25 replies to this topic

[pingod2010]

hi

i have a 2005 honda vt750cd custom 240 rear conversion and i have a guy that wants to trade me these pinball machines Surf champ ,Nip It , Rescue 911,Bride Of Pinbot ,Robo Wars,Mario Andretti .would i be getting a good deal if i did the trade?[ i cant ride much anymore do to my back problems and i love playing pinball machines



bike pics

[PainkillerAlice]

Bride Of PinBot is worth getting right off the bat. If the pinball machines are in great shape then yes.

Edited by Practicedummy, 22 August 2012 - 05:38 PM.

[JonBaker]

You're asking Pin Head's that question? If someone offered me those tables for my leg, I'd have to give it some serious consideration.

[bodydump]

Do it. Then take good pics of Mario Andretti while you're shopping it out so we can build a good VP version

[pingod2010]

Bride Of PinBot is worth getting right off the bat. If the pinball machines are in great shape then yes.

i saw a bride of pinbot on ebay and the guy wanted 7900 bucks for it is that the normal price for one in perfect shape?

[Dazz]

I think we are only going to see the prices go up on Bride of Pinbot... $7900 seems crazy though.

Check out http://www.dutchpinball.com/

Basically they are fitting BOP with a DMD. Adding new software, completely new game modes and pretty much making it a completely new game. If you can get your hands on one now... I say go for it. I've been looking for one locally, but everyone else around is too.

Edited by Dazz, 22 August 2012 - 09:34 PM.

[rob046]

Do it. Then take good pics of Mario Andretti while you're shopping it out so we can build a good VP version

I have good pics of this table. Not stripped, but as good & high rez as you can get with a populated table. Also I believe the flyer for this game has a nice overhead shot, & I know I have a 300 dpi scan of it, if that will help as well. Actually did you know of this image at IPDB, pretty good for an IPDB image. Might be as good or better than what you'd get from the flyer, for the PF at least.
http://www.ipdb.org/...p...3977&zoom=1

Edited by rob046, 22 August 2012 - 10:36 PM.

[rob046]

hi

i have a 2005 honda vt750cd custom 240 rear conversion and i have a guy that wants to trade me these pinball machines Surf champ ,Nip It , Rescue 911,Bride Of Pinbot ,Robo Wars,Mario Andretti .would i be getting a good deal if i did the trade?[ i cant ride much anymore do to my back problems and i love playing pinball machines



bike pics

I don't know what the bike is worth, but it sounds like a good deal for you. But yeah, you are posting this in a pinball forum so I'm not sure you are gonna get unbiased feedback.

None of those games are really A+ titles or that valuable, but that is OK, maybe $5k worth of pins there if they are in good shape? I assume you have room, & I almost always take good quality & high quantity (if I have the space) over great quality & low quantity. I just love the variety I get in having games from different era's & manufacturers.

Nip-It might be an EM, but at least its one of the better EM's, so I'm cool with that. Surf Champ, IDK, looks like a standard gottlieb EM to me, nothing special. Rescue 911... eh. Gottlieb just wasn't very good in that era. But again, it might be a better game when you have these others to fall back on. variety.
Robo-War is maybe a bit underrated. I'd much prefer a TX-Sector from that era, but Robo-War is along the same lines. Shallow-ish rule set, but I do like the layout & I think people like the sounds on it. Just not great art. BoP. for some reason I"m not as fond of this game as others are. I don't like the billion dollar shot because of what it does to scores. Layout is fine on it, some clever stuff. I think its the art that turns me off a bit.

Mario Andretti! I like the guy, he's from my neck of the woods. Also, you might find it interesting that last week at PAPA, I was playing Freddy Nightmare while Lyman Sheats Jr. was playing Andretti right next to me. So if its good enough for him, how bad can it be?
It is actually a very rare game, barely over 1,000 made.
Interesting game. Decent but different layout & gameplay. Game is pretty ugly looking, I think that is the main knock. Also I guess it can be a pretty easy game & without a deep rule sheet. But again, when you have a handful of other pins as well, then the shallow rule sets aren't as big of a deal.
so yeah with this game I'd say the art & lack of re-playability hurts it.

No single great titles here unless you are a BoP fan, & IDK what your feelings are about EM's. But hey you can always trade a game or 2 to refine the collection. Maybe trade the 2 EM's for another SS game. Maybe get another Bally/WMS game to help balance out the Gottlieb heavy collection.

[pinuck]

Surf Champ, IDK, looks like a standard gottlieb EM to me, nothing special.

I've never played it IRL, but it gets pretty good reviews on ipdb (and these for Surfer)

Here's a good look at gameplay from the the 6th round of Pinburgh 2012 (The 2-player version Surfer):

Rescue 911... eh. Gottlieb just wasn't very good in that era.

agreed!

[StevOz]

Seems like a good deal to me. Either way you can checkout the latest prices those machines have been sold for here...

http://www.pinpedia.com/

[thewool]

Your bike looks beastly but if it's giving your back some gip it sounds like a natural time to move it on. As long as the pins are in good shape both cosmetically and operationally (and you have the room for them!) I would go for it. If they have problems and bad wear/tear I wouldn't be so hasty.

Looking at the bike pics you look like someone who takes care of their stuff. So as some have suggested you could even shop out the pins and move one the ones that are not keepers and make some money in the process.

[pingod2010]

talked to the guy that has the pins and he told me his pin tech went through and checked all the pins and they all work 100% and they are really nice shape.

[Noah Fentz]

Take the Deal!

[numiah]

I know I would !

[yogiholzer]

Good deal I guess.

[Pinhead22]

Just look at the price of pins over the last 15 years. When I was working for Ultimate Amusements in San Jose, Ca. , in the late nineties, I bought a Black Night 2K for $500 and a Star Trek Next Gen for $1200. Both needed a little work and a good shop job but you can't touch a decent pinball today for less than $1500. And depending on the title you could be looking at 5K +. I don't think you will get hurt on this deal. Especially if you shop them out yourself and wait for the right buyer in the future.

[Arcade4]

I owned my Nip-It for 30 years. Great EM. A working ball grabber on that pin is hard to find.
Owned a Bride of Pinbot for a few years as well.
The rest of those titles are not the best in the world, but hey, they are working pinballs, right?
Let us know how it goes.

[unca]

hi

i have a 2005 honda vt750cd custom 240 rear conversion and i have a guy that wants to trade me these pinball machines Surf champ ,Nip It , Rescue 911,Bride Of Pinbot ,Robo Wars,Mario Andretti .would i be getting a good deal if i did the trade?[ i cant ride much anymore do to my back problems and i love playing pinball machines



bike pics

I would think if he could sell the pinball machines for what you want for the bike he would have already done so and could pay you cash. Remember when you buy a pinball machine that you are buying all the repair work that goes with them and they do break. That is fine if you are good with parts but something simple like a bad solanoid can fry the transistors on a board and then you need to solder new components back on plus some things can go wrong with a real pinball machine that makes them unrepairable. I have a Charlie's Angel machine we are restoring and something we thought would be a simple $300 fix has turned quite the cost and now I'm upside down on the deal.

From what I am seeing now with pinball machines is there is a huge difference in the price of a machine based on the time of year it is sold. During the spring pinball machine prices go through the roof because everyone is getting their tax returns so you cannot base the price of last springs market on todays value.

Now if someone were to offer me those pinball machines I would guess the resale value of all of them combined is around 3,500. Now that seems low but if you had to sell them quick to get liquid that is maybe what they would bring.

Now the big problem with the deal is you are talking about a motorcycle. Vehicles do not go up in value unless they are classic. From what I am seeing in the pics yes your bike is super nice but I do not think it will go up in value until it is classic status. The pinball machines however will. These pinball machines get rarer because more and more of them break down every year and their are less of them on the market.

Then there is also the space issue. Do you even have power supply that can run that many machines or will you need an electrician to come run lines?

A lot of people say real pins are way better than virtual pinball but those people probably have never bought a non working pin and had to do all the trouble shooting and testing to get it up and working. It is a huge pain in the butt when you do not know what is wrong and you have to go through someone elses attempt to hack the problem that it started with. Just thinking of diagnosing a problem with the circuitry on an EM machine scares the hell out of me.

The real question is not value since some people pay lots of money to have old barn wood made into flooring for their home. Something that I think is total crap is worth something to someone else.

If your goal is to make a pinball collection this would be a great start because you can use them to trade up and replace them one at a time with out the huge cost of the initial investment for the pinballs you really want. You already want to get rid of the bike because otherwise you would not have it for sale. It would be cool to have that many machines. Just realize it comes with maintanance and up keep.

You also need to consider are any of these pinballs something you really want to play. If not then sell the bike and get something you really want. Other wise you will resent having to move them and clean them on nice sunny days when you could be out riding.

Sorry bout the rambling...

[pingod2010]

thanks for the input everyone, i have owned a few EM from the 70s and a pin from the 80s i had to fix both, working on pins is easy since im good with electronics and motorcycles are a dime a dozen, emailed the guy and if he wants the deal he will have to drive the 400 miles to get them to me so im waiting for him to get back to me.

[rob046]

A lot of people say real pins are way better than virtual pinball but those people probably have never bought a non working pin and had to do all the trouble shooting and testing to get it up and working. It is a huge pain in the butt when you do not know what is wrong and you have to go through someone elses attempt to hack the problem that it started with. Just thinking of diagnosing a problem with the circuitry on an EM machine scares the hell out of me.

I say real pins are MUCH better than virtual pinball & I love VP & work a lot with it, & I absolutely have restored pins, most recently a Flash that was dead as can be that was sitting in storage since 1986. So I'm already 1 exception to what you are saying.
But why are you bringing dead pins into the conversation? He already said the games were working 100% & in good shape. Also, EM's are actually more reliable than any SS tables. & also there is no reason to think that tables you get will have strange hacks on them. I've never received a game with anything more than recommended upgrades. Also, games are easier than ever to repair thanks to the internet. If you got a multimeter & can do some basic soldering which isn't hard to learn, then you'll be able to fix almost anything.

Also, EM's take up very little electricity, so he will really just have 4 pins that are a little more power hungry. & I can say I'm running 4 SS games right now off the same power strip (& sure I could easily add 2 EM's) & have run as many as 6 through standard outlets in the same room, so I don't see that being an issue for him either.
I don't really see the huge differences in price you are talking about either. You are knocking games down that much just because of the time of the year? I suppose it can make a little difference, but likely nothing noteworthy. I sure as hell ain't seeing any deals on games I want. In fact, Fall is usually a hot time for buying pins, so again I'm not seeing your logic. People like to buy/sell their games before winter, since pinball is a great winter game, & kids are off to school/leaving the nest. That is when I like to bring in & work on games.

& my games are currently worth as much as ever & I could get more for them than ever. Unless he lives in a really bad pinball area, he will certainly get more than $3500 for all those pins through normal selling practices. Anyhow, I will agree with your last few statements, just everything up to that seems debatable to me.
I love VP & all my digital pinball games, but in no way is it ever as good as the real thing. VP isn't even the best simulator out there, but of course it has many other perks.

Edited by rob046, 24 August 2012 - 10:22 PM.