How much is a restore worth? AKA the Price is Right

SillyB

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How much is a restore worth? AKA the Price is Right

I thought it might be fun to see what you guys think a fair market value is for the restore I just sold.

Here's the story, I was selling a SF2WW cab from my line up on CL a while back. Some guy was texting me a bunch but never pulled the trigger. He texts and says he wants to come see it and I told him it was sold. He then asks if I have any other games I might sell and I told him I had a bunch of projects, but no idea when I'd get around to selling the next one. He put some pressure on me and I agreed to restore this cab to his specs:
 

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I did a decent restore on the cab. Sanded, bondoed, 3 coats of paint, control panel (a different Dynamo one, I kept the SSF2) stripped, primed, painted, new T-molding, new CPO, new plexi cut for CP, refinished CP bolts, new bezel, new marquee, buffed out monitor plexi, replaced all bulbs, adjusted monitor, misc wiring repairs, buffed coin door, polished coin return plastics, all new joysticks, buttons and microswitches, put in Pandora's Box 3 with a custom adapter so not to hack the jamma harness.
 

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I got interrupted mid-post!

Anyway - what do you think a fair price is for the finished project?
 
I did a decent restore on the cab. Sanded, bondoed, 3 coats of paint, control panel (a different Dynamo one, I kept the SSF2) stripped, primed, painted, new T-molding, new CPO, new plexi cut for CP, refinished CP bolts, new bezel, new marquee, buffed out monitor plexi, replaced all bulbs, adjusted monitor, misc wiring repairs, buffed coin door, polished coin return plastics, all new joysticks, buttons and microswitches, put in Pandora's Box 3 with a custom adapter so not to hack the jamma harness.

Now, that looks good! :cool:
 
I just sold a Dynamo Cab with a 25" unrestored with a Pandora Box 4 in it for $650. New marquee, New cpo, new plexi, but old sideart/paint/buttons/joysticks/etc.

You could get $800 for it pretty easy in most areas.
 
Our winner is:
You could get $800 for it pretty easy in most areas.
He saw ads like this:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/vgm/5836611813.html
http://coinopstore.com/store/0/8/Two-Player-Multigame-24"-Tornado-Arcade.html and felt the low end value of a fully restored game was about $700-$1000. I had told him I wasn't planning to restore it that quickly and he was willing to pay a little more to motivate me to get it done and a little more to be a part of the decisions made along the way - he emailed and called me tons, (I almost called the deal off he was so involved in every detail and kind of micro-managing.)

In the end I got $925 for it, which I was very happy about but as I started adding up all my costs and all my time spent I felt like it really wasn't an unfair price. If you buy a working cab like the one I started with you'd expect to pay about $200, then add for artwork about $140, PCB & adapter $75, Joysticks & buttons $45, T-molding $25, paint, solder, wire, novus, polishing pads, spray paint, shipping, taxes... you're in the $500+ range with $0 for labor or profit. Why is it that so many of us here only think it's worth $500? (me included - I only buy cheap games)

I spent a lot of time cleaning the inside of the cab, sanding, bondoing & painting and man that control panel had like 3 overlays on top of each other to peel, strip & wire brush off. I feel like the guy got a fair deal and he's super happy. I guess my point is why do we all have such low value in these cabs? Is it because we enjoy working on them so we don't think the restoration labor is worth anything?
 
I guess my point is why do we all have such low value in these cabs? Is it because we enjoy working on them so we don't think the restoration labor is worth anything?

because those generic cabs are a dime a dozen. for $925 you could have likely found a dedicated "big blue" SF2 which more of us on here would prefer.
 
I have a Big Blue - that's why I'm selling my World Warriors, to make room to bring it into the arcade!
 
I did a decent restore on the cab. Sanded, bondoed, 3 coats of paint, control panel (a different Dynamo one, I kept the SSF2) stripped, primed, painted, new T-molding, new CPO, new plexi cut for CP, refinished CP bolts, new bezel, new marquee, buffed out monitor plexi, replaced all bulbs, adjusted monitor, misc wiring repairs, buffed coin door, polished coin return plastics, all new joysticks, buttons and microswitches, put in Pandora's Box 3 with a custom adapter so not to hack the jamma harness.

I love the colors in that CPO. Straight up 90's.
 
I guess my point is why do we all have such low value in these cabs? Is it because we enjoy working on them so we don't think the restoration labor is worth anything?

I just think that because we are in the hobby, we expect to get better prices if we are buying games. We also tend to sell our games to other collectors and then feel like we need to give good deals to other collectors. Outsiders usually will pay more because "they aren't in the know". :dontknow:
 
$925 For a game that nice is cheap. Most people don't want a routed game in their home. Many people don't have time or skills to restore a game.

Looks great glad it worked out.
 
This is my dedicated 25inch Dynamo, and yes it is dedicated. The tags from Dynamo are still intact on the back from the factory. It has new sideart, paint, t-molding and controls. I wouldn't sell it for anything less than $900

 
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