(Topic ID: 42571)
Linked Games
Predator
Skit-B Pinball, 2013
Topic Gallery
Marysville, IN
3 years later
I had a TERRIBLE experience with John Ridgway of Game Room Treasures. He is a super smooth talker on the front end and an unscrupulous FRAUD on the back end. I purchased a multicade from him. After 14 months it completely died. I begged him and offered him money to help me and service it. He told me "things break" and I just have to "deal with it."
I have since come to find out that he charged me $500-$800 more then the going rate for a multicade of this kind (which he is refusing to service or take care of me) and no one in town wants to work on it since it is not their system and is essentially a "Do it yourself kit" from Japan.
Do your homework people and do not buy from him. He has no store front, he works out of his basement, and he has had multiple addresses over last few years. Invoice doesn't come over as Game Room Treasures and he uses a PO Box.
Shady shady shady - STAY AWAY from John Ridgway and Game Room Treasures!
Quoted from zsciaeount:Worst? Easy? It was early in my pinball buying experience, and one I will never forget. John Ridgway, from Gameroom Treasures/Pinball and Arcade Classics (or whatever he calls his business these days). I agreed to buy a Whirlwind and a multicade. Guy seemed nice enough. Good communication at first. Said that his pinballs were fully restored.
But then I received the products...
Whirlwind was an absolute mess. Dirty. The right ramp diverter was not working, as the rod that activates the switch (irreplaceable) was missing. The drop target bank wasn't functional (the board had been jury rigged with a plastic tie, which didn't work), the playfield was roached with most of the inserts completely rotted (despite him claiming that the playfield would be retouched), and the upper playfield GI was completely out. Topper had peeling decals, and the whole thing smelled like a wet cigar.
As for the multicade? The second player controls were reversed. Several of the buttons didn't work because they were under too much stress. And the monitor? I requested a 26" 4:3 arcade monitor. He shipped a cheap widescreen monitor that wasn't shielded so there is a whole lot of interference.
He admitted he made a mistake, and promised to fix it, but 2 years later I am still waiting for him to make it right.
Bottom line: John Ridgway cannot be trusted. I recommend that you avoid him at all costs.
3 years later
Necrothreading this and contributing.
I went to my first arcade auction back in 2015. At the time I was renting part of a house that equaled about 500sqft, plus half a two car garage so pretty much no room for pins or arcade cabs. There was SO much stuff I wanted to buy, but my girlfriend (now wife) made me promise I wouldn't bring anything home no matter how low the arcades/pins went for. I pretty much went to torture myself and see if I had the balls to piss my girlfriend off by brining home at least one machine lol.
Beyond the many great arcade games that literally went out the door for under $100 in fully working condition, I missed out on a Stern Pirates of the Caribbean that went for WAY under what they were worth at the time. It literally took me almost a decade later to finally have the space for pins and arcade cabs, but of course now they cost a fortune even for the bad and mediocre solid state stuff. It would have been worth the tongue lashing, sleeping on the couch for a month and probably needing to sacrifice my garage space for that pin. It still haunts me to this day.
Quoted from Wiggles:Necrothreading this and contributing.
I went to my first arcade auction back in 2015. At the time I was renting part of a house that equaled about 500sqft, plus half a two car garage so pretty much no room for pins or arcade cabs. There was SO much stuff I wanted to buy, but my girlfriend (now wife) made me promise I wouldn't bring anything home no matter how low the arcades/pins went for. I pretty much went to torture myself and see if I had the balls to piss my girlfriend off by brining home at least one machine lol.
Beyond the many great arcade games that literally went out the door for under $100 in fully working condition, I missed out on a Stern Pirates of the Caribbean that went for WAY under what they were worth at the time. It literally took me almost a decade later to finally have the space for pins and arcade cabs, but of course now they cost a fortune even for the bad and mediocre solid state stuff. It would have been worth the tongue lashing, sleeping on the couch for a month and probably needing to sacrifice my garage space for that pin. It still haunts me to this day.
And think of where you’d be if you made that choice back then to buy them. Probably wouldn’t be married and probably still renting.
Regina, SK
Buying a totally unwieldly bingo after which I figured out that I don't really enjoy bingos, instead of just buying another pinball machine like I'd always done. But only cost me 200 and sold for 90, no huge loss to get it outta here.
Thinking about buying a pin or two from about 2005-2016, even talked to friends about how cool it would be to own a pin. Didn't know anyone that actually had a pin at home then and thought maybe it wasn't even possible to buy one as a private person. Finally bought one around 2018 and now I got 9. Regretting almost every day I didn't buy all those 90s games way earlier when they were basically free compared to today.
Quoted from titanpenguin:And think of where you’d be if you made that choice back then to buy them. Probably wouldn’t be married and probably still renting.
Yeah, happy and free….Sounds terrible!
Quoted from Wiggles:I went to my first arcade auction back in 2015.
It literally took me almost a decade later to finally have the space
2015... Decade... Hmmm
There was a Monster Bash on location close to me, it was also on ebay for $1800.00 buy it now, nobody bid on it. I drove to the arcade the day the listing ended and someone had beat me by about 30 minutes to buy it. I did end up getting a HUO one for the ungodly price of $3400.00 a few years later though, which, aside from the NIB MoP LE i bought, is still the most I've ever paid for a game.
Passing on an $1800.00 Flintstones. More than once.
Buying a ToTAN off ebay w some creative picture taking, had a couple screws through the playfield right by the flippers, etc. $2500.00 though so cant bitch (now) - got a new pf and stuff to restore it....someday.
Buying a new pf/backglass/plastics for a junker Power Play, cab is pretty trashed - shoulda just kept it as a beater.
Buying an Eight Ball Deluxe last year off an auction site, knew it was pretty beat up, probably overpaid ($2300). Got new pf/bg/plastics Will be a total restore but just don't feel like doing it.
That and buying the first one.
I feel like the only mistake I may have made was preordering a Queen game...but that remains to be seen. But I'm a superfan, so I kinda had to... 
After the earnings of P2K and not wanting to get stuck with DMD games, like when solid state games killed EMs. Trading in DMD games for almost nothing for games that never came. I'd say that was my biggest mistake.
LTG : )
Disclaimer : I'll never forget my former distributor, the 2nd largest in the US, that knew Williams was closing the pinball division. Never suggested to me to hang onto the DMD pins.
Quoted from Wiggles:"almost"
learn to read friend.
7 years = literally almost a decade? (And that's being generous and giving timeframe to current date).
About 12 years ago I bought a used LOTR, from someone who is still a large distributor that posts on here (won't post details, enough time has past), that had the game already all packaged up for me at a show. The seller said the playfield was a 9/10, cabinet 9/10. Well, the Balrog toy had been lose for who knows how long and had dug a rather deep gouge into the playfield. When I told the seller he told me to just fill the gouge in and paint it...Lesson learned, always see detailed pictures of a game before buying and ideally see it in person. I did fill in the gouge and painted it but when I sold the game I told the new buyer about the issue.
My only regret was buying Halloween without playing it first. Sold it 3 weeks later and lost some cash, but it was a lesson that needed to be learned. Bought a RUSH LE with the cash and all worked out well in the end.
Quoted from Bumper:BTTF 2x once for $1200 in 2010 and $5000 last year)
Sold BTTF for 5k?
Nah, did pretty well there.
Played a brand new WOZ standard in 2014 and loved it , unbelievably loaded with features . Just Had to have one . I saw that the LE Was limited to 1000 games total , had originally sold at $ 6,850 preorder but were now completely sold out . I found a well known dealer that was saving one for his college son, But would let me have it for $ 9,250 plus freight .. I panicked , wired the money and still have the game 8 years later .. my mistake was that I never dreamed that , yes Emerald City was limited to 1,000 games , but that JJP would then make ( again limited ) Yellow Brick Roads , Ruby Reds , 100 Year Anniversary’s and Jacks Specials , still into 2022 ..
So much for Limited numbers, but still love the game
Local estate sale... Fish Tales... $2,200... no pinball people in site... told everything would be 30% off the next day... showed up the next day and local pinball repair guy got it... 6 months later, pretty sure the same machine.. he sold for $6k... Me: trying to save $600 bucks to loose out on $3,800
The one that got away
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
