My second pin, found at a garage sale

animesuperj

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I was surfing craigslist about a month ago, and found a listing for a pinball at a garage sale. It was just around the corner from my house (probably 20 blocks), and really didn't have any information in the listing; other than "pinball for sale". The sale started on a Thursday at 8am, which I wouldn't be able to make since I had to work. Luckily, my wife was free, so I had her run over to check it out, and just text me details.

A bit before 9, so sends over the very general details of: "Pin is bally game show, backglass and cabinet are good, she wants $750". I look it up on ipdb, and decide to pass for that price. Since the sale was going on the whole weekend as well and I was bored, I decided to stop over to view it myself. I figure, what the hell, it's close and I can see it/try to haggle on a price.

Stop over and talk to the lady. Turns out she was moving up north for a new job, and needed it gone asap. She starts the game up, and explains that it's fully working. Play a couple games, and have no problems with it. It's mostly just dirty. I don't think she's ever cleaned the playfield/anything inside. At this point, I'm mildly interested, but the price was still too much to randomly spend on a pin.

I ask if I can take a look at the boards, just to check everything out. She says no problem. Open it up, and all of the boards look brand new. Ask her about that, and the response took me by surprise: "Oh yeah, I had someone come out and replace every board in the game. It cost around $450, so if you just want it for that price; that's fine, I just need it gone". Uhhh...yes.

So, I end up getting it for $450, fully working and all new boards. The glass is in good shape, there is some paint missing; but it's not really noticeable. I got it back home and started cleaning it out, and it's coming along nicely. Already is starting to look better. I plan on taking out all the ramps/as much off the playfield as needed; and cleaning the fields/ramps. Just doing a general cleaning with novus 1 so far, and it's super dirty. After the cleaning, new rubbers, and new balls; it should be in top shape.
 

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I've been enjoying it so far. It wasn't one I was really looking to pick up, but for the price, I couldn't pass it up. I'll probably clean it up, get my enjoyment out of it for a while (maybe bring it to midwest gaming classic, since it's pretty close to me) and then try to trade it for one on my want list.

Any tips on cleaning the playfield? I have novus 1,2 and 3 on hand. Was probably going to use a combination of 1 and 2, and mr clean magic erasers with isopropyl alcohol. Never clean a playfield before, so any tips/suggestions are welcome.
 
I wouldn't use novus3 on the pf. Novus2 works well. Don't think that PF is diamondplated so be careful. The ME works great on coated PFs but even then you need to be careful. Don't forget to wax.
 
You suck!

That should be mine!! The next thing you know people will start giving you games for free or something :) I gotta get the wife out to rummages more. I have got a bunch of info on System 11's if needed. PM me or give me a call if you have any problems.
Nice find!
 
That should be mine!! The next thing you know people will start giving you games for free or something :) I gotta get the wife out to rummages more. I have got a bunch of info on System 11's if needed. PM me or give me a call if you have any problems.
Nice find!
Lol, well, you can always make an offer on it if you really want it ;) I'm probably going to try to trade it for another pin on my want list in the future. Actually, if you wouldn't mind stopping over sometime, there's a switch issue I can't figure out on it now. Played a couple games on freeplay, and went to start a new one (didn't turn the game off or anything); and now the start button won't activate. Checked the playfield, and a couple lower switched (in/out lanes and drop targets) won't activate either. Jumped them on the cpu board, and they work; so my guess is somewhere on the playfield or something got screwed up.
 
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