I figured I’d post up my container experience for prosperity’s sake and for future reference (myself and others). It was my first foray into buying a pin from overseas, so I’m not the foremost authority on the subject, but can perhaps be considered a “noob voice” on the issue. I would have liked to have followed tim.sanderson’s lead and made an ongoing thread highlighting the highs and lows of the process, but as you will see, there wasn’t much “low” work to do to my game. Tim’s container R911 thread can be found here-–http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=822–-and is a great “what to expect from a container game” thesis in progress.
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I, like almost everyone else who first stumbles onto this board or the other more easterly one, was intrigued by the sheer number of titles and reasonable prices on Gerry’s lists, but it wasn’t until the April posting that I found myself in the market to buy a game. (April posting in question can be found here, but the game list has been taken down: http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=734). Risky business though. Buying a machine sight unseen from an Italian warehouse through a middle man, with little to go on, and hopefully get a pingame that is hard to find here, or at a premium price. Gone are the days Clay Harrell fondly remembers: TZs and AFMs for $600, Popeyes for $300, etc. Our overseas pin-pals have caught onto our insatiable desire for these pins, and jacked up prices accordingly. One must proceed with caution, or pass altogether.
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I didn’t really have an intense childhood connection to the Addams Family pin, as I did with, say, Funhouse, but I did play it when I could find it. As luck would have it, the training facility in Quebec where I was sent for nine weeks upon landing my current job had an Addams and a Creech that sat back to back...needless to say I spent a lot of time in that common area pumping quarters into those beat up machines. I knew I liked the machine, as it has similar qualities to Funhouse, another Lawlor game, which I also own.
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Putting Creech on the back burner, and having exhausted my patience for the Ontario market for an Addams Family, I looked towards what was available from the Italian Connection (by way of our Quebec Connection–Gerry). Paying the Canadian $5K-$6K price tag for TAF didn’t sound appealing, and that’s if one could be found. Many folks much more experienced than I have chimed in on this subject...stating that the “bargains” in the container games can only be found on A-list titles. Gerry had five-plus TAF machines at his disposal on the list. Some had burns in the magnet area, a couple were missing the topper, some had a trashed cabinet, etc. The price range between all of them was within $1000. Not willing to take a chance on a bucket of bolts, I contacted Gerry and asked him to find out which one was in the best condition...and it was probably the one that was priced the highest. He replied, and indeed, the one in the best condition was at the top of the heap in the price department. But the KEY here, I think, is that this highest priced machine in question had over twenty pictures of it available for viewing–of both sides of the cabinet, possible wear areas, under the playfield, behind the backglass, in the “Thing Box” and everywhere in between so it seemed. This was a good sign. Also, the machine was turned on, and the DMD looked nice and bright with no missing dots or segments. It did, however, have a credit dot...as is normal, no other info was provided as to why the dot was there. Further, the machine had legs on it, and looked to be in a different part of the warehouse than the rest of the games. Most of the pins available from the Italian source have one or two general pictures of the game’s condition, and most have their legs removed and are sitting on the ground in a veritable rouges gallery of pinballs. This Addams seemed like a special case...maybe a game that was fully setup in the warehouse for potential customers or employees to play (a “showcase” piece for used pins?). In the pics, there was a Twilight Zone standing beside this Addams, and from what I could observe, the TZ was in pretty good shape too. From the twenty pictures of the TAF, I saw a pretty decent cabinet, a bright DMD (as stated earlier), an acceptable playfield with minor issues and little magnet burn of any sort. Without actually playing the game, I was very impressed. As a second opinion, I had our man Drano look over the pictures. Drano has an almost intimate knowledge of the game and its various idiosyncrasies (as an owner), so he was definitely the man for the job. Short of posting our back and forth PMs on the game, I’ll say that, from the pictures, Drano approved of the condition and its price, even offering that there would be wiggle room (money wise) for any repairs or replacements that may be needed once it hit Canadian soil.
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Now it came time to man up...to send a man I’ve never met a sum of money for a game I’ve never played or looked with my own eyes. I wavered back and forth more times than I can count, before finally sending the EMT over to Gerry. The price shown is the all-in price for the game...all taxes are already figured in.
You do, however, have to arrange your own transport from Gerry’s place in Quebec. So I think another key to this purchase was knowing that group transport back to Ontario was being organized. I’m not sure I would have taken the plunge without knowing that Drano was arranging movement of the GTA boys’ games. To some, the road trip to pick up the game would just be part of the fun, but to a working father with a 16-month-old kid, its not an undertaking that can be conquered easily. So thanks to Drano, Warlock and BM for making the trip and getting TAF home safely.
---
As it happened, I was working nights when the game arrived. Warlock was nice enough to store the game for me at his place for a day or so until I had a day off to pick it up. I was waiting with baited breath, as all three of the transporters hinted that my game looked real nice from what they could see under the plastic wrap. I picked up the game and brought it hime, but as we were in the process of selling the house and had already folded two pins and put them in storage it was a hard sell to crack open TAF. Luckily our house sold within 48 hours of going on the market and we found our dream home 48 hours after that, so my wife offered that we not haul the TAF into the basement, but rather set it up in the front room for the month before moving day...done and done! I now have a pin staring at me every time I walk in the front door!
---
I was nothing short of amazed at the condition the game was in. It was basically plug and play. That is, after jumping the voltage for North America (as found here: http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=217) The credit dot was easily taken care of (adjusting the EOS on the flippers). I came to find that the playfield was indeed waxed at some point recently (the easy to get to places only–those under ramp areas were as dirty as a mudhen during mating season). The game was generally dirty, with a thick layer of carbon in every nook and cranny. Two or three inserts had the decals lifting in some places, but nothing that needs immediate attention, and can wait until I decide to do a complete playfield restore (not anytime in the near future). No rust to speak of on any of the mechanical parts. The flippers did need rebuilding to add some extra snap. Lots of burnt out lights, which were replaced with a conservative smattering of LEDs anyhow. Another surprise was that a remote battery pack was already installed. No funky smell in the cab either, other than the usual “Inside of a Pin” smell of wood and burnt carbon. If this machine wasn’t in a private collection overseas, it was well maintained by a god-sent operator in some location other than a smoky bar. Language was default German, but coined for Lire. It plays fast and mean, with the outlanes nice and wide. It kicks my ass on a regular basis. And I love it. Talk to me again in a few months when the inevitable problems crop up...but you get that with any machine, whether you buy it from overseas or from one town over.
---
It’s a gamble some have lost on (see the recent post over on the other site about a container CV, plus there are other “legends” that exist about unnamed members getting the short end of the stick). And I it’s a gamble I probably will not again undertake anytime in the near future. Gerry was great to deal with, even though my dealing with him was strictly through PM and email, I have nothing bad to say about the guy. With me, he was forthcoming with information and checked in afterwards to see how I made out with the game. His English gets better with each container!
Hope this long, drawn out post can help someone in the future when taking the plunge on their first game...or steering them away from taking that plunge. Either way...
---
I, like almost everyone else who first stumbles onto this board or the other more easterly one, was intrigued by the sheer number of titles and reasonable prices on Gerry’s lists, but it wasn’t until the April posting that I found myself in the market to buy a game. (April posting in question can be found here, but the game list has been taken down: http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=734). Risky business though. Buying a machine sight unseen from an Italian warehouse through a middle man, with little to go on, and hopefully get a pingame that is hard to find here, or at a premium price. Gone are the days Clay Harrell fondly remembers: TZs and AFMs for $600, Popeyes for $300, etc. Our overseas pin-pals have caught onto our insatiable desire for these pins, and jacked up prices accordingly. One must proceed with caution, or pass altogether.
---
I didn’t really have an intense childhood connection to the Addams Family pin, as I did with, say, Funhouse, but I did play it when I could find it. As luck would have it, the training facility in Quebec where I was sent for nine weeks upon landing my current job had an Addams and a Creech that sat back to back...needless to say I spent a lot of time in that common area pumping quarters into those beat up machines. I knew I liked the machine, as it has similar qualities to Funhouse, another Lawlor game, which I also own.
---
Putting Creech on the back burner, and having exhausted my patience for the Ontario market for an Addams Family, I looked towards what was available from the Italian Connection (by way of our Quebec Connection–Gerry). Paying the Canadian $5K-$6K price tag for TAF didn’t sound appealing, and that’s if one could be found. Many folks much more experienced than I have chimed in on this subject...stating that the “bargains” in the container games can only be found on A-list titles. Gerry had five-plus TAF machines at his disposal on the list. Some had burns in the magnet area, a couple were missing the topper, some had a trashed cabinet, etc. The price range between all of them was within $1000. Not willing to take a chance on a bucket of bolts, I contacted Gerry and asked him to find out which one was in the best condition...and it was probably the one that was priced the highest. He replied, and indeed, the one in the best condition was at the top of the heap in the price department. But the KEY here, I think, is that this highest priced machine in question had over twenty pictures of it available for viewing–of both sides of the cabinet, possible wear areas, under the playfield, behind the backglass, in the “Thing Box” and everywhere in between so it seemed. This was a good sign. Also, the machine was turned on, and the DMD looked nice and bright with no missing dots or segments. It did, however, have a credit dot...as is normal, no other info was provided as to why the dot was there. Further, the machine had legs on it, and looked to be in a different part of the warehouse than the rest of the games. Most of the pins available from the Italian source have one or two general pictures of the game’s condition, and most have their legs removed and are sitting on the ground in a veritable rouges gallery of pinballs. This Addams seemed like a special case...maybe a game that was fully setup in the warehouse for potential customers or employees to play (a “showcase” piece for used pins?). In the pics, there was a Twilight Zone standing beside this Addams, and from what I could observe, the TZ was in pretty good shape too. From the twenty pictures of the TAF, I saw a pretty decent cabinet, a bright DMD (as stated earlier), an acceptable playfield with minor issues and little magnet burn of any sort. Without actually playing the game, I was very impressed. As a second opinion, I had our man Drano look over the pictures. Drano has an almost intimate knowledge of the game and its various idiosyncrasies (as an owner), so he was definitely the man for the job. Short of posting our back and forth PMs on the game, I’ll say that, from the pictures, Drano approved of the condition and its price, even offering that there would be wiggle room (money wise) for any repairs or replacements that may be needed once it hit Canadian soil.
---
Now it came time to man up...to send a man I’ve never met a sum of money for a game I’ve never played or looked with my own eyes. I wavered back and forth more times than I can count, before finally sending the EMT over to Gerry. The price shown is the all-in price for the game...all taxes are already figured in.
You do, however, have to arrange your own transport from Gerry’s place in Quebec. So I think another key to this purchase was knowing that group transport back to Ontario was being organized. I’m not sure I would have taken the plunge without knowing that Drano was arranging movement of the GTA boys’ games. To some, the road trip to pick up the game would just be part of the fun, but to a working father with a 16-month-old kid, its not an undertaking that can be conquered easily. So thanks to Drano, Warlock and BM for making the trip and getting TAF home safely.
---
As it happened, I was working nights when the game arrived. Warlock was nice enough to store the game for me at his place for a day or so until I had a day off to pick it up. I was waiting with baited breath, as all three of the transporters hinted that my game looked real nice from what they could see under the plastic wrap. I picked up the game and brought it hime, but as we were in the process of selling the house and had already folded two pins and put them in storage it was a hard sell to crack open TAF. Luckily our house sold within 48 hours of going on the market and we found our dream home 48 hours after that, so my wife offered that we not haul the TAF into the basement, but rather set it up in the front room for the month before moving day...done and done! I now have a pin staring at me every time I walk in the front door!
---
I was nothing short of amazed at the condition the game was in. It was basically plug and play. That is, after jumping the voltage for North America (as found here: http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=217) The credit dot was easily taken care of (adjusting the EOS on the flippers). I came to find that the playfield was indeed waxed at some point recently (the easy to get to places only–those under ramp areas were as dirty as a mudhen during mating season). The game was generally dirty, with a thick layer of carbon in every nook and cranny. Two or three inserts had the decals lifting in some places, but nothing that needs immediate attention, and can wait until I decide to do a complete playfield restore (not anytime in the near future). No rust to speak of on any of the mechanical parts. The flippers did need rebuilding to add some extra snap. Lots of burnt out lights, which were replaced with a conservative smattering of LEDs anyhow. Another surprise was that a remote battery pack was already installed. No funky smell in the cab either, other than the usual “Inside of a Pin” smell of wood and burnt carbon. If this machine wasn’t in a private collection overseas, it was well maintained by a god-sent operator in some location other than a smoky bar. Language was default German, but coined for Lire. It plays fast and mean, with the outlanes nice and wide. It kicks my ass on a regular basis. And I love it. Talk to me again in a few months when the inevitable problems crop up...but you get that with any machine, whether you buy it from overseas or from one town over.
---
It’s a gamble some have lost on (see the recent post over on the other site about a container CV, plus there are other “legends” that exist about unnamed members getting the short end of the stick). And I it’s a gamble I probably will not again undertake anytime in the near future. Gerry was great to deal with, even though my dealing with him was strictly through PM and email, I have nothing bad to say about the guy. With me, he was forthcoming with information and checked in afterwards to see how I made out with the game. His English gets better with each container!
Hope this long, drawn out post can help someone in the future when taking the plunge on their first game...or steering them away from taking that plunge. Either way...
