My experience is to be wary of sellers that seem very knowledable of pinball with long detailed descriptions, pics of manuals carefully laid out etc, market analyses yet with precisely no pics of problem areas, barely any pics of playfield or with low lighting, then good lighting on other shots, heavily cropped images especially cab front & backbox. Precisely selective.

From ad: “I've seen completely refurbished ones go even higher in the 10-14k. Definitely NOT expecting this but with some time and work, this game could be in this range.”

Newb bait initiation cycle commonly consists of:

1. Seller posts carefully crafted, selective info and pics highlighting only the good
2. Builds excitement (rarity, almost never used, lucky to even have chance to buy this, profit potential even).
3. Ends ad with “put you in your place” because seller knows and you don’t so trust him and don’t lowball.
4. Sells and ships to newb
5. Newb receives game and has The Matrix, red pill, real world, zoom out moment
6. (Optional depending on pride level): futile attempt to explain something to seller that he has known all along.
7. (Rare but possibe at lowest pride and intelligence level): futile attempt to ask seller for partial refund
8. Newb graduates and years later replies to threads like this

Spidey senses should be going off and if not, then avoid this one. Not saying it will be a total ripoff, just saying every area that seller avoided taking a picture of will not match the images fabricated in the newb buyers head. My guess would be game worth at least $1000 less than what you could get it for from him. Seller will wait it out for shipment to newb - he’s an experienced ebay seller and knows how this works.