Pinball Stories #17 – Random phone call and random pickup

This just happened yesterday so it’s a timely addition to pinball stories. Got a call from a friend who had a bead on a retired guy who had two games in his garage. We’d each take one of the machines. What does he have? We don’t know – mystery game time!!

Pinball Stories #9: Paying It Forward

This game pick up is a bit bittersweet. It reminds me of another game that slipped out of my hands and how different types of collectors in the community look at trading, buying and selling differently.

It’s a pretty heated argument among the pinball community whether or not there’s any true objective “ethics” involved in the buying and selling game? Everybody has their opinions, and I have mine, which is, I don’t step on other peoples’ deals. I honestly believe if you take care of others, you end up better off than if you play the dog-eat-dog, first-person-with-the-cash-steals-the-deal type strategy in pinball acquisition.

Diagnosing spinning score reels – Bally EM pinball

Here’s a video I made awhile back that I don’t see linked on my main site so I thought i’d include it. It’s a short video on how to diagnose problems with score reel switches when you turn the game on and the score reels just seem to spin forever and not reset/start the game.

Diagnosing and replacing a burned-out coil on Gottlieb Card Whiz

This is a short series of videos on fixing a Gottlieb Card Whiz (two player version of Royal Flush) EM pinball machine that was having problems advancing the next player/ball. Upon investigation I discovered a coil that was burned and fell apart when I pulled it out of the assembly. I’ll go over replacing the coil.

eBay Impulse Buy? Willliams Love Bug Caveat Emptor?

This is a story about an impulse buy off eBay for a pinball machine. It perhaps may be a cautionary tale of how sellers can hide the true condition of a machine. This also explains why it’s important to really “low ball” unknown sellers of games. There’s a very good chance what you see and what you get are two different things… here is my story of an eBay purchase of a Williams Love Bug (the add-a-ball version of Williams Doodle Bug).

First Look: 1968 Gottlieb Target Pool – looking over a new game before turning it on

This is a first look at a 1968 Gottlieb wedgehead electro-mechanical pinball machine “Target Pool”. I unloaded it and what you see is what I see in real time as I take a look at the machine and what needs to be done with it. This video goes over a few things that I typically do before I even try to turn a game on.