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Tales from the Crypt how much is reasonable

  • Thread starter Thread starter monkey36
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monkey36

Newbie question here but i have found a TFTC (still waiting for photos) but the seller is asking £1700. I have no idea if that is too much. Can anyone give me any advice?
 
Depends on condition but it would have to be better than average for that money.

It's all about supply and demand though. These don't come up much, hence the higher than usual DE cost
 
I think it's way too much personally. £1200 depending on condition. More for a really nice one, less for a ropey one. All my opinion of course
 
I bought a part worker last year admittedly with rough cab and no door knocker for £400 that FOUR people had tried to get for LESS . £1700 should be new in box
 
I must be out of the loop on this one. I would have gone for £750-£800 but partly that's based on not really liking it. Is it really worth more than a JP now?

DE games seem to be coming up a bit in price over the last couple of months of so. Think it started with their SW game which seemed to jump by the best part of a grand almost overnight a few years back. Guessing WWF etc are still sub grand games
 
I can't claim to be an expert on pinball prices in general but I did spend 8 months very recently searching for a TFTC. I spoke to a lot of potential sellers in that time. There was no way I was going to get anything for under a grand.

I think you are right about some DE games coming up in price recently. And TFTC seems to be a bit of a flavour of the month right now for some reason. Is a great game though. :) I would say that it definitely goes for more than JP now days.
 
For some reason all the DE games I've had (JP, LAH, SW, LW3, Hook) feel "clunky" in comparison to WMS games. Not really sure why this is. Even GnR seems to have this feel and that goes for silly money now. Not saying they are bad games, just the feel/sound of them isn't as smooth as their counterparts for some reason. Strangely I don't feel the same about Sega games, so maybe something changed when the company changed name
 
I love Data East games. Well..... A lot of them anyway. But I agree that they feel clunky. They do not feel as smooth as Bally Williams. And some people cannot get over that. But it doesn't bother me really. I actually think a lot of Sterns have that same clunky feel. Especially TSPP for example.
 
well Data East became Sega and then became Stern pinball, so it's all come full circle. i'm not certain how much of the technology under the hood, and game parts, were kept the same, but some clever folks on here will know for sure
 
I think TFTC is around £1000 at the moment. £1300 for a really nice condition one. £1700 - £2000 for minty fresh high end restore. So if it's anything short of perfect, and that includes being fully LED'd, then it aint worth what he's asking.

Data East/SEGA/Stern games have always been far superior in design & build quality over Bally Williams. They didn't always have quite as nice artwork or as deep rule sets though. They are my favourite games to work on and shop out. Actually it's a pleasure. People only hold Bally Williams in high esteem because it stems from the fact Bally Williams were the top brand (i.e. best marketing) back in the 90's. It's the same as how Apple is a top brand today. Not necessarily the best products though. It's a sheep thing.

The only really impressive product to come out of Bally Williams was Pinball 2000. The design and build quality of that whole system far surpasses anything in pinball and coin-op history. Even to this day.

So yes, I'm in the "Bally Williams sucks" camp, and firmly in the "Data East winners club".
 
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Very interesting post Pete, I was very much under the impression that Williams were made to a higher standard .
I like both makes, but lw3 which was my first dmd I think has great music, gameplay with the gun and having to quickly grab and shoot and still in my eyes great fun ( maybe I have rose tinted goggles as it was my first dmd ? )
 
Data East put out some great games. My top 5 would be (In no particular order):

GnR
Tommy
TFTC
JP
LW3

Bally Williams games tended to have deeper rulesets. Most DE games do suffer from having very similar, fairly simplistic rules. That's fine if you happen to like those rules (which I do) but I can see why a lot of people consider DE games inferior in general.
 
i used to think that the higher prices commanded by BWS were fuelled by increased demand purely because the games were better, but in recent times have played so many excellent DE/Sega games that now i think the only genuine and believable reason can be that the parts are less available and cost more if they can be found. there's stacks of great DE/Sega games, it may be time for another poll i think, but first i'll go search as we probably did one fairly recently already
 
JT. said:
Cue a rush on DataEast game prices :)
Click to expand...

I think that's already happened. Games I've noticed which now go for crazy prices:

Star Wars
Guns N Roses
Tommy
Jurassic Park
Back To The Future
Phantom of The Opera
Last Action Hero
...and now Tales From The Crypt

All good games. Also noticed Star Trek 25th went from being a game nobody wanted to suddenly being desirable, although the prices haven't gone through the roof yet.
 
You're right there. No signs of it slowing down either. It's a massive supply and demand problem.
 
Fintan Stack said:
Data East put out some great games. My top 5 would be (In no particular order):

GnR
Tommy
TFTC
JP
LW3

Bally Williams games tended to have deeper rulesets. Most DE games do suffer from having very similar, fairly simplistic rules. That's fine if you happen to like those rules (which I do) but I can see why a lot of people consider DE games inferior in general.
Click to expand...

Rules wise - DE games seem to have much less opportunity for 'stacking' modes, meaning somewhat fewer scoring strategies available. Always loved DE multiballs though, usually good solid jackpot/super jackpot sequences to work thru.

Just damn good fun games that don't take themselves too seriously. There are very few 'dark' DE games.
 
You can stack modes on TFTC, not sure about other DE games.

I lucked out paying £800 for a machine with knocker handle missing and blowing out flashers but otherwise pretty decent nick about a year ago. IIRC, I had been looking for 6-9 months as they don't come up too often. Good luck finding one. I'd say £1000-1200ish is reasonable for an average TFTC. Its a great game, some quite tricky shots and it takes a lot of skill to get to Crypt Jam (not got there yet myself).
 
GrizZ said:
Aaaaghh. Shhhhhhhhhhhh. Don't mention ST25, always liked that game and had half an eye out for one.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Ok ok, I just realised what might happen here haha. Nobody should buy ST25th - it's a totally crap game. DE's worst effort. Stay away from that.

I tell you what is a really good game - Hook. EVERYONE should go buy a Hook, it's amazing. They don't come up for sale too often, but I might have one for sale soon. Offers plz. ;)
 
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