modessitt
Volunteer: Encyclopedia Submission Moderator
It would seem you are exactly the fish people like chattanooga pinball are looking to catch. Retail buyers.
To people here that know better there's no way in hell they'd pay that knowing what they can do themselves.. that's why we are hobbyist collectors. You, are a retail buyer. So, give ol' chattanooga pinball a call and drop your 3k if it's no big deal to you. The rest of us will call you a sucker
I wouldn't call him a sucker (and neither would you if he were buying from you).
I'd say he is under-experienced and over-incomed, and that if he doesn't have the knowledge or time to do it himself, there's nothing wrong with paying someone for their time and parts to do it for him.
I can't rebuild a transmission, so I need to pay someone close to $2000 to fix it. But then my friend (who fixes cars for a living) says, "Why pay that?", even though he hasn't volunteered to do it for parts and beer, either. So - he might think I'm a sucker for paying a reputable transmission shop to fix my car, and you may think he's a sucker for paying someone to build him a game.
I DO think the prices are high, by about $500-800 per machine, but then, I work in the retail game sales (and service) business so I know how most of these games are acquired, what's usually paid for them, what's involved in converting or "refurbishing", and what type of profit the owner usually expects for the finished product.
Our company is usually near the higher end on prices, but we're easily $500-1000 cheaper than a lot of those games he's selling.....


