Looking for help / opinions on a possible Williams purchase

Bullwinkle

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Looking for help / opinions on a possible Williams purchase

OK, I've been in the market for an early Williams digital pin (Blackout, Firepower, Gorgar, etc..) and ran across a Flash. Not the top of the list but definitely in the genre I'm looking at. The guy selling it gave me the following info:
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I have a Flash I am asking $400 for.
No battery acid damage.
Some peeling on the BG mostly in the bottom 1".
Cabinet is pretty good.
Back of head seen a little dampness, an easy fix up.
PF is pretty decent, no major wear but plenty of ball swirls.

he is working on in it now and has replaced the sanbe sockets and got the CPU running, needs -90 volt output transistor, thats what he knows so far.
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He's willing to go $300 without putting any more work into it. the question is, how difficult to fix are these things AND forget that it's a Flash pin (in case you dont like Flash) but keep in mind it's a 1979 pin, if this were a pin you wanted would you pay the $300 provided the playfield is in acceptable condition? This would be my first pin and I have no problem trying to diagnose / work on it as that'll be half the fun.
 
Tough question. How difficult it will be to fix depends on what's really wrong with it! :p

$300 isn't terrible. If the PF is in better than average condition, and it's semi working, I'd go for it.
 
I would probably buy it and I already have 4 of them ;)

Seriously though... Flash is a great game for the era. As far as repair goes it will depend on your skill level. The price is good assuming the playfield and backglass are in good shape.
 
He does mention the backglass has some flaking, mostly toward the bottom 1" of the glass. I'm getting pics tonight on the playfield and if it looks ok, I'll stop by and take a look at it. Thanks for the opinions, being new to pins it's hard to know when a price is a decent price and when it's gouging (not that $300 is gouging, but to consider the cost of repair added to the purchase price, i'm guessing it can rack up quickly).
 
I sold my non-working Flash, with lots of BG flaking, and a terrible playfield for $500...

...so why not just low ball him at $200?

If he hasn't sold it at $300, then tell him straight up "Hey it hasn't sold yet, nobody but me wants it"

Say it with a straight face and see if he goes for it. If not, call back in 2 days and offer $180.

:)
 
For $300 I would say go for it. Flaking BGs are unfortunately typical of this era, and a replacement assuming they are available are probably close to $300 themselves. I view $300 as a good learning opportunity, figure how bad could you really screw it up. And even if you did you did screw it up, chances are that you could sell it to someone else at either a slight loss, or else part it out and make back what you put into it.
 
Thanks for all the opinions. I ended up picking it up last night. The playfield is in terrific shape. I've already started the "upgrade/troubleshoot" process posted on pinrepair.com .. hopefully I can bring it back to life.
 
Thanks for all the opinions. I ended up picking it up last night. The playfield is in terrific shape. I've already started the "upgrade/troubleshoot" process posted on pinrepair.com .. hopefully I can bring it back to life.

Awesome! It's a great game.

My suggestion would be to try to get the thing booting and semi-working before doing too much upgrade work. If you happen to introduce new problems with the upgrade work it will make troubleshooting a lot more difficult.
 
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