Question for Pinball people

[Red 5]

I have been looking for a good and inexpensive pinball machine for years now.

 

I have been offered a Gottlieb 1977 Solar Ride for $550.

It is close by and the seller has restored it and it is in good working condition.

This guy seems to have a LOT of pinball machines and seems to sell quite a few around this price.

 

This is the lowest I have ever found a working Pinball machine.

 

It is still a huge chunk of change for me, so I would like to know two things...

 

1) Is this a good deal?

2) I think it's electro mechanical although it has a digital display... if that makes sense... how hard are these to maintain?

Edited August 10, 2006 by therealred5

[jay2068]

sounds like a great price. A lot depends on condition. And with anything with moving parts and getting hit with a metal ball it's going to wear down and break. It's not like it will need repaired on a daily basis but you might find yourself fixing it more often if you play it a lot.

 

 

I wish I could find one that cheap in my area.

[yuppicide]

I've seen working pinballs cheaper, but they weren't totally restored. IE: Still needed a bit of work cosmetically to look nicer.

 

http://www.ipdb.org/rate/showrate.pl?gid=2239

 

Is the one you're looking at as nice as this one?! This guy is asking $799:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/SOLAR-RIDE-PINBALL-GRE...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

If so then yours is probably a good deal.

[DanBoris]

According to the Internet Pinball Machine Database

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=solar+ri...earchtype=quick there where two versions of Solar Ride, one was electro-mechanical and the other was solid state. If the machine your looking at has digital score displays then it's a solid state one.

 

Dan

 

I have been looking for a good and inexpensive pinball machine for years now.

 

I have been offered a Gottlieb 1977 Solar Ride for $550.

It is close by and the seller has restored it and it is in good working condition.

This guy seems to have a LOT of pinball machines and seems to sell quite a few around this price.

 

This is the lowest I have ever found a working Pinball machine.

 

It is still a huge chunk of change for me, so I would like to know two things...

 

1) Is this a good deal?

2) I think it's electro mechanical although it has a digital display... if that makes sense... how hard are these to maintain?

[Dr Galaga]

They made 8,800 of the sold-state ones. Average value for this is $450.

They also made 365 electro-mechanical ones (due to some operators still not trusting the SS ones). Average value for this is $550.

[Crazy Climber]

sounds like a great price. A lot depends on condition. And with anything with moving parts and getting hit with a metal ball it's going to wear down and break. It's not like it will need repaired on a daily basis but you might find yourself fixing it more often if you play it a lot.

 

 

I wish I could find one that cheap in my area.

You aren't kidding

Sometimes with Pinball you can take the piece apart and clean it if you are lucky. Now Video Arcade machines are a different story.