For me, probably Austin Powers. Was early on in my collecting and I bought it on Ebay. Supposed to be 100% working. Took me about two months to get everything working. The wife hated it. I was bored of it in two weeks. Took me almost a year of trying to sell it and I ended up losing a couple hundred bucks on it.

I got 2 that I cant decide on. First was GOTG pro. I got it right away and the code was bad. I put it on location and the customers were asking for Transformers that I replaced with it back.
Second was Wonka. Again, got it early and the pooling and chipping started.
I guess in both cases it wasn't because the games were horrible, just bad experience. Nothing is worse then getting a new game and it takes over a year before the code makes it worth playing.

Indiana Jones, Stern. I bought it NIB and what a horrible decision I made. I can't even describe how bad a game it is....... it's so bad on so many levels. Holy...... freakin........god....... it's bad. Just ask Pinlawyer, he'll back me up on how bad it is.

QSS

PS I just wanna scratch my eyes out just thinking how bad this games is. F#ck me........ it's bad!!!!

QSS

Mine are a good 12' away so I fall down sometimes on the journey.

EM games where the drops don't reset during the ball. Like Out Of Sight, Target Alpha, etc. You have to make them brutally difficult and steep because if you knock all the targets down you've got little else to shoot for.
A game that did it well is Royal Flush / Card Whiz, where all the drops down reveals a target behind them that gives big points AND is risky.

Judge Dredd. That one tried to kill me.

LTG : )

None of them

Another vote for Hurricane.... Never buy buy a game for nostalgia's sake.

A close 2nd is Road Kings. I love System 11s...but not Road Kings.

Super Straight as the cabinet just falls apart even looking at it

Waterworld hands down. How bad do I think it was? I had 2 JDs and loved them compared to that pos. I have had friends talk me out of buying the Hobbit for all the reasons listed here yet I'd still buy one before I'd ever let Kevin Costner's waterlogged pos back through my door. My apologies to whoever I sold it to.

NF = No Fear or No Fun

Yeah, it's good but too many better classic Sterns out there. We had a super nice one but it just didn't compare to Nine Ball and Big Game.

Thoro Bred EM. I bought it as a way to get my horse riding wife and daughter interested in pinball. I ended up donating it to a local college’s riding program.

On Solar City I just start practicing shatzing the inlanes for the 1000 pts. That or trying to lob the 3pt shot into the 5K lane at the top.

Someone needs to design a target-reset circuit for these models. Series switch with the spot target in front of the pop: hit it to reset the targets when all are down.

Kicker by Chicago Coin was my worst dud. Shoot the ball, wait for it to get through the pops and then past that center contraption that consumes a ton of real estate, then play the bottom 1/3 of the PF because there's really no way to shoot past that center contraption. Sold it at Pintastic a few years ago in a silent auction format. I did have it fully working and I hope it turned out well for the guy who picked it up.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or my Pinball 2000 H+V Video Sync Combiner kit

Don’t sugar coat it..... tell us how you really feel.

If you don't like Judge Dredd, well you can just....have that opinion. It's fine. But you're wrong.

I don't have any pins I regret buying, but I regret selling any and not just building an addition to my house.

AFM LE. Great game but I bought it NIB, which for me was a mistake. By the time the seller added on PA sales tax and shipping, I was $8800 out of pocket. Again, its a great game but every time I see it standing there, I think holey crap! $8800 tied up! I'm buried in the game and will probably never get out from under it except at a significant loss. Maybe eventually I will work a trade for another game and cash or maybe two other games for one. But meanwhile, I'll personally never buy NIB again! If you're a keep it forever kind of person, it makes more sense. But for me, eventually everything goes!

Slugfest. Enough said.

Pirates of the Caribbean. Zizzle. Bought it for $75, sold it for $65. Ok, it was a bit of fun. At least $5 worth, but $10 might be stretching it

Doodle bug. It horrible!

Houdini. What a poorly designed turd, I did not enjoy it. So fortunate I was able to trade it for a medieval madness.

Batman Forever. Worked great for about 2 weeks, then the problems started. Board issues, switch issues, etc. Every time I’d fix something, it’d work for a few days and then something else would break or stop working. Had 4 other pins, so it would sit until I felt like working on the next problem. I lost count how many times I fixed it. Happy when I sold it.

All interesting, as I love my Hobbit! While different from that of most games, I find its gameplay to be both fun and immersive. The current code, including being able to set it so that Smaug and Beast multiballs don't play simultaneously, is a big improvement over earlier editions. Absolutely beautiful playfield and lighting too!

No regrets at all. Just sayin'.

I vote also for Stern Indiana Jones circa 2008. Great theme, right? 8-ball multiball stored in the Ark? Beautiful machine all around. No way this can lose. Then I played it . . . .

That ball-barfing ark is a spectacle that everyone must behold at some point...

...just on location or in someone else's collection!

Aerosmith toybox is a good facsimile and in a much better game.

I feel the same way, but there will always be lovers and haters of this pin. I don't blame them for not liking it, it just isn't what they like and that's cool. If you buy a pin and hate it then it would be a regret. I've seen some mention Monster Bash, which I would love to own. Different strokes...

Absolutely - to each their own! Just wanted to put in a good word in The Hobbit's defense.

More frustrating is when you loose 1/4 of the value of a Nib as soon as unboxed. I got the feeling to buy a car! If so has an explanation, would happy to hear it!

The milk zone is badly designed coz impossible to get this shot loop. All others shots are doable but many of them are tight.
But I really dislike the LCD, poor animations..a DMD would have been enough!

gottlieb hulk, what a skidder

You win

I’m with ya! Kinda crazy to hear negative feedback from The Hobbit. All I can think is old code as I have only played the newest code. This game is bolted to the floor for me. Love flow and quick games on other machines but nothing beats a 2 hour Hobbit Adventure every once in a while.

...If you want to recover some of that cost I would be super keen to buy the topper

2 hours!? If you can really play one game for that long then it shouldn’t be called a “pinball machine” IMO.

ACNC
No Fear
Gottlieb James Bond.

Why do you think you should have bought the premium? Is there that much of a difference? From what I read the major difference is the moving trex

Black Rose. It's a great game, but it was my third machine, I didn't have much repair experience, and it was a basket case. I got a good deal on it, but I ended up breaking even on it by the time I'd fixed everything. By that point, just looking at the damn thing gave me anxiety. I never want to adjust another Boack Rose cannon...

Wow, really? It has an interesting ruleset, it's visually appealing, and is one of only a few games with six pop bumpers. Plus, those metal jewel posts.

Sounds like you’re on the fence there...

I only regret not buying my pins 10 years ago, man I had saved sooo much money compared to now.

To be fair, yes it was old code. But that open layout held much blame, I couldn't see code helping.

I've played it with new code and it still didn't win me over. But my early disdain was deeply rooted.

I've owned many JJP games, and their crowning jewel is POTC. Deep as hell, challenging yet attainable goals, masterful playfield, and simple enough to figure out. The rules just tie it all together so well.

Don't regret any of them.

Got sick of most of the pins I sold though: POTC, BTTF, ID4, Cyclone, F14-tomcat, The Munsters.
The only pin I regretted selling is Earthshaker. Need to have one in my collection eventually.

Moving t-rex and raptor pen gate for locking multiball. The raptor pen makes the play a little different so you could argue either way. The way the ball bounces off the gate makes it a little harder in premium/le than the pro.

A recent thread about this exact thing. Resetting the targets is one thing, but retaining your bonus adds another level of complexity. Lots of good links in that thread.

This was one I almost bought because I love the movies but luckily I got to play it first and dodged that bullet. It doesn't help it's from that really clunky-feeling Stern era but the game just fails to be enjoyable like it should be. However it did make me vow to never buy a game I've never played and that rule has saved me multiple other times since.

I had the same exact situation with a Congo. Problems started within a few days. Same thing. Boards, battery corrosion, switches, shorts, stuck coils, you name it. Game would play perfect for about 2 days after fixing one issue and then a completely different issue would pop up. It sat for months basically unplayable and I was ready to be done with it. Eventually, I did get it working 100% and never had any more issues. Once it was working, it was fun again. I don't really regret buying it but did learn to be more discerning when buying pins, especially online.

This is the common review that kept me away from Hobbit. I had played a bunch of games without knowing the rules and found it a bit boring. Took a risk with an epidemic rental, learned the rules, and it's my favorite game right now. The game rules make you feel like you're on a quest and I love that. The playfield is unique and actually feels right for the game rules and design. I love it.

Biggest regret was the $1200 I lost on a Wonka LE that the seller jamesbon1 lied about being HUO.

Just read your story, that sucks man. Don't know how fired up you're feeling about it still, but did you consider taking him to small claims court?

If it's amy consolation his local rep was definitely damaged. There are multiple dudes who won't deal with him.