paddock

So this ad is just as bad as the mati hari for $800 in the area.  I think I've seen this ad weekly for at LEAST 6 months or more.  This guy is selling a paddock (single player EM) which in my opinion doesn't have much value (no matter what american pickers thinks).  If I own a pin to have in a collection, it's going to get played.. by more than just me.  That seems a bit limiting, let's move on. He claims all bells, lights, and chimes work.  I don't know if that means functioning 100%, or it just lights up and makes noise?  He also shows a photo where he has "for some reason" written (I'm guessing high scores?) on the backglass with permanent marker, but says it can be removed with some acetone?  He has also repainted the cabinet.  Granted he at least matched the same shapes, but he decided to choose new colors (perhaps these are colors he happened to have in his workshop?)  None-the-less, this is far from being worth $750, see for yourself:

Money for transmission?

I really hate ads like this, mentioning stuff like "selling because I need this".  You see the same crap on Pawn stars (TV show about a pawn shop in michigan).  It'll be some guy bringing in some crappy 19" tube tv, and he'll be like "I need $200, I'm not leaving without it", when the TV has a value of about $5.


Now granted, he's not necessarily asking for $725 for his crappy pinball machine, he's just implying that by saying he needs a new transmission that costs $725 and it would be nice if he didn't have to pay for it.

So let's assume this is in great condition, it's still an EM.  Of course he DOES have one of the slightly more sought after ones (if your into that), but $725 would be for a really nice one (that works).  He claims $150 in repairs to top cabinet (which means he had a tech come over and adjust some leaf switches) which is probably the real reason he's getting rid of it, he can't fix it himself and he can't afford to pay someone else to.

1. The top glass is missing (actually the backglass, top glass would be the playfield glass).  That's sort of a problem, in fact it probably drops the value by at least $300.
2. fuse blows for top cabinet (yea, that's usually where most of the fuses are).  That means it has shorts somewhere, and it will take a tech (or an experienced pinball person) a few hours to figure out, what is that time worth?
3. playfield worn out?  Oh lovely, it'll so be worth fixing then won't it?

"Does work as 1 player unit, meets my working needs".. Then your needs are pretty low, because a blowing fuse is sort of a problem.

He does say nothing under $100, so maybe I should offer him $100 to take it off his hands?  I can always re-theme it to something else since the playfield is shot and the backglass is missing.

**Update**

He's revised his ad a few times.  By revise, I mean he posted a new ad and didn't delete the old one either.  He's now asking for $150, I mean $200 or best offer?  Wait what?  Which is it?!!  If it were digital I would happily take it off his hands, but I just can't deal with electromechanical.  My first pin was an EM, and it was so hard to get those leaf switches adjusted right.

trade stuff, for other stuff?

This one I just don't get.  This guy has posted like 12 ads, all for stuff he has... that he wants to trade for other stuff, including pinball.  One of them is a crappy schumacher battery charger that has maybe a $40 value.
http://chicago.craigslist.org/nch/bar/3283269583.html

$1200 aztec pinball, worth $2500-$3000 when repaired??

Where do these people come up with these values?  I have NEVER known a single EM to be worth that much money, not even a popular title like captain fantastic.  He seems to think he's giving the buyer a deal by selling a non-working EM for $1200.  As a matter of fact, there's a fully working one on ebay right now for $700:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1976-Williams-AZTEC-Pinball-Machine-Works-Completely-/180965413148?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a2261111c







I look forward to seeing this guy get a clue in a couple months as his price drops.

The cycle of craigslist life - nugent 500

Nugent seller is back, now he's at $500.. Hmm, started at $2k:
http://bestofcraigpinball.blogspot.com/2012/07/ted-nugent-2000.html

Then he went down to $1k:
http://bestofcraigpinball.blogspot.com/2012/07/ted-nugent-1000.html

I wish most pinball sellers on CL would get a clue this quickly.  At $500, the type of buyer would have to be one of complete nostalgia factor seeing how the cabinet still needs stencil painting (oh and don't forget those impossible to replace rubbers).  I think most people would pass on a $500 evel knievel.  As boring as it is, I would almost buy one at that price point just because I grew up with one.  Anyway, I can maybe see someone negotiating down to $300 for this title, but at least he's close.

space invaders - $1900??

Ok this one made me laugh.. Going rate for this pin (even restored) is $1000 tops:
http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/space-invaders

So let's give this guy the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this is a perfect specimen, and the right person might purchase at this inflated price? Well let's start off with those legs. Yea, not NEW like you state. If you check IPDB
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2252

the original has black ones (yours aren't even new, my guess is they were rusty, so you painted them flat primer gray after you grinded them to crap).

That lockdown bar doesn't look too restored.  Doesn't look polished at all, in fact it looks like someone snotted on it.  At least the coinbox looks to be in good original shape.


Oh what's this?  We spend all that time restoring, and we can't even put the effin pop bumper cover on straight?  And you proudly show a giant photo of this mistake?  It's so obvious this doesn't match the other 3!


Inside cabinet looks good, looks like perhaps he even did a full teardown of the playfield and painted the underside.  Not sure the stock one was primer gray (probably just natural wood), but let's give him the benefit of the doubt (clean is good).



Oh?  What's this?  Yea.. stock factory is natural wood, but hey!  let's put a stripe of grey underneath towards the front, it'll look cool.. Or perhaps we're covering up wood rot?



Hey, there's that wonderful crazy off kilter pop bumper.  Wonder when he'll notice?  And look at the plunger ramp guard, looks a little dark and dingy, not chrome.  Either it's also been abused by primer gray paint, or it's just so pitted there's nothing left to shine.


Oh boy, the back gets even better.  Hmm, the backbox is black, Shouldn't the back cabinet also be black? Nahhh... let's use some more of that cheap gray primer I still have left over.  And oh hey! why mask off those white plastic protectors, spray over those too!  Oh, and why bother touching up all these scratches on the cabinet, nobody will ever notice those.  My guess is he only knows how to spray, not use a brush.  If he did, he wouldn't have white paint all over that window trim behind the pinball in the background:

fireball EM - $3k??

I don't know who these people are? Why don't you read your own ad? "one of the most popular EM pinball machines ever made".  Hence, plenty of them out there (and boy are there).  This is also the EM version, not the remake.  Why would I bother with EM if I can have a digital version?

"Will not answer any emails".. Yea well, get ready to not answer your phone either, because nobody will be calling you, unless they are trying to pull your head back from under the clouds.