Buying my first pin and need some advice.

Radford119

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Donor 2011, 2023
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Thinking about purchasing my first pin and I think it's gonna be a Pin-Bot. Are there any specific things I should look for that are commonly a cause for concern on this game? Granted there are no major issues with it and let's say it is a 7-10 out of 10, what is a good price range?

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.
 
The most important thing is the playfield. Try to get a nice one with as little wear as possible.

Check the MPU. The batteries can leak and damage the board. I just replaced mine with a $300 aftermarket board since the original was badly damaged. It is probably repairable, and I will get around to it one of these days, but I wanted a better one since Pinbot is a keeper game for me.

Probably make sure the ramp is in good shape; I am not sure if those have been reproed. The playfield, mini playfield, and vortex plastic have all been reproed, but the playfield is expensive. Not sure how hard it is to find a backglass, so you probably want to make sure that is in good shape.

I can't think of anything else that is too hard to fix, so I probably wouldn't worry too much about the other stuff.

The game lists for (I think) $950. To me, that should mean that a 7/10 should cost about $600 or so, but it is getting to the point that that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I have seen a few in that kind of condition go for around $900. Nicer ones seem to go for $1200 or so. I have about $1000 into mine, and I had to spend a few days to get it running and sorta shopped. I am going to shop it properly hopefully next year, but there are too many other projects ahead of it.

If it is a game you like, I would definitely pick it up. It took me about 6 months of serious searching to find one, and I found a project that I had to travel 400 miles round trip to get. It turned out great for me, even though I swore off projects a while ago. :)
 
The playfield condition is probably the most important unless there's something really wrong with the electronics. I just bought my first pinball and heres a list of what I did wrong imo lol

I didnt play the game and I didnt know the left flipper was tore up and couldn't hold the weight of a ball or that one pop bumper doesn't trigger. Its something I have to fix now and could factor into the price if your still negotiating, I wasnt.

My playfield has mylar installed and the seller told me that so I assumed that everything is protected but thats not the case. The mylar actually only protects the main portion of the playfield so you want to be careful and inspect the lanes at the top of the table and the in and out lanes at the bottom of the table where the mylar may have never been installed. I over looked this.

Check all the ramps and plastics for damage. I just scanned over the plastics and thought they looked fine but I didnt pay close enough attention and could have noticed someones horrible shop attempt. Some of the plastics were cracked. Some of the plastics were scarred up pretty bad and took quite a bit of polishing to look decent. I would look at some of the prices to replace pinbot stuff too just so you know how much more youll be into it if you decided to replace a broken piece.

I didnt check the backbox in fact the guy couldnt get the thing open because the key was frozen in the cylinder. As mentioned previously, the battery corrosion thing is a common issue. Look for any signs of bad battery like crystals growing out of the battery or areas on the pcb where the acid has changed the color or the board. Look for things like the game starting up into adjustment failure or factory settings every time its powered up. I dunno if its weird but you might bring your own batteries. Mu battery holder looks perfect and the seller told me the batteries were dead so I wouldnt have known better, however when I replaced the batteries I still get factory settings and adjustment failures.
 
Not sure how hard it is to find a backglass, so you probably want to make sure that is in good shape.

A lot of people don't know this but Pinbot came in two different versions. Some had a REAL backglass and some used a translite. I have owned both versions. I would say the translite version is more common.
 
Value is almost impossible to come up with any more. It all comes down to your area and what people are willing to pay. Pin prices in the midwest are going to be completely different then what they go for in california just as an example.
 
Value is almost impossible to come up with any more. It all comes down to your area and what people are willing to pay. Pin prices in the midwest are going to be completely different then what they go for in california just as an example.

I find that mind set funny to be honestly. I see people say that all the time and ya know what? I look for pins all across the US and quite honestly the prices tend to not vary too much if at all. "EXCLUDING CANADA AND HAWAII" heh. FWIW I grew up in Iowa and look in the Midwest as well.

I think a solid example is every person (not business) that tries selling a pin is about $500 - $700 on the high side. Every business is typically $1000 - $1200 on the high side.
Now to be fair, the mjority of the John Q Public have no idea where to look for prices or hang out on forums such as this one. So these machines do sell for these prices which of course hurts us "avid hobbiests".
Feel free to argue, but all I say is "most" pin prices are starting to rise and it's being seen every where. What makes no sense is that I live in one of the most pin thriving areas and machines are hard to come by, but yet I see East coast and southern states "especially Texas and Arizona" tend to have more pins available more often. In fact I purchased two machines out of Arizona a couple years ago because the great NW was flat out dry.
 
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Thanks for the tips guys, I really appreciate it. It definitely gives me something to think about.



Where do you find the values of pins?

I had a friend look it up in the Mr Pinball price guide. You can also see estimated prices on Pinside. Not sure how accurate they are, but at least it might help for comparative value.
 
Holy smeg just found a good deal with that. Completely random. Its a 8 hour drive one way but would be SO worth it...hope the guy emails back lol
 
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