Great story Swinks. Sorry it cost you so much. But in the end you got what you wanted, and it's good to look back and chalk it up to experience.

My story:

October, 2008. My brother calls me "hey, I brought you a pinball machine" I'm thrilled ... for a few seconds ... then he adds "well, uh, you gotta pay me for it ... but it's really cool and..." he continued on explaining about it. My bubble is burst, and I'm now quite skeptical.

In short, he brought two pinball machines, a Hurricane and a Stargate, he's keeping the Stargate, but says his wife will kill him if he comes home with two, and he knows I've been wanting one, so I should buy it. And after all, I'm a sucker. I think my brother is nuts at this point, but something just says do it. "Ok Jim, I've been wanting a pinball machine. It'll be cool to work on it together". Really, I saw this as a good opportunity to get a pinball machine and connect with my brother, a relationship that's been a bit rough over the past two decades.

So here I am committing to a pinball machine I have no idea about. Then it arrives.

Fast forward to today ... I've spent the last 3+ years reading/eating/sleeping pinball, I know a lot about most every modern pinball in existence, I know what they're worth, how to fix them, and the people that design, restore, and collect them. I love it.

So back to that first pinball machine...

It was a Hurricane. Filthy, cat piss inside, bottom of the cabinet falling out, broken plastics (that hard to find lower ramp included), heavy fade, graffiti carvings on the cab too. Oh, and a screw straight into the playfield next to The Dunk the Dummy target (as the target was mashed to hell and bent back exposing a place for the ball to get stuck). A mess.

I paid $900 for this peesa-crap. But I worked my ass off to clean it up. Repaired the cabinet bottom, cleaned out the cat piss smell, then tore the whole pin down and cleaned ever nut, bolt, screw post by hand at the buffing wheel to a mirror finish. Fixed all the electrical issued with my brother, and had a good time doing it. Then spent countless hundreds getting everything to as good as it could get.

Around the house it's a hit. Wife and daughter love it. Friends are envious. I have it in the garage, but the wife suggests we get rid of the dining room and start a game room. Ok dear, if you insist.

I year later I put a call out for a new cab. I find a well-known pin guy from Boston (I'm in the New York area) with a Hurricane minus boards and a DMD for cheap. A great find, it's mint, and compete minus only the DMD and boards ... So nice in fact that I just swap everything over to the new pin, strip the old one for parts and trash the old cabinet.

So here I am with a Hurricane with easily $2000 in two years later. Every month passes and I learn more about pinball, and how my brother dumped a beater on me to avoid wife troubles. I've brought six more pins since. I sell the Hurricane out of spite, losing my shirt ... I think I sold it for $1,000. The original playfield (from first Hurricane) hangs in my office, and I regret having given up on it. And regret sucks ... especially pinball sellers regret.

All in all a good experience. I lost a lot on that pin, in many ways ... but I've gained so much as a result. If I could find that Hurricane I'd buy it back in a second.

G'day Swinks didnt realise you were on pinside too.

Good stories, guys. I feel your pain - and your joy.

That's the spirit. We all make stupid decisions at times, I certainly do them when I rush into a new hobby, I've done that more times than I care to remember... But at the end of the day, as long as you come out of it standing on your feet, why worry ?

It's not what you put into it, it's what you get out of it. To me, money is not a major part of that equation.

Wow, great stories. It's amazing what we're willing to put up with as our first pin.

My story:
About this time last year, I started to heavily watch craigslist to see what's out there. At the time, I thought $1000 was a lot to pay for a pinball (actually passed on a HUO earthshaker first run, kicking myself now). Finally I saw it, a local garage sale about 2 miles from work, selling 3 pinball machines, $200 each (your choice). My co-worker was heavy into pinball for years (EM only, had about 2 dozen in his basement, most not working). He goes to check them out first, then gives me a ring to tell me what he has. First one was sold already, 2nd one (bally gator, which I bought for $150 after talking him down), didn't fire up, had a cracked backglass. 3rd one I forget the title, but it had a billiard theme and had a weird plunger that rotated. So I get it home, and think "well, should probably check the fuses first. Most of them were underrated (thankfully back then, they did mark them on the board). After stopping at a good electronics store the next day, and popping them in, sure enough it turned on (but wouldn't boot). If I reset it about a dozen times, I would finally get a game going (dirty contacts, just happened to fire right). After cleaning every single EOS switch, it finally starts a game reliably. Meanwhile, I had bought 2 other solid state games, and not long ago sold it for $250.

Some great stories here. I have always had a good pin buying experience (7 total) but I did do a "universal stupid" when I bought my first arcade game.

I starts out with craigs list. $600 for multi arcade. I called my wife and begged like a five year old with all the regular pin excuses...it"s for the kids, you"ll love playing it too. After 3 phone calls I got the okay and went and buy it. Tip one..Arcade machines are super heavy (more than pins) so get a STRONG friend. I loaded this unit in the back of my Jeep Laredo and drove home, my buddy helped me get it in the house to move it down the stairs. He was the top and was there to hold it so it doesnt fall down the stairs....we tip it back and he lets it go. Now I am running down the stairs with a full size stand up unit sliding after me.....no damage to the walls or banister?!?

He looks at me and says does it still work? I plug it in and it starts right up...no problem I tell him.

We go back to work and my wife calls in about 20 minutes stating there is something burning downstairs. I tell her to unplug the game and I"ll check it out when I get home. Long story short....New Jamma board $120, new power supply $80, new LED monitor $130 and labor to install and fix $220. Arcade unit value $600-800, investment $1200. Strong friends and moving dolly investment....Priceless

Bought my TSPP in December of 2011, and I drove up to Murrieta, CA to meet with Pat Choy, the seller. Never even looked back since and TSPP is a keeper for me.

Bought a LOTR from a grizzled old op in GA who was getting out of the business. Game was dirty and I overpaid because I couldn't find one elsewhere and I wanted one for years. Everyone should buy from an op like that once to realize how nice it is dealing with pinheads

Pat Choy is a good guy, and yes tspp is a keeper.
Doug

I picked up my first pin, Space Shuttle, June of last year on my birthday. Paid 500 for it. Playfield trashed, cabinet reds faded to pink, but the apron looked nice , everything was functional and there wasn't any obvious PCB damage. Backglass was NIIIIIIIIICE.

So it came from a Craigslist listing. I contact the lady in email, the pin is about 70 miles west of me, in the middle of nowhere. I live in Dallas and it's like 20 minutes west of Ft. Worth. Now, because it's so far off from where we were, and it was my birthday, and my day off, my wife wanted to go. Okay. That means we have to take the kids. That means it can't fit in the back of our Highlander. So how the hell do we get this thing? Take the Rav4 too? No, that defeats the point of going together. Okay, so what's the solution then? Meanwhile I've worked out a day to go pick up the pin....on my birthday.

We bought a hitch for the Highlander (!) and rented a small closed trailer to tow with the hitch. I had no idea buying a freakin' piece of metal to attach to the arse of your car was so bloody expensive, man! I was *pissed*. I think between the hitch and the trailer we were committing about $300 just to go pick up this pin! So before I go to buy this crap, I email the lady back. I say, I have an appointment tomorrow morning to buy this hitch to come pick up this pin, I need a commitment from you that you're not going to sell it before I get out there the next day. She sends me back an email saying that someone is going to look at it that night and she will let me know. I've already paid online for the hitch and trailer rental!

FUUUUUUUUUUUU..... Immediately typed and sent a rage-mail, basically saying I've already committed all this money on this equipment and she had told me I was the first person to email, then she needs to give me the time we agreed on already to go pick it up before she tries to sell it out from under me! At this point, I'm thinking I'm just screwed and this pin is gone for sure. She emails me back, basically says that I made a fair point and that since I was the first one to reply that she will tell the other guy to hold off until after our appointed time to see if I show.

*big sigh of relief*

So we go get the hitch. It's installed by some kid that looks like he's 16 or 17, and I have to wait nearly an hour for this lazy arse to even show up to do the install, despite having an appointment with U-Haul (who I will NOT be utilizing for this type of thing ever again, just for the record.....see below..). It then takes another hour and a half for him to remove 4 bolts to take off the old bracket, replace 4 bolts to put the hitch on, and the vast majority of the time is spent on him running the power jumper from the battery back to the hitch connector so that it can relay the brake signals. I finally get done with that, go pick up the trailer, had never driven WITH a trailer mind you, and go pick up my wife and kids.

We're tooling down the highway, and this trailer is just making a TON of noise. We didn't put anything in it, so it's back there bouncing around like a monkey on a trampoline every time there's any kind of bump in the road. Good times. So we drive the 90 miles or whatever worried this thing is just going to go haywire...we get out in the middle of NOWHERE and...

"Um....hey, did you go by the ATM?"
"No...."
"Oh, really. Seriously?"

We pull up maps and start looking everywhere for an ATM. It's 15 miles back the other way. AWESOME! Turn around, go get the cash. Meanwhile, we also bottom out the trailer because the exit from the bank lot is steep as crap and I went too fast. We get to the lady's house, which literally, is a big ol' country house, really nice, on 10+ acres, probably a lot more. We pull right up to her front door on her grass per her prompting. I go inside, look at the pin, I'm so excited I don't even think about trying to haggle on the price after everything that's already gone on. I cough up the 500 like I'm a baller and signal my wife to get outta the car and give me a hand.

We load it in the trailer, standing up. I didn't have the tools to break it down, nor did I actually know how to at that point, but we butted it up against the front of the trailer, folded the head down on some towels and strapped it, then secured the body with another 2 straps, standing up on the legs. I burn the ever-loving crap out of myself because it's Texas, in June, and not a cloud in the sky. You can imagine how hot the metal walls and floor of that trailer were. I smash my finger in the door of the car also. My 5 year old wants out of his car seat, we let him get up to stretch, he takes one step out of the car and screeches. Stepped in a pile of brambles/stickers/whatever you want to call those spiky grassy things. We spend a few minutes picking them out of his feet and our shoes and sandals as well so they don't linger in the car. We part ways with the seller and head back home.

Notice that the trailer is a LOT quieter this time, now that there's actually some weight on the trailer wheels. Get home, unload, get it inside, and it plays great. The GI goes out 2 minutes after we start playing. I open up the head, oh look, that power connector is BLACK. That PCB is charred, and that little jumper wire has the insulation burning off? Okay...it's no collector's machine.

Fast foward, I ended up ordering about $200 worth of parts to make the machine mechanically sound, rebuilt the flippers and pops. I ordered the repro playfield from CPR, and am waiting to do the swap until this summer. Also have the repro plastics. The machine was at Texas Pinball Festival and survived the entire weekend with only 10-15 minutes of downtime when one of the locks/kickout holes had a microswitch get stuck in an on position. Just had to go in and pull it free and it was good to go. I still can't believe the GI and the power board that's burned to a crisp survived all weekend without frying!

Shuttle is currently on loan to a friend of mine while I straighten out my new Stargate and STTNG pins.

Got hosed on a Flash Gordon. Came from Georgia on Ebay.
Worked about 98%. Complete. Pictures on ebay looked good.
Payed around 800 for it plus shipping so around 1150 at the time.

When it arrived it was so beat up. Playfield had been horribly recolored and a full sheet mylar was installed improperly. I have no idea to this day how they got the pictures to look so good in auction.

I sold it as is were is for a big loss. live and learn.

So, my story goes something like this.....

I'd been playing pinball on and off since the 80's, but never really gave "the hobby" much thought. Then, one day about 2 years ago, I get a call from my brother that he's working on a new project. You see, he works for a German glass and lighting company called Schott, and his expertise is optics and lighting. So what was this project he was working on? Well, he happened to land the sales contract to supply his company's side-emitting fiber optics to this certain Chicago-based company we all know called Stern.

That's right, my bro landed the job to supply the lighting for what would become the ramps on Tron LE. Best part of the deal? He arranged to get the "employee price" on his own machine!

So fast forward to last summer, and he finally gets this beast in his basement. After a few plays, I was totally hooked! I'd played many pins before, but never in the great environment of a home setting. It was awesome. Of course, sibling rivalry being what it is, my brother then says, "You need to get one for your place!"

Ha, ha, ha....not very likely, dude. Even with his discount, that machine is wayyyy out of my price range. But, the idea stuck, and like a seed planted in the ground and watered, it began to grow. After several trips to my brother's house, I really started to "get the itch" last fall especially with him egging me on every time that I needed a pin. What really brought it home was one night playing with one of his buddies who commented that you could get an older used game for hundreds, not thousands. Now we're talking my kind of budget.

So now that I had the idea of getting a pinball machine of my own, what did I do? Why, to the internet, of course! That's when I stumbled upon this place. After getting a bunch of great advice, including the awesome Bang-For-The-Buck list, I had an idea of what kind of machine I wanted (90's-era DMD).

Sure enough, I find the Mr. Pinball classifieds the next day. And what happens to be on there? The #1 machine on the Bang-for-the-buck list, Johnny Mnemonic. Best part? The guy happens to be literally 4 miles from my office.

Only big problem is that I would have no way to get the dang thing home if I did get it. However, my brother was coming into town the next day, and sure enough, he shows up with a rental car that he claims was the only thing the rental agency had left. Of course, it just happens to be a minivan. We go look at the game, and it was beautiful. The seller was super-nice, and JM came home the next day. I'm totally loving being an owner now, and having pins to play in my own house.

But I still wonder to this day......was that really the only car the rental place had?

Later,
EV

Good stories. I think the moral here is when you jump in without knowing what you are doing you will make mistakes. All part of life's experiences I guess.

Here's my story: Nov 2008. Recently finished basement and realized there was a lot of unused space. Remembering back to the mid seventies to early 80's I liked to play pinball and that seemed like a great way to occupy wall space.

Happened upon IPDB and suddenly a huge memory wave of all the games I played and enjoyed from childhood to high school. I even started emailing pages of particular titles to my sister, who along with my older brother and I used to venture to downtown Toronto to the seedy area then known as the strip. There were several arcades inthose days, which were almost all pinball machines. Also, there were strip joints and body rub parlours. It's a wonder our parents allowed us to go there. It was probably as similar as you could get to a seedy New York area in those years.

Anyway, then decided to scan Kijiji and CL, and eventually went to a guys place with a bunch of pins set up in a garage. I purchased GTB Dragon SS and High Hand. He delivered the next day, for a fee as it was a 110 km drive. I took the head of HH home with me that night as security for my deposit. I was so excited I got a speeding ticket on my drive home!

I later found out the seller was a well known scammer with a very long rap sheet on Mr. Pinball's blacklist. Fortunately, I was not taken extremely badly in that I did actually get something for my money.

The rest is history.

My First Pinball Purchase

It was early summer of 2010. I was at my sister’s house helping her do some work when her neighbor from across the street came over and asked if I could help him carry something into his basement. I said “Sure, No problem.” Took a walk over there, and in the back of his truck was a pinball machine. A Gottlieb Silver Slugger. I always liked pinballs when I was a kid, so I was kind of excited to help him move it into the basement. We got it downstairs, set it up, and continued to play for hours, drinking beer, etc. I felt bad because I completely forgot about my sister. She even came over a couple times to ask are we done yet, and I remember saying…”Just one more game, then I’ll be back over”.

Anyway…..after this experience, I remember for the days following, all I could think about was that machine, and that I wanted some sort of pinball for my house. Of course not having a lot of spare cash, I scoured the only place I knew of that pinballs may be listed (Mr. Pinball because that’s where he got his from) and started looking. Eventually I came across something in my price range. I found a Williams Blackout for sale for around $450, at I only had to drive about 2 hours to get it. I made contact and asked the person about the pin, and he said to come on down.
Driving seemed like it took forever (anticipation, eagerness, who knows). Finally got there, I stepped into his house and he must have literally has like 10 or so pinball in his house. My jaw dropped. I then saw the Blackout. It looked AWESOME. No visible wear marks, back glass looked great (never new at the time some used real glass ), and ran with no problem. It wasn’t a fast modern pinball, but it was a good start to get my feet wet as they say. He was great to deal with and even offered to talk to me on the phone when I got home if I had problems.

We loaded it into my truck and home I drove. Got it back to my house, called a friend over to help me carry it and we were up and running. I spend several hours a day playing the pin, looking under the playfield studying how things worked, and did research on how I could improve the pin, how to clean it properly, etc. Eventually I put all LEDs in it, and sold it when I went to go buy my third pinball.

I have to say my initial experience being so well, is probably what kept me interested in the hobby. I have heard horror stories of people first experience where people were rude, or not helpful, and it really turned people off from the hobby.

Now I am addicted. Can’t get enough of it. Made some good contacts with other hobbyists. Joined Pinsdide. All is well.

That’s my First pinball story.

Here is my story...

It was 1992 or 1993. My girlfriend's (now wife) father had a couple jukeboxes in his house. While asking hime about the jukeboxes he showed me a book he had just bought. It was Pinball the Lure of the Silver ball by Bill Kurtz. I told him I had always wanted to own a video game and had almost purchased a used one while in high school. He loaned me the book and I read it cover to cover. As I was reading it I thought why not try to find a used pinball machine.

Back then there was a Penny Saver type weekly news paper called the Coastal Trading Post. I picked it up and there were a couple ads for pinball machines. The first ad was from a guy who "restored" pinball machines. You went to his warehouse, picked out the game and he would take a couple weeks "restoring" it for you. I picked out a Gottlieb Fast Draw. At the time his selection was pretty limited and he didn't have any solid state games.

After about a week I was so anxious to get my pinball that I got another Coastal Trading Post to see if I could get a pinball NOW. There was an ad, from what turned out to be the former tech for a local operator, for video games and pinball machines. I went across town that evening and met with him. The pinball machine he had was Stern Stargazer. It was the only pinball he had, but I didn't care - it was cool looking. Not the Addams Family that my girlfriend and I played at Chi Chi's but still a cool looking game. Eventhough it only partially worked (apparently he was a bad tech ) I bought it and a cocktail video game.

I got the Stargazer set up in my apartment and couldn't wait to play it. The GI was mostly out but the game played. The fippers were weak but I had a pinball machine. I was so clueless that I couldn't figure out how to remove the glass to access the playfield to replace bulbs or do any other maintenance. The first repair I did to the game was through the coin door. I think it was replacing a couple bulbs that I could reach. I remember being on the phone bragging to my brother that I had bought a pinball but couldn't figure out how to get into the insides to fix some things. Fortunately he had been at an arcade recently and had seen the tech there open up a pinball to work on. He explained how to do it, I did and got some of the GI working before I sold it. For the next several years I bought every book I could find on pinball. There weren't many - Special When Lit, Pinball by Sharp, Pinball Illustrated, Tilt, and Pinball Portfolio are the ones I still have. I wish I still had the Stargazer but it left and a long line of other games have come an gone.

Sometimes I long for those times where I could find late 70's and early 80's games, usually working, for $50 each. The local operator wasn't very friendly, but I made friends with her. She would sell me games but I had to buy 4 at a time. LOL 4 games for $200.

I blame my brother....

Back in 2000 my brother bought a Jurassic Park pinball and Pac-Man vid from a local amusement reseller. I never really took much interest in pinball up to that point as I was always more of a video games guy.

My brother ended up moving across the country to be the weatherman for a local station around Kentucky and he took the machines with him. He put them in his basement along a pool and air hockey table & turned it into a game "cave".

I came out to visit in 2003 and fell in love with pinball. Jurassic park was my addiction. I spent hours all night in his basement. I never thought there was any skill or strategy in pinball. Just hit a ball and get points... who cares?! Then my brother showed me how to start missions and told me if I get them all a special "wizard" mode would happen. I spent the rest of the trip trying to reach it (which I never did).

When I got home, I saved up some money, and called that same operator/reseller. He said he didn't have any JP's but knew a guy in a retirement community who had just ordered a new pin and needed to sell his JP to free up space. I contacted the guy and went over to buy it.

Now the fun part....

He always had pins delivered and didn't know about transporting them himself either (he was a 1 pin at a time kind of guy). I DEFINITELY did not know anything about transporting them but I had showed up in my buddys Ford Ranger Truck.

Not knowing that the legs were supposed to come off or even that the head folds down, we proceeded to man handle this pin standing on all four legs, in the back of the truck, with the head up!!!

I didn't even have tiedown straps?!?!??! (What was I thinking?? I was young and crazy).

My home was about 15 miles away.

I drove all the way home with hazard flashers on going about 10mph down back roads and waving to let people pass me.

To this day I still have NO IDEA how the machine didn't tumble out of the truck (other than the fact that my guardian angels must have been hanging out & holding onto it).

I had this same experience. I was a pinball junkie back in the acade days. I hated that video games were pushing out the pins. I went to college in '83, and with the exception of an occasional game here and there, didn't really play much after that.

Feeling nostalgic one day, I stumbled across the IPDB. *BAM* It was like I was struck by lightning. I found a local dealer, and played some of my old favorites again. One game I remembered was a '79 Flash - it was one of the first solid state machines I played, and I can remember being BLOWN AWAY by the lights and sounds. The dealer had one that was in great shape, and $1,400 later it was mine.

I now know that I paid over market - but for my first pin I'm still happy with the deal. It's still one of the best I've seen condition wise, and I got a waranty and lots of helpful advice from the dealer.

Flash stayed with me for a couple years, and was only recently sold to a fellow Pinsider. I've since put together a nice collection of 4 machines I'm really happy with...though I've always got me eyes open for another.

Haha- that's hilarious. My story was similar in not breaking down the machine for transport. Mine rode in the back of a pickup truck for a couple miles, with me right beside it, keeping it from falling out the side.

Sometime OP work out. I bought my first (Rollergames) off craigslist for $700. Sold it last week for $600. Great game but found a operator who was getting out and needed the $. I've bought WCS PB TS T3 Godzilla Flintstones NBAFB and xfiles. Paid $700 for The Shadow and they've all been dirty but in great condition. Sold most em to pay for the others and as of now I have NBAFB TS and T3 and I've spent $200 plus time and gas total. 6 months ago I had zero machines. Machines have had a couple problems but I've met a couple awesome people that are helping me along the way. I've been pretty lucky