Friday, July 23, 2010

Buying your first pinball machine

Hi!


Firstly, let me introduce myself, I am Phil Palmer, Director of Pinball Heaven Ltd, I have been restoring. fixingand selling pinball machines for 17 years now, so I kinda think I know what I'm talking about!


When buying your first pinball machine (off eBay or any dealer) you need to know what you're buying. Some pinball machines made byEuropean manufacturers are eitherunreliable or just basically worthless, you want to stay to the USA made machines from the likes of Bally/Williams/Stern (also Data East/Sega) as these offer much more reliability than other makers, although American, Gottlieb machines are very difficult to maintain due to scarce supply of parts and technical knowledge, best to stay away!


So new or old? A few people want to own a similar machine to the one they played in the 1960's or 70's but, as nostalgic as they are, they are unreliable, electrically unsafe and very hard to find in what I would describe as "nice condition" so most dealers will stay away from these old games. Lets face it, who would drive a 35 year old car everyday and expect it to actually work?!


So we're onto modern stuff, by modern, I mean 1980's (Solid State) games onwards. 1980's games offer a similar charm to that of the older games as they are simple by design with limited sound effects and features.


After the 1980's we're onto new stuff, the 1990's was by far the best era for pinball machines, kicked off by such classics as Addams Family, Twilight Zone and such like. Most of the games you see traded on eBay are from the 1990's and onwards, these games offer the best reliability and playability with advanced diagnostic features to help rectify any faults. Plus there are many pinball dealers to choose from in the UK to help rectifyany problems, or join the UK pinball group on Yahoo! for help from fellow collectors - Go to Yahoo! and find the GROUPS then UKPINBALL.


So staying the with 1990's games, you've got an idea what you want, where do you buy it from? You can buy the same game off eBay for probably half what most of us dealers charge, just make sure you go and visit the game you're about to spend your hard earned cash on, again, like cars, a 15 year old Addams Family can range from excellent to average to the worst piece of sh*t you've ever thought possible! It can end up costing you more to put a bad game right than it would have to buy a "minter" in the first place. Dealers shouldoffer an warranty and the standard of work is much higher than most untrained people could ever achieve so make sure you know what you want before you hit the place bid button, speak to the person you're buying off, see if they know what they're talking about, for example, there's nothing I dont know about modern pinball machines.... make sure you're not being ripped off by someone who is pretending to be a full time dealer when they are a Jack of All Trades!


Try and play the game first so you know if you like it or not, just because its cheap doesnt mean its a bargain! Everyone's different, you may love Twilight Zone (but I HATE it) or you may love Popeye (somebody has to!). Most Bally/Williams games are good with just a few poor titles, but do your homework, the ones that sell on dealers websites for top money (3k plus). The cheaper the game, the less desirable it is!!!


Hope this helps.

No comments:

Post a Comment