it’s a toss of a coin when buying a used but still current pin and this is what could happen as it did to me.
The dark side of almost New.
I bought a 1yr old GOTG which I carefully collected in person and paid 5300. So a day out of my time inc fuel and lunch for my helper was around 100 So kinda Martin collection price (I always give Martin 100 anyway he super guy)
I set it up late that night and had about 5 games max before bed, next day I switched it on and OMG my goodness (not the actual words I used) it had a dead node board.
I was lucky that Phil helped me get a replacement board direct from electrocoin but it cost me £225 plus postage and I had to return mine so all in around £250.
Granted it is unusual for a node board to go and I was unlucky but all in my GOTG 2nd user with 500ish games cost me £5650 and a lot of stress when Phil had one in stock at the time BNIB for 6k delivered! This BTW I never knew at the time I bought it.
The Bonus of used if you weigh up pros and cons.
I started looking for a BKSORLE (don’t judge me) which kinda hit the spot with me when it was unveiled but I wasn’t gonna spend the 9.5k on a whim so held out until one came up which it eventually did. This
BK had over 2000 plays and some nasty scratches on the head and cabinet but at 7.5k was a great saving so I rang my goto guy (name withheld but he welcome to chip in) to ask advice and was told to hold out and he find me a nice one Which he eventually did.
So I now own a BKSORLE with unobtanium topper which had less than 70 plays YES 70 you heard right and regardless of the flak it get I love it and mates, family and non pinheads do too. For me it’s great in a lineup and looks the part I got rid of a BM66LE for this and have absolutely no regrets so win win.
The way I work now is find the pin you looking for let’s say for instance JP as there’s been a few trading lately. I would personally ask the following :
Is it HUO? and if so how many owners since new?
How many plays? and if it has 2000 I would probably wait till the next one as it’s more than likely a HUO cafe environment
How much is it? The important bit! If it’s a pro and over 5k I’d be ringing Phil and trying to catch him getting out of the right side of the bed as you never know it might be less of a jump than you 1st think!
So there’s real Bargains to be had but I think less so on the Stern Pro side of things, my SW pro was under 5k delivered via Martin and true HUO. I added some mods and a topper got my money back and more due to the mods so for me the magic figure is around 5k nd under or I’ll consider NIB
Quite long winded I know but something well worth considering as there is something quite special about a NIB pin and sometime worth pushing you budget a little if you want the peace of mind 2yr warranty. My other rule is don’t spend more than 10k for a pin ever then GnR CE came out so we won’t go there