A little enlightenment here.
Personally, I have purchased 9 Star Wars machines over the last 7 years so I know what they sell for around here. I passed on at least a dozen or so that I felt were priced too high. My first cabinet took me 3+ years of searching to score. Prices ranged from $350-$750. Most of the games had issues of some sort or other, damaged cabinets, missing parts, non-working, missing monitor etc..The $350 cabinet is about a 3, has a 6100 in it and will probably donate its parts to a converted cabinet I have to be converted back. The $750 machine I had, I sold for $1000 (I think it was, with a warranty) after rebuilding the 6100, the power brick, the AR board, and getting the sound board repaired plus all the other little stuff it takes to get a game right. I figure I made about $100 on that one. If you guys can find a clean working SW in an 8/10 condition for $800, jump on it. I have seen 2 cabinets that I would consider an 8. Both were not for sale. I won't sell one for less than a grand due to expense involved in getting them tested and working. If you are a tech and can fix Star Wars board sets, you are money ahead. Working SW boards sell for anywhere from $225-300 lately. Heck the interconnect board sells for $30-$40 alone if you can find one. The last working SW I offered to sell was well above $1000. That would have included a rebuilt amp with no burn, new repro artwork, rebuilt yoke, etc. basically completely shopped top to bottom. I was going to go all out on that one. I know I scared him away due to the amount I was asking. I would have made about $300 for my time. He found one for much less which is probably a good thing in the long run. I'm glad he didn't take me up on that offer. I don't have the time necessary to do a total rebuild right now anyway. I also decided that there really isn't any "money" to be made by restoring these particular games. Certainly not in this market. If I had restored that cabinet and tried to sell it, I probably wouldn't find a buyer for it. Most home buyers don't know the difference between a routed, beat working game that has had nothing done to it except a windex wipe-down and a cleaned and shopped working game. Their logic is, "If they both work, then the cheaper one is the better deal." There are still plenty of cabinets out there for sale for $500-$700, I just can't seem to find them.
I guess my point is that with this many "educated" people looking for sub $800 cabinets, there really isn't any point in trying to fix one that is in fair condition or worse to resell. Until you start with a non-working $500 cabinet and start fixing it, you just don't realize how much it takes to get one working all the way. I've got 20+ SW board sets I've purchased over the past 10 years. Out of the ones I have, I was able to get 5 completely working sets. The rest have issues. Some aren't worth fixing at all. Finding somebody reliable that can fix these board sets is tough. I know 2 guys locally that can fix them. They aren't easy to fix and some of the chips are quite expensive. Fortunately I can trade other stuff to get them repaired.
In the long run, I think it makes more sense to take all those "good" parts I have and take the best cabinet and fix it up for me and probably just get the rest of the ok cabinets up and running and sell them locally or maybe even part them out. I'll leave the cabinet restoration to whoever wants to spend the hours necessary to get it looking like new again if they so choose.
From my calculations/observations, these are the selling prices for SW parts:
Working amplifone monitor $400
Working SW board set $275
SW yoke $75
ARII board $10
Marquee $40
Power brick $40
Harness $75
Cabinet $75
Rest of bits and pieces $50
Well over $800 if I part it out. Easier to sell too. I valued this stuff low. With tubes selling for $250 new and $200 used, yokes going for $100, HV sections for $100+, Deflection boards going for $50+, I could make even more parting out the amplifone itself. Somebody correct me if I am wrong but I don't think I am. HV flybacks are $100 by themselves. I just don't get the math some of you are using. I haven't found a good "Red" HV unit yet. Just finding an HV board itself will run $100 with a dead flyback.
Some of you are thinking I paid too much for my cabinets. Well, that is a matter of opinion and location. Guys in England would give a nut for a chance at a SW cabinet. Remember, you still have to ship a cabinet unless you can find it locally. I understand nobody wants to pay a lot for their games. Sometimes you just have to. If you really want something, you sometimes have to pay the piper. Some of us can afford to, some of us can't. I paid a lot for my Quantum so I could play one before I died. Sometimes we just have to wait and hope. I'm still waiting for my $100 Aztarac/Computer Space/Reactor Cockpit. If you are one of the lucky ones to find a working SW for less than 8 bills with an amp, congrats. Enjoy it. I shall continue to search for that elusive cabinet as well. Maybe somebody will be hard up and have to sell one quick and I will be there at the right time. Who knows, I might be getting close. I missed a dedicated $200 Major Havoc by 15 minutes a few years back. Maybe it is time.
Happy Hunting
