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Number of games played a concern?

in2pin

Member
Dec 11, 2014
55
7
8
Georgetown, ON
Just wondering how much weight is given to the number of games played on a machine?
Is there a number where you say the machine has seen better days?
Back in the old days a car with 100,000 miles on it was considered a "high miler"! Just wondering if there's any guidelines/rule of thumb for pinball machines?
 

WARLOCK

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
1,824
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The Bluffs, Scarborough
If everything works, you enjoy it and it is fun, go for it.
If it has minimal playfield wear, or you don't care, go for it.
If you like what you see, you want it and can pay for it, go for it.

It doesn't seem to matter the mileage. If you like it and the price, play it.
Do what you want, when you want, if you can afford it and fix it once it breaks.

Pinball is a hobby and a fantastic one at that. I have never turned down a pin due to mileage.
 

thewebexpert

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
351
89
28
Almonte, Ontario
I personally only look at the playfield, I do not care how many plays, as long as the playfield looks good.. anything else can be replaced with ease and little cost .... (relatively speaking)
 
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bstock

Active Member
Apr 1, 2013
325
48
28
Montreal, Quebec
Number of plays seems to be a newer concept. New Stern games that have spent their lives in a collectors game room generally don't see a lot of wear. A lot of people who collect these newer games expect them to look brand new. Low plays is often a good indication of that.

When it comes to older games from say the 70's, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a game with low plays. These games were money makers. People didn't buy them and put them in their homes commonly like they do now. Also not many games of this era even had a way of keeping track of how many games were played.

As suggested above, the important thing to look at is the playfield. If the game was kept clean and well maintained, it should be in good shape. The easiest way to wear out a playfield is by not keeping it clean and not replacing pinballs regularly.

If the machine is a high miler that hasn't been well taken care of, it will show.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Chris Bardon

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2012
1,343
182
63
Mississauga, ON
The other thing to keep in mind is that anytime people use the "mileage" in an ad, it's immediately suspect. Resetting the audits on a game is pretty trivial, so there's nothing to say that it's actually an accurate measure of the number of games played on a machine anyway. That being said, I like being able to audit my games just to see how many plays that I've put on them, but that's more just for my own interest.
 
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mwong168

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
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Toronto
The only way to sort of tell if a game has low or high plays is observing high wear areas such as pop bumpers, ball drops and the infamous shooter lane pic. Audits can also be reset when updating code via USB on newer Sterns or swapping out a ROM chip on older B/W games so don't use this as a gauge. Buying a game based on number of plays is as stupid as caring if a HUO game comes with the original bill of sale.
 

meegis

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2013
1,196
129
63
Woodbridge
I look at the game physically. As already mentioned. If the game has 1500 plays on a dirty playfield and old balls, it will be worse off than a game with 6000 plays thats been cleaned and properly taken care of. I have seen (and owned) routed games that are cleaner than HUO games that get left alone. I have seen some overly lagre HUO collections that sit for too long at a time causing issues of dirt, dust and other stuff.

Even if audits are true, the proof is in the pudding.
 
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