"this game was just recently shopped...."

vintagegamer

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"this game was just recently shopped...."

OK, so what all does this mean?? Does this mean that that someone checked and verified all of the fuses and chips were good? Or that they just vaccumed the dust off of the boards and the monitor chassis (or dropped them in the dishwasher)? Or even further, that they just looked in the back of the cab and said "mmm-hmmm mmm-hmmm, looks good to me" and really did nothing at all.

The reason I'm asking this is, from my 'limited' knowledge of this hobby/art, I know there's not much you can do to prevent electrical components from failing. When they die, they die. Yes you can keep things clean to prevent any fires or overheating, but what else can you really "shop" on a game that's functional at the time that you are checking it?

(oops may have forgot one- I know you can check the battery on the power supply in many games to make sure it hasn't oozed its charge essence all over the place)
 
i would tend to think shopping would be an essential shotgun of parts, so capping the monitor, t molding, new artwork, potentially fixing the power supply, etc.
 
I'm convinced that one place which was selling "refurbrished" games in SoCal was doing nothing more than blowing dust off the insides of the machines. They told me they could justify charging $1500 minimum for each game they had because of the work they did on them...funny though, machines on their sales floor had a lot of graphics problems.

They're now out of business. Shocker.
 
yeah, there's a place here that sells games, the game exchange of colorado, and has insane prices. like most games are 1000+, and we're talking only basic working condition, no real cosmetic work...
 
yeah, there's a place here that sells games, the game exchange of colorado, and has insane prices. like most games are 1000+, and we're talking only basic working condition, no real cosmetic work...

My cousin and his wife were up for the Holidays and stayed with us. When I powered up the garcade, my cousin's wife just stood there in awe. It wasn't until later on that my cousin advised me that his wife thought they were 1G each for those games. After he explained to her what I really buy them for, and that I fix them myself (along with help from the KLOV), she put her eyes back in her head..

But I think people who do not really know much about this hobby definitely think these machines are big money to pick up.
 
"Shopped", like many other terms, can be ambiguous. In my mind, "shopped" would mean that the game has been repaired to working order - new caps in the monitor, cleaned up, new bulb/starter in the marquee, maybe a new power cord... but not truly "restored". In my mind, "restored" would go one further, and have new t-molding, partially or completely repainted, new CPO, etc. For a pinball machine, "shopped" generally means that the playfield has been cleaned, all the rubber parts have been replaced, a new pinball installed, flippers adjusted, and electronics in good working order.

But, again, these terms are ambiguous at best, and are open to interpretation.

The seller should be able to back up what they mean by "shopped" - if they can't, then it means that yeah, they blew the dust out, and picked up the loose quarters laying on the inside bottom of the game.

-Ian
 
You're crazy... "Shopped" is a very helpful description. Much like "HUO" is. ;)
 
yeah, there's a place here that sells games, the game exchange of colorado, and has insane prices. like most games are 1000+, and we're talking only basic working condition, no real cosmetic work...

I've been to places just like that. For a $1500 pacman they could at least wipe the shit off the control panel and get the dust off of the top edges of the glass. I'd guess with most of the HELOC cash-machines being closed these days the great unwashed buyers aren't flooding in to snap up these 'treasures'.
- James
 
I think Shopped means that they brought it /into the shop/. What they did after that is anyone's guess.

Again, kinda like "Mint" or "HUO" or "STD Free".

/boy, did I get burned on that last one.
 
Shopped is so different from everybodys opinion. On all pinball machines i sell, they are always "shopped out" which means that the playfield is stripped down, all parts tumbled, new rubbers, new balls, all lights in working order, which means replacing most of them. playfield waxed. And every single switch working, so on newer DMD games there would be not credit dot.

As for on a video game with so few componets, shopped in my opinion would be, cabinet cleaned, monitor rebuilt, all switches tested and replaced as needed, marquee light repaired or replaced, coin mechs working, monitor bezel cleaned on both sides. And the game works 100%, no glitches If the power supply is flaky, either rebuild or replace. and if t-molding is missing, then replaced. Replacing any graphics would be steps to restoration. There is a fine line, but if you are going to replace the sideart on a game, you really need to refinish the sides and repaint or revinyl as it is pointless to put sideart on otherwise. I have restored many games, but you cant make your money back usually on restoring because of all the time involved to do it correctly.

Compare it to a car. You can buy a vintage mustang camaro, that has been shopped out meaning that a mechanic has went through the car and everything is in working order, or you can spend alot more and have everything rebuilt to new including motor tranny and paint (which it is still not restored if you ahvent touched the interior)
 
Shopped means whatever the person/store wants it to mean. I have seen shopped range from Windexing down a working machine to actually rebuilding the machine from the ground up.

Generally if I see the term shopped it means that you have cleaned up a working machine. If there was anything more extensive then terms such as rebuilt, refurbished, reworkerd, etc. in order to justify higher prices.

This link to quarterarcade's Joust restore I think sums up waht you can expect, at best:
http://www.quarterarcade.com/Content/Articles/JoustRestoration.aspx


ken
 
To me any seller who uses any term like 'shopped', 'recently serviced', 'refurbished', or even 'restored' without a full list of what was done is blowing smoke and trying to inflate the price.
 
Shopped is an operators term for "I took the machine off location, took it back to the shop, had techs look it over and fix whatever needed fixed, and got it ready to go to another location". It means that you literally took it off the street, and took it to the shop. Most routes have two types of service personnel, the guy who runs the route, collects the games quarters, and makes on site repairs. I did that job for years for an op.

Then the other type of service 'tech' is the guys at the shop, who have all the parts, have things like vacuum cleaners and better tools to fix things better than you can fix on the street.

When the game's in a location, maybe a button breaks, so I switch a blue button into it instead of a white one because I don't have a white one. So one button is the wrong color. In a more severe case (I never did this!) a tech might block one of the coin entry bezels off because the coin switch broke, or the coin mech was robbed to go in another game, or the spring broke, or whatever. Or maybe it's a game with a strange lightbulb that the tech didn't have, so you end up with a Rush 2049 with no 'winner' light working or something.

Once you take it to the shop, they can order parts and get it working as close to new as possible again. That doesn't mean it was restored, just that everything is working well enough for them to roll it into a new location. It's a really, really subjective term that doesn't mean much unless whoever says it details exactly what they've done to it. When I sell games I try to be specific about what is going on with it, for instance "Monitor has been rebuilt with new capacitors and a new flyback. All the buttons and lights work as they should, and the cabinet has been repainted" etc. is much better than saying "Game has been shopped".

Pinball machines are generally where the word pops up, because as a route operator you can't do as much to a pinball machine as what can be done in the shop. There's lightbulbs that can't be replaced without partially dissasembling the playfield, and the collector doesn't usually have the time to do that on location. You can't change every rubber on location either, and you can't even properly clean the playfield on location. When it was time to do all this, the op would say the game 'needs to be shopped', it simply means the game needs to go to the shop.
 
Sounds like we're all in agreement that this expression can mean different terms to different people. I too looked at it in the sense of going over a car (since I've been working on cars all of my life), but wanted to hear what the Council here had to say. :D
 
When I was a tech for an operator "shopping" the game came down to making sure it worked right, all bulbs were lit up, the screen was clean, the cabinet was clean and the cabinet was vacummed out. If the monitor needed work then it was part of the shop. If not it was left alone.

Pins were different. A shop job on a pin was a complete tear down, new rubbers, clean and repair what was needed.

Matt
 
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