Enola, PA
Hello Looking to purchase a nice clean shopped Gottlieb King Pin in the Harrisburg PA area in the 500-600 range if anyone wants to part with theirs. Thx!
(Topic ID: 208557)
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King Pin
Gottlieb, 1973
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If you can get a clean shopped King Pin for that I around your parts I’m moving out! Seems like EM prices here have more or less kept pace with SS and other game inflation... here that would be unplayed for the last 15 yrs sitting in a garage with broken crumbling rubbers and a very dirty playfield and cab... or at least not a lot better! Although I do see them posted here on pinside for prices I find to be consistent or at least close to what your looking for! it’s so weird...Any time your looking for a game it’s expensive and the minute you stop one comes up!
Good luck. I picked up a worn example some years ago and never looked back!
Quoted from cyroute:I have a decent players machine condition wise that I just picked up but have no idea if it works or not it looks 100% complete would do 500 for it. send me a pm if you are interested we could meet half way.
Joe
Nice! Someone beat you to the punch. Going to look at one hopefully this weekend. Will def be in touch if it falls through.
Just agreed to buy one for $500 yesterday from a guy in Austin. It's got some wear and will need to be completely gone through from a mechanical standpoint, but it's complete and I think it will clean up nicely. Will post pics once I take delivery. Excited to add King Pin to my lineup!
Quoted from goldenboy232:Just agreed to buy one for $500 yesterday from a guy in Austin. It's got some wear and will need to be completely gone through from a mechanical standpoint, but it's complete and I think it will clean up nicely. Will post pics once I take delivery. Excited to add King Pin to my lineup!
Congrats! Better player than El Dorado IMHO which I will never own unless I find one dirt cheap then fix and resell.
Awesome to hear about all the “new” King Pins finding homes!
I paid a bit over 400 some three years ago for a non working but complete example with pristine glass, decent playfield and seriously smoke yellowed cabinet that was structurally ok but kinda a disaster otherwise. Still feel good about that price for where I am at- but it does seem high compared to what seems otherwise widely available! I had other buyers behind me who had actually offered more but I was there and had actually tried to purchase the same game a year earlier so had a relationship with the seller.
Anyhow- this thread should be a pretty good reference for this game value at this point! Anyone care to guess the value for a game after a meticulous restoration? 1,500? More? Less?
Either pinhead52 or
NicoVolta recently fixed up a King Pin and sold it privately. It looked superb. Maybe they can chime in with recent valuation.
I found my King Pin on Craigslist for $400, but that was in 2010. It was my first EM and still one of my favorites. King Pin’s five-ball play has one of the best progressive rulesets. First time you get all the drop targets down, the traveling light gets lit for 5k points. You have to get all the drop targets down a second time before special is lit. Even then, the special light alternates. Great, great game.
Quoted from goldenboy232:Just agreed to buy one for $500 yesterday from a guy in Austin. It's got some wear and will need to be completely gone through from a mechanical standpoint, but it's complete and I think it will clean up nicely. Will post pics once I take delivery. Excited to add King Pin to my lineup!
Congrats. Good luck getting it up and running.
Quoted from Eph1fifty:The one I’m going to look at has two bolts(see pic) and angle iron on the bottom
It looks like the wrong shooter rod. It's hard to tell from the angle, but it might be too long. Looks like it's from a woodrail game.
The bolt holes can be filled so no biggie... looks like a fair amount of work ahead if you end up with this one as the cabinet looks really yellowed and beat as is typical for many of these games.
Did you bring it home.???????
Quoted from rufessor:The bolt holes can be filled so no biggie... looks like a fair amount of work ahead if you end up with this one as the cabinet looks really yellowed and beat as is typical for many of these games.
Did you bring it home.???????
Nope. Person isn't getting back to me. So the search will continue.
So if anyone has something in nice shape fully operational nearby i'd be interested. It would need to be something in nice shape in working ...i'm a newbie so i'm not seasoned on repairs ....yet
Quoted from Eph1fifty:Nope. Person isn't getting back to me. So the search will continue.
So if anyone has something in nice shape fully operational nearby i'd be interested. It would need to be something in nice shape in working ...i'm a newbie so i'm not seasoned on repairs ....yet
What about the guy in Pottstown?
Looks nice. A little too far away.
Edit: This is exactly what i'm looking for shopped and ready to play and a decent asking price. Unfortunately a 5 hour drive into the snowy Syracuse artic doesnt sound too pleasant. i drive it plenty in the fall to go to catch syracuse football games but not in the winter.
I purchased the restored King Pin from nicovolta. It was $2,700 which is certainly the most I have ever paid for a game, but I've always loved King Pin and the quality of the restoration was fantastic: cabinet and back glass were in great original condition, playfield was touched up and clear coated and plays very smooth. Plus Nic added some really nice touches like the "cabaret lights" under the arch (which Gottlieb had eliminated by 1973) and adding an extra light under the rollover to make it pop. Plus that cost included delivery from Texas to St Louis.
I've done some pretty nice restorations to games I've owned but nothing like what was done to this game.
King Pin in Basement (resized).jpg
Quoted from heatwave:I purchased the restored King Pin from nicovolta. It was $2,700 which is certainly the most I have ever paid for a game, but I've always loved King Pin and the quality of the restoration was fantastic: cabinet and back glass were in great original condition, playfield was touched up and clear coated and plays very smooth. Plus Nic added some really nice touches like the "cabaret lights" under the arch (which Gottlieb had eliminated by 1973) and adding an extra light under the rollover to make it pop. Plus that cost included delivery from Texas to St Louis.
I've done some pretty nice restorations to games I've owned but nothing like what was done to this game.
Wow beautiful.
Gottlieb King Pin seems to be a pretty hot title lately.
I got one in the restore process myself. Gonna be lots of new goodies Playfield will get all new light sockets. 
Already has had the cabinet repaired by a local (cabinet bottom board and back board replaced) and paint done by pinhead52 (pinball pimp stencils) who also did some additional cabinet repair.
All the mechanical's in the head have been repaired, cleaned, and ready to go. Still working on mech board and playfield which will get ink touched up and then an auto clearcoat by another local. Chime box rebuilt. Coin door and bezel re-chromed locally. New legs, bolts, protectors, levelers, bla, bla, bla....
Machine was a mold, mildew, rust, and corrosion mess everywhere but with the help of Evaporust, tumbler, and ultra sonic cleaner, things have changed for the better.
Backglass was paint touched up where needed and clear spot sealed.
Should be done end of 2018.
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Okay I'll bite. Landed mine zee a couple months ago for $560 and man with 297k plays I've never seen more worn out flipper links or coil stops while shopping out a game. Even the score reels' coil stops and plungers were beyond bad. The carbon dirt was nuts! Stripped, touched up, and waxed the pf.
Plays great!
King Pin seems to be turning into a hot title. I enjoy the game play and it's definitely challenging to beat. Really like the bowling theme too!
I don't know if I would rate it better than El Dorado, EM-PINMAN, but it's definitely an A title in my opinion.
Wow! That playfields looks great for almost 300,000 plays. A tribute to the durability of gottlieb's clear coat surface. Bally games from a few years later would have worn out at hundred thousand plays. On a side note, your score reel looks great. What process do you use to clean them?
Quoted from phergott:Okay I'll bite. Landed mine zee a couple months ago for $560 and man with 297k plays I've never seen more worn out flipper links or coil stops while shopping out a game. Even the score reels' coil stops and plungers were beyond bad. The carbon dirt was nuts! Stripped, touched up, and waxed the pf.
Plays great!
Quoted from leckmeck:While we’re on the subject of King Pin, has anybody ordered Shay’s reproduction backglass? I’m thinking of grabbing one in case I ever do a big cosmetic restoration on mine.
Looks nice on his website. I was thinking of getting one too but my backglass is good enough for now, maybe i'll get one when my pinball funds improve.
Quoted from EM-PINMAN:Looks nice on his website. I was thinking of getting one too but my backglass is good enough for now, maybe i'll get one when my pinball funds improve.
Wow! I had no idea Shay’s website had been updated. Thanks.
Quoted from leckmeck:Wow! I had no idea Shay’s website had been updated. Thanks.
Quoted from Dono:I’ve got the shay glass its nice but the lighting around some of the translucent numbered areas is off a bit and is definitely noticeable
What I notice about Shay glasses is that if an original glass is faded then scanned he does nothing with getting the colors back to original and crisp again. bgresto.com does rework the files to try to get it right but their reproduction process leads to color fade when the glass is lit so kind of back to where you started thing. Oh well, glad there are guys out there remaking these period as something is better than nothing and for the most part these reproduction glasses are close enough with Ron Webb's glasses being the best hands down IMO.
Did ya read the thread? That’s sorta the whole point! So far we have a range of 400 ish for what is a beat up (if typical) example to over 2000 for a restored pristine example. So depending on how nice- probably around 600-1.2K unless it’s been restored.
Quoted from stashyboy:Wow! That playfields looks great for almost 300,000 plays. A tribute to the durability of gottlieb's clear coat surface. Bally games from a few years later would have worn out at hundred thousand plays. On a side note, your score reel looks great. What process do you use to clean them?
I use toothpaste and rinse with mildly warm water. I rub the face of the score reel with my fingers.
Regarding Shays bg, I bit the bullet and bought the sample glass from Steve at PBR. Same price, less cost for shipping. Now there are two things I have issue with. 1) As mentioned the match numbers behind the blue colors are weak with standard bulbs. LEDS fixed that.
2) The score windows are too low, at least on this one. I was able to see the top of the numbers at the bottom of the windows. Using a scale, I compared dimensions to the original glass and all was good except Shays print is. 060 lower from the top edge of the glass than the original. I used a couple of strips of green felt to raise it.
Quoted from phergott:Okay I'll bite. Landed mine zee a couple months ago for $560 and man with 297k plays I've never seen more worn out flipper links or coil stops while shopping out a game. Even the score reels' coil stops and plungers were beyond bad. The carbon dirt was nuts! Stripped, touched up, and waxed the pf.
Plays great!
Wow! Your backglass colors are really bleached out. Maybe a new Shay glass is in your future? 
Quoted from rufessor:Did ya read the thread? That’s sorta the whole point! So far we have a range of 400 ish for what is a beat up (if typical) example to over 2000 for a restored pristine example. So depending on how nice- probably around 600-1.2K unless it’s been restored.
That was my whole point of asking. There has been people saying they bought their projects for $400-500 and then one person bought a restored for $2,700 (including delivery).
So really nice/pristine all original machine?
Quoted from EM-PINMAN:Wow! Your backglass colors are really bleached out. Maybe a new Shay glass is in your future?
Post #43 ☺️
Quoted from Phillips88:That was my whole point of asking. There has been people saying they bought their projects for $400-500 and then one person bought a restored for $2,700 (including delivery). So really nice/pristine all original machine?
Nobody has posted sales figures for a King Pin in the particular condition you are hypothesizing, so it’s a matter of speculation.
Me, I would gladly pay $1,500 for a mint original King Pin. Maybe twice that, if it was an utterly flawless original.
Who knows what others would pay. If somebody found a NIB King Pin and put it on eBay, what do you think it would fetch? I probably couldn’t afford it.
EDIT: For some reason, Pinside keeps injecting this photo attachment from my earlier post. I tried deleting it, but to no avail. Here it is again!
The point of my somewhat sarcastic post was made above... this thread probably has more sales information on this game than any other thread on Pinside and you need to decide for yourself what a game is worth... The simple reality is any game in any condition is worth precisely whatever you or someone in line with you will pay (assuming the seller is satisfied)... you need to decide whats reasonable to you- and you need to be prepared to adjust that upward if you cannot buy a game.
My very first post stated that I did not think you could get a decent quality machine for less than 600 or more... aside from comments saying someone got one for less, all the information here supports that. Its always the case that someone will find a great game at an amazing price- hell its also true I could discover a Picasso at a garage sale in his home town priced for 10 dollars. But does that determine, or even influence the market price? Nope... So, if you want another number, I would pay over 1,000 dollars, possibly a good bit more, for a very nice original game- one that required no major cosmetic work- even if it was not working. So if thats the game you want, and I or others like me are in line with you, thats the price.
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