should have a good many of those for sale also. For all of you Gottlieb guys - sorry most Gottliebs just are not my thing but I do have a couple dozen of them to be sold also. A few of each: System 1. System 3 and System 80

After a lot of those and talking things over with my son, daughter-in-law & wife we decided it would make sense to let the pinball community know there was going to be a HUGE LOT of machines coming available early next year. Originally I was going to wait and just post everything once I had the first load in the garage but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be nice to give everyone a little notice what was going to happen here in Central PA early next year.

If I had the space I would just put a list of 50 or 60 machines up and the first guy who emailed about each would own it but with 5 storage units full and only room for about a dozen machines in the garage where I can actually show them to people I needed to come up with a "good way" to sell them. I know this plan is far from perfect but with everything considered it is the best plan I could come up with.

I also considered putting a list and pictures up and selling machines to people who made the best offer on each and I know doing that would net me more money. But my interest is getting as many machines to as many different people as possible at a "fair" price. Not start bidding wars over a title - not selling everything to one person - etc. I think what I am doing is going to give the most people a chance to grab a machine or two and I know there will not be a couple people bidding prices up on some games.

To me this is my way of trying to keep the playing field level for everyone. Maybe it isn't the best way but it is the best I could think of. Hope this helps to explain everything.

Something I have not talked about much in recent post is we have gotten away from the original post. The 50 or 60 machines I will be listing now are not from the Warehouse Buy - these are "our machines". As long as that warehouse deal comes together as planned that will be an additional 50 or 60 pinball machines as well as parts, jukeboxes, and 1980 arcade machines. So this is likely just the beginning! Pinball in Central PA might get very interesting in 2017. And what is crazier yet is I am still buying so who knows what else might be coming in this direction.

And none of this will be touching my Allentown load already set aside for that show. That is mostly project EM's but if I remember correctly there is also some earlier SS projects in that load. I must have lost my mind! I didn't realize how crazy things had gotten until my trip south this past weekend!

I will likely decide right after the first of the year if we are ready to post the first list on 1/5/17. Trying to be "fair" and knowing a lot of people have day jobs I'll likely post the list right around 7PM Thursday night 1/5/17. I will not just post it without a warning - but I likely will not disclose the "exact time either" to keep it a fair playing field.

Guys - if any of you have a "better idea" how best to do this let me know and I'll consider it. Again my goal is not the most money it is to give the most people a chance at a machine they might want at a "fair" price.

Also - suggestions on how and where to post pictures would be great. I have not decided yet if I'll just post a list of machines with descriptions & prices or if I will try to do pictures also. Pictures will be tough regardless of how I do them so right now I am thinking just description and then send first person on the list pictures via email before they drive here to pick up or look over the machine. Somehow that just seems easier but I don't know for sure.

I am going to limit the number of pictures I take of each machine to just a few. Maybe 3 to 5 or something. Otherwise that could get crazy also. As far as pictures go I am thinking one good shot of the playfield, a good shot of the machine overall and then a couple close up shots of any issues I see with each machine?

I started this thread to let people in our area know they might want to consider trying to set aside a little cash if they are thinking about buying any pinball machines in the near future.

I do not want to disclose much information at this point because Christmas is just a couple days away and in our family the week between Christmas & New Years is family time not time to be dealing with dozen of emails about something that will be for sale or is for sale.

But I mainly started this thread because I had a little time to kill over the past couple days due to dental surgery Tuesday and I knew once I was able to get back to work on getting things ready to sell I wouldn't have time to reply to dozens of PM's.

So if you are interested in knowing more there will be plenty of information posted shortly after the first of January. If you are not interested - move on and let it go. This is a post about dozens of pinball machines that are coming up for sale on a pinball forum. Isn't that what a pinball forum is actually for?

I could make things very simple and just put a list up of everything in the garage tomorrow with "starting price" and say "who ever makes me the best offer by 1/6/17 will own each of them as long as they are picked up by 1/15/17" that would be fine with me. I am sure I would make out much better this way if you guys would rather play the game that way. But getting the most money for me isn't really want I care about. I would really prefer just getting a "fair" price out of each machine and to get each machine to someone who will enjoy it.

Give me some feedback on that idea and maybe I'll head things in that direction?

OK - I added a poll to see what people watching this post say

Meeting people is the fun part for me. I love buying - being "fair" with sellers - and sharing stories with them.

I love selling - being "fair" with buyers and sharing stories with them.

But most of all I love bringing broken machines back to life. My issue the past 3 years is I just have not had time to do that as often as I wish I would have.

Hey girls & guys this has been a lot of fun for me over the past couple days and has really helped me not think about all the pain I am in with my dental mess. If you are younger all I want to say is take care of your teeth. And if you are older (like me) you likely already know what the pain from major dental work is like.

Stitches should come out tomorrow and then if the dentist gives me the OK I really need to get some work done. I will be hanging around here another couple hours tonight but after that I'll just be checking in on the post from time to time and be checking my PM's even less. If you do happen to read this tonight and have a question or two feel free to PM tonight but after tonight my replies to PM's and post will likely be very short and sweet.

Lots of work to be done and very little time before family arrives for the Holidays! But my biggest project is cleaning up the gameroom a little so we can play some pinball for the first time since last Christmas. That should be fun & I know somewhere under all the stuff there is also a shuffle alley and a Skeeball machine. The gameroom reminds me of owning a pool table - for some reason when it isn't getting used it gets piled up with junk.

Scott,

Glad to hear you got her fixed up the way you wanted. That machine was a great starting point to make something very special and that was why I really hated to let it go. But the more i think about things the more I have realized the "smart way" to enjoy the hobby is to only keep what you have the space for - enjoy what you have - and then switch things up by selling a machine once in a while and adding a different title. After seeing the stuff in that warehouse last weekend I quickly realized I was headed down that same path as the seller and decided it is time to make a change. What is the point of owning over 50 machines when you only have room for a dozen or so?

Have a Great Christmas and Safe & Happy New Year. If we don't see each other before be sure to stop by and say hello at Allentown. I'll be in the same two spaces again this year unless Ivan changes things around for some reason. The only difference this year will likely be that I'll park the trailer outside to give me more selling space. Between what I already own and what I am picking up I'll likely have a HUGE spread their this coming year.

For the most part I already know what I am selling I just don't want to release the list until I have the garage ready for people to come get the machines and I don't want selling machines to ruin Christmas week. It is the Holidays and we are talking about announcing I'll be selling in excess of 60 machines early in 2017 and somehow this is a bad thing? The list of the first 14 machines (as many as I can fit into the garage) will be posted in exactly two weeks. Wouldn't you rather know there are going to be 14 machines for sale in two weeks than to have someone post machines for sale and say "I wish I would have known about that I wouldn't have bought the new TV last week".

As far as "first load" we picked up - we drove 350 miles each way - moved almost 30 machines out of a storage unit and picked the 11 we liked the best which filled my van & trailer. When making a deal like this there is no guarantee the "second load" or other future loads will actually happen so we picked what we wanted most. I had to leave some great titles behind - not because I didn't have the cash along to buy them but because truck & trailer were full.

As far as selling the stuff I am just trying to figure out the best way to get as many people the machines they want at "fair prices". This is not going to be a "fire sale" I don't NEED to sell any of these. I just realized after looking at the warehouse sellers storage unit I didn't want to be him in 10 years. Why pay 10 years of storage rent just to sell machines off for about what the storage cost? So this week I decided to not only list and sell the machines I am picking up but I also decided to list and sell most of our collection due to lack of space to enjoy all of them.

Our plan is to pick EXACTLY 10 machines from what we just picked up or from our collection and keep those. (This is the number of machines we will have space for when we remodel the basement in 2017). Once we pick ours the rest of the machines will be sold. I can't give you an exact count at this point but I can say it will be over 50 this is NOT including the machines we still have to pick up from the warehouse deal. If we add those into the count I would say there will be over 100 machines total. And I might have more than that once I start looking in storage units at machines that could be parts machines or major projects. If I see some nicer stuff in my "parts machines" units I might offer some of those for sale as projects also.

Don't worry about me I have been buying and selling stuff since I was 12 and I know how some people try to play the game. I try to make life as much fun as possible - I try to treat everyone fairly - and my theory is the best deal is one where everyone wins. Once I figure out the "exact rules" anyone who wants to play in this game will be playing by my rules. My rules will be fair but I am not going to play games with buyers. Once I make a deal at a price the person I made that deal with they can own that machine. But for them to own that machine he will have to be here on time with CASH. If we start going down the path of "the flipper buttons don't match or I'll give you "XXX" for it" I will show you the door and move on to the next guy on the list.

My prices will be fair but firm. You will know the condition of the machine before you make the trip to come get it. You can back out if you don't like what you see but you will not get a better price regardless of what you say. Very simple rules to understand! And if you pass I am 100% sure the next guy will not. I have sold over 200 machines in the past 8 years and I have only had one guy walk because he wasn't happy with what he saw when he got here. But he really just came to try to beat me down in person when I turned down his low ball offer on the phone. As we talked he actually admitted he was heading right past my place and figured he would give it one last try in person.