a newb buyer could easily pay 2500 from a dealer, and it doesnt make them a fool for doing so

I was a newbie buyer not that long ago, but I certainly did some homework before buying my first pin.

You can't tell me that the pin in question is worth $2500, whether it was from a dealer or not. A new playfield would be around $1000, or someone would have to invest a lot of time to fix the current one.

If the current seller actually believed that the machine has been professionally restored then he has been taken for a ride. Maybe the word 'fool' is too harsh a word for some ears, but the saying was what came to mind when I read this one. I am happy to retract it if people see it as offensive.

Will he get his money back? I doubt it, but stranger things have happened.

"A pinball is worth what someone wants to pay for it" - true to some extent, but to me the real question is not what I would be prepared to pay for it, but what the next person would be prepared to pay for it. In other words, can I get my money back if I have to sell it. If not, I am paying too much in my opinion.