High speed $1800.. I think the seller is high

Here's an ad that showed up today, which was quickly flagged (not by me).  This guy is selling a high speed (not 2, the first one) for $1800.  This is high, especially since he admits cosmetic issues.  I think $1800 is probably high for a pristine condition of this title (I wouldn't pay more than $1100).

On top of that, he has made the claim (which never means anything) that they are going for $3200 and $4995 on ebay.  I quickly did a search, and only found ONE on ebay, for a buy it now price of $1350.

He's also firm on his $1800 price, which is amazing.  If he actually thinks someone is going to say "yes" to a pin they've never seen in person, he's nuts

Cooperstown pinball baseball game

Here's another annoying ad that's been up for at least a year.  This guy bought this desk baseball game for $130, he's attempting to sell it for $30.


Not saying this isn't a bad deal, if I were a baseball fan and was an executive with a large office and desk, I'd probably happily pay this.  Is this a pinball game? Not sure, I mean it does have a flipper, it does have a plunger.  This is probably closer to a pinball game than a pachinko machine is.  Problem I have is that it comes up in pinball search, a LOT.  And clearly nobody wants to buy it, perhaps he should throw it on ebay, then he can broaden his audience a bit more than just chicagoland (it's not that heavy).

Oh look, here's a buy it now for $26, 3 available and one sold:

 Better yet, here's an auction starting at $10, no bids, 42 minutes left (I bet nobody bids):

pinball glass, $50??

This one really has me stumped.  Guy sells Freedom pinball machine, has leftover playfield glass (dusty, probably has scratches).  He wants, $50? There is nothing special about this, I can buy the same tempered glass (brand new, no damage) from pinball life for $25:
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=478

Now if he had playfield glass from say a 1960's pinball (where many had a custom frame around the entire glass), maybe.  But this is just a piece of glass.  Does this guy think they don't make glass anymore?

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.