PM was my worst deal as I am still trying to fix the board for the lamps.

Same thing here

Hmmmm.....

I've had lots of good deals...only way I buy them I bought 4 games once for $1K and one of the four was a decent HS. I bought a working T2 for $200. It was just covered in grime (had been stored in a metal shop with glass off). Found a near HUO CP for $1700 (let a friend of mine have that one). I usually don't buy unless it's 20 to 40% under market. I don't get to be picky, but I get to try lots of different games.

My WORST deal was a EBC I paid $300 for. Pulled the mylar and 50% of the paint came with it. Sold it for $300.

With a Pinball Magic or another game?

best deal(s) is either Whitewater for $900 or Dale Jr. for $700.

Worst is CFTBL at 3300. Just got money back on that one.

HOw did you locate a Whitewater for $900? What a deal!

I paid 500 for HS2 sweet deal

Pin bot in great shape for 400 was my best. Worst. I dunno, I have been pretty happy so far.

the best i've ever done is break even

Simpsons Pinball Party (HUO) for $1000.00 was my best. Haven't had a bad one yet, but I'm sure I will.....

$200 IJ
$300 TAF
$300 FH

worst deals.. I don't think about those

You suck

Worst: FPII, still cant get that thing working perfectly, and it is down to wood. good news is I only paid 150.

Wouldn't say worst purchase, but certainly my most uneasy purchase was my MM for 6200- @ the time, many pundits on RGP were claiming that MM was only a 4500 pin. It was listed on my local CL and it was the topic of the Price Police on what a used, average MM should be worth on RGP.

Felt queasy pealing back the 100's when I paid for it. I had double the apprehension because I had a deposit with Wayne on one of his reproductions and I was waiting for a refund. I couldn't talk to anybody because I really did not want to explain, or justify spending that type of money on a "toy".

Cutting to the lesson, as soon as I got it home I was happy. Glad I ignored what people thought. As the late Ricky Nelson said, "ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself."

When did you grab that MM? I would guess the majority would say that is a very good price currently

I bought my TAF for $200 (might have been $300). It was a long time ago.

Paid market for the TZ. I only have 2 machines so the sample size is dinky

Best: Roy Clark The Entertainer cocktail pin - $30... Or Special Force - $45 (raffle though)

Worst: T3 - $1900. Not that bad, but I didn't really like he game.

Best: F14 for $450. (Near mint PF too!)
Worst: Haven't had one, yet...

Worst.. I drove 100 miles to buy a Laser War for $ 650.00 , and it lOOked like Hell when i saw it. I would've Cursed and Raised Mortal Hell , But he Promised me he would Hook me up w/ a GNR ..
The GNR Never Happened .. I Lost $$ sell-n the LW also.. But i shop'd it and add'd Led's ..

.Best Deal ,, I'll mention the TZ and TOM that i got Last month ..
That's All I'm Gonna say !!

worst was my hs2, due to condition of the head being bashed up $1800 i feel i overpaid but was only my 2nd pin so didnt know enough.

best was probably my new corvette HUO for $2250 like new!

Got it in 09

Looks good now, but then it was the start of our current recession and I didn't know if I was spending money on something that would depreciate.

So, I probably paid a little over market at the time, but everything turned out great in the end. I just didn't enjoy the stress at the time.

Best deals -
My first Cactus Canyon - $1500
T2 - $100 in raffle tickets
Restored and ultimately sold both. I'm on CC#3 now.

Luckily I have no worst deal, unless you count the NOS CC playfield I sold for $300...

best $450 High speed 100% working very minimal wear as ball enters playfield.
worst$2000 TFTC Nice shape but unshopped 100% working.

I feel like a tool for paying that amount for either of them after reading the 200-500 posts on top of the A list titles. Where do you get that kind of deal without straight up screwing people?

This thread needs to be re-worded as a good deal at the time of value for comparitvely speaking. Obviously a 6000 dollar MM is a good deal today. In 2005 I would hardly call that a good deal. Hell every pin ever purchased as far back as 4 years ago could be considered a good deal today.

Paying brand new prices for a NIB pin in the 1990s would probably be considerd a good deal today.

I have WAY more stories of pinballs that I should have bought years ago that couldnt be touched in todays market. I wouldnt call those good deals though, thats what said machines were worth back then.

Worst, Popeye 1900
Best, BSM 4100

Speaking of the Wayne MM project, has anyone NOT got the money refunded ?

I came close to getting a $450 LAH, but I passed on it since the playfield was completely thrashed.

Worst deal was on one of the first pins I bought: Xenon... the face had been repainted BAD (one eye was bigger than thge other, mouth all wrong...) front glass was missing, electronics were a basket case... generally a wreck... paid £500 ($800), bought a replacement playfield for it that was also not great for another £150, and a smoked glass for around £50 (total now £700, $1100)... Ended up selling the game non-working for £500 after finding a better example... This left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for pinball (I was hustled by the seller to be honest), and in an attempt to get rid of this bad taste, I started buying pins that were a good deal in order to sell for some profit to recover the loss on the Xenon... I kind of overshot a bit...

Anyway, best deal was Williams 4 Stars that I got for a crate of beer... not in bad shape either...

Bally X's & O's, dirty, non-working for free.
Spent a lot time, and 50$, and now 100% working, looks good. 1st. pin.

Best: Minty Gottlieb Neptune - $250

Took about 5 months and I took a little hit because of currency rate. I believe everybody got their money back, and believe it or not, I think there are still people that have deposits with him.

Worst - not sure yet. $250 for a mostly working Hollywood heat as a retheme donor I suppose; but will expect to "lose" money on the project overall (If I decide to get rid of it later). I suppose the BK is up there as I don't expect I'd get what I paid for it....but don't expect to try either.

Best would be lightly routed SM (~9K plays) for $1800. My guess is the seller did research on Gott TASM pricing.

Best: LW3 and F2K combo for $550 (both cosmetically excellent, but electronic messes). Also a beautiful Surfer for $40.

Worst: Pot O' Gold. Traded a partially working cocktail pin and a few hundred (don't ask...)

Best deal is a tough one. Sometimes the purchase price of a machine can be low but you are right back up to market value with the cost of stuff you end up needing to add to make it 100%. Such is the case for my BSD which I was offered and bought for $900 with no fade and a good playfield. However there were several things I did need to buy which added several hundred to the cost.

BTW- I consider it a deal not because of how much below market value it cost, but how much enjoyment I have gotten for that dollar amount.

Worst deal- Probably GnR for $3900 about 2 years ago. It was a decent specimen, but did require some repairs and a new DMD. Sometimes you get caught up in the hype.

Best: Gottlieb King Pin it was free
Worst: I would have to go with my Whirlwind. It is my favorite pin of all time so I may be putting a little too much back into it.

Best either HS for $300 or transporter the rescue for $380.
HS in good unshoped condition
Transporter the rescue in extremely good condition.
Worst? Harlem for $275 with a bad board. Acid damage.

Worst deal was my first. A Who Dunnit for $1,500. Not a horrible deal by any means but my worst.

Best deal was my STTNG. $1,100, complete but not working. With a $75 board repair she fired right up. Thanks to Pin_Crazed she is an absolute beauty now and pretty much bulletproofed as much as you can with a STTNG with new cannon harnesses and opto boards. This one is never leaving.

Best Deal - 2x DE Simp, R&B, T2, Dr. Dude, BTTF = $1,300
Worst Deal - ....... don't really have one

I suppose my best deal, looking back, was very early on when I got my first bulk purchase of the following games for £2200 ($3500):

IJ
CFTBL
ST:TNG
FT
TZ
Earthshaker
Radical
Rapid Fire
JP
TG:HS2

All complete and mostly working... Wish I could find another deal like that again... You'd have to pay double what I sold 'em for to get 'em back again...

Best - JM for $700

Worst - DW for $445 (really, the thing was junk)

Tough call.

Probably the best is my early production TZ with white clock and other early features. It is immaculate. Nary a mark on the cabinet or on the playfield. I bought it in November of 1999 for $1250. I have added the door flasher mod and the 3rd magnet. Although I will never sell it unless I have to, it would be minimally in the $6-7.5K range given the condition and early production and the right buyer.

Probably the worst at the time was buying my MM off route in late 2004 for $5800. The prices in the DC area were staring to hit $6k and above, so I was concerned about getting one before they hit the roof. The condition of the cabinet is what sold me. One chip at the bottom of the left side and a small surface scrap at the bottom of the left head. I have shopped it, and it plays flawlessly. There are a couple of inserts that need minimal black touch up, and many of the important parts are NOS bought in 2005: drawbridge, gate, dragon wings, troll heads, Kerry's protector set, troll flap decals, drawbridge decals, stone walkway in castle decal (all decals mylared). In hindsight, although it is the worst purchase, it's value now makes it in the "best" category.

What year was that? What did you sell them for?

Man, that reminds me of something like a dream date you never saw again and cannot forget.

Haunting!

Hmmm, I think the worst purchase I have had would be either my Shadow £575 ($900) but it was pretty beat up, hacked boards, couldn't start a game and the DMD wouldn't come on. Or perhaps my Wh20 which was £940 ($1500) and had some smashed plastics, line out on the display, pretty ropey cabinet and wear around the raft inserts.

I guess both of these purchases aren't really bad, especially it in the current market in the UK, but compared to most of the buys I have had they seem high, I just really wanted both of them!

Over 12 years I have had some pretty strong results to be honest.

The highlights are probably an Elektra, which was free. An IJ for £30 ($50) a proto CV for £160 ($250) and like pinballslave, my first bulk purchase, which was £1400 ($2200) which included

Bad Cats
Dr Dude
Diner
F14 Tomcat
Judge Dredd
Getaway HS2
Millionaire
Mousin Around
Street Fighter II
Party Zone
Radical
Silverball Mania x2
Space Invaders
Truck Stop
Super Mario Bros
Mr and Mrs Pacman

Those were certainly the days!

A $500 Police Force, worth -$50; i.e. I paid $550 too much.

Robert

Those are amazing deals indeed!! Pretty much impossible to beat those!!

My bulk deal was in 1999... I ended up selling them all eventually but wishing I'd have kept the Radical now because I didn't even play that one, and have never seen one since... The total sale price was £4440 ($7100), so I doubled my money... but could sell them for twice that now easily!!

Best deal: Stargate for $800

Worst deal: Heavy Metal Meltdown $600

We got them both for $1400

But we don't much care for Heavy Metal Meltdown...

Especially when we could have had a Big Guns instead, for the same price.