Yesterday was probably one of the most stressful days in my life having to break down my pins in order to move them up my current house stairs. For those who have ever been over or had to do battle with them will easily agree they are the stairs from hell. The easiest way to bring a game up is in multiple trips 1) head 2) empty cabinet 3) playfield. This wasn't my first rodeo but since I had to do 12 pins at once I created a database for WPC and WPC95 and printed them off on avery mailing labels to make things more efficient.
This is probably overkill as some will say connectors are keyed or the harness has some memory to it from being in same place for over a decade. I think it was/is worth it because it makes putting the game back together quicker since there is no guess work. I know a friend once mixed up J101 and J102 on top right of power driver board because they were not only same size but keyed the same.
So here is what 3 nights and about 16 hours total of prep looks like.
I was also stressing over the unknown of my stairs going down at the new house because there is a 90 degree turn near the bottom with no landing but those dreaded pie shape steps not leaving any room to turn a pin strapped to a dolly. He is a drawing made of what we could have potentially done to make things go smoother.
Ultimately what ended up happening was we strapped game to an appliance dolly and once we got to first pie shaped step put the pin upright and dead lifted it straight up to bring down to the ground.
But with the help of my friends they made me realize I was worrying over nothing and the move yesterday went pretty smoothly and sorta like clock work.
We even had enough time to put all my games on legs and got 4 out of 5 games back together and running. It appears my JD might have developed a ribbon cable issue but boots up fine.
I would like to give a big thanks to:
Steve (TopTierArcade)
Barry (SuperJackpot)
Terry (budfan)
Walt (brewmanager)
Mike C. (Super Pinball)
Kev (kvoxx)
Adriano (Drano)
Doug (Menace) and his son Brae
Tim
Also wanted to thank my other friends who offered to help once they found out I was moving.
Back on topic Scott, I think what really matters in this hobby are the life long friendships and connections you make and keep. What baffles me is how cutthroat things can get or become over acquiring a pin just to have or worse flip for a profit. Is screwing someone out of a game by offering more money worth losing respect from others in the community? Was that small profit worth it now that everyone thinks you are a profiteer and/or douchebag?
Nothing lasts in this hobby especially when it comes to collections as they constantly change but one thing that can be forever are your friends. Once you start treating this hobby as an investment it will no longer be fun. If the 'market' was to crash and prices go back down to 5 years ago I could care less. I have had some of my games for many years and enjoyed them all or have passed them onto friends.
