junkman get off chicago craigslist!!!

This guy just fricken annoys me.  He seems to be some sort of guy that either does home/office wrecking, or just a general contractor.  He tries to sell everything from crappy sunglass displays (the ones that spin at a department store), or this ad where he's trying to upsell crappy mirrored cube ceiling tiles that go over fluorescent lights (there's a reason they don't sell these anymore, nobody wants them).  He posts the same ad over and over (this has gone on for about 4 months now), yet he says and I quote " I am letting a few go on craigslist before I post them on eBay and let the world go crazy over them".  No really, it's ok, let the world go crazy over them on Ebay, it's been long enough.  Of course they show up under a search for pinball, because he somehow thinks someone that has a pinball machine is going to want to trade it for some crappy ceiling tiles.  Also note, he has the audacity to say at the end of his ad "NO JUNK PLEASE!", because what he's offering is just pure gold.

trade countach for pinball?

I see all sorts of barter ads in chicago, this one may top it.  This guy bought some sort of lambo body kit with every intention in creating a countach kit car, and clearly lost his ambition.  But hey, if you have a spare pinball you don't care about and would like to take on the task of mounting this body on a chassis and build a car from scratch from the ground up, this ad is for you!

business hurting scott?

This ad makes me smile.  You might say "why would you basque in someone's failure in selling a pinball machine?"  Well let me tell you, this is another one of these dirty pinball flippers in the chicagoland area.  This guy used to JUST build custom multicades out of his house.  That's fine, sell them all day long on craigslist.  Then he had the bright idea to buy a local building (not much bigger than a 7-11) that used to be an allstate office, and before that it was a fish fry restaurant.  Anyway, not long after he buys it, he starts filling it up with collectibles.  Anything from pinballs to vintage signs to old pop machines to arcade games.

Here's where I have a problem with him, he swoops in and buys every deal he can find on craigslist because apparently he has nothing better to do.  Whatever he buys, he puts minimal effort into fixing them and then doubles his asking price.  Clearly he's an expert on nothing (except maybe building multicades) because if he had any knowledge he'd know that not every title is going to sell.  He's trying to sell a gottlieb mario andretti for $2200 (asking about $1000 too much), and now he's having a hard time selling a Bally X's and O's with his comment (firm at $550).  That means he probably paid $500 and put a couple hours into cleaning it and re-rubbering it (possibly replacing some bulbs) so $550 is probably honestly his break-even point, but he's running out of space because he keeps buying anything he can.

Oh also his "store" is more like a storage shed with a retail front because he's never there (appointment only), or when he needs to try to move some stuff he'll open all day on saturday.  That's not a retail shop if you have nobody to run it because you're trying to keep overhead low, and you have a full-time job that doesn't allow you to be there during the day (nor does it have space to work on pinball or multicades).  I really hope his poorly business fails and he learns a hard lesson.

Also if you're going to run a legitimate business, perhaps you should learn how to spell (or use a modern browser like firefox with spellcheck built in), because I don't know what a "backgalss pealing" means.

Keller H20 is back, price lowered

So this guy was trying to sell his whitewater for $8500 a YEAR and a half ago:
http://bestofcraigpinball.blogspot.com/2012/07/8500-wh20.html

Now he's lowered it to $7750:

 

 This just goes to show you 2 things:

1. Restorations are for you to keep, not to sell.  Expect to lose a lot of money when you go to sell (unless the value of that title has shot up drastically)

2. If you ask for a lot, no matter how long you post on craigslist, you probably aren't going to find a buyer

Wico? Wico? Anyone got a wico for sale?

If there was only one for sale.. Man, I have been wanting one of those for a long time.  Oh look, just my luck.  There's 4 people in the same town that have one for sale, I should call one of these (same) people.

It's called the delete key, might want to try that sometime!

powder coated... star explorer????

I can't for the life of me figure out why someone would be dumb enough to not only invest the time but the money powder coating a crappy home version pinball from the late 70's?  This defies logic, he is never going to recover his money back, and we'll likely be seeing this ad for the next 3 years.

Niles guy is still trying to sell pins a year and a half later?

This guy is pathetic, remember him?
http://bestofcraigpinball.blogspot.com/2012/07/niles-buy-my-whole-route-as-giant.html

I suppose he may have sold a couple pins (yet still has three T2's and two WCS94).

space shuttle seller on crack?

Ok, so it sounds like this guy is trying to sell a couple pins out of rockford.  He's selling a roller coaster tycoon for $3500, a data east star trek for $2800, and a space shuttle for... $5750?!!!  He's implying they are all HUO by saying "This pinball machine has been in our family, it is gently used" in all 3 ads, but seriously.  Even if a space shuttle was NIB, would it really be worth that much?

Stern Galaxy - $1500? Surrrrrre

Well with a market value of $500, how can this person possibly ask triple the price for this thing? This pinflation is really going to people's heads

space invaders - $1900 (update)

What a shock, nobody wanted to pay $1900 on craigslist for his "restored" pin:
http://bestofcraigpinball.blogspot.com/2012/08/space-invaders-1900.html

Now he has it up for sale on ebay for.. $2350 buy it now.  Of course! makes perfect sense, if you can't sell it for $1900, why not try to sell it on the over-inflated ebay for $450 more, surely it will sell right?

super mario pinball $2150

It's not the price I so much have a problem with (though it is high for this title which maxes out at about $1500), it's the fact that he says "want to sell it since it's becoming so popular again".  That translates in my eyes "I bought this cheap 13 years ago, and now that pinball prices are skyrocketing, I'm going to try to sell it for more than I paid for it"

williams hurricane - $3300???

 Another insane seller.  Says he somehow put $4k into it (not sure how that's possible, unless he hired a tech over and over, or spent thousands of dollars getting it shopped out). I don't care what you put into a pin, there's a point where a title like this has diminishing returns (I would sooner buy a routed whitewater than a perfect version of this).  I don't know where he thinks he saw it worth $3,300 online (not a single one for sale on ebay right now, the three for sale on mr pinball are selling for between $1200 and $1800.  I emailed him asking where he saw one for sale at that price, said he's seen them at that price fully restored (so you lied).  Also said he'd come down to $2k (wow, a thousand bucks off?  Your too kind).

Indian Jones, antique?

Antique, as defined by wikipedia, is anything at least 100 years old.  Since the first pinball (not including bagatelle) is 1932, that would mean nobody can make the claim of an antique pinball until at least the year 2032.  This ad is calling a 1993 williams indiana jones pinball an antique.. I just find this hilarious!

big guns pinball? Or old shitty backglass, you decide

Williams Fire!.... on fire?

Granted the price is about right ($100 for parts), WTF happened to this poor pin?  I mean this seriously looks like it was in a fire, and then hosed down... which is quite ironic considering the title.
"can be used for parts or restored", I think probably the first part of the statement is the truth.  The only way for this to be restored is if someone has a NOS playfield, and pretty much every plastic and vacuum formed part on it.

See for yourself:

Circus pinball, HUO

This ad kills me.  He's selling a circus pinball (retailed for about $600 new back in 1980).  He's trying to sell it for as much or more now, 32 years later.  Fine, nothing wrong with that I suppose, medieval madnesses are selling for $15k, they sold for maybe $3k-4k new, let's give him the benefit of the doubt.  He goes on to say "been in a home since new, never in a commercial establishment"??? It's a HOME PINBALL! How would it ever be in a commercial establishment?  There is no fucking coin mechanism!  That's like saying "Huffy bicycle for sale, never been used for bike messaging or an olympic triathalon".. yea, because no professional would ever use a huffy bicycle.

1969 MIBS, needs nothing! NOTHING HE SAYS!

$450 for a one player EM seems high.  Yes it has balls in the backglass, who cares?  wedgeheads seem to be a dime a dozen, and this thing needs some SERIOUS TLC (not nothing).  I also hate when people write ads and double speak, like saying three times it's working 100% (does that means it's actually working 300%?)

That cabinet needs some serious sanding/painting, and that front coin door looks like someone sneezed rust all over it (I'm amazed the side rails look so good compared to everything else).

12 pin route - description shortened..

You remember this ad?
http://bestofcraigpinball.blogspot.com/2012/07/niles-buy-my-whole-route-as-giant.html

now it just says... pinball.  No phone number, not listing what he has, just an email address.

I think he's realizing that every pinball collector in chicago thinks he's insane, and are constantly flagging his ads, so he thinks that by just saying one word that people won't know it's him.  Problem is, he hasn't updated any of his photos

robocop - decent price?

However, it has the horrible description that makes everyone cringe "needs a new fuse".  Yea, fuses are protection devices, they don't just burn out like bulbs do.  That means you have a short, or someone played it beyond it's limits (like flipped the flippers constantly and overheated the coil).  Who knows, maybe it's a steal, but I wouldn't be willing to drive to Hobart, Indiana to find out.  Also I don't think this title is so great from what I've read.  $700 for working (needing cleanup) maybe.  Sad that he actually purchased it for $1200 5 years ago, I think someone ripped him off

cooper baseball is back

Listing is chicago still.. Was $30, now it's back up to $100?  Either this is another moron, this is the same moron, or this is a flipper moron that bought this from the other moron and is trying to resell it at a higher price.