I mostly agree woth above advice, except the dont buy a project part. My first pin was a 350 dollar project that I took down and completely restored- a two player late 70’s Gottlieb.

IF you are a electrically/mechanically inclined individual that wants to get your hands dirty an EM is a wonderful playground. It will be frusturating as hell and you will probably call me an idiot at some point if you follow my path. But the reward is amazing and you will be forever on the look for your deasired game in any conditon- knowing you can bring it back.

Take care in being honest about if thats for you. It could be a year before your game is up and running or longer (my latest two games have been being restored for over three years) and there will be many painful moments of sheer frusturation.

If you historically have always paid someone to fix your stuff and are not naturally inclined to find information and teach yourself something new for a hobby (perhaps you get enough of that during the day- whatever) spend more than the above recommendation to get a reliable game and enjoy playing the hell out of it. It will eventually have a minor issue and if it was 100% before hand- it will be easy to diagnose here and fix yourself and you will get a very gentle introduction to game repair and maintenance.

One thing for sure- you can identify a clean EM easily because they are so old they will all be dirty sticky messes unless someone went through it.

My true buying advice- drive and inspect the first five pins you see advertised regardless of title or conditon. Learn what an EM looks like, learn how to pop the glass and get under the playfield (many selling dont know how or are uncertain) learn how to get at the backglass and the head. When you have seen 5 games and can inspect one and have a frame of reference- you will know when a clean one shows up and also have a vague idea of price.

Beware- at least around here- on local adds most people price EMs insanely high- an EM priced anywhere over 1K should be either a top game or have had a very through going through and be clean and 100 %. FYI. New rubbers and LED bulbs is not a shop job.

I totally agree with above and any post saying buy a working game and enjoy it. For the majority of people thats the best route.

One issue with trying this an including an EM game as the target for purchase. The VAST majority of games on craigslist etc are non working or have problems (typically they are from grandmas basement). So be prepared to either pay top dollar from retail if you happen to live somewhere that has such a shop- or pay top dollar from a local collector that is selling a fully shopped game- those will be less frequently available.

The EM market is absolutely chock full of projects. Yes they take time but if the goal is to get a game functional- one need not have a basement full of tools nor a life time of experience with them (fixing a game that is not mechanically broken typically requires a screwdriver and a schematic).

Even if you buy a 3,000 dollar fully restored pristine title... somethings going to stop working at some point. Just beware paying a tech to fix games is expensive and very local. All pinball games break- usually three hours before the guests are coming (in my experience )

Good luck!!