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Should you expect to get your money back or make profit on a pin? (After maintenance and tweaks not mods!)

in a flat market where prices are not rising then your original question is more relevant.

Some folk want to recoup every penny and more. others are happy to take a hit as their “price per game”.

Each to their own

plus add in the personal factor: some folk are ****ing weird to deal with. others are straight forward.
 
Bobbdobalina said:
You’re joking, right?? 🤦‍♂️
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Found the thread I was thinking of. The back story was a Pin was bought by a newcomer from a member on here via eBay and ended up back on eBay at an inflated price a few months after. When it was questioned by people on here the seller's response was "I paid £2300 with credit card fees. Which if anyone is interested on here in matching, send me a PM."
 
sell whatever you like at whatever price, but if you sell high, don't come on here and moan about prices! A few folks have done that after taking a huge chunk of profit on games they have sold. The overall demand is driving pinball prices, even if the supply change increases didn't exist Stern and JJP would still be selling at the price they are selling now as they watch stupid people buy TOTAN for £10K or Pirates for £16K - if you were sales director for any company and saw people selling games in decent volumes at a price more than a new game - what would you do?

The exact same is happening in the premium car market right now. Crazies buying an E39 M5 (which is an epic car no doubt) for the same price as an F10 M5 (which is an even more epic car), what does BMW do? add 20K to the price of all of them despite the fact they have had a tenth of the amount of development of the model they are replacing.

Neil.
 
Marvello said:
Found the thread I was thinking of. The back story was a Pin was bought by a newcomer from a member on here via eBay and ended up back on eBay at an inflated price a few months after. When it was questioned by people on here the seller's response was "I paid £2300 with credit card fees. Which if anyone is interested on here in matching, send me a PM."
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Sega Godzilla Guy? Yeah, I think everyone was a bit shocked as he’d had it two months ish. Sure he got a SW DE or something then not heard on here for a long time. I bought my WPT around the same time and fully intend to offer on here for a fair price or trade when I want to change. Hopefully it doesn’t end up on flee bay a week later for a grand more
 
Down here, there was a White Water for sale for years, the guy had gone in and chromed everything, restrung the wiring harnesses and added many cosmetic stuff
But he then wanted what he had put into the game, which meant that it was twice the price of any other White Water. he would not listen to anyone telling him it was overpriced, he had put in the hours, and he was going to get paid for it
I doubt it ever sold
 
It really depends on the quality of the work involved and if the buyer understands and appreciates the work done. People can spend a lot of time and hard earned money doing machines up only for it to be completely lost on some people, they'll think that you got it in that condition in the first place, or they haven't seen how really bad some tables can get. Definitely log the work and post it on a forum so you can point it out, it'll likely drive serious buyers to the sale if they can see what you've done beforehand anyway. I did once had to de-mod a pinball because the work done by one of the previous owners was rougher than my Rse.

I'de never expect to profit from any machine I've fixed up but then I've never actually sold any yet.
 
Top end super mint pins just don’t sell on here you need the right customer for them hence non of my super mint restoration ever get advertised on here they just go in nice private collection never to be seen again
I have come to the conclusion that the ****a the quicker they will sell on here examples I bought 3 recently tdk
Battered ex op from site sold untouched as is 3k
Tdk pretty nice fully workshopped around £500 in parts 3 days work sold to a dealer £4250
A very nice tdk fully workshopped big one £500-£700 in parts 4 days work advertised on here with little interest sold after a week 4k so it’s certainly not worth the time and money for the extra £250
I bought 12 ex op pins last month all sold as is in 2 days
 

"expect to get your money back or make profit on a pin?"​


Neither. Before prices went silly one of the great things about this forum was that people sold between each other at fair price. If you bought a pin and put a good load of games on it without giving it some love you might expect to get nearly what you paid. Perhaps what you paid, and pins moved around seamlessly. When prices went mad nobody relished the profit, they just held on to their machines in fear of what they might have to pay to fill the space. Hopefully we can get back to how it was, albeit at a new stupidly expensive normal.
 
I pretty much just sell the same price I bought them for but never hang onto them long enough to gain any value lolol
 
CHRIS B PINBALLS said:
Top end super mint pins just don’t sell on here you need the right customer for them hence non of my super mint restoration ever get advertised on here they just go in nice private collection never to be seen again
I have come to the conclusion that the ****a the quicker they will sell on here examples I bought 3 recently tdk
Battered ex op from site sold untouched as is 3k
Tdk pretty nice fully workshopped around £500 in parts 3 days work sold to a dealer £4250
A very nice tdk fully workshopped big one £500-£700 in parts 4 days work advertised on here with little interest sold after a week 4k so it’s certainly not worth the time and money for the extra £250
I bought 12 ex op pins last month all sold as is in 2 days
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And I can assure everyone that the latter of the TDKs was absolutely stunning and looks and plays like NIB but even better with its gorgeous powder coat. My mate is the lucky new owner thx to @CHRIS B PINBALLS
 
CHRIS B PINBALLS said:
Top end super mint pins just don’t sell on here you need the right customer for them hence non of my super mint restoration ever get advertised on here they just go in nice private collection never to be seen again
I have come to the conclusion that the ****a the quicker they will sell on here examples I bought 3 recently tdk
Battered ex op from site sold untouched as is 3k
Tdk pretty nice fully workshopped around £500 in parts 3 days work sold to a dealer £4250
A very nice tdk fully workshopped big one £500-£700 in parts 4 days work advertised on here with little interest sold after a week 4k so it’s certainly not worth the time and money for the extra £250
I bought 12 ex op pins last month all sold as is in 2 days
Click to expand...
I don't think you will ever have issue selling pins Chris your reputation / connections is your biggest asset.
 
these days you don’t get much more than what the base machine is worth.


This junk yard i’m selling after it arrived and assessed, I spent £800 in new mechanical parts to get it back to how it would have come out of the factory, a friend has spent 50hrs + cleaning, polishing, replacing stuff ensuring the game will play 100% for the owner.

I could have given it a wipe over and advertised it as is and could have made a £800 - given someone a **** condition machine - with broken mechs/weildments - that unless you strip the machine you would not notice.

But that’s not how I / we do things.. I like a machine to look good, to play as it should and give the owner a good pinball experience

The price, after base machine + parts +
I would loose money if I sold it for the offers I’ve had.

Pinball is a hobby, but now I’m not going to loose £1000’s doing a machine up then selling it at a loss. Only to go and have to buy a another machine at a high price, which could be another money pit
 
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