Condition is king. And it really depends upon how well the game was taken care of.

Sometimes, HUO games can be badly neglected, and the condition will show that. Sometimes HUO games can be looked after very well, and you wouldn't be able to tell what the actual play count was by looking at it.

Additionally, with modern games, whenever you do a software update, the bookkeeping data is lost. So, you can't really depend on the play count within the software to be the true number of plays.

Forceflow nailed it. Doesn't matter IMO. As a general rule, games that live in the home remain cleaner and show less wear. Combination of greater care, smooth balls, repaired rubber, etc etc.

Another thing to consider is great vs terrible players. I'd say my wife and I are somewhere in the middle.

Some home use only machines are going to have tons of plays, but quick games that last a few minutes each. Then you have some tournament players that can make a game last for a half hour most of the time.

Pins should really go by hours played and not games. I think this in addition to balls played and total games are only on Jersey Jack pins.

So as has been said, go by condition and not total games.

You could have a modern factory clearcoat/Diamondplate that still looks great with a ton of plays, or an older lacquered playfield with hardly any plays but still has developed hairline cracks in the lacquer and the inserts shrunk, sunk or have started poking up above the pf surface to varying degrees.

Nothing I own. My lowest played HUO is 800 plays (owned about 8 months) and highest is over 4,000.

Although I personally think my games are in great condition other than a mfg new playfield issues that have come up.

Bottom line, I play my games early and often, they aren't museum pieces. Currently:

I have 8 bought NIB, 2 were bought as show specials and one was used from a dealer.

Too much analysis :0.

Condition is king!!!!

These games were meant to be have 20,000 plays in the wild. plus or minus a couple hundred games is nothing .

There is no scale no.

I'm always suspect of that term "low plays" the seller could give the number or "less then xxx" just as easy. always felt that terminology is for the sellers benefit because it is open to interpretation, so whats the point.

Seller: "I'm in no hurry to sell this game so I won't budge on the price. Plus it has only 147 games on it."

Me: "Oh, so it's a crappy player, huh?" XD

I think anything under 1000 is worth being called out for “low plays”. Now, that doesn’t mean that games with many many more plays aren’t in just as good or better condition. Or are necessarily worth less... Simply saying that it is noteworthy.

When you buy a new car and roll it off the lot, the biggest depreciation happens there. I feel the same way about newer pins. Don’t expect me to pay NIB price for a HUO. You got a warranty, I didn’t. I think hockeymutt nailed it, it’s a game to justify a higher price.

As long as there are fewer than a million plays, I’m good. Over a million, that’s too many.

I never publish number of plays nor do i ask for them. I look the game over for its condition and buy based on that. Doesn’t really matter how many times it was played. Plus 2500 plays by a bad players is probably less wear and tear on a game than 500 games played by a pro. Just saying........

pends how old in addition to other variables. A game 30 years ago with 2000 plays is different from a game 3 months old with 2k plays.

My 1977 Jacks Open has over 57000 games and it look very good. So it must be "Low Plays"

I don’t think you can uncouple this question with the age of the game in question. 2017 game.. over .5k plays I’d consider pretty high for huo but a 2000 game I’d consider that very good. Here’s a little food for thought- at our NW show you could expect 500-1000 plays in a weekend. On a new game, you probably wouldn’t notice sans some dimmpling. Some new decals got a little torn up on one I brought 1 year on an older 2000s game. In contrast, 100 plays on a game is nothing. And 100 plays on a game from anything before 2020 is practically NIB, although I ain’t paying NIB pricing for that lol

condition is the only good point

number of plays means just nothing, example : my wife can put 5000 games on a pin, it will be less "used" than 100 games from me !

Interesting comparison that many of you are doing to number of games by a very skilled player or a less skilled player.

On one hand, yes, the skilled player’s game will last much longer, which equals more wear and tear.

On the other hand, skilled players have better aim, so less wear and tear from the ball smashing into posts and flying wildly around the playfield hitting stuff that the less skilled players are more likely to bash into a lot.

On a third hand (wtf, three hands??), I’d bet that skilled players bump n’ nudge n’ shake the machines much more than casual/unskilled players do. So more wear and tear from that.

Thats why humans only have 2 hands, because the 3rd one would make no sense, like wear and tear from nudging

I use this formula and simply solve for X. Anything less than X is considered low plays. Pretty simple.

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I owned a GoT Prem that was in a pinball bar and had 35,000 plays on it. Looked amazing because the owner regularly cleaned and serviced it. Played so damn well, too!
Zero issues!

I think most roll at that point, so you are back to 0 and it's HUO again.

Had some ghosting inserts those days but what a thick clear coat fo sho.

Plays can be reset. Unless, I'm wrong, there's no way to know true plays so the numbers means nothing.

Huo games are looking perfect on the outside because they didn't move them from bar to bar.
No scratches, sigaret burn marks excetera.