Price Check: Bally Fireball 1972 EM

Cmndr Brain

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I'm looking for a price check on a Bally Fireball 1972 EM. Currently it is "broken"-ish. It powers on and there are 3 coils that need replacing. Besides that it seems to need just a lot of cleaning and adjusting. I was able to get most of it to work by adjusting/cleaning some of the relay contacts. Some mechanisms are seized up from corrosion. If cleaned, I believe, it would work quite well. I've checked the Boston price guide and Boston puts the price at about $2000. Is that ballpark correct?

Also, what would someone charge to shop a machine in this condition? I told him I'm guessing around $700-$800.

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I'd charge around $1000 to shop that. The corrosion under the lock bar is very concerning.

If you haven't already done it, pull each Jones Plug and clean the pins. From the rust on the lock bar, the Jones plugs are probably in bad shape and need to be cleaned so they will pass current. That could be much of your problems.
 
Yes, this game has been rather moist for a very long time. I'd expect a long process of repairs and tweaks before it has any hope of running reliably. And it needs to be pretty well dialed in in order to be fun... being an EM game with multiball, everything has to be just so, or you'll have very annoying problems that will drive you batty. I don't think I'd do it as a normal customer repair for any price... this one would have to be a labor of love.

Going by Pinside, it seems like $2500 to $3000 is the going rate for a nice clean working Fireball. Seems undervalued to me... the game is a true classic, and not super common... but I guess that's where the market is in 2025. With the serious condition issues here, I think more than $1000 for this machine as it stands would be asking a lot.
 
I'd charge around $1000 to shop that. The corrosion under the lock bar is very concerning.

If you haven't already done it, pull each Jones Plug and clean the pins. From the rust on the lock bar, the Jones plugs are probably in bad shape and need to be cleaned so they will pass current. That could be much of your problems.
Yeah, it's not my machine. A friend referred me to this 85 yr old guy. My area doesn't have anyone that works on pins that I'm aware of. I just try to be the nice guy and at least look at it for him. I really dislike working on EMs. I was hoping, when he told me about it, that it was going to be a simple fuse/adjust thing. I was just helping the guy out, out of passion for this hobby. I'll let him know this information. When I quoted him the $700-$800 to restore the thing, he definitely bauked at the idea of spending that much.
Based on the Boston price guides, if they are accurate, I told him, he could probably get about $800-$900 for this game as is. If he decides to sell it, maybe someone could get a nice deal for this machine. Thanks all.
 
Well I got an average price one in nice condition about 10 years ago and it was 2k. Its always one of the higher priced EM's.
 
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