I once sold a machine that I had worked on for 12 months and got every feature working. Had friends play it on a regular basis and was sure it was ready for sale. I knew the touchy nature of pinball machines, so I wanted it to work for another 20 years.

Delivered it to the person's house and they played it for a week and then a fuse kept blowing. I thought I had sorted that problem out, but then I decided to replace a switch and a coil to be safe (at my expense). It was at this point that the buyer got cranky with me and started questioning my honesty which really rubbed me the wrong way. I went over to their house, made sure everything was installed and working and haven't heard from them since.

This was a good learning experience, although it made me question selling pinball machines for a while. Despite no warranty being given on a machine, I'd still help someone out if something went wrong within a week of them taking ownership. I have bought countless machines from interstate and I can't remember a single one that hasn't needed some kind of fixing/tinkering to get it going (be it the insides moving around in transit, or other issues). I know what comes with the territory, but it's hard explaining this to a first time owner. Next time, I will explain this more to a first time buyer and make sure they're 100% certain they're ready to own a 20 year old machine that is full of wires and boards. You can't be responsible for every switch and solenoid in something that old. It's just not possible.