I actually had a look at that machine in the flesh. I would have struggled paying much more than $1500 for it to be honest.
Yeah the guy owned it for 15 years - the majority of it's life was in a farm shed. The cabinet and backglass looked faded. Playfield would have cleaned up OK but again looked faded. I had a quick game, flippers were shot and couldn't make the ramps, bits and pieces just didn't work, most plastics were snapped or cracked, probably half the globes were out, rubbers were shot. During the game the seller stated, "I think the batteries are flat, you have to re-program it every time you turn it on." I said, "Oh OK, just make sure that the batteries don't leak over the board then, it might be worth changing them." He said, "They've been in there 15 years and they haven't leaked yet so I haven't worried about them."
My heart sank, I opened up the backbox and sure enough he was right, they hadn't leaked - there was nothing left in them to leak I think.
I had a quick look at the rest of the boards. Something sparkly caught my eye - cigarette packet foil wrapped around several of the fuses! Don't know if that was there to hold the fuse in or whether it was acting as the fuse. It was at that point I closed her up and thanked him for his time. The guy also mentioned he bought a street fighter cabinet and Flash machine at the same time and that Elvira was the only machine left working
wonder why.
Curiosity got the better of me, his Flash machine was also listed on eBay and was in the garage. Never seen so much rust on a machine. It may have been good for parts.....maybe.
When I saw the end price for the Elvira machine I shed a silent tear for the poor bugger that paid that for it. It could be brought back to a reasonable level but at $3300, it's gonna end up owing him a stack.