Other than "Sir/Ma'am it does look like you have a very nice machine, but in my xx years in the pinball hobby i have learned one thing. Any 20+ year old machine with 2000+ parts, many of which are moving parts, will always have multiple problems that cant be seen without professional testing and inspection." Then follow up with " The funny thing about pinball is even the NIB machines do not work 100% when shipped. Its just not possible" Other than something along those lines all that can be done is to take the glass of and prove it. Oh you said over the phone…. your screwed.lol

You need to realize that all people see things from a different perspective. To the seller it is probably fine the way it is. Go look at it, offer them what you are willing to pay and if they accept it, you have another machine in your collection. So simple, no need to "fix" other people.

"Working" being the key word here I think there are plenty that are 100%. Working the way you want it to work is a totally different story.
Flipper isn't angled right you're gunna fix it because it's going to bother the hell out of you, someone else might not care at all. "Tweaking" a game to get a specific result doesn't mean it doesn't work.

Lol

What he said.

I mean don't get me wrong...if its someone you don't know over the phone they are 99% lying to you for sure.

maybe she neglected a few words, like "transformer works 100%", or "flippers work 100%"

I agree with this 100%

"Oh well um...that probably just needs a new fuse"
"Then how come the coil, crank arm, & stop are missing?"
"Oh shucks really? Welll I can take $15 off for that."
*sigh

Oh and another axiom for purchasing items from strangers, be leery of a seller who tries to convince you how honest they are. In my experience, not so much.

Now I've met many great, honest sellers over the years, in fact the majority. But it seems that those who most feel the need to proclaim their integrity are covering for a lack thereof.

Back when I was a REAL noob vs now when I am just an amateur noob playing a real one on the internet, I was shipped a "turn key" NGG. It arrived with several issues. At the time I was indignant and rather belligerent with the seller.

In hindsight, most if not all of the damage was probably done during shipping. I just didn't know back then. Kevin, if you're reading this, sorry I was an ass, brother.

my 100% and your 100% may not be that same. Seems like even NIB isn't 100% wworking in most cases.

A game can be 100% working and be both unshopped and not dialed-in at the same time.

I had an issue similar to this with a Haunted House I sold. Obviously I can't say it was 100% working as was stated in the beginning of this thread, plus it's a Gottlieb, but it def played fine. The guy who bought it came over and played 3 or 4 games, everything worked to his liking, he paid, threw it in the back of his pickup truck and drove about 250 miles home. A couple of days later I get an email asking me if i had a problem with this or that, things like ball is not kicking into play. After I tried to troubleshoot with him a little bit he reverted to getting angry with me and being not so pleasant. I told him its a 30 yo machine, you drove it home in the back of a pickup, things could have been jarred loose or out of alignment. This happens. His response..."the roads I took were smooth". Now, whenever I sell a game to a noob, I give a quick speech about all the switches and how they might need adjustment etc.

I do something very similar when I sell a pin to a noob. I give them the basic rundown of all the major parts and explain the rubbers and bulbs, etc. Then I tell them this is a XX year old machine and its not something you can take home and get years of enjoyment out of without having to do some work. I tell them there is maintence involved and things will break but I did this that and the other to the machine to make it as reliable as possible for him. Then I tell them things I think it will need down the road and where to get them. If they are planning on doing there own work I email them a copy of clays guides for there machine and point them to pinside and pinball ninja. My wife hates it, she says it sounds like I'm trying to talk them out if buying it,lol. Maybe I am. They always buy though. I think its the best way to avoid the angry gorilla phone call or getting sucked into a service call I shouldn't have to make. Works well for me.

Yep, kind of like when seller or buyer says, "let me be honest with you..." - as if to say, they wouldn't be honest with you unless they prefaced the statement with a "let me be honest with you".

Had a funny incicent when I bought my Black Hole.
Guy who sold it to me had not played it much for quite a while. Played fine for 3-4 games when I tested it. When I got it home and set up it was great, except it kept feeding a ball into play when there was no reason to. Spontaneuous multi-ball was fun, but not what you want. Took about five minutes to realize there was an extra ball in the machine. That's easy to fix.

haha...whoops! Pretty sure my NF lists the wrong amount of balls to install on it.

Every game I have bought I've been told they are 100% working and no wear anywear. I also seem to have the luck of the keys getting lost so I can't check some of the coils and sometimes the backbox boards. I always get there and the playfield is dirty, broken plastics, ramps even when I ask if it has any of these problems.
So yes the people selling the gamues have a way different view then I do.

It's cool until you realize that if you lose one of thosr balls, the machine takes it as your lost ball.

Seriously, sorry for thread jack, but when I buy my nib and bring it 1200 miles in a minivan, that's probably going to screw it up?

I've never sold a game as 100% cleaned and working that wasn't exactly what it said on the tin, so respectfully Clay is wrong here. There are plenty of reasons to sell a perfectly working game, such as money or space.

However, I've had worse luck buying mis-described machines from fellow collectors than I have randomly from Ebay, and that's sad.