Looking to restore a Galaga- what to look for?

[sharpfork]

Howdy-

I've had a Mame cabinet for about 10 years now and have finally decided to jump into the dedicated "real" cabinet realm with my favorite game, Galaga.  I've been poking around craig's list and have found a wide variety of Galaga cabinets ranging from $550 - $2000.

• Are there any general advice about cabinets like expensive parts I should ook out for like broek coin doors or monitor burn in?
  
• Are there any things specific to Galaga I should look out for like Namco Vs Midway, repro artwork, specific versions to look for or avoid, or other gotchas?

I'm looking toward a cheeper cab with good "bones" that I can play as I restore.
Any advice will be appreciated, thanks in advance. 

[sharpfork]

This one is ~$600. 

What should I look for when I go see it?

[RayB]

A. Does it work
B. Does it work... properly
C. What damage does it have.

I'm not sure what else to tell you. The fact you brought up "Namco vs Midway" makes me wonder how anal you want to be about purely original parts and art. Personally, I'm running a bootleg board in an original cab, with one side-art being repro (that doesnt say Midway). Do I care? No. It looks very close to original and plays like the original.

I'd worry more about the monitor and circuit board being stable. Look inside at the wiring too; See if there's a hack-job in there.

The machine you linked to looks good IMO. Kickplate art isnt worn. Just needs a control panel overlay.

[sharpfork]

A. Does it work
B. Does it work... properly
C. What damage does it have.

I'm not sure what else to tell you...

Thanks Ray!  I'm not too anal about it, I am just aware that I don't know what I don't know.  I didn't want to jump on something and fins out that some model uses inferior parts and is worth $50 or something like that.  I did call on one that did seem a bit hacky with a mutigame galaga/ crazy kong with the Krazy Kong "cut out."

The guy selling the one I posted pics of told me it should et 5 or 6 years of play without serious maintenance and I'm not sure if that means he knows it is going to need some work or if he thinks it's solid.  I'll price out a control panel overlay and go take a look.

Thanks!

[RayB]

Oh, about the price range you posted. Should be more like $300 - $800 depending on condition.