Please, experinced people in the hobby place your advice here, this is a sticky.


1. This is an on going post for newbs and first time buyers. Remember this is a hobby, the machines you are buying are old and do break. And then they break again.
2. You can not come back on a seller because something happenend.
3. It is supposed to be fun, if you get too frustrated or cant aford to do it take a break or try stamp collecting.
4. Money will be spent trying to bring it up to par, if you lack the knowledge people will help and there is alot of web pages out there.
5. ... read on of the opions of others so you know what you are getting into.

6. Something will most likely get broken when moving a game, even if you only move it in your basement stuff gets loose or breaks (wire connectors and what not). As soon as you move a game, be prepared for a surprise.
7. Just like when you're buying a house, dont spend all your disposable money on the game you want, keep spare money for the surprises, there will be some for sure.
8. Everyone buy a FIRST GAME, everyone GETS BURNED at least once, but everyone survive, this is called experience, gotta pay to learn but at least you have some great ressources like this site to make your first buy as enjoyable as possible.
9. Everything you do will be known eventually, it is a small community, think twice before stabbing someone in the back.
10. As soon as you paid and left with a game, everything that happens is YOUR responsabilty. If you went and looked at a game yourself, then YOU took the decision to buy it. Nobody forced you to do so. It doesnt matter what the seller told you, YOU agreed to take it and YOU inspected it and decided it was good enough to buy it.  

11.  Get both sides of the story before jumping to conclusions about newbs...     (having the facts help... )

These things are HEAVY!! Bring help to move them, don't expect the Seller to do it all for you.

Measure your enterances and staircases before you buy a game!

All mechanicall instruments are made to break
I learned that one in my other hobbie

Do expect to have a bunch of "projects" which were good buys, that you expect to fix up, play for a while and sell at a profit, that you end up selling at par or a loss either a) just to make money and room for that Star Treck The Next Generation that you always wanted, or b) because the significant other is looking at the statement for your line of credit and wondering why the heck the kids can't get into the playhouse.

Do expect games you bought or fixed to work continuously for 6 months while you play them and then crap out with a puff of smoke the moment you have guest over, decide to throw a pinball party, or the neighbour's kids who've never seen a pinball machine before have a go at them.

Do expect to reset the high scores after attempting, for a couple of months, to beat the score left by the previous MAACA owner of your machine.

Do expect to like a game that no one else seems to like, and hate a game that everyone else seems to drool over.

Do expect to have a soft place in your heart for EM games, but eventually, somehow forget your old loves as you move progressively up the ladder to System 6 games, then System 80b games, then System 11 games, and then DMD games, etc.

Do not expect to get much sympathy for trying to sell machines for 3 times what they're worth to other collectors (do that quietly to non-collectors on craigslist).

Do not expect to get rich finding treasures hidden within old machine bodies; but do expect to find the occasional rusted American quarter, spilled beer stains, household dust, mouse turds, carbon dust, cigarette smell, old chicken bones (yes some operator or bar patron stuffed their lunch into the holes in a back of a machine and it was likely there for 15 years).

Expect at first to want cash boxes for your machines thinking somehow you can turn a profit charging neighbours to play your games (or to use the machines as piggy banks), or that they increase the collectible value of the game, and then realize that this just doesn't happen and end up trying to dump a gross of them on eBay.

Do expect to be very pissed off at UPS some time after you make your first purchase of pinball parts from Marco Specialties. G*D d&mn brokerage fees from h#ll!

Do expect to spend the time you're not playing pinball machines either 1) fixing them, 2) surfing eBay and craigslist looking for more, 3) playing new prospect games on Visual Pinball Mame, or 4) spending time responding to bizzare posts on MAACA just to see how far up the Top Member ladder you can move in one or two nights.

What do mean that I cannot get rich buying and selling pins????  Now you tell me after I quit my day job

Find a friend that knows how to solder.
Find a friend that knows how to read a schematic.
Find the beer that these friends like, and *ALWAYS* keep it on hand.

Newbie checking in. Just started collecting pins at 51 years old and planning a game room so I can get them out of the garage. Have a Gottlieb Dragon and a Williams Laser Ball so far. I see it's not showing my location on here. I'm in New Hampshire USA

Never to old to start.

I guess you figured out by now, that machines seem to multiply quickly.

You're never too young either! Tip: Get your parents permission before bringing home a pin.

Quoted from NHBandit

Newbie checking in. Just started collecting pins at 51 years old and planning a game room so I can get them out of the garage. Have a Gottlieb Dragon and a Williams Laser Ball so far. I see it's not showing my location on here. I'm in New Hampshire USA

There are guys of all ages on here. Pinball has been around for years in many shapes and forms, so it appeals to a broad demographic.

I think pins only is on his third nursing home. The last two kicked him out for bringing along too many pinballs with him.

When buying a pin, bring an extension cord and test the game out thoroughly before you commit to buy it.  In case you do buy it, bring pieces of cardboard (when you fold the head down, put the cardboard on the top glass and side rails to protect them), and a ratchet strap (for cinching the head to the body, so it doesn't bang around when you move the machine).  You should also have a 5/8" ratchet to remove the bolts on the pinball legs.
Get a dolly-cart.

When repairing a pin, the handiest tools I've seen are a magnetic steel bowl (which holds all of the metal screws you're removing, and sticks to the lockdown bar or the side rails), a telescoping magnet, and a telescoping mirror, (for when you drop a screw in a hard to reach/hard to see place).  These are all available from Canadian Tire for about $10 each.

Make sure you buy a multimeter, which has diode/continuity on it, and make sure you have a friend show you how to use it properly.

Get all of the solid state "This Old Pinball" videos - http://www.marvin3m.com/top/.
Your machine will break, and you will have to learn to fix it yourself.

Before you buy a pin read ALL marvin info about repair and upgrade, you NEED THIS INFORMATION !!!  Over 1000 pages of reading, fantastic !!!  

http://www.marvin3m.com/

http://marvin3m.com/fix.htm is actually the start ( or http://www.pinrepair.com which points to the same thing)

I wouldn't be here without Clay's guides. plain and simple.

also get the DVDs,(http://marvin3m.com/top/)  they are really worth it.

Quoted from HAL-9OOO

Before you buy a pin read ALL marvin info about repair and upgrade, you NEED THIS INFORMATION !!!  Over 1000 pages of reading, fantastic !!!  

http://www.marvin3m.com/

...or simply ask for a member's help if there is one close by.

Quoted from websherpa

Do expect to have a bunch of "projects" which were good buys, that you expect to fix up, play for a while and sell at a profit, that you end up selling at par or a loss either a) just to make money and room for that Star Treck The Next Generation that you always wanted, or b) because the significant other is looking at the statement for your line of credit and wondering why the heck the kids can't get into the playhouse.

Do expect games you bought or fixed to work continuously for 6 months while you play them and then crap out with a puff of smoke the moment you have guest over, decide to throw a pinball party, or the neighbour's kids who've never seen a pinball machine before have a go at them.

Do expect to reset the high scores after attempting, for a couple of months, to beat the score left by the previous MAACA owner of your machine.

Do expect to like a game that no one else seems to like, and hate a game that everyone else seems to drool over.

Do expect to have a soft place in your heart for EM games, but eventually, somehow forget your old loves as you move progressively up the ladder to System 6 games, then System 80b games, then System 11 games, and then DMD games, etc.

Do not expect to get much sympathy for trying to sell machines for 3 times what they're worth to other collectors (do that quietly to non-collectors on craigslist).

Do not expect to get rich finding treasures hidden within old machine bodies; but do expect to find the occasional rusted American quarter, spilled beer stains, household dust, mouse turds, carbon dust, cigarette smell, old chicken bones (yes some operator or bar patron stuffed their lunch into the holes in a back of a machine and it was likely there for 15 years).

Expect at first to want cash boxes for your machines thinking somehow you can turn a profit charging neighbours to play your games (or to use the machines as piggy banks), or that they increase the collectible value of the game, and then realize that this just doesn't happen and end up trying to dump a gross of them on eBay.

Do expect to be very pissed off at UPS some time after you make your first purchase of pinball parts from Marco Specialties. G*D d&mn brokerage fees from h#ll!

Do expect to spend the time you're not playing pinball machines either 1) fixing them, 2) surfing eBay and craigslist looking for more, 3) playing new prospect games on Visual Pinball Mame, or 4) spending time responding to bizzare posts on MAACA just to see how far up the Top Member ladder you can move in one or two nights.

Actually it was the first i read this post and it make me laugh    . After nearly 2 years being in the hobbies, i can recognize me in some of your lines.

Let's add to that list:

Do expect to romantisize the notion of quitting your day job to repair pinball machines and sell pinball parts only to realize that you require a separate full time day job to support your habit and have no time left for pinball.

Unless you are over 55-60, do expect to start feeling comfortable expanding your collection now that the kids are getting older only to discover that you must liquidate your collection when a new child comes along unexpectedly.

Do not expect your kids to think that you are the kewlest Dad / Mom on the block because you have a pinball collection...  There's another Dad down the block who builds Go Karts out of old lawn mower motors ... he's much cooler ... and besides that kicks your butt at Black Knight.

Do expect to go out to repair a 30 year old pinball only to trigger 3 new problems that weren't occuring before.

Do expect to spend a good deal of time "jiggling" wires and connectors.

Do expect to diminish your enjoyment of pinballs because 5 mins into playing just about anyone's game you have the glass off and are diagnosing some obscure switch error that no one else has noticed in the previous 15 years.

Do come to appreciate the hack repairs in others' machines because they took 5 minutes to complete, as opposed to following your Clay Guide training and taking 2 hours to do a repair "right".

Do come to realize that you are spending more and more time reading MAACA posts avoiding re-assembling that Black Knight cabinet that you disassembled 10 months ago in order to "make it like new".

Do expect to meet a wierd and wonderful collection of other hobbiests who are more fanatical than you are, but who think you are from outer space too.  

Do expect to try to "quit" the habit, err I mean "hobby", more than one time in your life for various reasons including: need money, need time to finish your basement, too wrapped in it, fed up with buying machines that arrive far worse than they were described, be berated by other jealous hobbiests trying to deal with their own addictions, tired of reading silly MAACA posts, deal with the "pain" of having to "cull" your collection now and again, and did I mention "need money?"

Enjoy it and KEEP IT FUN!!! I am a new guy on the BLOCK and only started with an Eight Ball and Strikes and Spares.....

It is like cars and bikes (Motorcycles...), tey break, but the best satisfaction is to FIX'EM and then PLAY TO FEEL THE DIFFERENCE !!!

LOVE THAT WORLD !!! PATIENCE IS A VERTU....MAACA IS THERE FOR YOU AND THE FIXES ARE THERE JUST NEED TO CLICK A LITTLE !!!

I am lucky to have found great people that really make this a different story....they seem all really nice, and it is what makes the

HOBBY what it is !!!

ROCK ON !!!! and PIN ON !!!!!

TOMCAR DUDE

Quoted from Ducati Dude

Enjoy it and KEEP IT FUN!!! I am a new guy on the BLOCK and only started with an Eight Ball and Strikes and Spares.....

It is like cars and bikes (Motorcycles...), tey break, but the best satisfaction is to FIX'EM and then PLAY TO FEEL THE DIFFERENCE !!!

LOVE THAT WORLD !!! PATIENCE IS A VERTU....MAACA IS THERE FOR YOU AND THE FIXES ARE THERE JUST NEED TO CLICK A LITTLE !!!

I am lucky to have found great people that really make this a different story....they seem all really nice, and it is what makes the

HOBBY what it is !!!

ROCK ON !!!! and PIN ON !!!!!

TOMCAR DUDE

I'm glad that you've joined the community and that you're excited, but please ease off the CAPS please. It makes it sound like you're yelling in my head, and I have a headache.

Quoted from websherpa

Let's add to that list:

Do come to realize that you are spending more and more time reading MAACA posts avoiding re-assembling that Black Knight cabinet that you disassembled 10 months ago in order to "make it like new".

How true! You have given me that motivation to remove the Mylar on my PF this weekend, and maybe even steam clean my wire harnesses outside.
Very good list of items for us Newbies!
Thanks