I understand and agree, Chad. I definitely won't say anything on RGP or any other forum/mailing list. Too risky at destroying my rep if I ever decide to get into this business for myself.
USS,
Very good road to take, I had bought a No Good Gofers from Barry White. Was represented as a fully working shopped machine. I'm about an hour and a half away from him so I won the auction and went and looked at the machine. It was cruddy, never shopped, and the ramps above th gofers would not stay up. Broken catches. He knocked off $100 because it wasn't shopped, and said he'd send catches and a manual. Never heard from him again. I had never owned a pin before, and I must admit shopping this and fixing the numerous non working switches, I learned a lot, so I guess I've got Barry to thank for that. I centainly do not hate Barry, it was my own mistake for not researching, (didn't know about rec.games.pinball then). I was a leaning experience, and I now know what to look for in a pin, and what price I should be paying. I just paid to high a price for a pin that needed a "LOT" of cleaning, and about $250 in parts. Being a novice I was scared to death to take that thing apart!!!!
Get your experience, do the best job that you can on these machines, since they are going to novices like me. The real pin people stay away from Barry. Knowing that you are helping a novice get a working machine that otherwise may not have should make you feel good at the end of the day....
Robert