Value of 80's pins ?

[WareWolF]

How much are 80's pins worth these days.  I have someone local who has offered me a firepower I have not seen yet in average condition supossedly fully working but has alot of flaking on the backglass which I understand is common with this pin.  He wants $575 (US) for it.  I think that's reasonable but I dont follow pin prices.  Firepower is my all time favorite pin.  Is this a OK deal

[Crowquill]

I'm not sure about the specific value of Firepower, but I'd say if you can pick up your all-time favorite pin for $575 in fully-working order you should jump on it.

You can buy a replacement backglass to replace the worn-out one. There's another eBay auction right now with a fully-working Firepower in pretty beat condition for $1000. It's eBay, but still...

[WareWolF]

I'm not sure about the specific value of Firepower, but I'd say if you can pick up your all-time favorite pin for $575 in fully-working order you should jump on it.

You're right, and that is what I did...  There is some fine tuning to do a few switches not working etc but nothing major seems to be wrong with it.  I am still debating whether to get that back glass on ebay for $150, if it was a repro I would jump on it but I am afraid it will deteriorate after a few years and look just like the one I have now, it's already starting to peel off in a few places although it looks about 1000% better than the one I have.   There were almost no lights in the back box when I got it apparently prior owners were using them for replacements when the playfield lights would burn out or just took them out because the back glass is so deteriorated.  I got about a dozen light bulbs at radio shack today (all they had) and was going to replace some of them but I used most of them on the playfield instead.  I think I have almost all the playfield lights working now.  There were some switches that didn't work right, most of them I cleaned up and working some I still need to work on, the "lane change" switch attached to the right flipper is working intermittantly and I worked on it a bit but its still flaky, otherwise most everything seems to work.   The plastics are in pretty good shape only a few with small cracks, and there is some playfield wear but it is not real bad I've seen much worse.

Pictures here :  http://home.ptd.net/~warewolf/pin.htm

Regarding the playfield I would like to clean and wax it.  Most people seem to be using novus 2 to clean, then regular caranuba wax that you would use on a car.  Is it OK to clean / wax the bare wood where the paint is worn off the playfield ?

[ClubNinja]

- Get the nicer backglass and seal it with Krylon Triple Thick spray to prevent future flaking

- Novus 2 followed by Turtle Wax always works for me.  It's ok to wax the worn wood - it should help prevent or delay further damage.

[shardian]

I've never understood why there isn't a readily available market for cheaply made backglass art for pins like there is for arcade art. I mean, a backglass printed on backlit vinyl would cost sub $100 and would be very nice. Most pin manufacturers are belly up, so it shouldn't be like the Namco witch-hunt on repro artwork. And CAG had a database of pin art. Anyone care to chime in?

[TheOtherBob]

Firepower is my all time favorite pin.

I think you did just fine then.  Enjoy your pin!  (And what ClubNinja said is good advice.)

Also get new balls for it if you haven't already.  Old balls (rusty, pitted) are baaaad for the playfield.

[Kaytrim]

That playfield looks to be in real good shape for the age of the machine.

Nice find

[nostrebor]

I've never understood why there isn't a readily available market for cheaply made backglass art for pins like there is for arcade art. I mean, a backglass printed on backlit vinyl would cost sub $100 and would be very nice. Most pin manufacturers are belly up, so it shouldn't be like the Namco witch-hunt on repro artwork. And CAG had a database of pin art. Anyone care to chime in?

The owners of the trademarks for the big name pinball machines are much more aggressive at sending out C&D letters than even Namco. Getting permission tp make reproduction art for pins is a far more difficult task than video game art.

[WareWolF]

Firepower is my all time favorite pin.

I think you did just fine then.  Enjoy your pin!  (And what ClubNinja said is good advice.)

Also get new balls for it if you haven't already.  Old balls (rusty, pitted) are baaaad for the playfield.

Actually the prior owner recently put new balls, rubbers & stickers on it.  Get this...  He bought it for his wife because she is a pinbal freak (he has 4 other pins in his garage) but she didn't like it so he was selling it to get another machine.

WHERE THE HELL CAN I GET A WIFE WHO LIKES PINBALL ??

[Hammerhead]

You can't they don't make stepford wives anymore! LOL 

[Zero_Hour]

WHERE THE HELL CAN I GET A WIFE WHO LIKES PINBALL ??

I don't think you can attribute it to anything but luck, but that said, I'm lucky. My wife and I just got our first pin this past spring. She plays it as much, if not more than I do, which is frequently.

Of course she thinks most of the video games I play are pointless, so you can't win em all.

Congrats on the Firepower score. 

[shardian]

You can't they don't make stepford wives anymore! LOL 

My wife likes pinball. She will be more than happy to let one in the house as long as it meets her standards of play and all the other bills are paid first. She LOVES to play pinmame.