San Diego, CA
Quoted from calvin12:100's of play HUO, left in a carport where it got water damage and heat problems in southern FL. 100's of plays HUO, in some rental unit where it got the crap beat out of it. 100's of plays HUO, but the owners let the kids them draw and it and carve it with knives. HUO is meaningless as a standalone measure. A route game can be nicer than a HUO, condition is the key regardless of the claims of HUO. Its more likely a HUO game (which can never be proven anyway) will be nicer than a routed one, but in no way is it a given.
Yes ANYTHING is possible but if you look at the larger pool of games i'd say 9 out of 10 times (maybe more) a HUO game will be in nicer condition then a routed game. Ive operated pins at a local place that looks over them well & ive still had to deal with drinks spilled on the games, scratched up art from stools combined with the general knucklehead players who feel you play the games by shaking them as hard as you can as opposed to using the flipper buttons.
Yes some home owners dont take as good a care as others but id say on a larger sample most HUO games are taken care of much better then those that were on route.
Are you going to sit here and tell me that if you came across the same game one being HUO & one being a former route game you wouldnt pick up the HUO version even if it was just a few hundred bucks more?
To answer the OP's question of course condition means everything but in general yes HUO games usually are worth more cause they in general are treated better then games on route where someone is paying to play and feel they can slma or shake the game around as much as they like.
