I have a bunch of gottlieb black hole parts like an NOS plastic set, NOS pop bumper caps.. pop bumper assemblies/bodies, pop bumper board, a display.. a couple of flipper rebuild kits.. I’ll be at the York show on Friday. Make me an offer..
D0ED15B6-9D4A-472D-A234-2F9BD9DAE643 (resized).jpeg

Only have the black hole specific parts left.. also have a replacement spinning disc motor

Looking for Ice Cold Beer..

I have a new PROC controller with WPC mount from Multimorphic. It's new/unused, normally 375 plus shipping.. can bring to York show Friday for $300.

It was great to see the usual folks again.. but to me the York show continues to be mostly a show to meetup for games that you have either pre sold or pre bought. It used to be there were some deals to be had for some nicer or more modern era games but after today I think those days are gone.

The Cointaker crew represented with 4 or so stern pros, and a a smaller booth setup for their normal stuff.

“Mr Pinball Wizard” and the other parts table across from him. I guess these guys are there to sell stuff at a convenience premium to those who brought games for free play. $30 for a single flipper rebuild kit (I.e. left or right?) Marco sells a pair for that.. $13 for a switch adjustment tool? $5 from Marco. What’s the benefit to going to a show for parts?

Bingo row.. I get that some folks like these and York has always been an older show. I love that bingopodcast is so passionate, and i know its a massive effort to get these to the show.. but I just don’t get it personally. Where is the modern counterpart with Bally, Williams, Stern, Spooky, or JJP games?

The most interesting row had a theater of magic and a Tz both decent but for a whopping $8000 each. The $4200 funhouse was interesting but there was an 8-10 person line waiting to play it, likely because it was one of the most interesting things to do there.

Your normal crew of Gameroom decor odds and ends were there with beer glasses and neons, tap handles and bottle openers. Not much change there. Starship fantasy with the normal table and layout of things, no change. Seemed like less of the cool “history” stuff, one plastic ramp mold from an unknown game..

A few new innovator booths like “pinshaker” which is cool to see.

The flea market areas had the normal part out odds and ends, but the presumably dead/take a chance games continue to climb in price.

At this show it feels like for the most part, the passion has left the pinball hobby and it’s all about taking advantage of the next sucker or newcomer.. Where are the high end restorations there for show? What about the innovative project games or homebrews? What happened to the DMD deals?

I hope that’s not the hobby now in general, and I’m looking forward to Expo hopefully redeeming my current depression.

In summary, for $15 entry you can play a few new sterns, buy some old parts, and play mostly older bingo and EMs, with a very very small handful of solid state and interesting DMD era games. If you’re looking to buy games there are deals to be had in the earlier EMs, but the DMDs are few and far between and way over priced. If you want to buy parts you’re likely going to pay a super premium.

Am I the only one feeling this way?

The York show isn’t my local show.. when we have our open houses, magfest etc. I represent. Today we talked about starting a more local show to us.. anyway thanks for the comment.

dup

I gave you a special shoutout my friend, you absolutely bring it... it’s not my cup of tea, but I know how much effort it is.. and I follow the pindev slack.. you’re a machine, and thank you.

Yes, the York show has always been an “older” show.. but it’s also been primarily a project show. A place to go and pickup something on the cheap. The lack of outdoor flea market is a huge negative, and many of the indoor flea market areas didn’t have prices on anything.. and what they wanted for assumingly dead games on their backs was ludicrous. Sure it could be a supply/demand issue like you say, but I think it’s just greed.. greed because of all the newcomer blood in the hobby, the likelihood that someone will pay something seemingly stupid is probably high. The eBay mentality is now leaking into our own private community shows.. and it sucks.

200% markup on parts is just ridiculous.. same as trying to sell junk like old flipper plungers/cores at new prices.

A few years ago anyone that put 8k on a stock TZ or ToM would have been the laughing stock of the show.. yes prices are up a bit, but even accounting for that it ridiculous, and for some reason now that’s just accepted.. and that’s not the only games.. those BS inflated prices were mostly across the board. I don’t think it’s a supply and demand issue, I think it’s people fishing and trying to take advantage of newcomers and those that don’t know the true market.

I’m not going to these shows to see and play a bunch of games I have at home or within a few minutes of my house.. But since that’s what I was left to do with no deals to buy I was underwhelmed. Maybe there must be more available where I’m at, or I participate in this local community here to know enough collectors. I’m not excited driving 4 hours etc, to play two dozen games that everyone is waiting to play. 10 minutes from me in any direction, there are places with that kind of volume. Doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the individuals that made the effort, but likely from here on out I’ll just do my parking lot deals and save the entry fee, put it towards buying parts online.

The lack of presence from JJP and other resellers/vendors like that has got to mean, they similarly don’t see value in the show.. and if I’m being totally honest, Cointaker phoned it in. They had games and mods presence, but getting anyone to help you was like pulling teeth. I literally had to ask them to help me through each step of the transaction.

I fully expect the majority of you to chest thump and disagree.. enjoy your ocean of EM and Bingo games, 8k stock TZs, $2500 Shaqs and f-14s, and $60 flipper rebuild kits.

You’re taking my comment to the extreme, I don’t foolishly expect that it’s 2004 pricing again. I don’t expect charity, and certainly understand supply and demand.. But given I didn’t see many of those expensive games flying out the door yesterday, I’m inclined to think that’s false. In general it seemed like people didn’t really want to sell, they wanted to take a chance to find a sucker or they are the sucker that was taken advantage of and are trying to pass the buck.. if that’s what our hobby has mostly become, you can keep it.

I hate to believe that the new world of our hobby is collectors who don’t know or don’t care if they are being raked over the coals... cant be bothered to actually learn how to fix anything, and aren’t interested about taking pride in their own restoration.. just “having” the best example.. and showing it off on fucking “pincribs.. “

But more and more it seems like you’re right. I just hope it all blows over and people start getting obsessed over beanie babies again so we can go back to business as usual.