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Is it worth it

paddythegreek

paddythegreek

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Hypothetical question.
With the price of machines still at a fairly high level,you buy a middle to late 80s machine for x pounds. Its a non worker but you still gotta pay a high price to get it. (yes i know its your choice). You then gotta spend another couple of hundred buyin bits it really needs. (i'm talkin things like plastics and limited bits for this machine here). It then brings it to well over its value but you've saved it from the scrap heap. Is it really worth it? Ken
 
To me it makes all the difference :) If it's a game you're keeping for a while then it could be worth it to spend more than the game is worth because of the enjoyment you'll get out of playing it. If it's to sell on immediately then it's not worth it as you're just chucking money away :thumbs:
 
I think it depends how you value "worth", which will vary for everyone on this forum.

If worth is purely pound notes and your own labour at its opportunity cost, very few 80s games will return a profit unless you buy them extremely cheaply (get lucky, con the seller, steal them or otherwise get them well below market value).

But if "worth" also includes the satisfaction of fixing it, the joy of playing it, money saved whilst playing it (as you are not spending money on another leisure activity) then net-net you may well finish up

Most hobbies cost money, unless your hobby is also your job. A friend of mine is retired and does part time work in the pub as he enjoys it for example.

But whatever your hobby is, the vast majority of things you buy, and literally everything you buy new, will lose value. The clothes I am wearing, the chair I am sat on, the ipad I am using .... are all worth far less than I paid for them
 
I'd say yes it is worth it - and it's precisely the position i'm in.

There's absolutely no chance that i'll ever get back the money i've spent on my R&B thus far and i'm not done yet either. But:

1. I don't have any intentions of selling anyway (but that could well change - who knows)
2. I have to factor in the enjoyment I actually get from doing the work in the first place
3. And I have to factor in the enjoyment I get from playing it too
4. And the enjoyment knowing that it's looking and playing better than when I got it

So, erm, yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me.
 
If you're in it for the money then you're in the wrong place, just in my opinion.

If you're in it for the love of bringing games back from the brink of destruction, but you also break even or happen to make £50 if you get bored and sell, then it's a bonus!

(Not that we can all afford to lose large sums of cash, but I definetively see my games as fun and not some sort of premium bond).
 
It's always great saving machines... so very much worth it in that respect. Pricewise is a judgement call and only you can decide if it's likely to be worth it or not, so see a machine first or expect the worst if buying unseen. That said at the moment there are an awful lot of projects on ebay are going for a lot more than they're worth, almost as much as a fully working machine. I'd save my money and add a bit to it and buy the fully working machine.
 
I've spent about £3k on my taxi over the years. Should easy get £15k if I sell it so I'm quids in really :hmm:
 
I posted initially to to see what group members opions were. I'm retired so time spent repairing machine(s) is my free time. (plus its got to be better than
washing pots or being carted off on some soddin shoppin trip). Ive saved two machines from scrap over the last 10yrs and lost money on both.One was delivered on a pallet and as i was unwrapping it on the front of the house,one of these mobile scrap merchants pulled up and asked if it was scrap and could he have it.But i persevered and got it up and running. So it appears the general opinion is its worth repairing a pin if possible.
But if no-one scraps pins where do we get spares from that aren't made anymore?
 
Pinballs will continue going up in value no matter what happens. They are increasingly desirable and any naysayers are just wrong.

If you want to save machines there are two ways you can go in my opinion, and it doesn't matter what year the game is from:

1. Repair & Recondition
2. Full Restore

It really depends what you mean by "value". The value of a fully working players game is the generally accepted price to go by, but it doesn't apply to full restorations. Restores cost whatever they cost, end of. Because otherwise you're basically saying "that persons time isn't worth anything" which is a massive insult to whoever carried out the work.

You should get back your money on both, but the 2nd option is the most risky as you could spend a lot of money and then be sitting on the game for a long time waiting for the right buyer. Players generally want the 1st option, collectors generally want the 2nd. So repairing a players quality game means having to get it at the lowest price possible, and then doing the repairs as cost effectively too to keep within the accepted "value". Bargains do still come along, that Vector which went on eBay recently for £312 is a great example. I hope someone will spend the time to make it right.

I do both 1 & 2, though leaning more towards option 2 now. I've never lost money yet. I've broke even sometimes, and others I've made enough for a few beers. Having limited space means I can't own a large collection, so being able to pass games along without losing anything is ideal - plus I get to save a lot of them for someone else to enjoy :)

Fixing / repairing / restoring these things is my hobby, I'm better at that than playing them. So yes, I think it's worth it when you enjoy it.
 
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