You guys have got to quit jumping down every seller's throat. Nowhere in the auction does he claim that it's original. He only says that it's Ms. Pac-Man, which it is. Ms. Pac is a very popular title, even today, and I've seen several on location in non-original cabinets. People with time to kill and quarters in their pockets don't care that it's not the original cab. Last time I saw one, it was in a Dig Dug cabinet painted black, and people were playing it.
And you guys also need to remember what the phrase "just shopped" really means - or at least, what it meant when it came about. An operator pulls a game out a location, either to swap it with another or because it's broken. He brings it back to the shop, fixes it if necessary, cleans it up, vacuums it out, replaces burned out light bulbs, puts on new rubber (in the case of a pinball), checks all the switches, cleans or replaces the coin mechs, and just basically makes sure it's ready to go back out to another location, and make more money. At this point it's "shopped". It's not "restored", because an op isn't going to do that. He's just going to paint over the hand wear on the sides, paint the bottom 6" of the front black to hide the dings, etc.
So, if you're an operator and want to put a Ms. Pac into a bar or a laundromat, you could buy this game, wheel it in, plug it into the wall, and it's ready to go. It's not a project, it's not broken, it's not restored, and it's not a collector's item. It's a piece of vending equipment.
If you're going to bitch, at least bitch about the price. A Ms. Pac board in a Dymo cabinet isn't worth $1200. But, at the same time, he is offering free shipping, which is several hundred dollars in the case of an arcade game. That has to be factored in. And if a guy wants one to put on location, $1200 for a proven money-making game isn't the worst price in the world, especially considering what this crap cost new.
Not everyone that buys arcade games is collecting them. Some people are using them for their original purpose
-Ian