looking for help to get into the hobby

[madmanc]

Hi,

I'm considering buying my first pinball and dont want to be out a whole lot of cash until i've decided its something I want to commit to. Any suggestions on how to look for a half decent machine - Also its going in my basement and I'm unsure as to how to tell if it will fit, I think it would need to be stood on end to go around the corner (is this possible).

Cheers

[prock]

Hi madmanc and welcome to the forums. It really depends on your budget and what you're into. You can get anything from an older electomagnetic (EM), an early solid state (SS) which don't have a dot matrix display (DMD), or a late SS with a DMD. EMs of course would be your cheapest bet. What you should do is go online and start reading about games you may want. Check out http://www.ipdb.org for a listing of all games ever made. There are all sorts of themes to choose from. Definitely try and find a theme that will interest you.

As a general price guideline (someone else might want to chime in here) you are looking anywhere from $500-$1500 for an EM, $800-$2000 for a pre DMD or early SS game, and $1600+ for a DMD.

In fact one of the guy here has a machine for sale that you should strongly consider if you like pool. https://wpgpinball.canadian-forum.com/t336-cue-ball-wizard

The biggest problem with pinball machines are that you cannot just go out and buy one at a store. Someone has to be selling one. It sometimes takes a lot of searching to find something so be prepared for that especially if you have a specific game in mind.

Hope that helps and goodluck with your hunt!

[prock]

OH and as far as fitting in your basement.. they are heavy machines but people fit them around tight corners all the time. There are ways to get them in tight spots if need be.

[Freezie]

A wheeler helps a lot to get them downstairs , as they can be very heavy. My first machines cost me 800 , they were both non working and I learned a lot fixing them up . To be honest my favorite machines are dmd and just per dmd machines , they will typically run 1900-3000 for them and up from there. There is a fantastic deal in the for sale forums on a machine that would be a great one to start with and it will def hold its value when the time comes you want to resell it .

[Sponsored content]